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A return to bad old habits as players fail the LFC name

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LFC players defeatedTHIS defeat against West Brom is a clear signal, in my mind, that Liverpool FC players just don’t know what they’re doing.

Some days it comes together against the big teams, only long enough to score a few goals until the concentration saps and then the opposition’s welcomed back in to the game.

This time against the Baggies, there’s nothing much left to say other than it’s hardly surprising.

As usual, the team was expected to win here, so they might have gone in to the game slightly more relaxed – especially after the pressure cooker feeling they must have felt when preparing to face Arsenal and Manchester City away from home.

Is that an excuse? I hope not.

For a club of Liverpool’s stature, it doesn’t seem like the current players (barring a few) really feel the pride or adrenaline to represent what once was a feared side across Europe. Blame Brendan Rodgers all you like, it’s the players who are not delivering.

Even if he is sacked at the end of this season (or even sooner), who’s going to come in? What are they going to do? Shout at the players? Reveal the magic formula of passing correctly and retaining possession? Many will say it’s his sub-standard signings and mid-level club mentality, that’s to blame. I’m sure he didn’t tell his players to go out at Anfield and play West Bromich Albion for a draw.

The one thing quite noticeable about most Liverpool performances is the amount of fidgeting by most of the players after they’ve got the ball.

Modern day football, especially in the Premiership has seen this trend of running with the ball while receiving a pass – gives you a bit of a head start on your marker in terms of momentum as well as keeps the play moving.
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Every time a Liverpool player gets the ball, they take two-three, even four touches before even moving in any particular direction.

Plus they never go for the short diagonal balls to a team-mate ahead of them, when they’re in a tight situation. It’s always either passed back to the keeper, or hit across the pitch, but still to someone just a few yards of the penalty area.

Other teams, keep playing it forward, their team-mates move about to stretch the defence, and midfielders make runs in to the box for scoring opportunities.

Liverpool, somehow on the pitch, hardly ever seem to do it. Against Manchester City, it was done, and barring a mistake from Pepe Reina, it would’ve been a famous win against the champions.

That one’s in the past. The latest hell to be dealt with is a home loss against West Brom.

Carry on boys. At this rate, we may never walk alone, but those walking with us will be relegation-threatened and newly promoted sides.

Not the top sides, which we once were.
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Broadcast Journalist and Football writer.

Twitter handle @abhijan_barua

28 comments

  • Red says:

    When will these rookie managers learn?, that with the Shelvey’s, Hendersons, Downings, you will NEVER win anything!. These so called players are VERY average at best!, and certainly NOT LFC quality, and WHY leave our BEST defender (Skirtle) on the bench?.Total MADNESS by a ROOKIE manager!!!

  • ken says:

    every time he plays shelvey he pull the team to his level when will rodgers learn,he is still raw why not play suso

  • sleeps with angels says:

    Brendan rogers is way way way!!! out of his depth
    Roma must be pissing themselves at us for paying 10 MILLION quid for Borini he aint worth 10 BOB!!
    Agger and skirtel both need to be sold,the pair remind me of of Laurel&hardy the goal keeper needs
    to be gone,we need full backs who can defend,we need midfielders that can tackle and move FORWARDS
    with the ball…..simply put we need the good part of a new team and a good manager.

    • TaintlessRed says:

      Agger has been poor this season. He’s still good on the ball but his defending has consistently been sub-par. From the first game when he was sent off to yesterday’s game when yet again he lost the person he was meant to be marking and then got his positioning all wrong giving Lukaku a easy run at Reina. It had similarities with the other game against West Brom when he stood off Long giving him a free run at Reina – although in that game his attempt to recover brought a red card.

      • bob says:

        agger and skrtel have been exposed by rodgers tactics . under rodgers style the centre backs are not getting enouhh protection with the two full backs pushing up etc

        they were the best defence last season and are still class players

        • dj says:

          Good point Bob, which very few LFC fans want to see. The reasons for our problems are the tactics adopted, and how the players adapt to them. Two full backs over committing forward and no cover in midfield to cover for them. I’m sure the players are playing exactly how they have been instructed to play, and this leaves us wide open at times allowing the opposition to overrun us regularly during most games.

