Vs Sunderland post match

[RichC]

7 points out of 9. If offered this return 3 games ago I would have snapped your hand off.

Need to beat Basle and maybe Utd to continue the slowly building momentum.

Small steps and all that, need to keep in contact with the top 4 over the Xmas period.

[Spaghetti Legs]

Positives
Clean sheet
Defence looks solid (Toure and Lucas make a big difference)
Lucas was very good (again)
Moreno was good (especially in second half)
Gerrard looks a different player in an advanced role

Negatives

I remember **** dull home games a plenty under houllier and benitez. That was with decent attackers on the pitch. We have Lambert who is doing his best. This is where we are until January or sturridge gets fit. I don't know what people expect to be honest. I keep hearing £120m wasted, that's bull****. Moreno isn't a waste of money. Lallana was always top dollar but over his contract we should get enough out of him. Can looks like £10m well spent. Lovren and Markovic is where it went badly wrong. The latter could yet come good. Stop moaning.

The only wasted money so far, for me, is on Lovren and Balotelli. And I even understand the Balotelli punt to a certain extent. The rest are fine by me. Markovic must have something about him. Lovren is the only categoric disaster and even at that, he works perfectly as a scapegoat so he actually has value for fans.

Blimey. I wonder who will come in and do a better job.

**** me, some of you are deluded or in complete denial.

[Rigadon]

**** me, some of you are deluded or in complete denial.

Is that better than being called 'an absolute prick'?

[Norbs]

Basel,Utd,Bournemouth and Arsenal

[Chazza]

Is that better than being called 'an absolute prick'?

[CAD]

Is that better than being called 'an absolute prick'?

I love these smurfs dropping in every now and then. Wongers mates

[Helios Creed]

We could sell Borini and Balotelli in January and buy a striker for about £20 million. That would be a net spend of around £0 and we might actually have a striker on the books who's capable of scoring regular goals who isn't injured.

Here's hoping

Sturridge's injury has further exposed our failure to buy a good striker and this has basically wasted this season and lost us all the ground we gained last year. On top of that we still haven't sorted our defence, but we have a huge number of good midfielders, although I do think that bringing in Lallana has affected Coutihno and Sterling's confidence, after all they were two of our star players last season and we spent £25m strengthening there, rather than up front or at the back where we needed to. Very strange move, but exactly what I feared would happen. Hopefully that was just Phase 1 and having thrown away this season, Phase 2 will see us get at least one good striker in and then sort out the defence.. Hopefully Rodgers will be given the chance and it will turn out that he bought the right players, but in the wrong order...

[The_weatherman]

Sturridge's injury has further exposed our failure to buy a good striker and this has basically wasted this season and lost us all the ground we gained last year. On top of that we still haven't sorted our defence, but we have a huge number of good midfielders, although I do think that bringing in Lallana has affected Coutihno and Sterling's confidence, after all they were two of our star players last season and we spent £25m strengthening there, rather than up front or at the back where we needed to. Very strange move, but exactly what I feared would happen. Hopefully that was just Phase 1 and having thrown away this season, Phase 2 will see us get at least one good striker in and then sort out the defence.. Hopefully Rodgers will be given the chance and it will turn out that he bought the right players, but in the wrong order...

Hopefully, yes. But I find it so idiotic to repeat the same mistakes from his first season, almost everyone of them.

[calvoboy]

I just don't understand the hysteria over the last couple of days since this game (in the media, twitter, and slightly reflected on here).

Surely it's been obvious to anyone for weeks now, months even, that until we get a proper striker with pace up front we look toothless and ****? So get used to the idea. We are going to be a little bit **** until January when either a) Sturridge returns, b) we sign another striker, or hopefully c) both.

There's nothing that Brendan, Rafa, Shankly or God/Allah/Jehova (insert deity of choice here) can do about it until then. Brendan deserves some credit for realising this point, putting Lucas back in the side and trying to grind out some wins while we wait until January. 7 points out of 9 is a decent return for the last three games and for all the ****e about how we should be battering Sunderland at home, Chelsea were unable to break them down with Willian, Hazard, Oscar and Costa, so it's no disgrace.

We just need to keep scrapping and hanging on in there, and things will improve in 2015. Until then we could do without the "sack Brendan" nonsense, in the media and on twitter particularly, every time we don't batter a team.

[calvoboy]

Oh, and on another point, what's happened to the conveyor belt from the academy? Where's the young striking talent at the club? When we were last in a similar situation in Europe (pre-Olympiakos) we were in a similar situation up front too and Neil Mellor came in and did a great job for a short while (Arsenal goal, knock-down for Gerrard vs Olympiakos etc. etc.). It's not just that we left ourselves short in the squad, couldn't force Borini out, and signed the wrong option in Balotelli. It's also that we should have a couple of U-21s of our own that could be thrown in dire straits, but it looks like the cupboard is bare...

[The_weatherman]

Oh, and on another point, what's happened to the conveyor belt from the academy? Where's the young striking talent at the club? When we were last in a similar situation in Europe (pre-Olympiakos) we were in a similar situation up front too and Neil Mellor came in and did a great job for a short while (Arsenal goal, knock-down for Gerrard vs Olympiakos etc. etc.). It's not just that we left ourselves short in the squad, couldn't force Borini out, and signed the wrong option in Balotelli. It's also that we should have a couple of U-21s of our own that could be thrown in dire straits, but it looks like the cupboard is bare...

You have to be brave to play a youngster and IMO Brendan loses his balls when the going is tough.*







* On current evidence.

[calvoboy]

You have to be brave to play a youngster and IMO Brendan loses his balls when the going is tough.*

* On current evidence.

Of all the things you can criticise Rodgers for, not playing youngsters isn't one of them IMO. The point I was making is that he hasn't got a youngster to select. There's no one deemed capable of sitting on the bench from the U-21s or U-18s at the moment - that's pretty unusual in our history. Is Jerome Sinclair still that far away?

[Kenneth]

I think he's close. If his mum complains he might get a run in the side.

[brightred]

I think he's close. If his mum complains he might get a run in the side.

Said pretty much the same thing to my lads the other day.

[The_weatherman]

Of all the things you can criticise Rodgers for, not playing youngsters isn't one of them IMO. The point I was making is that he hasn't got a youngster to select. There's no one deemed capable of sitting on the bench from the U-21s or U-18s at the moment - that's pretty unusual in our history. Is Jerome Sinclair still that far away?

He was brave playing Suso, Flanno and Sterling but when was the last one who got his chance? It's been a while and it'll be longer still. Ojo could have gotten a few minutes maybe?