I'll take it since I expected a draw at the start. I'm angry with how easily we blew that 2 goal lead though.
I'm encouraged by the confidence that both the team and BR had even after blowing the lead though. The fact that he didn't use the 2 unused subs to put Skrtel and Allen on (I still would have) showed that we were going for the 3, and that there was confidence that we'd hold on for at least the 1.
I would have been happy with a draw coming into this so I'll take it. Not happy though that we went up 2 and then gave up 2 over the course of 3 minutes. I don't know why that happens.
Good lord what the hell was that??? Errors all over the place by both teams. Why did BR have them drop so damn deep at 2-0 up. 2 goals against in 2:30 is hard to swallow. A point on the road to L'Arse is a decent result (if one doesn't watch the match.)
We had 53% of the possession when they beat us 2-0 at Anfield, it's not always about possession but what you do with it. Besides, we were away from home against a team who are still pass masters in this league.
******** it. I'm going to dwell on the positives. Its a good point in the end. We stood up after the poor result at the weekend. Rodgers got his selection and tactics generally right. Lets get ready and have a go at City. They are there for the taking. I'll take 4 from these 2 games any day.
Opportunity wasted. With Spurs draw, we're 7 pts off the pace for 4th. The bitters are 5 ahead of us. Gerrard - Thought he was our best player today. Carried us with some great play. I almost completely forgot Lucas was on the field, such was his isolation at times. Henderson - Great play in the first half, great individual effort for his goal. Got lost in the 2nd half with us having absolutely zero possession. Luis - Opportunistic goal, several other chances to win it at the end. Nothing to say about him. Downing - Story of his time with us - Gets sucked too deep at all times. Misses many opportunities to play dangerous balls because his head is down when running with the ball. Won't be sad to see him leave. At least his effort was there. Lucas - 3 steps off the pace and sloppy in possession. A shadow of the player he was pre-injury. I may prefer to see him replaced by Allen in our starting XI against Citeh. Wisdom - He very well could become a great CB for us. But a RB at the highest level, he is not. I'd gather 70% of his passes went to Reina, the other 30% awry. Can't fault him for what he lacks. Agger - Lost Giroud for the first. Did not pressure Giroud on the 2nd. General marking was poor today. His worst game of the season. Reina - Poor. Distribution was not its normal standard. At fault for the 2nd goal - had plenty of time to set his feet, watched as it went by - a top GK is expected to make that save.
Never really in control of the game which was the most worrying thing for me. Always expected us to concede even after we went up 2-0. Liver and learn.
The one-man wrecking crew that is Adam Le Fondre scored 2 late to tie Chelsea, so that makes me feel better.
I'm really disappointed. Feels like a loss. The mental fragility of this team is baffling. Completely lost concentration for those two goals in 3 crazy minutes. Why were so deep against them in the second half when their defence is as sh!te as ours
Very frantic game - Walcott has become a hell of a player and giroud has some really dangerous movement. I'm not displeased - but bothered that we have up the two goals so fast and easily. I for one didn't like brs subs today - needed fresh legs the last 15 mins. Our guys were gassed.
Well Giroud is hard to mark and Wilshere played a perfect ball. But our marking on dead balls is still shit. 2 points dropped. They were always gonna get one like the Walcott goal. What is problematic is that they were able to keep us under pressure with a team of attackers. Our passing wasn't good enough. Our MOTM Suarez. Second Carragher who played like a warrior. Lucas didn't tackle well and passed worse. His worst match of the year. Henderson was very good and very bad alternately. Gerrard played great defensively but his passing wasn't good and he was too tired to do much in attack. Agger had a good match except letting Giroud score. Wisdom -- if Enrique is fit it's time for him to sit Sturridge did a good job in the first 60 minutes holding the ball but couldn't finish a few gold played chances Suarez made for him. Downing -- I hope we can get someone to play well enough to get him to sit. Just not good enough. Enrique. Just love the guy. Reina--- really had to work at sweeper. Made some good saves but I would have thought he could have done a bit more on the Walcott goal Rodgers -- set us up well in the 4-5-1 but the sub for Enrique should have come at 2-0 and again we can not find a way to defend a set piece.
and the emphasis on our game was counter-attack, especially as they poured bodies forward and their incredibly leaky defense. Why turn things into a midfield tiki-taka battle when you can bypass that and go straight for their dodo brained defenders?
Disappointing that we couldn't hold on to a 2 goal lead with 30 min to play. When I first saw what the substitution was going to be I was confused but as he was running on field I thought it was a good move because we were getting over run in the midfield so he could help defensively and still provided some attack. It was timely to because their attack at the time was relentless. I loved the strength and determination Henderson showed on that goal. Why do we back so far off at times on defense. There was one play at the end of the game the ball was coming down, we could have contested it but backed way off and let them have possession. We also do it in our own box, we back off almost to the goal while covering no one and giving them a lot of time and space at the top of our box. Dam, did I want the three points!
@LFC: Rodgers: "I can't give Jamie enough credit. I can't speak highly enough of him both as a professional football player and a human being."
@Robbie9Fowler: Would've settled for 2-2 at start, but always disappointing when you let a 2 goal lead slip....
It happens far too often; I think we've not many brave players who will take on the 5-/50 challenges. It's a mentality thing more than anything else.