Liverpool fc v Blackburn Rovers 3pm KO

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

eagle eye wrote: »

Lol how many of you Liverpool fans had your heart in your mouth when Skrtel hit that backpass?:D

Had my heart in my mouth just reading "what is Skyrtel playing at?" and I can't see the game!

~Rebel~

eagle eye wrote: »

Lol how many of you Liverpool fans had your heart in your mouth when Skrtel hit that backpass?:D

i know! Making sure its not slow enough to be intercepted is one thing, but does he really need to be trying a shot on Reina!?

Revolution9

Revolution9 wrote: »

Same, I think we'll win.

2-1
With Torres scoring and Soto heading one in from a corner kick

Oh yeah baby!
Spot f*cking on!

Yakult

Good result and a much needed 3 points!

Great to see Torres score too

Our season starts here hah

Dont be at yourself

Thank **** for that. Roy's bought himself some time with that, let's hope he can build on it.

RasTa

Sack Roy.... Spirit of Rafa won that game.

Dcully

Massive 3 points for us, Soto should start more ive always felt hes more of a threat than our usual back four put together for corner kicks, not a half bad defender either
Delighted for Fernando to be back on the score sheet.

daithijjj

Skrtel with the touch of a rapist near the the end.

Mr Alan

Historic win over Blackburn

Revolution9

Soto easily man of the match imo

redzerdrog

soto and agger would be a fantastic cb partnership they compliment eachother quite well.

Nuri Sahin

Victory

This will be the 1st time I'll watch MOTD in years(feels like it) :pac:

K-9

Soto is very under rated. He was made for matches like today. One of the bargains of last season. Hopefully we can get a bit of form going now, be interesting to see what team he picks against Bolton.

Leiva

Jeez we won .

Roys interviews when we draw or lose are way up and overrated on positivity .
He will be talking orgasmic now we have won :0

~Rebel~

Y'know what, I found that game almost as maddening in relation to Roy as I did the other ones.

16 games. 16 ****ing games of turgid awfulness, with everyone on here saying our players were being completely misused. A few weeks ago I wrote a few posts detailing why it was Roy's tactics costing us, and pointing out the differences between his method and Rafa's and why exactly Rafa's were better for our players. 16 games of that rubbish, and he switches back to Rafa's formation, and we're a completely different team! I'd congratulate him, but it would feel like commending the slow kid in the class for getting there in the end.

It's actually maddening to realise for certain that I and many many others on here, with no professional management experience, knew better.

Delighted we won, but my opinion of Roy remains the same. May be harsh, after a win, but I just have no faith in that man leading a rebuilding process at the club.

MR NINE

I think Soto should be a regular starter for us. He's dominant in the air and hes such a threat from set pieces. I like his style of play as well hes strong and composed. Hes not glamorous but hes a very solid centre back and his ariel dominance seems to bring an air of calm to the back four that isn't usually there.

Dcully

K-9 wrote: »

Soto is very under rated. He was made for matches like today. One of the bargains of last season. Hopefully we can get a bit of form going now, be interesting to see what team he picks against Bolton.

Agreed, wasnt it last season he had a run of 5 or 6 MOTM games and then got left out when Skrtel came back from injury.
Seriously what has he to do to get more games?

Dr Galen

Greatto get the win but let's put it in context. All respect due to Blackburn but we should be beating these teams. I'll be interested to hear what Roy has to say post match but it was hardly "historic" to beat Blackburn at home

Handsome Bob

Revolution9 wrote: »

Oh yeah baby!
Spot f*cking on!

Legend. Roy can fcuk off though if he thinks he has turned a corner.

Revolution9

I'll give Roy a break until our next game anyway (unless he says another stupid thing in an interview before then).
Two decent performaces in a row and two results I'm satisfied with. Needs to do a lot more to win me over though, starting with a win at Bolton.

copacetic

MR NINE wrote: »

I think Soto should be a regular starter for us. He's dominant in the air and hes such a threat from set pieces. I like his style of play as well hes strong and composed. Hes not glamorous but hes a very solid centre back and his ariel dominance seems to bring an air of calm to the back four that isn't usually there.

