Liverpool 2 Leicester 1 post match thread

[Callabinho]

Lose your shit if we continue to do this into next season following a transfer window. I Puel and I like what he is trying to do, we are a few players away from being a thoroughly decent side. At the moment we’re too inconsistent and there isn’t really any strength in our depth. Poor recruitment has pretty much left us with 12 reliable players... and that isn’t enough, it’s no surprise Puel is struggling to get this group consistent... let the man do a job, pick his own players and put together his own team. 

[WardyisPukka]

24 minutes ago, bpfox said:

it just goes for bad to worst, that was another crap performance, and hears why.

 

1- fuchs was crap in defense today and his balls going forward was terrible, needs to go.

2- the way we defend no-one makes any meaning tackles, side are just walking through us.

3- it appears that no-one other than ibborra can put his foot on the ball and hold it up most lose it or just pass it away.

4- vardy appears he has lost his pace and his general control is woeful.

5- gray only works when it seems to suit him, he is very average.

6- mahraz should be left up front he is a complete liability in defense.

7- puel has had enough time now to sort out a much better defense it appears that it just continues the same week in week out.

8- we really need to buy some players that can hold and protect the ball.

9- we were lucky today we did not get smacked by 5-6 goals.

we need new troops and a much better attitude going forward.

this - he's past it now even against some of the lesser teams this season has struggled - priority is both a left back and right back in this window who have actual pace and can actually pass instead of hoofing like fuchs and simpson

[DatfoxesKid23]

Our team needs to train el rondo style passing was our weakness this game 

Scmeichel kept on kicking the ball out play

Our back 4 were under pressure for 70 minutes

Our midfield was a shambels bar iborra no one could string a pass

 

Our attack bar the goal was below average they did fvck all

 

But more importantly Liverpool are the sort of team that will end up fighting in the Europa league and we crumbled against them

 

we are not ready for Europe

 

if we go next year then our lack of capable reserves will see us suffer massively in the league. 

All month long passing drills against kante,Seri and Keita will sort them out

Edited 31 December 2017 by DatfoxesKid23

[foxesfan98]

Where's this massive over reaction about Maguire come from? He's easily been one of our best players this season. He struggles against some of the best forwards in the league and suddenly he's crap? People need to learn the difference between a bad player and a bad performance.

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

Didn't see the full game yesterday, so having to rely on the MOTD highlights, which could be totally misleading. But what struck me from those is how undisciplined our defensive lines now are. 

 

During the PL winning season, the back four stayed in line and forced sides out and away from goal such that they would have to cross the ball and we would mostly clear the danger. All four knew their jobs, positions and stayed firm. Now we are dog-legged, players jumping up and across the field with the effect that sides can go through us. I think we miss Huth big time in that respect. Seems little communication going on and needs to be sorted.

[Domsdad]

16 hours ago, ealingfox said:

Would have been easier to take if we'd got a result on Tuesday. 

Exactly this

[Colourmy]

14 hours ago, Dawko said:

Ndidi, the most over-hyped player on this forum.

He may get a foot in a tackle now and again, but what happens to the ball after that, God only knows.

He can't head the ball.

He's had one lucky goal and a couple of assists.

I, for what it matters, have no confidence in him at all and I hope that after the Huddersfield game, when Silva starts playing, he'll

spend most of the games on the bench.

I think that he'll make a better Basketball player.

I may be the only one on here that agrees. He looks awfully panicked for 85% of his time on the pitch and is all arms and legs, like he's playing twister!

[Callabinho]

9 minutes ago, Colourmy said:

I may be the only one on here that agrees. He looks awfully panicked for 85% of his time on the pitch and is all arms and legs, like he's playing twister!

The lad is 21 years old. I’ve seen far worse players at such a tender age. He showcased enough to prove he has the potential to be a great player one day. 

[Colourmy]

8 minutes ago, Callabinho said:

The lad is 21 years old. I’ve seen far worse players at such a tender age. He showcased enough to prove he has the potential to be a great player one day. 

And I hope he does too. Just currently, we don't seem to have many other options and that must be addressed. 

