The scoreline flatters us.  We looked completely lost out there like a bunch of school kids watching the big boys having a kick around at our expense.   There was no shape to our play and as I have repeatedly stated Enzo and Caicedo are miles apart leaving a gaping hole in midfield which Liverpool comfortably sat in for 90 mins.  A disaster all over the pitch, defensively, midfield and a toothless attack all put together with a manager that is now certainly questionable.  I like many others wonder WTF do these players and coaches do all week because its Fred Kano's army on match day.   I think Potch has run out of ideas now.  He's tried different combinations of players and each time its been a shambles..Middlesborough 2nd game aside.   

Today's performance was not because of injuries, it was one of lack of belief by the players that we could actually get something today; a lack of even the basic ball control and passing, no intensity, no desire and no understanding what the game plan was, even if there actually was one.  The defending has become worse, the midfield is shocking for the money that has been spent, and the forwards all season have been appalling to mediocre to bang average at best....and some players should not be anywhere near the first team dressing room. It's not that we were likely to get anything today but FFS show some effort and desire and the Manager needs to grow some balls and start laying into these lazy overpaid young men....men not kids, that stopped at 18, so the 'kids' stuff excuse ain't going to wash with the fans any longer.  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L95bB2BkfyM

I mean look at that defending.

Jota through Badiashile and Silva like they were ghosts. Sterling sleeping on Bradley, goals 3 and 4 their forward wants it more than our defenders.

Everything tonight stemmed from the CB pairing imo. Silva shouldn’t have been anywhere near a start tonight. The way they play does not suit him. Their  press left our defence too deep and too much space to the midfield. 

Bada was stinking. His first few appearances showed promise but he’s nowhere near the level we need him to be. I’d fancy scoring if playing against him and I’m 52. 
 

We desperately need someone up front. This false 9 gash doesn’t work.  I don’t understand why Washington doesn’t get more minutes. The little we’ve seen tells me he’s got as much potential as Broja or Jackson.

Lavia better be a player because the lack of protection Enzo and Caicedo provided was so poor. I get the feeling it will be Lavia and one of the other 2 because it’s not working with the two tonight. 

Nkunku will do the business for us if we can keep him fit and Carney I think will be a regular starter. 

Nkunku off the left, Palmer off the right and Carney as a 10.  An Osimhen or similar playing in front of those 3 makes us a much better prospect. 
 

Mudryk will never win the Ballon D’or that’s for sure. If he was playing in the Championship a club like Brentford or Brighton might have picked him up for £25 million. He gives me the exact same vibe as Kepa did and not in a good way.
 

I’m a few malts in so apologies for the ramble. Just watched the highlights on MOTD (as if enduring the game live wasn’t bad enough) and I stand by everything I’ve said.

I Feckin hate the Scousers.

That was a bit sh*t wasn’t it. Cup final should be a laugh, can only hope they underestimate us after that. Probably still beat us even if they do.

Petrovic a small shining light. Nkunku great finish. Carney looks like he can still move. Gusto didn’t look too bad.

Refs were a load of sh*t, would probably be really angry right now if the lads had deserved anything from the game. But f**k them, they deserved the injustice, that was awful.

I don’t even expect us to compete, Liverpool are years ahead of us right now. I’m just fed up of the lack of effort and organisation. We rely on individual brilliance to create scenarios. Half of their lot will probably look sh*te once Klopps gone, they don’t need to be great to work in his system.

Long few years ahead I think.

Reffing was corrupt, but we were even more diabolical. In the end we were lucky to get away with a 4-1 defeat. Doesn't bode well for the final in a few weeks. 

After today's game I won't be surprised if the owners decide to cash in on both Broja and Gallagher tomorrow. If they didn't realise before today, they will likely now be sure that we have no chance of European football next season, and so they will want to raise funds for FFP ahead before contracts run down any further.

I know there are plenty of negative comments towards Poch after tonight, and he certainly has to take some blame. But I really don't see something simple like a change of manager delivering any drastic turnaround. We have to hope that a decent number of these young players fulfil their potential, because we have invested heavily in them. But on the showing so far, too many of them look like bad investments. I think midtable is going to become the new normal for us.