He makes a massive difference at both attacking and defending set pieces. Has a Sami type hunger for getting his head on the ball. Could easily have had 2 or 3 and a peno today.

stumpypeeps

Dr Galen wrote: »

Greatto get the win but let's put it in context. All respect due to Blackburn but we should be beating these teams. I'll be interested to hear what Roy has to say post match but it was hardly "historic" to beat Blackburn at home

We should be beating Blackburn at home, but you must give him credit. The team played really well, especially first 20 mins of second half. For Hodgson, that was a huge step in the right direction.

Bolton away next, lets hope for a similar performance.

Kess73

Delighted just to get that win. So important to make sure that we get results over fellow strugglers when we can, so that we avoid too big a gap from forming.


Next step is to string two wins together, and after that work to be out of the relegation zone with a few points to spare for when we get rid of Roy and bring in a good manager in his place.

Sir Gallagher

Hopefully Hodgdon learns from this.

Revolution9

How the official club website describes Diouf in the match report

The lead lasted less than three minutes, however, as substitute Benjani beat the otherwise excellent Martin Skrtel before crossing to Diouf. The objectionable winger's shot was blocked on the line by Meireles, only for the clearance to hit Carragher and ricochet into the net.

They object to his existence , an interesting stance.

beardo81

Great win today, Soto MOTM too but we have to be wary when he's defending against a team with pace up front, he gets skint a lot!! But let's celebrate for now!!

redzerdrog

beardo81 wrote: »

Great win today, Soto MOTM too but we have to be wary when he's defending against a team with pace up front, he gets skint a lot!! But let's celebrate for now!!

he is no slower than carragher is tbh

Revolution9

redzerdrog wrote: »

he is no slower than carragher is tbh

But Carra has perfected the last ditch slide tackle, so his lack of pace isn't as much of a hinderence as Soto's could potentially be

beardo81

Problem is Carra's always going to be the team sheet ahead of him, right or wrong, and against pacy forwards we'll be in trouble with both playing. Perfect for Blackburns donkeys though...

Finical

General Zod is a legend. :cool:

eagle eye

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Y'know what, I found that game almost as maddening in relation to Roy as I did the other ones.

16 games. 16 ****ing games of turgid awfulness, with everyone on here saying our players were being completely misused. A few weeks ago I wrote a few posts detailing why it was Roy's tactics costing us, and pointing out the differences between his method and Rafa's and why exactly Rafa's were better for our players. 16 games of that rubbish, and he switches back to Rafa's formation, and we're a completely different team! I'd congratulate him, but it would feel like commending the slow kid in the class for getting there in the end.

It's actually maddening to realise for certain that I and many many others on here, with no professional management experience, knew better.

Delighted we won, but my opinion of Roy remains the same. May be harsh, after a win, but I just have no faith in that man leading a rebuilding process at the club.

This is just self-absorbed horse dumpings.

Get over yourself. They played possession football today not zonal football. Its completely different to what Benitez had them playing. But I guess you can't see that through your hate for Roy Hodgson or your belief that you know more than the manager of Liverpool fc who has spent most of his life in football management and only last year brought a club with no history in Europe to the Europa League final.

You played us off the park today unlike last year when you struggle to beat us at Anfield. The score ended up the same but last year Pepe Reina was man of the match, this year Paul Robinson was MoM imo even though we lost. The difference in the performances was down to possession football compared to zonal football. You won't beat Blackburn easily trying to play the ball into spaces because our back six is set up to beat that. Its teams like Arsenal who hold possession and Liverpool today who will beat Blackburn.

Mr Alan

Roy Hodgson as manager of Liverpool is still a bad joke.

KittyeeTrix

Didn't get to see the match but delighted to see ye get a win:)

~Rebel~

eagle eye wrote: »

This is just self-absorbed horse dumpings.

