Liverpool Football Club Thread

[Commander Jameson]

FA Cup 5R draw.

Palace vs Bolton/Liverpool

[Azrael]

Not feeling confident about the League cup game, Chelsea going to be out for blood after the embarrassment they suffered at the weekend.

[Azrael]

Balo on the bench over Borini, not sure about that. Least with Borini you know he'll bring some urgency and energy to a game.

[gospvg]

Shame Sturridge was not fit enough for the bench.

[Stig]

We're very lucky there because that's a penalty.

[gospvg]

Yep Squirrtle made no contact with the ball. But I'll take that bit of luck.

[stefcha]

We're very lucky there because that's a penalty.

You know, I'm not sure it was. Wasn't 'til the third time I saw it but Costa actually looked to purposely step way over the ball and into Skrtel's leg, then dropped. I'd have to see it again though to be sure, it was certainly one that could've gone the other way.

[Stig]

Looked to me that Skrtel stood on his foot.

Also damn their quality goalkeeper, wish we had one of those.

[stefcha]

Looked to me that Skrtel stood on his foot.

From a couple of angles yeah, but then they showed the second-to-last one (one from behind I think, probably where the ref saw it?) it made me think "ooh you sly bastard". Could be wrong though.

[Azrael]

Costa should be off anyway for the stamp on Can. Scummy cunt.

[stefcha]

From a couple of angles yeah, but then they showed the second-to-last one (one from behind I think, probably where the ref saw it?) it made me think "ooh you sly bastard". Could be wrong though.

Looks like him putting his leg where he did just cemented the contact that was swinging in anyway so I suppose you'd have to give it, he was definitely going for the penalty rather than just protecting the ball though if you see what I mean.

[gospvg]

Nasty stamp by Costa on Emre Cam in the first half, lucky to be on the pitch.

[gospvg]

Another stamp by Costa !!

[hmm]

Yup. Such a cunt.

[hmm]

Henderson a little bit lucky to still be on the pitch too. (Not that this quite adds up to the two straight reds Costa has dodged...)

[Stig]

If we get knocked out by the stupid away goal rule I'll be gutted. We've put in two very good performances against them and also I probably would have been going t the final as my fan card has all the other games on it.

[Azrael]

Very tense, but I just can't see us beating Courtois, maybe a scaffy deflected goal...

[Stig]

[hmm]

If we get knocked out by the stupid away goal rule I'll be gutted.

Problem solved!

[gospvg]

Poor defending no-one tracking Ivanovic. Johnson/Balotelli both asleep. Easy header for Ivanovic.

[Stig]

Fucking hell Hendo

[reef]

Henderson has to score that header, simple as that.

[Gabe]

You have to wonder how these ties would have gone if we had Sturridge fit/another striker who can score, because whilst we've created chances, a lot of them lack power (Sterling's efforts always tend to look half-hit) or that bit of precision (Coutinho's). Other than our finishing, we've given good accounts of ourselves.

[Stig]

Balotelli must be involved in some illegal gambling right? The Italians love that shit don't they. It's gotta be the only explication right? Right?

[ryodi]

Hopefully we can pack him off to West Ham for a loss along with Allen like the last underperforming striker / midfielder combination we paid too much for.

[Azrael]

That cunt Costa should have been sent off in the first half. Not that it'd likely make a difference, our finishing is dogshit.

Not sure what Rodgers was thinking playing Balotelli. Would have preferred Borini or even Ibe coming on instead of him.

Good game for Mignolet for the most part.

Fucking shit.

[Gabe]

First things first, over the course of the two ties there was little in it, and it's nice to start feeling the team is a bit more solid (and I think the exclusion of Lovren is a big part of that). We've also shown some resilience and whilst I do still think 4th in the league is a big ask, I have a bit more hope/optimism than I did at Christmas.

That said, it's frustrating that Rodgers has generally persisted with not playing a recognised striker from the start of matches. I wouldn't mind if we'd been banging goals in, but we haven't. Heck, a lot of the time we barely have any support for Sterling when he breaks, and I've never rated his finishing - I doubt he'll turn convert from a winger to a striker like Thierry Henry at any point. That also makes it frustrating that by all accounts there won't be any transfer activity, meaning we'll be sticking with our current ineffectual trio of back-up strikers.

