Football, football, football 34

[Calibandar]

Things that struck me today about the games.

I like how this United side is looking now. Nearly everyone back from injuries now, with a hectic period ahead that is looking good. Rooney and RvP upfront is lethal for any team in the world. Nice goal from Cleverley there as well.

Secondly, a City team with Nasri, Silva, Aguero and Tevez coupled to a captain like Yaya Toure is still something to behold.

Balotelli seems certain to leave the team now IMO, didn't even show up.

Finally, Benteke is a great, great striker. He was in Belgium already, and is continuing that greatness.

[BigFatCoward]

when did we become shit?

[MercenaryChef]

when did we become shit?

fucking hell right, sir.

i know it was city and all. but, the game that was actually played should not have ended 3-1.

the idiot fake sunderland fan i work with said to me 'imagine the fun we will have next year if both of our teams are in the championship.' i almost put my knife in his throat.

[Fireball07]

We lost again today. That wasn't surprising.

The goals mainly being down to terrible individual mistakes is pretty annoying though. What the fuck was O'Shea doing? And four defenders all manage to mess up against 2 attackers for the 3rd? Good job lads, good job. Bramble had a good game apart from pulling out of the challenge then. And Colback did well to contain Valencia.

Elsewhere, I thought Sessegnon looked threatening throughout...and McClean continued to work hard and create chances regularly (in my opinion, he has been crucified by other fans). The most encouraging thing was the performance of Wickham, again he looked excellent, held the ball up well, pushed defenders of the ball and brought others into play. Nice to see Campbell score even if he is shit.

The most worrying thing was the injury to Fletcher but apart from that was the anonymous performance of Johnson. Simply was not in the game in attack and offered nothing defensively. Our midfield was once again non-existent...and our defenders decided to gift the ball to the most dangerous attack in the lead. That was clever.

Still, we played okay in the 2nd half, put up a bit of a fight anyway and in general, our performances are on an upward trend. I wish he'd play 2 up front though...Wickham and Fletcher would compliment each other a lot...and it's not like our midfield does anything anyway.

[Alex.]

"The anonymous performance of Johnson," is a phrase you should get used to using.

[Alex.]

Nasri? Nasri is fucking terrible. I don't think I'll ever forgive him for hiding from the ball during the RVP freekick the other week.

He's basically a French Stewart Downing. If Stewart Downing were a massive sulky nonce.

Couldn't agree more.

[Winterfell is Burning]

I suppose Benitez is threatened again, huh?

Corinthians deserved the win, in the second half they never looked in any danger of losing, and Chelsea was mostly ineffective- Hazard specially had a terrible game.

[Jon AS]

Not winning the Club World Cup is not going to threaten the position of any coach, I think.

Though it is slightly troubling when Paolo Guerrero manages to score against your team.;)

[Young Wolf]

20 minutes have gone by...why are we not kicking the shit out of West Brom yet?

[Young Wolf]

Gah! Cole?!?!?!

[Lightning Lord]

So, seems like Russia and Ukraine are planning on combining their two leagues. How monstrous a competition would the top division then be? Given the money surrounding the big clubs in each nation, that league will become quite an attraction.

Really? I don't know much about the Russian league, only a bit about Ukraine. I know Shakhtar Donetsk is generally a highly skilled team and Dynamo Kyiv has had some pretty good years. Are there other competitive clubs from Ukraine?

[Iskaral Pust]

Pitiful by Liverpool. Very well done by Villa.

Liverpool had so much possession, almost entirely in Villa's half, and yet their play when they got close to goal was so sloppy. Villa sat deep with three central defenders who stuck close to Suarez, denied any space behind them and were quick to close down. Liverpool's players were very slow in switching play and never looked potent around goal.

On the defensive side, once again Liverpool are playing with 7 or 8 players in the opposition half and if plays breaks down there is a huge amount of space for a fast counter-attack. Villa scored three with comical ease against Agger and Skrtel who have been very solid at the back. Benteke and Weimann did very well, and our central midfield provided no cover against attackers who ran a long way to create those chances.

Our central midfield looks very fragile. Gerrard was poor again, despite scoring late. Allen is off form and right now he doesn't offer enough to the team. He uses the ball well with short passes and recycling possession, but he doesn't tackle, doesn't beat a man, doesn't break up opposition possession, doesn't shoot, doesn't set up goal-scoring chances. It's a bit of a luxury in our very limited squad to have a player with a niche repertoire. Barcelona can do it because their team is set up for it. Ours isn't (yet). Lucas was bypassed for a lot of today, just like West Ham -- he's not back to full match readiness yet.

Downing played very well. I hope he can repeat that although he may just have been motivated about playing against a former club and/or needing to attract a new club (he has reportedly been told he can leave in January). Glen Johnson played very well going forward but also almost conceded a goal to Weimann. If we have Downing and Johnson at full back, the central midfield needs to be prepared to stop counter-attacks.

