KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Moving Forward...

Defence needs sorting. Carra was poor again today, but not only him. So that means they need to work on this more in training. Tactics in general were poor. Did we pass the ball? It was like watching a Hodgson team.

Henderson shouldn't be ahead of Kuyt on right wing, and he doesn't do enough. Disappeared almost the whole game. Kenny needs to realise this.

Downing is a left winger, not a right winger. Suarez plays up front, not down the wing. Skrtel isn't a right back and can't cope there against Bale.

Kenny needs to settle on a team and a formation. At the moment we're chopping and changing up front and it's not working between Carroll and Suarez.

I agree with that

A lot of it yesterday ddid come down to questionable managerial decisions

Skrtel might have performed adequately (in fact well) when called to play at right back following Kelly's injury in the Bolton game but it's not his position and it was evident in the opening 10-15 mins that he was going to be given the runaround by Bale throughout, and so it transpired.

The more we see them together the less of a partnership Carrol and Suarez look up front. Carroll's an easy target but he was at least trying yesterday as was Suarez but they don't seem to click together in the way you would hope they did.

The player who does seem to get the best when playing alongside Suarez is Kuyt - whose ommision yesterday was startling, given not only Carroll's lack of form but also Henderson's invisibility.

Henderson has played every single competitive fixture this season despite only shining in one. He's not a winger so why he plays right on the wide instead of either Maxi Rodriguez (who is) and Kuyt (who isn't but can play there a lot better than Henderson) just again makes you question how good a judge of a player Daglish really is.

And playing Downing on the right wing is a complete waste - remiscant of when Houllier tried to play Kewell there

As a whole the team were shambolic yesterday, but they weren't aided by some quite frankly bizarre decisions made by the management - and that really is a concern

i havent backed hodgson he cant be backed he deserved the sack , but what i did say he was getting stick after 2 games last season now were 5 games in 125 million worse off and no better off but it all sweetness and light because its not benitez or dalglish well uit just shows up the support who what the word shallow , it ok to say hodgson was not the man but to give dalglsh a walk over.

Everyone needs to take their rose tinted specs off - Kenny hasn't done a very good job at all, when everything is taken into consideration.

can't believe how crap we were yesterday,in shock..christ we need gerrard back quick. forget aqua please ,he has been crap for milan ,watch both their games and they have been utter useless with him in the team and he has been hauled off each match.

You obviously didn't see either game as he played well in both - setting up 2 goals in his first game, and scoring in his second - in stark contrast to us who have failed to find the back of the net for two games in a row

You're just pre-judging him because you thought he was bad news for Liverpool - just as you thought Hodgson was good news and maintained that stance through to the bitter end

We do seem to look for answers and immedieate solution when it all goes Pete Tong. However the players in the squad now are far better than what we saw yesterday, it is now up to them to show this as a blip albeit a farely horrid one. I do crave for settled back 4 containing the right people in their right positions for 10games or so with minor variation in the attacking positions. The back 4 is all over the shop and again we have 5 or more injured or suspended (Agger, Johnson,Kelly, Skrtel, Aurelio). As others have mentioned the swapping and changin of Downing and Henderson has now added confusion and not fluidity to our game.

Also so far over the 14+ games Carroll has appeared since his arrival I have seen absolutely nothing which makes me see he has a future at LFC,He possess neither skill or pace and his awareness is appalling. Adebayor moved into great positons all game to receive the ball dragging defenders out of the centre, Carroll was a step ladder for King to head the ball, in fact his presence adds only a negative impact on the team.

It was important Liverpool got a steady 10points on the board in the first 5 games and we have dropped short slightly, that said the return of Gerrard and Kelly this weekend in our home fixture against Wolves I can see us getting back around the top 4 quickly. Yesterday was alarming in that we failed to compete in anyway shape of form and I don't expect to see that kind of performance again for sometime.

Here's the truth:

1. We started horribly - but Fulham started even worse, went two down and still clawed their way back. Just because a team starts poorly - doesn't mean they can't adjust and make changes. Not saying we would have done this but we went a man down very early and it severely affected any chance of a fight back.

2. Referees normally don't start spraying yellows around for first offenses in the first 10 minutes. On most other days Adam would have received a calming down from the ref instead of that first booking. The sending off so early in the game was a bit harsh - in a week where referees seem to want to make a point to Dalglish. While the decisions probably aren't responsible for the result they are responsible for the scoreline and our lack of ability to make the adjustments needed.

3, Spurs couldn't break us down for the second goal until we went down to 9 men. We were ragged - but still in the game at 1-0. A two man differential is just too much to overcome against a midfield of Spurs' class.

4. Except for the Manc teams, almost all the teams in the prem, including Arsenal and this Spurs team have received a pasting this season. This was a freak game and I don't think we should read too much into the scoreline. Game's don't normally unfold this way - even though our tactics and shape looked wrong from the outset.

5. Kenny doesn't have the benefit of hindsight to play armchair manager as people on this thread do. He tried to do something with Henderson, Adam and Lucas in the middle to negate a talented Spurs midfield and it didn't work. Now he has the opportunity to learn from it and make adjustments. Likewise, Skrtel as a right back should finally be a lesson learned. There is absolutely no point whatsoever in emotional knee-jerk reactions at this point - it still is only the 5th game with a massive influx of new players.

Things are much better than they were a year ago and it's pointless to say they aren't. We have upped our transfer profile and our investments have been better than the Voronins of this world. The problem is that our rivals have also kicked up a notch so we are still behind by the same margin. Adam is a good solid midfielder but he's not on the same level as who our rivals are buying. Henderson and Carroll are decent prospects - but not prospects like Hernandez and Jones. Our only top drawer signing is Suarez - compared to half a dozen for each of our rivals. I understand the desire to bring in more British based players - but we didn't even get the best of those. Also, we could have got a decent foreign winger for what we paid for Henderson. So while things are looking up we're still getting bested. We also lost three quality players in Mereiles, Aqualani, and Cole.