Our manager had also again changed the back four this time dropping our vice-captain Daniel Agger to bring back Kolo Toure to shore up a defence which had been susceptible to conceding goals from set pieces all season but had surprisingly not looked at bringing in Sakho to play alongside Agger as that is potentially our best centre-pairing no matter that they are both left sided central defenders.
The game started with us keeping the ball well but not creating any chances at all, the first chance created in the game was for Hull after 14 minutes with their central defender Curtis Davies glancing a header wide.
Six minutes later with us still dominating possession but still unable to create my chances Hull went ahead through poor play by Moses trying to take on a player from the left-back position, losing the ball and from the ensuing Hull attack Livermore launched a shot which took a wicked deflection off Martin Skrtel to give Hull the vital first goal.
An excellent run by Henderson resulted in Curtis Davies clipping and tripping him up just outside the box seven minutes later. Our free kicks recently have been taken by Suarez but this time our captain hit a sumptuous free kick low over the wall but to the left of the Hull keeper McGregor who was totally wrong footed.
With this brilliant reply by our captain you would have thought we would then grab this game by the scruff of the neck to close the gap back to 4 points after Arsenal's 3-0 win at Cardiff the day before but that was not to happen on this day.
We created our very first chance from open play just before half time with Sterling setting up Suarez, whose subsequent tame shot summed up his frustrating performance throughout the game.
At half-time Rodgers should have changed things by asking for an increased tempo and also by bringing on Coutinho to assist Suarez as both Sterling and Moses under performed in their duties to help Suarez but he left things as they were for the beginning of the second half.
The second half started with us again having the majority of the possession but Hull having more of the chances which says a lot about the direction and purpose of our passing.
Coutinho joined the fray on 65 minutes for the disappointing Sterling and straightaway showed why he is our best creative player by playing probing balls forward rather than the Rodgers-esque sideways or back pass.
The defining moment of the game arrived after 71 mins when Suarez loops a ball up into the box to Gerrard, our captain's perfect cross lands to Moses whose shot hits the keeper McGregor when it seemed easier to score.
Within two minutes we were behind 2-1 with Flanagan giving away a free kick, the ball was knocked into our area from the right wing, Toure desperately struggled to clear the ball, Hull striker Sagbo flicked the ball to Meyler on the edge of the box. Meyler composed himself and placed the ball out of the reach of Mignolet into the corner of the goal.
 |
| David Meyler delivers a crushing blow to Liverpool hopes |
Hull then showed the confidence and composure to look like the side near the top of the league and duly finished us off with a third goal which was a comical joke with a Huddlestone's shot going towards our keeper who had it covered only for Skrtel to head it past Mignolet to give Hull an unassailable 3-1 lead which they almost made 4-1 when Elmohamady, through on goal, scuffed his shot wide.
At the final whistle Rodgers and our team should have been embarrassed by that woeful display and after the other results of the day have now slipped to 4th place, now officially 7 points behind leaders Arsenal.
Positives
Only Coutinho coming on and giving us a creative spark nothing else was positive.
Negatives
Our manager constant chopping and changing of the defence, my questions are as follows:
- what is the point of making Agger vice-captain and continuously dropping him from the team with no valid reason?
- and why spend so much money on Sakho and not play him at all?
We need better options in our squad than loanee Moses as he looks like a player that has stagnated by making the move to Chelsea and will not be the same attacking threat as he was prior to joining them. Moses has been stating he wants a chance to show what he can do but he was a massive disappointment to LFC fans throughout the game and his sloppy play cost us the first goal.
After his inconsistent performance in the game, Sterling would benefit from a spell on loan to either Swansea, Hull or even Crystal Palace to learn his trade as he has not improved his overall game.
Lets try Sakho and Agger as our main centre back partnership as I feel good players can play with each other whether they have to play on the right or left of the centre back role. We should give them a proper run with no changes.
Man of the match - Philippe Coutinho
Hull: McGregor, Davies, Bruce, Figueroa, Elmohamady, Meyler, Huddlestone, Livermore, Brady, (Boyd 90), Koren(Rosenior 66,), Sagbo.
Subs not used: Chester, Nagy, Harper, Faye
Goals: Livermore 20, Meyler 72, Skrtel 88 (OG)
Booked: Davies, Brady
Liverpool: Mignolet, Johnson, Toure, Skrtel, Flanagan, Lucas, Gerrard, Moses (Alberto 74,), Henderson, Sterling (Coutinho 66,) Suarez
Subs not used: Jones, Agger, Iago Aspas, Sakho, Allen
Goal: Gerrard 27
Ref: Howard Webb
Att: 24,940
All,
ReplyDeleteAfter yesterday's game - NO COMMENTS.