I also feel his panicking manifests itself in the rest of the team and the ball then becomes a grenade for the rest of the game. 

That said, the shot he had yesterday was as composed as I've seen him in weeks.

Edited 31 December 2017 by Colourmy

[Bablemikey]

The team looked physically & mentally fatigued in the second half & I’m expecting an under par performance against Huddersfield.

[Tielemans63]

Think we could learn something from Liverpool. They have a crafty tactic whereby if they lose the ball high up the pitch Firmino commits a foul straightaway and it kills the opposition breakaway stone dead. He never gets booked either. As we are quite susceptible to counter attacks, especially down the flanks, it would be worth getting Vardy, Mahrez and Gray to do something similar. It's cynical but very effective.

[Fox92]

Did  everything right first and went 1-0 up. Sat back a bit after that.

 

Conceded far too early - at that point it was just an overload from Liverpool. And they deserved to win.

 

Our subs bemused me. Once we take Vardy off we lose all hope.

[justfoxes]

Our defence was awful for the two goals and also a few times they came into the box we were like rabbits in headlights at times, Really hoping Puell invests in the defence this coming month we’re shipping in far too many easy stupid goals !!

Really hoping we can get a defensive line up like a bloody brick wall !!9

[Claridge]

13 hours ago, foxesfan98 said:

Where's this massive over reaction about Maguire come from? He's easily been one of our best players this season. He struggles against some of the best forwards in the league and suddenly he's crap? People need to learn the difference between a bad player and a bad performance.

At fault every week almost

[Babylon]

21 hours ago, inckley fox said:

I don't think you're right - two of those five draws were against Manchester United and Chelsea, who both went out to win the game. And even if all five had been against sides like us, you can't shrug it off in such an off-hand manner.

 

Firstly, because Maguire has a weekly 'brain-fart' and for all his class it's proving costly. The three more humble sides who got something at Anfield - Everton, Brom, Burnley - defended better on the day than we did. If we are so limited defensively (and it's obviously our achilles heel) then we need to cover ourselves as much as possible. That may mean more defensive full backs, midfielders closing down more quickly than Iborra, Mahrez and Gray were managing to. It may mean acting quickly as a manager, during games rather than between, to deal with this. Or it may mean us appreciating that our strength is in attack, not defence and conceding that, now our defence is older and not shielded by Kante, we can no longer grind out results in the way we once did. Perhaps it's back to the rear-end of the Pearson era when he grudgingly acknowledged that we could only win games by attacking sides - we couldn't manage matches and stifle sides as we had in the past, because we didn't have those defensive qualities.

 

Secondly, because this isn't a game in isolation. We're talking about a run of poor form against weak and strong teams alike, with leads being surrendered on three occasions. When that happens, I don't think you can look 'outwards' for answers in the way that you are (i.e. 'Liverpool always pummel sides like us, we nearly nicked something, what else do you want?'), I think we need to look at ourselves a lot more.

I'll take exception with the fact they "defended better than us" on the basis of just goals conceded. Liverpool were absolutely all over those teams far more than they were us and created far more chances and missed them as well. It was more about Liverpool's failure on the day than the other team defending amazingly. Liverpool bossed those three games far more than they did against us, the West Brom game was probably the closest to ours. Them not taking their chances shouldn't instantly mean the other team defended well. 

 

 

 

[Shanghai]

What is Liverpool without Salah( what a winner player never give up ) Why Leicester still defending when they can play a great football ? Champions shlould play as a winners not as a losers ! Come on Leicester show us some  good side . Let’s finish top 6 

[one F in Fox]

5 hours ago, Paddy. said:

Think we could learn something from Liverpool. They have a crafty tactic whereby if they lose the ball high up the pitch Firmino commits a foul straightaway and it kills the opposition breakaway stone dead. He never gets booked either. As we are quite susceptible to counter attacks, especially down the flanks, it would be worth getting Vardy, Mahrez and Gray to do something similar. It's cynical but very effective.

Absolutely spot on!

 

The very same thing also happened when we played against Man U and Man City.

 

One of there players commits a foul to stop our breakaway allowing them to get players back

behind the ball, it happens time after time throughout the match.

