Yeah, that's clearly where I said "These sides are better than when Woy was in charge" #-o

Again, you put words in my mouth, misquote me and try to start an argument with something that I clearly haven't said.

Don't you grow tired of looking like an idiot?

That 'very different west ham' would be one with Thomas Hitzlsperger in the lineup.

Penalty was lucky, and Sunderland losing 2 players early on was lucky, but after withstanding the early barrage we deserved the 3 points. They only had 1 shot on target all game IIRC.

Skrtel and Agger were superb. When Kelly comes back I really think Carra will lose out.

Spearing and Lucas both played well. Kuyt was solid. Meireles was disappointing, but it's his first time playing on the left.

Suarez was great. Carroll was decent, unlucky with the header, and of course still coming back to fitness. He'll be an asset, for sure.

Good win, gap on Spurs closed to 3 points. We can catch em.

4 points, and Sp*rs have a game in hand.

Fairly quiet day for Reina, but superb work from Agger to keep it that way. Kelly coming back is going to create some real selection headaches for Kenny.

Spearing and Ngog depress me with how easily they're charged off the ball but both have really nice touch.

12 day break between now and our next game against West Brom should give Gerrard and Kelly a chance to recover and return to the side, hopeully Suarez is fit and things will be looking pretty good for the run home.

Edited by afromanGT: 21/3/2011 03:35:38 AM

As long as we can keep winning games...

Sorry, meant to say 4.

Ignore the game in hand :P

You'll definately catch us if you have ref's like the one last night. That guy was embarrassing. Penalty was outside the box, blew a foul after allowing Merilles to plkay on and shoot, gave a goal kick to a clear corner.

Consider yourselves fortunate Liverpool :p

We have a tough run with Chelsea, City, you lot and the scummers to play.

Edited by benelsmore: 21/3/2011 10:00:15 AM

The ref wasn't good enough missed at least 9 more red cards. Fairly sure it is against the laws of the game to play for Sunderland :p

Haha you're not biased at all are ya :p

Clearly in the eyes of the Toon that red and white shirt if an offence to football right?

It is an offense to humanity.

Edited by guest: 21/3/2011 10:59:05 AM

Haha brutal. I take it you enjoyed the refereeing failure last night then?

TBF I wouldn't be blaming the referee for the penalty. It's easy to forget that he actually got the decision right, but unlucky for him that his linesman cocked it up totally.

Yeah, we totally haven't improved under Dalglish.

Edited by imnofreak: 21/3/2011 12:31:14 PM

Good point I stand corrected. The referee did make some other idiotic calls though.

Not only in our favour though... he gave a few fouls that were utterly ridiculous (one against Ngog immediately comes to mind). But I agree, we did seem to get the rub of the green... one of the first times this season I must say!

You can't blame the referee for his assistant's mistake there. HE trusted his linesman and the linesman got it wrong (how many times have we said that?).

Re: Meireles' shot: The referee didn't pay play-on, he blew the whistle before Meireles shot.

Re: Cheap decisions in Liverpool's favour: Ngog and Lucas were both pulled up for fouls where they clearly hadn't even touched the Sunderland player. The referee made some big calls and got some correct and others wrong, I don't think he was up to standard but I wouldn't say that he was biased one way or the other.

I don't think he was biased intentionally, but there were a few decisions that we got lucky with. Again, many on which you can blame the linesman (a few goal kicks, throw ins etc that went our way when they shouldn't).

The only mistake that you could attribute to the ref was the FK after Meireles shot, and he might have blown the whistle before he hit it, I'd have to watch it again. But the referee was hardly making lots of 'foul' calls in our favour.

He was shit all round, but fuck the ref - let's talk about Suarez.

You can't score a goal like that! You just can't!

From what I saw, some weird things happened out on the pitch to our formation. Let's forget that Sunderland were utterly shit, even without the bad penalty decision (two words: beach ball. Four words: fuck you, Steve Bruce). Let's forget that they managed one (1) shot on target all game and did fuck all with the possession. That wasn't down to the ref or his assistants. That was just down to the fact that they played like a Sunday league team. Gyan up front, totally ineffective. No wonder he was pissed off.

