[Archived] Liverpool Preview

[LeChuck]

That's the worst I've seen us play for a long, long time. It's very scary to think that we started with a front three of Samba, Warnock and Treacy. Bloody terrifying in fact.

The only saving grace from that performance is that it was nowhere near our best team, not even close. If we had Roque/Roberts, Diouf and Pedersen as the front three we could have offered a lot more going forward.

Treacy was absolutely woeful, but not as bad as Andrews. I lost count the number of times he was skinned easily be Riera, and not even by some fancy footwork or anything, Riera just had to go round him.

The only plus points were Doran, who looks an excellent prospect, and Villanueva...although I do see what Sam means about him offering little in defence, it's difficult to know what to do with the lad, but he certainly has ability.

[Commondore]

The answer will be no I assume. There is a financial mess the world over that has to be sorted before hard earned wealth is wasted / frittered away on something as unimportant as Football.

BUT

I'd have accepted 2-0 but yet again we ran out of steam on 80 mins against a top team. Lets keep it in context.

1. We are weak but the abomination that is the Champions League is the real culprit.

2. Fulham's score last week was OK but they could have been buried under an even bigger avalanche of goals but for the woodwork. 3. Two of todays goals were right out of the blue and must be contenders for goal of the month. (btw for our army of football purists, Torres's btw benefitted from a good old fashioned punted LONG BALL from the Lpool half! Shocking eh? )

4. We do have an army of wounded and walking wounded who are only playing through necessity. And a similar number that I have a feeling Allardyce will pot asap if we survive.

The rest of the results today are of more importance as they always were going to be cos I am sure that no one on here gave us a snow flake in hell's chance of winning today .

Ahem, yeah right. And how were the other three goals scored? And what player outside the top four could have converted that long ball like Torres did? Imagine Roberts in that situation...

[Eddie]

Terrible. No effort, no creativity, no organisation. Wrong team, wrong tactics. I'm ashamed. One of the worst performances I've ever seen. Even with our injuries it should have been better. Give me anything over that dross. Allardyce continues to look clueless to me, hopz hz proves me wrong against stoke.

[1864roverite]

Lets move on

the game itself was a shocking 1 sided affair

Rovers had no fight no effort in fact they were lucky just to concede 4 goals.

If Rovers want an example of fight, look no further than our friends at the breezblock. 4-0 down at Chelsea did they give up ? No they went at them and so nearly came away with a draw.

Sam, you got your work cut out, I jusy hope the gamble comes off.

[imy9]

I didn't follow the game but do I read right?

Did Sam Allardyce, respected English manager earning millions of pounds a year, put Keith Treacy on the RIGHT WING?

What is the point of following a football team lead by such idiocy? Playing Keith Treacy makes no sense - let alone on the right wing. Although, I advocated his promotion, Treacy has fully proven that he is not up to the standard. He had his chance and blew it. However, the cankerous prejudice of favouring mediocre experience (relative) over inexperienced promise was in full ugly show today. Why didn't Aaron Doran start on the right wing - seeing as he IS A RIGHT WINGER? Treacy has nothing to his game worthy of being considered. Doran might've frozen but that's better than seeing the hopeless Treacy played on the wrong flank.

And for those who blame the current team's crapness on a lack of finances, think again. It is primarily down to wretched management. How hard is it to find a better midfielder than Aaron Mokoena? We had Amdy Faye on trial here, he is a superior player to Mokoena. In fact, I think most of the CHampionship CMs are better than him. How many years have we known that Tugay can't be expected to hack it at this level? Why did we sign Keith Andrews when we could have signed Anthony Annan? Why did we sign Simpson when he had made little impression in the Championship with Ipswich? Why mess Warnock around by moving him around the pitch? Why not use Gael Givet in his favoured CB position? Why don't we make more use of the most skilful player at the club?

Defeat to Liverpool ain't the end of the world, but continued managerial stupidity is going to see us back in predicament we were in when Souness became senile and Gresko became a central midfielder.

There was ONE Big Sam signing on the field and he had a decent enough game.

Treacy played because he had more PL experience than Doran, he is not up to the required standard and I assume he will be shifted at the end of the season- but options were limited.

Warnock plays in midfield because we cannot leave Givet out as he has played extremely well on the left side, Nelsen and Samba have also looked good at the back but due to an injury crisis we were left with no one up front, thus the shuffle.

The good thing is that vs Stoke we should have MGP, Grella, RSC, Diouf, three of whom are our best attacking threat at the moment, Grella will also give us some bite in midfield, my team would be:

Robinson

Ooijer Nelsen Samba Givet

Diouf Grella Warnock MGP

Dunn

RSC

[dr_awol]

today Bfs put a side out to lose and that just feel right in my book. i would have expected at least one forward to start the game. benni,carlos,Diouf whoever.

[mellison24]

why am i the only one who doesn't care that we lost to arguably the best team in the league with a squad that cudn't beat coventry?? NEXT week is what matters!

[John]

Don't think Dunn should be starting matches, especially away from home.

