Fan vs MOTD armchair warrior!!!!

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Pass and move it’s the Liverpool groove…. well it seems to be on its way back and Rodgers is instilling a sense of free flowing football that the modern fan loves to see. In a short space of time the dynamic of the team appears to have progressed quite dramatically. Liverpool are now playing football with a sense of urgency and a Barcelona esque style of play appears to be evolving. As an ardent Liverpool fan (in Yorkshire) I find it difficult talking football to my work colleagues, friends and family alike. I have seen Liverpool dominate games only to become unstuck by a player error, a controversial refereeing decision/decisions or a moment of brilliance (take a bow Rafael ) they say it’s just same old Liverpool they are poor and they won’t have any impact on the league.

And so the debate begins, I believe I make conscious statements about the way the team has played and hold my hands up if we have been poor. I face the mediocre fan and they have to have their say (based on an evening’s entertainment of MOTD) Liverpool are S**t, Borini is W**k , Suarez…… well let’s not go there (they aren’t too keen on him). The thing is I dedicate a lot of my time to following my club and make sure I follow the progress of the Reserves and the Under’s as well as the first team (I have been raging about Suso and Sterling for the last 2 years, Amoo should be next!!) The average Joe feels they are qualified to judge on ten minutes of highlights. So you’re gathering this grates on me yeah.

So let me tell it how I see it for the people/fans that give a damn. I have been extremely impressed with the way we have set about business this season the boys (quite literally) have been outstanding in possession and going forwards but the frailties in defending and concentration at the back have massively hampered what could have been an excellent start to the season. Discounting the West Brom game I feel we have been the better side by a fair distance in all games to date. Yes I include the Arsenal game in this in which some pundits say we were outplayed….. We certainly were not but got beat by some excellent counter play by the gunners and we were incredibly naive at the back.

Over the next few weeks I feel we will gather momentum and start picking up points, I feel we have an excellent chance of regaining Champions league football (my friend laugh at this notion). We have got 3 major games out of the way and we have an excellent string of games to finish the season with barely playing any top teams (away from home at least) We also have a fairly lenient Christmas period in terms of opposition. I will put my neck on the line now and say that we will finish 5th as a bare minimum.

As a quick foot note to this random piece (I had to get a few things off my chest and out there) I want to say how incredibly impressed I have been with Jonjo Shelvey. @Kev_Shim a fellow supporter I follow via the medium of twitter has been calling for him to play first team football for quite some time and I have been inclined to agree on all occasions. The kid has all the attributes of an all round footballer. He is strong, has a good touch, an eye for goal and more importantly is always looking to get the ball moving in the right direction (unlike the crab like Hendo who plays sideways all the time) Shelvey is capable of injecting that urgency into the game. He sets the tempo and says this is how we are going to play. He penetrates and looks to get at goal as often as possible. I love his rawness!!!

Anyway lets have a quick prediction of how things will pan out over the next 5 league games:

Stoke (H) Win (2 goal margin)

Reading (H) Win (2 goal margin)

Everton (A) Score Draw

Newcastle (H) Win (1 goal margin)

Chelsea (A) Loss (1 goal margin)

So there it is…. 10 points out of the next 15. I’d be happy with that, would you?

Thanks for reading, I am presently listening to Muse’s 2nd Law album which is highly recommended and I am still trying to come to terms with how we lost tonight. I have had a few Artois’s and it is my birthday tomorrow (well actually today seen as it is the early hours of the morning) Presents and comments welcome.

Your Doncaster Red Man,

@Lfcmonkey

10 Comments

  1. You know, at first instant( immediately i saw the starting line ups) i knew we were going to loose that game, i told my friends about it, and we had a bet for 50pounds on it, nw guess what? I won the bet. BR sometimes thinks he is too clever and brilliant( ofcos i know he is), but u can’t be underrating ur opponent like what an underdog?i mean what do u expect when the likes of downing, hendo, not to talk of carrager and coates @ d defence line, its crazy, its gabbling, u can only rotate players if u already got d goals u want! Then start makning shuffles. I think BR had made make d mistake last night. He better be sure not to make the same mistake. Seriously, it was only joe allen i saw on d pitch in d game, d rest are just not good enough. Am really dissappointed. Come to think of it, what if in d second leg and it happened we were unable to score pass d three goals at udinese home ground?

