I always get nervous on match-days.
I can’t quite focus on anything else too much as the game is in my head. Supporting Liverpool FC these days is a knife edge – any loss matters, any stumble in form, a season deal breaker.
Every match is always important, but when it comes to Liverpool there’s simply not the comfort cushion there once was, there’s no confidence in the mentality of a side that had until Sunday, had yet to beat a top 8 side.
So it was no surprise to me that Liverpool found themselves a goal behind after a poor end to the first half and a sloppy start to the second half. In many ways it made me think about the Newcastle, Everton and Chelsea games whereby we come out the blocks strong and then let the opposition back into the game. I actually tweeted this during the game after going behind:
“Set piece shite defending again. Very mentally poor this from the reds. Sit back and spurs will punish!”
Then on comes Joe Allen, with most of Anfield calling for Henderson as was I. The change, changed the game. Rodgers proving the doubters wrong again, Rodgers outwitting his long-time friend Andre Villas-Boas.
Sturridge was clearly anxious and still recovering from his injury – it’s worthwhile remembering he only had two days full training since coming back.
And whilst Coutinho showed glimpses of brilliance, the backheel through to Enrique which resulted in the first goal is but a look into what a very gifted individual Liverpool has lured into their ranks, fitness is clearly still an issue for the youngster. It’s hard to believe he’s only 20.
Allen allowed the Reds to control the game, keep possession, and that resulted in higher pressing which eventually resulted in the two mistakes.
Make no mistake; Liverpool beat a wonderful team today. Spurs in the first 20 minutes of the second half had the game wrapped up. Those painful 20 minutes showing why Spurs are in the top 4 and why we’re not. There is a gulf in class as much I hate to say it.
They should have won, but Liverpool did something they’re slowly getting good at. They took their chances well (even though we didn’t create many) and they showed that if you give them a sniff, chances are they’ll take it. That’s something winners do, that’s the sign of a clinical team and that shows a slow regaining of mental strength that’s dogged the Reds since 2008/9.
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Any talk of Liverpool finishing top 4 should cease immediately. It’ll be a huge challenge for a team who until today did not manage three back-to-back wins since Kenny first took control after the departure of ‘Woy’, to then win the next 9 games in a row. Liverpool do need to finish the season on a high in order to show those tempted by a move to Anfield in the summer that the Redmen are on the march.
The harsh reality we must accept as fans is that this Liverpool side are not yet ready for the Champions League. Spurs showed a class beyond this Liverpool side just now. There are only so many times you win games to opponents better than you, that’s why Istanbul was so special.
There’s more work to do, both in defence and shoring up the midfield. Whilst the youth ranks are promising, they are yet that: promising youngsters, not seasoned pro’s. The future of Jack Robinson looks in doubt with questions around his attitude seeming to have dogged the youngster once tipped by many to be England’s long term replacement to Ashley Cole.
Some fan groups are already discussing the possibility of up-to seven departures from Anfield this summer. Seven seems a high number, however it’s a fact that players will leave Liverpool at the end of this season. Coates, Assaidi, Skrtel, Borini, Enrique and Downing will all be a consideration for the transfer committee. Let’s not forget the heart of the club will lose the equivalent of the main artery in the retirement of Jamie Carragher.
With Carra going, it’s going to take an almighty transfer window to go anywhere near replacing the lad from Bootle. And even if it’s seven out and seven in, then there’s a chance that those transfers don’t work out. Transfers are at best a 50/50 game, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. Being successful in the transfer window is as much luck as it is an art.
The question for Liverpool will be to stick or twist with some players, the renaissance of Downing and Enrique is but that, a renaissance. Enrique has the benefit of his position which I think will come to his advantage next year; this team aren’t exactly blessed with left-backs. With Downing looking like something for what Liverpool thought they’d signed, the question will be, does he give you enough of what you’d expect of someone on what is reportedly anywhere between £70-£90k a week?
One thing is for sure; this Liverpool side are in the ascendancy; a phrase that’s not fitted well when coupled with the Reds in the past few years. The major task ahead will be to build on the confidence that comes with beating one of the best sides in the Premiership now, here’s hoping we continue to punish those sides below us. Do that, beat Everton and Chelsea, and then anything is possible.
Come back and win games like today that we simply shouldn’t and then you’ll see the mental issues fade whilst the thin coating of a winner’s mentality starts to form. That, as well as quality and balance is all that’s holding us back from being a great side once more. It’s a big job – make no mistake about it.
