Liverpool v Birmingham Post Match Thread

[Darkon]

Cheating our way to a draw... boy that hurts.

Overall though we should have creamed that. We created enough chances, albeit not that many.

what on earth has happened to our defence? Jerome aside, which I don't think I could fault, but looked to me like Lucas was at fault twice for the first goal - giving away the free kick then failing to go up with Benitez. I don't normally have a go at players but I am now firmly in the anti-Lucas camp. Just don't see what he offers. I don't see why we should need two defensive midfielders and saying he offers anything there is stretching it. Otherwise he looks like a liability. I recognise that some think his short passing ability gives us some continuity, but I can't say that side-ways passing is what we've really missed this season. On the other hand I'm not blaming him for the result, just a build up of fairly meaningless performances.

Why aren't we creating more chances? - our support 3 is simply too light weight - not inventive enough. Although I like Kuyt for his work rate, it says something when the lad is playing as an inside right, but the right back has twice the attacking impetus. I don;t dislike Kuyt, but he is too slow, ponderous and un-inventive to play in that role. Riera looked desperate to please and I do believe he has something to offer, but he didn't really show it tonight.

Benny had a quiet night. I think generally he is a good player, but he needs to be more consistent.

...and dare I say it Mascherano... ok he breaks up play and tonight he played a few good forward looking passes.. but is that it? Shouldn't we expect a little more? I mean if his role is to break up play to help out the defence then what is the point when we're going to concede crap goals anyway? And more to the point why should we need him and Lucas at home?

On the other hand I was actually impressed with N'Gog. He was quiet for a lot of the game, but then he is a young lad. Thought his finish was excellent. On the other hand though, some-one should tell him that we don't cheat here. And that some-one should be Gerrard who again tried, but failed to win a sympathetic penalty.

Finally - why the **** doesn't Johnson play inside right? He was fantastic tonight and would really add to our attacking play without us having to worry so much about covering him as right back.

Anyway I don't normally post about players/positions and performances etc. because I don;t really know enough about this stuff.

I agree with much of what your saying judging on last nights performance.

Also, yes Lucas offers us very very little against teams like Birmingham. He does nothing for us when we have to break down a solid deep lying defence - he is just far to defensive minded and has far to little creativity. He has his rights against a team like the scum, but for other than that he is no better than a backup for Mascher.

I mean we are trying to play a system (only after Riera last night - I know) that is basically setup like Barca - but unlike them we have two midfielders that contribute very little going forward, whereas they only have one DM - that even gets forward and scores at times. We are just not good enough for the system. Escpecially considering our wings (Yossi aside) can contribute very little in penetrating a solid defence, especially with Kuyts constant back passing.

And as you say about Kuyt - he is more or less a waste on the right wing against this type of opposition. Again he is fine against better teams, but when it comes to breaking down oppositions, he is just to slow, not creative whatsoever and lacks the ability to take his direct opponent on. I stated it a number of times - but I would be far more excited with Kuyt if he was playing a DM! Throw Johnson up there and get Kelly or someone on the RB against teams like this, makes far more sense to me.

Riera looked like he wanted to do something special, but was clearly out of form - and you could just see how sad he was getting taken off. He has ability, but unfortunatly we havn't seen much of it this season.

On the positive note N'gog played very well, and should probably have scored a goal more, but he at least got himself in the right positions. Yossi was good in the first half and the only real source of creativity in midfield - good it's depressing he might be injured now.

I know we should have won last night and created a fair share of chances, but it's simply not good enough, and to me we looked like the team from last season that can't break down lesser opponents. For once I'm actually happy we have an international break, and hope we get players and confidence back in the two weeks.

[greenbloodred]

Playing for Champs lge qualification now. Only consolation is that the u half of wankchester are ****e as well

[The_weatherman]

Playing for Champs lge qualification now. Only consolation is that the u half of wankchester are ****e as well

Yes we are, although it bugs me that reading recent reports it seems to be nigh on impossible for us to achive, apparently our CL qualification chances are hanging on a thread.......we are only three points off Tottenham ffs despite the worst start I remember.

[janpelt]

We are crying out for another striker and a center back that can command the defence like sami use to.

Like i said in the match thread all the strikers we have had under rafa this is by far the worst line up we have had going back to souness. Torres not included of course.

We really do miss Sami! It was so nice to have someone on the bench that could take command of the defence and lead........... Too bad we let him go. He has been amazing in Germany (Yes I know it's not as good as PL), but against the likes of Birmingham (They're not Chelsea or Manure either) he could have done a brilliant job. The other thing that is killing us is the lost of Xabi , but he wanted to go and that could not be helped.

