Going into this game with confidence severely dented and in bad form we looked second best in terms of having reasons to fight for the win and Brendan Rodgers never addressed a number of seemingly correctable problems, leading to a difficult defeat that kills any last, faint hopes of a top four finish.
With the top four all but out of reach and Liverpool’s season is all but over, there had been widespread reports young striker Samed Yesil would be given a chance to impress from the start. The much vaunted striker didn’t even make the bench.
Instead, our manager again gave his maverick striker Mario Balotelli another chance and again he didn't repay his faith in him with goals or even a performance of ant note, he was albeit played as a lone striker, a role in which he has admitted himself that he’s struggled with consistently since arriving at Liverpool. It perhaps shouldn’t be surprising, then, that he once again struggled in it, especially with the lack of support.
As against West Brom, Rodgers went with an unorthodox back four that saw Emre Can playing at right back without the ball but shifting into the centre of midfield when Liverpool had possession while Jordon Ibe provided width. And as with West Brom, as a tactic it was more intriguing than effective.
As with the match we started slowly, it took until the tenth minute for the first good chance. It fell to Hull after Lovren lost his man in the box, but Mignolet bailed out the centre half. Ten minutes later, Liverpool’s first good chance saw Coutinho sting Steve Harper’s palms.
Hull were the better side in the first half despite having less possession and when Michael Dawson headed home off a corner in the 37th minute we could have few complaints. Balotelli was slow to come out and played Dawson onside, but the corner had come from the space and our odd approach—and Can’s struggles—gave Hull time to exploit down the right.
No changes in the second half meant more of the same problems for us and it took until the 63rd minute before we had a decent chance on goal.
Coutinho was the schemer, moving forward and lofting a pass into the supporting Henderson 15 yards out. The captain elect controlled and left foot volleyed in one swift movement, but the fingertips of Harper prevented an equaliser.
It took until the 65th minute for Rodgers to make any changes, when he brought on Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana for Balotelli and Ibe respectively. The problematic formation, though, remained.
With the match winding down, Rodgers tried bringing on Markovic to inject some much needed energy. Nothing came of it, and Liverpool whimpered their way to defeat in the match just as they seem to be in the season. And most worryingly for Brendan Rodgers, it has begun to appear as though—similar to the final days of Rafa Benitez and Kenny Dalglish at the club—many of the players are no longer motivated to play for him.
Man of the match - Phillip Coutinho - again the only true bright spark along with Henderson and the team needs to be built around him next season with Teixiera being his understudy.
Our manager has stated he is the best man for the job but he is not helping his boast by picking sides that are just going through the motions, he should now blood the younger players and future stars of the club such as Yesil and co to see whether they have a future at the club.
Hull City starting XI: Harper, Chester, McShane, Dawson, Livermore, Quinn, Huddlestone, Elmohamady, Brady, Aloko, N’Doye
HCFC subs: McGregor, Rosenior, Figueroa, Bruce, Ramirez, Hernandez, Sagbo
Liverpool starting XI: Mignolet, Can, Skrtel, Lovren, Johnson, Allen, Henderson, Ibe, Sterling, Coutinho, Balotelli
LFC subs: Jones, Toure, Lambert, Manquillo, Lallana, Brannagan, Markovic
Referee: Lee Probert
Attendance: 24,843
Our manager (can’t bring myself to keep saying name until he proves he can actually manage the team) stated after game, "We weren't aggressive enough throughout the game and we conceded a poor goal from the set piece".
"We just lacked that killer instinct in the final third. We were never enough of a threat. It's been a mark of the season." Never a truer word said.
More evidence last night of Rodgers' mediocrity.
ReplyDeleteThis is not an excuse for once again terrible performance by Liverpool. If Hull 3 players were offside should the flag have not gone up before the ball was played. Their present certainly was a good interfering with the play.
DeleteI hope they drop to 7 to avoid this Europa place and distraction!!!!!!!!!!
Right now it looks bloody awful. As I said before, we can keep on talking about losing 52 goals, but apart from our mid-season run we’ve leaked goals all season, last season and the season before that. Raheem Sterling, it’s like his given up the ghost… Only Coutinho and Henderson were busting a gut out there tonight.
DeleteThere’s no steel in this team. Lucas gets injured and suddenly there’s no bite.
Brad Jones (help sell a few tickets for the tour to Australia and then mug yourself off), Glen Johnson (for goodness sake go!), Kolo Toure (retire!), Enrique (use up your time on the z-list circuit), Coates (who are ya?!?), Aspas (please don’t comeback), Alberto (6 million… what for?) , Allen (go back to school boy soccer, too lightweight!), Lambert (sorry son, at least you lived the dream), Borini (total waste of space), Balotelli (complete an utter comedian!)… I don’t want to see any of these back at Anfield next season.
