Lick

I just hope there was a sensible reason for leaving Reina out, as we're definitely stuck with Dudek until his contract runs out now. What the hell Carra was doing I can't even begin to imagine...

how the f*** can we be crossing to one person in the box at this point in the game?

keep those anti-mockers coming lol

F8ck me eboue is a c*nt. scuse my language

wish we had a better replacement, but can anybody say they're disappointed with that?

If we do that dumb f*cking free kick one more time my head will explode.

And if anyone wants to continue claiming that Riise has any clue how to play left back then good luck to you. Shall we count the goals that we concede from crosses from the left? Does he not understand the concept of closing your man down?

If Mark Lawrenson ever wonders why Liverpool fans think he's a complete c**k, he should listen to his commentary from this match so far. A more biased pile of s**** I couldn't f*cking imagine. Andy Gray would be applauding him.

F*ckin t*** of a referee. can you believe it. And Mark Lawrenson can f*ck off as well.

Gamst getting between the lines? Do me a favour. You make it sound like he was a constant thorn in our sides for 90 minutes... The small problem with your first two points is that we were playing 4-4-2 at those times. Your talk about the spare man in this and the previous post suggests you don't understand that there's a spare man in a 4-4-2 as well. Usually a full back rather than a centre-half. So in the goal build-up Gonzalez was in the right position, but Riise probably wasn't - a continuation of his recent poor form - as he should have moved inside to cover for Hyypia who was drawn into the scramble preceding the ball going wide. There were many other times Gonzalez had to cover Riise as he dawdled about upfield in the first half. I don't understand what you're going on about with 'loading' the left side and leaving Finnan on his own on the other side. Possibly indicative of Carra not being too adventurous, and Agger at left CB doing his usual thing of pushing on when he has the chance. So maybe you could argue that we should have had Carra (or Hyypia) off for Pennant rather than shifting formation when Kuyt came on. As for your third point... disagree that the system hadn't looked good, as I said earlier it was good enough to carve out all these chances we're moaning about missing. In any case, the half-time team talk is out of the window when the oppo scores in 5 mins - that's where the players have to take responsibility for their reactions. The spare man b******s I've responded to. I'd have probably brought on Garcia instead of Aurelio myself, but I can understand reasons why Benitez made the opposite decision (see previous post). Finally, we were playing 4-4-f*cking 2 for most of the game, just as we had the previous weeks and frankly we weren't getting many people into the box in those games either - the final scorelines just papered over this and a few other problems. Time for my tea I think. Perhaps by tomorrow sanity will have returned. Or am I thinking of somewhere else...

You again? We didn't play 5-3-2. If you'd paid attention we were 4-4-2 for almost all of the time Gonzalez was on. Perhaps if Warnock was properly fit Riise would have been 'rested' by now and the left side might have been a little better today. And you made it clear on the other thread your idea of tactical genius is taking off a centre half to throw another forward on with 30 mins left, so presumably you'd like us to sign Robert Huth? While I'm here, the quality of this thread (and some of the others, post-match) can probably be summed up by this. Couldasworn that Bellamy missed a pretty good chance first half. I'm not going to claim he's not good enough or didn't have a good game, but he did miss a good chance regardless. It's just not as simple as some people round here would like it to be.

I'd argue about their chances - a few half-chances before the goal and almost bugger-all after it. Otherwise it'd be fair enough, except that the moves creating our chances weren't as a result of one player doing something well. Finnan was getting space to cross because of the other players working the formation resulting in space for him - it wasn't like he was beating 3 men to deliver. I agree we were lopsided, but blame it on the players rather than the formation. For me Riise was continuing his form of the last few weeks, and Gonzalez had to work harder to cover him than Finna did to cover Carra on the other side. Gonzalez's wasn't playing well himself, showing a poor first touch quite often and missing a relatively easy chance to play Bellamy in. It's ridiculous to suggest going one on one at the back with 30m to go. 3 mins maybe. While you're one down you try to continue doing the stuff you did right before conceding, not risk going 2 down as quickly as possible. You talk about it as if it's got nothing to do with the way the players are performing, or other things beyond the manager's control like Bellamy getting injured. When Kuyt came on for Crouch we changed to a 3-4-3, with Bellamy coming wider on the right. That attacking enough for you? After 8 more minutes of our players p*ssing about, I expect the idea of bringing Aurelio on was to provide a steadier outlet than Gonzalez, who'd gone completely rabbit-in-headlights. Unfortunately Bellamy was then injured which gave a difficult decision - like for like with Pennant or get Garcia on? Meanwhile what are the supposed leaders of the team - Gerrard, Carragher, Hyypia, Alonso - doing? The only one of them to come out with any credit for me was Alonso.

did you not read some of your own earlier posts then? This kind of contradiction is the bane of the unintelligent.

fair point, well made.

I'll argue with it, and your grasp of the English language. We didn't let Blackburn 'force' us to play it their way. They scored, and despite losing our composure and shape we still created more chances than them and they were kept in it by their keeper making three good saves. So I guess we have to ask again, how does that equal outplaying us? My point was that those chances/saves resulted from individual moments of skill (or a bit of a ruck in the case of Kuyt's chance). We didn't have a pattern and we didn't create any momentum or sustained pressure. It was still more than they managed. And finally - their tactics won 'no thanks to our poor finishing.' ? I do not think those words mean what you think they mean...

This and Sion's effort, are complete b******s. How was it planned and executed badly with the wrong players if we tw*tted them for 45 minutes and would have been 3-0 up if we could finish properly? Finnan was providing the best crosses from either team all game, so the line about five defenders is pointless. Should we have taken him off for Pennant? My biggest concern is with the response to the goal from the players - lots of running around like kids, stupid challenges and moaning at the ref. No composure, no plan, and precious little on-pitch leadership. There was still over 30 minutes to go but we never seriously looked like getting it back, unless you count Xabi's one-man barrage.

It's a complete shambles at the moment. No shape at all, losing composure everywhere - don't seem to have any leaders out there to get a grip and exert a calm influence. I expect we'll bring Garcia on shortly and lose the ball with increasing regularity. Either that or he'll score...

That's been coming for the last four games. If you don't take your chances you get bitten on the a*** eventually. And now we look like we're sh*tting our collective pants.

This is like deja vu all over again... Plenty of possession, plenty of chances. Plenty of inability to put the ball in the sodding net. We do work space for crosses coming in from the right in a way we just can't seem to do on the left. After mockering Gonzalez thoroughly with my previous post I'm saying nothing good about anyone this time...

I thought the point of Gerrard in the middle was that he would run in onto things like Bellamy's cut-back? And Riise's already stinking the place out. And I wish Crouchie could head the ball. Sigh. On a positive note Bellamy looks good, and I think Gonzalez seems to offer a threat. Probably more if Riise could pass it to him occasionally.

Why not 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 depending on whether we've got the ball or not... Reina Finnan - Carra - Hyypia - Agger Gerrard - Alonso - Riise Bellamy - Crouch - Gonzalez i.e. it could be absolutely anything, so Mark Hughes has his work cut out in the team talk...

Pitch inspection in half an hour... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/l...cup/6185591.stm

A good player will score goals in a poor league. The point is that an average or poor player can also score goals in a poor league.