Unacceptable Performance

[Jim D]

Without question, today was an opportunity to take the three points comfortably. Boro were on a poor run of form, not won at home since October and not scored since January.

 

What we saw out there today, was collectively a group of players who played well below par, not one Liverpool player came out of today's game with any credit, might as well forego the Man of the Match thread.

 

The team and Rafa rightly deserve credit for their victory in the Bernabeu but on the other side of the coin they deserve all the criticism they will get after today's result.

 

That performance today was unacceptable and I can't believe it was a performance of a team who still had title aspirations. Many players were off their game, some dare I say lacked determination and bottle. Their was no hunger, it was much more about waiting for something to happen rather than making something happen.

 

Rafa is a brilliant tactician but does he have the ability as a manager to motivate his players? It is needed in this League along with the ability of taking your chances as they come along otherwise it comes back to haunt you. We spurned numerous chances but based on the effort the players displayed we didn't deserve anything from the game.

 

Rafa will keep his job, I'm sure, but he has got a HUGE summer coming up, he needs better and more attacking options in the final third of the pitch. Torres and Gerrard are the only genuine class attacking players we have the club for the marathon of a 38 game season.

 

What a horrible, horrible weekend, the title has gone and we've now slipped to third, the wheels have truly come off.

Edited February 28, 2009 by Jim D

[Gerrardrules]

I hope he b******s the players in the press. They dont deserve to be protected.

[Tommy Cockles]

I hope he b******s the players in the press. They dont deserve to be protected.

 

Nor does he.

[abc]

Nope. Stoke away was worse. At least we created about two or three clear cut chances today.

[MFletcher]

Stoke was much worse.

[dalennie]

The way those players have given up in the last two league games is nothing short of a disgrace. The fans have been cheated without question. So many ordinary players. But there is no excuse for not giving 100% from every player. Rafa should do a Martin O'Neill and invite each of the away fans that travelled a free dinner at Anfield. Not impressed.

[Mike]

unless im mistaken, stoke was 0 0

[Jim D]

Nope. Stoke away was worse. At least we created about two or three clear cut chances today.

 

This was worst than Stoke, Stoke are a better team than Boro. It was a gutless performance by us today.

[Zoob]

until Boro scored, we were decent, nothing spectacular, but we were creating chances and passing the ball nicely. Then we conceeded a freak of a goal, and everything tuned to crap. Still created a couple more chances in the 2nd half, but Middlesborough really has turned into a bogey ground for us.

 

it was just a surreally terrible game to watch. Boro were so absoutely terrible. so goddam typical that they haven't scored in 783 prem games and then get 2 against us.

 

There was also one completely bizarre moment when we were given off-side after playing a short corner, when both passes we made were backwards. Can anyone explain that? thought it a bit harsh of Gerrard to give El Zhar a bolocking about that....

[Billy Talbot]

Quite possibly the worst game of football I've watched. And I've watched an awful lot of non-league.

 

Was Boro's gameplan to bore us into submission? If it was it certainly worked...

 

Btw - did anyone else think Wheater's pulling of Alonso's shirt was a little too much for that OG to have stood? Even he looked straight at the linesman to make sure he wasn't flagging for a foul.

 

Anyway, I've never had a real dislike for Boro even with our record up there - but that's it for me. There's another team I now cannot stand. Morons. I hope they end up in league 2.

[alias75]

Its difficult to pin point whats going wrong because the one thing you could say about this team under Rafa is we're tough to beat, we very rarely lose games by 2 goals and very rarely show that little fight.

 

I can take drawing or losing a game when we miss lots of chances but when you lose a game in that manner it does raise several questions, i guess on the plus side you could say its been a long time since the effort has been that poor even if there have been some poor performances.

 

Once again its the managers job to motivate the players but the players are the ones that play and good professionals don't need motivating. I think the bottom line is we have a core of maybe 12-13 players that are of the required standard to be part of a Liverpool FC squad, the rest when called upon simply aren't up to it.

 

On top of that we have 3 or 4 key players that simply have to play almost every week because without them the team is lacking. Obviously we've missed 2 of those for large parts of the season.

 

The lack of striking options is obviously one that you compare us with the teams around us and we're severely lacking. We have 1 world class striker, Man Utd have 3 world class strikers plus Ronaldo, even teams like Arsenal, Chelsea have many more attacking options than us, you look at the drawn games and the lack of striker options is clearly to blame for most of those.

