The point of all of this is not only commend Hodgson’s starting approach for yesterday’s game but to equally, and perhaps even more strongly, criticise his blatant change of tactics for the second-half. Liverpool quite clearly began to sit back from the very start of the second period, and the consequences were painfully predictable: chances reduced, goals conceded, and points dropped. While it wasn’t the manager’s fault that his players squandered three glorious chances at 1-0, he should have read the very fact that the chances were coming as endorsement of his initial game-plan, and that as long as we kept Spurs pegged back, the goals would come. Instead, though, he set up his players to sit significantly deeper and invite the pressure, attempting to snuff out the game and hold on to the slender lead. An underdog mentality, if you will. A small-club approach that our players are neither used nor suited to.
A similar approach was employed in the win against Chelsea – and even in that game I never had faith in us keeping the eventual clean sheet – but was far more excusable as we were two goals up and playing at home. At 1-1, and with the momentum going against us, the decision to replace the injured Ngog, a striker, with Aurelio, a full-back, was particularly disheartening, especially with the like-for-like Babel an alternative option. Such a change sends a clear message to the opposition manager, players, and fans of “come and attack us”, and smacks of Hodgson not having the courage to carry out his initial attacking convictions. The half-time alteration – for me, quite clearly engineered by the manager – was unforgivable, and he needs to learn from it. Liverpool are a perfectly competent offensive outfit when given the license to be, and their primary weakness at the moment is a worrying lack of resilience at the back. Therefore, for us, the old cliche of the best form of defense being attack really does stand true, and Hodgson must realise this and adapt accordingly. If he does, I think we can start picking up points at a greater rate than we currently are. While we won’t worry the top four this season – we don’t have anything close to the squad necessary – there is no doubt that we are currently underachieving in tenth place.
To return to positives, however, I was encouraged by Maxi’s performance, especially in the first half. Despite his lack of pace, he is a very intelligent player in term of the timing and angling of his runs when he comes in off the left flank, and he represented a genuine goal threat yesterday – which is the one thing that he has been consistently lacking since he’s been at the club. Lucas and Meireles also look to be forming a very promising deep-lying ‘destroyer/creator’ pairing in the middle of the park – not quite as clear-cut as the more classic Mascherano/Alonso axis of a couple of seasons ago, as each does a little bit of the other’s ‘job’, but a good partnership nonetheless – and I think that this should be the combination to build upon, with Gerrard in a more advanced role when he returns. Lucas has been one of the few players to step up to the plate this season, and is even becoming a ‘big-game’ player who appears to have grown immeasurably in terms of confidence, while Meireles hasn’t been helped by being played out of position in Kuyt’s absence but looks to be improving with every game he gets in the middle of midfield. He is a real ‘pass-and-move’ type midfielder, very tidy on the ball, and I was encouraged to see him getting a few shots away from distance, which I hope will become a more regular feature of his game as he continues to settle in.
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Lemmy and his band Motorhead at a French bar
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This week it is former Liverpool WAG Claudine Keane.
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CLICK ON THE IMAGE OR HERE TO SEE CLAUDINE KEANE’S GALLERY
This game provide us with many positive. And little negative. Points. We shld hve won the game with mre than 2 goals, we missed 2 clear cut chances. Our legend cara ws awesome in defence. Little bit mistake’s bt roy did good job. Hope we tke the positives fr the nxt 6months
How many more excuses are Liverpool fans going to make for primadonna Torres. He was never and will never be world class. He has clearly lost pace and his first touch is as pathetic as it was when Liverpool signed him. He has no left foot and rarely scores any headers and is extremely useless and easy to mark. The mistake in not selling him and Gerrard last summer has now come back to haunt the club. Has anyone noticed in the last 2 games since Gerrard has been missing the team has actually started to play football. Gerrard and Torres and Carragher are all the light of other days. We should sell all three in January and that 3RD rate goalie Reina. Reina repeated the same mistake yesterday as he did against Wigan palming the ball out towards the edge of the six yard box. We should sign Andy Carroll in January and also Charles Nzogbia. We should also sell Skyrtel in January and promote Danny Wilson. We should leave Kelly at rightback and Mavinga at leftback. We should put Johnson on the rightwing and put Kuyt up front with Andy Carroll.
