Birmingham - Liverpool Match Thread

[Baracus]

I went for a long ****e at half-time, hence the reason I stopped posting after. I missed the 2nd half due to the ****. I guess I did not miss anything.

[Shanks]

Gerrard looking fecked off

That was at the final whistle and rightly so he should look ****ed off.

That's the type of rag pic with a "Gerrard Leaving" headline above it..


Also.. Why did Torres have an ice pack on when he came off, if everything was ok??

[Craig_H]

That was at the final whistle and rightly so he should look ****ed off.

That's the type of rag pic with a "Gerrard Leaving" headline above it..


Also.. Why did Torres have an ice pack on when he came off, if everything was ok??

Players do that all the time. They come off with stiff or aching joints and put ice on it. It's not a sign of injury.

Place an ice pack on the joint area that is achy or swollen after exercising. If you have a joint area that is regularly swollen after exercise, you may want to invest in a more therapeutic type of ice pack or cold pack. These are usually larger, can be used repeatedly and can actually wrap completely around the joint to help soothe.

[Baracus]

Players do that all the time. They come off with stiff joints and the ice pack is used to counter it. It's not a sign of injury.

May I also remind the forum. That taking off key players during Key times, is so unlike Rafa. Least ye all forgeth the Reading game in 2007.

[andrewces38]

Whether torres was injured/****ed or otherwise Rafa was right to bring Ngog on..................but for once why dont he take Kuyt off and leave an half arsed/****ed torres on just to keep the oppersition defence on their toes...............we created more chances when torres went off ....2 reasons .............1 their defence sat back with a big fat cuban and thought job done,..................2.............Ngog showed more movement than torres did..............YOU DECIDE?.................but one thing is sure..............Ngog is a LFC player! it's not his fault he's not a very good LFC player ............and further more it's not his fault that KUYT is a player that Rafa will just not drop *( which is a shame IMO )

[Craig_H]

Maybe we also created more because their defence was tiring and because Babel came on and started running at them, committing them and generally making positive things happen?

[-V-]

What did Torres do away at Villa? Nothing for 89 minutes. Absolutely nothing. But we didnt sign him to do donkey work, thats Kuyts job. Torres is supposed to be on the park to win matches when that crucial 1 chance does fall to him.

But hey it doesn't matter, Rafa has a plan. Its complicated and nobody can explain but he always knows what he's doing. He does.He does i tell you! In Rafa we trust!!!!!!!!!

Not really he's a ****ing nutcase

[The Birdman]

Mixed views on the Torres substitution. We have 2 genuine world class players who would get in any club side in the world when they are fit and on form so logic suggests you keep Gerrard and Torres on for as long as possible but........
We created so much more after Torres went off it was untrue, it isn't Rafa's fault that Ngog, Maxi, Kuyt, Gerrard and Babel couldn't produce a final ball or clinical finish to win us the game.
Also I honestly think he wraps Torres up in cotton wool because of the injuries, Rafa probably and rightly imo thought that we would beat Birmingham even if he took Torres off and by rights we should have done but we didn't so now people give him dogs abuse

[The_weatherman]

We badly needed to win that game so why not just have both Torres and Ngog upfront? Kuyt is more of a midfielder so I don't count him as a striker but I wanted to see both our strikers for the last 30 and then just bench Torres against Benfica and bring him on if needed.

[Vermilion]

Mixed views on the Torres substitution. We have 2 genuine world class players who would get in any club side in the world when they are fit and on form so logic suggests you keep Gerrard and Torres on for as long as possible but........
We created so much more after Torres went off it was untrue, it isn't Rafa's fault that Ngog, Maxi, Kuyt, Gerrard and Babel couldn't produce a final ball or clinical finish to win us the game.
Also I honestly think he wraps Torres up in cotton wool because of the injuries, Rafa probably and rightly imo thought that we would beat Birmingham even if he took Torres off and by rights we should have done but we didn't so now people give him dogs abuse

Exactly right.

We created plenty of goal scoring chances once Torres left the field, tactics were fine, if our **** owners hadn't ripped off 20mill from the transfer kitty we'd probably have a better striker than N'Gog coming on too.

[lickedlollipop]

YouTube- Torres Gerrard reaction v Birmingham - Substituted

thanks for posting that video

[badpiggy]

never really believed we'd get anything from this game tbh so wasn't surprised at the result but the torres substitution does get me.

i can go along with the whole notion that rafa's scientific monitoring of the physical condition of the players probably lead him to have decidied before the game that torres would only get 60 mins today regardless of the score at the time. but you can't have a situation where he's complaining about aquilani not playing through the pain barrier one day and taking off the best striker in the world due to scientific stats indicating tiredness the next. in a must win game.

and regarding torres performance, how many games have we seen torres playing "****" in - giving the ball away easily, not holding it up well, the endless fruitless chasing of long balls and wide passes where there's no-one in support? and then out of nothing he scores a ****in blinder. it's what he does, it's how we play and it's how we win. our whole approach is based on an individual doing something special.

yeah n'gog should have scored and if he did it would've been a tactical masterstroke etc but the way it came about is contradictory and nonsensical. no way was another 30 mins before thursday going to **** torres up.

[Leyton388]

Found this on another forum and thought it had some good points in it. The part which shows what games we have blown when leading is very interesting.


What a load of lethargic, uninspired rubbish that really was. Credit to Birmingham for coming back having gone behind and for playing with the amount of discipline they did but the fact of the matter is, we were absolutely shocking this afternoon. This sort of nonsense is probably to be expected with the Liverpool of 09/10 but I'm still left with a bitter taste in my mouth when we come up with such bland, boring football. I don't expect us to play Barcelona-esque football with pretty passing all over the pitch but keeping a certain level of intensity throughout a game should be a must for a side with our quality but no, we're given that. I love Rafa and I don't want to be disrespectful but he's digging his own grave and I can't say I'm sorry about it if this is going to continue. I want a manager who can get these players and take them to the next level and Rafa is most definitely not that manager, that much is clear. The owners are a bigger problem but if you're going to blame them for everything that's happened post-Christmas, you are living a lie I'm afraid. These players are bottlers and I'm sick of it. Just to give you an idea of how terrible this team is mentally, here is a list of the games we've thrown away having been ahead or leveled up:

Birmingham 1-1 Liverpool
Benfica 2-1 Liverpool
Man United 2-1 Liverpool
Stoke City 1-1 Liverpool
Liverpool 1-2 Reading
Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal
Liverpool 1-2 Fiorentina
Liverpool 2-2 Man City
Liverpool 2-2 Birmingham City
Lyon 1-1 Liverpool
Fulham 3-1 Liverpool
Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool
Liverpool 1-2 Lyon
Tottenham 2-1 Liverpool

And this doesn't even give you an idea of the games we've not won without scoring, such as Sunderland, Wigan, Portsmouth etc. Talk all you like about transfer funds and referees and injuries and other b******s, I don't care. The fact of the matter is, this team lacks quality in the final third, a positive mentality and is shocking defensively. The man who should be sorting this is the manager

[WirralMick]

I know he's capable of making something out of nothing, but Torres really did do **** all when he was on. I think Rafa had balls to make that sub and he was unlucky it didn't pay off, N'gog could have scored a hat trick, he got into some good positions. I reckon both Tottenham and City will drop 6 points, but no more.

[Icon]

A crap Lucas stays on
A crap Insua stays on
A crap Skittles, Kuyt, Degen and even Gerrard stay on

= an (unusually) crap Torres stays on.

Who are going going to bet on to score first from that list?

Really?