Topic: Liverpool 1 - 1 Norwich

[Pradan]

There was an interesting article last night in the Independent you should have a look at if you haven't already, went into a lot of detail about what's been going on at the club over the past year and apparently FSG aren't keen on Klopp because they've been warned off him by someone.

Fuckin mental.

FSG are wearing me thin now.

[Anywhichwayicant]

Even IF we were to change managers, you'd have to do it at the end of the season. No one is gonna come in and turn this side into a top 4 team mid-season. Especially Klopp, who keeps getting mentioned, who has a system of pressing which requires a lot of familiarity.

Rodgers is probably staying at least till Christmas, and more likely till the end of the season. But we're gonna have to endure this nonsense every time we don't win or even if we win and don't look good doing it.

You're telling me that a top manager couldn't get a team with Skrtel, Sakho, Clyne, Moreno (excellent today), Coutinho, Firmino, Sturridge and Benteke competing for the top four?

[creed111]

Best players: Moreno, Can and Lucas (Sakho was up there until that weird moment that provided Norwich with their chance that Mignolet did ever so well to save. He's still top 5 performer for us mind you)


Worst players: Coutinho, Benteke and Milner. Even before Coutinho completely shit the bed on that 2 v 1 chance (should have squared it all day, every day)

thoughts from the game:

Brendan Frustrates Yet Again --

To begin, I have to say that we played really well and he can't be faulted for Mignolet's limp wristed punch or our countless wasted opportunities. Also, BR saved some rage from the fans by actually playing Moreno and Sakho. Here's where he killed me today. Sturridge starting!?!? Ignoring performance of the team or him, and ignoring the fitness element, why not bring him on as a sub? Maybe the logic was to have him start to lift the spirits of Anfield prior to kick-off after the fans got the starting 11. But imo, it's a lot more tangible of a spiritual uplifting to have him come on as sub. He got have lifted the crowd, in turn lifting the players by having him warm-up before half, then again after half. Also, he knew several players were probably fatigued from travelling and playing on Thursday, yet he doesn't even consider that element.

Emre Can and Moreno looked so incredible. Granted Can showed awful defending on Norwich's chance Mignolet saved.


I love Sturridge and Lucas


Coutinho, while being our beloved little genius, has always frustrated me by his constant desire to do too much. We all know he's capable of pulling off the insane, but I just wish he'd balance the playing the ambitious with playing the simple. efficient

[mrantarctica]

I thought we looked better, today, a game we should have won.  But....

That last substitution was bizarre and indicative of how Brendan's tinkering disrupts the team balance. He takes off Lucas, moves Can into Lucas' position as DM, drops Clyne to Cans spot in the back three, moves Milner over to Clynes spot as right wing back and on comes Firmini where Milner was playing. The whole team is turned upside down. Instead the obvious substitution, Firminho for Milner (who was struggling) is overlooked. Is it the same story, with undroppable favourites? 

BTW I was itching for Ings to get on and he looked lively. It took an unexpected injury to see the most balanced team for the first 15 or so minutes of the second half. Ings & Sturridge look good together.

We moved to a back 4 and flooded our midfield at that point. I thought the switch was good because we needed some directness and penetration from midfield. Funnily enough Can, who has been awful in CM all season, was quite awful at RCB today but then when he played at DM he wasn't half bad - made some good passes and was more decisive. It was just the 80 mins before that looked quite dire.

Keeping on Lucas would have been pointless, we needed players on the pitch who could score a goal because we were going for it. Lucas hasn't scored in years while Milner scores more frequently, it was an obvious choice.

Still, this is all quibbling. We had more than enough chances to win the game. Sturridge and Coutinho both had great chances to seal the game, and but for Mignolet's poor keeping, we'd have won anyway. You can blame the manager for signing the wrong players and perhaps some tactical errors but today the players let us down with errors and poor decision making. Can't say it's a huge surprise. Coutinho is a wonderful little player but we've known for a long time that his finishing is poor and that he takes a lot of shots on goal for quite small return. We saw that today with a flurry of wasted chances.

[lessthanmatt]

Jesus fuck, these digs against "RAWK" aren't half getting tedious.

