A headstart gained from a fine goal by Torres.. only to be negated by mistakes and losing control of the middle of the park.
The trust that Roy had in Jonjo Shelvey at the start of the second half was miss-placed as the teenager was a bundle of nerves with many bad passes. Credit though to our senior players like Reina, Kuyt and Gerrard who gave him encouragement.
In the end, the team that was hungrier reaped their rewards and it was not the team in Red this time. Although Gerrard had his chances to win us the game, yet you can say the same also of Wigan with their industry and the application they put in.
I must mention that the players who excelled for us would be Maxi and Lucas who showed endeavour and zeal in their work. The rest were not too far off, but maybe they had instructions to “not lose”.. and perhaps this curtailed their desire to advance forward and go for the kill..
So Roy, it’s back to the drawing board.. we will be wondering why you withdrew Meireles at the end of the first half and brought on Jonjo. And we feel for Jovanovic and Ngog sitting on the bench when either of them could have given us the edge upfront and allowed Torres more space and service.
We wonder Roy.. we will still wonder.
Anybody who thinks that Hodgson has the ability to manage at this level is as deluded as Hodgson. This performance was one of the worst I’ve witnessed by a Liverpool side in 46 years of proudly supporting my club. This was an abject defeat to a bottom three side. Hodgson has to go.If he had any dignity, he’d apologise and get the bus home.
Here we go again, unable to beat relegation sides, useless players bought by Hodgson showing their weakness’s again, Koncheski, too old, too slow, and not fit for the reserves let alone the first team, Poulson should never have been bought he’s not even good enough for the Coke league.
Please John Henry get shut of this useless coach (I’m being nice and could think of more apt words to describe him) before he drags us back to the relegation zone.
3 times i have seen Comolli now and havn’t seen him smile once i think he doesn’t beleive in Roy just as much as the fans, and hes going to be the guy to call the shots on Roys job. I gave Roy credit against Chelsea he did everything right but today he was woefull again, his bemusing substitutions, formation, and post match comments “im happy with the point, but i don’t have to be happy about our performance”. How can any big club be happy with a point we could and should have capitalised today and got in the running for 4th spot. The only good thing i can say is Torres looks to have found his touch and eye for goal and the combination with Gerrard and him has started to materialise again. No doubt we will need Torres to finish any chances he has against Stoke because it aint going to be easy……YNWA
Article spot on. If there is anyone who could possibly give one simple reason either of the subs were made I would like to hear it…though it would be a waste of words. What the hell was that display of management?! I think he put a nail in his own coffin. He damaged Jonjo at the same time he weakened the team…well done. Sure would have been nice to see a positive substitution rather than 2 patheitc ones. Sure he is thrilled to get the point when he did what he could to try to lose the 3…amazing…sad and amazing!
Here we go again. Fluke defeat of Chelsea – was it part of the deal made between the two clubs at the tail end of last season? followed by the realistic failure to win at Wigan! Long, long way to go to regain respect
I still stand by my assessment of ROy – He must go! Games like these should be in the bag. To hear that Roy is happy with the point with a “stretched” Liverpool team is sickening.
We don’t have control in the middle of the park, we seems to pass sideways and back again, and the players selection is questionable. A good manager needs to be decisive and be able to turn things around when all is not well with astute substitution.
Shelvey was having a hard time and he still played the whole game. Roy seems to be having problems deciding when to sub and who to sub during games. Inspite of our 4 wins on the trot, I still say, Roy must go! unless Henry’s target is to be the best mid table EPL team!
Hodgson is blaming tiredness for the lacklustre display, yet it’s only November, and we have had a few international breaks and we went out of the Carling Cup early. So if the players are tired he needs to be looking at his training schedule and adjust accordingly.
Also his substitutions are again baffling, he explained that Meireless was ill so why didn’t he bring on Jovanic to provide a bit of experienced cover and some pace in front of a young Kelly? Then the substitution of Poulsen for Kuyt was a joke, why take a striker off and replace him with a very poor defensive midfielder when we needed a goal to win?
