Hull City v Liverpool

Got nothing to say about this one, but here's the thread.

Hope we win

Hull coming off of back of a gritty win with their tails up needing points. Our players and manager already on the beach.

2-0 Hull

Feeling a bounce back performance. 3 - 1 Liverpool. Coutinho and Balotelli on the board.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-must-turn-up-9126469 Should have thought this against WBA

we have suddenly become a pos of a team really who is asking anyone to finish in top 4..at least f*** put a fight !!

You guys act like we're mid table. Realistically given our injuries and player depth did you expect Rodgers to be so much better as a manager than Mourinho, LvG, Wenger and Pelle that he could overcome them with much less at his disposal?

So weird.

Dude no one is asking him to beat the likes of Arsenal, United, City, Chelsea.

He can't even beat WBA, Aston Villa in two of our most important matches of the season. Getting out thought by Timmeh and Pullis. That's quite frankly embarrassing.

exactly, I wont mind if we draw against Pulis team but we played so pathetic that day. AstonVilla, I was lucky I couldnt see the game because I was travelling. I still saw the highlights and there is really no excuse not to be in finals. Had we lost against the likes of Arsenal, we could have discussed this at another level. Rodgers has failed till now when it matters, if he wants to manage a club like us, he needs to grow and grow fast. We are not going get many chances because all the current top 4 will certainly improve.

Don't call me James wrote:Dude no one is asking him to beat the likes of Arsenal, United, City, Chelsea.

He can't even beat WBA, Aston Villa in two of our most important matches of the season. Getting out thought by Timmeh and Pullis. That's quite frankly embarrassing.

You make it sound like top managers in the world are infallible. Chelsea couldn't beat a PSG side who was a man down and all they had to do was not concede. City lost to Middlesborough, Burnley and Crystal Palace all in the last 10 games or so. Arsenal lost to Southampton (twice), Swansea, Stoke and were completely embarrassed at home by Monaco. I don't need to post about United's various struggles in the league and out of it (lol MK Dons) this season at different points. Even Chelsea lost to Newcastle and were embarrassed by Tottenham and Bradford (and were really outplayed by us in ALL of our matches so far this season...but we have no finish).

Nobody is infallible and Rodgers was in even a trickier situation because of the player situation this season with the slow to mesh start and injuries as well as just poor form by some players. The fact that we even still have a chance at top 4 is a testament to how well Rodgers has done with an inferior squad to the other teams competing there. Yes, we should have won some games that we lost but that happens to EVERY team in EVERY league from Real Madrid and Barcelona to Bayern and Juventus.

The players have to show up, too, and really teams have adjusted to us by sitting back and basically playing 11 behind the ball knowing we lack penetration this season. It's easy enough to say 'well Rodgers should adjust too' but when you don't have players that can score goals because they're all either in poor form or injured or sold it's a little bit difficult to gameplan.

El Cujo, you can't play the 'players are letting Rodgers down' card when he's had three years and over £200m to build his team.

El Cujo, I'm really puzzled about your motive. You are talking about debacles of Chelsea, City, Arsenal; while all of them are in a position we would be delighted to be in. Then you start about rambling about players while you have spent the entire season supporting them (bar Johnson).

Art both you and I know that Rodgers does not have full control over who comes in and who doesn't, and that 200m doesn't tell the whole story given he had to sell one of the best players on the planet and none of the replacement players he earmarked wanted to come here or the negotiations broke down for some reason (he is not responsible for that). Not to mention he is one season removed from landing 2nd in the league with an inferior team (overall) because of his management and system that he built to best use the players he had. This past summer was the first time there was buying en mass, and on top of that European competition, injuries and losing his strikeforce entirely.

He's had 3 years to build his team, really? Look where we came from and where we are now. Should finish either 5th or 4th after a very tough year, and finished 2nd last year.

iftikhar wrote:El Cujo, I'm really puzzled about your motive. You are talking about debacles of Chelsea, City, Arsenal; while all of them are in a position we would be delighted to be in. Then you start about rambling about players while you have spent the entire season supporting them (bar Johnson).

I've been pretty consistent with what I've been saying. We are a good team, but we lack that final product to be a great team. My point about them having debacles is that they have better teams than us and still stumbled against even lesser teams. It happens. I support all our players but that doesn't mean I think they're all world class or anything like that -- plus the only thing I'm really talking down about is our finish (plus the only real players I've been pumping up are Henderson and Coutinho who have both been fantastic).

Oh well.

Get in!

Another late-nighter . Not sure if it's worth it .

Liverpool XI to face Hull: Mignolet, Can, Skrtel, Lovren, Johnson, Allen, Henderson, Ibe, Sterling, Coutinho, Balotelli

That's one depressing lineup

Why is it a depressing line up? The only depressing player there is Lovren. Allen's meh, but the rest I like to see play.

Lovren has been one of our better players over the last few matches...having a striker who can't score and Johnson in there is more depressing.

Regardless I think we will win. It's not a bad line-up if we can provide some kind of penetration in the final third to a team that will, no doubt, play compact behind the ball.

Tactically I think it would be smart for Brendan to abandon the walking the ball into the net approach and ask Balotelli, Henderson and Coutinho to get involved in a lot of cutting back on the edge or outside of the box and just rifling as many powerful shots at the net as they can. Teams are just not giving us any space and we don't have enough individual brilliance at the moment to score those close finishes for whatever reason.

Mignolet holy smokes. Coutinho, Ibe and Lovren looking good. Can has been awful.

What a chance to equalise right at the end of the half there, but no... Their goal one of those irritating goals under this offside rule: you know you've got their players offside, so you quite rightly think 'we've got this covered', but they can still play the ball in there and score a legit goal.

But once again we have no game plan in attack.

And once again Sterling is looking like he's nothing but a pace monster.

El Cujo wrote:Mignolet holy smokes. Coutinho, Ibe and Lovren looking good. Can has been awful.

Are you NUTS ?

Can and Coutinho have been our only players trying. Can has done more in midfield from RB than half our midfielders. Your agenda is boring.

Balotelli..how can anyone want him to stay ? Soooooo many lazy passes...so many lazy attempts, late to run to get the offside working for their goal...not anticipating Johnson pass in the end.

ZERO game intelligence. Really hope some stupid team buys him from us for 5m. Get Lambert or Markovic on as striker.

Art Morte wrote:What a chance to equalise right at the end of the half there, but no... Their goal one of those irritating goals under this offside rule: you know you've got their players offside, so you quite rightly think 'we've got this covered', but they can still play the ball in there and score a legit goal.

But once again we have no game plan in attack.

And once again Sterling is looking like he's nothing but a pace monster.

I am not convinced Sterling is a wide player. He made his reputation in second half of last season playing as a #10. He's much better centrally. Out wide, he's very average. I hate this 4-3-3 formation .

My agenda? My god you have really devolved. Can has been leaving tons of room on his side and defending very poorly which is, first and foremost, what he should be doing as a fullback. Apparently I've an agenda against a player I love though.

Anyway, need to pick it up. Can still win 3 - 1 as predicted. But Balotelli needs to come off the field and a real striker put on. Not even necessarily a good one, but one who will attack the box. Even Lambert at this point would be preferable, or put Markovic on and use Sterling/Ibe as the striker.

It seems our game plan in attack is "let's hope someone manages to dribble past two defenders and that creates a chance". Brilliant stuff.

At least there's the Europa League qualification excitement now left to keep the final games interesting.