Bournemouth (H): Post Match

[Bender]

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.

imo neither can read the game and this causes them to make rash decisions and create paninc

[Exiled_red]

To be honest I don't see the CB pairing of Skrtel and Lovren changing anytime soon, I thinnk Rodgers wants to keep a settled back four as much as possible and I imagine that he will consider clean sheets in the first 2 games as a justification of his decision to pick the two of them.

My problem is that IMO they have looked a little shakey and haven't really been tested yet. I worry that if someone really were to test them would could be in for a hiding, and with the run of fixtures we have over the next couple of months they are certainly going to be tested alot more in the coming weeks.

[Rowan]

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.

Aye he was dreadful. Marginally less so than last season but dreadful nonetheless. It seems like all a player needs to do to send him for a pie is bust out a couple of lollipops and they're away from him while Lovren stands beaten, done like a kipper.

It's stuff like this that make me seriously doubt Rodgers. Almost like he's so single mindedly determined to be vindicated that he'll set fire to his own house in order to try and achieve that.

[RichC]

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.

Skrtel hasn't been better he's been covered on several occasions - 2 games zero goals and **** all chances conceded. He's an easy target which will continue until we get the " told you so" moment.

Sakho would be my preference but he's not playing or getting a sniff at the moment for whatever reason

[Rich]

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.

If Lovren has been better these past two games then it is only because he was so desperately poor last year. He improved in the second half but he still didn't do the basics particularly well.

Perhaps the biggest worry is his complete incompetence in 1-on-1 situations, thankfully it only happened once last night.

Having Gomez is definitely helping him, thanks to him being a more defensive fullback. The moment Moreno comes back into the leftback role... I shudder to think.

[Scratch]

Aye the defence has been shocking, poor Mignolet has been pulling off amazing saves just to keep us in the game, we're just leaking chances all over the shop.

[RichC]

Aye the defence has been shocking, poor Mignolet has been pulling off amazing saves just to keep us in the game, we're just leaking chances all over the shop.

Indeed

[Rowan]

Aye the defence has been shocking, poor Mignolet has been pulling off amazing saves just to keep us in the game, we're just leaking chances all over the shop.

I think Clyne and Gomez are covering up a lot of the iffy stuff in the middle

[Shaggy]

Aye the defence has been shocking, poor Mignolet has been pulling off amazing saves just to keep us in the game, we're just leaking chances all over the shop.

Boring. There's just no need to be so childishly pissy like that, it's tedious and doesn't help the discussion one jot. Not everything is black and white. Sure, we've kept two clean sheets but we can analyse / debate the nuances rather than jumping down the throat of anyone who dares say anything other than blind cheerleading.

[Havors]

Some positives, but also a lot of negatives. Benteke and Clyne were excellent again, very happy about that.

Not happy about how isolated Benteke was on the whole, he won everything and held it up with nobody running beyond him. Totally wasting his talent like that I think.

Can looked poor when he came on, total opposite to the stoke game. He is definitely not a holding midfielder for me.

[Exiled_red]

I think Clyne and Gomez are covering up a lot of the iffy stuff in the middle

I think Gomez is doing a really good job of making sure that Lovren doesn't get dragged across into wide areas because when he does he's awful.

With Clyne it's just nice to have an effective RB for once, for me he's in the Steve Finnan type mould a good all round full back who looks like he will put in consistently good performances without doing anything particularly flashy to grab the headlines - an unsung hero type player .

[Shaggy]

Clyne is quicker than I thought and I also didn't know he had a blockbuster tackle in his locker - that one in the first half

[Norbs]

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.

Well put

Lallana showed glimpses but he also shirked out of a few challenges and was quiet for periods of the game. Ibe has the skill but tends to try too much and as a result slows the attack instead of using his pace to exploit the opponents defence. I think he needs to be deployed further forward as he's not as productive picking the ball up deeper imo.

Shoot me down but I'd swap Ibe for Moreno for the Arsenal game. I think Moreno has a bundle to offer in an attacking role and his mistakes won't be punished

[Vermilion]

[Saveloy]

Boring. There's just no need to be so childishly pissy like that, it's tedious and doesn't help the discussion one jot. Not everything is black and white. Sure, we've kept two clean sheets but we can analyse / debate the nuances rather than jumping down the throat of anyone who dares say anything other than blind cheerleading.

There's a holier than thou attitude which is quick to emerge in match and post match threads at the moment. No doubt there'll be times this season where it's warranted, but at the moment nobody is running round with their pants on their head claiming the end is nigh (with maybe one or two notable exceptions )