Liverpool vs Blackpool post match

[Frenchie]

Can we tell Tydesely to shut it? He's pathetic!

Trouble is most non LFC fans believe that account and it's a bore having to defend the real situation at parties and the like and go through the whole ownership, net spend, profit on dealings, missing cash, mutual split , Woy's appointment vs Kenny, give Woy a chance, removal of zonal marking, defending on the penalty area line, hoof ball, Poulson, Konk, 442, cowardly, insipid, ****e meaningless interviews and bewilderment set of issues phew.... that you have bored the arse off've everyone and its easier to just say Rafa..

Some sections of the media are waiting to pounce and stick the knife in over this demise, thats why they are being nice to Hodgson thus far.

They are said (no source)to have redtop frontpage stories on some players and
are tied up in gag orders for now, plus they still have that surprize someone on here mentioned cant remember who, on the owners dodgy cayman dealings too.

Bottom line is this is a journalists joy and they will milk it for all its worth because it has everything...sex, crime, intrigue, money...and business so the broadsheets are all over it too....

There is no way this will be resolved soon or quietly...

The board will not so readily bow to change the manager as their mindset is already steeped in conflict resolution and the 3 vs 2 on the board so moribundly resolute in their own views.

So with their us vs the world attitude Pursglove will not admit a mistake as that would be a chink in his armour which has to be portrayed as unpenetrable.

If Hodgson wasnt so deluded, the nail chewing, pompous, preaching excuse of a manager that we have, he would do the honerable thing, but no he will fight...

So what of the future?

Nirvana...New owners on 15th Oct with Guss Hiddinck (or someone other than Roy) and a new stadium and £300m to spend in January

Hell.(allegedly)... Administration and legal complications, 9 point deduction, Roy still in charge, Hicks wins legal fight and refinances but leaves coffers further in debt because of lawyers, Stars sold and replaced with Birmingham reserves, relegated and start the Championship next season minus 15 points because of financial irregularities at Kop holdings, Roy calls for 'Malmo spirit' from captain Poulson

[frank the tank]

well i am looking at our next couple of league fixtures and honestly can't see where the next point is coming from....Everton, blackburn, bolton and then chelsea........we have 6 points after 7 games but looking at the next 4 games, we could have something stupid like 8 or 9 points after 11 games...... the longer this goes on, then when we go places like sunderland and newcastle away, we have to take the game to the opposition and push and push and that is when home teams can play counter-attack on us and pick us off.......the longer this goes on, the harder it will be to get it sorted.........

i think our problems obviously come from the ownership situation and that is a disease across the whole club. However, the playing staff / management isn't helping.. Put it this way, look at Valencia - they are in WAAAAY more debt that us, and have been for a number of years, yet they can still remain competitive. We have good players but their attitude is all wrong.....a couple of more problems are:

1. We have a ****e right-back that cannot defend properly. People are deluded into thinking that he is brilliant going forward but to be perfectly honest, no he isn't. Pace isn't the only attribute to have and it is pointless getting to the byline if he can't put in a half-decent cross. He is all-fart and no pooh......he needs to follow through!!!!

2. We have a primadonna striker that believes his own press. On his day he is unplayable but he hasn't had "his day" in about a year!!! Also, his body language suggests that he is pissed off with how the team is playing (which is fine, we are all pissed off) but he is throwing his toys out of the pram as opposed to knuckling down and fighting for the team....

3. We have a captain that seems to hide. Like torres, he doenst seem to extinguish the speculation that he will be on his way during every transfer window.....he looks pissed off as well...

4. We have a manager that doesnt seem to have a clue. He doesnt seem to set up the team properly, it seems to take the team 20 minutes to settle and also when things are going badly, he doesnt seem to be able to change things accordingly......


Going forward, we need to start getting a few clean sheets and get a defensive confidence about us again. Under Houllier and Rafa, we kinda always knew that if we managed to score 2 goals, then we'd normally win the game. We were generally solid. Getting abck to basics is what we need to do first. To me that means playing a solid 442 - that way everyone knows his job properly and can go out and express themselves a bit more.......

a team of:

--------------------------REINA-----------------------

KELLY--------CARRAGHER--------SKRTEL---------AGGER


JOHNSON------GERRARD---------MEIRALES-------COLE


------------KUYT---------------TORRES---------------

is what we need.....