The team have obviously thrown in the towel for the year which is really disappointing and there is the feel of the dying days of a managerial reign. Having said that think some of the criticism of Rodgers is well over the top and totally overlooks what he did for us last season. The whole he's a fraud and it was all down to Suarez is far too simple and basically bollocks for me. Fair enough football is about winning things and he ain't got a great record on that front but for me it's about experiences as well and last season was right up there with the treble winning season (when lived in liverpool and was in Dortmund to see us win the Uefa cup) as my most enjoyable and exciting season following us.
DeleteI think there is merit to the arguments about him being a young manager who is admittedly making a fair few mistakes but has potential to become a top manager, with some adjustments to the supporting structures. I get infuriated by his self-promotion and some of his decisions ( such as recent treatment of markovic and scapegoating of admittedly abysmal balotelli all season) but think all the Klopp for kop chat needs to discussed with caveat about how likely it is we'll go for him. If we could get him I'd prob be inclined to take a gamble of a managerial change given level of performance over the course of the season and his achievements at Dortmund and elite level managerial charisma but I think it's important to be mindful of the way fsg seem to operate potentially being a barrier to us getting Klopp. Another thing to point out in relation to Klopp is that he had Dortmund in the bottom three in December but that didn't make him a bad manager and I don't think this season makes Rodgers a bad manager. The team have clearly downed tools which is a inditement on him but if he is here next year, a summer of getting rid of total deadwood Vic lists below and bringing in 3-4 first team ready players could quite easily see him turn things around again and basically think wishes for another managerial upheaval need to bare in mind the careful what you wished for mantra, as it seems just a likely that a managerial change could see us ending up with someone like Gary monk as Jurgen Klopp and that for me would be a backward step.
Personally just can't wait for the season to be over and a summer break from the weekly torture!! Already getting weary of this Memphis depay transfer talk and the seemingly inevitable conclusion of him ending up at the mancs...
Luke,
DeleteFeels like we are in a tailspin with the rudder jammed on the same old formulaic principles. We were never going to score 100 goals this season particular having lost Suarez and then Daniel Sturridge, but he should have had the defensive side as the bedrock of our game, especially after last season when we conceded over 50 goals. The one thing he hasn’t shown consistently is an ability to stop us conceding goals. With needed a centre-midfielder for so long and when we finally to get one who looks capable, but is stuck in defence because of the problems we’re having back there.
Watching us in the stands at Wembley was a pretty horrible experience, because we scored against the run of play and once they scored there was only ever going to be one winner even with all that time left. It’s not that he is a fraud, it’s because the football seems one dimensional. Teams have worked out how to play against us and there is no plan b, so he plays Mario because he thinks given Mario is pacier than Borini or Lampard, that’s the only option. I think he needs to adjust the types of players he buys. With Markovic, Sterling, Lallana and Ibe in the team there is no need for yet another wide man who can play behind for striker unless the player is a football genius. Buy some proper full-backs to enable yourself to play a back four when the need arises. I still struggle with the concept that apart from Flanagan, Manquillo is the only real full-back at the club.
I agree that the treatment of Markovic has been nothing short of a disgrace and playing Lallana wing-back was not a wonderful decision either. As the season closes in only Mignolet, Henderson and especially Coutinho are consistently playing well.
He has enough players for the future and it’s time he showed his prowess in the transfer market and acquired the prerequisite players needed to enable us to progress. Tend to think with Brendan, he fits the model which FSG uses to promote the club, that is young, vibrant and fresh which links in with all the new commercial partners.
If by the end of the season we have lost even more games and are hovering around 6th or 7th fan power may just come into play. Klopp will always be linked because he’s a winner and proved it again last night when Dortmund beat Munich in the Semi-final of the German Cup to kill their run for the treble.
Also question, should we have infinite patience waiting for Brendan to get that experience? Said, before I’d like to see him succeed, but this is not Aston Villa, fans are supposed to be able to add to their programme collections against the likes of Barcelona not going through another season with the premise of no European football or life in the Europa.
Ps It's also nonsense to say that because we lost 52 goals it all should have went to hell in a handcart upfront - for me it's a poor excuse because very few clubs get anywhere close to that! If the three remaining strikers had even scored 20 leagues goals between we wouldn't be in this jam and should've found a way of utilising them or not putting them on the bench at all.
Well put!!!
DeleteAgree on many of your points Vic, especially that of lfc being too big a club to wait whilst a novice learns the trade...think my primary concern is that think replacing Rodgers only makes sense if the replacement is a clear improvement and with no guarantee of that I am reluctant to completely write him off
DeleteRodgers lack of experience seems to be the noose most fans are using as the reason to hang him out to dry but I’m not sure if it bears scrutiny. The oft repeated complaint that we leak too many goals doesn’t seem to stack up when you realise only Chelsea have kept more clean sheets.
