Topic: Liverpool 0 - S'hampton 1 [0-2 Aggregate]

[Butcher Knife Roberto]

I mentioned elsewhere that we've been sussed out tactically, and 'lesser' sides have worked out how to beat us. I was laughed at and told to behave myself - a response that frankly smacked of arrogance.

The simple fact of the matter is that we can only really perform against teams who come out and try to play against us; park a bus and get us on the counter, you'll get something from the game. Tonight was further evidence of a team and manager that is quickly running out of ideas. The rot has well and truly set in, and it needs to be sorted fast. No amount of wise programme words will cover up the fact that since the City game we've been complete and utter garbage. Something has to change. So absolutely disappointed. I genuinely fear for our top four status now, I cannot see where our next win is coming from.

[lgvkarlos]

Carra: "When Liverpool play with Sturridge - and he doesn't score, it's like playing with 10 men because he doesn't contribute anywhere else".

Ouch. Is he right?

Yes

[Garnier]

Chelsea, United, Madrid and Champions League teams?

Hardly compares to Swansea, Sunderland, Plymouth and Southampton right enough.

Fair point. But this other one here is also pretty bad (This run eventually led to his sacking)

Early 2015-16
Liverpool 0 - 3 West Ham
Man U 3 - 1 Liverpool
Bordeaux 1 - 1 Liverpool
Liverpool 1 - 1 Norwich
Liverpool 1 -  1 Carlisle
Liverpool 3 - 2 Villa
Liverpool 1 - 1 Sion
Everton 1 - 1 Liverpool

Also, i'm not sure what is the point that i'm trying to win anymore. Depressing reading these results and current form

[Nick110581]

Totally disagree....... these are super fit young athletes provided the best training and nutrition!!!!

They're playing football......... a lot of clubs have smaller squads than even ours.... Southampton being one of them and they seemed fine

Do you know what a rut is ?

[Malcolm Night]

Yep, gave Henderson a lesson tonight. The captain does not look fit in the slightest, if this injury is regressing him to the player we saw last season then don't play him.

We have to play him even when his heel is hurting because similarly to Mane there is absolutely no one in the squad who can or is good enough to play his role.

[sms1986]

Its so typically Liverpool to potentially fuck a season up... no planning, the ludicrous Sakho, drug, Matip, Cameroon sagas, no squad depth... total joke at times

How are half of those things our fault? It's not our fault that Sakho did what we did or that Cameroon were arseholes about Matip. I also think the squad depth was a miscalculation rather than any negligence.

[Redman78]

Can't agree with people slating Can for his performance, thought he was pretty good and easily our best midfielder tonight.

People will target Can and Sturridge but we were poor from back to front tonight

[RK7]

Who else was shouting foul him when the Southampton player picked the ball up in the centre circle for their goal? Surely that one is a no brainer..

[Midkroy]

i don t think that southampton looked unbreakable tonight. for me liverpool looked better in terms of
freshness and movement than previous games and stepped on good positions but looked short on killer instict.
what i really don t like is how calm southampton looked against liverpool at anfield in an important game
like this. when you are liverpool and it is supposed that you have ambitions to be on top you should be able
to scare teams in such situations.

[SteveLFC]

Utterly disappointing and hard to see the positives at the moment but I will try and avoid a knee jerk reaction to our current plight. Got to keep the faith and believe.   

[10 years on]

Carra: "When Liverpool play with Sturridge - and he doesn't score, it's like playing with 10 men because he doesn't contribute anywhere else".

Ouch. Is he right?

no talking out of his fucking arse again, could literally say that about any striker.

[gatcliffe]

Carra talking some truths

[hesbighesred]

I don't know how you came to that conclusion, we huffed and puffed but only tested the goalkeeper once. Southampton could've scored three goals.

Not to mention we lost at home, that rules out any possibility of it being a 'decent performance'.

