Mails: Liverpool are a team with no backbone

Daniel Storey

A good show after a big night. Keep the emails coming to theeditor@football365.com…

Liverpool: The team with no backbone
Unfortunately this team has no backbone. As soon as Sevilla scored it was clear Liverpool were going to cave in. Moreno should have been hooked after that first goal – he’s a liability and has never been good enough. Even worse is you expect him to start on Saturday.

All the attacking football is great but rendered invalid when your team is incapable of defending properly. Its part of the game but its an afterthought at Liverpool.

Sevilla missed two good chances in the first half and knew they could get at Liverpool. There was no leadership on the pitch as the midfield became completely overran in the second half. This should encourage every team to have a real go at this defence – especially when the chips are down. Go for broke and you’re likely to get some joy.

*Sent some time later*

And now I’ve just read about the Sevilla coach revealing to his players at half time he had cancer and that renders everything I’ve just said pointless. Perhaps on a sheer human emotional level, that drove those players on to another level. Either way, it’s not important. Get well soon.
Dickie

 

Sick of the same old cycle
I wrote in a few years back to take issue with the ex-footballer punditocracy who were falling over themselves praising Ian Holloway’s newly-promoted Blackpool side for playing football “the right way.” That side played attacking football, scored their fair share of goals but were also shipping more than their fair share.

I tried to make the point that playing the right way should also include defending, something neither those “experts” nor anyone at Bloomfield Road seemed too bothered about. As it turns out, Blackpool wound up conceding 78 goals that year, went down and haven’t been seen since (I think they must have emigrated or something).

Liverpool, of course, won’t get relegated. They also won’t go very far in the Champions League, won’t challenge for the Premier League and will continue to be the 21st century version of Keegan’s “Entertainers,” Newcastle circa ’96: glorious failures. They will dazzle on many days and embarrass on others. They will delight and confound, sometimes in the same match. What is the point of taking the positives when the negatives eventually win out?

The truth is—and I’m sure I’m not alone on this—I wasn’t surprised when the third goal went in. I wasn’t particularly upset either. Been there, done that. Will be there again and will do it again.
CourtneyB, LFC (Forever)

 

Fair play to Liverpool for being Liverpool
Tonight we saw Sevilla try to out-Liverpool Liverpool by squandering two huge chances and conceding twice from corners (kudos that they manage to concede twice from the exact same corner).

But I’m proud of Liverpool. The team stood up and said that nobody would out-Liverpool them. And not only did they Out-Liverpool Sevilla, they even Out-Liverpooled themselves as they managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory, they wasted a chance to rest key personnel both tonight for 20-30 minutes and also in the next group game and a chance to put the “brittle defence” story to bed for a little while longer.

Peak-Liverpool is more peaky than any peak any other team reaches. It’s remarkable/hilarious/infuriating depending on who you support and how much alcohol you’ve had to drink.
Minty, LFC

 

Light at the end of the tunnel
When I finally pulled my head out of my hands after watching the reds completely self destruct in Seville, I reached for my phone to read texts from my fellow Liverpool fans sending angry emojis and crying emojis and United fans sending laughing emojis.

I put the phone away and wait the appropriate half an hour before reading every article I can find on proper football websites about the game. And I go to F365 expecting to find the most damning one of all.

And then. Sarah’s lovely article. Thank you. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We’re great at attacking, one of the best in Europe. The hardest thing in football is scoring goals. And we’re bloody good at it. Just buy defenders in January in Jurgen.
Damo, Dublin

 

Alberto Moreno really isn’t very good
How utterly predictable that after a few Liverpool fans (quite rightly) lauding the decent turnaround in Alberto M. and even Der Kloppmeister making mention of it yesterday that the player himself should put in yet another one of those performances! It was every bit as poor as his previous nadir, against the very same ex-employers, and I do hope Football365 use that picture of him with the sh*te hair heading the ball with the side of his head in the EL Final…

When you talk about a player having one of those in his locker I fear he is exactly the kind of player who veers between passable and abject with more of the latter. Crap self-harm sleeves and changing the name on the back of your shirt does not a Roberto Carlos make… Unfortunately. Still, Henderson was equally as dire but will likely get away with it ‘cos he’s English and Plays for London F.C. etc.

When it went to 3-1 it somewhat inevitable. We’ve done it to teams often enough so have to suck it up when it gets done to us!
Gregory Whitehead, LFC

 

When Liverpool signed Albert Moreno, I (after having watched some Spanish football) declared to my mates that they’d made a good signing and all would be well. Within a few weeks he seemed to be brilliant – and scored a decent goal at Spurs.

As the months went by, my mates started to question Moreno, and I, obviously unwilling to admit that I was wrong, said that he just needed some bench time – and he’ll come good again.

Fast forward to this season, and the guy has had a stormer. He’s been everything he wasn’t last year. Decisive, clinical in defence, and positionally savvy. My mates stopped laughing at me. Until this evening. What the hell was that?

