The 3rd goal

[Nick77]

Yes I know the whole defence was not great but the 3rd goal showed that maybe Carra isn't as great as we make him out to be. Yes he is an excellent defender but he should have hoofed the ball into touch, especially with a class player like Henry coming in behind him. Henry looked only half fit to me but made our defence (especially Carra) look like fools for the 3rd goal. The reason I'm posting this because a lot of fans are quick to jump on Gerrard's back if he doesn't steal the show but Carra NEVER EVER gets criticised & I think that's wrong, especially after the 3rd goal last night. And don't get me wrong, I love Carra to bits but he has to hold his hand up as being one of our better players who didn't perform last night...

[Howard_lfc]

Carra never looks good against Henry.

Shocking error last night. Killed us just when we looked like we'd equalize.

[thesilverfoxlfc]

Just a mistake by Carra.

Shouldnt of been able to walk from half way with the ball

[Red_Polo]

Carra wanted to keep the ball in play because he wanted us to keep the pressure on them and push for an equaliser. Against any number of players he would've been fine but Henry's pace made minced meat of him and his class told in the way he went on to score.

In other words Carra misjudged the situation and Henry was class enough to make us pay for it. I'm not sure what criticism we're supposed to give him other than say he ****ed up for the goal, which is what everyone is saying anyway.

[Shaggy]

Carra never looks good against Henry.

Shocking error last night. Killed us just when we looked like we'd equalize.

I actually thought he'd done enough and cheered him when he slid in - he did well to fend off the speeding Henry's run. He won the race, but just made a bad decision...possibly due to the circumstances.

Nowt to fret over IMO.

[enema of the state]

Yes I know the whole defence was not great but the 3rd goal showed that maybe Carra isn't as great as we make him out to be. Yes he is an excellent defender but he should have hoofed the ball into touch, especially with a class player like Henry coming in behind him. Henry looked only half fit to me but made our defence (especially Carra) look like fools for the 3rd goal. The reason I'm posting this because a lot of fans are quick to jump on Gerrard's back if he doesn't steal the show but Carra NEVER EVER gets criticised & I think that's wrong, especially after the 3rd goal last night. And don't get me wrong, I love Carra to bits but he has to hold his hand up as being one of our better players who didn't perform last night...

Carra made a genuine mistake but his motivation was to keep the ball and keep us attacking - a calculated gamble that failed if you like.

i dont think he made the wrong decision because we had 3 further ways to stop a goal in that scenario:

1> finnan gets back to cover - he was knackered from attacking all out so not an opttion, no blame

2> (biggest error for this goal!) Agger MUST show henry outside onto his left foot. he would NEVER score if this had happened. I was on my feet yelling this as i would at lads i was coaching. its basic, know your opponent, force him to do what he doesnt want to. pros HAVE to be ableto do this in the helter skelter of a game like yesterdays.

3> its a soft shot, keeper should save it - i think reina stops all 3 yesterday but well never know

On the carra issue generally, i actually agree. when carra is a covering player for us (covering all the ack 4 slots) and we have a technically better and more athletic player in his role at centreback, then well be where we want to be. love carra for his red heart and his effort but he doesnt stand comparison to hughes, hansen, lawrenson, guillespie, nicol or young hyppia. people should wipe their red tinted glasses and accept this.

Also:

rafa is MAJORLY at fault for the GK selection. there are only 3 sides in this country against whom we dont go in as strong favourities. when we draw one - we should beat them using our strongest side and then do the "rotation" is subsequent rounds when we have our oponents outmatched. a big raspberry to the boss on this one.

i think rafa is the LEAST concerned of anybody to do with lfc over this defeat.

compliments though on the aurelio substituiton. i couldnt see how this would help us but it damn nearly turned this game.

dudek is carrying excess weight - this is part of his poor showing

[Bob]

Yes I know the whole defence was not great but the 3rd goal showed that maybe Carra isn't as great as we make him out to be. Yes he is an excellent defender but he should have hoofed the ball into touch, especially with a class player like Henry coming in behind him. Henry looked only half fit to me but made our defence (especially Carra) look like fools for the 3rd goal. The reason I'm posting this because a lot of fans are quick to jump on Gerrard's back if he doesn't steal the show but Carra NEVER EVER gets criticised & I think that's wrong, especially after the 3rd goal last night. And don't get me wrong, I love Carra to bits but he has to hold his hand up as being one of our better players who didn't perform last night...

Nonsense. You've had your answers on this thread (enema's was an excellent post). If that happened at the start of the game the ball would have been in the crowd - no doubt at all! You failed to take the context of the game into account.

[Sir Bob]

Carra is a top notch defender but he has one weakness and that is a lack of pace. Thats the reason in my book why he doesn't play regularly for England.

Yesterday, he was undone by Henry's blistering pace and he's not the 1st to have that done to him. Was he at fault for the goal, yes. Is he a top quality defender, yes. does pace stop him from being a truely brilliant defender, yes.

[Helios Creed]

I switched off after Carra's mistake. I thought we were getting back into the game and....

I can't remember ever switching a game off before , no matter how bad we've been playing and that includes when we lost to Soton a few years ago. Why weren't we tackling them? We seemed to try and play Arsenal at their own game and play a non-physical game. Why weren't our superior CMs dominating? Why didn't Bellers come on - neither Pennant nor Garcia had the pace to get past their defenders? Why did we put up such a piss-poor showing? We looked scared of them. Thank god Fabregas wasn't playing, he'd have made us look stupid. And after crushing Bolton too.

[Kopite_Colin]

Yoou really think we played badly. We defended badly and it cost us 3 goals, but in our general play, we were far superior to Arsenal in every department. Apart from our mistakes, they never threatened us.

[Red_Al_77]

Yoou really think we played badly. We defended badly and it cost us 3 goals, but in our general play, we were far superior to Arsenal in every department. Apart from our mistakes, they never threatened us.

..and we never threatened them. No point having the ball if you don't know what to do with it (see Riise before first goal). No point having greater possession if you can't even break a side down (first half). Their goalkeeper never actually saved a shot the whole match.

[Kopite_Colin]

..and we never threatened them. No point having the ball if you don't know what to do with it (see Tiise before first goal). No point having greater possession if you can't even break a side down (first half). Their goalkeeper never actually saved a shot the whole match.

I agree we didn't threaten enough. But that doesn't mean we were INFERIOR to Arsenal. We just lack QUALITY in key areas, and until Rafa realises it, things won't change, and we will have to get used to the same inept attacking edge we have seen for the last 2-3 years. We're 3-4 top players away from a title challenge. 2 wingers, 2 goalscorers and probably a LB too.

[johnly]

It was a mistake simple as. Lets not sit and disect the whole affair for an hour and a day, lets pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and batter that lot from London on Tuesday

Hoorray for optimism!

[Speedy]

Carra is a very good defender and whilst he had a bad spell at a point early last year, last 10 games or so he has been superb. His whole attitude is superb, but people on here do make him out to be something he's not. He's not the best defender in the country, or indeed in the top 3. Rather, he is a very consistent defender who suits us well. Shocking error yesterday, but that happens, agree with the majority of sentiments in the thread.

[lfc4ever]

It was a mistake simple as. Lets not sit and disect the whole affair for an hour and a day, lets pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and batter that lot from London on Tuesday

Hoorray for optimism!

Shouldn't be too difficult, they will play their second string side, get beat, then bleat about it afterwards that it wasn't the same side as Sat, nothing to prove etc, etc.