They scored one right at the end when we committed everyone forward for a corner that we could have had a penalty from. We could have had two other penalties. We had two shots, admittedly not piss easy ones, which went over from about 6-8 metres out. Their keeper fucked up massively and was extremely lucky that it a) didn't go over the line and b) didn't go to a Liverpool player. When we've made that kind of mistake this season it's usually been a goal.

And that's in addition to the chances you mentioned.

overall stats show us with 14 shots, 3 on target, Southampton with 7, 2 on target. So nearly double the chances for us - and as Klopp said, 7 of those were decent ones.

[dramared]

I've been saying the same for quite some time. Sit back, give us the ball and then cut through us.

We lack pace up front to beat defenders. We lack pace in midfield.

We need to break out of this but now every team appears to have sussed us out.

Yep and then the only option is from wide areas where we are not good enough with Milner and Clyne.

[slaphead]

I mentioned elsewhere that we've been sussed out tactically, and 'lesser' sides have worked out how to beat us. I was laughed at and told to behave myself - a response that frankly smacked of arrogance.

The simple fact of the matter is that we can only really perform against teams who come out and try to play against us; park a bus and get us on the counter, you'll get something from the game. Tonight was further evidence of a team and manager that is quickly running out of ideas. The rot has well and truly set in, and it needs to be sorted fast. No amount of wise programme words will cover up the fact that since the City game we've been complete and utter garbage. Something has to change. So absolutely disappointed. I genuinely fear for our top four status now, I cannot see where our next win is coming from.

Oh I can - we have Wolves and Hull 2 of our next 3 games

[jillcwhomever]

This can't be underestimated. We have a selection of attackers that can be quite reliant on combination play, which is why Mane has proven such an asset - even if it's not running past two or three players, he brings a quickness/change of direction in 1v1s that not enough of our players otherwise try and utilise. Coutinho especially has this ability but because we don't have a playmaker, he sometimes under-uses his dribbling ability.

I think Coutinho is still playing his way into fitness. We have been unlucky in so much as the players who have been injured, have not come back and got back up to form quickly. Like Hendo with his heel problems, though he passed the ball much better today. We just have to work harder, there are no easy answers when form deserts you. Despite what people might think. 

[hesbighesred]

I think Klopp is spot on about this too, he's entitled to be pissed off, I think:

"If we could hear a referee's whistle it would be nice. I don't know how many times that has happened this season. Against Manchester United we had a clear offside goal [Zlatan Ibrahimovic], nobody says anything. Tonight a penalty, nobody says anything."

[sms1986]

There has been some vicious dig on the manager here. Please show a bit of respect to the manager. He might have been a bit slow to change the team and he might be questioned on some of his favourite player like Can but at least show a bit class. We were flying just a month back. We are not Real Madrid FC, we are Liverpool FC.

Klopp is a genius, and we really need to be patient. When it all clicks, when his team is assembled, we'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

[alonsoisared]

We're going through a bad patch at the moment, no doubt about that

We'll bounce back soon enough though. It's not something I'd be overly concerned about

Its a pisser that we lost a semi, but in some ways I'm happier its a cup defeat rather than another league defeat

Hopefully that's the kick up the arse that finally gets the funk out of our system.

We'll get our shit back together next week against Chelsea. No doubt about that

ten minutes after losing a semi final, having blown our title hopes a few days earlier with an abysmal home defeat and its "not something to be overly concerned about". Give me a bedwetter over heads in the sand any day of the week. Play like we have been against chelsea and theyll twat us into 5th place quicker than you can say "we'll still win the fa cup and finish top four though"

[Upinsmoke]

I think it is too easy to put it down to Mane being missing. I think since Coutinho was out, we lacked the incisiveness of playing through the middle like we did earlier in the season. The concurrent theme is that we have been whipping it into the box hoping someone will get to the crosses, when really we don't have the players for that type of game.

It's a mental thing, we lacked ideas now, as the creativity drained away. Now it'll take more time to reestablish that rhythm that we lost. Hopefully when Coutinho gets up to speed it will come back.

