Liverpool Banter Archive September 29 2013

29 Sep 2013 23:54:11
im made up we won away from home and we are now in 2nd, we have had to change formation to have both luis and sturridge as strikers its a lot for the team to take in and its working its looking like the partnership of S.&.S up front looks good already and will only get better

3 points is 3 points no matter how good or bad we play and we are playing till the end of the game now, I agree with a lot of people that ibe should play insyead of sterling, he is bigger and stronger, I can't wait till couthinio is back plus sissoko because I want to see what he adds instead of enrique

i think BR should put agger in as a def-mid with his passing and forward play he could do a job there, then put gerrard and henderson in front of him but its just an opinion of mine as I think agger likes to get forward he is bigger and stonger than lucas but no matter what i'm just enjoying our form and our position, with the clubs around us having cup games we will be up there till the end of the season

Mickey B, we are playing to the end of the game? We haven't had a good second half yet this season.

Played well yesterday in the second half just Sunderland came out flying there fighting for there lives already sure against United We were all over them second half to

29 Sep 2013 22:20:13
David Moyes tried for years at Everton to be above Utd, he's finally done it

29 Sep 2013 22:58:43
Sterling not doing it for me this season, think he's being used at times we don't need him as he's quite wasteful at times on the counter attack which is not what we need holding on to leads. And he has a tendency to give away stupid free kicks- the stoke game saw the penalty following a free kick he gave away just outside the area with a high foot of all things.
I don't know why ibe isn't being called upon instead when were 1-0 as I believe him to be a better player defensively, and there's no doubt he's got a stronger build which will help in our defense of set pieces. Where we've struggled on occasion this season.
Thoughts?

Toddy you can't analyse a player who has no confidence atm and no form. Sterlings hit a rough patch and needs to find his form. The boy has great potential and was a star as a youth. Give him time and support. I agree.though ibe is a great prospect.

Fair enough just think he's being brought on at the wrong times that's all

We need to try to give Sterling as much game time as possible. At least for the rest of this season.

Right now, he is a headless chicken, with no composure.

But if he can learn the game, he could be an excellent impact sub for us.

If there is no improvement by season end, well, then so be it.

29 Sep 2013 22:13:30
eds surely we have scouts watching maxime gonalos. exactly our type of player dominant at dm and a real presence not to say his passing ratio is great for a dm. also think cabaye would be good choice. looking at when arsenal bid for him he could go for around 15m . any interest? {Ed002's Note - You are simply picking players at random because you like them.}

29 Sep 2013 22:04:33
Another win. good
Another Jekyll and hide performance. not so good
It's not doing Lucas' season much -5 yellows already - with this sitting in.its creating situations that he is getting pulled into that are warranting (or not) bookings.

Considering Lucas is a perceived lynchpin, this could be our undoing. unless mr Allen is being groomed to step in!

Lucas is all about mistimed and reckless tackles

29 Sep 2013 21:15:00
Fantastic result today. Awesome second goal. Great to be second in the league. However, I thought overall we were poor to say the least. We pride ourselves on keeping possession but lacked the quality and composure to do this. If it was just one game I wouldn't be concerned but it has been the last few league games. We miss coutinho desperately. When is he due back.
Anyway 3 points is all that matters, so they say.
Forever loyal but still concerned.

Wow! my friend wow! we are getting the results that we haven't for a long time and you're still not happy?
did you not see the exiting partnership of suarez and sturridge?
I honestly think these 2 will prove to be the best partnership in the prem, backed by stevie and couts all I can see is good times my friend!

Agree 100%. We sat off Sunderland far too much and gave them a lot of possession - they were just too poor to do much with it.

Hendo isn't suited to the wing back position - hope Johnson is back soon.

Another area of concern is that our midfield just doesn't seem to have a goal threat which only increases the pressure on S & S.

I don't think many would disagree that Henderson isn't a natural wingback, but given who is available (e.g. no one really) he's a logical choice due to his massive workrate and he's done a decent enough job of it for a box-to-box CM.

Henderson was awful on the right and he should have been the one to go off not Moses who was very good. I don't understand why BR is sticking with Sterling. Its 6 game now and he is still wasteful. Why not give Ibe a chance.

I think it's perfectly fine to say we are not playing well. We have not controlled games like we did last year. Clearly we are getting better at the ugly side of the game and getting results so we can only hope we take the best bits from both approaches and start controlling games and killing teams off and also keeping the ball.

Yeah but we changed our systems from possession football to counter attack so we soak up pressure and then hit them on the counter looks risky but Rogers clearly does feel the players are there to do other wise just yet and if we tried we would drop points I think his top six to January wish proves this

29 Sep 2013 21:36:50
First win for Sakho today : ) .

Also, we've conceded in our last four games.

