Liverpool FC

[kinboshi]

I know it's sacrilegious but Gerrard really wrecks the momentum and tempo Liverpool have when he's not in the side

He's been awful. Was poor against Stoke as well.  It's just not his position, and it affects the whole side.

[kinboshi]

Worst 45 minutes of the season.

Villa must be gutted to go in at half-time only one goal up. 

[kinboshi]

Lucas warming up at half-time. For Gerrard, or maybe just take Cissokho off!

[kinboshi]

Poor performance.  A lot of strengthening needs to be done, and please hurry back Sakho and Jose Enrique.

[booder]

Very strange performance , struggling to find any positives.

Odd that Cissoko (a player of questionable ability and suspect ball control) spent most of the game in the opposition half, whereas Johnson provided no support on the right hand side and didnt leave his own half for the whole game.

[kp24]

Poor performance.  A lot of strengthening needs to be done, and please hurry back Sakho and Jose Enrique.

Agree very poor today are frailties at the back shown up again today very lucky we are only 2-1 at half time,expected more from us when we got back to 2-2 early in 2nd half expected us to create more and put pressure back on villa,desperate to have agger or sakho back from injury

[kp24]

Very strange performance , struggling to find any positives.

Odd that Cissoko (a player of questionable ability and suspect ball control) spent most of the game in the opposition half, whereas Johnson provided no support on the right hand side and didnt leave his own half for the whole game.

I noticed Johnson didn't get forward either cissokho was getting so far forward as when coutinho went off we had no wide outlet there

[Waz1892]

What is wrong with Johnson?

He seems lost and dis-interested

[kinboshi]

On a Liverpool forum I'm a member of, someone has compiled a list of fixtures with the expected results.  Of course this is subjective, but the idea is to show which teams are above or below par in terms of securing a top 4 spot. It does reflect the positions in the league, but tries to take into account the fixtures that have been played and those remaining.

He has the top three all well ahead, and four teams fighting for the 4th place spot. At the moment Everton are marginally ahead of Liverpool, with Spurs very closely behind the Reds, and then Man U only slightly behind them. But whereas a win for Everton against West Brom would put them just above Liverpool in the league, it will put them 5 points clear at this stage in terms of expected points required to hit 4th.

Basically, individual results make a massive difference with the teams being in such close contention. Games like yesterday are/were an expected 3 points, so dropping points in that game is more detrimental than say Spurs losing at Swansea (which is down as an expected draw).

At the moment it highlights the inconsistency of the group of teams aiming for fourth, and makes the matches that they play each other very important (fairly obviously). Whatuit also shows is that despite beinga ble to put out performances that have been outstanding, with the lack of strength in depth, Liverpool can also put out completely abject performances like yesterday's. Rodgers needs to look at gettingssome players in, and I'm surprised we haven't got anyone during this window. The summer might be too late.

[pleno1]

where does it predict Newcastle to finish?

[maldini32]

I know it's sacrilegious but Gerrard really wrecks the momentum and tempo Liverpool have when he's not in the side

Not the only one with that view mate

[kinboshi]

where does it predict Newcastle to finish?

Unfortunately, he doesn't include Newcastle...

This was his OP:

.
I've seen something similar on other websites, re. how to get to 90 points, which should be enough to win the title.

To simplify things, I've assumed we're aiming for 4th, and a total of 72 points.

Here's how we could do it.

Against teams 1-7 we can draw home and away: 12 points.

Against teams 8-15 we can win at home and draw away: 32 points.

Against teams 16-20 we should win home and away: 30 points.


Teams 1-7 are Arsenal, Spurs, City, Chelsea, United, Everton and ourselves. I think most people would agree that these teams will take the top 7 positions.

Teams 16-20 is more subjective. Personally I would put Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Hull, Fulham and Cardiff there as they include the three promoted teams and two others who have big question marks against them.


Stoke (h): win as expected
Villa (a): win (draw expected) +2
United (h): win (draw expected) +2
Swansea (a) : draw as expected
Soton (h): loss (win expected) -3
Sunderland (a): win as expected
Palace (h): win as expected
Newcastle (a): draw as expected.

So, according to this model, at this stage of the season we're actually 1 point ahead of where we need to be.

[kinboshi]

Here are his current scores:

City +10
Arsenal +9
Chelsea +5
Everton -2
Liverpool -3
Spurs -5
United -6


City and Arsenal both won their easy homes; we failed to do that so we've dropped behind Everton.

Other fixtures:
Swansea v Spurs (draw expected)
Chelsea v United (draw expected)
WBA v Everton (draw expected)

They're quite worrying games because it's fairly easy to see both Spurs and Everton winning.

[The Baron]

I know it's sacrilegious but Gerrard really wrecks the momentum and tempo Liverpool have when he's not in the side

Disagree but he can't play as the sole DM in a 4-4-2. He was awful first half. He's a creative player not destructive.

[George2Loose]

Lump on 3 draws then