Being a Liverpool fan is certainly like riding a roller-coaster, I went from euphoria to utter despair and tears on Monday night. Sitting in Selhurst Park watching it all unravel in front of my eyes is something I will never forget.
Since the Chelsea result and what transpired against Crystal Palace I have heard many Red fans say that Gerrard’s slip cost us the league. Stevie G’s slip is not the reason we have missed out on the title, the truth is conceding 49 goals (only keeping 10 clean sheets in the process) is the main reason why the team fell at the final hurdle.
The points lost against teams like West Brom, Hull, Southampton, Aston Villa are the problem and you have to say Monday night’s result falls into the category as well.
The first signing that Brendan Rodgers should make in the summer is a defensive coach, ideally Sami Hyypia or Steve Clarke, to work with the players. Their vast knowledge would greatly help the defence improve on their weaknesses.
Some fans have singled out the likes of Johnson and Skrtel for poor defensive displays. Football is all about opinions, but it if you look at the bigger picture despite some indifferent performances by Martin; he has scored 7 vital league goals in important matches to help the team.
You also have to look at the defensive unit as a whole and that even though Simon Mignolet has made crucial saves throughout the season, I have said since day one that he is not Liverpool class and potentially could have a very short career with the Club.
You may think I am being very harsh on him however he is not much of a leader or a communicator with his back line. Simon should be commanding his area a lot more. He is also very static, and doesn’t want move along his line – it’s like his feet are on sticky pads.
He does not look comfortable when the ball is at his feet. He rarely comes for crosses and if he does attempt to do so, there have been occasions where he has completely mistimed his decision. Fans are only taking notice of this now that former players like Bruce Grobbelaar, Jan Molby and John Aldridge have made reference to Mignolet’s performances in the press
In Simon’s last two seasons in the Premier League he has conceded 93 goals. I know Brendan had his reasons to loan Pepe Reina to Napoli (he is the only LFC player this season that will win silverware after winning the Coppa Italia) he should be brought back in to first team squad next season to be competition for Mignolet, it could actually help improve Simon’s overall game learning from a seasoned pro as Pepe was excellent in his leadership and communication with his defence.
The Crystal Palace match also showed how much the team missed the contribution from Jordan Henderson within the midfield. Winning second balls, closing down midfielders, and generating that extra 10 per cent when the team needs it.
Jordan is a natural leader on the pitch, his work rate and intelligence allows other players like Gerrard to go about their own game. In the three games that Henderson missed due to the red card picked up against Manchester City Lucas was selected as his replacement, the Brazilian played in a right-sided midfield role in a 4-4-2 diamond formation, but he couldn’t offer what Henderson can.
That particular midfield role requires pace, energy, creativity and an end product which Henderson provides, but Lucas couldn’t and this made Liverpool’s midfield less effective, especially in the loss to Chelsea.
Again I feel that reinforcements are required in the defensive midfield role, and though Gerrard has done brilliantly adapting to his deeper position, we need a Nemanja Matic type of workhorse who can do all the nitty gritty and ultimately be the shield to the back four.
We have played excellent free flowing attacking football throughout the season and scoring 99 league goals is testament to that but one criticism I have of Brendan Rodgers is that he is naïve in not knowing when to switch to a more defensive way of playing. At three nil up on Monday evening (especially with 22 minutes to go) Brendan should of ‘parked the bus’ and ensured the three points were in the bag. He had plenty of options on the bench including Agger and Toure who could have come on in the second half to shore up our defence.
The downside in one respect is that we are the only team in the Premier League era to top the table twice (08/09 and 13/14) on Christmas Day and not gone on to win the title.
I am immensely proud of the team, staff and fans for what we have achieved this campaign. We have made great strides in improving our league position and ultimately reaching our target which was ensuring we qualified for the Champions League group stages for next term.
Hopefully with a few quality additions preferably a right back, left back, defensive midfielder, a creative midfielder and finally another forward the squad can go from strength-to-strength next season and go one better and be Champions.
Follow me on Twitter @MRSSG
Lol! The last paragraph was so funny, you slated Mig throughout and then finish with ‘we need a new RB, LB, Def mid, Creative Mid & striker’!!
this column is hypothetical, non-nonsensical and a waste of time writing and reading, until late sunday afternoon when anything can happen, one might as well keep ones opinions to them selves!
Our defence is almost non-existent and to the rest of the PL a laughing stock. We will not have any sort of decent run in the CL next season as with our leaky goalkeeping they must be drooling at the prospect of tearing it to shreds just like the PL teams do. Mignolet is not up to the job and the sooner BR admits this and stops making weak excuses the better. When I was a teenager in the 50’s the common method of wire communication was by telegram with “telegraphic addresses” as we now have e-mail addresses. LFC had the telegraphic address “Goalkeeper Liverpool”. Oh how our present times calls such a mockery to it. There is no such “goalkeeper” at Anfield now !
there has been no doubt that mr rodgers has got us playing more free flowing attacking football.thee has been times when i believe he has been a bit naive – hull,chelsea for a mention but there has been other instances.most has been in speed of reaction to what is happening in game,& not being able to stop the change in momentum our opposition gets now & although i believe he is a good manager,i do believe he still needs a more experienced man beside him to deal with these situations,so he can see the signs that bit quicker or just not let it go on for so long – but aslso,palace showed he is a little intolerant to learning from other games.chelsea showed him the week before that shutting up shop can bring rewards,& with so little time left,liverpool was hardly going to get another 9 goals to make a game of it on goal difference,so when palace scored he should have done what he set out to do in 1st place,which was to bring on agger.he states that we had enough defensive players on pitch – but was they doing their jobs to a good enough standard when he changed from agger to moses?he was also a little arrogant in saying it was players fault – it was up to him to manage the situation better im afraid.i hope he does learn from this end of season,as i do believe he has been great for us,but its pointless getting us in right direction & then not adapting to play matches to get you over the line.
goakeeper – i dont think mignolet is good enough to be our no 1, great for a no 2. i think we should raid either stoke or cardiff at this moment in time – unless we can get casillas for a couple of seasons.
Spot on
Mignolet is dodgy at best, Reina would be barking out orders to his defenders, organising them
and pushing them out when they’re playing too deep. Don’t see much of that from Mignolet. Hope we get a new number one next year.
Goalkeeper , toure, cissokho, aspas and senior Moses and Johnson! All cost us, money wise and performences . Or lack off.
Add to this an injured and now out of form Lucas.
Holding mf has to be a top priority. Defensive cover and competition for me mignolet . If it continues, he must be dropped.
No more room for errors in the transfer market…. Too many mistakes. In fact, bar coutinho and sturridge, the rest can be classed as mistakes. Must get this right. I see us linked with lalana for 20 million pounds! 1 season wonders…. Stay clear.
Everything’s going to be ok…….apparently we’re going to sign Michel Vorm.