Bournemouth (H): Post Match

[Nicey]

[Corndog]

Lovren will be found out against Arsenal. All it takes is anybody with average pace to get him one on one and they just seem to breeze past, Like Callum Wilson, who got to the by-line so easily.

Gomez was great again but you can't expect any fullback to never let a man get behind them, it happens from time to time. And if it does Lovren is fecked.

Milners defensive game was incredible, easily must be one of the fittest players in the league.

Clyne is making such a huge difference and Benteke was awesome with everything he was given, he still needs better supply though.

[Exiled_red]

Similarly to the Stoke game it wasn't a great performance but it was a good result. The team looked more solid at the back but we still haven't got things going in an attacking sense. I'm not sure that the balance of the midfield is right, I don't think the current roles get the best out of Milner and Henderson they are playing quite well and seem to have a good understanding but someone in there to do more of the defensive work would perhaps allow them to push on. That said Henderson is going to be a big miss for the Arsenal game if he is out of it. I thought Benteke had a decent game, had one goal, should have had another, hopefully he can carry on improving and getting goals for us. The problem for me is the wide two, I thought both Lallana and Ibe did well in preseason and that they deserved starting places. Ibe has probably been the more eye catching of the two but that is probably because of his pace, Lallana has looked like the Lallana of last season rather than the one we signed from Southampton (I thought last season he was suffering as a result of his injuries and would improve this year with a preseason behind him). Firmino did very little in the 20 mins or so he had, which leaves us in a dilema as to what we do in these positions.

Regarding the goals, I think both should have been disallowed, Coutinho clearly goes for the ball and the keeper reacts to his movement, I am amazed given the new guidelines that the goal was allowed to stand. Their 'goal' was correctly disallowed the guy was clearly climbing on Lovren with both hands on his shoulders, it was poor defending initially from Lovren to get caught under the ball, but I think his experience showed in his reaction which was probably what got the goal disallowed.

[Slinky Skills]

Moreno wow

I'm quite happy with our performance, we played alright actually but we did nearly let them back in it towards the end.

Need a huge step up in performance for next Monday.

[frank the tank]

For me, if you spend as much money as Brendan has, then players have to play in their favoured / best positions. If we had a small squad, then it would be understandable - but the size of the squad we have now - and it is Brendan's squad - make this a little bit unacceptable to be honest.

Not having Lucas on the bench last night could have hurt Brendan. Everyone said how Bournemouth played well but in reality, they had no cutting edge - that won't be the case next Monday night at Arsenal. For me, when Emre Can was leaving a lot of space and not pressing well last night, then it would have been brilliant to bring Lucas on for Lallana - and put Lucas at the base with Milner and Can in front of him. Instead we invited pressure.

I think Brendan has an idea where Milner, Henderson and Emre Can all play together and take turns at pressing, take turns at defending and provide a lot of energy in the middle of the park. But for me, a specialist defensive midfielder in the middle would do a lot for our team - even if that was Emre Can in years to come, then i think it would be so wise to keep Lucas at least for this season and let Emre learn the role.

Lovren isn't even related to a footballer. The most frustrating sight is seeing Lovren try to bark out orders on positioning to Joe Gomez. What a gimp. He knows he is a phoney, he knows the fans know that he is a phoney and although we have 2 clean sheets out of 2 games, i feel that they are fake because they haven't really been tested. Stevie Wonder could see that our central defensive partnership of Lovren and Skrtel is an accident waiting to happen and full of individual and partnership errors....

Regarding Benteke - it was frustrating to see Brendan talk last night about how he is an outlet for the team. I thought Benteke played really well but I was hoping that Benteke would be an outlet when we were away to Chelsea, Arsenal and the two Manc clubs. Not against Bournemouth. At home. I really thought that we would be playing 2 up front with Benteke and Sturridge. Although Sturridge is injured, we have Brendans £200m squad now so we should still be able to play the same tactics. So now we have Ings and Origi who can't get a run out against Stoke and Bournemouth - while Sturridge is injured!!! When Sturridge comes back, then they will be further down the pecking order so it is inevitable that they will both get pissed off before long - especially if and when it costs Origi his Belgium place. They were bought to replace Borini, Lambert and Balotelli and that is exactly what they could end up doing - literally.... sat on the bench or in the stands not being used by the manager that during the summer said he had added goals to his squad.

