Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 15/16

mav79

With Sturridge and Origi naturally pulling out wide to either wing hopefully Lallana and Couthino can exploit the space and make some runs into the centre, otherwise we will end up being congested out wide.

Turtyturd

Offload Henderson and bring in a Kenyan marathon runner, they run around lots too. If we get one who can shoot it's an upgrade.

J Mysterio

Welsh Xavi, Valleys Pirlo.

Oh Allen I love you.

Gbear

Even Sturridge's goal showed how rubbish we are on the counter.

No pace, movement or explosiveness shown by him.

Sturridge is the only finisher and he's not active enough off the ball to be giving himself chances.

Even for the little fluffed pass Flanno gave him early on he's just kinda standing there in front of their defence instead of going for the gap. It's not just him that suffers for that, because he won't be able to dance through their whole team if they're set in front of him - everyone else has less space as a result as well.

Thankfully he's got some good footwork going on today and it was a tidy finish.
I think he's having a pretty poor game though.
And Origi isn't getting on the ball enough and his hold up play hasn't been great.
Still, even two fairly poor forwards are showing the merits of having lads who can more or less run and more or less score.

I'd be surprised if we don't eventually put another away, either because Southampton aren't very good or because we can do the first 2/3rds of counter-attacking well enough that we'll keep getting chances.
You can see the difference between us and top teams in these situations though - Can, Allen, Lallana and Coutinho have been clinical enough in their passing, and we've had plenty of willing runners, but there's just a lack of quality in the box.
Without being brilliant or Southampton being terrible, we're in a postion to be 5-0 up.


Still, this is starting to have the feeling somewhere around Kenny's half season after Hodgson and the end of Rodgers first season. Partnerships are growing (Hendo/Can, Lovren/Sakho, Lallana/Coutinho), players are justifying their places (Maxi Rodriguez/Lallana) there's a bit of craic to be had, we're winning some games.

You get the impression that things are gonna be ok.

Milkers

Martin Skrtel is an absolute fraud of a defender. His presence completely changes the dynamic of the team. He needs to go asap.

Harry Palmr

Martin Skrtel and Christian Benteke can just leave. That's all I'm saying as I'm on a yellow.

5starpool

OK, it's Europa or nothing for CL place then, and I can't see us winning that.

Turtyturd

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Martin Skrtel and Christian Benteke can just leave. That's all I'm saying as I'm on a yellow.

Bring Flanagan with them.

Grayditch

I blame the stream I switched to.

Milkers

Turtyturd wrote: »

Bring Flanagan with them.

He is ridiculously overrated. Not bad, not particularly good.

J Mysterio

Can was really lazy in this game, terrible.

Pyjamarama

Turtyturd wrote: »

Bring Flanagan with them.

100%, he does nothing but throw in a full blooded tackle. Awful positioning, poor physical attributed and offers zero going forward.

price690

What the f*ck was klopp doing bringing on skrtel?

He was shambolic for the reserves midweek was even sent off.

Huge error of judgement there by klopp

Milkers

Pyjamarama wrote: »

100%, he does nothing but throw in a full blooded tackle. Awful positioning, poor physical attributed and offers zero going forward.

His biggest problem is he is technically very limited. Just not good enough despite the positives he brings.

Pyjamarama

J Mysterio wrote: »

Can was really lazy in this game, terrible.

Thought he was one of our best players in the first half. The brought on Wanyama who's just out muscling him this half. He'll have to learn how to deal with that, he's still exceptionally young. Lazy is an easy thing to label him with as he has a languid looking stride but its not accurate. He's just being beaten physically.

J Mysterio

I cant believe that we so desperately missed Lovren this second half.

Vicxas

price690 wrote: »

What the f*ck was klopp doing bringing on skrtel?

He was shambolic for the reserves midweek was even sent off.

Huge error of judgement there by klopp

At least now he knows, with Matip coming in the summer Skrtel can have a happy goodbye.

J Mysterio

Pyjamarama wrote: »

Thought he was one of our best players in the first half. The brought on Wanyama who's just out muscling him this half. He'll have to learn how to deal with that, he's still exceptionally young. Lazy is an easy thing to label him with as he has a languid looking stride but its not accurate. He's just being beaten physically.