Mo
Our Xmas outing is looking absolute bleak. One more performance like that, we can forget about Champion League or top 4 spot this season and fare well to LS. Where is the defend that started the season so well? All is forgiving RB please bring them back. I would rather have a team that score 1 goal and protect it for the value 3 points than have the one that is free scoring but leak tonnes of them. Good Luck to Hull, their Xmas comes early, two goals as Xmas present could not be bad one in each half by the same Father Xmas Chief Skirtle. The second was even better because it was definitely going off the target. I am sure our under 21 could have done much much better job against Hull than what the senior did.
DeleteAfter yesterday’s woeful display by our team I would ask that from now until the end of the season we look at each game as it comes rather than looking at a group of three games because we are not a good enough side to plan ahead – we can not take any win for granted and I felt that we went into the Hull game thinking we just had to turn up – pass the ball around and win comfortably.
DeleteWe have again been exposed as a side that can not play progressive attacking winning football without the input of the SAS – If Suarez or Sturridge do not score we do not win games.
We had 65% possession for the majority of the game but as the blog states you can not win games on possession you win games on scoring goals.
I see us as potentially the 8th best side in the league and the league has started with at least 6 of those teams having a poor start compared to Arsenal and us.
That was a disgrace yesterday. Picking two right sided centre backs was a strange move especially given that we had a rookie in at left back and the defending leading up to Hulls second goal was some of the worst I’ve ever seen, an absolute comedy of errors, but then again if you are going to chop and change your central defence every fortnight it’s hardly surprising that they aren’t on the same wavelength. Before kick off I thought the line up had the look of a Liverpool team from the early months of B-Rods reign when we routinely struggled to break down stubborn defences and so it proved - We had lots of possession but did absolutely nothing with it and subsequently got mugged down the other end by some fairly rugged route one football, sound familiar?
DeleteThe Lucas / Gerrard axis is looking more pedestrian with each passing week, Moses can stop moaning about his lack of game time after he put in a performance that rivalled Stewie Downing on a bad day, Raheem Sterling badly needs a season long loan, Johnston and Flanno barely got past the half way line and Suarez must be praying for a call from Real Madrid in January after an afternoon of living off scraps. It’s also important to mention that our transfer business in the Summer is looking more and more absurd.
Tiago illori - £7 million and has never been seen again
Sakho – Ian Ayre’s “Marquee Signing” in the same position as our vice captain, £16 million and isn’t playing
Luis Alberto – £7 Million and not playing (when he came on for the last 15 minutes yesterday he was practically invisible, did he even get a touch?)
Aspas – £7 million and already tipped for a return to La Liga after not acclimatising to the EPL because he has the physicality of a 12 year old ballerina.
That’s £37 million that made absolutely no impact in a match against the bloody Hull City Tigers for Christs’ sake!!!!!!!!! Top work all round from FSG And our scouting committee.
It’s been a case of the Emperors new clothes for us this season. Our only decent 90 minute performances in my opinion have been against WBA and United. Fair enough we’ve rolled over the cannon fodder like Palace and Fulham who couldn’t live with SAS but victories against the likes of Sunderland, Stoke and Villa were cagey affairs that could easily have swung the other way while poor performances against Southampton, Arsenal and even a ten man Newcastle side should be telling us that a top four finish is still a pipe dream this season. To compound matters the injury to Sturridge couldn’t have happened at a worse time, we’re unlikely to see him in action again until February and the fixture list is particularly unkind to us over the festive period with big games against Spurs, City, Chelsea and a return trip to Goodison park all coming before the end of January. If we are in touching distance of 4th by then it will be some sort of Christmas miracle.
Now that’s what I call a proper rant!!! LOL
DeleteA few moments ago, we were talking about how we would kick into the top four but now reality seems to have raised its ugly head again. All of our players performed poorly yesterday and as Barry said, our two central defenders seemed totally lost. It seemed to me as if Torre’s hips had gone way before he stepped out onto the pitch. As I said to David before the match started, I had never seen Skrtel play on the left side of the defence and I was concerned because Flanno was also inexperienced.
DeleteBR was also poor.
On closure of the transfer window I did comment that I felt our spending was misdirected – ensuring that we have 8 central defenders rather than decent midfielders has cost us. The purchases that you mention are not fit for our club. As you point out, £37 million on players was ridiculous.
I wonder whether we will see the return of much heralded passing football – seems to have disappeared over the last few months. Also, as Edet implies, I wonder whether when we will see the return of a clean sheet.