[Lecter]

well i am looking at our next couple of league fixtures and honestly can't see where the next point is coming from....Everton, blackburn, bolton and then chelsea........we have 6 points after 7 games but looking at the next 4 games, we could have something stupid like 8 or 9 points after 11 games...... the longer this goes on, then when we go places like sunderland and newcastle away, we have to take the game to the opposition and push and push and that is when home teams can play counter-attack on us and pick us off.......the longer this goes on, the harder it will be to get it sorted.........

i think our problems obviously come from the ownership situation and that is a disease across the whole club. However, the playing staff / management isn't helping.. Put it this way, look at Valencia - they are in WAAAAY more debt that us, and have been for a number of years, yet they can still remain competitive. We have good players but their attitude is all wrong.....a couple of more problems are:

1. We have a ****e right-back that cannot defend properly. People are deluded into thinking that he is brilliant going forward but to be perfectly honest, no he isn't. Pace isn't the only attribute to have and it is pointless getting to the byline if he can't put in a half-decent cross. He is all-fart and no pooh......he needs to follow through!!!!

2. We have a primadonna striker that believes his own press. On his day he is unplayable but he hasn't had "his day" in about a year!!! Also, his body language suggests that he is pissed off with how the team is playing (which is fine, we are all pissed off) but he is throwing his toys out of the pram as opposed to knuckling down and fighting for the team....

3. We have a captain that seems to hide. Like torres, he doenst seem to extinguish the speculation that he will be on his way during every transfer window.....he looks pissed off as well...

4. We have a manager that doesnt seem to have a clue. He doesnt seem to set up the team properly, it seems to take the team 20 minutes to settle and also when things are going badly, he doesnt seem to be able to change things accordingly......


Going forward, we need to start getting a few clean sheets and get a defensive confidence about us again. Under Houllier and Rafa, we kinda always knew that if we managed to score 2 goals, then we'd normally win the game. We were generally solid. Getting abck to basics is what we need to do first. To me that means playing a solid 442 - that way everyone knows his job properly and can go out and express themselves a bit more.......

a team of:

--------------------------REINA-----------------------

KELLY--------CARRAGHER--------SKRTEL---------AGGER


JOHNSON------GERRARD---------MEIRALES-------COLE


------------KUYT---------------TORRES---------------

is what we need.....

Anything that involves 4-4-2 and Liverpool FC (as it stands today) is a non-starter imo

We dont have the players to play that system

We have zero width and those players in the central midfield positions do not offer enough protection to the back four

I am absolutely convinced we have to play a specialised holding midfielder AND we have to play Gerrard off Torres were he is most effective in terms of hurting the opposition

We should also move our back four 10-15 yards up the pitch to get the midfielders closer to the back four and compress the play

Yes this means that there will be space in behind us but the ball has got to be well weighted and the run well timed and crucially this tactic plays to Pepe's strengths

[Fredo]

Link

It was coming. After defeat at Manchester City, after distress at Old Trafford, after despair the night Northampton stormed Anfield, it was coming. After 13 games and 89 minutes, the Kop returned its verdict on Roy Hodgson’s nascent reign as Liverpool manager. It came in one stark, solitary word. No elaboration needed. “Dalglish”.
At any club, after such a short space of time, hearing fans demand the manager be replaced, even by a legend, would be surprising. At Liverpool, such things are almost unheard of. This is a club which prides itself on its patience and its loyalty. It is also, though, a club which has developed an acute nose for mismanagement over the last three years.

Long before Ian Holloway’s Blackpool side were applauded from the pitch by all four sides of Anfield, before a Charlie Adam penalty and a Luke Varney strike condemned Liverpool to spend the international break in the relegation zone, some 3,000 fans had gathered to march against off-field incompetence. Still more remained afterwards to reiterate that the continued presence of the club’s owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, will not be tolerated.

But in that one word, in the torrent of boos which greeted the half-time and full-time whistles, it became clear that such militancy will not be limited to the boardroom. The Boot Room will be subjected to the same scrutiny. The fans will no more see their club in the wrong hands on the pitch than they will off it. They do not want a Liverpool side which has, in consecutive games, been dominated by Northampton, Sunderland and Blackpool. They do not want a side which has no ideas, fluency, width, penetration, guile or movement. They do not want visitors to come to Anfield and fancy their chances.

They do not want to see a manager - appointed by managing director Christian Purslow to bring attractive football, to unite the dressing room and to steer a course through troubled waters - field a centre-back up front, produce a team with no discernible spirit and plunge the club to its lowest position in years.
Yet that is where, after 14 games of his reign, Hodgson’s Liverpool stand.
It is too early to suggest that the board which only four months ago introduced him as the man to right all of Rafael Benítez’s wrongs will withdraw its support. He retains the faith of the club’s shareholders. Its stakeholders may be lost to him.

