Liverpool match thread

[Jack & Helga]

According to the report on Sky Sports (although it was Paul Merson who's an absolute tool) we went out very defensively and never looked like scoring (one Hulse chance apart). Be interesting to hear reports and opinions on here. I know Liverpool are very good at home but could it have been much worse than 4-0 if we'd gone out and attacked them?

 

[Bladesman]

I know Liverpool are very good at home but could it have been much worse than 4-0 if we'd gone out and attacked them?

Could of been 2-2 perhaps had we of done that.

 

[jodman]

Granted i only listened on the radio but it sounded very comprehensive to me. In hindsight, the result could not have been much worse if we had gone more attacking so why not just go for it in these kinds of games for the rest of the season.

i didn't expect anything today and so i'm not overly disappointed, i just hope that we are able to bounce back and keep our spirit up for the upcoming games.

 

[Foxy]

Could of been 2-2 perhaps had we of done that.

That's what we tried to do at 2-0 down which resulted in Liverpool actually having chances and stretching us. Other than the 2 pens (which were hard to see from the othr end of the pitch, but looked very soft) they didn't look like scoring till we changed things.

Its hard enough going to Anfield and trying to take something without them getting an early penalty, never mind 2!

They beat us because they are Liverpool (the same that just beat Barca) and they had a fortunate start with 2 pens, not because we played with 1 up front.

Just sat waiting to get on motorway away from this shithole.

 

[mrteabag]

well said foxy my sentiments exactly

 

[rotherhamblade]

theyve only conceded 3 goals aty home this season we couldnt have gone out and scored two

 

[Sharpy]

I dont really understand what any of you expected tbh? Did you even think we would go and score today? Did you even think we would string 2 passes together?

After countless away games of neils negative and awful tactics and team selections expecting to get anything out of away games is naive

I cant be bothered to listen to his interviews after these certain types of games.

He was a complete fool today, changing the team and formation AGAIN was yet AGAIN a stupid thing to do.

We had lost that game even before kick off.

 

[jodman]

I expected nothing from the game today, not because i expected us to play negative tactics or because i feel Warnock isn't up to the job.

Liverpool have conceeded 3 goals at home all season and they are light years ahead of us both on and off the field.

There was a gimmar of hope that, after a big game in midweek and following some off field controversy, they may underestimate us and we could perhaps nick something.

This didn't happen and we were comprehensively beaten.

We move on.

 

[Sharpy]

Yeah see that excuse just isnt good enough, we lost BECAUSE its liverpool the former euro champions.

True, even if we had kept the same side as the spurs game we would probably still have lost.

That isnt what is annoying fans, its the fact that we went there with the mindset to defend all game and HOPE they dont batter us. Its not the way football should be played and it Certinly is not the way sheffield united play.

At least if we had gone there with a positive attitude we could have caused them some problems and gave a half decent account of ourselves.

So no sorry Foxy and Co, i dont buy that in the slightest.

Fuck liverpool, the players and the history they have.

We are sheffield united and we should bloody well go to places such as anfield and at least attempt to win the game.

Rant over.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Never really thought we would get anything today unless we caught them on a real off day, but having seen the game on TV (in full) a few things spring to mind!

You have a few options at Anfield, but given that they have conceded so few, you have to try and be tight. You can try and pack midfield as BLades did today, problem being that you conceded posession and spend long periods of the game without the ball and allow a passing team to build! The alternative is to try and close them down ealry and deny possession by playing two up but then risk being exposed at the back to forward running midfield players. You take your chances with however you want to play it. Personally we got it wrong today, but then again playing two up we might have lost 5-1 and gained nowt!
I actually think we were in a no lose situation today and should have really gone for it, could we have really lost any more heavily by employing those tactics???

