Liverpool vs Birmingham match thread

[cream]

Uniteds defence looks poor at the minute, I'd have Cole, Gerrard and Babel behind Torres and Meireles and Lucas/Poulson in the centre.

[Rudo]

Uniteds defence looks poor at the minute, I'd have Cole, Gerrard and Babel behind Torres and Meireles and Lucas/Poulson in the centre.

[little dave hedgehog]

what were they singing when the guy proposed to the laydehhh today?

[RichC]

Uniteds defence looks poor at the minute, I'd have Cole, Gerrard and Babel behind Torres and Meireles and Lucas/Poulson in the centre.

I'd agree with that - Babel would need to put a full shift in but Jova and Maxi today were so poor, sayinh that it is a tough one though as on the right you worry about Johnson being caught out of position too often and Maxi does offer more cover that Babel - Dirk being out is a big blow!

I think Poulson will get the nod ahead of Lucas, Roys signing and he obviously likes him with Meireles next to him.

I bloody hope Konchesky will be available for OT as Agger needs to be in the centre with Carra and I haven't liked him at LB so far this season! I never thought I'd be hoping PK would be fit to play for us let alone at OT!

[Craig_H]

what were they singing when the guy proposed to the laydehhh today?

"You dont know what you're doing, you dont know what you're doing"

[little dave hedgehog]

clearly.

[Mattshark]

Jesus man, he's not playing at centre half.

There's 8 players behind him to do the mopping up, disciplined stuff.

He would be playing aganst a team that rarely concedes at home and is very difficult to beat, no discipline or workrate = being a passenger. If he plays in a game like that he needs to be an impact sub.

[Mostar]

Maxi and Jovo are pussys, zero commitment and do nothing for the team except run around aimlessly

Both were awful especially Jova. He was out there like a headless chicken. Way too slow in anything he does. He cannot process and pass quickly, not a goal threat, cannot shot from the distance etc.

I don't care if Babel (and Roy) sees himself as a striker but to me he should get a chance instead of Jova.

Maxi had a poor game but he made few decent passes and runs at end of the game and I personally would give him another chance.

Utter ****e. Should have lost this game, Reina won us a point.

He definitely made it up for a blooper vs Gunners. Top notch saves by a world class player.

Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson was not too disappointed to come away with a draw.

"They played extremely well in the first half,'' he said. "We started well but the final 15 minutes before half-time they pressurised the ball well and made life very difficult and we were depending on two very good saves from Pepe Reina.

"But I thought we kept our shape well, kept working at what we were doing, and the longer the game went on the stronger we were getting. It was a good performance from Birmingham and I'm not too disappointed with our performance either.

"We kept to our task well. It's early days for me and there's a lot of new players coming into the team trying to come to terms with what is being asked of them.''

Birmingham are now unbeaten in 17 games at home, and Hodgson expects many more teams to come here and struggle this season.

"This is a very tough place to come and play,'' he said. "They've got a very good home record, they're unbeaten in goodness knows how many games and this is also a game on the back of an international week where we've had a lot of people away.

"My expectations were not that high anyway. It would have been disappointing to lose but I'm not that disappointed to draw.''

It is disappointing when a manager in charge of one of the biggest clubs makes a statement that he had no high expectations against Brums (no disrespect to BCFC fans).

perhaps he's swearing at the players right now? managers always deflect stuff away from the team. He'll know full well the performance wasn't great.

No he didn't. He is not that type of manager.

Dannyman what you posted,we already know
My problem is with Lucas,I expect much much more,only 1 match did we see him do something that we waited almost a lifetime to see.
I want Roy to allow him to make runs into the box when we are attacking.I feel we are not getting the best out of him.

I don't think Roy will make him any better. He is average at best. Him and Paulsen today were disasters waiting to happen. I cannot remember when I saw so many missed tackles, poor positioning etc. They are horrible pairing and none of those ooze any confidence as DM..

[Icon]

Well I was deflated when I saw the t/sheet but I was like a ****ing raisin in a vacuum after that performance.
GJ shave your ****ing head and worry about the ball.
Jove was free right? Offload in Jan he is inert.
Lucas/Poulsen cannot work together and if they were any deeper they'd drown.
Poulsen is to soft in his passing game also.
I though PK did well tbh - not our biggest worry by all means.

