Swansea v Liverpool

Aspas it seems cant play near the striker as 10 or SS or whatever, he should have been played in the wings bringing Hendo in the center. Hendo had a decent game today, but I hope BR will realise one day of keeping Hendo in the center.

Wisdom had a good game defensively, couldnt offer much like Gleno does. I think coutinho going off was some disaster in the second half, because Aspas couldnt utilise the space available to him properly, was almost never available in a good position to pass through the midfield.

Henderson or Skrtel our MOTM for me. Sturridge did well, too, scoring yet again and trying to urge us forward and make those runs. Moses took his goal really well, but looked seriously short of 90 minutes fitness in the second half.

And yeah, hopefully Coutinho is fine, we don't really have anyone to properly replace him with.

Sakho although nervous had some brilliant brilliant moments as well.
He wasn't even supposed to travel, and it was a tough game to throw him in for his debut, he'll mature. He was very good in the air. Just need to stay on his feet more and doesn't lounge carelessly. for their 2nd goal he did exactly what Luiz did vs everton and Carra was analyzing it.

It was the wrong game for Aspas. He isn't physically strong to thrive in these kind of games. I think the right move would have been to bring Sterling in, move Hendo AM and get Raheem RW.

About Wisdom substituion, he was on a yellow card and BR was afraid of him being sent off

Another gutless 2nd half performance, after what was an impressive 1st half.

I do not understand our tendency to sit back and absorb needless pressure within a safe lead, without pressing or a catalyst to counter when we have been so close to conceding.

The attitude on display to thwart Swansea's dangerous possession spell's was that of a mid-table club. Almost as if we were content to close down the result for a nonsensical draw.

With Chelsea-Everton a draw it was a paramount opportunity to send us top of the table by a measured gap.

We need to relinquish our 2nd half attitude and fear vs such opposition, as tonight was a testament to how we will concede in the future, if we adsorb pressure to which is not necessary to the position of play.

Disappointing. Hope Philippe is okay.

Agger doesn't play we concede two goals, shocker. Please tell me more about how Agger is shit at defending

Dude, sometimes your Aggermania goes a bit over the top, the bottom line here is that we didn't play good enough as a team to deserve to win the game. That said, I'm all for having an Agger-Skrtel partnership based on our season so far.

I think as some are saying I dont think the mentality or instructions were to sit back and absorb pressure, it was clear many times that we tried pressurizing high up the pitch. But when we got the ball we needed someone to be there in the between sturridge and midfield, but Aspas just couldnt do it.

Sakho was very poor by his standards. He's an aggressive guy and he seemed:
- Rusty since it's his first game of the season (played very early preseason a couple of times and that's it).
- Was caught between doing his usual thing or being conservative... ended up in no man's land or late a few times.

Once he gets used to his teammates and the pace of the league, he'll cut loose. This was nothing like him other than the passing out of the back... he was still pretty good there.

Was mostly uncomfortable tonight.

Sakho was abysmal tonight. Kept stepping forward and leaving players space to run into. He did it so many times. Hopefully Rodgers can teach him how to position himself better in future

Spoiler:

The way we drop off in the 2nd half baffles me. We look so much better on the front foot, why can't we maintain it?

Draw is a good result, but a frustrating performance, Swansea were there for the taking tonight, should have capitalised.

Mignolet very good shot stopping again, distribution poor, looked more commanding though. Especially when he ran 15 yards to punch clear and left Bony on the deck.

Wisdom wasn't great. But he's a CB. Often had very few options for passes and was forced back or down the line. Stupid to go into a season with 1 established RB and no natural cover in that position.

Skrtel and Sakho were a bit up and down. Both made brilliant last ditch tackles, both won most headers. Positionally they were a bit off sometimes, but I suppose it's to expected with Sakho having hardly played for months and not speaking English yet.

Enrique did okay for his standards, I don't rate him, but he wasn't too bad. Slows down our moves too much though, doesn't really make intelligent runs and holds on to the ball for too long.

Henderson as you'd expect. Tons of energy, good pressing, kept the ball well. Just seems a bit out of place when everyone else is so deep and he's the only one trying to instigate pressure on the ball.

Lucas and Gerrard good first half, poor second. Had nobody to pick out when Aspas came on an Sturridge tired, wingers were deep and everything was too flat. Poor for Swansea's second. Lucas went ball chasing (sounds familiar) when he didn't need to. Swansea had runners from midfield so he shouldn't be abandoning position. Gerrard should have tracked Shelvey, didn't react quick enough to Lucas' mistake.

Moses started off quietly but looked dangerous when he had the ball. Strong, quick, direct. Could be a good option. Took his goal brilliantly as well, good debut.

Coutinho showed good touches before he got injured, we seemed unwilling to commit many men to the attack and there's not much a playmaker can do without runners to pick out. Hope he's back for Saturday. Massive drop when he went off.