It's dull as fuck. All the meta-bashing as if this forum isn't a representation of fan views or is drastically different from the big fan forums of other clubs. And favourites like "Where are you whoppers from the half-time thread?" and "2 pages when we win, 25 when we lose" that surface all the time, ZzzZzzzzzzz

[Kuytinho]

It was always going to be difficult this season if we started slowly after so many fans were convinced Rodgers should go at the end of last season. Every disappointing result is to be scrutinised with Rodgers being handed the blame. That's the nature of the modern day football fan - even our own. I'm really beginning to doubt whether he'll be able to turn it around under that sort of pressure.

That said, it'd be incredibly short-sighted for the board to back him and then get rid so early into the season. I just hope this doesn't end up feeling like a wasted year where we could have gone in another direction with fresh ideas. Especially with the obvious candidates currently out of a job.

[Djimi Smicer34]

Dunno mate i'll believe that when I see it, if that was the truth I think we'd have heard that line a lot more from other journos. If it's true then it shows the lack of ambition FSG have for the club, if they'd ignore Klopp (after ignoring Rafa) in choice of another mediocre midtable manager like Monk or Howe

We'll have to see what happens, apparently FSG made it clear they wanted Gerrard shadowing Rodgers and getting involved with coaching but Gerrard was only told that after he'd announced he was leaving.  There's a lot in there and if it's right then the club is in a real mess.

[Johns_Barn]

I'm off til the Roundtable, it's become poisonous on here. Blame the manager for today all you like but we dominated the game and rarely looked threatened. The players have to take some responsibility for not taking their chnaces and conceding from a corner.

Either way it's a tough result to take.

 

Leave Brendan alone you know nothing idiots. NONE IF THIS IS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE MANAGER. NONE.

[Chakan]

You're telling me that a top manager couldn't get a team with Skrtel, Sakho, Clyne, Moreno (excellent today), Coutinho, Firmino, Sturridge and Benteke competing for the top four?

Well  Brendan can't so ...

[peachybum]

We fucking changed our formation 2 times in that match.

Let's be fair, that's pretty conservative for Brendan.

[Gnurglan]

Rubbish.

Lucas was pressing high in their half, I mean fuck we get the goal from it.

Moreno playing as a fullback? Of course he was, which is why he spent a stupid amount of time in the final third creating shit.

Fuck all wrong with the shape.

Agree. There was nothing wrong with how we were set up. Today, I'd say it was the players 'fault'. We couldn't score, but should have, from the chances we had.

I'm no fan of three at the back, but today I won't complain.

[jordyball10]

He wont be sacked, they will wait until Xmas but will be too late then

[chopperchittar]

Rafa >  Ancelotti > Klopp > Fat Sam

In that order.

Fat fucking Sam? you neen sectioning !

[JCP]

People will use this to bash the team some more but it was easily our best performance of the season and besides a keeping error and wasteful/selfish finishing we should have won it handily.

It's Norwich.. at home, of course we are going to create chances and look half decent... But we should be winning.

[Johnathan]

I think most people would have taken being a point ahead of Chelsea at this point in the season

This is the most spurious statement imaginable. How would "most people" have felt about being four points off Leicester and being thumped by the Mancs and West Ham?

[muyuu]

Lol - did you actually watch the match?
Our shape was the best it's been all season and we produced more shots and chances than we have all season
Seriously what kind of simpleton do you have to be to think 3 cbs means more defensive and not think beyond that  ?!

Yeah we were outstanding I guess.

[LiverBirdKop]

There was an interesting article last night in the Independent you should have a look at if you haven't already, went into a lot of detail about what's been going on at the club over the past year and apparently FSG aren't keen on Klopp because they've been warned off him by someone.

Comolli? Billy Bean? Ian Ayre? Brendan Rodgers? Linda??

[Redman0151]

We'll have to see what happens, apparently FSG made it clear they wanted Gerrard shadowing Rodgers and getting involved with coaching but Gerrard was only told that after he'd announced he was leaving.  There's a lot in there and if it's right then the club is in a real mess.