Holloway, inadvertently, offered the most eloquent, poignant description as to why. “To be applauded off at what is almost the home of football is so special,” he said. “That is what I dreamed of last night. When they were singing 'You’ll Never Walk Alone’, which was my Dad’s favourite song, I was so emotional. He is no longer with us, so I was singing along with them.

“These supporters have seen some of the best football ever, which started when Mr Shankly had his dream. In my era, there was no better football club in the world.”
It is almost impossible, with this team, with this manager and with these owners, to equate such sentiments with Liverpool. The weight of history hangs heavily on the club’s shoulders.

Holloway suggested after the game that such a burden may partly explain why Hodgson’s players struggled, why they so generously afforded their guests a head start. After all, as one fan reminded the Blackpool manager, the visitors “are not exactly Real Madrid”. Quite so. The last time Real were here, they were beaten 4-0. But then Liverpool are not exactly Liverpool any more.

Instead, they are a side which lost here because they deserved to and a club in the relegation zone because they deserve to be there. Holloway might have suggested that his side “clung on”, that their defending reminded him of the Alamo, but such remarks say more about what he thinks of Liverpool as an institution than as a team.
His opinion of the latter is not nearly so high. That much was clear from his team-sheet, with no holding midfielder, and from his side’s kick-off, when five men thundered into Liverpool’s half, a statement of intent.
They warranted their lead, for their play and their ambition. Adam had stung Pepe Reina’s palms with a free-kick and DJ Campbell and Varney had all gone close - their hosts, rocked by the loss of Fernando Torres, did not create chances so much as allude to attacking - before Varney was tripped by Glen Johnson and Adam converted the penalty.

They merited their second, too, a fine move inspired by Gary Taylor-Fletcher and capped by Varney, clipping a beautifully-weighted through ball past Reina. And they deserved to weather Liverpool’s second-half storm, triggered by Sotirios Kyrgiakos’s thundering header, but which petered out once Meireles and Joe Cole had gone close.
Blackpool might even have had a third, through DJ Campbell, before Hodgson threw his Greek central defender up front. He went close twice, but the artisan was to prove no more effective than the artists. The chant for Dalglish began. Hodgson’s clock began to tick.

[The_weatherman]

Anything that involves 4-4-2 and Liverpool FC (as it stands today) is a non-starter imo

We dont have the players to play that system

We have zero width and those players in the central midfield positions do not offer enough protection to the back four

I am absolutely convinced we have to play a specialised holding midfielder AND we have to play Gerrard off Torres were he is most effective in terms of hurting the opposition

We should also move our back four 10-15 yards up the pitch to get the midfielders closer to the back four and compress the play

Yes this means that there will be space in behind us but the ball has got to be well weighted and the run well timed and crucially this tactic plays to Pepe's strengths

Think about it - Roy is doing the perfect opposite of all this. Changing Reina's goalkeeping style, camping the team in their own penalty box to defend, keeping Gerrard as far from the oppositional goal as possible and using four "midfielders" in 4-4-2, I use the term midfielder loosely about Poulsen.

[Fredo]

Anything that involves 4-4-2 and Liverpool FC (as it stands today) is a non-starter imo

We dont have the players to play that system

We have zero width and those players in the central midfield positions do not offer enough protection to the back four

I am absolutely convinced we have to play a specialised holding midfielder AND we have to play Gerrard off Torres were he is most effective in terms of hurting the opposition

We should also move our back four 10-15 yards up the pitch to get the midfielders closer to the back four and compress the play

Yes this means that there will be space in behind us but the ball has got to be well weighted and the run well timed and crucially this tactic plays to Pepe's strengths

Absolutely spot on.

Hodgson's brains can't function when he's got to be more enterprising, think out of the box instead of the straight forward 4-4-2 and 'defend for our lives' tactic he employed at Fulham.

The media thinking that managing a smaller team and bringing 'success' on a limited budget is the same thing as managing a world famous team is completely and utterly laughable.

All former players who for the most part, don't have a clue whatsoever.

[Lecter]

Think about it - Roy is doing the perfect opposite of all this. Changing Reina's goalkeeping style, camping the team in their own penalty box to defend, keeping Gerrard as far from the oppositional goal as possible and using four "midfielders" in 4-4-2, I use the term midfielder loosely about Poulsen.

