Liverpool vs Blackburn match thread.

Kess73

In my view there were more positives today than negatives. Yes we still have that habit of going totally defensive for the twenty minutes when we have a lead, but the first 60 minutes of the game saw us play some of the most confident footy that I have seen from us this season.

The spirit was great for that hour and the passing was pretty good and quick.

I was really confident of a couple more goals in the second half, but it was not to be.

daithijjj

Ordinarily, id be the first man on the teamsheet for criticising the lads for sitting back, but seriously folks, we just won the game and thursday sapped alot out of gerrard and co who played 90 mins in romania. The tiredness was there for all to see.

colly10

Melion wrote: »

Im convinced some people on here wont be happy unless we get relegated so they can say they were right about Rafa all along.

Think thats a bit much, not getting 4th would be terrible for everyone, while I don't believe rafa's the man for the job id still like to see him do as well as possible. Theres an ongoing thing on these threads that if you critisise the manager your either clueless, not a real fan, someone who listens to the media too much or doesn't have the teams best interests at heart.
It gets a bit tiring to listen to, I want rafa to do well cause I want the team to do well, I don't have faith in him though

noodler

daithijjj wrote: »

Ordinarily, id be the first man on the teamsheet for criticising the lads for sitting back, but seriously folks, we just won the game and thursday sapped alot out of gerrard and co who played 90 mins in romania. The tiredness was there for all to see.

Regarding the Uefa cup excuse.

How many CL games do we play on a Wednesday over the last 5 or 6 years? And then still play on a Saturday?

Thats the manager's problem, he should have the squad for two competitions after 6 years.

I take the point that Romania is a further away than many of the Euro games you will be required to play in but it was still Unirea and it was still Blackburn.

Given what the likes of Fulham have achieved with their size squad this season, I don't think we should be be overreliant on the Europa League as an excuse.

Mr Alan

em, noodler, we won.

noodler

Mr Alan wrote: »

em, noodler, we won.

Well done. We are also 13 points behind Chelsea.

EDIT: Oh, are out of the CL at the first round, out of the FA cup in the fourth round and out of the CC before the quarters.

EDIT1: We did win today though.

Mr Alan

its been a **** season, thats not being argued. if that means people are gonna piss and moan for the rest of the season irregardless of our results or performances, thats gonna get quite annoying.

whatawaster

Mr Alan wrote: »

which is why we were great for the first 60mins, then tired toward the end. I'm not saying thats good, but its not too surprising tbh.

great for the first 60 minutes? We were pretty good, better than we have been. But how many genuine chances did we create?

I reckon we'll need 24 points from our last 10 games, because Man City and Tottenham (who have much better goal diff) are effectively 4 points (or 2 slip ups) ahead, and Villa have games in hand.
I'm off to pray

Jaysus, did we lose today?

noodler

Mr Alan wrote: »

its been a **** season, thats not being argued. if that means people are gonna piss and moan for the rest of the season irregardless of our results or performances, thats gonna get quite annoying.

If we are going to make our judgements on the game simply on the basis of the result then why do we need a message board on the internet?

Surely, if I understand you correctly, football should be as simple as win-be happy, lose-be sad without any individual analysis of the performance?

Honest to god, you give it loads about how "great" we were for 60 minutes and thats fine, but then somebody makes a point about the negatives and suddenly you feel the discussion should be ended and we should just be happy with the result.

daithijjj

noodler wrote: »

Regarding the Uefa cup excuse.

How many CL games do we play on a Wednesday over the last 5 or 6 years? And then still play on a Saturday?

Thats the manager's problem, he should have the squad for two competitions after 6 years.

I take the point that Romania is a further away than many of the Euro games you will be required to play in but it was still Unirea and it was still Blackburn.

Given what the likes of Fulham have achieved with their size squad this season, I don't think we should be be overreliant on the Europa League as an excuse.

The pitch on thursday was a bog and that type of pitch takes alot more out of your legs. And we lacked 'legs' in the second half.

What other teams like fulham do is neither here nor there as far as im concerned (all i will say is that im a fan of hodgson since his swiss and inter days and he is a great manager, should have got manager of the year last year).