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Rubbish about Allen . Were u even watching the game . Allen did nothing except his usual backward passes. Henderson was much better option .Rodgers proved NOBODY wrong . We won cos of 2 spurs defensive howlers
Go ‘support’ Man U
Duh … Intelligent response joe
I agree . Allen does feck all. Shouldn’t be on the pitch ever , esp when hendo playing so well
Yawn
It was a fantastic move by BR. Allen replaced Coutinho on the left of the front 3 but immediately played in a left midfield position.
He did it to counter Dembele who was floating in from the Sp*rs right due to Lucas being occupied by Bale and getting the ball and distributing with ease. It also meant that Enrique could stay wide left so Walker couldn’t advance too dangerously on the right.
It also served the purpose, as previously stated of allowing us to get some of the ball back and get back in the game. Bringing Hendo on to charge forward with questionable passes wouldn’t have changed a thing and they would have continued to dominate that inside right channel with Dembele.
Sean . That’s just not true. With Liverpool losing we were always going to have more possession and attacks , spurs were happy to counter attack
Allen did nothing . If not for two terrible errors by spurs . We would have lost and everyone would be slaggin off BR for bringing on the useless Allen.
BR got lucky . It was a poor decision bringing on a player in an advanced position who doesn’t score or create
We are a long way away from being good enough
We will finish with more points than last season and are also up there with the top scorers in the league. To anyone thinking LFC are not making progress(and that goes for some fans too), wake up and smell the coffee. We are on the long, slow march back to where we belong. We are not there yet but the journey has begun. YNWA!!!!!!!!!!!
Well said.
Wake up and smell your own coffee . We are headed nowhere fast with Rodgers as boss .
Still the worst season in living memory although things have got a bit better , we have great players but a tactically useless manager
Another clueless supporter, if you even are a LFC fan
LOL .another dumb fool calling people names because they don’t have same idiotic opinions as themselves
We will struggle in Europe, even if we qualify we won’t get past the pre-qualifying stage. You have to call it as you see it, it’s no point living in a fantasy world.
I keep seeing ‘liverpool are in ascendancy’ . I want to believe it but I just can’t see it . We got away with it yesterday.
And Allen was crap yesterday. Get your goggles off
If Rodgers persists with Allen rather than buying a proper strong midfielder then there isno chance of top 4 next season
In your last post you said you can’t see BR improve us any further and now you say we won’t do it unless we get a strong midfielder. Make up your mind.
How many manure trolls use this site? They definitely are not LFC fans. Facts are facts. We are now in a higher position than under Kenny, Roy and Rafas last season. FACT!!!!!!!!!
Fact .Rodger has worse win ratio than any other manager in 50 years.
You must be manure fan to want Liverpool to keep useless manager.
Kop on kid
Hahahaha, really. He has a better record than Roy, Souness, and level with Kenny on his second spell. So your ‘fact’ is utter tripe!!
Not true fool. Learn your facts
Your getting mixed up . It’s the mancs that want us to keep rodgers. Ask any man u fan – should we keep rodgers – they will say – yes keep him forever .they are laughing at us this season
You are probably too young to remember us laughing at them when Fergie took over. It you want to keep changing managers, Chelsea are perfect for you.
Dumb comment. Go support Everton if ur happy with this crappy season
Noel, you keep mentioning ‘manure’ more than LFC on this site which suggests you are one of them! Go back to supporting your own sh**
I don’t understand how anyone can think Rodgers is a bad manager when after 14 games we were 12th and in the last 14 games we would be 3rd! Plus we should of beaten arsenal man city (both away!!!!) and west brom
exactly
Erm… Because it’s the worst season for years . With the players we have anyone would have us a lot higher. Anyone
Rubbish, is that why we finished 8th last year, 6th the seasn before and 7th the season before that? #hasntgotaclue
You are stupid. Last year 2 finals and a atrophy plus beating all top sides .this year – nothing
Agreed . We have the premiers hottest striker and we are still struggling. Taxi for Rodgers
Sturridge was a passenger for most of this match, Suarez work rate was amazing, he is such a great little player, even Gerrard got about the pitch, Sturridge for me has to drop this bit of an attitude he has otherwise he can start on the bench for me.
role on summer market please….
coates, shelvey, wilson, pacheco, carroll can bring in around = 24 mill.
then you have ngoo, spearing being sold, for around 4 mill, add to above = 26 at very least!!
If skrtel is not happy he can be sold id want around 11 mill, probably get around 10 mill, get him gone, if he has a attitude.
add that to above and we could have around 36 mill before the owners put in the figure that we will have around 25 mill, so all in all around 55 mill to spend.
aly cissokho, sakho, lovren, eriksen, and one more will do
Sturridge just back from injury, give him the week to get back up to speed. Prior to injury he and Suarez were clicking.