I counted a number of instances where he needed to run to closed down a player/ space or offer an option and he let players around him take it on.

5starpool

Well that was a real game of 2 halves. If we had managed to get the 3rd before half time we would have strolled to a win.

Skrtel a real game changer, pity Benteke isn't.

SlickRic

Get Skrtel the fúck out.

The only positive from today should be that he never starts for us again.

So fúcking píssed off right now.

He just does his own thing. He's not interested in his defensive partner, or thinking at all, he invariably just chases and hacks at the ball.

Utterly brainless. And it spreads through the team. You can see it.

Milkers

J Mysterio wrote: »

I cant believe that we so desperately missed Lovren this second half.

When Skrtel comes on you desperately miss whoever he replaces.

ShamoBuc

Benteke should have put us 3-1 up, he didn't. You knew we were going to concede next. Then brutal kick by Mig, brutal defending twice, by skrtel. Second half, just brutal!!!

Sir Gallagher

I'm afraid Klopp has to take the portion of the blame for this one, Martin Skrtle had no business being on that pitch today. Could have have been back in the mix for 4th if we won today, fcking pissed off.

Osmosis Jones

That really settles it, Skrtel and Benteke have to be gone in the summer. They're a poison to the team, Benteke offers absolutely nothing going forward and Skrtel makes everyone around him worse. If Lovren isn't injured then Klopp will have some serious answering to do.

darced

This post has been deleted.

Harry Palmr

It's utterly remarkable how one player can destroy a side. I'm going to be raging for the rest of the day if I stay here so thankfully I'm off out soon :mad:

Utopia Parkway

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

That really settles it, Skrtel and Benteke have to be gone in the summer. They're a poison to the team, Benteke offers absolutely nothing going forward and Skrtel makes everyone around him worse. If Lovren isn't injured then Klopp will have some serious answering to do.

I think Lovren came off because he was on a yellow. Didn't seem injured. Why Skrtel came on out of nowhere ahead of Toure is a bigger mystery.

Augme

Went for a walk in the park early and seeing Skrtel out there reminded me of all the dogs who aimlessly bound around after the ball.

Utopia Parkway

If the Manchester derby ends in a draw we might have big regrets this evening. 3 points would have had us right back in it.

hadoken13

Hopefully that will be the end of Skrtel. Flanagan is a squad player only, useless. Lack of consistency with us all season.

Osmosis Jones

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

I think Lovren came off because he was on a yellow. Didn't seem injured. Why Skrtel came on out of nowhere ahead of Toure is a bigger mystery.

Well that's a horrible decision if true, Klopp needs to show more faith in his defenders if that's the case.

NukaCola

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

I'm afraid Klopp has to take the portion of the blame for this one, Martin Skrtle had no business being on that pitch today. Could have have been back in the mix for 4th if we won today, fcking pissed off.

Takes all the blame IMO......set us up perfectly first half, maybe gets forced into a change at CB but made no attempt to change the setup when Southampton went for a more attacking approach.....in the first 10 mins of the second half we were struggling.....awful decision making from him IMO....

NukaCola

Augme wrote: »

Went for a walk in the park early and seeing Skrtel out there reminded me of all the dogs who aimlessly bound around after the ball.

At least a dog will get the ball every once and a while.....

mikeym

Im in shock :eek:

Now im not :mad:

Osmosis Jones

Liverrpool have just conceded as many goals in 40 minutes with Martin Skrtel in the team than their previous 795 minutes without him.

Yakult

Didn't think I'd see the day where I would want Lovern to stay on the pitch over other defenders.

Silly decision by Klopp to replace him, thus upsetting the partnership established by Sakho and Lovern

NukaCola

And yes Skrtel is very poor but I still cant believe people up until a few days ago were saying Benteke is a good option off the bench......awful and horrible to watch him stuttering through games not a notion whats going on around him....

5starpool

Well the one bright spot is that I revert back to just wanting utd to lose the next game then. No complex opinions needed.

Sir Gallagher

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

I think Lovren came off because he was on a yellow. Didn't seem injured. Why Skrtel came on out of nowhere ahead of Toure is a bigger mystery.

we would have been better with 10 players, than have that half a head out there. Fck this Sunday, fck Martin Skrtle, **** my life.