It's so dispiriting to support Liverpool at the moment. They didn't look sharp or hungry today and lost a great chance to build momentum after last week. A lot of players look tired or unconvincing (Sterling, Gerrard, Allen, Shelvey) and we have no squad depth to address it. Cole had a flash in the pan last week. Suso seems to have disappeared (I would have given him a chance today as a #10 instead of Gerrard). Assaidi hasn't been given any time in the PL yet (I would give him a game or two to rest Sterling).

We're very much a mid-table squad and in danger of becoming a mid-table club. The two Manchesters and Chelsea are light years away from us and Arsenal and Spurs seem to be a tier above us. I feel like Hodgson and Dalglish's horrific transfer actions, after 2-3 years of net selling forced on Benitez, have doomed us to several years of weak squads. And it's really noticeable that our scouting system is not producing anything like Newcastle, Everton or Swansea. We play tiki-taka but we don't have anything like the swagger of Norwich, Southampton or Swansea (maybe even Wigan) when things are going their way.

[Raja]

How much of that falls on the manager though? There is a school of thought that Rodgers is bent on taking the set of players at Liverpool and molding them to "his way" of playing rather than getting the best out of those players. Ideally both of those should go hand in hand. That being said, give him more time and especially some amount of money to bring the players he wants at the club. I was quite disappointed when we din't get Sahin on deadline day, but given the way Wilshere has come back into the team, and the few times I've seen Sahin play, I don't think he would have added much. At least you recognize how bad some of those transfers were under Kenny/Hodsgson, I personally know a few Liverpool supporters who don't see that at all. To be fair though, the team has played well sometimes, I do wonder how much (if any ) Liverpool will spend in Jan?

[baxus]

liverpool will have to spend on at least one striker in january, and a left back or a left winger would be a necessity as well.

suarez is having a good enough season, but he can't do it himself and i don't think anyone in their right mind would object to seeing downing moved from left back (preferably to transfer list).

from what i've read on liverpool's website, chelsea's sturridge, newcastle's ba and barcelona's sanchez are being mentioned as potential targets, but those news are always labeled as media speculations so there may be nothing more to them than that.

i wouldn't mind seeing either of them playing for liverpool, but i said the same about adam so now i'm overly cautious when it comes to wishing for players ;)

[The Winged Shadow]

Some central defense midfielder won't go too bad either. Without Lucas the midfield defending has been rather poor. Add that on top of the more attacking role the fullbacks are playing, and you get some major weakness to counterattacks, which we've seen all season so far.

While Sahin and Allen are good enough holders, their tackling and defensive abilities (so far) have not been as good as Lucas's. A nice stable CDM would go a long way to boost our defense. Hopefully with Lucas back on the squad the defense will look a slightly less vulnerable to counterattack. But so far he hasn't lived up to his past performances.

Striker is just as important, it's kind of sad how toothless Liverpool look in attack. They seem to build from the back well enough and move the ball through midfield. But near the box it seems to fall apart. While I can see Rodgers bolstering the squad with some much needed striker and perhaps some defensive-mid, I don't think it will have too big of an impact on this season. By the time the new players get settled into the team and learn to play the way Rodgers want them to, the season will probably end.

I only hope we end up on the top half of the table rather than the bottom half.

[Alex.]

Daniel Sturridge is the absolute last player thing Liverpool need; a walking ego with an inflated sense of self worth who seems to wildly overestimate his own ability? Not the solution.

[baxus]

While I can see Rodgers bolstering the squad with some much needed striker and perhaps some defensive-mid, I don't think it will have too big of an impact on this season. By the time the new players get settled into the team and learn to play the way Rodgers want them to, the season will probably end.

I only hope we end up on the top half of the table rather than the bottom half.

i wouldn't mind one bit if they used this season to create at least the core of the team and set up the system in the club - style of play, youth teams and academy structure etc.

there is a time in every club's history when that is needed - man utd had the sense to give ferguson the time and resources to do it 2 decades ago and have been reaping the benefits for 20 years and counting.

on the other hand, chelsea and man city hadn't really done that and decided to go after instant success and though they are successful enough they are nowhere near man utd on that account.

also, i don't think there is a real danger of finishing in the bottom half for liverpool this season, though their position at the moment certainly suggest that as an option.

Daniel Sturridge is the absolute last player thing Liverpool need; a walking ego with an inflated sense of self worth who seems to wildly overestimate his own ability? Not the solution.

i guess you'd suggest balotelli or tevez instead, huh? ;)

[Alex.]

Haha no. I'm speaking from exactly that kind of experience with a player who seems to wildly overestimate his own ability in Balotelli! :)

[Raja]

"We're not racists but we see the absence of black players at Zenit as an important tradition," http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/17/zenit-st-petersburg-fan-group?CMP=twt_gu

Oh Zenit

[Nas!]

I wonder if any of these Zenit supporters are angry that the team is doing so well these past few seasons--I mean, isn't finishing mid-table in the RPL also a tradition worth keeping?