Options were obviously limited today, but he does not look fit to me.

[Bobby G]

He trains once a week, and has painkilling injections before matches. Of course he isnt fit. But options are limited.

[des]

with the team that we had today accrington stanley would have beaten us never mind liverpool

[Roost]

I FEEL LIKE CRAP AFTER THAT RESULT (yeh, its in CAPS - so what?)

[Guest Vinjay606]

Lee Grooby has some video link on the official site about BFS admitting BRFC were second best. It's almost like Grooby's headline is suggesting we should be proud of the manager's honesty or something. What else could we expect from the club stooge though.

[1864roverite]

There was ONE Big Sam signing on the field and he had a decent enough game.

Treacy played because he had more PL experience than Doran, he is not up to the required standard and I assume he will be shifted at the end of the season- but options were limited.

Warnock plays in midfield because we cannot leave Givet out as he has played extremely well on the left side, Nelsen and Samba have also looked good at the back but due to an injury crisis we were left with no one up front, thus the shuffle.

The good thing is that vs Stoke we should have MGP, Grella, RSC, Diouf, three of whom are our best attacking threat at the moment, Grella will also give us some bite in midfield, my team would be:

Robinson

Ooijer Nelsen Samba Givet

Diouf Grella Warnock MGP

Dunn

RSC

I like your idea BUT Rovers destroyed Stoke early doors with 4-4-2

Thats they way to beat them.

If fit, use RSC and McCarthy. Samba will have to be in the back 4

ooijer Samba Nelsen Givet across the back 4

Andrews Grella Warnock MGP across the middle

then either Diouf behind RSC or play RSC with McCarthy

[speeeeeeedie]

why am i the only one who doesn't care that we lost to arguably the best team in the league with a squad that cudn't beat coventry?? NEXT week is what matters!

Youre not. We didn't have a snowball in hell's chance today, especially after Liverpoool's loss on Wednesday. I've said before that Allardyce isn't preparing his teams to face the top 4, they are far far better than us. He puts the effort into beating teams around us and has done a fair job.

We've not won at Anfield since 1993, when we had a great side. Since then Liverpool have got better and we have got worse. What do the "get stuck in" crew expect? Sometime's teams are just too good, why risk it?

[McClarky]

Embarrasing in the extreme. If you are underdogs in a game why not at least try and play some attacking players and maybe we could sneak a goal and put some pressure on them. Liverpool had it so easy when they were volnerable with then being in Europe and going for the league. I am ashamed that my team don't even try and win games. BFS can stick his statistics and his science up his erse. He needs robots not footballers. Get rid of him before it's too late.

[Drunx2002]

I remember a similar overreaction after the FA Cup defeat at Coventry when we had a rubbish team out (albeit with some strikers in that team!). After the awful game at the Ricoh Arena many people said it didn't matter so long as the rested players made the difference at Hull a few days later.

With the injuries we have, Sam has to target winnable games and this wasn't one of them. I'd much rather see Benni against Stoke than injured at Anfield today. We just couldn't risk that happening. It's a woeful position regarding lack of players that we find ourself in but that is various managers' faults and the board's but we can't do anything about that now.

Here's hoping we get a result at Stoke like we did at Hull. The 6 pointers are the hugely important games here.

I'm a bit worried that Samba's defending may take a wobble after his recent forays as a striker. Hope not!

[Fylde Coast Fan]

Shoddy performance but we never had a prayer of a point out of today so whatever.

Fact remains that six points out of Wigan, Portsmouth, West Brom at home is achievable and should be more than enough to keep Blackburn Rovers in the division we belong in. Anything else picked up along the way is a bonus.

What today really highlighted is how poor our squad depth is. We may have more bodies than someone like Villa but if they get into trouble up front they have players like Delfounesno to call on. We stick our tallest defender up front and hoof it to him, expecting him to knock it down to... well, no one.

[McClarky]

I remember a similar overreaction after the FA Cup defeat at Coventry when we had a rubbish team out (albeit with some strikers in that team!). After the awful game at the Ricoh Arena many people said it didn't matter so long as the rested players made the difference at Hull a few days later.

This makes me wanna cry. Any game is winable if you try and win it. I don't think being annoyed at your team's meek surrender in big games is an over reaction.

[DE.]

As soon as I saw Samba was upfront and Treacy was starting I knew we were going to get destroyed. We are an embarressing team right now. I can't wait until this season is over... lost to every top 5 team and all of the top 4 have hammered us. We've got injuries and Liverpool are a good team but losing 0-4 to Liverpool and Arsenal so soon after each other is sad and shows the gulf between our current squad and the top four. We are undone by any team of remote quality. Much needs to be done in the summer.

Onto next week... focus has to be staying in the division right now, then we'll worry about overhauling this crippled squad.

Also, I expected to lose today, so I'm not hugely disappointed at the loss. I'm extremely disappointed, however, at the scoreline. I could have take 2 or even 3-0, or 4-1, but 4-0? My only consolation is that even Real Madrid and Man Utd have conceded 4 against Liverpool, so I guess we just need to take this on the chin and get on with it.

