Potted like Plants

Well so much for optimism after a great result against Chelsea.

What we have seen since has been utter dross. We started like a house on fire for the 1st 20 minutes against Wigan and then seemed to think this was too easy.So we started giving the ball away and let that nice young man Charles N'Zogbia run rings around us down both flanks at will. Perhaps that was our gift to him in the unlikely event we sign him, he knows training will be a breeze.

Konchesky is an absolute disaster, not unlike Djimi Traore, the second worst player to ever wear a Liverpool shirt. You know who the worst is ........IGOR BISCAN!!!

Anyway I digress as usual and that's half the fun of doing this.At Fulham Konchesky marked well, was rarely out of position. So far all we have seen from him is getting abolutely mullahed by anyone who chooses to run at him. Almost every goal we concede is from a cross and almost always from the his side of the pitch.

I have to question Hodgson's selection for the game. I know there is the age old argument that you shouldn't change a winning team however anyone who watched the Chelski game would have seen us struggle for the last 20. So why 3 days later pick the exact same 11? We have Shelvey,Spearing, Jovanovic who can all step into the midfield. After all thats where we are struggling. Maxi and Meireles are not doing it for us however they are central midfielders being asked to play wide as we have only Milan and Babel with any pace. Hodgson seems reluctant to use Milan at all.

So we squeak into halftime 1-0 up. Lo and behold within 10 minutes the scores are level, and we never look like getting back in to the game. Indeed we were lucky to escape with a point.

So lesson learn't and a few changes for the visit to Stoke, a ground Hodgson has been in charge of a team several times before. No, you would be SO wrong! Stoke, a large, physical team who use set-pieces very well, have the Delop Torpedo throw and have added true wingers to their squad and a target man up front. Naturally I would have expected us to use Milan and Shelvey at least to bolster our average height. In Milan's case it would have been an opportunity to nullify Pennant. But no we deploy the same lethargic, hobbit-sized, do nothing midfielders.

How do we expect to get the ball into our opponents half (never mind penalty box) if your wide midfielders are constantly facing your own goal? All you can do is pass to their feet they knock it back to you and then you lump it aimlessy forward. Clearly this is what we had practised in training as we executed this policy successfully for 90 odd minutes!!

We were extremely lucky not to have conceded 3 penalties by halftime. Firstly Maxi's barge and elbow on Fuller. Not to be outdone Skrtel's shirt tug and judo throw 5 seconds later on Huth. Lastly Skrtel not content with his treatment of Huth so far, then went all Italian on us. Paying no attention to the ball he made use of a WWE hold, shirt tug and judo roll to bring Huth down again.

Fortunately Mark Halsey had a mare, spotted nothing, gave non exixtant fouls and generally cocked up an already disappointing game. After watching the highlights of the other PL games, clearly he is not alone in Baffonary.

If you tackle anyone and stay on your feet you can basically do whatever you like. If you slide in and win the ball its a foul. You cant be offside at all unless you are a Blackpool player. Any Spurs player brought down in the box has dived and must be booked. West Ham are allowed to us their hands to control the ball in their own box, a new FA initiative to help teams at the bottom.You are allowed to use any part of your anatomy to stop a Stoke goal and it doesnt count even if its over the line. When a defender is last person to touch the ball, its now a goal kick.Corners can be awarded for non-existent deflections,at corners and free kicks defenders can do anything they like, short of anal penetration to stop attackers. Haven't seen a case of the latter yet so that one may not be true, but the others definately are!!!

Mr Fucking Blatter let us have fucking technology to stop this madness! It cost teams points which cost them money and it cost managers their jobs. Your bullshit argument that it must be the same game as at gress roots is already moot. You dont get 4 officials in Sunday League games, you dont get electornic sub boards, wait isnt that technology?????

Right where was I, so we are at halftime its 0-0 and we look shitter than Forest Green Rovers (bottom of Conference, unless its Champie Manager and I am in charge then its 13th in the Premiership!!). So our esteemed coach makes what changes........ None as fucking usual. Great managers have the ability to adapt and see things arent working. Mourinho is a master at it. How many times when Chelsea were struggling did he happily make 2 changes at halftime change formation, and boom Chelsea win, get a draw play better etc.Hodgson seems to treat substitutions with suspicion.

We get a startled rabbit starting at headlights gnawing on his fingernails!! Only Sammy Lee seems interested.He looks like he is about to explode constantly and cant believe the fuckwittery he sees on the pitch.How he hasnt had a heart attack after Benitez and now this is beyond me. So we go a goal down to the usual stramash associated with the Delap Torpedo. Do we change it do we do anything positive, Yes!!! In the 75th fucking minute!! Why why why why?????? The game had been slipping away from us from the minute we submitted the teamsheet!!!

We play at such a slow tempo that most League 2 teams could play around us without too much bother.We dont seem to have the ability to impose our own way of playing (if there is one) on the match. Torres was clearly injured after Huth hacked at his ankle and I admire his willingness to persevere. Hodgson is the manager and should have the balls to say, thanks Fernando but no thanks, your fitness is fragile at the best of times and you aren't getting that much ball anyway so come off. So we have to witness our ONLY striker hobble around the pitch 25 minutes contributing nothing and no doubt injuring himself further.