DeleteBlaming Rodgers for the LFC transfer policy is a bit like blaming your corner shop for a rise in inflation. Buy young and cheap and sell for a profit if needed. Its only natural that he would adopt a playing style that utilises players in different positions across the pitch as you get more value out of a mid-priced player.
I don’t think either Markovic or Lallana have done enough with chances they’ve been given, it might well be a first season adjustment but I doubt either one would claim they’ve been treated disgracefully by Rodgers.
Personally I don’t think Klopp will stroll into Anfield and deliver a title within 3 seasons for all his achievements in Germany which are very similar to when we appointed a Spanish coach who had broken the Barca/Madrid hegemony in Spain.
I agree with a lot of what you say, and think it is too tempting to rip everything up and start again after such a disappointing follow up. I'd be tempted to make a change for Klopp as think this summer could be a rare chance to get someone of his calibre but totally accept there would be no guarantees he'd do any better than Rodgers in the parameters.
DeleteThink you going a bit far totally absolving him from transfer negligence though, whilst there is obviously a committee it is undoubtable that he will have a major say and think it is fair to assume borini and Allen were his signings and everything journos say suggest he was the driving force on the three Southampton players last summer. On the other hand he may have had others like balotelli slightly imposed on him and that is very difficult. I personally rate him as a coach and as I said yesterday think he could still turn things round but I'm very wary of his judgement when it comes to transfers....
The reason why most fans are upset is because we are not winning, pure and simple and that will never change. As for only Chelsea keeping more clean sheets look a bit deeper and you'll see we've let in only ten less goals than we've scored (47). It comes to something when the Everton backline have scored more league goals than the Liverpool strikers - Edet, I hope your son doesn't read these mails... :-(
DeleteAnd also Klopp seems to know his way around the transfer market, not for him £11 million on Borini... but Robert Lewandoski for 4.5 million euros and Kagawa for 350,000 euros for example. Basically, he shown he knows how to use a buck in marketand while I know every manager buys duds, he has proved he can work in a similar operational zone.
It just feels like we keep ripping up the book at the first opportunity just to start all over again and then wonder why we never seem to make up consistent ground on our rivals. I’m impressed with what Klopp has delivered at Dortmund but sceptical he’ll instantly recreate a title winning team at Anfield. In Germany you beat Bayern you’ll win the league in the PL there’s at least 4 teams you have to be better than. The high intensity game Klopp favours benefits from a winter break which he won’t get in England. Ditching BR for Klopp at this stage seems more risk than gain.
DeleteMate, I don't have all the answers, I just know that when you watch your team almost give up the ghost in an FA Cup Semi-final you start to query other dynamics. I've said before that he will probably be given another season, but he has to do the business firstly in the transfer window and then hit the ground running - if we end up in the Europa then he should try and win that too given the winners go into the Champions League.
DeleteI hear you re Klopp, but do remember when he won his first Championship it was Leverkusen second as Bayern weren't the force they are now and they decimated the opposition in the second season winning by a wide margin and got to the Champions League final the season after. Not saying, go get him, saying the man has the credentials and if were to take over I don't think it would result in us having to rip up the book as he speaks from the same hymn sheet as our owners.
It’s does not amaze me how Man U have caught up and now looking good for 4 spot, only taken a season out of the CL, and now seem to be on the right track.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the point and no value in qualifying for a competition you are not prepared for to fight, and certainly not good enough to participate in.
BR must be smoking the same stuff as Raheem Sterling, if he thinks his the best Man for the job. Simple we need new blood, the list kop Post sent out of dead wood MUST go.
We need CL calibre players, not players who will merely get you 6, 5 spot, can we really season after season be happy with this.
I know these are the players he has to work with, but he God Dam brought them! so you turn them around if they not playing good enough!
In all fairness it was not easy to replace a player like Suarez, but again we seem to go down the line of buying policy of quantity than quality, then crap for scrap, a bit like a Recycle depot.
Two winnable away games blown out of the dust. Our recent display has been terrible, a poor team, no drive, very little skill, second rate football and no effort of direction, we seem a team waiting for the season to end.
The guy who is looking for £180k a week could not even get passed one Hull player all night!!
DeleteHe was weighed down by the 35K in his pocket!
Deleteor in the smoke pot!
DeleteManagers like Mourihno would sort this in a month, and would def not put up with this sort of play, season is over!
DeletePlayer like Balo would not even see the training ground let alone sitting on the bench for Jose world.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteTotally, any way don’t believe the Hype!
DeleteGlen Johnson not expecting new Liverpool contract! About time.
Benteke's linked to move Liverpool or Man U, we prob loose out on that!
Big time we will as Benteke will be talking about playing CL football coming from relegation threaten Villa.
Delete