Blackburn Post-Match

[Exiled_red]

We need to put our players on intense shooting practice

[destinydude]

Feel bad saying this, but not me.

I'm fairly confident that Kenny will let Comolli do his thing.

[Rabiosa]

We need to focus on getting into the Europa League now
CL is gone

[Exiled_red]

Carroll just stands still in the box. No movement. No desire. He's not the only one that's at fault but I don't care what anyone says his £35m price tag IS RELEVANT.

Despite that, he could have had a hat-trick today though. If he took his chances it wouldn't matter what else he offered (Although in fairness he wasn't the only one guilty of missing chances).

[Baracus]

I've said this before I'll say again. If we have not signed players early on in the Jan window, we might as well forget it. Signing players at the end of the window and hoping they'll have an instant impact is 1 in a Saurez.

We'll be out of reach for top 4 by end of Jan if were not careful.

Demja Ba is quality.

[Philip FC Kopenhagen]

The only positive things about today's game imo is Gerrard's comeback and the spirit the players had after 1-1 and in the last few minutes. (Although it is not enough!)

[Muddled]

I tend to avoid these threads straight after the final whistle, emotions are still high and I struggle to remain objective etc. However, it's Christmas so I'm going to remain calm.

Let's start with Blackburn:

Another goalkeeper has a worldie against us, it no longer comes as a surprise. When we pushed forward in the second half, they were a decent player (or two) away from getting their second. Had they had a decent striker comfortable in the final third, they could have punished us. But they didn't, they managed a goal against us when we should have been brave and put a head on it, instead of dangling a loose foot.

Let's no gloss this up though, this is the team rooted to the foot of the table without an away win, half their first team missing and a make-shift defence with their reserve goalkeeper.

Which leads it on to us:

We start brightly with good intent, we struggle to put the ball in the net and the opposition builds up confidence. Adam has a poor first half, Suarez is intent on taking Blackburn on by himself (as mentioned in the match thread, he should have left the ball for Downing to square in the lead up to the disallowed goal) but we create chances, don't score and then concede a sloppy goal.

The second half we got a kick up the arse and we took the game to Blackburn, I think Downing had one of his better games for us, he drove at the heart of Blackburn and tried to load the balls in to the box. Carroll had a tendency to drop too deep and I think due to lack of game time and a not-so-quick footballing brain, meant he was yards away from where the ball droppped. Yet when he did get himself in to the box, he made a nuisance of himself and was unlucky not to score on a number of occasions. We began to gain some momentum when Gerrard came on, that quality delivery was back, that incisive first time pass with pace was back and that driving forward all returned in the last 20 minutes.

The linesman was a bit slack and the referee was too keen to book Agger for a dive, when Agger seemed to fall and get back up in the same movement, but I would be clutching at straws to blame the officials today.

We aren't taking advantage of the teams around us slipping up and we'll soon be too far away to even consider the Champions League qualification. Our home form is atrocious and there is no way of flowering it up, Blackburn have scored more goals in the league than us this season.

The only way we can address this, is by spending in the January transfer window. The key though, is spending it well.

[Fredo]

We do control the midfield though. Don't think we can do much there. With Stevie we'll be less balanced in that we'll concede chances against as he isn't strong enough tactically. Stevie should be partnered with Luis upfront.

[Mostar]

We need to focus on getting into the Europa League now
CL is gone

It looks like that atm.

Very discouraging and frustrating.

[Gibbo]

I'm fairly confident that Kenny will let Comolli do his thing.

I hope so man, I think to be honest its an overly negative response on my part after a poor run of games.

I just can't get my head round how we can be magic against the better sides and ****e against the rubbish.

[cream]

2 points from 2 teams that will probably get relagated. ****ing ****, need to spend another £100m.

[Fredo]

I think we've still got a chance to be in the CL. It will be tight but I can see us, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs battling it out till the close end of the season. Thing is, we are starting a bit behind them so it's tougher unless we do invest massively again in January which I doubt will happen. I think the Americans won't take too much risks though, which means that even though we don't qualify this season it won't hamper our ability to add to the squad next season. It's gonna be sensible spending from them IMO and rightly so. We are heading in the right direction.

[Imy]

I agree. People are saying we're creating a lot of chances but missing them. To be honest I don't think we're creating enough and that our midfield is one paced, plodding and predictable.


The difference in tempo when Gerrard came on was there for all to see and to be honest I think it's a big problem.

Yes, Suarez misses a lot of chances, but he creates a high percentage of them for himself.

Carroll, well, let's not go there, but we can see he did go close twice today when he got good deliveries.

Mr Musa, this is spot on

[sean_lfc]

Deleted

[Mostar]

I think we've still got a chance to be in the CL. It will be tight but I can see us, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs battling it out till the close end of the season. Thing is, we are starting a bit behind them so it's tougher unless we do invest massively again in January which I doubt will happen. I think the Americans won't take too much risks though, which means that even though we don't qualify this season it won't hamper our ability to add to the squad next season. It's gonna be sensible spending from them IMO and rightly so. We are heading in the right direction.

We dropped too many points at home.

Too many things would need to go our way and I'm not so sure we will get there, which would be great disappointment.