We don't need another speedy winger. Those do nothing against sides that sit deep. We need players who can penetrate and play the one two's. Mane isn't all about speed, his footwork is quite underappreciated here I think. Even when he wasn't beating his man down the line the last couple of months he's been able to put himself into scoring positions with deft touches.

And the other thing we are missing is a winning mentality. Or to put it more succinctly, the team is mentally weak, and afraid of failure. Not sure how you fix something like that.

I disagree about the wide players, for me we lacked pace off the ball, something which mane has in abundance and uses it cleverly, even when he's not on the ball.hes drawing the attention of the opposition, opening space for others. We don't have that, it's so compact, that's why I've wanted to see Moreno more lately becsuse if he overlaps and doesn't get the ball he might draw a defender away. If we had another wide man that could beat a man or quickly move to open a passing lane then it would benefit us greatly

[killer-heels]

If your expectations are that low fair enough. Comparing favourably with last season isn't difficult.

The expectations were for 6th. If you dont believe that then visit the predictions thread. So lets not go re-writing history.

[El Lobo]

Carra: "When Liverpool play with Sturridge - and he doesn't score, it's like playing with 10 men because he doesn't contribute anywhere else".

Ouch. Is he right?

Aye, that's the go to line isn't it?

He was the only player actually running at them today. He missed a couple of chances he should have buried but fucking hell if people think he was bad I dread to think what they made of Coutinho or Lallana tonight.

[LallanaInPyjamas]

We have to play him even when his heel is hurting because similarly to Mane there is absolutely no one in the squad who can or is good enough to play his role.

There is when he's playing as badly as this.

[rich87]

How are half of those things our fault? It's not our fault that Sakho did what we did or that Cameroon were arseholes about Matip. I also think the squad depth was a miscalculation rather than any negligence.

Funny how thousands upon thousands of fans called it months ago; and the staff at LFC who get paid thousands couldn't.

It's utter Negligence. This defeat is purely down to our squad not being good enough, strong enough, fit enough. We lack in so many areas. We've been punching above our weight for a long time.

We haven't rotated and we haven't got a player to cover for Mane, which means we revert to playing players out of position.

[elsewhere]

Carra: "When Liverpool play with Sturridge - and he doesn't score, it's like playing with 10 men because he doesn't contribute anywhere else".

Ouch. Is he right?

nothing new, i thought we all know that already.

[gatcliffe]

Klopp is a genius, and we really need to be patient. When it all clicks, when his team is assembled, we'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

He needs to assemble sooner rather than later.

[Redsnappa]

Who else was shouting foul him when the Southampton player picked the ball up in the centre circle for their goal? Surely that one is a no brainer..

Tough one ... Wijnaldum could've fouled him, taken the booking and the free kick would've taken up minutes of our precious time.

So he let him go, maybe thinking we'd stop it and mount another attack.

[RK7]

Totally disagree....... these are super fit young athletes provided the best training and nutrition!!!!

They're playing football......... a lot of clubs have smaller squads than even ours.... Southampton being one of them and they seemed fine

Would be interesting to compare minutes of the starting line ups but also the distance our players have covered this season in matches.

[supaerheraw]

I'm not concerned with books.

Our corners are appalling and put us under more pressure than the opposition.

If we never score from them then keep them short and keep our defenders back.

What happened tonight has nearly happened before and will again if we keep with our current regime of corners

Yes, everyone says that. And whoever takes the corner, always gets blamed for appaling corners. That's because their defence is as packed as ever, and CORNERS ARE WORTHLESS as an output.

[007.lankyguy]

I think Coutinho is still playing his way into fitness. We have been unlucky in so much as the players who have been injured, have not come back and got back up to form quickly. Like Hendo with his heel problems, though he passed the ball much better today. We just have to work harder, there are no easy answers when form deserts you. Despite what people might think.

It was a more general point on Coutinho, rather than specifically tonight's performance.