I wasn't bothered with this game, I knew this is going to happen. If you go to anfield you need to be ready mentally otherwise you will get battered. 

22 minutes ago, Niall1905 said:

That was a bit sh*t wasn’t it. Cup final should be a laugh, can only hope they underestimate us after that. Probably still beat us even if they do.

Petrovic a small shining light. Nkunku great finish. Carney looks like he can still move. Gusto didn’t look too bad.

Refs were a load of sh*t, would probably be really angry right now if the lads had deserved anything from the game. But f**k them, they deserved the injustice, that was awful.

I don’t even expect us to compete, Liverpool are years ahead of us right now. I’m just fed up of the lack of effort and organisation. We rely on individual brilliance to create scenarios. Half of their lot will probably look sh*te once Klopps gone, they don’t need to be great to work in his system.

Long few years ahead I think.

Is the final in anfield? 

It’s come to something when the return of Nicholas Jackson from AFCON is actually looking like it might help the team. 

3 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Is the final in anfield? 

Final can be on the moon for all it matters.

Just now, Dr. Socrates said:

It’s come to something when the return of Nicholas Jackson from AFCON is actually looking like it might help the team. 

Oh give it time. His thread will soon be back to normal lol.

13 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Final can be on the moon for all it matters.

If the final in anfield then we have no chance. 

Are we all new PL fans here? 

Edited February 1, 20242 yr by Bob stark

2 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

If the final in anfield then we have no chance. 

Are we all new PL fans here? 

No Bob, not new, just that the venue makes no difference. Either way Liverpool are much, much better than us. 

9 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

No Bob, not new, just that the venue makes no difference. Either way Liverpool are much, much better than us. 

It make all the difference. 

Let's forget about the crowd. In anfield all 50/50 decision becomes 90/10, you won't ever get penalty unless pool player bring a gun and shoot your player, on the other end 50/50 penalty is a penalty for them. 

If the final in anfield, I won't back any team, not even city or real against pool. 

 

Edited February 1, 20242 yr by Bob stark

33 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

It make all the difference. 

Let's forget about the crowd. In anfield all 50/50 decision becomes 90/10, you won't ever get penalty unless pool player bring a gun and shoot your player, on the other end 50/50 penalty is a penalty for them. 

If the final in anfield, I won't back any team, not even city or real against pool. 

 

Liverpool certainly had the ref on their side from the start tonight but that doesn't excuse the way we rolled over. Even Norwich put up more fight than us at Anfield last weekend. And this is not the first time we have put in an embarassing display away from home this season.

Generally goals change games .. CG penalty was at 0-0.. we were set up to counter attack the first goal killed us.. Liverpool battered us after that.. tactics and player performances were diabolical.. 

I blame silva for the first one.. all he needed to do was protect the ball with his body .. fcking jota is half their size and they let him pass.. 

chilwell tried to take responsibility but ended up losing position at the wrong place.. caicedo lost the ball for the second one..

Pool are a better team but more than ten we let ourselves down today.

1 hour ago, forbzy said:

Liverpool certainly had the ref on their side from the start tonight but that doesn't excuse the way we rolled over. Even Norwich put up more fight than us at Anfield last weekend. And this is not the first time we have put in an embarassing display away from home this season.

That is not my point. I am not defending the performance. The performance was pathetic. 

I was replying to poster who said we had no chance in the final. Let's say we played better last night, do you think we would have won? 

16 hours ago, Nibs said:

All I ever ask in these sort of games (any game really) is that we give a good account of ourselves and do everyone proud.

In the games against Arsenal, City and Spurs we pretty much did just that. Don't see any reason we can't give the dippers a good game tonight as I honestly don't think they're as good as many make out to be. I will be f**king annoyed if we put in a dire performance like we did against Man Utd, Everton or Newcastle but hopefully that won't be the case.

Please don't let us down lads............................

 

Oh well, work in progress it remains and a very inconsistent and flaky one at that.

5 hours ago, WeatherMan said:

I'm not even embarressed to say that I couldn't bring myself to watch the 2nd half having watched the 1st.  It's been a very long time since I gave up on watching one of our games, be that in person at the ground or on tv, but this one did it for me.

