West 'AAAM Post Match

[Lecter]

Of course, I'm partly jesting. Your views are oft' repeated (when we don't win. )

The problems are there when we win also

They dont go away, just what is being done at the other end of the pitch papers over the cracks at the back

[Lecter]

"I’ve always worked along the statistic, that if you can dominate the game with the ball you have a 79% chance of winning a game of football. So if you’re better than the other team with the ball you’ve got an 8 out of 10 chance, nearly, of winning the game. And that’s what that does, the ability to play out from behind."

Games this season in which LFC have had more possession than opposition = 22

Games this season in which LFC have had more possession than opposition and won game = 10

as a percentage = 45%

[dom9]

In all seriousness, I'm not of the opinion that Brendan is complete useless

I'm just not as convinced as some on here that he is taking us in the right direction

I think we have major major flaws in our make up, and that worries me as there has been little or no sign of those problems being addressed

Maybe Brendan will surprise me this summer though

You can't see progress? I can. Sure there are still flaws but the attacking play has improved a hell of a lot, particularly since Christmas.

In the first half of the season, individual mistakes were leading to an alarming number of goals conceded (and points dropped). Now less so. Is that because there are fewer individual mistakes, or because we're better at coping with them when they do happen, or is it simply a question of luck? Either way, I think we're conceding fewer goals than we were.

The midfield is a puzzle. At times it looks overrun, but not as often as some people think. It just seems that on the occasions when it is overrun are more likely to be remembered by people.

Overall the possession stats are in our favour, so that surely means that the midfield is generally speaking, not being overrun.

[Sarb]

You can't see progress? I can. Sure there are still flaws but the attacking play has improved a hell of a lot, particularly since Christmas.

In the first half of the season, individual mistakes were leading to an alarming number of goals conceded (and points dropped). Now less so. Is that because there are fewer individual mistakes, or because we're better at coping with them when they do happen, or is it simply a question of luck? Either way, I think we're conceding fewer goals than we were.

The midfield is a puzzle. At times it looks overrun, but not as often as some people think. It just seems that on the occasions when it is overrun are more likely to be remembered by people.

Overall the possession stats are in our favour, so that surely means that the midfield is generally speaking, not being overrun.

Agree with that. Bearing in mind goals scored and chances created I think it's a bit harsh to say only the attack is good but midfield and defence is poor. The midfield would have to be half decent to score the amount we have and like you say, dominate the possession the way we have

I think since Carra has been back in the side we've looked a lot more solid in open play than what we did previous. I'm not going to judge until he's made some defensive signings to be honest. I think one of the issues is that we didn't bring in cover for Lucas. Such a vital position but too much is being asked of him whilst he is coming back to fitness I believe

I definitely see signs of progress

[Lecter]

You can't see progress? I can. Sure there are still flaws but the attacking play has improved a hell of a lot, particularly since Christmas.

In the first half of the season, individual mistakes were leading to an alarming number of goals conceded (and points dropped). Now less so. Is that because there are fewer individual mistakes, or because we're better at coping with them when they do happen, or is it simply a question of luck? Either way, I think we're conceding fewer goals than we were.

The midfield is a puzzle. At times it looks overrun, but not as often as some people think. It just seems that on the occasions when it is overrun are more likely to be remembered by people.

Overall the possession stats are in our favour, so that surely means that the midfield is generally speaking, not being overrun.

Read what I wrote

I never said there havent been improvements in areas but what we have gained in attacking play has been to the detriment of our defensive play

Football is often a trade off, its about balancing things out

Defensively we are easy to exploit, very easy. Our shape and positional play is appalling

As for possession stats they mean **** all. Jimmy Case said something the other week that was spot on "we never wanted possession for possessions sake. we wanted it because without it you cant score goals"

Also read the above about possession stats which seems to disprove our managers theories about possession = win percentage

[Muddled]

Countinho loked excellent, very lively

This.

On a more serious note they set up well knowing that the width comes from our full backs so the 2 wide players sat in front of their fullbacks to deny the space.

James Collins never has had and probably never will have such a good game again as he did today.

We worked good positions but the final ball was lacking and on the whole the team was off the pace.

This.

This is the type of game we would have needed Carroll.

Not this.

Really frustrating game, their defence did a really good job on Suarez and there wasn't really enough from elsewhere. I thought we tried to over play things at time and concentrated on getting in behind them, I would have liked to have seen us try something a bit different, I would have liked to have seen us try some efforts from the edge of the box (and follow them up) rather than just trying to play through them all the time.