[Drunx2002]

BFS can stick his statistics and his science up his erse. He needs robots not footballers. Get rid of him before it's too late.

There's the over-reaction. None of us enjoyed today's game, but you don't honestly believe that we should sack Allardyce because of today do you? He's dragged us to where we are now, with Premiership survival in our own hands.

"Get rid of him before it's too late"? Too late for what? There are 7 games left. He is very experienced in these sort of scraps and we'd be down before we found anyone to replace him.

If we stay up, you could argue that his shrewd selection of players for the most important games and our unattractive style of football with a threadbare squad are the main reasons for getting there. Its the summer where the board and trustees need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

[Exiled in Toronto]

I remember a similar overreaction after the FA Cup defeat at Coventry when we had a rubbish team out (albeit with some strikers in that team!).

Perhaps the die-hards who spent I would imagine the thick end of 200 quid to go to Coventry, Arsenal and Liverpool might like to comment on how they feel about the view that we shouldn't try to win every game.

[BRFC4Life]

If that had been our strongest 11 out there today and they'd put in the same awful performance then i'd be REALLY upset but it should have been no surprise at all that, with all our injuries and half fit players, our 2nd string midfield and forward line would mean we'd lose today.

Our 1st choice 11 (if everyone is fit) is a decent but not great mid table team, so once we have to dip into our very poor squad, it shows we simply cannot afford to have so many men on the sidelines. Look at the facts, Torres cost more than our team combined so really on paper the fact it was only four (the same number 'pool scored at old trafford and against real madrid) is a feat by itself.

Am i happy losing 4-0? hell no. was i disappointed with the result and the performance? hell yes, it was dreadful. but much stronger rovers teams put in superb performances at old trafford and home against west ham in the last few weeks so i would like to think thats what a better rovers team is capable of rather than saying today is the best we can do. we know that grella, axe, treacy et all are not good enough and will hopefully be gone in the summer and sam can start to build his own team with his own choice of players, not having to make do with Ince's crap signings, hughes's squad players or the rubbish the academy throws out.

Have people actually seen what the top clubs spend on players every season and are surprised a very depleted rovers team gets beaten by a few? why? am i missing something? there have been times hughes went to places like arsenal and liverpool with much better rovers teams and got heavily beaten or put in awful performances. last year at anfield, we lost 3-1 with a better rovers team and the performance was just as bad.

Bottom line is (as much as i hate writing it) we have to forget the games against the top few (only 1 left against chelsea) this season and MUST concentrate on the games against stoke, portsmouth, wigan etc, the games against teams we do stand a chance of beating. If we do and stay up, then we start next season with a clean slate and we can all judge sam on what he does from then on and the players he signs. Sam has given us 21 points (i think?) in the league (more if roberts could hit the barn door/cows bum/water when standing on a boat) which has put us in a good position. Remember that the other teams around us have to play the top sides as well which (should?) result in them not gaining any points, just like us.

I hate being in this position and remember the days when we could go toe to toe with the top few and give em a good game. when we're hopefully not scraping for our lives next season and can get better players then maybe those days can return and we'll be in the top half. time will tell. right i'm off to drink todays match from my memory and pretend its 94-95 again.

[RevidgeBlue]

Sick of hearing the excuses, we had no chance of winning etc.......... next week is more important etc etc.

Today was an absolute disgrace, an abject pitiful surrender that was an insult to the famous blue and white halves, and all those players whio have battled and given their all for the team down the years. And that goes for the team selection almost as much as the "efforts" of the players.

What is the point of putting our best centre half on his own up front if no-one else is going to at least attempt to get the knockdowns?

Samba can be excused after battling away manfully, Robinson was exceptional and kept the score semi respectable. Tugay and Nelsen didn't play well but at least it looked as though the result mattered to them and their professional pride was hurting. Doran and Carlos looked bright when they came on.

A Liverpool fan behind me said that from our point of view it was simply a case of fulfilling a fixture today. Spot on.

Sam should be ashamed. It was never that bad under Ince. And I like the big man.

[Iceman]

We dont have the players to compete with the big 4, but its the rest of the league we should be focussing on. My biggest concern is the ease in which we are being beaten. Dioufy would at least have caused trouble, and showed commitment. Pity he wasnt well, but why Benni didnt start up front with Samba at the back is beyond belief.

[LeChuck]

I don't think anyone will excuse what happened today Rev, but I completely refuse to chastise the man for it whilst he's working with this current lot who are, quite frankly, rubbish apart from the odd few. If this happens again next season though then it will be a different matter, Big Sam will have a LOT to answer for then.

We didn't go to Old Trafford and surrender when we had enough fit players to put a decent team out which leads me to believe today's performance was down to the sheer number of players unavailable.

Edit: Incidentally, if we can sell Nelsen for anywhere near what Givet will cost then I'd do it immediately. He's been costing us goals on a regular basis for about 2 years now. How he let Torres be in so much space for his first is unbelievable, and from then on it was an uphill task.