Lethergy at the Legions of Doom

Well I have finally got round to watching our trip to the Theatre of Delusions, The Cobblers from Wednesday night and yesterday Mackem Mayhem. Honestly, is Benitez still in charge???????

The players used against Man U were useless. We let 2 geriatrics and the most avergae Scottish player in history, run the midfield. Maxi & Joe Cole were so ineffective as widemen that John O'Shea looked like raiding rightback. Poor Konchesky got terrorised by Nani, with no protection whatsoever in fornt of him.

We had no tempo to our play agin, we never looked like scoring and if were 2 or 3 down at halftime we could not have complained. We had plenty possesion, but made less than rudimentory use of it. Van Der Saar could have sat in the stands all game. I expecting it to be difficult, but you expect Liverpool players to stand up and be counted. Again that didn't happen. Sure Gerrard scored 2 goals, but we never then pressed on, despite how fragile they have been at the back of late.

All 3 goals came from crosses, due to no pressure being put on the man who is doing the crossing. At this level if you stand off all the time, they will eventually get one right.

Goal One - WTF was Torres doing??? How can you mark someone standing behind them and on the wrong side. More importantly, why was Torres marking him at all???? We have Gerrard and Poulsen who are better suited for that task. Torres should be the free man at the near post heading the ball out not Gerrard. That about the 5th or 6th near post corner goal we have conceded against them in 6 seasons. Ferdinand, O'Shea and Ronaldo twice I can remember off the top of my head.

Goal 2 - Not enough pressure on the cross, and yes great skill from Berbatov, but why was Carra standing the best part of 7 yards away from the man he was suppose to be marking??? Is it any wonder Berba had enough time use his knee and them perform a bicycle kick. Skrtel never let Rooney out of his sight all game, result, he was a non-event.

Goal 3 - Carra again caught under the ball, meaning he has no leverage to just with Berbatov, never mind compete for the ball. I have been saying for 2 years that Carra is passed his sell-by-date, how much more evidence do we need? He doesn't read the game well anymore, he is to slow and isn't physically strong enough anymore. Lets get Agger in alongside Skrtel and let them build a partnership, after all they are surely the future of our club....

I think Hodgson got it tactically wrong, we didn't press the ball at all which is odd, because normally we are all over Man U like wasps when we play them. The lack of tempo suited them. We should have had at least one pacy player on the pitch. Babel down the right or left may have helped, would certainly restricted the wide players and ful back having the freedom of the pitch.

We looked better when we went to 4-4-2 but still lacked purpose and drive. Apparently Morelies got our Man of the Match, for what I dont know. Not sure any combination of players would have worked, in light of the general malaise that seems to be going around the club at the moment. Hodgson's appointment hasn't given players lift at all, and his tactics seem to be deflating them further.

YNWA , seem to think this stands for You'll Never Win Again at the moment.....