The thing is, they seem to get away with it, look how many times Pogba got away with it.

[filbertway]

Only just caught the highlights. What a ball from Iborra for our goal.

[WigstonWanderer]

Let’s face it, most here thought we were in for a thrashing, so this isn’t so bad.

 

For a few mins at the start I actually thought we might get something, but it was soon apparent that it was only a matter of time before they scored, as we sat back and invited an impressive attacking side to do their worst.

[Drew Peacock]

7 hours ago, Gerbold said:

I managed to see the second half and the Vardy/Mahrez/Iborra goal on MotD.

Most of the criticisms I've read so far indicate expectations way beyond what is reasonable. They also indicate an irascibility inherent in a significant proportion of City 'supporters' To call Puel a "coward" deserves some rebuke from a moderator but this is how this forum operates - it allows free speech until some arbitrary and inconsequential line is crossed. I think that certain posters on here are allowed to impugn players,manager and recruitment staff with irresponsible abandon - perhaps these curmudgeons ought to be expelled for their incompetent and self-opinionated comments.

Only a certain number of teams are going to win trophies and they are usually teams with huge resources. To hear Mourinho complaining about not having the money to make United competitive with Man City is both amusing and true. At the moment this isn't a league so much as a pyramid atop which the Sky Blues are not even looking down at which teams may be threatening them. They're looking ahead to how much silverware they can possibly win.

City did make the mistake of buying strikers without assessing how they would be employed. Neither Ranieri nor Shakespeare found any answer to the conundrum of how to field them but can one blame them for being presented with the puzzle in the first place?

The Okazaki/Vardy/Mahrez system works perfectly well - at least when Mahrez turns up. Slimani and Iheanacho are both ineffectual in different ways. Yesterday the former showed a level of touch bordering on schoolboy standards (and I don't mean England Under-17s either). But Puel didn't have a hand in choosing either striker or Musa. Maybe he should have started with Okazaki but Gray needs to learn if he is to become a more effective player. This is called thinking ahead and it has to be balanced with the immediate need for points - it's juggling of the most difficult kind.

Some commentators on here are only interested in statistics - especially only recent ones. These 'Stattos' aren't really gleaning anything from their fact-finding - they're choosing games to justify a constant and annoying carping about the team's and individual's performances. We have a very good team. We are going to have injuries and suspensions - this is why clubs buy utility players - to slot in when needed. Are City going to have two right-backs of equal proficiency vying for the same place week-in - week-out. Simpson was getting a lot of stick for being not up to the job - now it seems he is up to the job. Remember how important having a settled team is - it's not about swapping players turn-and-turn about. The older of us remember when Clemence and Shilton had to put up with that playing for England - when Shilton was the better keeper.

The defence have a weakness in dealing with set plays. Puel states that they need to concentrate more - I can't agree with that - they should be practicing on the training ground. They have three big men and Mahrez, Fuchs and Albrighton to give them plenty of practice! But this is not a bad defence as such - other defences have been shipping goals against teams like Liverpool, Man City and Chelski. Salah is experiencing an incredible run of form at the moment - I suspect all defenders view him with dread - he's up there with the Messi as an opportunistic goal-scorer. Liverpool have a number of first-class players, an incredibly partisan crowd in a huge stadium and a manager who is intent on following his own plans forward without being swayed by doubting voices.

In spite of the overspend on strikers City have recruited a top-notch central defender, a wunderkind in N'Didi and a sophisticated ball-player in Iborra. As I've stated before, hiring players is always going to be a gamble. Supporters have two choices - to be patient and encouraging or to expect results straight away. They can support or they can undermine.

 

Great post and possibly too well thought out to be appreciated on here with the 'Win one we are world beaters, lose one we are relegation certainties and Puel is clueless.

Only thing I'd disagree with is the 'Incredibly partisan crowd' at Liverpool. Apart from YNWA pre-match and the celebration of a goal, I always find the atmosphere pathetic for such a large crowd. The stereotype of a 'Ground full of tourists' is obviously not completely true, but from what I've seen it's similar to Old Trafford with a fair proportion. 

