Five Time European Champions vs Some Garbage Team from Madrid

Liverpool: Mignolet, Johnson, Lovren, Skrtel, Moreno, Gerrard, Allen, Henderson, Coutinho, Sterling, Balotelli

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Happy with that line-up apart from Lovren.

Let's go and win this.

Jesus, Johnson playing again

Well... we started well and have played well at times, but it's a bit of a downer to be 3 - 0 down at half-time... Had Coutinho's strike gone in, there would still be some hope.

Henderson actually needs a rest.

*bleep* our defense, seriously.

lmao that title.

McAgger there's still time for you to come back

Cou is goat

Ludogorets won

lmao Ludogorets saving our European dreams

There were positives in our game, but the fact is that it's very disappointing to not be able to score at Anfield.

We'll see what happens with Balotelli, is he going to start the next game or not? Getting subbed off at half-time for a midfielder, uh-oh. He just isn't looking like a striker, at least not a striker that we need, that suits our style.

Coutinho is in great form and I'm really liking what I've seen of Can so far. He's looking to get the ball and play positive, forward passes.

Henderson is either tired or off-form or both. Hasn't been himself lately.


Anyway, the scoreline doesn't look nice, but at least it's not embarrassing either. I guess that's how to sum up this one.

Can keep it below 3 at the SB? I think not. Manquillo will start that game.

well nothing to say there, we will be good in this season for top 4 imo. We will start winning games in EPL, their quality was evident every time they touched the ball

Completely and utterly outplayed.

Will not speak of our defence who were utterly exposed at this level. The treatment of Agger and replacing him for a mid-table worthless CB in the form of Lovren has me echo laughter. Johnson was toyed around by CR tonight.

Our midfield (which is non-existent) left caverns of space and looked like a combine ploughing through snow.

Balo continues to be played as a CF despite NOT being one as it seems it will take Rodgers a bell to the head to figure this one out. Even then he offers *bleep* all and went as far as to trade shirts with the opposition half time. I warned you about him.

Rodgers needs to bring serious answers to questions about our teams ability to shake off how Suarez produced so much for us and his own tactical nous, to which despite his systematic changes, have been threadbare. Said it again and again that if we do not even paper over our cracks, we would be exposed within the Champions League as so far our performances have been dire.

Luis Suarez to get revenge for us, all is fine.

On a serious note, couldn't care less if it's Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Barcelona, losing 3-0 at Anfield is unacceptable. I imagine it could of been A LOT worse if they didn't have to play El Clasico on the weekend. Rodgers pre-match presser was embarassing aswell. "These players will go on to to have a legendary status" or something along those lines in relation to winning this game. What in the flying **** is he on about. Win the actual CL trophy to get such fame, not a group stage game at home, we're not Everton ffs.

Arquitescu wrote: Even then he offers *bleep* all and went as far as to trade shirts with the opposition half time. I warned you about him.

He was pretty much alone in attack all day and was our only constant threat with Coutinho... we didn't look like scoring at all when he came off.

Bad enough he's getting scapegoated by all the knee jerking fools, but I expected you to have some leniency. He's not set the world alight granted, but he's not been THAT bad. Still have faith that he'll be world class in 2-3 years time. Just needs time to settle/adapt/develop in playing in an unorthodox role to him. LS7 was the same. Think Luis scored 15 league goals in around 40 games...

Balo always seems to make wrong decisions. He couldnt pick a single Player with his pass. He Needs some turning Point to sort himself. He is playing complete shite right now...Money spent on Lallana seems more worth than spent on Balo , at least as of now.

^ Play Lallana as a CF alone uptop with a clueless midfield and see how he goes.

Again, Cou and Balotelli were the only ones giving problems/ a worry to RM's defence. And Mario IS not a CF. Rodgers is clearly using him as a scapegoat right now in that position when it's clear Rodgers is not very great tactically. It's a shame for his sake both "SAS" are out and can't bail him out of games anymore. Rodgers has A LOT of work to do from now if he wants to make top 4.

at least Lallana does something (creates, runs, scores) not a clueless Shirt swapping headless, more hair stylig and less Goal scoring, not giving a damn Player.