Get over yourself. They played possession football today not zonal football. Its completely different to what Benitez had them playing. But I guess you can't see that through your hate for Roy Hodgson or your belief that you know more than the manager of Liverpool fc who has spent most of his life in football management and only last year brought a club with no history in Europe to the Europa League final.

Take Maxi as an example. go back and watch any of the other games he's played this year. Watch where he plays. He's asked to hug the touchline. And he's awful. Watch him today then, and you see him roam all the way across the pitch, and he gets into the game. Just like he did under Rafa. Same goes for Cole and Gerrard. Their starting posiution today was in the final third, not the halfway line, and they move laterally just as much, if not more than they move vertically, which is all the wide players did up to now. It was a completely different formation and plan to the rest of the year. And it was the same plan and formation Rafa played.

eagle eye

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Take Maxi as an example. go back and watch any of the other games he's played this year. Watch where he plays. He's asked to hug the touchline. And he's awful. Watch him today then, and you see him roam all the way across the pitch, and he gets into the game. Just like he did under Rafa. Same goes for Cole and Gerrard. Their starting posiution today was in the final third, not the halfway line, and they move laterally just as much, if not more than they move vertically, which is all the wide players did up to now. It was a completely different formation and plan to the rest of the year. And it was the same plan and formation Rafa played.

Its completely different football tactics. Its possession football versus zonal football. If you can't see the difference then you really need to go out and watch games live for a while and understand the difference.

What you are talking about is the formation today which is what I'm sure Roy Hodgson was aiming for all along but the players had to get used to the system. You could see that there was better understanding during the week in the game against Napoli and that continued today.

Have a look at Fulham last year and thats the way they tried to play the game.

whatawaster

eagle eye wrote: »

They played possession football today not zonal football.

What the f*ck does this even mean?

I've watched pretty much every home match we played under Benitez, and (when we were playing well) we played just like we did today.

Just because we played you off the park in one game this season, and didn't in one game last season, means nothing.

Chucky the tree

Either way, I still hope he's sacked tomorrow.

argosy2006

its a win to prolong the Roy stay.
We looked ok today, Not anything special,
but at least we played in their half, not ours,
got on the front foot,

eagle eye

whatawaster wrote: »

What the f*ck does this even mean?

I've watched pretty much every home match we played under Benitez, and (when we were playing well) we played just like we did today.

Just because we played you off the park in one game this season, and didn't in one game last season, means nothing.

I'd need arrows and lines to explain it. I don't know how to do that stuff online. I'll see if I can get something sorted tomorrow but I'm not doing it now.

~Rebel~

eagle eye wrote: »

Its completely different football tactics. Its possession football versus zonal football. If you can't see the difference then you really need to go out and watch games live for a while and understand the difference.

What you are talking about is the formation today which is what I'm sure Roy Hodgson was aiming for all along but the players had to get used to the system. You could see that there was better understanding during the week in the game against Napoli and that continued today.

Have a look at Fulham last year and thats the way they tried to play the game.

Are you seriously going to try to say that what they did today is what Roy wanted them doing in the other games? Because it really, really wasn't. The formation, movement and orders today were completely different than they were in every other game. And today, they were just like Rafa's were. The players didn't have to spend 16 games getting used to a formation and method which was almost exactly that which they've played for years. Even if there are subtle differences which i didn't spot, it's madness to think those differences resulted in the wide players staying wide at all times, the defence sitting back on its own 18 yard box and all the other signs of those 16 games which had us pulling our collective hair out.

whatawaster

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Are you seriously going to try to say that what they did today is what Roy wanted them doing in the other games? Because it really, really wasn't. The formation, movement and orders today were completely different than they were in every other game. And today, they were just like Rafa's were.

It's complete f*cking rubbish.

The idea that Hodgson is turning us into a possession based team is complete idiocy. We've being playing like Charlton's Ireland before today, when Rovers gave us acres of space on the ball.

As soon as Blackburn decided to attack, we retreated into our shells

Kess73

eagle eye wrote: »

This is just self-absorbed horse dumpings.