The club really is in a mess i'll agree there. There needs to be some kind of leadership in England, i'm sick to death of FSG sat across the atlantic seemingly washing their hands of it all whilst we're aimlessly flapping about

[sminp]

On my way back from the match, he's not still got his job has he?

[Les Willis]

Fat fucking Sam? you neen sectioning !

It'd be amusing if only for the parody Twitter account.

[Cid]

And none of that has anything to do with us today.

Best we've played all season, Arsenal aside. And we let ourselves down with shite in the final third.

What more could Rodger's have done today? Absolutely nothing.

I was all for saying goodbye to the man when we lost to Stoke but the comments here are ridiculous.

Shit happens yeah.  Some days your finishing costs you.  Thats why you can't be tactically inept the rest of the time, persist with shitty formations and team selections and get routinely outsmarted by bang average managers with bang average teams.

If we play well against norwich and our finishing costs us in a normal season then fine, but in the middle of a fucking atrocious run where the manager has looked completely incapable of getting a performance it's another awful result.

Should have gone after stoke.  Kenny won a cup in his final season and signed 'failures' that would walk into this soft touch team at a canter.

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

There was an interesting article last night in the Independent you should have a look at if you haven't already, went into a lot of detail about what's been going on at the club over the past year and apparently FSG aren't keen on Klopp because they've been warned off him by someone.

if true it doesn't make any sense. He got results at Dortmund with a very low budget. Unless it's something to do with his personality. It just makes far too much sense I suppose. A league winner and cup winner and CL finalist with a budget that would make Wenger wince.

[muyuu]

Rafa >  Ancelotti > Klopp > Fat Sam

In that order.

Fat Sam

[Alf Garnett!]

Laughable comment.

No problem with the shape today.

Incredible.

The result speaks volumes.

Open your eyes sonny & keep banging that drum regardless

If you believe we're more threatening with 5 defenders at home to Norwich..

[Kochevnik]

I think we can all pretty much agree he's not going to turn it around at this point, no?

One thing that impressed me about FSG - when it became abundantly clear, even to a boardroom devoid of football people, that Hodgson was untenable and that he was completely unable to fix the many problems we had, they cut him loose.  I have no doubt they'll do the same to Brendan.

We're not going to finish in the top 4 under Rodgers this season, I think that much is abundantly clear.  So he either gets sacked in the next 3 weeks, or he hangs on until Christmas, or he gets sacked at the end of the season.  Those are the only realistic options.  I think we all hope he goes sooner rather than later, so that at least we can still have some hope of top 4 this season under a new manager, but who knows where FSG are right now.  The only thing is that, given their history, I think they're likely to be very, very close to pulling the trigger, especially if a manager like Klopp or Ancelotti has given them some indication behind closed doors that he'd be interested in the job.

[flinner]

I'm off til the Roundtable, it's become poisonous on here. Blame the manager for today all you like but we dominated the game and rarely looked threatened. The players have to take some responsibility for not taking their chnaces and conceding from a corner.

Either way it's a tough result to take.

Mate no harm but you are deluded.

[Black Bull Nova]

Hell, even the Hodge got til Christmas and there was still some disquiet about sacking a manager mid-season.

Hodge got 5 months

[wemmick]

I said to myself at the beginning of the season I was happy enough for Brendan to get the chance to put things right, but going into his 4th season in charge there was no more excuses for me. That today was totally unacceptable. Not the performance, but the result. They are a poor side. We should've been out of sight today, but instead it's more points dropped due to a goal keeping howler and some really poor decision making in the final 3rd. It was so, so frustrating and really annoying to watch. Felt like putting my boot through my computer monitor when Coutinho messed that 1v1 up.

I felt the same. I said a few games ago that I'd give BR 10 league games before I judge him. I'll try to keep my word, but I'm starting to wonder if it's even possible that results and performances can change for the better that quickly. I can't see us suddenly kicking ass over the next four. 

[KiNki]

Rubbish.

Lucas was pressing high in their half, I mean fuck we get the goal from it.

Moreno playing as a fullback? Of course he was, which is why he spent a stupid amount of time in the final third creating shit.

Fuck all wrong with the shape.

Tell it to the crowd, tell it those chanting attack attack, what's the point.   