29 Sep 2013 19:52:16
Just back from the match and let me just say first, what a feeling to finally see the REDS in action live in the stadium after a long time!

I thought we were not at our best and we followed the strategy we have whole of this season, score first and then defend and look to hit them on the counter. Today, it worked out perfectly bar their goal.

Sunderland played very well for a team who doesn't have a Permanent Manager and are bottom of the table and certainly in the second half at times we weren't forceful enough with our play.

Sturridge's pace was evident in both of Suarez's goal today and I thought Suarez played well, even though it was only his 2nd game back. Unlike earlier, he kept his mouth shut and tried to stay on his feet, though that was not going to stop the Sunderland fans giving him abuse (of which a fair share was aimed at Henderson, Mignolet and also Enrique).

Kolo Toure is commitment personified and has brilliant sportsmanship. He was always telling the others in our team to stay alert, and constantly arranged the defense. Skrtel and Sakho were good too and Sakho is absolutely unbeatable in the air, though he did put the defense under un-necessary pressure at times.

And finally, Moses frustrated me at times, just running at players when it was better to pick out a team mate after getting past the 1st or 2nd man. He, IMO should not be played in the support midfielder/attacking midfielder role.

I am super happy, we are 2nd in the table! Long journey back to West London tomorrow, but this was well worth the trip. I am a happy chappy now :)

Hi mate, I was there too and the Sunderland fans gave Luis as mush stick as they could. It appeared to me that only the odd few gave Henderson stick and all cheered Mignolet. I thought at the game that a lot of work went through Henderson and he gave a lot of effort and worked well.

Glad you enjoyed yourself. Its good to see our great club heading in the right direction again.

Red Rum

Hi Baz, I had to sit with the home supporters and couldn't fully express myself unfortunately. But from where I was sitting, the abuse was largely aimed at Suarez and to a lesser extent at Henderson and it was mostly jeers at Mignolet especially after they scored.

I thought Henderson was OK in the role he was given, but he just seems to be that work horse BR asks to play various roles. Sooner rather than later, he will need to be trusted with a central role IMO.

I was also sat with the home support today as I find it hard to get tickets to Anfield and time off work. I was in the south west corner and large amounts of abuse towards Suarez. To be fair the fella sat behind me keep swearing and was concerned every-time Liverpool got the ball and moved forward.

29 Sep 2013 19:48:15
Not a wind-up, but am genuinely interested to hear from harry scousser and waro after today. what do you guys think about the season so far. even better i'd like to hear from sydney! But apparently the utd banter page are sending out a search party as he hasn't posted for over 24 hours.

Sydney! has been captured by the mental security staff at Broadmoor Hospital, after he was seen walking naked on the streets of Manchester yesterday holding up a "Gollum for PM" flag.

The Holt, In reply to your post, results wise and points wise I am ecstatic, more points then I asked for when the fixtures came out and great to see the wins on the board so early.

Performance wise I'm concerned to be honest, we look shaky at the back IMO, I would like to see us play with a higher line compressing the play in the oppositions half ( I feel we have enough pace at the back to play that way ) especially when we take the lead.

But we score then sit deep and invite pressure hoping to hit on the break, we have gotten away with it so far, but we don't have enough good players to play that way both offensively and defensively, didn't see much of the game today as I was in work, but I thought we were a little hit and miss in the bits I did see, but again I am over the moon with the result.

If we could keep grinding out results playing this way then I wouldn't care, but in reality that's not going to happen, I just hope we can scrape together enough points to get top 4. Hope that answers your question.

I agree with Waro, I don't think 3 at the back works and today against the bottom team in the league we gave them way too much space in wide areas and against better opposition we could easily have lost.
What's frustrating me is last year we could keep the ball for fun this year we lack movement and our scraping through games and hoofing long a LOT!

To the lads who is worring about the 3 at the back for me its a new system for the players it will take time until its smooth, and with counter attack tactics you have to let the other team have the ball for us to counter attack, Manchester United has played it for years and winning the prem .well not this seaon ha ha, instead of looking at the negatives i'm looking at the positives, the partnership with sturridge and suarez is coming along nice plus we hace couthino to come back plus johhnson who is more of a wing back, we are winning and scoring and that what I look at

I'd say 3 at the back with 2 wingbacks makes by far the most sense of any formation given the players we have. 3 or more great CBs? Check. Wingbacks? Check (granted 2 of them are out for a spell, unfortunately) 2 strikers who play well off each other? Check.

If we lose a CB or two in the future, then perhaps we'll revert back to a more standard pair, but at the moment I can completely understand why we are playing the way we are.