I don't want Brendan to get the bullet - and i am happy that LFC isn't like Utd sacking Moyes, Spurs sacking AVB / Harry after a bad season. But if we end up selling Lucas and Sakho - while he is playing Lovren in defense and Hendo in DM - then for me he isn't doing his job properly.

[Shaggy]

Thought Lallana had his best game in a Red shirt yesterday.

Wow. Really?

[Shaggy]

Lovren will be found out against Arsenal. All it takes is anybody with average pace to get him one on one and they just seem to breeze past, Like Callum Wilson, who got to the by-line so easily.

Gomez was great again but you can't expect any fullback to never let a man get behind them, it happens from time to time. And if it does Lovren is fecked.

Milners defensive game was incredible, easily must be one of the fittest players in the league.

Clyne is making such a huge difference and Benteke was awesome with everything he was given, he still needs better supply though.

Agree with all of that. I'm dreading Arsenal tbh.

[Bender]

Lallana and Ibe were totally non-existent for both our opening games,Lallana imo needs to be moved on,his level was at Southampton and as for Ibe the kid needs to go out on loan and gain more experience.We so need Lucas to sit in midfield

[meffin]

Ibe and Lallana were terrible- i wouldn't start either in the next match.

Lovren and Skrtel are still poor and a disaster waiting to happen

[Shaggy]

I thought Lallana staying on for the whole game was a weird one. I don't usually believe in that thing about managers trying to prove or make a point, and I don't think that's what Rodgers was doing, but Lallana was cack, he doesn't really offer anything a fit Firmino wouldn't and along with Ibe was the obvious candidate to come off.

Brendan really does seem determined to live or die by his decisions, his signings. Lovren, Lallana, Clyne etc. Largely binning Sakho, Can, Markovic, Moreno etc.

Last season everyone argued about who was responsible for signings, poor results etc. This time there's no doubt and if results go to **** then Rodgers will be getting his coat.

[Scratch]

I thought the subs were ok...Henderson going off meant we had to use one that we probably didn't intend, and Coutinho looked knackered and was having little impact at that point, so taking him off and was possibly the right thing to do.

If we hadn't had the injury to Henderson, I expect Lallana for Can would have been a change that would have happened.

[RichC]

It wasn't the best of performances but winning games like these when you're not at your attacking best is something we've needed to do. 2 seasons ago we played Stoke, Villa & the Mancs and got three 1 nil results whilst not actually playing that well. I think the Arsenal game will be tough but they've also not played well in their first couple of games either.

One of the biggest criticisms of BR has been his inability to defend well in these two opening games we've defended well and limited the opposition to very little so which can only be a good thing for confidence.

All the moaning about Lovren is at present a little ridiculous tbh as in the two games so far this season he's outperformed his partner in the centre of defence but because "it's Lovren" he gets stick regardless, not his biggest fan myself but so far this season he's done well.

[Exiled_red]

Ibe and Lallana were terrible- i wouldn't start either in the next match.

Lovren and Skrtel are still poor and a disaster waiting to happen

I thought both Ibe and Lallana did very little yesterday (and against Stoke), the problem is who do you replace them with? In theory we are strong in these areas: Ibe, Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino, Markovic, Ings and Origi could all play these positions. But when you look in more detail Coutinho will presumably stay in the centre, Firmino has ~40 mins experience in the league, Origi has none, Markovic hasn't played this season and Ings hasn't played a competitive game for us yet. With Arsenal away next the only one of those not in the side that I could imagine playing would be Ings (probably for Ibe), but I wouldn't be suprised if both Ibe and Lallana start again next week.

EDIT: the alternative could be to play Moreno there.

[Shaggy]

I thought Lovren was awful in the first half last night. He's terrifying. Skrtel hasn't been much better either. They're both too eager and too erratic - neither offers any kind of calmness either with or without the ball and I don't see any sort of partnership. I also think we're missing Sakho's ability to start attacks with his bold passing.

[el matador]

There's a lot of work to be done yet with this team. Points are all that matter and we have the maximum but performances have to get better. The attack looks out of sync with the rest of the team. But there are some encouraging signs.