          I would play Lucas and Henderson as the two holding players both of which are good athletes and are tactically and technically sound, and remove Gerrard to play further forward, but each to his own opinion. I have always felt Gerrard playing in the centre of midfield is detrimental to the team and wasted because we lose his attacking ability. I don’t think Rodgers is strong enough to remove him from centre midfield and play him further forward.

          It doesn’t look as if there is much work done on our defensive set up under Rodgers, and I believe the players generally are not as fit as they should be. There is nothing wrong with most of our players the problem is with Rodgers.

  • david says:

    Dwindling on the ball has been a problem all season. Johnson was unbelievably casual,he needs to be coached with what to do with the ball when bombing down the flank, he just gave it away every time. Shelvey is a good player but second striker? you must be joking. Agger all over the place, Borini looks like a bad buy, no class. Downing and Gerrard played well, missing a penalty is no reason to blame a defeat to the likes of west brom. I wish the players and manager would stop talking about 4th place and concentrate on winning some games.

    • TaintlessRed says:

      If by dwindling you mean dithering I completely agree. Downing was our best player (though wasn’t saying much) and Stevie improved as the game went on. Agger’s form is very worrying for me, he’s been injury free this season but I think this may be his worst season for us. Shelvey prefers to play as No. 10, it’s where he played for Charlton and Blackpool and where he’s scored goals for us. He’s a better player than he showed against West Brom, but he’s been complaining about not playing and when Rodgers plays him he’s sloppy and ineffectual. Less talk and more work on training pitch.

  • Snake Plissken says:

    Brenda was an appointment that gave FSG the excuse of ‘we need time’ which means years of mediocrity and failure ahead and the usual tired old excuses like ‘he’s going in the right direction’ or ‘the youngsters will come through’. We have been made into just another ordinary club, there’s no direction, just a one bumbling mistake after another. Everything from transfer policy to man management is a joke, over paying for players to under bidding for players has embarassed the club. Will we will ever see a title winning side again in our lifetimes? Time for the fans to rise up. FSG & Brenda out.

  • Canadian Baggie says:

    “The likes of West Brom” have now beaten you in three consecutive games without conceding a goal and this season have a coach ” the mighty Reds” fired and who is in his rookie season. Face it *you are a mid table squad with mid table players on a downward spiral. Your arrogance based on the fact that you were once a “big club” is what is killing you. You sound like Leeds and Wolves fans. Don’t diminish Albions efforts by demeaning the status of our well run, lining within our means club, we know what we are ( and clearly you don’t!)

    • Alan says:

      Agree entirely with Canadian Baggie. You should set your expectations based on the team fielded and the reality is that bar Suarez, there isn’t an exceptional talent available to Rodgers. Stevie G was a great player but his contribution is limited to a deeper role. The rest of the midfield is an absolute joke. The defence is abysmal. The goalkeeper is a complete clown and above all, the fans are utterly deluded. Sitting their in complete silence throughout matches waiting to be transported to the 80s. Anfield is NOT a time machine. Rodgers needs time. Hound him at your own peril.

      • TaintlessRed says:

        Rubbish, I don’t agree at all with Canadian Baggie. West Brom were totally dominated by us and were lucky to get their two goals even though we were sloppy in possession, movement and with lots of sub-par performances. We should be beating West Brom comfortably with our squad, even if we know we should have a much better squad than we do. We are right to have far higher expectations than we are presently achieving or we will permanently become the mediocrity that we saw yesterday. Last season we got to two finals, won one and qualified for Europe and Kenny got sacked for not meeting expectations – West Brom would be wetting themselves with joy if they’d done the same.