We also had too many poor touches in key areas/moves. I also think we need to figure out what to do with Sturridge, I wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing today but like a number of others he wasn't very effective. Also I found the introduction of Assaidi somewhat baffelling as he doesn't seem to suit our style of play he did well and got into a few decent positions but just put crosses in in the air, which really doesn't suit our forwards.

Despite all this I didn't think we played badly, we just couldn't break West Ham down, they came to defend ad the did it well. Although I still think we should have had a pen...

This.

[Fat Sam is a]Fat cunt.

This.

Not having a moan or nowt but what exactly do they do in training all week!? It's not as if they've had other competitions to play in. Really need to focus on finishing skills, maintaining possession, gaining possession quicker, long range shooting, corner kick routines! Plenty of time during the week to spend on intensive fine tuning!!

Not this.

You can see Suarez is getting fed up of being surrounded by players who can't be ****ed to put the effort in. Sturridge did absolutely **** all. Only tap in he managed got ruled out for offside and that wasn't even the easiest one. But to be fair, plenty more could have put more of a shift in but it ultimately comes down to management.

Like him or not, there's no denying the fact that Brendan Rodgers is tactically inept and has no back up plan. Yes, he's learning on the job, but NOBODY should be learning on the job at a club as big as ours.

Not this.

I have to laugh though. You get a lot of people on forums and twitter that before games build it all up saying we're going to smash West Ham, "fancy us to score 4 goals today" etc then when we don't go to the opposite extreme and talk a load of old crap and want everyone sacked, players sold etc

When a manager takes over there's always a period of inconsistency in most cases. To be honest at the moment, I don't face any game with 100% belief that we'll win, regardless of who it is. It's just the way it is. Not unique to Rodgers' team. It's been like that for years, even under Rafa. We regularly dropped points like that. I think it will take a long time to get to where we want to be and a lot of patience.

Not going to sit here and say we're an inexperienced team because we aren't. But think there needs to be some more quality injected into the squad and a bit more steel too. I can cope with the result yesterday as I see it as a long term strategy, not a short-term fix. We're so far from where we want to be and the competition for Top 4 is a lot fiercer than what it has ever been

This.

As Dom has pointed out, we had chances and it was pretty obvious we had possession, it just didn't click in the final third.

It was very similar to the games against WBA at Anfield ... except we didn't lose, obv.

[Lee]

You can't see progress? I can. Sure there are still flaws but the attacking play has improved a hell of a lot, particularly since Christmas.

In the first half of the season, individual mistakes were leading to an alarming number of goals conceded (and points dropped). Now less so. Is that because there are fewer individual mistakes, or because we're better at coping with them when they do happen, or is it simply a question of luck? Either way, I think we're conceding fewer goals than we were.

The midfield is a puzzle. At times it looks overrun, but not as often as some people think. It just seems that on the occasions when it is overrun are more likely to be remembered by people.

Overall the possession stats are in our favour, so that surely means that the midfield is generally speaking, not being overrun.

Completely agree.

We seem to have a direction, an aim. Something which we never had under Kenny or Hodgson.

Just need to give Rodgers a chance and time.

[Lecter]

Agree with that. Bearing in mind goals scored and chances created I think it's a bit harsh to say only the attack is good but midfield and defence is poor. The midfield would have to be half decent to score the amount we have and like you say, dominate the possession the way we have

I think since Carra has been back in the side we've looked a lot more solid in open play than what we did previous. I'm not going to judge until he's made some defensive signings to be honest. I think one of the issues is that we didn't bring in cover for Lucas. Such a vital position but too much is being asked of him whilst he is coming back to fitness I believe

I definitely see signs of progress

If the "midfield domination of possession" was born out by having a win percentage of better than 45% it would mean something the fact it doesnt suggests that our wins havent been too influenced by "possession"

The midfield to me is totally unbalanced. It doesnt put anywhere near enough pressure on the ball, it doesnt compete for or win anywhere near enough second balls

If it did our defensive unit would be much better

[malg]

Completely agree.

We seem to have a direction, an aim. Something which we never had under Kenny or Hodgson.

Just need to give Rodgers a chance and time.

How long do you think he has. I am not a big fan of Rodgers, but another season is going to happen, then what. The pressure will be on him big time next season, not just from the fans but also from the board.

[RichC]

So you made a decision in October that Rodgers wasnt good enough, nice to see you giving the man time before making a judgement call on him, seems to me you are hung up on the fact that Kenny was sacked and he came in. He's had for the most part had to use a squad of players that haven't been good enough for 3 seasons, Rafa's last, the bodge and Kenny.