The awkward moment when Lallana "doing something" is equal to "shirt swapping not giving a damn player".



Ignorant fool. Not giving a damn, yet he's one of the few that consistently actually closes down the opposition. The only one that stays back in training to try and adapt. One of the few (pretty much just Sterling and Sturridge now) that imposes a fear factor to the opposition.

Again, he's not a CF. He's a SS. Suarez was a SS before he was a CF. Suarez had 15 goals in 40 odd games. Let Mario adapt, and stop using him as a scapegoat ffs. The whole teams a mess. It's not his fault he's being mismanaged by an arrogant fool that's playing him out of position and expecting him to reach the heights of Suarez in the matter of a couple of a months. And then people have the balls to say we lost because a player traded shirts at half time. I mean ffs. Grow a pair. How this whole things become an issue is astonishing.

Man honestly you need to chill the *bleep* out with this Balo - Suarez comparison bullshit and implying Balo will somehow magically turn world class. We could all see it in Suarez, he was special, no one was surprised he came good, Balo has barley shown us anything.

Not saying he can't turn his form around, or he won't be good for us when DS comes back, but he aint ever ganna be suarez.

cant understand why RA is getting so hyper and over- about Balo. Balo deserves as much criticism as Rodgers. You cant tell me that Balo is SS and therefore he is allowed to miss 3-4 Yard tap ins. Balo has Quality and potential to contribute more than this, but it clear as day that his form is shite right now.

Balotelli is in bad form, but yes he is also more useful as a SS with someone to play off of. I wanted to play the diamond yesterday with Sterling tried as a striker with Balo. I think we would have looked better that way, but alas, it was not to be.

Not many people really expected us to win, and some expected a worse margin given our recent defensive woes. Johnson, Lovren, Skrtel and Moreno could do nothing in this game against RM despite the effort of our midfield to help cover (and they did put in a nice effort).

I think the biggest problem with this team right now is that they seem to be mentally weak since the Chelsea game last year. They come out hard and create a few scoring chances (against Madrid too) and if they don't go in they start fading, and they completely fold it seems if a goal is scored against them. We looked dangerous early this game even up until the point that RM scored, and then what? Nothing. The pressure was gone, the confidence was gone and RM completely took over the game.

I don't think it's fair to just blame Rodgers. Obviously he needs to adapt more to what he has and recognize some of things he is doing are not working. At the same time I think we need to look at the players and realize that they need to do some serious soul searching right now. They are playing broken, and the only way we're going to have a successful season is if they can shake that off and become whole again. With the number of additions we've had I think that the time to mesh will take a bit longer, and I think that we won't really see any kind of true consistency to the team until the new year.

Keep your heads up. YNWA

I still don't understand the random assertion that Balotelli is a great SS when he's rarely ever played SS for the past 4+ years.  He was on top at both City and Milan.  Maybe he was a SS at Inter... but that was when he was 20 and younger.  Playing SS involves reading space, finding open areas to receive the ball and making good decisions with the ball.  I don't see any of these attributes in Balo.

Have you watched him recently? Pretty much all he is good at is finding open areas to receive the ball, and linking up with teammates. It feels like he keeps creating space and getting into good areas to play someone else in to the box...but nobody is ever in the box to support him because he's the lone forward.

Of course he plays up top, but when we say SS we literally mean second striker as part of a strike partnership of two players. He just can't play as a lone striker very well.

Yeah, Balotelli cannot be a lone striker. He simply doesn't do the things that successful lone strikers do. His idea of scoring a goal is a shot outside of the box. We really shouldn't start him up front on his own again.

If you're talking a 2 striker setup where both strikers stay on top and basically split the pitch... yeah it could work. But the issue with Balo is movement and decisions. They're both poor. It doesn't matter what system you play him in if he doesn't improve on those.