 

[Murry]

Feel sorry for Stead after playing well recently to be dropped by the tactical genius warnock in favour of Kozzy. Should have kept a winning side and played Stead slightly deeper. No one expected us to win at Anfield and it was obviously damage limitation from the start but the scoreline blows holes in his tactics. Granted 2 DODGY pens can't be blamed on Warnock but i dont want to spend time and money following the Blades and seeing a bag of Shite. We never looked like we wanted to get over the halfway line at times if we were gonna lose go down fighting, thats why were Blades. If we play 4-5-1 and defend you have to counter attack teams that means passing to team mates and breaking quickly. Warnock doesn't know how to do this.

Stu

 

[7UpJordan]

Bloody cheating Liverpool players, another totally inept refereeing performance by Mr Bennett, it's no wonder these "England international players" do crap when playing for England, it's because they're overrated cheating scumbags and I'm talking about Gerrard in particular today.

 

[Foxy]

Yeah see that excuse just isnt good enough, we lost BECAUSE its liverpool the former euro champions.

True, even if we had kept the same side as the spurs game we would probably still have lost.

That isnt what is annoying fans, its the fact that we went there with the mindset to defend all game and HOPE they dont batter us. Its not the way football should be played and it Certinly is not the way sheffield united play.

At least if we had gone there with a positive attitude we could have caused them some problems and gave a half decent account of ourselves.

So no sorry Foxy and Co, i dont buy that in the slightest.

Fuck liverpool, the players and the history they have.

We are sheffield united and we should bloody well go to places such as anfield and at least attempt to win the game.

Rant over.

I totally agree we should go at them without fear and do our best to beat them.

It doesn't mean that they aren't who they are though, it doesn't mean they don't have that class and ability and it doesn't mean we aren't already at a disadvantage.

You are getting me totally wrong, i'm saying that it wasn't 4-5-1 or tactics that made us lose, it was giving away 2 penalties at Anfield and them being the better team. . Not that we should sit and let them win because its "mighty" Liverpool.

They have conceeded 3 at home all season, should we really be expected to overcome a 2-0 deficit at the hands of 2 penalties whatever formation we play?

I prefer 4-4-2, but as it showed when we changed things around, teams like Liverpool can and will batter us when we go 4-4-2 and throw the sink at them.

What don't you buy? was it really Neil Warnock or 4-5-1 that gave 2 penalties?

 

[jodman]

Yeah see that excuse just isnt good enough, we lost BECAUSE its liverpool the former euro champions.

I dont think anybody is making this excuse, the bottom line is that any team outside the top 4 go to Anfield as underdogs. For this reason, i think the majority of fans were not expecting a result today and would have been happy with a good performance.

The point that is up for debate is how we approached the game and it seems to be the concensus that the deffensive attitude did not work.

With such low expectations why not throw caution to the wind, go with 4-4-2 and try and force some kind of impetus on the game.

I wonder what kind of response a 7-0 defeat playing 4-4-2 would have recieved?

 

[Come from away]

With Tonge and Monty picking up cards we will see a different team against Everton. So, before you say NW is shite try putting your team on the table.

 

[Jack & Helga]

Having seen the highlights on MOTD the first thing that springs to mind is how much of a cheat Gerrard is and how much of a set of w@nkers the MOTD crew are.

First of all, Gerrard. To sum things up, I just got a text from a Leeds fan saying how much of a cheat Gerrard is. This is a Leeds fan who hates Sheff United and hates Warnock and we've had some right arguments in the past, but he even said he felt sympathy for Neil and the boys. The first penalty was nowhere near, the second decidedly dodgy.

Secondly, the MOTD crew. Even two ex-Liverpool players thought the penalties were generous but the fact that they all just laughed it off and made it out to be Groundhog Day (after the pen at the Lane) was plain insulting. Every decision in this league has a price and our Premiership survival is still in the balance, so for the three of them to just laugh at our defeat is pathetic.

As for our tactics, I don't agree with them and I'd much rather go at teams with a hope of winning. Hulse is not quick enough to play up front on his own if we want to do more than draw 0-0.

