***OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool Sunday 31st August 1330 KO***

[Mumorn]

we need some transfer day magic to save us from this horrendous shower. Cant see it though.

Kaboul ade and townsend should never be in the team. Need a leader in the team. We have none.

faaaaazzzzio

 

[DubaiSpur]

OK. I dont see that. I think we just got battered by a far superior side with an ingrained philosophy and better players. Losing to a better team at the beginning of a new managers reign wouldn't lead me to question the chariman, for example. we just need more time and better players in crucial areas.

I don't think Liverpool have better players. I think Liverpool have players who believe 100 percent in their manager and their philosophy. We have good players, but once the third goal went in you can see how they almost all switched off and thought '**** it, let Poch deal with the post-match inquisition'.

Poch needs players who know him, who know what he can do, who believe in him 100 percent. What was depressing today is that clearly, some of our players don't: they don't want to run themselves into the ground playing for him, and would prefer to switch off when faced with adversity. That will never, ever work in a team-based high-pressing system like Poch's, which makes getting his key targets all the more important. I haven't seen much evidence of that happening so far, is all.

 

[supie]

Well at least one thing is for sure and that is that Poch, if he didn't before now knows exactly the extent of the challenge he faces.!!!! Personnel wise; Kaboul should be shipped out, not convinced by Capoue and; Bentaleb needs docifying as opposed to playing every game. As for ADE not good enough to lead the line on his own for a team that aspires for top 4. The other 3 front players all played poorly today, but I think there's talent there for Poch to work on. Hopefully Fazio is a step up on Kaboul and Stromboli an improvement on Capoue. Would love a late moment of madness from levy and witness him splashing out his "spare" £50m on MS and Negredo or Hernandez from Utd. Major work to be done and additional players required; however most certainly in Poch we trust and I am convinced he will build from this.


Sitting on my porcelain throne using Fapatalk

 

[Mumorn]

Personally, I'm just happy we have got this result out the way, come at the perfect time imo - Better than doing well against 10 teams and faltering in our first test, our first test come three games in, time to pull the trigger on those targets tomorrow and get in those Poch believes will be crucial to this team going forward and who will prevent games like this happening.

Poch would have learnt alot about where we are at today. Like I said, if youre not in it, you should be sold. Southampton NEVER got embarrassed at home by anyone because the players fought as a team for Poch and believed in what he wanted. Some players out there don't. Move them on.

 

[billyiddo]

I don't think Liverpool have better players. I think Liverpool have players who believe 100 percent in their manager and their philosophy. We have good players, but once the third goal went in you can see how they almost all switched off and thought '**** it, let Poch deal with the post-match inquisition'.

Poch needs players who know him, who know what he can do, who believe in him 100 percent. What was depressing today is that clearly, some of our players don't: they don't want to run themselves into the ground playing for him, and would prefer to switch off when faced with adversity. That will never, ever work in a team-based high-pressing system like Poch's, which makes getting his key targets all the more important. I haven't seen much evidence of that happening so far, is all.

did he have players that knew him when he arrived at Southampton?

 

[Armchair Expert]

I don't think Liverpool have better players. I think Liverpool have players who believe 100 percent in their manager and their philosophy. We have good players, but once the third goal went in you can see how they almost all switched off and thought '**** it, let Poch deal with the post-match inquisition'.

Poch needs players who know him, who know what he can do, who believe in him 100 percent. What was depressing today is that clearly, some of our players don't: they don't want to run themselves into the ground playing for him, and would prefer to switch off when faced with adversity. That will never, ever work in a team-based high-pressing system like Poch's, which makes getting his key targets all the more important. I haven't seen much evidence of that happening so far, is all.

fair enough. i think we are weak in crucial areas, namely, defence and central midfield. until these problems are rectified (we've been working on the defence this pre-season) then we can expect more no shows against good sides in my opinion. Capoue and Bentaleb don't cut it as a pairing for me. I see Bentaleb's potential - but he isn't ready to be taking on top sides yet. Weren't Cardiff in for Capoue? Think that may well be his level.

Add to that players like Rose and Kaoul, along with a kid in Dier out of position at right back, and its a recipe for getting smashed against teams with ingrained philosophies and better (imo) players. Thats a very average spine to a team with pretentions of competing in the league.

 

[Jordinho]

Personally, I'm just happy we have got this result out the way, come at the perfect time imo - Better than doing well against 10 teams and faltering in our first test, our first test come three games in, time to pull the trigger on those targets tomorrow and get in those Poch believes will be crucial to this team going forward and who will prevent games like this happening.