Like i said, il be jumping the queue to criticise the team if they sit back after having a week off, today it was understandable with alot of the players.

whatawaster

daithijjj wrote: »

The pitch on thursday was a bog and that type of pitch takes alot more out of your legs. And we lacked 'legs' in the second half.

What other teams like fulham do is neither here nor there as far as im concerned (all i will say is that im a fan of hodgson since his swiss and inter days and he is a great manager, should have got manager of the year last year).

Like i said, il be jumping the queue to criticise the team if they sit back after having a week off, today it was understandable with alot of the players.

that's what our squad was for. If tiredness was going to be a factor why didn't Aquilani feature in either game?

Mr Alan

i didn't give it loads, just said we were very good for the majority of the game, we tired toward the end due to the exertions during the week and the blackburn players were trying to kick the **** out of our players. I just think today is a good result result for it, wit so much encouraging about it.

daithijjj

whatawaster wrote: »

that's what our squad was for. If tiredness was going to be a factor why didn't Aquilani feature in either game?

To be honest, i have the same concerns as you over him, i think alot of folk do. But not playing aquilani is something to be directed at the boss, the performance of the players on the pitch today is all i was commenting on.

To be blunt, id have taken stevie off for aquilani coz ive said before he looks tired and in the second half he did stuff he doesnt normally do, he generally looks fked. Sloppy passes and poor shots are nothing more than tiredness imo and yea, im growing to the opinion that aquilani and benitez need to step up over that.

But what we are talking about here isnt anything that the players today can do anything about. The players that played or were picked by the boss did a satisfactory job all things considered imo.

whatawaster

daithijjj wrote: »

But what we are talking about here isnt anything that the players today can do anything about. The players that played or were picked by the boss did a satisfactory job all things considered imo.

I would beg to differ.

I'm satisfied. We have 3 points, and at the end of the day that's the important thing. Fourth at all costs.

But i'm rarely happy when it takes a fantastic save from Reina to beat Blackburn at home, when we only create a few chances from open play at home against a mediocre team. I'm not going to say we played great, because we were far from great.

There were positives - Torres being back, Maxi was improved and Benny is getting back to full fitness. Our passing was better in the first half, but we still lacked a cutting edge

If you offered me ten mediocre performances until the end of the season but we get 4th, i'd take it in an instant. But i'm not going to pretend at the end of it that we've done well, have improved or things are looking positive.

We don't play until tomorrow week again although there's internationals during the week afaik

super_furry

Blackburn are a horrible, nasty team without an ounce of football, managed by a man who is a stain on football. Getting away with three points and more importantly - no broken bones - is the best that can be for against those thugs.

noodler

whatawaster wrote: »

If you offered me ten mediocre performances until the end of the season but we get 4th, i'd take it in an instant. But i'm not going to pretend at the end of it that we've done well, have improved or things are looking positive.

I think this is the crux of the issue.

I hate being one likely Torres injury away from being Bolton.

rossie1977

whatawaster wrote: »

I reckon we'll need 24 points from our last 10 games, because Man City and Tottenham (who have much better goal diff) are effectively 4 points (or 2 slip ups) ahead, and Villa have games in hand.
I'm off to pray

??

spurs are a point ahead same games played with +6 goal difference
city are level with a game in hand and same goal difference
villa do have 2 games in hand though

24 points is too much imo, when you consider villa, spurs or city haven't got more than 65-66 points last 15 seasons

whoever gets 65 or 66 points will grab 4th imo (that rules out everton who would need to win nearly all their games to get that many points), villa have still the easiest run-in and on paper should take that spot

Heard the interviews there allardyce was trying to say Blackburn were treated badly by the ref and didn't deserve 4 yellows and that they didn't commit 25 fouls, what a clown that man is.

On a lighter note when Rafa was asked about Blackburns tactics he said (sarcastically) that they played fantastic football.

daithijjj

whatawaster wrote: »

I would beg to differ.

I'm satisfied. We have 3 points, and at the end of the day that's the important thing. Fourth at all costs.

