Liverpool Football Club Thread

[SaintM]

It's Kevin Friend. Not sure we've ever won a game he's refereed.

Also, foul on Lovren in the build up to his brain fart. Booking Phil for moaning about very obvious fouls on him being ignored. Seems completely cool with the blatant time-wasting that's going on. Not that it really matters because we wouldn't win this if it went on for another 500 minutes.

I'm not saying he's the reason we're losing, by the way. He's just a shithouse of a ref and I hate him.

Say what?

He gave you two free hacks at our players in the box at St Mary's last season and Rodgers had the cheek to single him out for praise.

[ryodi]

Another game of Benteke being just as isolated as Balotelli was when he managed to get a game. I think he got better supply at Villa who at least have a manager who is flexible with his tactics and isn't afraid to make a change when something isn't working.

[dogsout]

I forgot about that game. You're just proving my point, though; he's an awful referee.

[Stig]

Say what?

He gave you two free hacks at our players in the box at St Mary's last season and Rodgers had the cheek to single him out for praise.

Not sure what point you're trying to make here? He's calling Friend a shit referee, just because Rodgers praised him doesn't mean dogsout agrees.

[dogsout]

Maybe we look so devoid of creativity because we've got two playmakers and they're both stuck out on the wing so we can have 3 solid CMs in the middle? It'd be nice to have the option to play Markovic on the right of a 4-2-3-1, with Phil on the left and Firmino in his actual position. Oh well!

[glb]

On the bright side, this is on sale - http://store.liverpoolfc.com/lfc-balotelli-air-freshener/

We'd need about 40,000 of them to get rid of the stink from this game.

[ryodi]

And there's the third. Terrible play all round.

[SnoopZakaDaVe]

dreadful performance

[dogsout]

Not sure what point you're trying to make here? He's calling Friend a shit referee, just because Rodgers praised him doesn't mean dogsout agrees.

Well, I did question whether we've ever won a game he's taken charge of. Still, I wasn't saying he has it in for us. He's just a terrible referee.

It wouldn't have mattered who was he referee today, though. They've been far superior to us all over the pitch. Fair play to them.

[Gabe]

Maybe we look so devoid of creativity because we've got two playmakers and they're both stuck out on the wing so we can have 3 solid CMs in the middle? It'd be nice to have the option to play Markovic on the right of a 4-2-3-1, with Phil on the left and Firmino in his actual position. Oh well!

Well exactly, as I said above, Rodgers likes playing men out of position and this system just doesn't look to solve any of the problems we've had of late. We've created few good chances all season so far and we aren't good enough defensively to grind-out results, so things need to change.

Abysmal performance today, that's for sure.

[Sng]

Well at least Chelsea lost.

And at least this was a 3pm kick off so I didn't have to sit through it.

Once we went 2-0 it was all over. I'll be amazed if we score more than two at all this season. Even scoring two looks like it may be a struggle this season.

Completely nullifies the good start to the season.

[Gabe]

What did he say after the Bournemouth game then, because we were pretty rubbish then, too?

[hmm]

Feels at least as bad as the Stoke game to me, getting thrashed at home like this. While the scoreline was shocking at Stoke, it was a meaningless game apart from being Gerrard's last, and he was hardly leaving on a high regardless.

Rodgers had better not try and find positives in this.

[Gabe]

Credit to West Ham though, they've won here and the Emirates already this season and thoroughly deserved both.

[Istanbul]

Sad.

[Stig]

Maybe we should have got rid of Rodgers and started fresh this season. We're playing exactly the same as last season which was such a poor season. Its like he hasnt learnt anything and by sticking to to the same tactics it's once again isolating our striker. I know it's only 4 games in but apart from (luckily) getting 3 clean sheets I'm struggling to find a positive in this start.

Losing at home can happen, even Chelsea lost a home today, but losing 0-3 at home in such fashion raises some serious questions.

Father and brother in law are both coming over tomorrow too, might have to find a reason to not be around when they do.

[SaintM]

Not sure what point you're trying to make here? He's calling Friend a shit referee, just because Rodgers praised him doesn't mean dogsout agrees.