Giving away a silly free kick in a dangerous position when the guy is going absolutely nowhere. Then getting beaten to the ball from the resulting free kick. P*ss poor first touch just outside your own box. Then giving away a penalty again – WHEN THE GUY IS GOING NOWHERE!

Individual errors from an individual cost Liverpool what would have been a very impressive away win.
Gareth Cad, Penrhyn

 

Oh Steady
Please kindly remove Moreno from your list of top 10 players who were almost sold in the summer.
That is all.
Dan (we need a “Make Liverpool Great Again” campaign), Sheffield

 

Sevilla deserve praise too
You’ll be deluged, I’m sure, with mails involving much wailing and gnashing of teeth/hilarity about Liverpool’s second half defending last night but in a desperate attempt to stand out from the crowd and to in no way metaphorically put my fingers in my ears and shout ‘blah, blah, blah’, I’d like to focus on Sevilla’s brilliance in closing us down and forcing the cock ups you all witnessed.

The defending was poor (again) but I have to stay that whilst watching from my position in the bar of my local pub I thought that Sevilla, in the second half in particular, were absolutely superb and forced us into the mistakes we made. They seemed to be virtually man marking our entire team whenever we had the ball and then pressed us into rushing passes and therefore making errors. They ran tirelessly, worked for each other and absolutely battered us into submission.

Good to see Klopp making some early and game changing subs, particularly removing the liability that is Moreno (sorry but I have not seen the supposed improvement from that guy this year, he’s still always out of position and leaving the central defenders exposed and therefore stretched) but then they got a corner with 30 seconds left and you just knew!

So yeah, well done Sevilla. What’s that? Liverpool defending? Don’t know what you mean.
Adam Reep – LFC (Neither do our defenders it seems!)

 

And yes, agreed
Well, you can’t say his team didn’t fight for him.

I wish Eduardo Berizzo and his family all the best in this shitty fight with cancer and hope he makes a full recovery.
Amo Singh (LFC)

 

Manchester City really could win this thing
Back in 1968, Manchester City’s Malcolm Allison, the flamboyant assistant coach to the almost universally loved manager, Joe Mercer, put his foot in his mouth before shooting himself in the foot by saying City “would terrify Europe”…only to lose to that European powerhouse Fenerbahce in the very 1st round.( Much yucking around the United part of the city).

Remember that these were the days when the Cup was a knock-out competition from the start without group stages and, in my own opinion, was the better for it.

Anyway, moving forward to the present day, I think Allison’s off-target prediction in 1968 may well come true this season. I watch a fair bit of the various European leagues and I can’t think of any other team that plays better than City. True, Real Madrid and a couple of others are up there but I don’t think any other team is actually better than City at the moment. If my own Manchester United can’t make the final, I would really love to see a Real vs City final. On paper at least, it could be a goal fest which will stay in the memory for a long time.

As a Mancunian, I never really understood the real anger that seems to exist between inter-city rivals. I worked at firms in Manchester where supporters of both teams took the piss out of each other but there was no real venom in it, it was just good-natured banter. My mates were split between both clubs and we went all to Old Trafford one week and Maine Road the next. And this was in the time of the bovver boys with the steel capped boots, the meat hooks and what have you. We never understood the hate.

So you can probably see why I don’t mind City being the current pre-eminent club in Manchester (for the time being anyway). I’m just sitting back and enjoying both clubs.
Jonesey Melbourne

 

Raheem the dream
Can everyone please apologise to Raheem? Bar F365 who refreshingly have always seen his true potential. At 22 he is having his best scoring season in his career. Not only has Pep brought his confidence up but has actually reminded Raheem how good a player he is.

Can you imagine if the kids name was Sterlinho? The love in from the British media would be intolerable. Unfortunately he is English and a bit flashy (for shopping in Lidl and buying his mum a house?- me neither) and for these the England-supporting public will never be allowed to believe he’s good. With every goal will come a headline about his latest car. We just need to get behind him and allow him some mistakes.

Compare him to Dybala, Coman, Martial. All players in that age bracket and in similar roles at club level and you’ll see Raheem can hold his own in that company.
Mo MCFC (That ball from Gundogan though…)

 

Fair bloody play to Spurs
Having none of this Spurs bias thing, so what a fantastic performance finishing top of that group.

As a United fan I almost quivered in anticipation when I saw the draw they were handed with Madrid and Dortmund, to be fair I instantly envisaged them targeting the Europa slot after 3 games.

Instead they only go and smash Real Madrid the twice holders and made a trip to Dortmund look like a walk in the park. Credit where it’s due guys. Fully expecting them to get Bayern in the last 16 and follow the Arsenal blueprint.
Phil MUFC Salford

 

Yeah Sarah, why didn’t you change from watching Liverpool to write about Spurs even though we have a Winners and Losers column in which we can do that?
Your words, Sarah Winterburn.

Could you possibly write 16 conclusions about taking four points away at Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund?

So shall we just put the Tottenham performance in the NLD down as an off day? Yes, let’s.
Mike, again. COYS