Boro v Liverpool 0-3

[richmfc 41]

If we get turned over by any of the top 6 it shouldn't be a worry. Any of them playing aswell as they can are just too good for us. And this is the first time this season we've been outplayed by a distance We've played Spurs ***nal Man City Chelsea and Liverpool and only been turned over once.

Let's not implode every time we lose

[ManBearPig 1,853]

I agree CT, it is worrying. I'm not saying that what Karanka did was right, but I can see why 'potentially' he did that. Lose the battle, win the war kind of thing.

 

What worries me is that our attacking threat is non existent. I know that we have playersome out, but surely try something different. I would hate to never know if Negredo and Rhodes could form a formidable partnership. I honestly think that they would benefit from each other.

 

But, as we all know. Karanka will never sacrifice the defence or midfield.

[wilsoncgp 9,283]

I'm still not really convinced he made the 2 subs with Swansea in mind. I think there was something he wanted to change but it just didn't work because Liverpool had 100% control of the game before and after they were made.

[Rioch's Braves 711]

I've criticized Negredo this season over he's lack of goals, but I genuinely felt sorry for him last night, there is nothing he could have done, he needed support up front and despite struggling the manager failed to make any changes to give him that support. frightened to death to change from the same tactics when its going wrong and that's what annoys me more than the defeat, and not just in this game either.

[Ayeres 123]

I'm still not really convinced he made the 2 subs with Swansea in mind. I think there was something he wanted to change but it just didn't work because Liverpool had 100% control of the game before and after they were made.

 

If that's the case it just makes it worse in my opinion, as he obviously has no clue how to change a game around with his subs.

[wilsoncgp 9,283]

Whilst the subs weren't great, I honestly don't think we had the players available on the bench to change the game. Our problem was getting the ball past the half way line, we had nobody who could really come on to do that.

 

I mean, people will say we had Rhodes and Nugent available. What difference would that have made? Don't think it would have changed anything to be honest. We'd have just had the same scenario only Negredo would have had somebody to talk to. And our defence was poor as it was last night. Take a body or two out of that defence to play 2 or 3 strikers and we'd have been destroyed.

[SmogDane 4,055]

Just a thought

 

Would it be totally wrong, to take out Clayton (4 yellows) and put on Rhodes... Take out Traore and put on Downing... Switch to 4-4-2 and play old fashioned direct football?

 

We could still defend "ok" as Downing would defend better than Traore .. You could also switch Downing and Fischer right/left a few times, just to mix it a bit.

 

Negredo would come up to most headers, and sort of serve the ball for Rhodes/Fischer ... I DO believe it could work ...

 

What do others think of these thoughts?

[Johnboro2007 2]

Since when did it become okay to describe someone as a "retard" again?

 

Noone is making fun of disabled people here. It's merely stating that Traore lacks a "football brain" and using a movie character to describe what we sometimes see on a pitch. There is absolutely no malice in it.

 

Exactly mate, cheers for that and apologies to anyone offended wasn't put as such.

[MMC 1,000]

Your last paragraph BD if true is very worrying

 

What - that we are a less talented side than Liverpool?

[Johnboro2007 2]

Just a thought

 

Would it be totally wrong, to take out Clayton (4 yellows) and put on Rhodes... Take out Traore and put on Downing... Switch to 4-4-2 and play old fashioned direct football?

 

We could still defend "ok" as Downing would defend better than Traore .. You could also switch Downing and Fischer right/left a few times, just to mix it a bit.

 

Negredo would come up to most headers, and sort of serve the ball for Rhodes/Fischer ... I DO believe it could work ...

 

What do others think of these thoughts?

 

Agree with the switching sides with the so called wingers takes the predictability out of our game that we have, that's our problem half the time so easy read and play against, so rigid in what we do, no variation. One shining light is Fabio is looking better game by game I think George has true competition on his hands he put a shift and a half in last night and looked like a Brazilian at times.

[Jimmy 140]

I've just read that 5 of our next 6 games are against teams in the lower half of the table.. I think after these 6 games we'll have a much clearer view on whether we have enough to stay in this division.

