Jayson

That one wasnt even a pen in most games, but it was 3x the fucking pen they got as he had an arm across his face. Worst decision ive seen in ages. Id genuinely be astounded if another team had that against them and had a man sent off for it. Obviously it would happen to us.

Since fucking when is shoulder to shoulder a foul. Every player in football learns to ease another off the fucking ball. You cant make a decision as dodgy as that and then send the guy off aswell. Fucking ridiculous

Aston Villa, first game of our season back in the prem. Carrolls hattrick.

Wijnaldum, Sissoko, Mitrovic & Perez all had superb games going forwards.

Indeed. This clearly won't be the end of the goals in this game, so it needs to be us. Dreading the second half nap now. This is the issue. Do we come out now & keep attacking or will we go defensive. The latter doesnt work, our best chance is outscoring them. Work on the defence again in the week.

Ish. Did well v Liverpool & Man City from what I remember. The guy has shown he'll test defences anyway, you can see he has talent. Let him run at players. The guy had the best preseason of everyone only to get completely ignored. Hardly a sign of effort getting recognition from the manager.

Stop playing Sissoko, start playing Aarons. Aarons has proven himself against the best. My main issue with Steve atm. That and us sitting back against Chelsea 2nd half, which was ridiculous & has likely set a precedent for us to shit ourselves anytime we take the lead now. Bar that hes doing alright.

The problem is with this shower I fail to see how ANY manager can succeed. If you're telling me Rodgers could coax more out of the likes of Sissoko, Tiote, Thauvin and Coloccini as well as bring on some of the undoubted young talent we have then I'd be all for his appointment. I unfortunately don't see that happening. I'm not McClarens biggest fan and was against his appointment, but he's got a bunch of players on his hands who just don't really seem to care and give up as soon as the going gets tough. I fail to see how Rodgers would change any of that... He was good at Swansea after inheriting Martinez' squad, then walked into a very talented Liverpool squad with a world class Suarez. Other than finishing 2nd and saving Watford from relegation he's done very little. Wasting money on cheaper foreign signings and dodgy tactics is all he's done recently (sound familiar) and I fail to see how this move would make any sense. The whole structure is wrong here.... and until that's addressed... well, broken record time. Based on how he brought through Sterling & Ibe, we'd probably see more from Aarons under Rodgers. He'd also likely work less well with someone like Mitrovic though, as he clearly prefers mobile strikers. He's gotten a hard time for me tbh, people forget the season before Liverpool nearly won the league he was getting mocked for trying to get them to play out from the back as they were getting caught doing it. He stuck to that & then Suarez blossomed within it & got all the plaudits. Sturridge aswell was a good shout as he wasnt being played upfront for Chelsea & Rodgers obviously had faith in playing him in his correct position. Hes been unlucky with his injuries. Sterling coming through, Coutinho & Henderson all markedly improved with him. But then the likes of Lallana, Lovren went the other way. He impressed me when he changed it to 3 at the back last season & they went from a side that were known for having a poor defense & scoring loads to a side that were keeping a lot of clean sheets & not scoring as many. He showed flexibility in covering for one area with the other both times. Good manager for me, transfer record very dodgy.

We sat back 2nd half after a rest instantly, pretty sure it was by instruction rather than being worn out. We were lucky they didnt make the most of a couple chances due to that. Remy ran offside for one, Pedro skied a clear chance another. Both times we just left Fabregas, one of the best passers in the league in yards of space. Its complete common sense stuff.

Aye i saw that as a good touch actually. Its clever from Hazard to get it on the wrong side of Janmaat instantly & he just couldnt turn quickly enough. The bigger issue would be why it made it to Hazards feet from a long ball.

Agree with that. Losing a two goal lead is never a good thing, regardless of the opposition. I really hope that 2nd half display wasnt a "sit back & hit them on the counter" tactic because they were just left with far to much space & it didnt work. The first half was much improved & we look a better side with two upfront.

