Post match thread

[Joe King]

I think perhaps the biggest difference not only today but compared to he other 3 title hopefuls is our defence's lack of ability on the ball. Without Agger we don't have 1 defender comfortable on the ball. Sami and Carra are old fashioned stoppers, great defenders but very limited on the ball. Whilst Vidic isn't great on the ball, Ferdinand can be very effective. Arsenal have both Gallas and Toure whilst Chelsea have Carvalho.

But its at full back where the comparisons are even worse. We don't have a decent attacking full back. Finnan and Arbeloa are ok but don't in truth pose much of an attacking threat. In days gone by we had Chris Lawler, Phil Neal and Steve Nichol. Great defenders but good on the ball as well. We don't ahve anyone in their class or to compare with Evra, Clichy or cole. we break down countless times with poor distribution from the back. JAR is of course the worse culprit but he's not alone. Top teams can drop deep, leaving any of our defenders as the free man knowing that more often than not, possession will be lost.

Good point. I have said about Agger being a massive loss to our style of play at home

[disco]

This sums it up for me.

http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_2909108,00.html

We weren't outplayed at all, although Kuyt was rubbish

[Joe King]

We can create all the chances we want but 14 off target? 14?! My God! Rafa needs an attacking coach someone like Rush to teach them how to finish

[tomasjj]

We lost, but deserved a point at least.

Problem in the first half was that we were bloody hoofing it instead of playing ball.

They got the upper hand on us, still.

It makes me sick.

**** off manc *******s!

[Joe King]

We lost, but deserved a point at least.

Problem in the first half was that we were bloody hoofing it instead of playing ball.

They got the upper hand on us, still.

It makes me sick.

**** off manc *******s!

Nope, they deserved their points. We didn't create enough. Didn't exploit their weaknesses which were so obvious. Evra, Vidic and Van Der Sar. Didn't do enough, they defended well. And life I am sorry to say goes on.

[kurtangle01]

It's christmas next week. Look forward to that and the upcoming games. Today's gone. Nothing we can do about it now.

We NEED to beat Portsmouth next weekend though.

[tomasjj]

Nope, they deserved their points. We didn't create enough. Didn't exploit their weaknesses which were so obvious. Evra, Vidic and Van Der Sar. Didn't do enough, they defended well. And life I am sorry to say goes on.

What the **** do you know.

**** you.
:bird:

[Marky]

"Stevie G was in Anderson's back pocket all game and our lad is just 19!"

tiptopteam

bbc sports page

Hard to disagree really.

[Joe King]

I am going to use what I experienced watching Ricky Hatton last week against Mayweather.

Now we had high hopes for the lad going to Vegas (although Vegas was like Manchester) and knocking out Mayweather, I wasn't convinced it would happen but I did the support the home grown boy thing and got behind him. Mayweather no matter how many boos rung around, stuck to his gameplan and won in emphatic style in the 10th round.

Same experience today. We had the belief to go and beat the Scum and inflict their third defeat in the league. We slipped up for one moment like Hatton and got caught with a sucker punch. They defended well and with all their might and didn't allow use to give them a jab at their goal. They stuck to their tactics, we ran out of ideas.

Its Pompey next with a fantastic away record vs our poor home record. Somethings got to change for the better in our favour.

[Dhav]

"Stevie G was in Anderson's back pocket all game and our lad is just 19!"

tiptopteam

bbc sports page

Hard to disagree really.

I wouldn't read anything into that, just think Rafa got it wrong about where to deploy gerrard today, he's just not as effective in a deep-lying role that Rafa had earmarked for him today. Looking forward to Alonso's return soon, he'd have made a massive difference playing where Gerrard was today, also would have allowed him to get up the field more

[Skillz]

Kewell was out of his depth today.

Should have 'risked' Babel

No offense but Harry has made an impact in every game since his return and to suggest he was out of his depth is frankly laughable. He had poor game by his standards for sure but surely he is one of the few players we have that has got some creativity which is what we needed.