[Kwaideng]

Sorry for being frustrated lad, i'll change my tune.  Great performance. Can excellent as usual, Sturridge looking sharp and great passing from the back by Matip. Jurgen really gets it spot on with his team selection every game. I honestly can't wait to see the creative force of Can, Henderson and Wijnaldum against Chelsea. I am not a bed wetter

And don't forget ..Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary will be a paragon of virtue.

[stockdam]

I don't agree with this at all. Firmino is excellent as a striker and has done really well there for us. I'd bet his goal return for us when played as a central striker is decent.

Agree. Firmino was about the only player who looked capable of doing something different.

[Ciara (with a capital "C")]

One of the things I've been most impressed with so far this season is the types of wins we have produced. We seemed to find different ways of winning. I think that's why the past few weeks have been so disappointing, because we have played in the same pedestrian, slow manner. Added to the fact we have seen some of the best football a LFC side can say they have ever produced, we are craving that again and so performances like that are so, so dissapointing.

My first thought on FT whistle, apart from being disappointed, was 'at least it's not a League game and 3 points dropped.'

My biggest concern is where people see this form ending. We have been poor for so long now - City game aside. Is hard to see what sparks that into life. Poor performances and results haven't produced a good enough reaction, the boss hasn't managed to pick them up yet and the crowd, despite being largely shite recently were good tonight and still we were lacklustre.

Teams are finding it so easy to play against us right now - defensively and offensively. We get ourselves into so many bad situations during games with teams counter attacking us. Something is going wrong in possession to expose these gaping holes and I think it's a lack of intensity and maybe legs all over the pitch.

I don't think it's the night for singling players out but there are areas of the squad where we maybe now see where improvements can be made. The squad doesn't have enough quality in terms of its depth.

[Butcher Knife Roberto]

Oh I can - we have Wolves and Hull 2 of our next 3 games

But weren't we drooling over the thought of Swansea at Anfield, and people were expecting a cricket score? There's a serious mentality issue with the team at the moment - either that or they are truly, truly knackered and can't hack the pace Klopp is trying to set. They just looked so, well, underwhelming and tired. Jaded would be the most accurate description, both physically and mentally. If we'd played Southampton 3 months ago I'd have said we would batter them. Something just isn't right at the moment.

[rscanderlech]

How are half of those things our fault? It's not our fault that Sakho did what we did or that Cameroon were arseholes about Matip. I also think the squad depth was a miscalculation rather than any negligence.

Agreed, although on Sakho we should have looked for another CB if Klopp was going to completely drop him.

[hesbighesred]

no talking out of his fucking arse again, could literally say that about any striker.

Like Firmino, for example? Or Costa? Or any number of strikers who do one or more of constantly move, constantly harass, come deep and influence play etc etc.

Sturridge is a player of sublime skill, and he's not exactly lazy, but he doesn't seem to be able to bully his way into a game - I've seen Origi do it, for example.

Sturridge, sadly, seems to be one of a fine Liverpool tradition of sublimely gifted world class talents who are made out of tissue paper - Kewell, Torres, Aurelio, Agger, Fowler, Owen...

[cornelius]

Carra: "When Liverpool play with Sturridge - and he doesn't score, it's like playing with 10 men because he doesn't contribute anywhere else".

Ouch. Is he right?

No, to say he contributed nothing tonight is utter, utter bollocks but the fact is he looks like a square peg in a round hole under Klopp.

[smicer07]

Carra: "When Liverpool play with Sturridge - and he doesn't score, it's like playing with 10 men because he doesn't contribute anywhere else".

Ouch. Is he right?

Like most strikers.

[peterstone]

Yes, everyone says that. And whoever takes the corner, always gets blamed for appaling corners. That's because their defence is as packed as ever, and CORNERS ARE WORTHLESS as an output.

Do you think Milner takes good corners?

Seriously?

I'm sick of us trying to cross it. We all know what's going to happen

[Kenny's Jacket]

Doesn't seem difficult to be honest. Firmino wasn't looking as good wide, went back up top and scored two excellent goals... so we put him back out wide.

Ive seen this posted a few time. I dont think he was wide. He seemed to play off DS. Thought he was our best player tonight.