Yesterday's game should have been one where Lucas and Henderson should have played their part but it was not to be. After the 2nd goals some players drop their head and there was no come back after that.
DeleteWasn’t just our centre-half’s that were missing in action – as I’ve our said previously we’ve been operating with a second-class midfield and yesterday we saw how inept it really is. There is nothing stopping runners from picking the ball up from deep and running at our defence.
DeleteSterling for me needs to learn that the game not just about kicking the ball ahead of you and turning on the after burners, but hopefully that will come with experience. Although, as bad as Moses was Stevie’s lucky his number was highlighted in neon from the side lines, but then again it could be many others. That move from Moses smacked of someone trying to prove a point – but what I dislike is a player wittering on in the press during the week and then is in the team the very next match, it’s not like we’ve had a string of desperate results while he’s been on the bench and he didn’t know before he arrived that we not in Europe. Johnson gave away the ball far too much, I was wondering if he suffering from sleep deprivation.
The end of the day we were woeful against for me a Hull side who were at best average. We’ve been getting away with it up to now because we have a devastating front two. Anyone can miss from 6 yards, but Allen’s miss last week only highlighted the fact that we don’t have a regular midfield goal scorer from open play. I said to David, before I went away that give Arsenal our strike force and they win the league, give us the Everton midfield and we definitely get a top four finish.
I cannot for the life of me see how a manager can complain about a lack of depth in the squad wheh he has an £18 million centre-half on the bench and in the same week one his best players get's injured he lets a young striker go out on loan!
Agree with the old mantra that we have to take one game at a time, but the next two games are Norwich and West Ham at home and nothing more than six points will suffice because with Everton and Southampton et al breathing down our necks a couple of bad results and 4th place could very easily become out of the top six in little over a week!
Yes, I noticed Kolo when the second goal went in was hitting the ground, violently possibly requesting it to open for him to get in.
DeleteLivi, LOL at Toure’s hips and KopPost LOL at Johnson’s sleep deprivation!!!
DeleteLiverpool were always punching above their weight and were just as much a title challenge side than Tom Daley revealing he regularly sniffs coke off prostitutes tits! Now the famous SAS is fu*ked for the next two months will only highlight how reliant we were on them. Sterling is Liverpool's biggest ever flash in the pan and Moses is just a two bob player.
DeleteFair play to Rodgers to have made people stand up and give Liverpool more credit than they expected but lets be honest the signs were there against Southampton at home and Sunderland away. Liverpool were no match to Arsenal and that's not a bad thing because we were never going to be a match to them.
Time to start being realistic, it's a fairly decent first team without any injuries but Liverpool were only really looking better than last season because of other better sides starting mediocre. Utd, City and Everton are now looking better just like last season.
LOL at Kolo.
DeleteHe was being a little over dramatic I think !!!! LOL
Kolo was going on in the papers last week about how Man City would be regretting letting him go because he was playing so brilliantly for Liverpool, sometimes footballers really should just keep their mouths shut. In fact I’ll re-phrase that - the vast majority of the time, footballers should keep their mouths shut.
DeleteThat was the one enjoyable moment in the match for me. After throwing something across the room I couldn't surpress a laugh at Kolo's sammy kuffour moment....
DeleteTotally agree with most points made, especially the points about emperor's new clothes. I've been telling any non-lfc supporting mates/colleagues who 'you must be pleased with how LFC are doing?' that we've been very unconvincing in most games. Think our home form has generally been pretty solid but I don't think we've had a genuinely good away performance all season - quite lucky to get points at villa and sunderland, unconvncing against 10 men at st james and lucky to get a point at swansea and everton before yesterday's horror show is even considered....
Think you can see how much we miss sturridge purely by how isolated and incredibly frustrated suarez seemed for the whole game. Two massive games in next five days...
Edet, Kolo should’ve spoken to Moses about getting the ground to open up for him. He seems to have better luck parting the Red Sea than defences...
DeleteNice one this.
DeleteWe need some divine inspiration.
Deletewe need to Wake Up!
DeleteI don't know if anyone saw Andy Hunter's article in Monday's Guardian on our transfer policy after the Hull loss? Makes very interesting reading...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/02/brendan-rodgers-liverpool-hull-city-premier-league
I think he should start prayer and fasting and that should be dry fasting, no food no water that he secured 6 points for this week two games otherwise the jury will certainly be out for him.
DeleteWe used to sign good players that became world class but now we sign hopefully quality players that need to be taken to the knackers yard.