        • Reddiebaggie says:

          Correct me if I am wrong, we contained you for 80 minutes and then bought on Lukaku who was there to drive us forward and hopefully win the match, which is what we did. We did the same last season at Anfield and unless you come to terms with the fact that LFC are a spent force we will do it again next season. Goals win games not possession.

    • bob says:

      better to strive to being a top club , rather than accepting and putting up with mediocrity

  • Jag Kooner says:

    Last night was BAD throughout:
    Bad build up to the game talking about 4th place,
    Bad team selection,
    Bad play by the players,
    Bad luck with the missed penalty and Reid missing his own net from 5 yards

    But we have to expect that from this season unfortunatly, just as some of the players in the squad so is the manager, its only his 2nd season in the top flight so he’s going to get it wrong. It’s all part of the learning curve for the squad as a whole and as much as it hurts now, we have to move on to the next game and go again. YNWA LFC

    • Jag Kooner says:

      sorry, that was meant to say “just as some of the players in the squad are young, so is the manager”

    • Snake Plissken says:

      Learning curve? Reina, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson & Lucas have been our main fixtures defensively for years, all signed by Benitez a long long time ago, weve had 3 managers since, how are they still on a learning curve? Still learning how to defend?! These are the same old excuses i was expecting from some people on here.

      • Jag Kooner says:

        “sorry, that was meant to say “just as some of the players in the squad are young, so is the manager””

        I don’t think the post above mentions or implies Reina, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Lucas.

        My point was that just as you would give the younger players like Sterling, Suso, Wisdom etc time and some understanding on any individual mistakes they make, then we should for Rodgers as he is still a young manager (39/40?) and is only in his second season in the top flight.

        Like it or not, but Rodgers is the manager.

        • Snake Plissken says:

          So what about AVB at Spurs? He is much younger than Rodgers and is doing a better job at Spurs challenging for 3rd in only HIS 2nd season in English football. It’s easy to make excuses mate. Rodgers is a poor manager, face it.

        • bob says:

          rodgers is the manager ,but not for long we hope

    • simon says:

      ‘we have to expect this ‘ ?????? WHY ? Stop talking rubbish

      Stop with the pathetic excuses too . We are Liverpool FC and should be better than this

  • Reddiebaggie says:

    Suarez is still a disgrace diving every time he comes anywhere near an opposition player and theatrically waving a hand every time for a card to be produced by the ref which should be a booking in itself Liverpool should be ashamed at such antis

  • bob says:

    you shouldn’t be hysterical because of a defeat , just like people shouldn’t have got carried away over two good performances ( of which we didnt even win ) – no , it should be judged over all the games … and thats not good enough , or even close

    ive said it all season – rodgers simply doesn’t know how to win football matches . he sends his team out every week with the same tactics and same instructions . he is clueless tactically . any decent manager would have won probably 50% of our games against top 10 teams

    out of his depth is putting it mildly . there are plenty of top top managers out there who would jump at opportunity to manage LFC . lets get one , and end this period of misery and mediocrity

  • Keith says:

    The players do what the manager instructs . All the criticisms the writer said about what the players do , passing it backwards etc , that’s cos Rodgers trains them to play that way

    They are good players , but with bad manager

  • Hollis says:

    Author – u said Liverpool players dont know what they are doing … Well , whose fault is that ? Its the fool Rodgers fault of course .

    Rodgers picks em , buys some of em , trains em , subs em etc etc etc . Its the manager to blame

    YES he should be sacked , months ago IMO

    • Tommo says:

      Its not the Liverpool players who dont know what they r doing . Its the Liverpool manager who doesnt have clue

  • Steve says:

    I continue to hear and read “work in progress”.Utd go out and buy the best young player in England and leave him at his club till next yearand dont have to pay for him until next June.Utd are about to put a bid in for Jack Wiltshire.Liverpool are buying at OXFAM AND ITS SHOWING ON THE PITCH.

  • Begby says:

    Rodgers is out of his depth and a fool . Lets get rid of this mug
    … and he can take Allen , Borini n Assadi with him too

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