ONE thing supporting Liverpool FC instils is the sure fact the road travelled will not be a smooth one. With many highs and lows the drama to which we become so accustomed is what makes following the greatest team in the world so special.
Despite knowing all this it still remains a tricky task to not get ahead of yourself in the good times and not feel it all slipping away when the bad rolls in. The latest turn of events at Anfield should serve to keep all Red feet firmly on the ground.
The result against Newcastle on Saturday was obviously disappointing especially when you consider we played against ten men for a significant part of the game. What was more disheartening however was the performance of the team who looked disjointed and devoid of creativity. It’s always difficult to get straight back into the swing of things after an international break and all the drama that brings. The lack of preparation was clearly evident at St James’s Park but for me this excuse doesn’t hold much weight.
Professional players should be able to perform to an acceptable standard despite not having as much training time together as normal. Arsenal managed to score the best goal I’ve seen this season and win comfortably at the weekend despite most of their players also being away on duty. Good players are able to produce the goods when required – no excuses. As the only team sitting in the top four at the start of the weekend fixtures not to win it supports the belief that the best teams get the result they need irrespective of circumstance.
The tempo of our passing was also noticeably not up to our recent standards. Gone was the incisive, fluid passing and movement witnessed in the early stages of the season replaced with an indecisive, lacklustre imposter. With this lack of pace the Geordies were able to get their decent defence set making them markedly more difficult to penetrate. The invention Coutinho can supply may have given us the win if he was available which will have to remain a mere what if. Without our Brazilian playmaker on Saturday, no other player was able to provide the required creativity.
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Dropping two points isn’t the end of the world and we’re still in a healthy position in the table. The disappointing draw doesn’t detract from the progress we’ve made under Rodgers this season. What it should do though is focus our minds on the areas we fell short on at the weekend and work towards resolving these as quickly as we can. The team is still most definitely a working progress which means there will likely be many more days like Saturday.
On a more positive note the Redmen did display courage and character after falling behind which Sturridges’ reaction to scoring the equaliser bears testament. His usual smile and swagger was nowhere to be seen with the focus on his face depicting the desire to go on and secure all 3 points. That we found ourselves in this situation in the first place sums up the rollercoaster ride supporting the Scousers brings with it.
Would we have it any other way? Yes, most definitely! But for what it’s worth it does lead to the possibility of very exciting times ahead. Heart in the mouth or edge of the seat football doesn’t appeal to all.
As a Liverpool fan however we simply have no choice. No matter how rough the road ahead gets we will do as our club anthem dictates and walk on, walk on with hope in our hearts knowing we will never walk alone.
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U hit the nail on the head we seem to lack desire fr a team that was joint top our midfield luks lacluster we dnt close teams quickly im wondering if we do fitnes training or just ball training cause we cant seem to keep up wth the tempo of pemier league standards and if u luk at our injured players who returned we shuld do much beter hope nex game we play it like a final ynwa
we will surprise you all next match.
pls we need to win westbrom cos dey suprised us last season
As i have always said, we need a top quality no 10. Lack of creativity in the midfield was what denied us victory last weekend. Nobody was skillful enough to open up the magpies defence. Our right wing has been dead for some weeks now . Sterling is not up to it now. He is a big minus to the team as such, we need as a matter of utmost important a top scoring right midfielder in january. For now, i will rather play Ibe instead of Sterling. Again, Rogers will do well to drop his 3-5-2 system as we don’t have personnel to operate it now.
Completely in agreement, this 3-5-2 is not the system I want to see. Why did we persist with the system even after Newcastle were down to 10 men is beyond me.
What worried me was the way not only Moses, it was sturridge going back to his selfish self.
3 points v west broom are a must. And at least a point v arsenal if we want CL football
generally hendo is top team player and u expect results,we missed coutiho,rodgers should have guts to substute gerrard couz sometime u see that gerrard is out of the game we still let him play ,my midfield would lucas allen coutinho tht would bring stability,luis alberto as sub with captain,
Henderson to me shouldn’t be anywhere near liverpool not to talk abt been a liverpool player. D guy doesn’t have a single skill or any creative pass, all he’s good at is knocking d ball back to whoever passes to him. Let me ask, if henderson had not been an english man, will he be playing for liverpool? IMO henderson is going to cost us a lot dis season n hope BR will quickly see it n take d right decision n drop n to d bench.