I'll take a draw over a loss. It's frightening that we have to play Tottenham midweek. Players look exhausted and that's going to be a big match in the table.
Two points dropped, I'd say, as we the better chances. At this level chances such as that two on one break must be put away. Still, it could have been worse as we conceded sill free-kicks. I'll take this.
Good point and another reason why the glass will be mostly full if we fail to make it to the Europa 32.
We were totally flat in the 2nd half. No urgency, and never looked a threat to score. It doesn't help that the captain looks like he is out for a stroll at the park as he walks around the pitch. The midfield was poor today. Joe Allen's form has dipped in recent games. He works hard and chases the ball, but rarely wins it back. Henderson offered little on either end of the pitch. And Gerrard's work rate is at an all time low. Its hard to believe that Suso or Shelvey wouldn't have offered us more. This team needs Lucas back, but it will be asking a lot for him to come straight back into the team after all the time he has missed. Suarez was frustrated today because he received very little service, and Sterling had an off game. I thought Rodgers should have made his substitutions earlier. This game needed some energy off the bench, and it was obvious very early in the 2nd half. I would have preferred to see Suso instead of Cole. Very disappointed with the 2nd half, after it looked like we were starting to take the game to them at the end of the first half.
Agreed. I'm fine with a point, surprisingly. Johnson should have scored in the first half, as well. Swans keeper had a lucky heel save.
But wait they held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw at home, and they held us to a draw too. I mean if they can do that to the european champions we should be ecstatic with the one point.
I sometime wonder if people are actually watching the game. The midfield was not at all poor, they were set up to keep possession and control the middle which we did. They also stopped Swansea's key player, Michu, from exploiting holes in the center. No idea how you can say Gerrard work rate was an all time low. 93 touches of the ball, no player on the pitch for both teams saw more of the ball. We created 3 goals scoring opportunities this game 6 alone from the captain, we had 4 accurate crosses 2 alone from the captain he kept the ball constantly moving with 80 passes.
I agree with this. I'd usually say Gerrard didn't work hard enough but the midfield showed tactical awareness today. BR knows the Swansea team better than he knows Liverpool and he set us up to prevent them from scoring, which was done to great effect. They created nothing through the middle and were forced to cross, which we handled with ease. Swansea had no clear chance. I would have killed to see Gerrard charge from deep, receive the ball and the edge of the area, and score into the low corner, but that wasn't his role. As the deep playmaker there were a few chances he created.
Glen was the best player for us today. Unlucky not to score. Allen has not looked too good as of late. Makes a lot of silly tackles in dangerous areas, and he gave the ball away today in bad spots. Thought he should have come off instead of Henderson - who had some good moments in the middle, kept the ball moving FORWARD, and actually pressured in the midfield. Raheem was solid in the first, and faded in the 2nd. Gave the ball away quite carelessly 5 or 6 times in dangerous positions after the 70th minute. He could benefit from a 2 game break before we get to the busy holiday period. I hope to not see the Downing experiment rear its ugly head again. I can understand his lack of positional sense, but he offers absolutely nothing going forward - two things that cannot occur at the same time. 'Boro here you come! Could have used the 3 points, but a clean sheet away is at least some comfort.
If our midfield's only job is to neutralize the opposition, I don't know how anyone can expect us to earn 3 points. Someone needs to raise the tempo of the game and join the attack. There was no urgency in the 2nd half.
He created 6 of our 13 goal scoring chances. This is where Stevie cant win, he goes forward gung-ho and gets criticized for not being more composed or shows composure and people start saying he's having a quiet game.
I was hoping the first sub would have come earlier than it did, and I was thinking it would be Suso for Sterling, not Shelvey for Henderson. I had no problem w/the Cole sub for Downing. Glad to see Pepe is okay and didn't take any cleats to the eye.
For those that keep track of these things, that's two legit goals taken away that would have likely been game-winners this season. The talk is that only Enrique's arm was offside on his goal.
More pts dropped! 3 wins from 13 is absolutely terrible. Rodgers needs to start winning games or he will get fired. I said this a month ago, and since then we have only won 1 Prem game. Hodgson got sacked having only achieved 25 pts from 20 Prem games. That was 1.25 pts per game and was deemed unacceptably low. Rodgers in on 16 pts from 13 Prem games and this equates to 1.23 pts per game. So Rodgers is actually achieving worse results than Hodgson! This is slightly misleading as Rodgers still needs to face the 3 of the bottom 4 teams this season, but it makes for grim reading. At this point we have actually only beaten Reading, Wigan and Norwich - 3 relegation candidates. I am not bashing Rodgers but the results are damning in themselves. We also still may be eliminated from our Europa League Group and have already been knocked out of the League Cup. I am not saying I want him sacked, but the results, if they do not improve. are poor enough to get him fired. It's a results business and he has not got them so far, and a third of the season is now gone. In short, if Rodgers does not improve results he will be sacked. I like Rodgers but him failing to win games is failing. The owners have shown patience with Rodgers, and rightly so, but this current win rate is not acceptable in the long-term.
His problem, though, is that he is trying to influence too many things from deep. Too many long passes, for my liking when a shorter pass would do. That said, he was actually better in that deeper role than Henderson who just let the game pass by him in central midfield. I thought Allen had too much to do mostly on his own in that midfield hence the silly fouls conceded. In all honesty, a lot of performances were rather flat, just below par, and not enough to beat a team whose measure we largely had. The substitutions could have been more inspired but given that we are going to play four matches in 10 days, I can see where Rodgers was coming from. Just confirming that we have not a particularly good squad.
Only saw the first half, had some business to attend to. But you have to be patient. BR said we played well, he just needs some better players. And we will get them over the next few windows. It is very hard to play 60 hours after a demanding European match. Had Enrique's goal stood or Sterling been luckier we win going away. I am resolved that BR is right, 8th would be fantastic.
Oh I agree he is in a place where we need him to be our manager for two years and then we access what he's done. My earlier post is simply to tell all of you what I have come to understand that bitching is pointless.
oddly enough we looked pretty good for large parts of the game - and created the real chances in the game. the sub of cole still bothered me - just because he looked good in a Europa game doesn't mean you forget how awful he had been in the PL the last 2-3 seasons (loan notwithstanding). He's never going to win it for you - let alone create a winner. Why not Suso? Also did we still have a sub left? why not have Assaidi on the bench as least an attacking option. I don't get why he can't get near a spot for a PL game. Overall however - due to other results we are pretty much net from where we started. The Tottenham game is really big - we need to steal a win.
First 15 minutes of the second half were good with 70% possession for us, but we were gassed after that. I feel bad for Allen when he plays with Hendo and Gerrard in midfield. If I was him, I'd be constantly cursing them out for leaving him 1v2 with Swansea midfielders breaking forward.
Glad to see you've turned the corner! Bitching about losses and ties is pointless. Our team is not talented, and it's not BR's fault that our team is not talented. No manager could turn chicken shit into chicken soup faster than this.