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So Zenit at home

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I thought it was Downing who had a shocker tbh. He was easily the worst although GlenJo was not far behind. Everyone else was immense. Enrique, Gerrard were awesome but Suarez..... WOW! Gutted we are out but proud of the overall performance. The people saying the subs were a stupid decision were right. If there were no injuries involved then that's the dumbest manager decision I've seen in a long time.

On the plus side the amount of energy and effort put in to win the ball back was a joy to see. Play like that more and we'll be ok.

I thought Downing was decent. Not great, but decent. Certainly better than his replacement. Assaidi had a few bright moments (as he usually does when he plays), but we were absolutely dominating the midfield and there was no reason to change anything. It was pretty poor judgement by Rodgers in my opinion. He made changes before we'd really begun to tire, and we needed the impetus at 75 minutes, not 60.
 
The faffing about at the back was the one thing that exasperated me. WHY???? Why do it???
I was saying this earlier. It bugs the fuck out of me. All it does is put us under needless pressure. And even when Reina does make the clearance, it's often a dodgy pass that could give the opponent a chance to score.
 
I thought Downing was decent. Not great, but decent. Certainly better than his replacement. Assaidi had a few bright moments (as he usually does when he plays), but we were absolutely dominating the midfield and there was no reason to change anything. It was pretty poor judgement by Rodgers in my opinion. He made changes before we'd really begun to tire, and we needed the impetus at 75 minutes, not 60.
Downing was average by his recent standards, but nothing I'd be too worried about. Definitely not enough to warrant a bashing from Modo or MT anyway.
 
I agree with Macca and the other lads about this fucking about at the back, just put your boot through the fucker Pepe.
I am getting worried about Shelvey, I thought he had something, I am now starting to think he is a bit of a brainless fucker.
Great effort at least we went down fighting, no complaints , but for an individual error which was magnified as we were having to push forward we would have done it.
Regards
 
Assaidi actually had a good game I thought; I think Rodgers got one sub right (Assaidi) and one wrong (Shelvey). Probably Assaidi for Allen and moving Henderson into the centre might have proved less disruptive to our rhythm.

But I find it harsh to criticize the team and the manager after that effort. The guys had busted a gut running and pressing all night, so I think it was reasonable to make the subs to bring in fresh legs and minds. Shelvey could've won it if he'd shot straight, but his effort getting to the ball was good.

spot on
 
As someone said earlier, give Zenit some credit in the last 20/25 mins, they pressed really high and put us under pressure.

I thought it was a really good performance though, and unlucky to be out. Suarez was unbelievable (he's shit sell him) and felt so sorry for him at the end. Lucas and Agger were also superb, plus Stevie too.

Disappointed to be out but let's push on now and come 5th and make sure we are back there next season.
 
Normally, I could see Rodgers' logic behind changing Henderson for Shelvey. But not when Henderson was one of our best players. There's no way Shelvey could offer anything close to what Henderson was offering.

He needs to realise that Shelvey is fucking useless, and the sooner the better.
 
The substitutions seemed nonsensical at the time, but they seem even worse in retrospect. We basically relinquished control of the midfield.
 
The substitutions seemed nonsensical at the time, but they seem even worse in retrospect. We basically relinquished control of the midfield.

It was really naive. The issue for me was that he'd made his decision with Shelvey ready to come on, thinking (logically) we needed more fire power, and then the goal went in with Shelvey stood on the sidelines. And instead of rethinking, he thought: "shit, I can't pull the rug here" and threw them on anyway. We lost control thereon.
 
I thought Downing was decent. Not great, but decent. Certainly better than his replacement. Assaidi had a few bright moments (as he usually does when he plays), but we were absolutely dominating the midfield and there was no reason to change anything. It was pretty poor judgement by Rodgers in my opinion. He made changes before we'd really begun to tire, and we needed the impetus at 75 minutes, not 60.
Really? I thought Assaidi played well when he came on. He was certainly keen to create and even though he kind of ran into a few blind alleys overall was good.