Nice one {Ed002's Note - Harry Scousser is resting right now. He will be back in a day or two.}

29 Sep 2013 19:16:50
Btw, note to All Editors'
Great work and job on the site, vast improvements continually. Top men and ladies ;) {Ed002's Note - You are very sweet. Your hamper is on its way.}

Firstclass I hope ed ;)

29 Sep 2013 18:52:11
Congratulations on Liverpool ladies winning the league title great achievement

Congratulations to LFC Ladies!

29 Sep 2013 18:33:09
After their goal I thought here we go again. The lads played well in the end it was a good performance. 13 points and palace next things are looking good.

I think our major problem is our midfield.the whole game it was from their box to our defense no sort of protection from the middle
Rodgers needs to get another dm in january

It was good to see at that point a few players taking control of the games flow. gerrard, kolo and sakho kept the ball at the back playing tidy passes taking the wind out of their sail, making them chase which was a good change of pace from getting used to watching gerrard play over hyped passes to imaginary team mates and cb's stepping up to close play down leaving miles of space behind for the shelvey's to run into etc.

29 Sep 2013 18:13:11
Great result in the end! Sunderland had spirit and fight but we did what was needed in the end and killed them off with the 3rd goal.

Well played Danny Sturridge. again :)

29 Sep 2013 17:59:27
Great result always hard when a caretaker manager takes over and away from home. Sahko looking better and better. S&S looked very sharp considering full first game together since last season. 2nd in league with Manchester United 12th, feel good factor is back.

Sahko lookin better you think? he was caught out wit his passin out from the back it's going to give us trouble all season and not only him doing it just clear the lines simple!

Did you watch the rest of his play. Tackling, heading and positioning. key elements for a defender were immense. His passing will improve under Rogers just like Henderson, coutinho, Sturridge and the rest of the youngsters have improved. You can mould youngsters but you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

I agree that element is quality Vinny but it's the passing game From the back wil catch us out and it's not only him just clear the ball when in doubt! But yeah he's getting better only a young man too!

If we had a costa up front then the hoof up front would work but with S&S they ain't winning much in the air. Totally agree though with what you are saying we will get caught out and we will as mignolet is no Reina on the ball either but the lesser teams only put pressure up front and don't have the class to put the ball away whilst they chelskis, spuds, mancitheh won't put pressure on the back players unless they read this. lol

LoL! Mingo has been a massive signing for us and I feel and hope we get better at the pass out from the back it just scares the life out of me ha anyway onwards and upwards YNWA!

29 Sep 2013 17:57:25
Observations -
Moses is becoming really important now he's bedded in a bit.
Toure is absolute quality.
Sakho is also looking more and more comfortable now.
Suarez has scored 2 and he's nowhere near ready to do himself justice!
I know he has his fans but I don't see the point in Lucas he gives away so many fouls its unreal.
Henderson is either a central midfielder or he's on the bench for me, he's no wide player at all, either play him in the middle and drop one of the mids or bench him end of.I personally think he's quality in the right position.
Top win, liking how things are going.
YNWA JFT96

Agreed, Moses is a good player who adds to our attacking options. SAS looking great, their movement is brilliant. Toure is boss. Lucas is banned for the Palace game so it will be an opportunity to see if someone can stake a claim to play with Gerrard in the middle, perhaps Henderson? Moses could start on the right as he may be more effective there than Hendo.

29 Sep 2013 17:56:05
Happy with the result but that altidore is an absolute beast! Handled him ok but was impressed with the strength {Ed001's Note - shame he spends most of the game stood still relying on it, instead of providing a bit of movement to create space for teammates.}

Correct description is "lazy absolute beast"

29 Sep 2013 17:23:30
Hi Eds, I have a wee bit of a question here, i'm no football coach, analyst or anything of some sort in footie. But I did kick up until I was 21, now I just sit with the remote and watch .

Now with this tactic BR is using, where we go ahead and then after scoring we drop back and invite attacks, why is the team doing that? Why is BR playing like that? I really don't understand, please pls help me grasp this tactic, I just keep seeing a loss if we play like this .
Thanks in advance Eds. {Ed001's Note - simply looking to draw them in and create space for our pace to hit them on the counter. See our 3rd goal for how it should work.}

What happened to our possesion football and pressing game from last season?

29 Sep 2013 15:58:03
Brilliant effort - the Ladies win the women's super league with a 2.0 win. Excellent. Now the lads need to do the same.

29 Sep 2013 15:32:46
Hi All,

Looking forward to the game, would've preferred it if Paolo off Sunderland.

My question is, has Andre Wisdom kicked Brendan's dog recently or maybe run over his kid?

I love Kolo's attitude and commitment but he's not a right back, I know Wisdom isn't either really but surely he would be a better option there? Or maybe play one of the young guys, McLaughlin for example?

I will never understand the idea that if a senior player is out you have to move a senior out of position instead of promote one of the youngsters!