IMO we've improved as a side as the season has progressed and we've in general become flat track bullies again (most goals scored in 20 years or so at this stage of the season).

Sorry Lec but you seem to have made your mind up from the get go and your appearances on here after a non positive result don't really don't help to change that.

At the end of the day we've been poor for a number of years wasted huge amounts of money last season and its going to take time to rectify but signings such as Sturridge and Coutinho are obvious steps forwards for us which we need to continue to build on.

[Sarb]

If the "midfield domination of possession" was born out by having a win percentage of better than 45% it would mean something the fact it doesnt suggests that our wins havent been too influenced by "possession"

The midfield to me is totally unbalanced. It doesnt put anywhere near enough pressure on the ball, it doesnt compete for or win anywhere near enough second balls

If it did our defensive unit would be much better

Not sure on the first part to be honest. You need possession to win games. I think people get too hung up on the original Rodgers quotes. The win % is just as much affected by the midfield as it is by the fact that we're not a great team. We're not too much worse or better than what we were the last few seasons but our key players are a bit older.

Honestly think inconsistency is a trait in most early reigns of a new manager. I think we need a tougher tackling midfielder though but we've been a lot more solid defensively of late from open play

[Sarb]

So you made a decision in October that Rodgers wasnt good enough, nice to see you giving the man time before making a judgement call on him, seems to me you are hung up on the fact that Kenny was sacked and he came in. He's had for the most part had to use a squad of players that haven't been good enough for 3 seasons, Rafa's last, the bodge and Kenny.

IMO we've improved as a side as the season has progressed and we've in general become flat track bullies again (most goals scored in 20 years or so at this stage of the season).

Sorry Lec but you seem to have made your mind up from the get go and your appearances on here after a non positive result don't really don't help to change that.

At the end of the day we've been poor for a number of years wasted huge amounts of money last season and its going to take time to rectify but signings such as Sturridge and Coutinho are obvious steps forwards for us which we need to continue to build on.

[Lecter]

So you made a decision in October that Rodgers wasnt good enough, nice to see you giving the man time before making a judgement call on him, seems to me you are hung up on the fact that Kenny was sacked and he came in. He's had for the most part had to use a squad of players that haven't been good enough for 3 seasons, Rafa's last, the bodge and Kenny.

IMO we've improved as a side as the season has progressed and we've in general become flat track bullies again (most goals scored in 20 years or so at this stage of the season).

Sorry Lec but you seem to have made your mind up from the get go and your appearances on here after a non positive result don't really don't help to change that.

At the end of the day we've been poor for a number of years wasted huge amounts of money last season and its going to take time to rectify but signings such as Sturridge and Coutinho are obvious steps forwards for us which we need to continue to build on.

That was a joke about October, but there are things I've been unhappy with since the get go

The midfield and the defence has been appalling, its more about the shape than anything. Also the lack of pressure on the ball is ****ing frightening for a supposed "death by football" tactic its imperative that you gain possession quickly and as high up the pitch as possible (ala Baqrca) but we dont do that anywhere near enough

We've wasted anough money this season also which seems to be conveniently forgiven - £15 million for Allen, £11 million on Borini £3 million on Assaidi thats £29 million right there pissed against the wall

The problem we have at the moment is that we dont have massive amounts of money to spend and any manager coming in has to get the vast majority of his signings spot on. We havent done that for years its been a constant failing

Once you have bought those players you then have to get them together into a cohesive unit that punches above its weight

For me Rodgers has taken a laissez faire approach to tactics that whilst has reaped benefits at the top end of the pitch has caused major problems at the back

Sorry but thats how I see it, Rodgers will get his chance to set things right this summer. He needs better than a 50% strike right in the transfer market this summer

[Sarb]

How long do you think he has. I am not a big fan of Rodgers, but another season is going to happen, then what. The pressure will be on him big time next season, not just from the fans but also from the board.

I hope the Board are not as knee-jerk as some of our so-called knowledgable fans, that's all I can say. If you think a season or two seasons is enough time for a new manager to change things top to bottom is enough time then that's pretty sad in all honesty. The Board want to see progress. They're going to bring in young players who by nature won't click straight away. If fans cant accept that then as a club we're in trouble too

[Fredo]

Everyone has to learn a new job. No one ever walks in and delivers. This applies to every walk of life, unless you're a banker who believe in their over inflated hype.

Rodgers was never going to walk into Liverpool and get instant results. It was always going to be a progression from the state we were in last season. Same thing applied to Kenny Dalglish and anyone else.