Poch would have learnt alot about where we are at today. Like I said, if youre not in it, you should be sold. Southampton NEVER got embarrassed at home by anyone because the players fought as a team for Poch and believed in what he wanted. Some players out there don't. Move them on.

Southampton were already a well functioning team when he arrived. There's more work needing to be done here.

 

[Armchair Expert]

Personally, I'm just happy we have got this result out the way, come at the perfect time imo - Better than doing well against 10 teams and faltering in our first test, our first test come three games in, time to pull the trigger on those targets tomorrow and get in those Poch believes will be crucial to this team going forward and who will prevent games like this happening.

Poch would have learnt alot about where we are at today. Like I said, if youre not in it, you should be sold. Southampton NEVER got embarrassed at home by anyone because the players fought as a team for Poch and believed in what he wanted. Some players out there don't. Move them on.

Agreed. I hope we haven't missed the boat for moving on some of the chaff clogging up the squad and getting in the way.

 

[Baleforce]

were you expecting an instantaneous revolution to rip through the whole squad, and suddenly players who weren't good enough last year to be world beaters this, in the space of one summer?

What should Poch have achieved by now? That we rock up and turn over a team that smashed us to pieces last season- and to do it with virtually the same set of players?

not a revolution no, but something suggesting movement in the right direction, as it is we've made individual mistakes, let the heads drop and offered no response

at this point I was hoping he would have learned about the players who will only let us down and get rid of them

I'm very very angry with that performance

 

[Modric THFC]

To a degree Rodgers team was better set up tactically.
Rodgers turns with a new 4312 and we were dominated 3 on 2 in the middle and weren't able to handle the 2 on 2 at the back.
Rodgers left our full backs be the players who could have the ball knowing they weren't going do to much with it.

Our main game plan ended up to be one of the front four nicking the ball and breaking with it.

 

[Cochise]

I think this was needed to bring everyone back down to earth. We have a squad of players who have only been working with the new coach for less than 2 months and a lot of players who need to learn quite a bit. We aren't aggressive enough and shy from the physical battles (apart from in the box, but then shirt pulls are like shots to the knee's) and we need strengthening in a couple of positions.

Lets not kid ourselves. Before the season started, the only players we felt were good enough to start were Vertonghen, Lloris, Walker and Eriksen with perhaps Lamela coming in as the season went on. That means we all felt we needed at least 6 new first team players. We cannot address all of those in one window, especially straight after the world cup. Most likely we will have to wait til next season to see Poch playing with a full set of toys.

So far we have signed defensive players. Much like at Southampton he's (Poch) shoring up the back line first, whilst coaching the forwards into moving the ball around quicker, something which we failed at so badly today. Our central players were very lax with their passing and it really played us into a lot of trouble as did our seeming inability to stop Sterling and Sturridge from turning with all the time in the world.

 

[suffolkspur]

Really disappointing performance in the end. I thought at half time we showed some signs that we could get back into the game but unfortunately went the opposite way and imploded. The penalty was really soft but you just can't give the referee a decision to make in that position. At 1-0 i thought we had a chance when it went to 2-0 so early in the 2nd half i thought it was game over. The mistake from Townsend just summed up our day. Far too many mistakes and poor decisions from too many players today.

Think this just goes to show we have a long way to go. Still a good start to the season but today was just as abject a performance as we saw last year, lots of possession, no creativity, few real chances and too many mistakes. Liverpool were the better team by far and deserved the win.

 

[Whiffler]

Just back from the pub - poor audio, but my initial impressions without perusing since 13:10.

Worried early that we were being pressed more by our imperative, than their pressure.

1st goal, Kaboum could see the line but went back. D'oh !

2nd goal, why stick your hand out on him, even (especially) if no 'restraint' achieved ? D'oh !!

3rd goal, Townsend you twit. Nonetheless, a left back who runs the length of the left wing and scores across the keeper ..... whatever next? (copyright G.Bale)

It could have been worse ... they might have played Ed Miliband instead of Balotelli.

Overall - last week we really pressed QPR into conceding the ball. Today Liverpool wandered around and we gave it to them - plus perhaps Lloris's most Gomes-like performance to date.

Very disappointing, and a bit of a marker as to where we must demonstrate improvements in the simple art of passing to OUR players.

Ref could have done better, but by that point we had already shot ourselves in both feet.


And ..... breeeeeathe !.

 

[Hemant]

The worst thing is that even with half an hour to play, we simply gave up. No heart, no desire, no passion, no one giving a toss. This is exactly the same as under AVB and Sherwood. Thats whats most worrying.

Heart comes from inside.
Sandro has heart, he would have chased and broken play, as would Lennon, would Moreno run away from him?
Capoue may have heart but he doesn't have pace. Bentaleb has no heart, he just jogs when we needed someone to track on his side Henderson or Allen.