Not sure we've ever won a game he's refereed.

[ryodi]

Let's face it Gerrard could have refereed that match and we still wouldn't have won. We've got the international break now and I imagine we'll get a hiding at Old Trafford as well.

[SaintM]

he's an awful referee.

Agreed

[toythatkills]

Let's face it Gerrard could have refereed that match and we still wouldn't have won. We've got the international break now and I imagine we'll get a hiding at Old Trafford as well.

It should be an interesting game. It's not like United have looked good, they could easily be on three points so far after three nil-nil draws, or worse. They've just been lucky in getting a few points on the board but they've certainly not been significantly better than Liverpool.

[dogsout]

Nope, but we will be missing our best player and, knowing Rodgers, he'll spend the international break thinking about which formation to switch to rather than working on the actual problems.

[dogsout]

We've got a big selection problem now. I think it's likely we'll go to the diamond for the next game, particularly if Sturridge makes it back in time. But moving forwards we've essentially left ourselves without a single good winger. Firmino is a #10, Phil is probably best used somewhere between that and as a #8 (probably what Rodgers would call a #8.5). Ibe isn't good enough to be starting game for us and Lallana also looks much better in the centre.

If we go to the diamond, it'll mean dropping Phil into midfield so that Firmino can play in the hole, leaving who for DM? One of Henderson and Milner because you can bank on them both playing when fit... Uh-oh.

[davidcotton]

If we go to the diamond, it'll mean dropping Phil into midfield so that Firmino can play in the hole, leaving who for DM? One of Henderson and Milner because you can bank on them both playing when fit... Uh-oh.

I'd wait until after the international 'break' if I were you. Might (or might not) solve the problem for you...

[SaintM]

On the bright side, this is on sale - http://store.liverpoolfc.com/lfc-balotelli-air-freshener/

God bless football tat. So much rubbish being sold at a premium up and down the country.

[Azrael]

Glad I missed the game today. Had a feeling we'd lose, even stuck a couple of quid on a West Ham win in an attempt to jinx them. Felt dirty winning money from a loss.

Can Sakho come back in for Lovren now?

[Guest]

While we are more solid, again will we spend another season with one striker isolated up top?

It appears that Rodgers can't play any other way. If he keeps it up and it doesn't work - he has to go. Because otherwise what has he learned and what have we learned? Just that Suarez was amazing, perhaps.

I've been saying this for a year now.

I can't understand how he doesn't get that - if it's not working then change it.

[Gabe]

I've been saying this for a year now.

I can't understand how he doesn't get that - if it's not working then change it.

We've all been saying it for a year.

[Chewylegs]

I said to my brother yesterday that what worries me the most is how easily we can lose by 2,3 or 4 goals under Rodgers.

I don't remember ever seeing us capitulate as badly in games as we do with this manager. If it is how people like dogsout are saying it's down to players not playing in their proper positions, then we must have a scouting problem or a completely blinkered and stubborn manager.

I looked at our bench and squad at the beginning of the season and thought how much better we are off with potential selections this year, but then Ibe ain't looking all that, Ings hasn't really properly had a go yet and Lovren didn't take long to get back to his old tricks. To top it off we loan Markovic out, which I cannot for the life of me work out!!

I don't want to be a doom goblin just yet but these sort of comprehensive home defeats don't give me much hope.

[glb]

I think equally alarming was how one dimensional the side looked. West Ham thoroughly deserved their win but they didn't really have to do anything special to earn it. They were organised defensively, and countered well. If that's the blueprint required to beat us, we better get used to a few more defeats of this ilk.

[dogsout]

It was just like the loss to Palace at home last season, wasn't it? They were solid and took their chances but all they did was sit in a low block and counter attack. Like you say, if we can't figure out how to deal with that, we've got big problems.

I'm not saying it's all down to people playing out of position, but it's a factor. When we bought Firmino I posted in here saying I hoped it signalled a shift in Rodgers' tactical thinking and that we wouldn't see him shunted out onto the wing. So it's pretty frustrating to see him playing on the right so far.

It was pretty alarming to see us cycle through three formations once he'd accepted it wasn't working yesterday. It was almost like last season never ended.