But i'm rarely happy when it takes a fantastic save from Reina to beat Blackburn at home, when we only create a few chances from open play at home against a mediocre team. I'm not going to say we played great, because we were far from great.

There were positives - Torres being back, Maxi was improved and Benny is getting back to full fitness. Our passing was better in the first half, but we still lacked a cutting edge

If you offered me ten mediocre performances until the end of the season but we get 4th, i'd take it in an instant. But i'm not going to pretend at the end of it that we've done well, have improved or things are looking positive.

We are singing from the same hymm sheet whatawaster, we normally do, i agree with almost all of that. Its just that today, i think the lads that played deserve a bit of a break from the criticism.

If we cast our minds back to last season, we played some terrible muck in games too but ground out a result, boro at home, sunderland away, pompey away, fulham away.........all of those games we were terrible for most of it but ground out 3 points, gerrard scores at the end, torres scores near the end at sunderland and pompey, ditto benny at fulham.

I agree we have very little cutting edge and our attacking play is stale but if i ask myself the question before the game, grinding out the 3 points is satisfactory. Hopefully johnson will bring back a bit of threat on the right and both him and torres can stay fit until may.

whatawaster

noodler wrote: »

I hate being one likely Torres injury away from being Bolton.

I don't think we're quite that bad

Ordinary man

super_furry wrote: »

Blackburn are a horrible, nasty team without an ounce of football, managed by a man who is a stain on football. Getting away with three points and more importantly - no broken bones - is the best that can be for against those thugs.

Thats a funny statement from a supporter of a team with mascherano in it:rolleyes:

daithijjj

Ordinary man wrote: »

Thats a funny statement from a supporter of a team with mascherano in it:rolleyes:

Did you see the game?, on another day with a different ref they could have finshed with 8 men to be honest.

billymitchell

I cant believe I am actually saying this, but I thought Lucas had a great game today. Bar that time he got dispossessed in the first half(which was a foul) and nearly let them in, his play was very composed and looked to get on the ball a lot more than usual.
If only rafa would give Babel a run in the team like that, he may fulfill some of his potential

colly10

Ordinary man wrote: »

Thats a funny statement from a supporter of a team with mascherano in it:rolleyes:

Masch is a physical player with determination and heart, he's not a dirty player. You had diouf try to injure gerrard today and chimbonda kick a player in the chest studs first while chimbonda was lying on the ground. You also had of their players wrestle Lucas to the ground for nothing and ever Samba lost the head with him for that.
Blackburn are a dirty side

SlickRic

i didn't see the game, but that's a very good result, against a team that probably tried to kick the sh*t out of us.

someone want to give a quick synposis?

positives? negatives? who played well, not so well?

great to see Stevie and Nando scoring.

super_furry

SlickRic wrote: »

i didn't see the game, but that's a very good result, against a team that probably tried to kick the sh*t out of us.

someone want to give a quick synposis?

positives? negatives? who played well, not so well?

great to see Stevie and Nando scoring.

A very good result against a team that kicked the ****e out of us, with a referee that seemed oblivious to the fact that he wasn't in the UFC.

super_furry

Repeatedly pressed on negative comments by Sam Allardyce before the game, Benitez replied: "We prefer to talk on the pitch.

"We can win on the pitch and enjoy. Some people have to talk before or after the press conference because it's more difficult for them to do a football job.

"I think he's a model for managers all around the world. I am sure his style of football, his behaviour - everything. It's the perfect model for all the kids.

"The style of football - I am sure Barcelona are thinking about copying the style."

Mr Alan

rafa is a ****in legend

SlickRic

well done Rafa.

Frisbee

super_furry wrote: »

"I think he's a model for managers all around the world. I am sure his style of football, his behaviour - everything. It's the perfect model for all the kids.

"The style of football - I am sure Barcelona are thinking about copying the style."

Brilliant, I like Rafa's new sarcastic style.

super_furry

Let's just hope he didn't make any hand gestures, otherwise Big Fat Sam and his 'very good friend' Fergie will be warbling on for months again.

copacetic

SlickRic wrote: »

i didn't see the game, but that's a very good result, against a team that probably tried to kick the sh*t out of us.

someone want to give a quick synposis?

positives? negatives? who played well, not so well?

great to see Stevie and Nando scoring.

