Credit must also be given to Milan Jovanovic and Martin Skrtel who, amongst the senior players, played very well. Whether from the right or the left Jova was productive on the ball, running at defenders, offloading the ball or giving through balls, which on one occasion found its way through to Ryan Babel who should have scored. Skrtel meanwhile kept it solid at the back alongside both Jamie Carragher in the first half and Sotirios Kyrgiakos in the second.
The sheer effort from the players however, was the biggest highlight from the match, and it was two or three notches above any other display in this regard this season, with the exception of the opening match against Arsenal. A friend of mine joked that some of this team should start against Blackburn on Sunday because of the effort shown, and although I doubt that would happen, many of these players have shown their senior colleagues the way forward. Whether it was because there was less expected of them and therefore less pressure, or because many had something to prove, I don’t know, but it was an improvement. Let’s not get too carried away though, it was only a 0-0 draw away in Europe.
One of the most intriguing theories as to why there was an improvement though maybe simply down to the fact that Roy Hodgson’s tactics fit better in Europe than in the Premier League. After all, we haven’t lost in the Europa League this season after seven matches, while we have lost 4 matches in the Premier League so far. The lack of pressing and closing down which has been one of the biggest bugbears of Liverpool’s league performances is not so much of a problem in Europe. Keeping the team shape and being compact is a priority in Europe as team’s tend to pass the ball slower and can’t get in behind as easily if the team doesn’t leave gaps through pressing the ball. It certainly worked for Roy at Fulham last season and is now apparently working for us in the Europa League. The Premier League is a different story and as I have said before, a different approach involving pressing high up the field is needed if the season is to be turned around. If Roy wants this result to be more than a stay of execution, he must realise what’s required and change accordingly.
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the “B Team” has performed at least as well, if not better than the “A Team” in each of the games they’ve played this season – nothing changed.
None of them will get a look in still though anyway; they’ve had their opportunity to stake their claim, and nobody got a hat-trick, so why should the likes of Maxi or Cole be dropped??
Jonjo is an excellent 3rd choice in Gerrard or Meireles isn’t available! Hoping this lad really does well at the club, on the other hand Babel showed exactly why he should be the first one out of the door in January!
yeah, but let’s not forget about northampton…
Well written article and some good insights. Roy is certainly not handling the kind of on-ball pressure that PL teams throw at you and upsetting Liverpool in the league seems to be far too easy. No one should be too surprised, did we ever think he was going to be a tactical mastermind? Benitez was the tactical whiz and while his football didn’t inspire many it was still remarkably effective at times even when the team didn’t seem to be playing well. Obviously we need a manager who can match that kind of tactical understanding with an attitude towards the players, staff and owners that won’t ruffle so many feathers. I don’t think Roy is that man but he will get a few more chances to prove us wrong.
Would be great to see a few of the young lads given a go. I saw alot of positives in that game the organisation being the biggest plus point for me. Hopefully the performance of some of the fringe players tonight will worry the more established players into matching the effort shown. Hopefully move on from this with a win against Blackburn, with new owners in place lets get behind the team and show them how magic Anfield can be.
Personally thought spearing was superb, and basically ran the midfield putting poulson (apart from one tackle) to shame. Babel proved again that he has no heart or passion and couldn’t hit water if he fell off a boat! Would love to have seen pacheco on instead of babel. If dani was to leave soon, who could blame him. With so little going right at anfield, he is still not getting a chance as opposed to babel who gets chance after chance to prove his lack of value or spirit. Also don’t think one upfront is working but that’s for another day.
I think babel would show his worth if given a conssitant run. I know most will not agree but he has played very well in the past,remember the CL game against the gunners. I just feel that the managers are not playing a balanced team. tonight we looked more balanced than any time this season. Sad thing is ,days gone by we would have beaten Napoli at least 2-0 tonight ,they were poor. Roy looked liked we had just beaten Man u, says it all to me. Positives were the young guns, jonjo, kelly and spearing defo give them moe 1st team action.
Shelvey is a Benitez signing and what a talent we have in him. Future star he is. BUT Napoli was piss poor, if they had attacked Liverpool from the first minute, the result would have been quite different and Roy would just say ‘We were quite unlucky to lose bla bla bla’. Roy has got to go.
yea, I’m including the Northampton game “Me” – that performance wasn’t as shambolic as the first teams performance against Man City, and I’ve seen nothing so far this season that the first choice players would’ve performed any better in the league cup tbh.
Nor have I seen anything to suggest that the B Team couldn’t have achieved these same dismal results that the A Team have delivered, if they were given a consistent run out to play together.
btw, that was Babel looking disinterested in playing in yet another reserves game, yet he still looked more of a threat from out wide than Maxi, Kuyt and even Cole have in all of the games they’ve played so far this season.
That was also a much improved performance from Jovanovich, and I stick by my assertion that they should continue to play out wide when Gerrard & Torres return (Jovanovich on the left, Babel on the right)
^ Good stuff Jay, i agree with the lot, Jova should start firing a bit now and Babel needs a bit of continuity to get a bit of a grip, but both are more than capable of stepping up.
Jonjo, Jay & Kelly looked very comfortable last night, i was particularly impressing with Jonjo, i’ve been looking forward to seeing more of him in action and i think he’s a massive prospect for the future. Had to eat my words a bit as far as Spearing is concerned, he might only be 5ft6″ but he ran the middle of the park yesterday, not bad for a little goblin!
we drew with northampton and lost on penalties which is a luck of the draw scenario
these youngsters should have a lot of belief in breaking into the first team.
no babel can leave and leave now, just how many times does he moan and do next to naff all! poulsen can go, id rather see lucus raul gerrard and shelvey and jay ahead of this dead beat, he is such a bad buy, can he run?
el zhar can leave but not on loan, insua can go on a perm transfer too! darby can go for good too?
then sell lucus and replace with a senior better holding player who can do the job, keep shelvey and jay for 2nd / 3rd choice behined the new holding player gerrard and raul. then get a frontman in my choice would be llorente.
then buy a winger;
REINA
CARRGHER SOTO SKRTEL AGGER AURELIO
JOHNSON GERRARD RAUL TURAN
TORRES
i watched the match and was suprised after 27 minutes spearings name was mentioned, i thought he was’nt playing, i never saw him make a pass or a tackle, afterwards he got into the game a bit more – or do i watch different games than you people.
Sell
A Aqualini
R Babel
L Levia
G Johnson
And buy
S khedira
S Honda
A Turan
Taiwo
Rafa was criticized for his signings, but Roy has done worse IMO.
Paulsen – why on earth did we spend 5.5m for that guy. Gerrard, Lucas, Meireles, Jonjo, Spearing, we were more than covered in CM.
Konchesky – Insua was poor but he did better than Konchesky is doing, and the Mexican lad Fulham bought for the same price is looking much better than both of them. Sometimes you shouldn’t buy english just for the sake of it.
It was a decent performance, but it’s still obvious to me anyways that with our lack of skill we need one CDM and 5 attacking men to get a goal this year – Torres, Gerrard, Meireles, Joe Cole, Jovanovic. Maybe even brave it for a game, take out the CDM, slot Gerrard and Meireles in CM and let Babel play on the left. If we lose 3-2…at least we scored goals.