DeleteShows we got our sums wrong yesterday – it wasn’t around £30 million, it was a whapping £50 million to get players that are probably more suited to playing for Wigan. To make it worse, half the amount spent was on defenders. I think Brendan is playing it really clever here basically saying that he is privileged to be in the position that he’s in and he “will work within the constraints of the club” – in other words don’t blame me. But to be honest, its hard not to blame him for having spent £50m, no outfield player has made the first team.
DeleteI don’t want to run a campaign against any individual players. I think what Sunday confirmed is that there are too many players that aren’t good enough, especially in the creative department. Maybe in the absence of Sturridge, we need to rethink our strategy and try to play Gerrard and Coutinho tucked behind Suarez and trying Henderson as the anchor.
I still think Dirk Kurty is much better than some of these guys on our book. Comparatively BR is saying after all I have many heads in for £50m than my predecessor with the same amount. How for the two games on the a row he did not play Sakho the guy who helped his country to world cup with two goals not good enough for us, I find that a bit too hard to understand.
DeleteEspecially with the personnel played – if Agger does not play Sakho should play simple.
DeleteAfter Norwich, we have our recycling park or hill with Downing and Cole possibly up to prove a point or two. Well biggest cycle bag still not fit to kick a ball 4 months into the season.
DeleteThis is the kind of diatribe I hate from managers, the get your excuses in first. The Rafa line of I didn't have the money to spend that others did and Brendan now saying, that basically he went for top players, but it didn't work out and that's why the club is in the predicament we're in now with the lack of depth and quality. It's as if that's an excuse to buy duff players, he has to be given credit for Sturridge and Coutinho, but you can't keep dodging bullets with feeble excuses when you've been given money to spend and none of the players outside those two look ready to step up.
DeleteAs Fletcher said to the Outlaw Josey Wales "Don't pi*s on my back and tell me it's raining"!
The one thing I will say is that given his injury problems we dodged a pup with Carroll!!!
These are the games we should be smashing it up, absolutely shocking the game was, No dis-respect to Hull but they should be beating them easily, but what concerns me the most is we cant even create anything from open play, no spark, creativity or willingness to play the game, as always especially against the lesser teams, its embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall all 3 goals against Everton were from set pieces and also this time around.
Our defence was all over the show, these are the games we should win with out our 11 best, look at Everton, rested Barkley and Mirallas, still won 4-0. Says it all about your squad, the Scrap quality we have in.
I see Brendan has told Daniel Agger to defend and cut out the fancy stuff!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletelol - fancy stuff, I don't its fancy.
I think we need to deploy our defenders with the old skool defending with a no nonsense clear out, because we just cant play the ball from the back!
Read in the paper this morning that BR said that our priority is to get someone to support LS because DS is out injured. I had to laugh, because we are no expert and we can see the trouble we are in as mentioned in the chains of emails below - do I need to say more?
DeleteMo
I think most of us agreed that we needed a 3rd striker option (ie Andy Carroll) who would have stepped in these sort of situations, LS and DS both playing week in week out, mostly likely one of them would get injured, DS injury could not have come at a worse time.
DeleteWe had the same problem I recalled last season when BR let AC go out on loan. You would have thought that he had learnt his lesson - apparently not.
DeleteFor me, the first thing I want a football manager/coach to do is to manage/coach. Don't worry about the fancy stuff like media - just get on with the job at hand and address the woeful performance of the team and yourself! He showing a real lack of respect publicly towards he's players. I wonder if he'd be so publicly brutal about Jo, Borini or Biffa Aspas? BR would be better off using his time to pick up the phone and call Tony Pullis to find out West Ham's weaknesses and how they managed to beat them last night.
DeleteI know this is going to be controversial but why don’t we at least try to play Aspas up front with Suarez playing off him?
DeleteHear me out - Aspas played as a central striker at Celta Vigo and was apparently pretty good at it, he hasn’t had a start there for us yet and Suarez in my opinion is much better playing off another front man because he finds more space. Last weekend Hull simply stuck three men on Suarez because they new we had very little goal scoring threat from midfield, with Sturridge out for two months this will become the blueprint for every bottom half team that we meet from now until February, simply stick five at the back and make sure three of them stick to Suarez. I accept that Aspas has been woeful so far but he showed in preseason that he can get goals from his natural position up top and at least it would give the opposition something extra to worry about.