There's no doubt that we've played better in recent weeks, but that lack of goals is still a real problem. Like I say, these ties could have been very different with a regular goalscorer available.

[dogsout]

Yeah, but in order to have a regular goalscorer available, we'd have had to go back in time to the summer and address the problem correctly. The owners are not going to allow any more money to be spent, and I don't blame them. Balotelli was a mistake. I don't know what happened with Remy, but I thought it was a huge mistake at the time, and I think that has pretty much been cemented now. We needed a striker that could compete with Sturridge and was a similar fit stylistically. The manager was clearly intent on switching to the 4-2-3-1. Unfortunately, in doing so, he completely wrecked the balance of the team and somehow managed to rediscover problems he had already solved previously. Problems like Gerrard's inability to perform in a midfield '2', and Coutinho, for whatever reason, failing to shine when given the role of a true #10 (in my opinion the reason for this is the midfield partnership behind him was shit). Small matters like spending a bazillion pounds on defenders and then watching Johnson and a terribly out of form Skrtel take two of the four spots in the back line every game. The new guys were struggling to gel, the guys that were here last season were either burned out, injured, lacking confidence, form, or both. Teams learned from their mistakes against us last season - they started man-marking Gerrard and starting fast against us. And it just kind of snowballed into a bit of a nightmare.

I understand why the owners would be concerned about things enough to refuse to sign anyone in this window. I fully believe that is what has happened, by the way. It was what I expected going in, and I think it's fair enough. A lot of the problems that have hurt us this season have been down to the manager, in my opinion. Obviously we don't know who really calls the shots in terms of which players are targeted and signed, but why buy Lovren if you believe he can only play LCB? We just bought Sakho like a minute ago for £18m - and he's great! Why replace him when it is clear for all to see he's a better defender than Skrtel?

Lambert, Borini and Balotelli: Where do I even start? Lambert was signed as backup. I don't really have much of a problem with that except for the fact that he doesn't suit our style of play at all. Rodgers doesn't have a 'plan B' in the sense that whatever formation he chooses, whatever the personnel on pitch, and whatever the circumstances of any given game, he always has us play the same way. We don't play to Lambert's strengths at all so he's a pretty pointless backup, really. The same goes for Balotelli except it's even bloody worse. Not only did he cost twice the amount we were going to spend on Remy, but Rodgers seems to believe he can change his game to become what we need. So we sell Andy Carroll for £16m because he doesn't fit in with Brendan's style of play and then end up buying the Italian version of Andy Carroll for £16m - obviously there are some differences but their overall game is very similar. He wants it to feet and he wants to arrive late to attack crosses. Oh, and he wants to take pot-shots around the box. He links it up quite well but it's close to worthless in our team because it slows the play down so much. It turns out what we need is someone that is fast and clinical. Wouldn't it have just made so much more sense to just buy a guy that is fast and fairly clinical? That is literally all we needed for backup. That's the reason Sterling is playing where he is, while Lambert (unsuited), Balotelli (unsuited) and Borini (shite) are not trusted.

Fortunately, Brendan has addressed the vast bulk of the problems successfully, rediscovered the balance in the team and made us solid. We're close to being a very good team again. I think if he is able to successfully integrate Lovren into the backline and push Can into midfield, we will be formidable once more. We'll still need to spend money in the summer to sort out some of the leftover problems (striker, 'keeper, wingback), but if we carry on as we are, at least the owners will be able to trust that the money will be spent on the right type of players.

[SMD]

You were never going to see all those signings integrate properly at once, though. If anything you male the purchases now so they count in this year's FFP and they get six months to bed in.

I missed the game last night cos I was totally shattered and half expected extra time. It's a shame but pushing Chelsea close is reasonable. Balotelli needs a chance to play with Sturridge and it'll give us a chance to create space for him

Dogsout, I get your point about him wanting ball to feet but right there is your plan B. When Sturridge is back, him Sterling, Lallana, Coutinho, Markovic, etc can attack with pace but then Balotelli can come into play when the initial attack breaks down.

Our problem last year was that our attack was great in the first wave but then we needed to rely on individual brilliance after. It also put pressure on our defenders by giving the opposition chances to come at us. Balotelli let's is keep it up field and still pose a threat.

[gospvg]

I'm hoping once Sturridge is fit he will link up with either Balotelli/Borini or Lambert to form a partnership. We create lots of chances just need a proven striker to finish them off.