I also felt sorry for him (and us) he wasn't able put that goal away cos if we scored first it would of been very different.

Some points I felt on the game

- Thier back 4 and midfield played very, very well
- VDS was very dodgy, pity the likes Kuyt, Benny and Kewell couldn't provide better service cos when we got it in the box they looked suspect
- we need Alonso, in fact against the big 4 teams we should play

Kewell Alonso Masher Gerrard

everytime, as we need Stevie to be in the free role to create chances and help break through the opposition defences.

At the end of the day neither team played very well and we missed our chances (how did Torres miss that) to go ahead. Once they did go ahead the writing was on the wall.

-

[vonk]

If we had this player or that player. If he had played, or he had been fit, all will change once he gets back....

Would have made no difference I'm fear. We are reduced once again this season to clutching at straws in what was supposed to be a real title tilt year. I'm of the belief that these are not bad players. We have a massive squad but we are underachieving. I'd just love to have more faith that Rafa is the one to bring 19 home but I'm losing it fast. The players seem to be lost in games like this. They go out with a game plan, then when the other team go a goal ahead one of two things happen. Either
A) Stevie pulls something out and we are back in it
B) Plan A continues until Crouch comes on with 15 or so left and we hoof it up to him
I think no combination of players under Rafa could have changed anything today once they went ahead. They were never really under threat and I said to a mate that we had all the ball but wouldn't score, 20 minutes before the end!!! Am I pessimistic or realistic? Whatever, we have no guile, confidence or plan B. The players seem confused and playing within themselves and I can't help thinking that this is the managers problem.

I've given up on the league. Of course it's possible the team will suddenly gain confidence and win at OT, Emirates, at Chelski, but lets face it... it's pretty unlikely. Rafa can blame the board for not giving him money, but that's his team. He agreed to sign Dirk Kuyt, a player whose confidence is gone, by being played out or position or by just being rubbish.

Where do we go from here? Do we wait until December 2008 when our title tilt is once again gone? Please, someone tell me we are in a better state than we were this time three years ago, so that at least I can dream we are constantly getting better. Why do I have this nagging feeling we are in the same state as we were 36 months ago....

[Dhav]

Where do we go from here? Do we wait until December 2008 when our title tilt is once again gone? Please, someone tell me we are in a better state than we were this time three years ago, so that at least I can dream we are constantly getting better. Why do I have this nagging feeling we are in the same state as we were 36 months ago....

Complete and utter nonsense to suggest we have not moved forward immeasurably in the last 3 years under Rafa, and to be honest I'm not going to waste any time in explaining it because no doubt it will be lost on you.

[bigfooty]

Where we go from here is that Rafa gets until the end of the season and he'll be judged at that point. We can all debate what is acceptable in terms of the league or cup performances but I would argue that if he does no better than 4th then it's time to call it quits because he'll have spent the last 4 seasons taking us exactly to where Houllier left us when he signed off in 2004. And that's just not good enough, regardless of how much money he has had in comparison to the other big teams because if we're not going to get their type of investment in playing staff then we need a manager who can over-perform, not one that some (hello Tom) seem to think requires 20M players in every position before he can properly challenge.

People claim there will be an exodus if Rafa leaves. If the team is only performing a level that equates to 4th in the league then I would argue that this might not be such a bad thing.

[tommyg]

Why bring Sunderland into it? They're in the bottom three mate.

Yeah the scum out spent us, but I'll state my point again, spending more than them is no guarantee that we'll overhaul them.

You need to find the right players, the cost of those players and the net spend is irrelevant.

Example; we sell Kuyt, Riise, Carson, Sissoko and Pennant for £30m combined, then buy 3 players at £10m each and then win the league. What does it matter?

We cant expect to win the prem if we spend 10 after 10 million on half-chances. Either have to go big on players like torres or there wont be any point