I thought after the Man C debacle RH would have learned a lesson - it appears not.

Worrying times ahead.

But we'll take the mancs...

[JohnDoe]

Well that was poor. I hope the reasons I will suggest are the main reason, otherwsie we are going to have an average year once again.

Clearly the main fault with our team is the midfield. Our options out wide so far this season seem very poor. They seem like they run out of ideas when in possession.

But out wide isn't the main problem. The main problem is the the two DM's. We were so average last year because we played two players in the centre with zero creativity between them and zero inclination to get forward and support the attack - step forwards Masch and Lucas.

Today was pretty much the same as it was against West Brom - Poulsen and Lucas. And they were poor. They did what I expected of them - they kept it solid in the middle of the park. Brum had to go down the flanks to get any joy as we were very solid in the middle.

This is a good point but I think the wide midfielders we have are as bad a problem as Lucas/Poulsen, and while I do expect to see improvement with the removal of that duo, it won't be enough to make us play football which doesn't cause my eyes to bleed.

You said that our wide midfielders (Maxi/Kuyt/Jova) seem to run out of ideas when we have the ball, I don't think it's an accurate statement, I think they have NO ideas. They're without a doubt, the worst pairings of wide men I have ever seen play for the club and in fact, I would consider them to be one of the worst in the league today.

It's harsh on Kuyt because the guy is actually very effective when he's surrounded by a good team but when he plays with ****e, he can actually magnify that ****ness. Maxi Rodriguez and Milan Jovanovic though, are without a doubt, the worst I've ever seen play for this club. They are useless, clueless and without an ounce of hope. The only reason some people rate Maxi is that he hasn't played much, and when he does, he's so invisible and forgetful that nobody notices he's there to actually come to the realization of how useless he is. My complete disgust when I see them in the team rivals Lucas' name, maybe even more.

[Fredo]

Well I was deflated when I saw the t/sheet but I was like a ****ing raisin in a vacuum after that performance.
GJ shave your ****ing head and worry about the ball.
Jove was free right? Offload in Jan he is inert.
Lucas/Poulsen cannot work together and if they were any deeper they'd drown.
Poulsen is to soft in his passing game also.
I though PK did well tbh - not our biggest worry by all means.

I thought after the Man C debacle RH would have learned a lesson - it appears not.

Worrying times ahead.

But we'll take the mancs...

I hope that your comment about Johnson's hair were made in jest as they've got nothing to do with his level of performances.

[Bender]

Well I was deflated when I saw the t/sheet but I was like a ****ing raisin in a vacuum after that performance.
GJ shave your ****ing head and worry about the ball.
Jove was free right? Offload in Jan he is inert.
Lucas/Poulsen cannot work together and if they were any deeper they'd drown.
Poulsen is to soft in his passing game also.
I though PK did well tbh - not our biggest worry by all means.

I thought after the Man C debacle RH would have learned a lesson - it appears not.

Worrying times ahead.

But we'll take the mancs...

Based on what exactly

[Fernandinho]

Who cares if the hair does or doesn't affect his performance, he looks like a cunt and he seems to spend more time worrying about his hair then doing good stuff

[RichC]

Watching the game and having time to think about it - it was a poor performance but Birmingham are no mugs at home and are tough to beat.

Taking some positives from it Merieles looks like he'll be a decent player for us, I'd imagine alongside Poulson and we Cole to come back now - the negatives were Skertel who was exremely poor and a disaster waiting to happen and Milan Baros sorry I mean Jova - just the way he runs head down and doesn't look anywhere reminds me of him!

Hopefully see Agger back in the centre with JC and cole to replace Jova on the left Maxi wasn't great either but for the Manc's I'd leave him in ahead of Babel simply as I think we'll get raped down the right in Johnson doesn't have someone tracking back and helping him out.

[-V-]

It was a poor performance but yeah the only positive is that no team has beaten them at their ground since september last year. Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal all only managed a 0-0 or 1-1