Gbear

I'm glad we were punished for that.

One would think that even if we eked out a result Klopp would've recognised the issues at play but that puts them in cast iron.

I don't fault Sakho for the 3 goals but he was the 1v1 every time and lost them all.
Any striker worth their salt has the advantage there but he had a chance to make himself a hero and wasn't quite able to do it.
He had a good game, but those were the chances to have a great one.

He shouldn't have had to though - Flanno wasn't great and I don't see how making him captain helps anyone, especially in a tricky away, but he wasn't such a liability that we couldn't cope. A few misplaced passes. He was grand really.
But Skrtel just ****s the whole thing up. Both errors in individual play and in inflicting his poor positioning on his teammates; he's really made a balls of that.

Mignolet didn't do much wrong but like Sakho you'd like to see him maybe bail you out here and there.
The penalty was a decent save (from a poor penalty), as was the shot from outside the box. No chance for Pelle's.
The other two seemed to be in the realms of top keeper saving territory and a top keeper he aint.

Origi is better at doing CF forward things than anyone else we have. I think the issue when he comes on isn't that he replaces Firmino - it's that he replaces Sturridge and Sturridge replaces Firmino, and that's where the loss of intensity comes from.

Sturridge gets his goal but he looks bollocksed. It's one thing to be tired in the 88th minute but he's had plenty of games off and seldom does the full match, and isn't showing pace at any point in the game.
He's kinda going through the motions a bit.

I don't get how Benteke plays so stupidly. I get having a bad touch because of nerves or whatever, or skying a finish, but never being in the right place - I don't get it. You could teach a ****ing monkey or a dog to do that.

Despite tiring a bit 2nd half, especially with having to deal with Wanayama, the rest of the front 6 had good games.
Lallana was our best player. Brilliant. But he can only be as effective as the lads he's passing to, and Sturridge looks crocked and Origi isn't quite there yet.

A waste with a lot of things to fix, not least by signing new players, but at it's core a promising performance.

martyos121

Changing my first name tomorrow, Skrtel has fcuking tarnished it.

daithijjj

Gutted for everyone involved that they have to be alongside Skrtel.

My 'vast portfolio' of assessing him over the years played out over 45 minutes. No 'microscope' required. Brought nothing but carnage to his own teams play and morale. Absolute fraud.

Honestly cant watch us play when he is in the team. Skrtel is just anarchy. I dont deal well with anarchy. I went from placid to possibly needing anger management courses in the space of 5 minutes as soon as i saw him.............and then it got worse.

Sir Gallagher

Fck this im gonna to scrub the gaff top to bottom and put on the dinner. Might cheer me up.

Riesen_Meal

Well done to the Saint's, they deserved to come back as we were awful in the second half...

Skittles, Benteke and Hendo definitely should be shown the door - after today's Skittles clanger I can't see Klopp keeping him...

Harry Palmr

Pity the lawns are both mowed.

Gbear

Pyjamarama wrote: »

Thought he was one of our best players in the first half. The brought on Wanyama who's just out muscling him this half. He'll have to learn how to deal with that, he's still exceptionally young. Lazy is an easy thing to label him with as he has a languid looking stride but its not accurate. He's just being beaten physically.

And he gave as much as he got to Wanayama as well.
Can has played a lot of football, he's young and he had a lot thrown at him today, particularly 2nd half.

I thought he had another very good performance today but he can't be brilliant in every minute of the game, against every opponent regardless of context.

murpho999

Very disappointed after that.

I just hope that Klopp learnt a lot about the players today.
The likes of Skrtel should not be in his long term plans.

Turtyturd

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Fck this im gonna to scrub the gaff top to bottom and put on the dinner. Might cheer me up.

United losing to City should do it. Although I'm going the cinema so won't see it.

Worse than losing that game was the fact that posters who I thought had disappeared after Thursday are still around.

NukaCola

Turtyturd wrote: »

United losing to City should do it. Although I'm going the cinema so won't see it.

Worse than losing that game was the fact that posters who I thought had disappeared after Thursday are still around.

For a few hours maybe.....

TitianGerm

Southampton just did in 45 minutes what United couldn't in 90.

The nerves just crept into the team when Skrtl came on.