Anyway, in Rodgers we Trust! Another 1-0 today, Luis to get off the mark!

Cheers all

Toure won't b playing full back, he's 1 of 3 center halfs

Heres what you need to understand its hard to drop a player that plays well and whilst we watch players play once a week BR watches them play every training session and sees what sort of mental and physical shape their in you can say play someone young but it puts a lot of pressure on them BR isn't afraid to play youth players but he doesn't want to rely on them and rightly so.

Well after 20min looks same rubbish as last few games. So deep an pressurized playing out, now hoofball begins. Henderson on the right no go fwd. Moses lost in the centre. Going to be a long match

Sunderland 0 - Hoofball 2

I'm happy with hoofball :-)

29 Sep 2013 14:51:16
Liverpool Ladies 1.0 Bristol. Half time.

29 Sep 2013 14:24:31
apologies if this question is a bit naive, but can we recall the likes of Suso, Coady etc if we have enough injuries and need cover- would personally love to see suso feature {Ed002's Note - Generally there is no option to recall players.}

Coady struggles to get into the awful, near bottom of the table in league 1 or 2 Sheffield side why would we want him back?

29 Sep 2013 12:37:01
suso is absolutly ripping la liga to pieces excellent against barca yesterday looks right out of the top drawer brendan needs to gove the boy confidence next year and believe in him he is very good so mata like.

Maybe I watched a different game. The Suso I saw didn't do a helluva lot. Few nice touches, gave the ball away a couple of times and caught for pace tracking back on a couple of occasions.

29 Sep 2013 15:11:38
The highlights only show the good side of his game. There was more to the match than the YouTube skills video

29 Sep 2013 11:37:02
I think lately BR has been putting out a team that fits Sakho in without sacrificing a like for like defender. We we need to play Agger and Toure at CB. He's not comfortable on the ball and we haven't looked anywhere near as good as when he wasn't in the team

I take it you are bearing in mind that Johnson, Kelly, Toure, Agger, Coates, Enrique and Cissokho have been recovering from injuries in recent weeks.
Meaning Wisdom, Ilori, Skrtel and Sakho are our only fully fit first team defenders.
Toure and Enrique have become available again and our considered better options at right back and left back than Wisdom, Ilori or other reserve players.
The only change I would be making is Wisdom or Ilori playing at right back and Toure or Skrtel playing alongside Sakho at centre back.

Whatever BR has been doing it hasn't been working the last few games. That's for sure.

Sakho 91.1% passing accuracy
Skrtel 88.6%
Toure 77.8%
Agger 82.6%
Lucas 89.3%

I could go through the whole team and Sakho has the highest passing accuracy.

29 Sep 2013 09:55:13
Let's support the Ladies on a great day today. Win or draw away from winning league. Is is on tv anywhere? KO is at 14.00. Come on you Reds.

29 Sep 2013 10:49:58
Try Sportlemontv

or

sportcategory.com

Dm2013

It's on BT Sport

29 Sep 2013 08:48:31
Few results going our way for a change let's put on a great performance and sit 2nd in leaque, rather see ibe get a run out rather than sterling any thoughts!ynwa

In my opinion we should have used the cup game to test some of our younger guns like Ibe to see how they do in competitive games. While I agree he looks a real talent so does Sterling though he has more experience in the league so I would go with him

In my opinion neither Ibe or sterling are ready. Therefore they should only be brought on if the game is already won. In those circumstances our players are confident and are knocking the ball about, the opposition are demoralised and have given up the fight.

If it's 0-0 or we are 1-0 down then our lads will be panicking and making mistakes in haste and the opposition will be defending for their lives parking the bus, tractor, HGV and motor home in front of the goal. This gives the youn lads no space and too much pressure denting their confidence along the way.

As for today's game. I hope Team Brendan have been practicing defending set pieces and I hope they've spent the rest of their time in shooting practice.

29 Sep 2013 06:14:01
Pre-season I was concerned Moyes might need some bedding-in time to truly shape a team in his mould. I've been impressed at how rapidly United have adapted to his style, though.

;0)

Hi Doc, I think what is going on 30 miles down the East Lancs Road proves the Fergie effect. By fair means or foul he managed to win the title last year (with some ease) with a squad serious short of top class talent. He got out at the right time, leaving his successor with a poor squad for a club of their size and stature. Moyes has a hell of a job to do and it seems top players are not keen on coming to OT because Fergie isn't Manager and Moyes is. Long may the demise of the evil empire continue. Come on Red men!

Moyes is only keeping the seat warm for Fergies return (interim manager comes to mind) Fergie is only taking a year out to recover his health and take a breather

29 Sep 2013 04:25:56
Well done to David Moyes after 11 seasons he has finally got Everton above Man Utd.