I reckon Victor Moses will start again tonight, he had better buck up his ideas and start looking a bit more interested, otherwise B-Rod should put him out to pasture like he has with Cissoko. Speaking of our defence If I was Rodgers I would have two defensive pairings, Skrtel and Agger for home games and games against the more cultured sides and Toure and Sakho to play tough away matches and against the more rugged teams. That way the players are able to form partnerships and maintain continuity, obviously injuries would dictate that you would have to shake it up now and again but even Rafa Benitez who was oft criticised for his obsession with rotation always tried to play a settled back two, apart from the goalkeeper it’s the one position that you should change as little as possible.
From what I hear the only thing Andy Carroll will be stepping into for the foreseeable future is some medicated foot ointment and maybe a nice comfy slipper!
Deleteremember when Roy Hodgson said something similar about Agger he got absolutely slaughtered. I had credited Rodgers with a bit more tact.
DeleteBaz – has cottoned onto a fantastic idea here – “ If I was Rodgers I would have two defensive pairings, Skrtel and Agger for home games and games against the more cultured sides and Toure and Sakho to play tough away matches and against the more rugged teams.
DeletePartnerships are so important in football which has been proved so many times throughout the history of our great game.
I hear the theory on Aspas and also feel if you don’t try it you will never know as remember Sturridge started the first part of the season as the lone striker with Aspas, Coutinho and co supporting him.
This may be Aspas aka Biffa time to shine as the main striker !!! If not he can take the bike all the way back to Spain in January.
I don’t think the home and away mix of central defenders would work. Kolo should be content to play the very important role of back up / cover for Skrtel. We don’t really owe him anything, whereas its different for Sakho because he might deserve more if he was led to believe that a club who are prepared to invest so much in him would only require him as a squad player. Didn’t BR name him Killer, which if I was given that name I guess I would expect people to think that I can at least battle, bully a little, etc.
DeleteI think there a massive over-reaction to sakho's non-selection in last couple of games. He's only been here five minutes. Fair enough we paid a lot of money for him but it's natural there will be a period of acclimatisation. I reckon by end of season he'll be our first choice centre back and think everything seems to be pointing towards him being primed as aggers replacement. I'm sure fsg are keen to move agger on whilst he still has a transfer value and to get shot of his 80/90k wages....
DeleteI quite like baz's aspas plan as agree on suarez being better slightly deeper. He was as bad as anyone on sunday for my money. Fair enough he was isolated but he lost ball almost everytime he got it and spent the whole game kicking off with team mates. It was stressing me out watching him and I was fearful him and his missus must of had a bust up the day before because he seemed unusually irritable and sure his mood had a detrimental impact on performance!
No doubt Lucas needs a spell on the sidelines but although Jo could come in he gets brushed off the ball too easily and it may put too much pressure on Gerrard. Might be better if Henderson played there instead. After seeing Victor and Raheem on Saturday, If only Allen could reinvent himself as a winger!
DeleteFor me, I’m not exaggerating about the loss of Sakho in the 1st team, and I’ve said before that I’m not quite sure whether he’s quite ready to displace Agger defensively. What I don’t understand is the explanations offered by BR about his decisions for things. X is not playing because he can’t defend robustly the man is the vice captain of the side and possibly was considered a future club captain.
When Hodgson asked Agger to start clearing the ball more often the player came out in the press and effectively said “Sorry that’s not my game”. He’s a ball playing centre half, that’s what his entire game and reputation is built around so it’s is up to the manager to select him when he feels he can have a positive impact on a game but the manager can’t turn round when he selects him for the wrong game (in this case Evertonaway) and ask him to change his entire footballing style.
DeleteI think the reaction from Rodgers to the Hull defeat has been very interesting, he’s basically come out and questioned the clubs recruitment policy and now he’s targeting individual players to try and explain his baffling team selection on Sunday, he would be better off keeping his mouth shut and voicing his concerns behind closed doors. A manager that comes out and casts blame at others following a stinging defeat always looks like a weak manager and I’m sure he’s done himself no favours in the eyes of the owners or his dressing room. Get on with it Brendan, a one eyed chimp could have picked a better team and made better in game substitutions than you did on Sunday.
Barry
yeah fair point Livi - Rodgers def goes into more detail public than he needs to at time. Fine if that is his opinion, discuss it with agger and tell him you need to see improvement in that area but don't publicly hang him out to dry and I can't help thinking there's more going on than just a footballing consideration....
DeleteBaz, I wonder what's happened to that 180 page document...? Probably wedged under a door somewhere!
DeleteIts locked in the safe behind his self portrait in his house !!!
DeleteLiverpool Echo Breaking News Flash!
Delete"Brendan Rodgers house broken into", The only thing went missing was 180 page document, apparently all plain white
It was overdue so its gone back to the library.
DeleteIs there a fine to be paid?
Delete