Former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson believes that the Reds finally looked to play some more positive football in their match against Bolton Wanderers on Sunday. He wrote in his column in the Liverpool Daily Post:
“Finally, finally it’s happened. I’m watching a Liverpool team play away from home and they look like they want to go out on the attack. For too long now they have gone to places to hang on to what they’ve got. In fact, if that game at Bolton has been played last season or even earlier in this campaign, you can bet it would have finished 0-0. Players like Cole, Meireles and even Lucas actually seemed to be more attack-minded. And when David Ngog came on Liverpool really did seem a genuine threat going forward. Great to see. Ngog has had his critics and you can count me as one of them, but I think his introduction brought the best out of Fernando Torres. He finally looked relieved to have someone up there helping him out and he appreciated another striker taking some of the attention of the defenders away.”
Lawrenson still doesn’t believe though that Fernando Torres is firing on all cylinders:
“I watched the game back for Match Of the Day 2 analysis and followed Torres and for most of the game he just didn’t look right.He took a few gambles that didn’t come off and worked very hard but I think his current plight was summed up by that early chance when he was one on one with the goalkeeper. The real Torres would have smashed that in the corner without hesitation but he’s just not quite there at the moment. However, his flick for Maxi Rodriguez proved he can still produce match-winning moments and his movement off the ball can still terrorise defenders.”
STELLA WDM RESULTS
The fact that Maxi got a late winner for us doesn’t mean it was a good performance. I don’t think we played well enough to be honest and we didn’t create many clear-cut chances. David Ngog did well when he came on and that was when we started to play better as a team. At this stage, as long as we win, it doesn’t matter if we’re playing badly cause we just need the 3 points to climb the table. The perseverance and hard word paid off at the end and we got our reward. YNWA
With you all the way Eric.
Well said Eric.. The win just covers over the cracks. We played very poorly again!
From what I saw – the unfortunate injury to Cole being replaced by Ngog and having to switch to 4-4-2 from 4-2-3-1 made a differnce. Even Torres started to play abit when he had support up top.
Come on Roy – get your glasses on, cna you not see what happened with the switch.
We have chelsea next and dread to think how the team will perform, we need a point but a win would be a bonus against the bluskis
A very disjointed performance against an equally poor team. The display was better than others, but that just shows how far down Hodgson has dragged us. The sooner NESV show him his cards the better. I don’t want him ‘rebuilding’ my club.
I think we have been playing so badly for so long that a performance like that brings out adjectives like “terrorize” and “genuine threat.” We are in for a dismal season.
Roll on the next transfer window- not so much so that we can buy, but more so we can sell some of the complete tripe in our squad. No point making another list- you know who they are.
I think this is the best we have played so far. Just not good enough this far in. I was never for Roy Hodgson being manager. Next up Chelski.. lets hope and pray that we at least turn up.
I thought we were poor against Bolton. We have to face facts, with Roy’s 35 years of defensive, narrow old fashioned tactics, we’re in for more poor performances and many more defeats.
It’s Roy’s tactics that are the problem.
Can anyone,esp. you Mr Hodgson,for the life of me,tell us why the likes of Pacheco(in place of Ngog),Amoo ,(on the wing),Shelvey and Danny Wilson are being overlooked for promotion to the 1st team.We have these great reserve team players with talent,skill,enthusiasm and would `break a leg` to be given a decent chance.I think a lot of our issues can be remedied by using a system where if your 1st teamers don`t perform,then drop them to the reserves and the likes of the above mentioned are promoted.Not rocket science Roy!!!
Ed I agree,,, I think the fact we dropped out of the domestic cups so early meant the names you mention do not get the 1st team exposure they need. Now with Roy facing eviction should he not deliver a run in the Europa and progress in the league we have no chance of him taking a risk,,,,, so we shall see a continuation of the Mr Safe strategy unless his hand is forced due to injuries. With the great younger players warming the bench,, I cant see how Henry’s plan to bring in new top quality younger talent will work,, why would they come to Anfield to warm the bench???
What game were you watching? We didn’t look attacking, Torres was isolated as he dropped further back to win the ball. Our passing was regressive, and we had no wide play to speak of. So finally nothing, we are still playing crap.
It was a horrible performance Maxi was terrible goal or not Cole is not doing enough, and Roy does not know the word attacking unless it is used in making gestures about Benitez.
so the same as every other year 🙂 lfc not had wingers since barnes days. ok maybe steve Mc 🙂
lawrenson,do u think roy is the manager to take us forward.why dont u former players call for his sacking,is it becoz he is english?believe me he is too samll for our team.the media is not turning the heat on roy becoz he is english and a friend of the hugely influential feggie.
Our last 2 victories have been hard fought but ultimately very lucky. What planet does Roy live on. He has already lost the fans confidence as most of us didn’t want him in the first place. Roy leave with some pride intact.
Any idiot can see that it was a very poor performance, yes we defended very well played better when we went to 442. So why play with all these negative formations, he is killing torres by playing like that the guy is not playing well and by putting all the focus on him from the media and the whole of the opposition defence its smuthering him.
We need to play 442 with torres, milan/babel/ngog/kuyt watch once we do that for a few games torres will be back.
Mark does talk some crap…as for hodgson mr nice guy he just has to go…his away record in the premier league includeing bolton match is played 67, won 7 who in thier right mind would say that he is good enough to manage liverpool.
For Lawrenson’s information, Liverpool beat Bolton away 3-2 last season and 2-0 the season before.