Also can one of our defensive coaches pull Konchesky to one side and show him how to stop a cross coming over, because time and time again he fails in his number 1 job.
Is ole Roy delirious? Raul has the ability to create chances and win games, and he takes him off at halftime to bring on an teenager who shows plenty of promise, but should not yet be depended on to provide a critical spark to the team. And then when the team needs some energy he takes off mr. energy Dirk Kuyt and brings on the ‘never pass it forwards’ Poulsen. Oh, but he’s not done yet. Just to make sure there is no chance of us winning he takes off another possible provider for torres and brings on ‘fast but not ready for first team action’ Eccleston. What was wrong with Ngog? And the bigger question is what is the problem that Roy has with Milan Jovanovic? I thought he was great against Arsenal in the first game, and he was the only positive in the first half against Napoli at Anfield in the first half before he was taken off. This is truly frustrating.
Roy needs to realize that he is at a club that does not accept only a point, and should always try to be on the offensive. Here is a message to you Roy: Change, or be changed.
As much as I highlighted that a win against Wigan was a must in my last article, I also pointed out that it would have been hard fought and a nail-biting contest. I was expecting, in all fairness, a draw as I can’t see a Liverpool side still to hit top form win five consecutive games. We lost the big Greek to illness at a time when his form was at a premium. Kuyt always gives that added creativity but it’s obvious he is not yet fully match fit.
The game against Stoke is an even more important encounter now, one which we simply have to win (it’s becoming a routine statement this!). My point is, I would never imagine Liverpool winning at Wigan and Stoke, so I would take a draw at Wigan and three points at Stoke.
Again, I had warned that the stabilization process underway at Liverpool FC will lead to a few more draws and (hopefully not) one or two more defeats. I don’t think anyone is naive enough to expect the Reds to win every game till the end of the season now that we’ve had a good run of games! We’d be probably champions in May! Let’s be realistic. I know it’s frustrating (didn’t sleep too well myself last night) so keep believing and supporting the club.
You ask, “we will be wondering why you withdrew Meireles at the end of the first half and brought on Jonjo”
Meireles was sick before the game and sick again at half time. The team looked tired, knackered in the 2nd half – probabily the exertions of the Cheski game. The same players who were making good passes in the Cheski game failed to do so as much in this game.
I doubt Hodgson instructed them “not lose”, he probably instructed them to go out and do their best, which they did until the juice ran out.
No manager can field a good side if you don’t have the depth in available squad members to be able to put them on the pitch. Not much point in putting Ngog on when your midfield is too knackered to pass the ball to him.
Hopefully training will be very VERY light over the next few days so the players can get their energy back as the Stoke game is a must 3 pointer (although a draw would not be the end of the world).
We need a bigger squad to cope with illnesses & to provide cover.
Well said Karl V-Grant, we missed some important fully fit players (Soto, Kuyt, Meireles) and some looked tired (Lucas, well, basically everyone else).
We’re not LFC at the mo’, we’re lfc and in a building process.
While construction continues, we we cannot be realistically expected to win every game or play every game as we would like to – we need to grin out points. It’s hard to take for a supporter who grew up with us winning everything in site – reality’s a bitch, we’re now seeing how the other half live.
Meireles was pulled because he gave away almost every pass he made. It was a shocking performance from a guy I have been starting to like. Shelvey wasn’t much better but the kid needs exposure to the game. He did make more good plays than Meireles though. Nice to see Eccelson get a bit of action too.
My only concern is that mid week games should not be held, fullstop. Two days recovery is not enough resting time. You sense that playing mid week is a problem for many teams not only in England’s top division. Lot of results ended in draws yesterday including a few games in Italy involving top clubs such as Inter and Juventus.
I agree that players shouldn’t be tired in November. However, one must add that the fast tempo of English football takes a huge toll on the body and, hence, I repeat, two days is simply not enough time to recuperate. I’m sure our performance would have been much more sharp with a few more days in between.
We need to be realistic.