But POCH doesn't rate Sandro and Lennon, it seems, so we will struggle. More importantly we don't have the cool finisher we needed, Ade and Chadli are not calm enough.
Chicharito might be worth a shout.
Same as last season, reasonable start, same 4-2-3-1 systems, first difficult oppo and we collapse, lose to Pool, next day Levy gets itchy fingers, lets hope this time he signs the clinical striker we have been crying out for, this time.

 

[SteveAWOL]

Dier completely lost Sterling for the first goal, then conceded a soft penalty, I wasn't impressed with his performance.

I think Dier wasn't sure whether to mark Balotelli or Sterling when it was 3 on 3 in the middle, as Kaboul had left both in acres of space by dropping deep leaving himself in no man's land.

 

[Gilzeantoscore]

Liverpool were very well drilled and played as a unit for the whole game. We allowed a soft goal for their first and then gave away a weak, but givable penalty for the second. The third, was down to one player, showing why he is not up to standard-Townsend!

Kaboul is finished.
Townsend is a never was.
Dembele did what he always does, fends off his opponent with strength and technique, holds on to the ball too long and then plays a non descript sideways five yard pass.

All three should be shown the door. We need a finisher. Ade is not that. Some one who can hit the target on a consistent basis. Also someone who is not afraid to make a telling pass. You can see it in the build up, no one wants to be the one. Square ball, square ball, back pass, back pass. Part of the problem again was tempo related. Apart from a couple of spells, we were too slow in the build up again. Once the Dippers got men behind the ball, we did not look like scoring. We never play little give and goes and Ade was constantly getting in the way of other better positioned players.

 

[DHSF]

I don't think Liverpool have better players. I think Liverpool have players who believe 100 percent in their manager and their philosophy. We have good players, but once the third goal went in you can see how they almost all switched off and thought '**** it, let Poch deal with the post-match inquisition'.

Poch needs players who know him, who know what he can do, who believe in him 100 percent. What was depressing today is that clearly, some of our players don't: they don't want to run themselves into the ground playing for him, and would prefer to switch off when faced with adversity. That will never, ever work in a team-based high-pressing system like Poch's, which makes getting his key targets all the more important. I haven't seen much evidence of that happening so far, is all.

They do have better players and not only that but a better squad composition which allows them to be better and more adaptable yet flexible. I see our squad and just see a lot of meh in there. We dont have anyone that could compete with the likes of Sterling, Sturridge et al. I mean Harry ****ing Kane and Townsend are not comparable. We have some good and decent players.

I agree though and one thing that ****ed me off was the manner of how we played and more importantly the effort shown. We just did not care but Liverpool did. Thats why I find it funny people are in denial (for the umpteenth year) that oh (insert clb) werent that good they were just more up for it and we made errors... **** me what a pile of ****ing ****e. If i took that atttitude in life I would never better myself and just blame it on one or two errors.

There is a lot of **** in that team and two wins doesnt mean theyre good enough.

 

[Baleforce]

levy needs to pull his finger out, Liverpool have come from nowhere and blasted off into the distance in 2 seasons, with a similar net spend to us

about time he properly backed a manager and gives Poch the players he wants, not some moneyball alternative

 

[Mumorn]

Agreed. I hope we haven't missed the boat for moving on some of the chaff clogging up the squad and getting in the way.

based on today, what ive seen from Poch at Southampton and with ourselves:

I'd sell Kaboul, Fryers, Ekotto, Townsend, Dembele, Holtby.

Fazio is Kabouls replacement.
Veljkovic in place of Fryers.
Davies has replaced Ekotto.
Welbeck replaces Townsend.
Schneiderlin replaces Dembele
Stambouli replaces Holtby.

 

[Mumorn]

Heart comes from inside.
Sandro has heart, he would have chased and broken play, as would Lennon, would Moreno run away from him?
Capoue may have heart but he doesn't have pace. Bentaleb has no heart, he just jogs when we needed someone to track on his side Henderson or Allen.

But POCH doesn't rate Sandro and Lennon, it seems, so we will struggle. More importantly we don't have the cool finisher we needed, Ade and Chadli are not calm enough.
Chicharito might be worth a shout.
Same as last season, reasonable start, same 4-2-3-1 systems, first difficult oppo and we collapse, lose to Pool, next day Levy gets itchy fingers, lets hope this time he signs the clinical striker we have been crying out for, this time.

I think there may be some long lasting problems with Sandro that we dont know - doesnt compete 90 mins mid week and then suddenly not even on bench for todays game despite lack of defensive cover in midfield on bench -- maybe injury worse than we thought