Sturridge just can't stop scoring. Showed the striker's instinct to get that goal, overall play wasn't brilliant but not really his fault. Too often left far too isolated, especially late on.

Aspas was woeful. I genuinely don't know where he was meant to be playing. Not deep enough to have been playing Coutinho's role so he didn't offer any link to the attack but at the same time he wasn't close enough to Sturridge to give him any help. Didn't occupy any defenders, didn't stop any midfielders bringing the ball out.

Toure had the same problems as Wisdom. CB playing at RB. No passing angles. Mostly because of how deep and flat we were.

Sounds negative, which is stupid considering we're unbeaten, have taken 10 out of 12 and are top of the league outright. Just feel as though we ride our look too much, too willing to sit on a 1 goal lead. That's understandable in big games, but you can't do it for an entire season. Get 2 or 3 and then kill the game by keeping the ball. Don't invite so much pressure on. Eventually we'll crack as we did tonight.

that Jonjo Shelvey did more than Joe Allen did for a whole year at Liverpool ( ) set up 2 goals & score a goal & he only cost 6m,

joke aside sell a Premier League midfielder & buy a unrest player to act as cover for midfield, i hope will not cost us,

i hope we can get a new defensive midfielder & Will Hughes in jan

Feels like a lose to be honest. Swansea should of won that. lol

The throw in at around the 94th minute mark just shows we don't have that winning mentality yet and we were happy for the draw. You just know if that was a United, or a Barcelona etc the whole team would go forward and attempt to get the winner. A draw isn't good enough, I hope Rodgers drills that into the team. I mean, the only man that wanted the ball at the thrown in for us was Sturridge. And the ball wasn't even thrown towards him. It went over him and the ball eventually went all the way back to the keeper...

Thought Sakho did poor to okay. He'll definitely get better. Like Sepi said, he wasn't supposed to play. He's not had much games in pre-season with PSG and has just came in to a new league that is easily the quickest tempo in the world. He still can't speak English, either. With that said, the sooner he stops with his two foot lunging tackles, the better. He was a positive in moments tonight. He was okay in possession. His last ditch tackle on Michu at the end was very good. Sakho will definitely help us in the air as well. I have no worries he'll establish himself as world class CB in the future.

ExtremistEnigma wrote:Skrtel is better than Dagger ffs.

Been saying this for over a year but get labelled a Skrtel fan boy. The sooner people realise Skrtel is better as a defender, the better. I love Agger, but he is only known for his footballing skills on the ball.

Natalie Portman wrote:
It was the wrong game for Aspas. He isn't physically strong to thrive in these kind of games. I think the right move would have been to bring Sterling in, move Hendo AM and get Raheem RW.

If he can't handle Swansea, he can't handle the league.

Arquitescu wrote:Another gutless 2nd half performance, after what was an impressive 1st half.

I do not understand our tendency to sit back and absorb needless pressure within a safe lead, without pressing or a catalyst to counter when we have been so close to conceding.

The attitude on display to thwart Swansea's dangerous possession spell's was that of a mid-table club. Almost as if we were content to close down the result for a nonsensical draw.

With Chelsea-Everton a draw it was a paramount opportunity to send us top of the table by a measured gap.

We need to relinquish our 2nd half attitude and fear vs such opposition, as tonight was a testament to how we will concede in the future, if we adsorb pressure to which is not necessary to the position of play.

Disappointing. Hope Philippe is okay.

This sums it up for me.

something-red wrote:Been saying this for over a year but get labelled a Skrtel fan boy. The sooner people realise Skrtel is better as a defender, the better. I love Agger, but he is only known for his footballing skills on the ball.

Exactly. As a defender, Skrtel is better and much more consistent. Agger gets rated because of his skills on the ball and ability to make 10 yard passes. There's no doubt about his passion and commitment and his performances against top sides. But he's pretty much inconsistent and fails to turn up when we face weaker teams.

Liverpool arent creating anything really. 2 goals scored were due to Jonjo thinking he still plays for Liverpool, as good as Coutinho and Hendesron are what do they contribute to attack?

Skertel Motm,was covering for all the sacko errors and was unlucky to concede jonjo goal after a brilliant tackle to deny him first time.Not to mention the last ditch tackle after wards.

I'm disappointed. Swansea didn't play well, we allowed them to play. Specially in the second half. We didn't press and couldn't keep the ball.

Lot has been said about Lucas & Gerrard. But they are liable to have a bad patch. Gerrard is not only 33, he played a game in the mid-week. Things didn't help as Allen was injured.

It don't make sense playing Henderson on the wing, specially with Moses available. Moses & Coutinho offers more on the wings while Henderson offers more in the middle.

Yes, for all his superb qualities, Mignolet has poor distribution. Or was is just that poor game!!!

I'm not concerned with the result. If Rodgers & the players take lesson from this game, we will do good this year.