Was superb, worried & hassled the defenders. Constantly gave us a ball out, constantly gave us freekicks. Loved when he ran back to defend & let the ball run out while holding off their player like it was nothing. Simple things like that could've stopped a goal. Same as when he controlled it on his chest near our area first half. Seemed knackered 2nd half. If we're going to improve this season this lad will be a huge part of it.

Just what happens isnt it if you're going to spend an entire half sitting back. When they do get the ball they wont be full of confidence because they've not touched it for a while & are aware they wont be touching it for another while. Cue loads more pressure to do something, cue messy passes. Cue poor decision making.

Our 3rd best player today up there with Mitrovic & Perez.

Hows he allowed a long ball to land at the feet of Hazard? If you're going to sit on the penalty area & not push out how can you not challenge for the ball? He should be dominating Hazard on a long ball with ease, but his positioning is a mess.

Don't think we were cruising at all. 18% ball possession for a while there. Were letting them pass it around our box more or less. We shit ourselves at half time. The only reason we got that 2nd was mbabu actually taking a hold of the game & chasing Hazard across the pitch to win it back. That is the kind of player we need, then we score from him putting us on the counter. Our only attack. The rest was more sitting back. You cant allow players of that quality time to pass the ball man.

1st half they were. 2nd half we stood off the ball all over the pitch & camped in our half. That is a mindset issue as we took the lead. The second they equalised we were out pressing them again.

Dissapointed tbh We've let ourselves down massively that second half standing off the ball and allowing them to play like that. 1st half was superb, 2nd half was awful.

Just standing off them at every turn. You cant allow them time on the ball or they'll pick out a pass.

Loved that, passion. Him & Ayoze do look a good pairing. The formation in general is working well.

Anita & Colback are both actually having a good game. Mitrovic's calmness & strength upfront & having Perez next to him is bringing our midfielders into it more & giving everyone more confidence. Mbabu looks quality. Everyone playing well so far, lets keep it up

True you can be moved on but its less likely isnt it. Payet is storming the league for West Ham, say they make the top 6 is he that likely to leave being 29 next year as opposed to if he were 23? Perhaps if the likes of city or someone else throw money at him, but your odds of losing the player are far smaller & the likelyhood of them having the experience to push your club on is higher. Thus you keep quality players for longer who can help your side compete. If he helps make them a top 6 side, the entire status of their club goes up. The potential to bring in better players even when hes gone goes up, the potential to keep players with potential goes up. The potential to make more money in the league, in cups, in europe goes up. But ofcourse they might lose 5+ million on the transfer itself. Realistically we're signing this young because we'll make more money on them if they individually do well & thats easier than getting a whole group of players to compete higher up the league. Which shows what our priority is, its not improving our clubs standing.

I still think Mitrovic was an odd signing. The lad is 20 years old, if he does well & shows lots of potential to go on to be great he'll just get a move. We wont keep these players unless the status of our club goes up first, we need to be a top 6 side to even be worrying about potential. What we need here & now is players that will get us there. Instead we lost a striker for 3 games whos in the process of learning. Whether thats about his temperament or the league, he's learning. We need players that arent still learning or likely to be taken off us if they come close to doing well. Obviously we wont get a good sell on fee for those players though, which is whats important.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34340357 Good article by Jenas. I think the strongest point is what everyone already knows, we didnt have enough character in the squad. We've then gone out and signed youngsters, two are 20 & the other couple 22 & Gini 24. Then weighted them with the pressure of turning around a side in poor form for half a season whos "experienced" players crumble instantly. Our answer against Sheffield was to bring a 19 year old on, its obvious. They can have all the potential in the world, but they're all new to the league even before you put loads of expectation on them.

We dont seem to have players who can even shoot anymore. Who can strike a ball? Used to be Shearer, Solano, Robert, Jenas, Viana, Speed etc Even Danny Guthrie had a f***ing shot on him. None of our players can strike a f***ing football from more than 5 yards bar hopefully Mitrovic. Not suprising we arent scoring is it.