 

[jim]

tbh ive not seen highlights or owt yet so i not gunna say owt about gerrard yet. but we cant blame a change in formation on the fact that 9 out of ten times liverpool will beat us if we have 2 men or 10 men up front. if they had lost to barca other nite i fort yer we mite have a chance but wen they came back and had won i feared the worst,i new wed get beat quite bad and really it coulde been worse if wed gone all out.

anfield is proabli the hardest place in england to go and get a draw never mind a win so saying that 4 0 in that bad,

the defensive tactics are wrong but if he dedides to change it then the players should be on enough money to adapt to the change in formation,
all we need to do now is forget liverpool and make sure were behind all the lads when they walk out against everton a win against everton puts in nearly safe so hopefully well go back to 4 4 2 and get a couple of goals,

warnock mite have got it rong but whats point in blaming him when there more than just him that will dcidee the tactics that we play, the players on the pitch should be at blame as well for not executeing the tactics right on the pitch.

that me done for a while now sick of moaning about things!!!!

 

[Linz]

I'm just about to write my match report and thought I'd summarise on here.

For starters, I don't think formation were to blame for anything... as someone once said, there's only a few yards difference between players no matter what formation you play. Chelsea won the league with 4-5-1 last season. Formations are all important in football management games... on the pitch, less so - 4-5-1 can be more attacking in some ways.

Secondly, do we know there wasn't another reason for NW not playing Stead from the start? He certainly didn't change matters dramatically while he was on the pitch. Maybe he was carrying a knock? People go off alarmingly when they maybe don't know the full facts and try and second guess the manager's intentions.

While playing with one up front, they didn't have a proper shot at goal... they scored two penalties. Why do people think we wouldn't have conceded those two penalties had we started with two up front? If anything we'd have been more stretched and likely to have conceded more goals in open play. Yeah Bladesman, it's easy to say it could've been 2-2... it could also have been 4-0... 3-0 in the first half... it's easy to say it would have been because we'll never be sure will we?

The two goals we did concede came from when we put Stead up front and that is when they truly embarrassed us. We were outplayed for the last half an hour. That could've quite easily happened all match but it didn't... we managed to contain them.

The dickhead in the turquoise cap that had a go at Paddy Kenny... never ever come to a football match again you wanker. It's easy to sit there and have a go isn't it? What good does getting at your own players achieve? What a way to fire them up to better things... especially when said player turns round having heard you.

Basically, we lost because we were outplayed no matter what we did. Why can't people accept that? We've played six months in a tough league and this was our first true battering... is that not a good thing? I'd like to praise the majority of fans who were at Anfield... those with a sense of humour who could accept the match for what it was. Chanting we're going to win 5-4 in the 88th minute takes a special kind of person.

I wonder about United fans sometimes... fickle doesn't even begin to cover it.

We were shit... not much we can do about it now is there?

 

[Bladesman]

I dont really understand what any of you expected tbh? Did you even think we would go and score today? Did you even think we would string 2 passes together?

After countless away games of neils negative and awful tactics and team selections expecting to get anything out of away games is naive

I cant be bothered to listen to his interviews after these certain types of games.

He was a complete fool today, changing the team and formation AGAIN was yet AGAIN a stupid thing to do.

We had lost that game even before kick off.

Agree totally.

Yes they beat barca but still they made 7 changes from the team that played on wednesday. Surely that would of been good enough reason to stick to the formation thats worked so well for us and get at liverpool from the off. You can say oh 4-5-1 worked well for chelsea. Dosnt mean it works for us coz it never has worked for us but he still insists on using that formation away from home. I dont mind losing if we can say well atleast we caused them problems etc but it felt yesterday we just turned up and gave them 3 points. Im guessing that we will do the same when we goto Man U and Chelsea. These are games we dont expect to get anything from but we can atleast have a go.

 

[Linz]

I don't mind losing if we can say well at least we caused them problems etc

We didn't do that when we had two up front... what would your suggestion be?

 

[Warnock=God]

You can say oh 4-5-1 worked well for chelsea. Dosnt mean it works for us coz it never has worked for us but he still insists on using that formation away from home.