Can’t see us ever gettin champ league with BR .his teams can’t defend and are too small and weak
To all the haters. The team is actually improving. You don’t always win a game with beautiful football. over the past 3 seasons we’ve been beaten by lesser sides just cause they had 2 shots on target and scored those 2 shots. Now we’ve started to take our opportunity’s and score and thats not good enough.
Rogers is doing a far superior job to our last 2 managers even if one is still a living legend !!
The idiots just can’t see this, even though we are better off in the league than we were at this stage over the last 2 seasons.
Idiots like u don’t understand football.
You are the idiot who wants to destroy this club by changing manager again. Who would you replace BR with?
Anyone is better than Brenda. Absolutely anyone
Wow, Noel actually made a comment without mentioning manure of fergie, well done it must have been hard for you!
I meant manure OR fergie.
Clueless .Lol
Are you serious? One win against a top 7 side all season is supposed to be progress? You obviously don’t have high standards.
If you wish you can always watch the game in full or its highlights on http://www.footballwatch.net/team/37
Big improvement since sturridge and coutinho arrived , but we are very far away from top clubs . Yesterday showed that even though we won .
I can’t see Rodgers improving us any more , he doesn’t deem to have the tactical nous to close out games . Only Suarez magic saved us every week
‘improve us anymore’. So you agree he has improved us?!
Who are u ? The local Brenda fanboy ? Get a life . You are clueless
Hahaha, you call me clueless. Your ‘fact’ about BR having the worst win % of any LFC manager in the past 50 years shows who the fool is.
League matches win ratio . Rodgers is the worst .u can’t count those Europa games against rubbish teams.
Check out the Liverpool FC history website for proof. Rodgers has the worst since before shankly
You really are stupid
Improvement from the total dross we had to endure b4 mas – yes definitely… But last season’s team was better , and dalglish a better manager
b4 xmas I meant
whats and you do, do you watch the game you gimp… allen coming on gave the middle more power and fresh legs,,, do you watch or do you just read a match report form a paper!!! joke fan you are
Your the fantasy football clueless dreamer. Kop on
Allen and power don’t go in the same sentence you numpty.
In Brendan we trust. YNWA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Muppet !
Great win . Great result .thank you king luis
Yes, and well done Downing, SG, BR and the team.
Rodgers didn’t help with his dumb subs and silly tactics
Did we win? Yes. Did we score after he made subs? Yes. Did he pick the team? Yes
Some of you are UN real…. you just like bashing BR. When we play 4-3-3, most of you say “dumb formation ” then when he does go 4-4-2 and we win, some say silly tactics. Grow up.
Fact is…. we had a terrible start.
Fact is Pepe cost us at least 5pts from bone headed mistakes.
Fact is our defense from set pieces is down right awful
Fact is… we are playing a lot better now and who cares that we played bad and won… we fooking won.
BR has had his moments (more to my liking) but his vision is starting to come to light. Support…… stop hating.
YNWA
YOUHEARD
It’s march the 10th the first time we beat a decent side . March !!!!!!!!! ….hardly anything to be shouting about
And yet last year we won how many times at Anfield?
Lol .There is always one troll on here.
B Rodgers is a good manager and has done well with what he came to and the lack of funds he has had to spend on players.
Since B Rodgers has been at helm he has shipped out 10 players off wage bill( Adams, Aurelio, Aquilani,Bellamy, Carroll,Cole, Doni, Kuyt, Rodriguez and Spearing).
And only replaced half of them: No wonder i squad is pathetically thin and weak, he has only brought in Allen,Assaidi, Borini, Coutinho and Sturridge.
And four out of the five of them players are good players who have offered club something. Borini is the only flop Rodgers has brought into club, 4 good out of 5 is good.
And Rodgers just needs to clear the rest of the dead wood players still at club: Four:
1: GK: Jones
2: RB: Flanagan
3: CB: Coates
4: FD: Borini
Then the owners need to back B Rodgers heavily with £75M-£80M, which is £2M less than what they let K Dalglish spend on Adams, Carroll, Downing and Henderson. This summer to complete some major surgery to playing staff and to strengthen the squad and bring some more class and quality competition for places within squad.
So with those 4 players who need to be shown the door in the summer, Mr great Loyal servant Carragher is retiring. So that would be another 5 players would have left.
And these are the 9/Nine players needed to improve our squad dramatically:
Five Defensive players:
1: GK: M Vorm(29) Of Swansea for £2-£4M to compete and Cover P Reina.
2: CB: A Williams(28) Of Swansea for £7-£9M to compete and Cover Agger.
3: CB: A Pearce(24) Of Reading on free transfer to compete and Cover Skrtel.
4:LB: A Cissokho(25) Of Valencia for £5-£7M to compete and Cover Enrique.
5: DM: E Capoue(24) Of Toulouse for £7-£11M to compete and Cover LUCAS.