[LestaAl]

Having watched most of the game on TV again, I thought we played reasonably well against a much better  side who are more fluid than us. They missed some real sitters which would have killed us off and equally we had chances to score again. No different to many 'what if' situations in all games we play.

 

Time to move on methinks now and see what happens in Jan with a more relaxed schedule and new player(s).

Edited 31 December 2017 by LestaAl
spelling

[st albans fox]

Clearly our new policy for defending set plays is to tell kasper to run at it whatever - won’t be long before teams block him off and out problem returns 

[Dawko]

On 12/30/2017 at 20:39, FoxInTheBirstallBox said:

Wow trying to be funny and racist at the same time

 

What a clueless nob end you are 

Racist ????  You're the clueless "nob"

[The whole world smiles]

On 30/12/2017 at 17:30, Kitchandro said:

I'm the guy who keeps getting proved right. Over and over again.

 

People start creaming themselves over a new manager and I appear to be the only one who can see that the early results are merely a case of the players trying to get in his good books.

 

When the honeymoon period is over we begin to suffer from his tactical failings and just like with Shakespeare that is what is happening now.

 

I don't why people are surprised and confused by what I'm saying or the recent results. Here's an incomplete list of bad things we are doing regularly:

 

Isolating Vardy and then bringing him off for 2 (inferior) support strikers instead of giving him some support himself while he was on the pitch

'Resting' players after good performances (Okazaki, Gray, Albrighton)

Wildly changing starting lineups and tactics from match to match (i.e.using attacking full backs some games and not in others)

Sitting very deep and not trying to score goals, particularly annoying when we've just scored and are in the ascendancy

Slowing the tempo and passing backwards when unecessary, resulting in us hoofing it long because we have no options like we did 5 seconds ago when there weren't 10 opposition players behind the ball

Late and often baffling substitutions (i.e. bringing on the awful Slimani yet taking off Albrighton who is easily our best crosser)

Not addressing the fact that Ndidi and Iborra are out of form and neither providing defensive cover or attacking threat

Not addressing our weaknesses from set pieces

Lack of reaction when we concede and equaliser, we have to wait til we're behind to try and score a goal or get into the game at all

 

There's more, but they are the glaringly obvious ones. He showed his cowardice when not having the balls to play his first teamers in a vitally important League Cup quarter final, presumably because he doesn't believe a cup win will save his job, and the club's glory isn't important to him. He's now reinforcing it with limp league displays in which we have shown a shameful lack of ambition to score goals.
 

These players have proved time and time again that they have talent, and it is not an excuse to say that they aren't up to the job. This team is currently less than the sum of it's parts, a clear indicator of a poor manager.

 

But I find his negative, passionless approach to games truly pathetic. Every match is becoming a total borefest, as predicted. We're always going to lose games but we're going down like wimps, like we don't believe we can beat teams. We're in the business of hanging on and it's shite. Hateful, in fact.

 

People are extremely naive if they think we're going to buy a load of impeccable passers and all of a sudden start playing great football. That's it isn't it? 'They aren't his players, we can't play how he wants us to play'. There is far more to it than that. It's not the players. These tactics are excrement.

 

It is only going to continue. Sure, we'll play well and win in the odd game, and we'll fluke some other results, but all that does is delay the inevitable. Eventually, people will realise he isn't up to the job and is taking us backwards.

 

If one game can prove you right. Can one game prove you wrong?

[Leeds Fox]

16 hours ago, Gerbold said:

Yes - I was at Anfield  in 1981 when City won! Their fans were enormously partisan then - but you're correct - Liverpool have transformed in terms of what is thought of as support, I also recall, when I cheered our two goals, there were some surprised looks (I was in their Kop) but nothing threatening or insulting came my way.

 

I was in the Dalglish Stand surrounded by actual tourists. None had the first idea about football and were more interested in videoing the game. Half of them were screaming at the linesman for thing that weren’t actually happening. 

 

We cheered our goal and got a bit irate with the refs decisions (trivial ones as I thought all 3 officials were good). No animosity towards us at all, mostly because the people around us didn’t understand what it’s like to actually feel passion for a football club, or so it seemed. 

Edited 1 January 2018 by Leeds Fox