Since NESV have come in I’ve developed some patience for Roy his tactics are starting to work in my opinion. He fielded the same players last night as against Chelski but we seen 2 teams (except for about 25 minutes of the match) you can’t blame him for that.
The question i’d be asking is WTF are these fitness coaches there for, what benefit do they bring to our club if we are 21 games in and already players are gassed!
We need some depth, the young lads realistically should be getting brought on when we are in control, they haven’t got the head for a battle yet!
I’ve given Roy until January, he started bad but its getting better
i think Mr Roy is a confused and disturbed coach,with all due respect he didnt win against chelsea Torres did and covered his back side,he needs to make promising substitution rather than negative substitution,we have all seen in past matches David Ngog has improved tremendously and each time he comes on as a sub he brings extra energy and momentum in because his pace,stamina,speed and he is growing in both stature and confidence..Mr Roy why didnt u bring Ngog on??Mr Roy did the same against chelsea when he brough Shelvey on Shelvey isnt as experienced as Ngog in the premier league.Why didnt he bring on Jovanovic rather than Ecceleston and what happened to Glen johnson??fans are clamouring for Johnson to be played further up the pitch as he is attack minded and he would provide cover for Martin Kelly…Mr Roy has until christmas to get us in top four or else he should be booted out..Mr Roy shouldnt make excuses anymore as we have a bright chance getting into top four
As soon as I saw “same XI as Sunday” I knew this was going to be bad. Will we have fit players on Saturday or will they be even more worn out?
Karl: I see your point, but what does that say about Europa and Champions League games?
Yes Brian, good point raised reg. European ties – the only difference is that this time round, Liverpool played 3 games in a matter of 6 days. To make matters worse, the second game was against Chelsea which used up a lot of energy albeit resulting in a fantastic outcome. I’m not trying to come up with excuses why the team was physically – and more importantly – mentally not at a sound level; I’m only stating facts.
i really can’t understand what’s going on …
1. before the blackburn game … hodgson says that the team hasn’t understand his tactics well. until that game all we did was defending and hoping not to concede a goal. blackburn-bolton-napoli-chelsea 1st half … we did the opposite .. we were offensive. TACTICAL CHANGE OR THE PLAYERS UNDERSTOOD HIS TACTICS??
2. mereiles didn’t have a good first half (infact he was ill). So, what could have been easier to do? you can change mereiles with jova and maxi plays on the right. TWO PLAYERS IN THEIR POSITION. what did he do? played shelvey on the right when he was out of position and so with every mistake, he lost his confidence.
3. changing maxi. i don’t know if he was tired or not. but in case he was or he had a knock, why not changing him with jova? like with like? what could ecclestone provide/feed the attackers when he’s A. not in his position B. inexperienced (he needed to settle down in his first ten minutes – the rest of the game)???
i really felt upset yesterday. unfortunately today i’m really angry … listening hodgson saying he’s happy with a point!!! OMG … we are liverpool not fulham!!!
we really enjoyed the four games before yesterday’s … i don’t know what happened during those matches. i have my doubts if those tactics/instructions were given by hodgson. yesterday’s match was really managed by him as those are his tactics.
we know how to play offensive football … so we MUST use it in ALL games
Karl these are professional footballers, if they can be up for European games they can for the Premiership games aswell. Take a look at the Championship and lower leagues, they play more games than the Prem clubs and then they play cup games on top, they play like every midweek and hardly get an International break like the Premiership do, yet them players manage to play well. It doesn’t matter who they’ve played few days before or are going to play they get paid these high wages so they should be expected to perform. Its the managers and coaches job to sort a better training schedule out for midweek games. I thought the Wigan and Stoke games where going to be hard games but i still thought wed beat Wigan with the inconsistent form they’ve had recently. The Stoke game will be alot harder, they have a decent defence and the fans will be up for it and our defenders will be in for a tough battle with Kenwyn Jones, Fuller, Tuncay aswell as Pennant will want to prove a point. Roy needs to get back to basics ans stop trying to be clever with his pathetic substitutions and maybe get someone else to do the after match interviews……YNWA