Right now our midfield is not working because Xabi is missing, defence is not getting the job done (Miss you Sami) and offensively we are too dependand on Torres :-( Hope Aquillani will prove to be a hit and sort out us at the middle.

[Kenneth]

Yes we are, although it bugs me that reading recent reports it seems to be nigh on impossible for us to achive, apparently our CL qualification chances are hanging on a thread.......we are only three points off Tottenham ffs despite the worst start I remember.

I guess the pertinent question is are we going to turn around our form soon and start winning consistently. If I was confident we would soon, I'd be positive about our chances but I don't have that confidence at the moment.

[cream]

We've become soft touch, bet teams love playing us at the moments.

I'm still ****ing pissed off.

[DannyMan2006]

Our ability at set pieces has cost us again. The goal against Chelsea is the first set piece Man Utd have conceded this season and that is the only difference between both us and them IMO. But it is such a vital ingredient to a premiership team and IMO it is the only thing we should be doing in training until we get it right. 24/7.

If I'm being honest I am finding it hard to have a go at the players after that performance. We dominated the game and limited them to pot shots and set pieces. How Jerome scored that goal is still a mystery, the lad will never score from there again in his life. I could also probably say the same about the Spurs LB, Assou-Eckotto (sp?).

But it was the final third that really got to me. We did create gilt edged chances. The N'Gog mis kick and tame Lucas effort at one nil really stick in the mind. As does the Gerrard free header that hit the post and the attempts by N'Gog at the near post from Gerrard crosses. But there were others.

However, it is the umpteen times we result to long shots that bothers me. Now if the players doing the shooting were concistant at scoring from twenty yards then I wouldn't have a problem. If Gerrard has a crack from this distance then fair enough. He is good enough to score from there. But the likes of Lucas and Mascherano love to rain down shots from there game after game, with little or no result. When a team is on the rack we should be loading the box and pumping in some crosses when we run out of ideas, not shooting from distance if it isn't in our locker. But we took pot shots for the entire second half.

On Dirk Kuyt. I love the bloke and he is a good player. But in games where we dominate he offers next to nothing. He can't cross on a concistant basis and he can't beat a man, nor did he get in the box enough. When we have a full squad to choose from I think Rafa seriously needs to think if he should be starting Kuyt in games like yesterday.

[Reece]

I noticed most teams over the weekend had poppies on their shirts. Anyone know why we didn't? Is it simply due to the red on red? Did Birmingham have them, I can't remember?

[Shaggy]

It's just too ****ing easy to score against us. We could have 95% possession and 50 shots but it wouldn't matter if the opposition have one shot, as it's likely to go in. Birdman touched on it earlier - although Reina is undoubtedly world class, he doesn't half let a lot of shots in. Maybe he doesn't stand a chance with 'em but the goals to shots ratio against us must be incredibly high. Last night reminded me of the 4-4 v Arsenal.

[Shaggy]

I noticed most teams over the weekend had poppies on their shirts. Anyone know why we didn't? Is it simply due to the red on red? Did Birmingham have them, I can't remember?

I slagged the Mancs off at the weekend as they were the only team not to have a poppy on their shirts....then we go and ****ing ignore it too.

I don't think Brum had them either. Disappointing really.

[Reece]

I slagged the Mancs off at the weekend as they were the only team not to have a poppy on their shirts....then we go and ****ing ignore it too.

I don't think Brum had them either. Disappointing really.

Yeah I agree - thought it was a classy touch by teams. I'd like to assume that us and the mancs didn't bother because they wouldn't show up on the red shirts, but as you say Brum didn't either.

Maybe we just too skint to even get extra shirts made up

[Guest]

What's the poppy thing? In memory of war veterans?

[Reece]

What's the poppy thing? In memory of war veterans?

Yes mate. 11/11 is Remembrance Day.

[Kenneth]

It's just too ****ing easy to score against us. We could have 95% possession and 50 shots but it wouldn't matter if the opposition have one shot, as it's likely to go in. Birdman touched on it earlier - although Reina is undoubtedly world class, he doesn't half let a lot of shots in. Maybe he doesn't stand a chance with 'em but the goals to shots ratio against us must be incredibly high. Last night reminded me of the 4-4 v Arsenal.

Their second was just a beast of a shot, but the first was a header from 3 yards out. Not much the keeper could do. Reina hasn't conceeded too many long rangers, teams seem to be able to find shooting chances in our 6 yard box all too often.

[Guest]

Last night was just plain bad luck IMO. How many times you see Cameron Jerome scoring goals like this? Have you seen his control, it was perfect, and his lob ....