Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014 - Mod Note in OP, 1/09

I didn't get to see the match .

But I take it we were fairly rubbish.

The postman celebrates his work



And Penaltypool get the win

Thought I might add, it's definitely no coincidence that the two players in our team with the most CL experience scored the goals.

homolumo wrote: »

One up top is not working with Balotelli. Much better when Borini came on.

That system definately gets us goals, unfortunately it leaves us very susceptible to conceding. We can't count on scoring 3 or 4 goals in a game so I understand why we don't start with two upfront.

I think the defence gets exposed by the openness of our midfield at times.

Our fullbacks are class

Mignolet is not good enough, hopeful Valdes gets in

Coutinho hasn't played well in the 4231 formation

Balotelli needs a strike partner who runs in behind

Borini showing how useful a squad player he can be I'm happy we didn't let him go

Lucas did well when he came on might be a good option in Europe

Lambert has to get a start soon he must be nailed on to start against Middlesboro

Lallana is still rusty after his injury

Injury list is long with Johnson, Flanno, Skrtel, Can, Allen, Sturridge all out and Markovic suspended

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Henderson's red against City last season was a major factor in not winning the league.

Cant be stated enough, Rodgers said as much. Best English midfielder and our best one. I love watching him he will just run and run but it's all got purpose.

Kunkka wrote: »

I am concerned with Lallana's two performances so far. I know he's back from an injury but how many times in the last 15 years have we been like that with a new player just assuring ourselves he'll come good and they never do. I haven't seen enough of him to comment on how good he is but I still think at 20+ million he's got to have a better showing than he has.

About 120 mins he played so far after a 2 month lay off and no proper preseason judging him already is grossly unfair. He is a quality player and will be in our starting eleven imo.

He was one of our better players sat and again tonight, he should be far sharper come the west ham game.

I'd say nuri is a happy man tonight

Individually quite a few good performances.

Moreno seriously looks the business. An absolute steal if he keeps playing like this.

Manquillo lacks a bit of composure in the final third but there's the making of a great full back in there. Dunno what he was doing up front to win the penalty but that's some damn fine initiative.

Sakho and Lovren were pretty solid. They both made a couple of mistakes but were both let down by players supposed to be covering them as well.
We've conceded relatively few chances in the last 2 games so I'm not sure what else Rodgers can do. Your defence needs to be able to make mistakes without it almost guaranteeing a goal be the result of it. They're supposed to be a team and cover each other (there were also a few examples of that working very well).

Mistake by Mignolet. Disappointing. He failed virtually the only test he had all match.

Coutinho was trying things that maybe should've been there. But they weren't and he constantly gave the ball away. If we get better balance up front we might see the best out of him but for the moment I think he needs to be benched.

Lallana was pretty good. Lost the ball a few too many times though. He needs some more game time. The few times he's gotten close to the attack it's looked very promising. A bit more of that hopefully.

Sterling didn't do much wrong. Not hugely effective either though. His final ball is a long way from the finished article but he gives you so much solid possession in the final third that it just makes things happen around him. Wasn't his fault they mostly didn't.

Gerrard was ok. Just isn't involved a whole lot in our general play these days.
His set piece delivery was mostly pretty poor. Nice to have a virtually guaranteed penalty taker though.
I'm eager to see what our midfield looks like with someone more mobile. It's a bit sad seeing what was such an amazing player doing a menial task that pretty much any of our midfielders could do just as well.

Balotelli, I was pretty impressed with. Made a few stupid fouls but worked pretty hard the whole game. He needs a partner though. Nice little finish.
Borini seemed to work fairly well alongside him but losing Lallana and Coutinho from midfield and replacing them with Lucas was a blow.

Lucas isn't good enough further up the pitch. He was never great on the ball aside from being able to turn, shield and pass it. He can't run at people.

Our biggest problem is that Rodgers still hasn't quite figured out how to make this work with Mario.
Hopefully we see the diamond against WHam. It still didn't work brilliantly but he hamstrung our midfield at the same time as changing the system - having players like Markovic, Lallana and Allen should do the trick.

All in all I'm pretty pleased by the result. This is a problem that I think is down to Rodgers having to juggle too many things at the same time - we're trying to attack without both of last season's strikers as well as integrate 3 new attackers. We need to get a few results while Bren gets a firm grasp on the situation and to tide us over til Sturridge gets back.