KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Liverpool vs Man City

Sadly, I don't buy into this. If the away keeper can always raise his game at Anfield, why can't our own forwards do likewise? Too many wild shots, not enough patience. We had the momentum, had the extra man, had them at sixes and sevens at the back, but could still barely get a shot on target. That Hart saved all the ones that were on target is largely irrelevant - he was out of position several times when we smashed the ball into the stands rather than finding the right pass or the controlled shot.

I agree - the quality of our finishing this season has been poor, Downing in the last few seconds blazed high and wide yet a calm side foot would have done the job. Same with his back post volley. Hitting the woodwork has been used as bad luck but to be honest several of those chances were sitters.
when we play the best teams you need composure to get those vital wins and sadly it's something we currently do not posess. Never have we missed Gerrard so much, he would certainly finish alot of these opportunities.
Well done to the boys though who have finished very strong in the last two games against city and Chelsea. signs are good in that regard.

Hitting wild shots into the stand is one thing, but that has no bearing whatsoever on the clear fact that the last few visiting keepers to Anfield have been on outstanding form. Yes, we've been wasteful on occasions with some shots missing the target, but that has no connection in the slightest to keepers pulling off world class saves that 9 times out of 10 would result in goals.

Carroll's header was put at the best possible height for the keeper had he headed it down in textbook fashion it would have been a goal, so yes composure is required.

You have to give the keeper credit for making some saves, because no one in this league is rubbish, but if we put even one of those high, wide, and handsome shots on target we suddenly win the match and everyone largely forgets how good the keeper was. He can't be their man of the match if they conceded more goals than we, now can he? Perspective, no?

i do feel a thumping for somebody is on the cards. one game soon they will go in and my feeling is Fulham again. the team is really starting to function and settle. come Jan I think we will be no more than 4points behind Man U.

I'd like to think so but I'm not too confident.

Having so many shots off target or at a height which seems to allow the keeper to pull off a save seems to be the rule rather than an exception. After one or two games we thought that they were just freaks and that the goals would soon start going in, but after further similar games it seems that we're just very bad at finishing and shooting.

Hence I wouldn't take Fulham too lightly.

The save from the Carroll header was a great save, but it wasn't quite in the corner. I think the best save of the match was the one from Adam's shot when it was 1-1 in the first half.

I never said composure wasn't required.

I hear your point, but I still maintain that there's no link between the two things. I'm not denying that our finishing leaves a lot to be desired, in fact if you look at my posts over the last few weeks, i've said on countless occasions that we need a finisher, because our finishing hasn't been good enough, and it's the main reason why we don't have more points in the bag.

Suarez has been guilty more than most of hitting shots straight at keepers. I'm not talking about those sort of saves. I'm talking about the sort of saves like Hart made from Adam, and to a slightly lesser extent from Carroll, and the saves De Gea made from Henderson and Kuyt. Vorm made a few top class saves too. Yes, on occasions our finishing could be a lot better, and there are those who aren't even hitting the target, but you can't ignore the fact that more often than not, some of those shots where he have hit the target, would result in goals, only for the keeper pulling a save out of the top drawer. I don't see how that can be disputed.

By the same token, if they don't pull off those saves, then we get the win and nobody's talking about our poor finishing!

lol, good points there BarLennon.

Gotta be a case of bad finishing and excellent keeping then!

In truth, Vorm in particular has caught the eye, and we all expect Hart and De Gea to be difficult to beat. If one looks in particular at the first goal against Chelsea we didn't just have a ping once we got the ball in shooting range - we kept our composure, cut them to shreds, and scored an easy goal. Most of the rest are largely solo efforts that have come off (eg Johnson's goal vs Chelsea, most of the efforts of Suarez, the Adam-induced own goals etc). I just think we're so desperate to score everyone is trying to force it in rather than create the platform from which scoring is easy. A great deal of Van Persie's goals are largely down to fantastic support play, and this for me is where we are going wrong.