Liverpool FC

[Waz1892]

Sturridge out for up to another month with a calf injury apparently.

Yeh confirmed, 2-4 weeks friday training

[kinboshi]

Liverpool awful and extremely lucky.  Bloody good job we've got Sterling.

As for Mario, I was hopeful he'd "do a job" at Liverpool - but my optimism seems to have been massively misplaced.  He's been awful and today summed his contribution up.  It's a good job Dunne and Caulker were on the pitch, as Mario wasn't going to score from those chances.  Would have been better to have played Lambert instead of Mario. Shame Origi isn't available to Liverpool until next season. 

[horseplayer]

Agree re mario especially today

However the general tactic of slamming the ball into head height against that defence was strange

Despite the horror misses when he got the ball to feet he still even today had the beating of them

[Waz1892]

Madrid could potentially be an embarrasement if we play anywhere near like we did today.

Great to be in it, craved it for years, but my god we need to improve!

Rodgers will earn his money if we are anywhere near the top 4 come May at this rate.  Questions will be asked very quickly on the signings if things dont improve fast.

Not that it needs saying, however Lambert for Mario every minute of the day.

[kinboshi]

Thing is, we're fifth in the league and joint 4th on points (6th after this weekend's games if Man U beat West Brom).  Considering how badly we've been playing, that's not a bad position to be in - especially considering the fact that we can only improve (surely?).  Of course, Chelsea are something like 300 points ahead of us, and I can only see City getting anywhere close to them this season.  But the goal this year was always top four.  The way Liverpool have been playing they don't deserve to be in the top four, but we're not far off somehow at this stage.

[david3103]

Thing is, we're fifth in the league and joint 4th on points (6th after this weekend's games if Man U beat West Brom).  Considering how badly we've been playing, that's not a bad position to be in - especially considering the fact that we can only improve (surely?).  Of course, Chelsea are something like 300 points ahead of us, and I can only see City getting anywhere close to them this season.  But the goal this year was always top four.  The way Liverpool have been playing they don't deserve to be in the top four, but we're not far off somehow at this stage.

That's pretty much how I feel as a ManU supporter too. Could be a seriously interesting season of scrapping for 3rd/4th between us.

[Waz1892]

Thing is, we're fifth in the league and joint 4th on points (6th after this weekend's games if Man U beat West Brom).  Considering how badly we've been playing, that's not a bad position to be in - especially considering the fact that we can only improve (surely?).  Of course, Chelsea are something like 300 points ahead of us, and I can only see City getting anywhere close to them this season.  But the goal this year was always top four.  The way Liverpool have been playing they don't deserve to be in the top four, but we're not far off somehow at this stage.

That's pretty much how I feel as a ManU supporter too. Could be a seriously interesting season of scrapping for 3rd/4th between us.

I'll take 3/4th fight. It's the 4th/5th that is the concern!

[kinboshi]

Thing is, we're fifth in the league and joint 4th on points (6th after this weekend's games if Man U beat West Brom).  Considering how badly we've been playing, that's not a bad position to be in - especially considering the fact that we can only improve (surely?).  Of course, Chelsea are something like 300 points ahead of us, and I can only see City getting anywhere close to them this season.  But the goal this year was always top four.  The way Liverpool have been playing they don't deserve to be in the top four, but we're not far off somehow at this stage.

That's pretty much how I feel as a ManU supporter too. Could be a seriously interesting season of scrapping for 3rd/4th between us.

Yes, but at least you now have some forwards who can score.  We have one, but he's injured again.

[horseplayer]

Thought this food for thought

http://statsbomb.com/2014/10/goalkeepers-how-repeatable-are-shot-saving-performances/

"When this level of variance exists after 250 shots, it is easy to see how Simon Mignolet went from being one of the best shot stoppers in the EPL in the 2012/13 season (ExpG2 ratio of 1.25) to being one of the worst in 2013/14 (ExpG2 ratio of 0.88). Very simply, trying to judge how good a goalkeeper is at saving shots based on one season’s worth of data is little more than a craps shoot such is the divergence on performance over 150 shots.
Just 11% of his performance next season can be explained by his performance in the season just passed. It looks to me that the very fact a player is good enough to be a goalkeeper for a top tier club means that he has achieved a level of performance that is difficult for even advanced numbers to distinguish, at least not until he has faced a very large number of shots. I’m just not sure yet how large that number needs to be.
Remind me never to advise a club when they are looking at buying a goalkeeper as the shot stopping facet of the goalkeeper’s skillset was supposed to be one of the easier ones to measure and interpret.
"

[horseplayer]

[kinboshi]

Thought this food for thought

http://statsbomb.com/2014/10/goalkeepers-how-repeatable-are-shot-saving-performances/

"When this level of variance exists after 250 shots, it is easy to see how Simon Mignolet went from being one of the best shot stoppers in the EPL in the 2012/13 season (ExpG2 ratio of 1.25) to being one of the worst in 2013/14 (ExpG2 ratio of 0.88). Very simply, trying to judge how good a goalkeeper is at saving shots based on one season’s worth of data is little more than a craps shoot such is the divergence on performance over 150 shots.
Just 11% of his performance next season can be explained by his performance in the season just passed. It looks to me that the very fact a player is good enough to be a goalkeeper for a top tier club means that he has achieved a level of performance that is difficult for even advanced numbers to distinguish, at least not until he has faced a very large number of shots. I’m just not sure yet how large that number needs to be.
Remind me never to advise a club when they are looking at buying a goalkeeper as the shot stopping facet of the goalkeeper’s skillset was supposed to be one of the easier ones to measure and interpret.
"

Stats aside, I rate Mingolet as a shot-stopper.  He seems to be one of the best around in this regard - just from a general impression and from the games I've seen. Not very scientific, granted.

However, in terms of commanding his area and giving his defence confidence (although that could work both ways I guess) he has a fair bit of work to do. 

[Waz1892]

Loving SG's not very veiled dig at Mario today.

and he's right too, could go very very wrong if we aren't at it tonight.

[kinboshi]

  <- that's how I'll be watching the match tonight.

[horseplayer]

you have just beat them 3-2 (in youth champions league game

Never seen Rossiter before motm by a country mile very impressive

[kinboshi]

Rossiter is a class act.  Has been playing several years above his age bracket for a while now, and definitely one to watch for the first XI in the not-too-distant future.