Kenny what i have read on yer about what you have written about today and in the past, you know nothing about football and your a complete MUPPET
glen johnson undervalued?! didn’t we pay £18 million for him? thanks for that one has cheered me up loads
Undervalued in terms of what our fans think of him, as opposed to his literal monetary value.
generally good performance against spurs, though the ref was poor and maxi and Torres need to reach down have a rummage and find a pair! What stood out though was Roy. We go 2-1 down with 3 mins to go and leans back puts his feet up and does nothing. Harry makes a change and we do sod all. Babel and jova apparently only there to keep seats warm. Roy has to go and he can take konchesky with him. He is one of the worst buys in a while lacking pace or ability, just like roy’s mind!! With cara out for a while Roy or a new manager will see that he is sadly past his best with soto, Wilson mavinga and agger when fit the better options. Liked Lucas and merelis next to each other. Would also have Glen on right wing and Kelly rb. And use Pacheco!
the best option is to get hodgson fired asap
As long as we’ll continue playing with thé inept konchesky. We’ll keep loosing as this guy is really really really poor. I cant help but feel distraught each Time i see this player on thé starting Line up. Buying a left back in january is absolutely necessary for us. More important than torres’s partner. I would definitely go for coentrao of benfica.
Positive – Hodgson sent out the team with much more attacking intent from the beginning of the game and we looked MUCH better for it.
Negative – Hodgson was content to have his team sink back and allow Tottenham to dominate the second half, and did nothing to try to take any attacking initiative back.
Positive – the league is still pretty tight so it’s still easy to climb places quickly.
Negative – the top 5 are stretching away from us, and the gap may be insurmountable by the time a manager with some real ambition (Riijkaard if the Board have any sense!!) is brought in.
Positive – Maxi & Kuyt must be close to losing their positions on the wings.
Negative – Those positions will just be rotated with other unsuitable candidates in Cole, Meireles & Aurelio, with neither Babel or Jovanovich even being viewed as options upfront OR out wide for league games.
Nonsense! The aurelio for ngog substitution was not a negative move. We still played 442 but with the more experienced kuyt alongside torres. Maxi moved to the right, kuyt went up top and aurelio took maxis position on the left – a position he has played throught his career. We attacked tithe last and whilst I’m not a fan of our performances so far this term, to say that substitution was negative shows naivety and a lack of understanding. You wrote this article inyour head the moment u saw aurelio warming up and didn’t bother from then on
The formation technically did remain the same, but the personnel in each position changed significantly. Instead of having two out-and-out centre forwards up top, we had one (Torres) and a ‘support striker’ (Kuyt) playing behind him, and instead of having two naturally offensive wingers (Kuyt and Maxi), we had one, with the other wide spot being occupied by a player who is a full-back by trade, and therefore whose instincts are far more defensive.
Moreover, i honestly think That we are not afootballing team but More like a hoofballing team with poor player such as carra konchesky and skrtel. When i think of the treatment of Agger wasted at left back i’m deluded.
If the owner CAN read this. Just take a look at those players:
In any way you want:
Coentrao(benfica)
Vargas(fiorentina)
M,vila
M’Vila(Rennes)
Lavezzi(napoli)
Javier Pastore(palermo)
Llorente (Bilbao)
It annoys me so much when fans suggest players outside our league personally I think the Liverpool scouting team knows more than any fan who probably gets their intelligence from championship manager or fifa MUPPETS!
Anyone that says “Roy has to go and he can take konchesky with him.” or similar should be placed in front of the Kop and have bricks thrown at them.
Really, have you every watched konchesky??? He is truly awful. He can’t defend, he can’t attack, he is clearly roys love child as he wouldnt get a game in any top 8 team in England. I almost thought hodgson was doing well yesterday until the second half and his complete lack of reaction when we went 2-1 down shows he is void of ideas or ambition. He still seems to be winging every game and hoping something special happens.
Positives
4-4-2
played well
attacked from the off
negatives
Ngog (just what does anyone see in him)
didn’t deserve that result
We scored a goal away from home, yes you heard right, we actually ‘scored’ a goal away.
Negatives, Woy still not sacked yet and our players are spineless letdown merchants and serial chokers.