I think Hodgson has a small-minded approach to away games. He did it successfully at Fulham with lesser players but we cannot be this easy to dispatch away from home.If we have any aspirations of qualifying for Europe at all this season, we have to dominate games.Relying on 25 and 30 yards Stevie G screamers is hardly the way forward.Just Europe, I am not even talking top 4 as that is just about beyond us now. There are comfortably 8 to 10 teams currently playing better than us and with better players.

Certainly the general poor quality of the squad doesn't not lie totally at Hodgson's feet. He inherited a pile of shite for Rafa the clown and the dodgy yanks. We have added Konchesky, Poulsen, Meileres and Joe Cole. On paper that's an improvement. Konchesky should be better than Insua or no left back - but not seeing it. Joe Cole has done little to suggest he will be anything other than a sub, like he was at Chelsea. Poulsen is clearly struggling with the pace of the game and is no Mascharano. Meireles, I am more hopeful for however think we will not see the best of him for a while until he beds in.

After 20 games in charge Hodgson seems to have decided its 4-4-2,which is great but not how to use that system to exploit what he has. Too often we recieve the ball with our backs to the opponents goal, we have no pace and no-one makes runs in behind. There is a general lack of energy and passion, so no better than Rafa really. I cant see him being in charge at Xmas if this continues. Don't mind losing if we have played our hearts out but the complete lack of cohesion is disgraceful. There does not appear to be any tactics or planning about how to win. The soundbites from the Manager confirm this, its always about stopping the other team playing. We are Liverpool not Leyton Orient! WE DICTATE!!

I would stick with 4-4-2 and use the following players if everyone is fit.
Reina
Kelly-Skrtel-Soty-Aurelio
Johnson-Meireles-Gerrard-Jovanovic
Torres-Kuyt

Contoversial I know. I hear the No Carra cry. Yes he is no longer the player he was, I have covered that topic ad nausem and so have no more to say. Aurelio is our best left back, simple. Johnson cant defend, why not 'Gareth Bale' him. He will be less of a danger to us raiding forward from midfield, than he is when he plays at fullback. Happy to swap out Meireles for Lucas on away games and when we play some of the bigger teams at home.

That would leave us with a bench of Ngog,Babel,Cole,Carra,Spearing,Shelvey. All of whom can do a variety of jobs. It has a strong attacking feel and thats what we need.We are getting nowhere playing the way we are, so why not do a Blackpool??

All the above said we are only 3 points off 5th. But the gap to the top 4 is growing and we face Spurs in a couple of weeks. At least we have West Ham at home next........

YNWA

He-he Chelsea 0 Sunderland 3, new winner of the most disgareful performance of the weekend just!

Double Delight - Neapolitan IceCreamed and Chelsea Bunned!

Well what a week for the club,

4 excellent results on the spin and probably only 1 bad performance, the Bolton game which I have mentioned in my last post.

I was slightly concerned when I saw the team sheet for Thursday's game with none of the established 1st teamers except for the defence. Roy's pre-match interview also did not fill me with hope. He alluded to the fact that he felt it was more important to rotate the squad and stop Napoli playing.

Our 1st half performance bore that out to a large degree, we were on the back foot for most of it and looked bereft of ideas. No critisism of the youngsters on the pitch. They were playing a team 5th in Serie A who had hardly lost or conceded a goal. Indeed the goal they scored when Poulsen a CL veteran with Anderlecht and Selvilla, contrived to header the ball blindly behind him to the invisible Liverpool player there!

Cavani greatly accepted the gift and slotted in Lavezzi (Serie A's Carlos Tevez!), our defence was nowhere to be seen, thanks to Poulsen's brilliance!. So halftime and we arent 3-0 down at elast. thankfully Roy saw the light and brought in Stevie G, although taking Jovanovic off was odd, as he was one our better players in the 1st half. But what do I know, our Stevie dragged the rest of the team kicking and screaming into the game and his 15 minute hat-trick was magnificent.

It keeps us at the top of the group and I think we will qualify in 1st place comfortably now. That will mean we avoid the Champions League rejects when the draw is made for the last 32.

As to today's performance, having Kuyt back was huge plus. Hodgson made 3 brave decisions one forced (Kelly for Johnson).the other two, Dirk playing up front with Torres and Stevie in central midfield. Thats what we have been looking for and valois . Within 10 minutes Kuyt to Torres 1-0!! Stevie and Lucas had the Chelsea midfield on toast. It certainly was big boost for us that ther was no Essien or Drogba in the starting 11 and we made it count. Ramires and Mikel showed what they are ....average.

Anchelloti has some issues in that dept. Without Lampard and Essien its lightweight midfield and you are relying totally on the front 3 to produce things. Man City have the same issue, too many defenders on the pitch. They are still an awesome machine,but they have struggled against the better teams this season. The Premier League has for the last couple offered rewards to postive teams.

Nando's 2nd strike from a quick Meireles pass was sublime. Not often you see Cech routed to the spot. We striggled to play with teh same intensity on the 2nd half, but we didnt panic ... much! Pepe had a few moments and elbow, the crossbar and Carra kept Chelsea out. All in all a good perfomance. Best I have seen so far this season. Hell, even Lucas wasn't far off man of the match, he must have been fouled by every Chelsea player.

Games coming thick and fast now Wigan and Stoke away next. We can win both although that 2nd one will be tricky. 9th position and only 5 points off 4th place and 10 behind Chelsea. Suddenly its looking a lot better.

I wonder if Soty had not had tonsilitis if he would have played him and Skrtel or still played Carra....... He never did say who replaced who in the middle.

YNWA