Four attacking players:
1: RW/RWF: J A Montero(23) Of Monarcas Morelia for £4-£6M to compete with Assaidi and Sterling.
2: LW/LWF: B Arfa(25) Of Newcastle in swap deal with A Carroll and £10M
3: AM: Isco(20) Of Malaga for £12-£17M to compete and Cover Coutinho.
4: FD: C Benteke(22) Of A Villa for £16-£18M to compete with Sturridge and Suarez.
Rodgers is doing a very good job with what he had to work with, last year we spent £83M and struggled to score goals and finished 8th with 52 points , 47 Goals scored and 40 Goals against after 38 games. So a GD of just +7
We are currently 6th in league on 45 points after 29 games with 9 games still to play and we have scored 56 goals, more goals than Arsenal,Man City, Tottenham only United have scored more goals than us in League at moment(68) and we have conceded 36 goals. And have a GD of +20.
We have been poor in the cups this year but improved within the league, we have a very weak squad which is not capable at the moment of competing on all fronts in 4 competitions. But if the owners back B Rodgers with £75-£80M in the summer and Rodgers ships out the 4 dead wood players and brings in the 9 players mentioned. Then next season we would have squad capable of competing strongly in all competitions.
Williams , Pearce , benteke ? Are u mad ?
Williams is a solid quick mobile defender who is vocal and loud and also one of the top three centre backs during whole season.
A Pearce is a young good upcoming centre back who we could get on a free transfer.
And how could you even question Benteke after he single handly put us to the sword at Anfield earlier in season.
He is young tall powerful handful on floor and in air mobile good finisher good in air and a beast of a striker, its his first season and he has already bullying most of the premiership strikers.
He would offer us another option, with Benteke we could go long and be more direct. As Sturridge and Suarez are too similar, Benteke would be our more direct option B
Benteke is another Heskey . Lets not go there
Get real some thought the same about Carroll, Benteke is another flash in the pan.
TO JC and Luger: Benteke is much better than Heskey and Carroll.
Benteke and Lukaku are both young big strong mobile strikers who have been bullying the biggest and baddest premiership defenders all season.
And scoring plenty of goals on the way with that, chelsea would not sell Lukaku to us and i prefer Benteke, he may miss the odd few but he is another option and different threat. Suarez and Sturridge are both quick pacey skillful tricky forwards with good movement and goals in them. Benteke is a mountain strong good movement mobility good in air, good at holding ball up and a good finisher also.
I wasn’t impressed yesterday at all . Great three points and things are improving in general but Rodgers doesn’t convince me . Some of his decisions are naive , and bringing on Joe Allen smacks of stubbornness and favoritism . And his formation is too open and he doesn’t seem good at organizing defences.
I suppose he deserves the start of next season to get it right , but no longer than that if we are not top 4
No . We can’t let him waste our summer transfer kitty like he did last summer – he should go now
Good article John, although I don’t agree that Spurs deserved to win. LFc were the better side for the lion’s share of the first half & were caught out by Bale’s re-entry to the pitch after receiving treatment from the Gerrard challenge which shouldn’t have been given as a foul.
Spurs, buoyed by what was really a smash n grab just before half time, began the second half in the ascendancy and took control of the game, albeit from another extremely soft free-kick and yet another defensive lapse from a set-piece.
Defensive lapses cost us for both goals and While Spurs missed two good chances, so did we. From the moment Allen came on, we regained control of the midfield, something which you rightly point out and from then on, were again the better team – once Downing capitalised on Walker’s error there was only ever one winner.
Trying to judge whether LFC are “ready” for CL is very difficult at this stage of the season. I take ur point that we don’t seem ready now, but then, are Chelsea/Arsenal/Everton? On current form we’re better than all of them. All we can do is win our games, if we win 7 from 9 (very do-able) we’ll be in the shake-up alright.
Personally I don’t see Downing or Enrique leaving as they not only offer cover in several positions but must now on merit be regarded as high quality first team players, surprising as that may be.
We will need to bring in quality at CB (probably 2) as Skrtel seems destined to leave and we know Carra’s off. Another DMC is required as well as a back-up goalkeeper with Rodgers likely to add another couple to the squad in the forward positions.
If and it is a big if, LFC can keep this run going, starting with a must win vs Soton on Sat, it’s very possible that the other teams fighting for 4th will cut each others throats and leave a path for us to finish strongly on the rail and pip them at the post. Should that happen, we could be back in the CL as soon as next season and then we’ll see if we’re ready or not.
despite the recent improvement and goodish form , BR is NOT the right man for us . we could be doing a lot lot better . any team with 2 of the worlds best should be much higher
Joe Allen was rubbish as always