[Standards]

howay man stop it. Liverpool always beat Norwich 3-1 on the dot. stop selling yourselves short, Liverpool is a Club above, not below, Liverpool need a Manager who is not suited and booted on the sideline, it is highly suspicious when a bloke gets dressed up...like as in wheres our lass? Over the fookin shops again, oh aye...

[Kashinoda]

Shit happens yeah.  Some days your finishing costs you.  Thats why you can't be tactically inept the rest of the time, persist with shitty formations and team selections and get routinely outsmarted by bang average managers with bang average teams.

If we play well against norwich and our finishing costs us in a normal season then fine, but in the middle of a fucking atrocious run where the manager has looked completely incapable of getting a performance it's another awful result.

Should have gone after stoke.  Kenny won a cup in his final season and signed 'failures' that would walk into this soft touch team at a canter.

Wouldn't argue with any of that. Context is always key.

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

Ta Brendan la.

people were saying this after stoke last season

[jepovic]

We played better, but Norwich were really poor too.

[MolbyLovesGravlax]

Even IF we were to change managers, you'd have to do it at the end of the season. No one is gonna come in and turn this side into a top 4 team mid-season. Especially Klopp, who keeps getting mentioned, who has a system of pressing which requires a lot of familiarity.

Rodgers is probably staying at least till Christmas, and more likely till the end of the season. But we're gonna have to endure this nonsense every time we don't win or even if we win and don't look good doing it.

We've gone 5 games without a win. We've been spanked by West Ham, Stoke and Palace in recent memory. Our current form suggests, over the course of the season, a bottom half finish. We are averaging under a goal a game.
Rodgers isn't playing on cheat mode. He doesn't have infinite lives. At some point the media he ha worked so hard to befriend will turn on him like rabid dogs.
He had a perfect chance, one of many over the course of this and last season, to get a big statement win to build from, and it didn't happen. Again.
I agree that today was about the players rather than Rodgers, but it doesn't matter.
FSG know at least enough about football after almost 5 years to get that at some point they have to do something.

[Giono]

Last month, FSG watched their young General Manager of the Boston Red Sox leave in his 4th season as boss, two years after he won a World Series with them in his second season. The reason? They hired a recently fired baseball executive who is regarded as one of the best around. I don't think they're scared to do it here.

They have been preoccupied with that. That maybe is why they decided to leave BR in place. They are overhauling their baseball team's operations. They probably didn't want to do an overhaul at Liverpool at the same time.

[Halcyon Lissome]

He can't stay if we sink into the bottom three though. How is that tenable?

Yeah, but he won't be. Not after any sample of enough games. We're 6 games into the season. We're 2 points off Arsenal who are 5th and a point ahead of Chelsea who are 15th. It's not like our rivals for the CL places have started on fire and we're falling behind. The league table is a comparative tool; it's not an absolute gauge.

Are people seriously that dense that they can't understand that the team will get better and we're too early in the season to be writing it off? Whether Rodgers is good enough or not will be shown eventually; but it won't be this early in the season.

[Kochevnik]

Best players: Moreno, Can and Lucas

Emre Can and Moreno looked so incredible. Granted Can showed awful defending on Norwich's chance Mignolet saved.

I love Can, I think he could be a massive player for us in midfield over the next decade, but he was terrible today.  He is, quite simply, not a centre back.  He's actually quite good in the centre of midfield, and I think would be brilliant with a Mascherano-type next to him in a 2 as part of a 4-2-3-1, but he is not a centre back.  He was quite poor today, in point of fact.

[Carly]

[Gnurglan]

Incredible.

The result speaks volumes.

Open your eyes sonny & keep banging that drum regardless

If you believe we're more threatening with 5 defenders at home to Norwich..

The result wasn't good. I'm no fan of three at the back. But Moreno did well high up the pitch. Lucas did well. Sturridge, Milner and Coutinho had really good chances and at least one of them should have scored. Doesn't matter what formation you play, you need to score when you get those types of chances.

[elsewhere]

people were saying this after stoke last season

and we should have sacked him after that match. I think the owners already know they will sack him. Probabably Klopp told them he can join in
December or this summer