 

Tbh last nights game didn't change my opinion of this season, yes we could have done more but we did catch Liverpool on a day where they seemed at their attacking best, men against boys for much of it.

The Southampton performance however deeply concerned me. Much like the performance against Watford. I've always maintained that it doesn't matter what we do against the big boys, we need to be winning against the teams around us if we want to stay up. What concerns me is that I think sometimes Karanka gives other teams too much respect. Yes his defensive game plan usually works well against the big teams (***nal, City), but when we go to the other teams in the bottom half I'd just like to see us give it a go to be honest with you. Those Soton and Watford teams were there for the taking, Leicester too arguably, and we showed them too much respect, didn't take hold of the games and got punished.

 

I was gonna wait until Swanseas result before saying this, but I've realised the result actually won't change my view.

I'm torn with Karanka. I've never been an advocate for sacking managers, and I'm positive that sacking Karanka isn't the solution in this case.

But I am starting to fall out of love with him, I'm not sure whether it's his stubbornness, or failure to try anything different, I'm not sure. I respect the man greatly for turning this club around, and getting us back to the Premier League, I just wish he'd become a bit more inventive.

Swansea for me now is a must win, a draw is just not good enough in my opinion. It certainly won't relegate us if we don't win, but would indicate that we might struggle to beat the teams around us this season, and if that's the case, it's not looking good.

 

I wouldn't class myself as an overly negative poster on here usually, although I'm sure I'll get called for it now, but just my opinions.

I'll be at the Swansea game on Saturday, supporting my team as ever though! UTB!

[Ayresome7 187]

It will be interesting to see how we effectively use Traore going forward as Klopp has come out and said the only way to nullify the threat of his pace and skill is to have 3 or 4 players surrounding him when he obtains possession.

[Guest Changing Times]

I watched the Liverpool v West Ham game last weekend. West Ham scored one of their goals and also had a decent chance from a direct ball in behind the defence. Actually the goal came from a deflected ball to be fair and it caught the defenders out. But certainly something direct may have caused them some problems or more problems than whatever it was we were doing, which let's be honest wasn't a great deal even in the first half.

 

We could have forced them to sit deeper, could have had their defenders under pressure having to play facing their own goal for a bit and defenders generally don't like being turned around. So Nugent running the channels alongside Negredo, making runs for flick ons or nod downs might have been worth a go. We have no creativity in midfield in general and little out wide either on Wednesday so why not by pass midfield? Maybe push Traore closer to Negredo instead of asking him to be so disciplined. See how Liverpool would react to him staying forward because every time he got near the ball they had 2 & 4 players on him. Just give them something different to think about. We don't challenge teams in that sense or we don't do it very often.

 

The two early changes we did make made no difference and were never going to. It's possible they weren't made with Saturday in mind but it's pretty difficult to see what the intention was if that's not the case. I don't think you need a career in the game to see those changes as utterly pointless from a tactical point of view during that game. But yet the changes were made anyway and predictably had zero positive effect. This isn't hindsight as there was confusion as to what why we made them at the time they were happening. Ultimately they weren't really changes anyway, it was just swapping out players in the same failing system with the same failing tactics in a game that was going to be difficult enough as it was without also making ourselves predictable into the bargain.

 

Liverpool played very very well in that second half there's no question about that. We just made it easier for them than it needed to be. And like it or not you can say the exact same thing about the Southampton game and a few others over the course of the season. It'd be nice if we recognised that doing the same thing over and over again might not work all of the time and maybe trying something else might just help us out once in a while.

[Onme'eadson 44]

I havent seen any mention of the blatant foul on Barragan when Liverpool scored their 3rd goal. Should have been disallowed.

[Jimmy 140]

I havent seen any mention of the blatant foul on Barragan when Liverpool scored their 3rd goal. Should have been disallowed.

 

Probably as it's not particularly relevant to the result of the game. If they didn't score then, they probably would have scored again, and we didn't look threatening at 0-2.