Looked to have a bit more cutting edge, Torres lively in first half but faded in second. Shaded the first half overall, well on top for 30 mins of second, then started sitting deeper and deeper for last 15, lucky enough to get the win in the end.

Good performances from Reina (although a bit weak on some punch attempts),Masch at right back, Lucas in centre and Kuyt up front. Hopeful stuff from Gerrard, Maxi and Torres. Poor enough from Agger, Carra and Benny.

mike65

Well done lads, win loose or draw its all bad news apparently.

super_furry

super_furry wrote: »

Repeatedly pressed on negative comments by Sam Allardyce before the game, Benitez replied: "We prefer to talk on the pitch.

"We can win on the pitch and enjoy. Some people have to talk before or after the press conference because it's more difficult for them to do a football job.

"I think he's a model for managers all around the world. I am sure his style of football, his behaviour - everything. It's the perfect model for all the kids.

"The style of football - I am sure Barcelona are thinking about copying the style."

lol

good man Rafa.

super_furry

super_furry wrote: »

Big Fat Sam

Is he getting bigger?

whatawaster

I wonder will Ferguson be out to defend Sam this time.

Mr Alan

i was thinking the same. sam will be playing the 'dem dirty foreigners are stealing our jobs' card again

monkey9

Delighted with the three points, obviously. But am so p!ssed off with the second half performance. Sitting back trying to defend a two one lead at home against Blackburn as if we were away in the Champions League or something is not on. We easily could have dropped points today.

Thank Fowler that Pepe Reina is our goalkeeper!

monkey9

billymitchell wrote: »

I cant believe I am actually saying this, but I thought Lucas had a great game today. Bar that time he got dispossessed in the first half(which was a foul) and nearly let them in, his play was very composed and looked to get on the ball a lot more than usual.
If only rafa would give Babel a run in the team like that, he may fulfill some of his potential

Lucas has being playing like this all season.

Eire-Dearg

The highlights on MOTD doesn't reflect what they're saying at all.

mike65

For those who just want the Liverpool goal!-goal!-goal!-goal!-goal!-goals!

rossie1977

the rafa/allardyce thing is just getting silly

for allardyce to come out on motd and complain about the amount of fouls the ref gave against his team is insane given that 2 of his players on another day would have have seen red for dangerous play

i also don't like to see any manager make fun of the other teams style of play, its not professional and its not like rafa hasn't used a dogged blackburn esque style in the past to win games

Chardee MacDennis

rossie1977 wrote: »

the rafa/allardyce thing is just getting silly

for allardyce to come out on motd and complain about the amount of fouls the ref gave against his team is insane given that 2 of his players on another day would have have seen red for dangerous play

i also don't like to see any manager make fun of the other teams style of play, its not professional and its not like rafa hasn't used a dogged blackburn esque style in the past to win games

its the roughness not the tactics, there is a difference...

billymitchell

monkey9 wrote: »

Lucas has being playing like this all season.

no, he hasnt!

SlickRic

billymitchell wrote: »

no, he hasnt!

wrong.

in fact, today was merely a good game from him.

he gives one pass to Torres that eventually results in a goal and he's all of a sudden had a great game.

he's been doing that and more all season.

today he lost a couple of challenges he hasn't been losing, and misplaced a couple of passes.

still he controlled our play very well for most of the game.

citytillidie

I expected no Blackburn players would be sent off, players can get away with assualting Liverpool players all the time. Last season sure look at Maluda at the corner flag kicking Yossi in the back in front of the linesman and he gets the freekick

OPENROAD

citytillidie wrote: »

I expected no Blackburn players would be sent off, players can get away with assualting Liverpool players all the time. Last season sure look at Maluda at the corner flag kicking Yossi in the back in front of the linesman and he gets the freekick

Not the only team to suffer from that

billymitchell

SlickRic wrote: »

still he controlled our play very well for most of the game.

this is why I thought he had a great game. I havent seen him control a game before, ever. The rest of the stuff you mentioned is par for the course for Lucas i.e. he is a limited player in over his head at a big club.