 

Kuyt is our #2 striker which tells the story, Babel and N'gog shouldn't be anywhere near a team looking to win a PL.

Edited February 28, 2009 by alias75

[Stanley Leisure]

Stoke was much worse.

 

 

 

F*cks sake!

[Maldini]

Sky picked it as their game of the day on Football First, how bad were the others!

[Falconhoof]

With the squad we have, games like today are inevitable.

Once you get beyond Torres and Gerrard, there are not enough goals in the side. You can get away with it for a few games here and there but not often enough to win the league.

Edited February 28, 2009 by Ernest Blenkinsop

[Lark]

we had the lion share of possession and as per created only one or two guilt edged opportunities. They on the other hand could have scored 2 or 3 more goals. Our lack of creativity when stevie g and torres aint playing is the story of this season.

 

reira, babel, ngog, kuyt, nabil el zar, yossi beneyoun. They are not and never will be players who can bring a league title home.

 

We need an exceptional summer of transfers to stop the over reliance on stevie g and torres.

[Tonto]

until Boro scored, we were decent, nothing spectacular, but we were creating chances and passing the ball nicely. Then we conceeded a freak of a goal, and everything tuned to crap.

 

That's a common failing for us though. We don't usually concede a freak goal like that, but if, after a bright start we don't score, we do tend to lose belief. We had an hour to respond to the goal and instead of stepping up, we retreated even more into our shells.

[MFletcher]

With the squad we have, games like today are inevitable.

Once you get beyond Torres and Gerrard, there are not enough goals in the side.

 

This sums it up.

 

Gerrard wasn't fit, we didn't have Torres and the back-ups weren't good enough on the day. They're capable of producing great performances, but not consistently enough which, I suppose, is why they're back-ups.

 

And I do maintain the Stoke game was worse, because we didn't create a single chance until the 93rd minute. At least we missed a few decent/gilt-edged chances today.

[Zoob]

chelsea getting a last minute winner today made the day all the sweeter...

[Frosty Jack]

Our lack of creativity when stevie g and torres aint playing is the story of this season.

 

reira, babel, ngog, kuyt, nabil el zar, yossi beneyoun. They are not and never will be players who can bring a league title home.

 

Couple of things:

Gerrard did play. Riera didn't.

Benayoun did and looked our best player for the 15 minutes or so he was on the pitch.

[Toni]

rafa is not the problem. we have too many ordinary players in the team. unless he will be given serious money to spend we will just have to continue scraping for third place.

 

 

as for today we missed too many sitters and that is why we lost the match.

[Benzo-13]

That was our worst league showing since Palace in 05.

 

A complete and utter shambles.

[MFletcher]

I see we're back to nailing Benayoun and Kuyt as players who are never going to be good enough, despite both being excellent in mid-week and in previous matches earlier in the month.

 

This sort of thinking is just fickle. Opinions on players shouldn't swing violently based on one match.

[Zoob]

That's a common failing for us though. We don't usually concede a freak goal like that, but if, after a bright start we don't score, we do tend to lose belief. We had an hour to respond to the goal and instead of stepping up, we retreated even more into our shells.

 

I've noticed that too. it's completely infuriating how quickly we loose belief if we don't score when we're playing decently.

[alias75]

the lack of quality attacking options is clearly whats costing us at the moment, we've seen it with so many other teams this season you can play quite poorly but quality attacking players will make the difference. If Torres and Gerrard don't play almost every league game for us we're not going to be able to sustain a league challenge over 38 games.

 

Until that is addressed we're relying on the form and fitness of 2 players.

 

Man Utd have 4 world class attacking options and 2 or 3 a level below that.

Chelsea have Anelka, Drogba, Lampard, Ballack, plus 3 or 4 a level below that

Arsenal probably have 2 top class attacking players but their 2nd tier is much stronger than ours with players like Nasri, Rosicky, Walcott, Bendtner

 

We have Gerrard and Torres and then your relying on Kuyt, Babel, N'gog, El Zahr, Benayoun, Riera that simply isn't good enough if those 2 key players are missing for any length of time.

[Mike]

I see we're back to nailing Benayoun and Kuyt as players who are never going to be good enough, despite both being excellent in mid-week and in previous matches earlier in the month.

 

This sort of thinking is just fickle. Opinions on players shouldn't swing violently based on one match.

yossi has been our best player lately and should deffo be starting every game.