What got me about Downing and I'm not bashing him here as I think he has been good recently. It's the effort I thought he put in. It was poor imo. Everyone (apart from him really) Were running around looking for the ball. Scampering to retrieve the ball from throw ins and corners etc. He looked so half arsed. He contributed very little. His crosses were poor and he was weak in the tackle. Ok he wasn't stand out rubbish but compared to the effort the rest of them were putting I was very disappointed in him.
 
It was really naive. The issue for me was that he'd made his decision with Shelvey ready to come on, thinking (logically) we needed more fire power, and then the goal went in with Shelvey stood on the sidelines. And instead of rethinking, he thought: "shit, I can't pull the rug here" and threw them on anyway. We lost control thereon.
There has to have been an injury otherwise that decision was ridiculous.
 
I thought effort was ok (downing), I thought his application was poor tonight. He tackled back alot and threw himself into everything, but his overall attacking contribution wasn't great.
 
I thought effort was ok (downing), I thought his application was poor tonight. He tackled back alot and threw himself into everything, but his overall attacking contribution wasn't great.
Yeah maybe - I was quite often exasperated with his application in an attacking sense that I started to really pick up all his faults. He probably didn't track back once or something so I decided he was a lazy bugger.
 
The faffing about at the back was the one thing that exasperated me. WHY???? Why do it???

It's been going on all season. Other clubs (Stoke and Villa spring to mind) have really exploited it. Sometimes it's just better to put your fucking foot through the ball and send back into their half. I wonder how many tippy tappy balls out of defence has cost us goals this season or at the very least create big chances for the opposition?
 
Really? I thought Assaidi played well when he came on. He was certainly keen to create and even though he kind of ran into a few blind alleys overall was good.

What got me about Downing and I'm not bashing him here as I think he has been good recently. It's the effort I thought he put in. It was poor imo. Everyone (apart from him really) Were running around looking for the ball. Scampering to retrieve the ball from throw ins and corners etc. He looked so half arsed. He contributed very little. His crosses were poor and he was weak in the tackle. Ok he wasn't stand out rubbish but compared to the effort the rest of them were putting I was very disappointed in him.
Yes, Assaidi played really well. But Downing was replaced by Sterling ;)
 
Can anyone get me a vid/gif of Agger's run in the first half please? Missed it.
 
It's been going on all season. Other clubs (Stoke and Villa spring to mind) have really exploited it. Sometimes it's just better to put your fucking foot through the ball and send back into their half. I wonder how many tippy tappy balls out of defence has cost us goals this season or at the very least create big chances for the opposition?

The irony was, it was an obvious conscious attempt to retain possession, instead it just invited pressure and conceded the ball far too easily. By pissing about and trying to play it out patiently, it drew them onto us and we just ended up fucking up.
 
Im not going to blame Rodgers as I think he was part of a great team performance last night, however unless Henderson was injured that substitution was a mistake. I thought Allen had a great first half but was fading badly in the second so I have no problem with that substitution, although as someone else pointed out it did tend to choke up the left wing for space.

I would love to think that we would approach every game for the rest of the season in the same manner. Probably wont happen though.
 
We were never gonna win this thing without Sturridge (and Coutinho) anyway.
You reckon? While Sturridge would definitely have made a great impact, I think even without him, if we didn't give away the early goal, I think there's a great chance we would've pulled it off. For the first time in a long time, we played with some belief in ourselves. TBH, I thought it was very reminiscent of Istanbul. We needed 4 goals to pull it off, and we just fucking went for it. Usually if a team needed 4 goals to pull it off, they just wouldn't bother. We can be extremely proud of last nights performance.
 
You reckon? While Sturridge would definitely have made a great impact, I think even without him, if we didn't give away the early goal, I think there's a great chance we would've pulled it off.

If Sturridge was playing last night, we would have probably qualified. I'm not sure about never going to win it without him, but we would have had a much better chance with him, that much is obvious, surely?
 
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