Here's the big adjustment for Sakho...  at PSG, the CBs came up on the strikers to force them to either go offsides or cut their runs off to stay offsides.  At Liverpool, i notice that everyone plays very deep...  it's a reactive defense as opposed to a proactive one.  Besides being rusty and the communication barrier, that's a major adjustment for him.

I also noticed that the fullbacks stay wide and don't pinch in too much when the ball goes central.  On the Shelvy goal, as a CB, that's the type of dribble you cant the striker to take because you expect that there's no way he can take the ball so far and so wide and not have the fullback intercept.  On the second goal, that's offsides every time at PSG... but since his instinct is not in tune with the other CB who is defending in the box, they are out of sync.

Massive defensive philosophy change for him and he was very hesitant and uncomfortable.

I'll put it even more simply: At PSG, as a defender, you're worried about the players in front of you if the ball is also in front of you. If a player is behind you, you let him go because he's offsides. The CBs play on the same line and they set the lowest marker. The fullbacks also defend inside out, not outside in.

It's going to take time.  If this is the Liverpool defensive philosophy (reactive/very low) then i'm very uncertain about how he'll fit.  It's the exact opposite of how he's been trained.

i'll add this... once you bring back Suarez and avoid injuries, you guys are a legit threat in the EPL. Midfields are very light anyhow. So you should be able to make it.

Mamadou Sakho vs Swansea

Moses Debut vs Swansea

I think Sakho is a much better version of Agger, you can see the bravery and confidence of the guy, he is not scared at all with the ball at his feet when he pressurized near D box. I am not sure about any other defender in EPL who has the ballz to do things like Sakho.

He also played some good passes, I was thinking if we can play him sometimes as LB I have a feeling he can do a good job there too.
I think apart from rusty moments, he had a good game, he will be massive for us. I have a feeling, skrtel and sakho as a pair will be long term starters for us.

I thought you guys did well to hang on to a draw last night, do you reckon you have the strength to keep up this form and maintain a title challenge?

Talk of a title challenge is still a heck of a stretch, but if last night showed anything it's that Liverpool/Rodgers/the squad have learned from last season's inconsistencies. Last year that draw would have been a loss (like Aston Villa, Southampton, West Brom, etc) right as momentum and a run of results looked to be building... this season it's a credible draw and a point that takes us back into a good table position (to put it mildly ). It's clear progress in my book, much as some may argue otherwise.

a challenge#
title challenge#
maintain form#

thanks for asking anyways

I agree with RedOranje, if you can turn those losses into draws and draws into wins which you weren't able to do last season then I reckon you'll be up there come the latter stages of the season. You've got the advantage of a season together, much like we do, plus Suarez coming back - when you look around you've got Man U and Man City both with new managers and not quite clicking, Tottenham have a whole new squad basically and haven't fully gelled and who knows what's going on at Chelsea! But, as always, far too early to make a call.

I think people are reading too much into this game.
People forget how bad Koscielny or even Skrtel's debuts were. I remember Skrtel's was a nightmare against a 4th league side in FA Cup. Sakho wasn't due a start, but now he's experienced a really high intensity typical EPL game. Not every game will be played at such a fast speed (definitely not next week at home to Saints).

As for creating chances Adit, I think Sturridge's header saved by Vorm, Henderson's cutback for Wisdom saved by Worm, and there was a point in first half, that Sturridge got the ball in space and went at them in pace but Moses made the wrong run inside instead of outside of him and the opportunity went to waste. For Moses' goal, Sturridge did the same but made the run outside (right run) which created space for Moses to cut in and score.

Also Hendo had a great shot in first half blocked by Davies that should have been a goal. There was also a Sakho clearance in second half at 2-1 that Aspas got hold of, but his final delivery to Sturridge wasn't good and was intercepted.

If you see Moses goal, we had 5 players in their box all creating space for him. First half, it was really good and we had great attacking chemistry. As for Coutinho, I think he'll get a lot more space once Suarez is back. Aspas still thinks he plays in La Liga that refs give fouls easily, but someone needs to tell him it's a different trade here ASAP.

Suarez is also one of the best counter-attacking players in the world, so when we are under pressure and kush like yesterday, he'll be a great outlet to get tactical fouls and relieve the pressure.

By the way, last night showed how much we miss Johnson's calmness and composed play in defense. Criminally under-rated in our system.

I expect the second half performances to improve as season wears on and we become fitter. Don't forget that our Christmas schedule includes Spurs (A), City (A), Chelsea (A). We need to be in top physical shape for that. For now, we should take full advantage of our relatively easier fixture lists.

I'd certainly expect 9 points from our next 3 games: Saints (H), Sunderland (A), Palace (H)

Sakho being able to play fullback is a myth. He can't. He only did it in an emergency situation when he was 18 for PSG... he had about 10-15kg less muscle back then lol. Not enough speed. You'd basically be playing a 3 CB set... which is not the worse idea in the world given the CB depth at Liverpool btw.