I keep saying Hodgsons tactics are the complete opposite of what we should be doing

I genuinely do not believe he has been right in ANY of his tactics so far

[Exiled_red]

Anything that involves 4-4-2 and Liverpool FC (as it stands today) is a non-starter imo

We dont have the players to play that system

We have zero width and those players in the central midfield positions do not offer enough protection to the back four

I am absolutely convinced we have to play a specialised holding midfielder AND we have to play Gerrard off Torres were he is most effective in terms of hurting the opposition

We should also move our back four 10-15 yards up the pitch to get the midfielders closer to the back four and compress the play

Yes this means that there will be space in behind us but the ball has got to be well weighted and the run well timed and crucially this tactic plays to Pepe's strengths

I agree 100% with this

[Maxiedge]

Is there anything more that needs to be said really??

I'm just waiting for him to do the right thing and resign now. I do actually genuinely worry about his health too.

[Bender]

Everton game could be the one .......they will be up for it big time

[Lecter]

Liverpool FC 1, Blackpool 2: Dominic King on how the Reds are becoming a laughing stock
Oct 4 2010 by Dominic King, Liverpool Echo
Comments (27)Recommend 123next
“IN my era, there was no better football club in the world. These supporters have seen some of the best football ever.”

Those were the poignant words of Blackpool manager Ian Holloway early yesterday evening, as he tried to explain what it meant for him to be in charge of a team that had beaten Liverpool Football Club – once the doyens of the beautiful game – at Anfield.

When Holloway was playing, Liverpool collected league championships with glorious regularity and added other pieces of silverware at will; they were a team that made the people of their city proud and puff out their chests.

How things have changed. How the mighty have fallen. Liverpool are no longer the best football club in the world, more a laughing stock that lurches from one calamity to another; according to the current Premier League table, they aren’t even the best team in the city.

Anger, frustration, bitterness and despair now rule the red half of Merseyside and those emotions are only going to become more acute the longer Liverpool remain in this harrowing state of flux – for some, enough is enough.

The sound of The Kop chanting ‘Dalglish’ in the final moments of a 2-1 defeat to Blackpool that has shaken the foundations of this footballing relic was the clearest sign that a significant number have lost faith in the current regime and it is not hard to see why.

Having gorged themselves on a menu in recent years that has included a 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid, a win against Inter Milan in the San Siro and a 4-1 dismantling of Manchester United, supporters want change if the future is going to consist of the slops of the last month.

You may raise an eyebrow at the ‘slops’ reference but think about it. Tumbling out of the Carling Cup against League Two opposition; failing to raise a gallop in bore draws with Birmingham and Utrecht; losing to a poor Manchester United side – it is damning evidence.

Roy Hodgson has not helped his cause with some odd statements and those who have been ambivalent towards him from the start now want quick, decisive action taken to stop the rot spreading any further.



But ask yourself this: is Hodgson to blame for everything that is currently wrong with Liverpool? Absolutely not. Would bringing in Kenny Dalglish suddenly catapult Liverpool from a basement battle to a title fight? Again, absolutely not.

Hodgson might appear to be a rabbit caught in the headlights right now but you have to accept he is working with a squad which is short of quality and is trying to go about his daily business while the club’s owners continue to be the worst type of nuisances.

Everything starts from the top and, as more demonstrations against Tom Hicks and George Gillett proved yesterday, Liverpool will remain in dire straits until they have been moved on – one thing they can’t be blamed for, though, is the performance which was produced here.

Starting slowly and getting progressively worse, it defied belief that Christian Poulsen emerged for the second half, having plodded his way around in the opening period, never once threatening to make a significant contribution.

To think he is Javier Mascherano’s replacement. All summer everyone knew Mascherano would be leaving and it is now being shown up precisely what he did for the team; Poulsen is older and slower and can’t provide the infectious energy that Argentina’s captain did.

Yet it would be wrong to say he was the main reason for Liverpool remaining in the bottom three – Glen Johnson, after all, was culpable for both the goals that led to the Reds’ worst day at home in 18 years to continue his wretched form.

Supporters of a certain vintage can remember only too well the torrid start to the 1992-93 campaign when Liverpool slipped to the cusp of the relegation places following three consecutive September defeats against Sheffield United, Aston Villa and Wimbledon.

There were howls of disbelief on the Kop the day John Fashanu, Robbie Earle and company raced into a 2-0 lead – they eventually won 3-2 – but this, without doubt, surpassed the events of that dreaded day.

Quite frankly, the first 45 minutes were embarrassing. Bar a spirited opening to the second period, the rest wasn’t much better. Blackpool played with the swagger and confidence of a side that had nothing to fear while Liverpool, by contrast, were clueless and lacked direction on and off the field.

Trailing to a Charlie Adam penalty, needlessly given away by the completely out of sorts Johnson, the manner in which Liverpool fell further behind was truly alarming, as Blackpool effectively walked through their defence before Luke Varney smashed in from 10 yards.