Didn't we get our first win of the season using that formation, non? Exactly so your point is usless. We've been playing 4-4-2 away from home a few times and lost most of them as we should expect. I don't understand why there is so much moaning going on here!? The only team to get a result at Anfield recently was Everton and oh yes they played very defensive. Maybe Warnock thought he could do the same?

 

[keenzy]

we should have played 442. they have a keeper in goal making his first apperance of the season and the defence that played barca. they had it easy with just hulse to mark. He should have played 2 up front cause more damage.

Kozluk should never play for the blades again. he's useless. amount of times he gets turn inside out and his positioning is awful. I'm afriad armstrong is the same, he gets turned inside out too much. i just hope kilgallon can cope well at LB.

Warnock is clueless at tactics away from home, he tries packing the midfield and defence to stop them scoring or counter a player. but everytime he does this.... we get a beating. just play our team and out game and let them worry about our players. They cant attack us if we have the ball and attacking them. He played the same shite tactics at reading.

Gerrard.... tosser.

 

[Linz]

Warnock is clueless at tactics away from home, he tries packing the midfield and defence to stop them scoring or counter a player. but everytime he does this.... we get a beating. just play our team and out game and let them worry about our players.

But you've just said some of our players are shit, so why should Liverpool worry about them?

If we'd have played our game, there's no saying we wouldn't have lost 5, 6 or 7 nil. We didn't have the ball any more when we had two up front than we did with one so I don't know why people are coming to the conclusion that the end result would have been any different had we started that way.

It's simple to me...

Play the way we played - lose 4-0
Play more attacking - lose anyway

Either way - we've lost.

 

[silverfox]

Some of our "fans" slagged about everyone of our players during the match saying "get him off".

One abused Paddy after Gerrards goal.

All this talk of formations is pointless when 2/3 players have bad games anyway.

I thought it was 441 anyway......never saw Tonge!

 

[Come from away]

To those who say play 4-4-2, that's the answer, I say bullshit. If we played 4-4-2 and lost you would be the first to argue for a 4-5-1. Its players that win or lose games not systems, so try getting behind your team and give a good scream back at the Lane on Saturday.

 

[keenzy]

no i woulndt argue if we played 4-4-2, an unchanged side, id be happy, to at least know we gave it our all.

"But you've just said some of our players are shit, so why should Liverpool worry about them?"

They are defenders... the should be worrying about or forwards and midfield coming forward.

 

[Bladesman]

If we played 442 and lost id be saying play 442 still. I dont like seeing us play 451 coz its never really worked for us especially away from home.

Play the way we played - lose 4-0
Play more attacking - lose anyway

Either way - we've lost.

Who is to say we wouldnt of got a result had we attacked them. Either way we have lost ? so should we just not bother trying then? Turn up give em the points and go home.

 

[Linz]

Who is to say we wouldn't of got a result had we attacked them.

The only evidence we have is that we conceded two goals from penalties playing 4-5-1 and we conceded two goals from open play playing 4-4-2. Therefore, it's not beyond reasonable conclusion that no matter what, we would've lost.

Players not trying is nothing to do with the formation we play.

 

[Sharpy]

I never saw ANY of our players silverfox, all of them were complete garbage.

Linz, your saying we didnt cause them any problems when we went to 4-4-2

There's a slight difference changing to 4-4-2 when 2-0 down away from home than starting with it dont you think?

2-0 down, confidence is shot, liverpool are on a high. It would have been the same if we had put everybody at the back.

And nobody is saying we would have won if we had gone 4-4-2, nobody is saying we lost because of playing a 4-5-1.

Its the mentality and attitude warnock shows in these type of away games that is most peoples problems, it would be nice for once to concentrate on what we are good at instead of worrying about the opposition.

I assume you heard the chant '4-4-2' yesterday and '2 upfront'

That tells you everything about how the majority of blades feel.

 

[silverfox]

I never saw ANY of our players silverfox, all of them were complete garbage.

I assume you heard the chant '4-4-2' yesterday and '2 upfront'

That tells you everything about how the majority of blades feel.

Well whatever system they would have played we would have lost then??

Majority???? Not from what I heard.

We lost to a good Liverpool side get over it.