As bad as some of the referee decisions were, this result was fairly and squarely on our players and Poch.  No fight, no spirit, no tactics and no idea.  It just added to and summed up the bad day I'd already been having on a personal level. I can't even be arsed to get angry anymore.

I imagine that is how it is now for a fair number of us, me included. Very sad state of affairs.

Poor outing up at crapfield, could tell a hiding was on the cards from KO. Pen call we’ve seen similar given but was a convenient for dippers at home a no obvious error VAR call today though. In balance I believe Chelsea had the most pens awarded in EPL so far this season. 

Got to question the mentality, coaching, tactics, game plan execution on and off pitch. Bc there doesn’t appear to be any or one. 
 

Wembley will be a different kettle of fish, in a one off game the nigh on impossible is always possible, just unlikely in this case.

Still be a great occasion though, a nice little jolly win or lose. 

2 hours ago, Bob stark said:

That is not my point. I am not defending the performance. The performance was pathetic. 

I was replying to poster who said we had no chance in the final. Let's say we played better last night, do you think we would have won? 

I’m assuming I am the poster! 

Based on your response to me and free post above, I assume you’re putting last night down to being overwhelmed by the Anfield occasion? Poch seems to agree, says our away form suggests we have a mentality issue.

My worry would be that cup finals tend to be quite unforgiving tests of mentality, something our squad severely lacks.

I don’t think we have no chance, my original post was merely a result of the extremely low standards last night has set. Think back to the CL final against City. We’d played them a couple of times on the lead up to it in the cup and league and got results. It sets the tone for the final. Last night didn’t set the tone for anything.

We always have a chance, against anyone over 90 minutes in the final. I’d like to think it’s one of the things we’ve thrived on historically. But last night exposed us, gave them nothing but confidence and sat us nicely down back in our mid table seats.

Yep poor again but, results wise, what could we expect against a team far superior in every way. We need to concentrate more on beating teams around and below us. We're nowhere near consistent enough for top 4 but if we can beat those around us we could make 7th. Must beat those pesky Dingles on Sunday first. Up the Chelsea

Edited February 1, 20242 yr by BewareoftheDrog

Very disappointing performance. Worrying that seven months into the job we appear to have no structure to the side despite the luxury of added coaching time due to no European football. Poch has to take responsibility for the gutless performance we produced, sitting there shaking his head in how poor we were helped nobody...maybe a first half hook was needed? Anfield under the lights is always a difficult occasion, the players have to be prepared to meet the challenge and quieten the crowd, show some fight and spirit, like the game means something, instead we got a team with the backbone of a jellyfish. When you compare that to the performance Mourinho got out of the team in 2014, the game remembered for slippy but often forgotten we went there weakened but met the challenge before defeating the Scouse. As Jose said 'we refused to be the clowns at the circus and lie down'. A performance this sorry bunch of players could lean from... the coach included.

 

That was hard to watch.

Completely outclassed. We're right to feel aggrieved about the two non-penalty calls.

1 hour ago, charierre said:

Very disappointing performance. Worrying that seven months into the job we appear to have no structure to the side despite the luxury of added coaching time due to no European football. Poch has to take responsibility for the gutless performance we produced, sitting there shaking his head in how poor we were helped nobody...maybe a first half hook was needed? Anfield under the lights is always a difficult occasion, the players have to be prepared to meet the challenge and quieten the crowd, show some fight and spirit, like the game means something, instead we got a team with the backbone of a jellyfish. When you compare that to the performance Mourinho got out of the team in 2014, the game remembered for slippy but often forgotten we went there weakened but met the challenge before defeating the Scouse. As Jose said 'we refused to be the clowns at the circus and lie down'. A performance this sorry bunch of players could lean from... the coach included.

 

"..maybe a first half hook was needed?"

Is it ok to hook the manager mid game? 😆

Two positives

Nkunku looks a good attacker

Secondly Poch knows in the final he has to up his game.

Negatives too many to mention.

Jotas goal was a bit fortunate as the ball ricocheted off his chest reminded me of Luca V in the snow in Norway.