One thing that is really annoying me at the moment is pundits criticising Liverpool for their slow start to the league campaign but then not even acknowledging that we have had an incredibly tough opening fixture schedule.
In our first five league games we have already faced three of the teams expected to challenge for the title this season. In between those fixtures we earned a credible point in an away game against a very tough Birmingham side who haven’t lost a league game at home for a year.
There are positives that can be taken from every league game we’ve played so far. Against Arsenal despite not playing well in the first half and going a man down, we somehow ended up taking the lead and were only denied victory by an uncharacteristic goalkeeping howler by Pepe Reina.
When people talk about our loss to Manchester City they comment on how awful we were etc, but I actually don’t think we played that bad. Roy Hodgson said that the 3-0 scoreline was a bit flattering for Man City and he was right. There were periods when we really looked dangerous in possession and in comparison to our dreadful bore draw at Eastlands last season, I was at glad to see that we were at least having a real go at attacking the home side.
The West Brom game was supposed to be the easiest match of our five opening fixtures but they ended up having more possession than us. We played poorly in this game but we can still take the positive that we won without playing well and kept a clean sheet in the process.
Our match with Birmingham was probably the game where we looked the least threatening up front. Our attacks were slow and uncreative while Birmingham looked a lot better than us in the final third. The small positive from this game was that we took a point away from a fixture in which no visiting team has been able to take all three points for a year.
The positives from our loss against Manchester United are obvious. After a dire first half which gave me flashbacks from our poor play throughout last season, we showed character to come back from 2-0 down and in the end were a bit unlucky not to leave Old Trafford with a point.
The end of the Man Utd game signalled the end to our tough run of league fixtures, and with home games against Sunderland and Blackpool coming up next, I fully expect us to start climbing the table rapidly. In a way I’m glad that everybody has written us off because it now means we can focus on winning points and sneaking back up the table in a similar way to Arsenal last season after their 3-0 loss to Chelsea.
We may not be good enough to challenge for the league this year, but I really do believe we’ll surprise a few critics with better performances than what we’ve seen so far. With three of our hardest games now out of the way, the Premier League table will eventually even itself out and as Joe Cole said in his post-match interview at Old Trafford, there is no point in judging us now, the only time to judge us will be in May.
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Play 4-3-3 formation:
———————–Reina———————-
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.————-Carragher—Agger/skrtel————
Johnson———————————-Konchesky
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.———Gerrard—Meireles—Cole—————
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.————Kuyt—Torres—Babel—————-
its nothing to do with formations, its the simple fact that we have had a tough start to the season! would love to see how spurs or man city would have dealt with playing their closest rivals in the first few games of the season followed by difficult away fixtures and all sorts. im not syaing we shouldnt be beating teams like city and united, but we are notorious slow starters and this season is the same.
Your right it’s nothing to do with formations it’s all to do with players and we don’t have enough good ones. At this moment in time I don’t see Konchesky and Poulsen are any improvement on Insua and Lucas. I think Roy got the formation right but think he missed a trick in not playing Cole off Torres, especially in the first half were he would have seen a lot more of the ball.
an
Not too sure – I thought we played better with Torres and Ngog (when he came on)
against united,taking carragher’s and maxi’s performance out,we played fairly well.carragher should have dealt better with the high balls,and maxi….i dunno if this is the player who was kicking as*es at altetico two years ago.i would want only 1 player.a winger with pace and skills,and if possible,with experience in england,and also if possible,an englishman.the player who has all that is Ashley Young,and i would even give 18-20 million for this lad.he is awesome,he is english,he has talent,pace,skills and he is very young.consider this line up:
Reina
Johnson Carragher Agger Konchesky
Gerrard Meireles
Kuyt Cole Young
Torres
Subs:Jones,Skrtel,Aurelio,Poulsen,Maxi,Jovanovic,Ngog.the squad aint that bad as some people claim.i expect Jovanovic to get used to english football,and if that happens,his pace and skills are very good.Poulsen had a good game against united too.Maxi is Maxi and if he continues like this,sell him.Lucas is a good player for rotation too,but not a starter.Ngog is young and has already been scoring goals.just buy this great player,Ashley Young,and hand him the number 7!!
Great wingers to buy:Ashley Young,Arda Turan,Valbuena,Mata,Wright Phillips(not that good,but a cheaper option),Krasic,Bale,Quaresma,…there are a lot of wingers to buy in Europe and we should do something.now that Kuyt is injured,we dont have many options.Jovanovic and Maxi are our wingers.Joe Cole should play behind the striker,that’s his position.
EXCELENT CHOICE!!!I wood rather look forward to see more oportunities to score than defending and waiting anything to be happened.
4-3-3 or maybe 4-4-2 but never more 4-4-1-1.One striker for LFC is pretty shameful.We must always thinkfor attacking style.
tripe re: city comment on our performance. We were awful and 3-0 was more than fair. It was a poor poor performance kicked off by maschers refusing to play and roy changing the set up only a short time before ko.
Yes, its been a difficult start etc. But, the fact remains, we have largely played appallingly. We are not creating opportunities and have no one in midfield who can dictate play.
Aquilani anyone? Oh, Roy sent him on loan.
We’re in the sh*t guys, you better believe it.
please ruled out konchesky, he made nothing contribution so far. He only made our team defending become worst
Joe cole has been really bad …..he tries to many flicks and fancy skills and his passing has been bad as well…..Its looking like we will finish 6th or 7th again this year…
the results haven’t been the main cause for criticism so far – it’s been the continued deployment of the same miserable tactics that failed us so miserably last year and the subsequent limp performances that have rightly seen Hodgson’s acumen brought into question