The four at the back with Spearing and Lucas sat in front of them, Meireles and Kuyt moving inside and Carroll and Suarez out in front - sort of 4-2-2-2; in defence, Meireles and Kuyt would pull into the left and right flanks respectively, but on the break forward they'd turn inside, Carra and Johnson would move up (Johnson more than Carra), leaving Skrtel, Agger, Spearing and Lucas to form as a defensive block. That spread Skrtel and Agger out to the edges while Lucas and Spearing moved back into the defensive third.

Agger and Skrtel heatmap
Kuyt and Meireles

Johnson and Carra pressed them higher up the pitch, which is why Sunderland struggled to get forward. They managed it with Henderson, Sessegnon and Ferdinand, largely coming down the right, probably because Johnson was so far advanced, but no one was forward and Gyan was constantly under pressure from a constant presence. Henderson by far and away was the best player on their side, but as a rule, they did fuck all. Hardly any balls into the box except for that first chance. Tended to lose it trying to run through the centre of the pitch.

There's no playing such organised fluidity, especially if you don't try and attack, which they didn't.

Probably should have been sent off for sticking his finger up Skrtel's nose.

Fuck that, I'm more interested in seeing a Carrol and Skrtel heatmap :P

Kenny's tactics have been 'old-school', but they're bloody working. The lads have been playing the best football we've seen in a very long time.

I agree with most of what you're saying Dizzy.... not only did Kuyt come inside, on many occasions he tracked the runner on the wing in defence so Carra could go inside and cover in the centre, with Danny pushing out to LB when Johnson pushed forward.

I don't know if it's the formation we should play going forwards though... Meireles is better in other areas of the pitch I think. Suarez was essentially given a free role, which again contributed to Kuyt and Meireles cutting inside, when Suarez took up wide positions.

Spearing was very neat, as was Lucas. But Dagger and 50p head were fantastic.

I think it's only really a temporary stop-gap to run out the season. There will be a left winger coming in to fill things out over the summer.

Then you have Lucas, Gerrard and Meireles for two spots in the middle, and Aquilani possibly coming back. Hooray, depth!

Love it.

I think Lucas was, again, the standout player at the back. He really thrives under Kenny. Before, even with Rafa he wasn't at his best and no-one really rated him in any quarter, but he's found somewhere he can play. Even against West Ham he was still remarkably composed.

Even under Woy he did ok. But again, with the mobility and movement off the ball under Kenny, he has taken another step up. He has runners to whom he can give the ball, and his passing accuracy is fantastic.

[youtube]FJM14efOZcg[/youtube]

Can't remember if I put this up before.

Don't forget Spearing :P I think Juve will opt to keep Aquilani tbh. But that's not a big deal, I'm sure we'll go looking for someone who will be a more than adequate replacement for him. It's curious that people have paid out on him for not playing enough for us, but he played 26 games for us despite being out injured for a large portion of the season, at Juve he's only played 22 with 9 games left in the season, so I don't think there's that much difference.

Lucas has found that niche role in the midfield. He's playing a similar role to how he was at Gremio and he's shining. I said that he had potential that he wasn't reaching but he's getting there now under Kenny.

Aquilani played 18 league games for you and has already played more for Juve. That 26 games includes 5 European games which was boosted by you making the semis. Shouldn't be comparing how many games he played in 4 competitions for Pool when he's only played in one competition for Juve.

MAJOR DOUBLE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Fenway Sports Group and Liverpool FC confirmed today that Ian Ayre had been appointed as the Club's new Managing Director and Damien Comolli has been promoted to Director of Football.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/major-double-announcement

Both good moves I think! Now, to make Kenny's deal permanent....

The fact that Kenny's former position has been filled is a huge positive for us. It says to me that they'll almost definitely keep him on after the end of the season.

That's still 21 games if you include the cup matches, which he could have played for Juve. And considering he missed half the season for us with serious injury, I'd say that 19 games plus three in domestic cups is a fair effort in comparison.