All credit to Blackpool. Refusing to panic when Sotirios Kyrgiakos pulled one back, they mirrored the style of their enthusiastic manager and richly deserved the ovation they were given by The Kop at the final whistle but what will live longest in the memory is the booing which preceded it.

Anfield has turned on its managers before – think back to 1994 when Graeme Souness saw Liverpool’s FA Cup dreams ended by Bristol City or 2004 when Charlton Athletic hammered the final nail into Gerard Houllier’s coffin – but never so soon.


Hodgson has only had 14 games to try and steady the ship – that, after all, is what Liverpool’s board wanted in the summer when they parted company with Rafa Benitez – but the ship is listing so badly now it is almost capsizing.

If it is not to fully submerge, Hodgson absolutely needs certain players to recapture their sparkle ahead of the next Premier League game but, above all, he needs to oversee a win at Goodison Park to keep his head above water and Liverpool away from the abyss.

Then again, even if he does that, Liverpool will still be a million miles from the club which Holloway talked so fondly about. Can it get any lower? We will find out on October 17.

“We were anxious to get back on track, but no words or anything I can say will change things or make it any better.” – ROY HODGSON appreciates the depth of unhappiness and frustration on the Red half of Merseyside

“The fans were singing You’ll Never Walk Alone, my dad’s favourite song. He is no longer with us. I was so emotional and singing along with them. To then be applauded off in what is almost the home of football makes the day so special,” – the ever-quotable IAN HOLLOWAY

LIVERPOOL: Reina: Johnson, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Carragher: Meireles, Poulsen (Jovanovic 60), Gerrard, Cole (Rodriguez 89): Kuyt, Torres (Ngog 10). Subs: Jones (GK), Spearing, Kelly, Jovanovic, Lucas..

BLACKPOOL: Gilks: Eardley (Phillips 46), Evatt, Cathcart (Keinan 21), Crainey: Vaughan, Adam, Grandin (Southern 63): Taylor-Fletcher, Campbell, Varney. Subs: Halstead (GK), Ormerod, Slvestyre, Harewood.

GOALS: Adam (29 pen), Varney (45+1), Kyrgiakos (53) .

CARDS: Booked – Reina (45+1), Krygiakos (64)

REFEREE: Mike Jones (Cheshire).

ATTENDANCE: 43,156.



Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...#ixzz11O2hR67C

[Fredo]

There's a piece about our match against Blackpool if you scroll down to the bottom. Most of our 'unsuccessful' passes actually were in the final third. Shows where the emphasis is.

Link

[Havors]

---------------Reina--------------
Kelly---Carragher---Agger---Aurelio
-------Spearing---Meireles--------
Johnson------Gerrard---------Cole
-------------Torres---------------

We need a left back. And Poulson and Lucas are crap so id give Spearing a little go in the holding position (plenty of passion). At least until Poulson remebers how to play or we get a better option in.

The right is open for some experimentation. Between Kuyt, Johnson and Kelly.

The big thing for me is Gerrard needs to get in there with Torres and support him like he used to. Meireles can play the Alonso role, he is composed and can pass.

The top and bottom of things though is we need to sort the off the ball movement out. Players are hiding and leaving each other to do the work on their own.

[Mattshark]

---------------Reina--------------
Kelly---Carragher---Agger---Aurelio
-------Spearing---Meireles--------
Johnson------Gerrard---------Cole
-------------Torres---------------

We need a left back. And Poulson and Lucas are crap so id give Spearing a little go in the holding position (plenty of passion). At least until Poulson remebers how to play or we get a better option in.

The right is open for some experimentation. Between Kuyt, Johnson and Kelly.

The big thing for me is Gerrard needs to get in there with Torres and support him like he used to. Meireles can play the Alonso role, he is composed and can pass.

The top and bottom of things though is we need to sort the off the ball movement out. Players are hiding and leaving each other to do the work on their own.

Lucas is a million miles better than Spearing.

[The Birdman]

Dominic King can do one as well with his half defence of Hodgson.
I know the club is in the **** but our performances and (lack of) results is solely down to tactics, formations and approach to the games.

We have a top 6 squad in place, Hodgson's personal choice of tactics may be honed over 35 years in management but they don't suit our players and he clearly isn't good enough to adapt his philosophy to our players - the players available to him.

He is out of his depth and he has to go, all the idiots that helped the board think it was ok to ease Rafa out the door should swallow their pride and get Hodgson out as well.

A temporary manager is better than Hodgson at this point in time