  2. for god sake, a good coach do not change players every week all in d name of rotation no matter how many games are yet to be played, am a player too( a striker) , amd i know what what my coach does , and trust me we win almost all our game we played, changing players every week has alot of side effect to a team. u use ur first eleven with atleast only two players absent leaving d rest key players whom will have alot of impact on d team, and as soon as u got a preffered result i.e a goal or two, then remove three key players and shuffles. Simpla as that, not especially when u are at home ground. Suarez was severely missed, missed him so much, he should have played from d start, but as soon as he came on, d whole game changed. Once again THANK YOU SUAREZ

  3. I just hope we start taking our chances infront of goals and winning games. Cos am so tired of my ( arsenal, chelsea, Man U, barcelona) friends, they all make laugh at me called us all sort of name, and d more they insult us lfc team still don’t have d chance to shut them up, and convince the supporters. Come on red men kick some ass, beat all premier league team for me pls and qualify for champion league, thanks dou

  4. We made usual mistake,came out 2nd half dreaming we’d won,completely underestimating udinesie threat,these are not like young boys team,we had to be tactically aware they would come at us & been ready,hopefully lesson learnt,i agree with comments about needing less changes in each game we need some rotation but when is too much

  5. Firstly, Michael, can I disagree with you on Henderson? He is not an adventurous long passing players like Gerrard or Shelvey. He is going to be the understudy for Lucas and Allen. Saying he doesn’t play the same way so he’s not as good is like saying Reina is rubbish because you never see him scoring. Watch what Allen does and then watch Henderson. Henderson is learning how to play the midfield achor role, that is different to an attacking midfielder. If H had stayed on, and Shevley come off, we probably would not have conceded three goals. There would not have been as much space in the midfield for Udinese to counterattack through. I agree with most of what you said, but think Henderson is underrated at present)

    Secondly, enikliverpudian, Rodgers has not been changing the team very much. He has two teams, one for the cups and one for the league. Both have been consistent, but separate. Coates, Carragher, Henderson and Downing have played in every cup game, Borini and Assaidi (when fit) most. Sterling and Sahin started there and have been promoted through excellent play. The changes in defense have come through injuries to Enrique and Kelly. Yes we lost yesterday, but the cups are allowing the B-Team to stay match fit and ready to slot into the first team when needed.

  6. @Grant sorry fella that was a beer fuelled error….. I meant Ngoo. An easy mistake to make :-)

  7. Kris, while Allen is has most definitely a better first touch, passing and vision than Henderson, there is the bigger difference between their plays. Allen wants the ball, he is always in position to be available to other players. Henderson on the other hand, receives the ball, quickly passes it away and hides behind an opposing defender.

    In my opinion, in terms of pure skill, Henderson is ahead. It is just a pity that Henderson is so afraid of making mistakes and decides to play safe. Overhyping him and the high transfer fee may have caused that. I just hope he can buckle down and play with the Liverpool spirit.

  8. Actually, from way back here in Singapore, I too have trouble convincing fellow reds that this team has a future. And I’ve been a Red for 40 plus years and have seen us monopolising everything football for a long time. But on they go about you can’t win anything with the young ones but looking at all our games this season, it’s the youngest team that has won and the goals they’ve let in have been the mistake or lapse of concentration of the elders. I too have been raving about Suso, Sterling, Ince, Amoo, Ngoo for sometime but sadly we have a lost a few. Jonjo to me looks and plays with the same fearlessness and yes recklessness of a young Stevie G. I feel that giving the young players extension on their contracts is as or maybe more important than paying over the top for a ‘world class’ striker. The missing piece to this jigsaw is Lucas. Keeping a consistent back 4 with Lucas means you can do whatever you one with the lineup ahead of them. Not playing Suso, Sahin & Sterling just shows how highly BR thinks of them and they’re definitely in for the game against Stoke. I look forward to each game seeing the glass half full rather then half empty. If we get Lucas back and be more merciless in front of goal, stringing 10 wins or more might change everyone’s point of view, And seriously, we aren’t that far off. YNWA,

  9. Ron, being close to Singapore, I get what you mean. Though probably less than half your age, most Reds I know are excited about the new manager and the performances. We do not need to convince those who think otherwise, for if we do, they probably aren’t true Reds. I like how BR is buying young and less well-known players and bringing up promising youth. In fact, I am relieved we didn’t get Dempsey. That much till we are looking like Arsenal. I just hope there is where our similarities end.

    I’ll bet it would have been more exciting for your Red friends if we have gotten a Van Persie. The closest thing we had to a mercenary buy was Sahin, but rest assure whoever joins our ranks aren’t merely just glory hunters. To be honest, if I was gunning for big trophies, Liverpool wouldn’t be my first choice. So, these players coming to Liverpool would probably love the club, the manager, the philosophy or just simply loving football.

    I wouldn’t dare call myself a true Red, but I swear, anyone who was a Liverpool supporter and watched through the night of Istanbul (the game was 3am where I’m from), they would stay a fan regardless of what happens to the club as thanks for one of the most pulsating match of all time.

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