After the scintillating brilliance of Liverpool’s performance v Man Utd on Sunday, it was back to the mid-table, Roy Hodgson style mediocrity of a soul-less and dispiriting performance against SC Braga. A 1-0 defeat was a bit harsh on this Liverpool team, yet it was scarcely more than the team deserved. Liverpool were set out to do a job in defence and midfield with Poulsen and the youngster Spearing asked to do the pressing and holding in midfield. But the tactics and the players failed to adapt.
Time after time a pass was misplaced, a tackle was missed and an opportunity was lost by Liverpool. Our ineptitude was shown by the early penalty given away by Kyrgiakos when the Braga player was running away from goal, a foolish tackle by him. Liverpool looked listless and leaderless throughout the game, missing Steven Gerrard through injury, nobody came forward to lead the team and we looked pretty rudderless throughout.
The introduction of £35 million man Andy Carroll in the 56th minute stirred Liverpool into life and we began pinging in high balls to him which he met well on every occasion, without scoring a goal though. Joe Cole had another poor game although he should have had a penalty when he was brought down in the box, otherwise, he was ineffectual again.
“Nobody can be pleased with the performance or the result. We won’t be able to assess if we have contributed to our downfall until Thursday night.” Kenny was quoted as saying after the game, he must wonder, as I do, how his team can go from being brilliant v Man Utd on Sunday to being abject on Thursday.
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The mental toughness of our players only extends to when they think the opponent is worthy. Otherwise we stink the stadium up something terrible! Managers job to get them in the right frame of mind to play every game the same and it hasn’t happened this year or for the past few years in fact. I am sure Kenny can do but he will have to see it is needed first then the correction will follow or they will be out the door one way or another…
Poulson + Spearing in Midfield = Liverpool lose.
Basic Mathematics.
As soon as Liverpool get knocked out of the Europa League the better as it is costing them points in the Premiership. Cole needs to be one of the first to be got rid of in the summer.
I’ll be very happy if Poulson never ever wears our shirt again, Spearing isn’t fit and he’s too slow off the mark. Cole dissappears after 10 mins.
After seeing the starting line up against Braga I didn’t expect anything from the game. We were short of options at the back because of injuries which meant Kenny had to play Skrtel and Soto together, meaning no pace and no one to distribute the ball from the back. Playing Spearing, Lucas and Poulsen together was just a complete disaster. Three defensive midfielders with no creativity and Spearing in particular, offers nothing to the team. At 22, it’s time for him to go cause he’s just not good enough for Liverpool and never will be. We played with only three attacking players which was a complete joke. Kenny could have simply played Pacheco or Maxi instead of the average-at-best Spearing. Either of the two would have offered much more and would have also added some width and creativity to the team. What’s worse, neither of them didn’t even come on as a sub when we were 1-0 down. If Kenny plays this team in the second leg then we are fcuked. I suggest that he drops Poulsen and Spearing and start Carroll and Maxi instead.
It just shows the depth is not there and i cannot understand why Pacheco still never got a run.
Without wingers Liverpool will not see the best of Andy Carroll and the likes of Pacheco,Cole,Maxi,Kuyt and Jovanovic are not wingers. Liverpool looked terrible bacause relying on your fullbacks to provide real width away from home means you never stretch or get in behind the opposition defence.
I repeat what I said weeks and weeks ago … Pacheco will never get his break and I advised him to leave. What does he do? sign a new contract! Whatever for as he never gets on the field????
Every fan has to understand the significance of the termination of John Mcmahon as reserve coach because it signifies NESV’s obsession that youth from the academy will be brought into the first team squad no matter what. NESV are businessmen and want to make sure that they maximise the return on their investment which they are quite right to do so. John Henry has repeatedly stated that Liverpool can only be financially viable by bringing through young players from the academy on initially cheaper wages whose wages can only increase through the years from onfield success so my fellow fans it is time to stop the ridiculous nonsense about spending tens of millions this summer because it is most definitely not going to happen and quite rightly so. Nice to see an end for the job for the boys culture at Liverpool with the termination of McMahon. Dalglish has not done his own job prospects any favours by his failure to play any of the promising youth players in the 3 recent Europa League games.