Get over yourself. They played possession football today not zonal football. Its completely different to what Benitez had them playing. But I guess you can't see that through your hate for Roy Hodgson or your belief that you know more than the manager of Liverpool fc who has spent most of his life in football management and only last year brought a club with no history in Europe to the Europa League final.

You played us off the park today unlike last year when you struggle to beat us at Anfield. The score ended up the same but last year Pepe Reina was man of the match, this year Paul Robinson was MoM imo even though we lost. The difference in the performances was down to possession football compared to zonal football. You won't beat Blackburn easily trying to play the ball into spaces because our back six is set up to beat that. Its teams like Arsenal who hold possession and Liverpool today who will beat Blackburn.

Rubbish. Under Benitez Liverpool played possession football, and this season that has changed in a massive way.

There was a link in the main thread during the week to the stats from the first eight league games for Liverpool this season put against the stats for the first eight last season.

This season Liverpool have a possession average of just over 50% for those eight games, way down opn the 64% average for the first eight games last season.

Possession football was never a problem under Benitez, converting chances was a problem though.

That problem of converting chances got even worse this season as Liverpool scored three times as many goals in their first eight games last season than they did in their first eight this season.

And as for the malaigned zonal marking? Funnily enough Liverpool conceded less goals in the first eight last season than they have this season.


Today was Roy's 17th competitive game at the club, maybe two of those games had Liverpool playing somewhat decent football, the other 15 were dire.

I would wager that you have not watched even half of those games under Roy, yet you are in the Liverpool superthread almost every day slagging off Liverpool supporters for not wanting a very average manager like Roy. Your club did not want to keep him so why should a club that generally has higher expectations want a manager not good enough for Blackburn?

whatawaster

Also,

The football we played under Benitez helped us play Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus off the park.

Roy's, it seems, with a bit of tweaking, can do the same to Blackburn

--amadeus--

On phone so apologies for spelling, etc...

I think ee has his terminology mixed up bit there is a point in there somewhere. Under Rafa in the final third the ball was often played at a diagonal into space for the attacking players to run onto. You concede possession more easily that way but as LFC pressed high up the pitch that was ok. Under RH the emphasis seems to be on a much slower (IMO too slow) buildup with the ball played to feet.

I saw parts of today's game on a laggy stream but it looked more Rafa than RH - the midfield played higher, Torres was less isolated and the ball moved with more speed.

A win is a win. If RH is willing to adapt his tactics he might survive (he might even prosper) but we need lots more to rebuild faith in him

K-9

Considering Eagle Eye thought Mereiles was bought to replace Mascherano, I wouldn't read too much into his view. An article was posted in the Roy thread explaining the tactics but he will not read it because it's "pro Rafa".

stumpypeeps

Good grief lads, he's rightly been taking responsibility for our terrible performances so far this season. As soon as the team plays well, albeit against poor opposition, he doesn't get the credit, Rafa does. Have a bit of fair play can't you.

Mr Alan

Interesting to see Brian Barwick at the game beside Purslow too, possible new MD?

Revolution9

Mr Alan wrote: »

Interesting to see Brian Barwick at the game beside Purslow too, possible new MD?

He's a Liverpool fan

Mr Alan

I know

stumpypeeps

For me watching the team today I noticed a few things which point to the way Hodgson wants us to play. While some of you are suggesting he's merely adopting Benitez tactics, I think thats wide of the mark.

Firstly, we were much more direct. Under Benitez we had a propensity to pass the ball across the back four repeatedly, not conceding possession but not making a lot of progress either. Today their seemed an urgency to attack at pace. The ball was played out of the back quickly and the emphasis was on getting it forward at pace and threatening the goal.

Also our midfielders, Lucas and Meireles were allowed to get forward when the opportunity arose. At times we were quite fluid and effective.

That said, today was a small step in the right direction, unless more performances like that and improving on that are forthcoming I'll still doubt he's the man for the job. But I will give him credit when he deserves it. Its only fair.