to be honest, we played with almost the best first 11 we've had currently with the exception of aquilani, and still nowhere near arsenal's performance in the second half. have to admit that the away team dominated the entire second half and forced us to be on the backfoot the entire half, even when we're the ones playing the chasing game.

gotta give wenger credit for whatever he did during the halftime pep talk. the arsenal team was wholly transformed and had more confident with the ball, while our players got more and more nervous. johnson was culpable for both goals, but having said that i don't think there's much he can do about the two goals conceded. the second strike was a superb one, there's no way reina can stop that bullet. arshavin was nowhere to be seen before that goal, but that one goal is enough to condemn us to another defeat.

It was deflected by the crossbar into the net, eh? I think Reina didn't even bother to jump, thinking that it went out of play but it actually deflected in.

deflected in by the post, but it's not like it took a lucky deflection of any defender's leg or arm. i won't call it a lucky deflection, for reference of lucky deflections, we can browse through lampard's goals.

Anybody notices how Gerrard sulked (Again!) in the 2nd half? It's worrying enough that he seems to be doubting Rafa, but what's worse is he can't be arsed with the way his team is playing. As usual, the only person that's giving motivation straight after the OG was Reina. Some kind of captain we've got there. Nobody's bigger than the club and while Rafa takes most of the blame, Gerrard has to shoulder some responsibility as well.

Actually Arsenal wasn't a lot better in the 2nd half - 2 half-chances and 2 goals - instead we sat back. and invited pressure The drive that the players had in the 1st half was suddenly gone and after the OG, the entire team was clueless.

The pace of the ball meant that even Reina had a second headstart, he wouldn't have saved it.

Yeah..Not really a lucky strike but a pretty good strike.I just felt bad for Reina though I'm sure not much keeper can save that.

actually, if you see how our players performed after conceding the two goals, by comparison the arsenal kids are much more better still.

players were somewhat halfhearted in challenges, i'm not impressed especially at moments when we're supposed to be keeping the ball and build up attacks, poor touches led to conceding possession, and we ended up chasing their players again.

haiz... really sad lo... when our CBs inconsistency fixed liao now the other parts need to be serviced...

The problem is that while we are trying our level best to be systematic and efficient, we are moving further away from becoming ruthless? Why? It's simple. To be ruthless, it requires that you gamble to an extent. It means that after you score a goal, you don't start giving your opponent the ball, daring them to attack you. Adopting a "break us down if you can" mentality is in itself, risky business as well. It means you go for the jugular. When you've hit one past your opponent and he's shaken, go in for the quick fill. Don't let up. Time and time again, we let our opponents compose themselves, allowing them time to get into their rhythm.

Some seasons ago under Houllier, Ferguson commented that if you want to score against Liverpool, you need to run at them. Back then we had two defensive rocks in Hyypia and Henchoz but a big factor to why we were so miserly at the back, was because we often played with 11 men in our own half, with our midfielders dropping back to the 20 yard line. It's the same problem we're having now. How uncomfortable do we look each time we're having to defend a quick counterattack. It's not uncommon to see us at our sixes and sevens even if we're defending against 3 players who steam towards goal. It's encouraging to see two of our players crowding out and opponent but this also means, we're left exposed somewhere. Some of you may have noticed that we're often caught out when the ball is played across our goal, because our defence gets dragged to either end, resulting in there being an exposed opponent on the far end.

Liverpool season gone liao 2 months ago ....
Or was it when Alonso packed his bags and headed to RM?

haizzzz ... this supposed to be Liverpool's season ... haizzzz

Sigh, I don't think only Johnson was doing badly yesterday but our skipper wasn't up to par also. His morale was definitely affected much after Gallas' foul on him to gain the team a penalty was denied. I think both our centrebacks did well. Sell Gerard, 30M is ours

I still stick with what I said. Drop those undroppable.1st to drop, Kuyt!

Besides the goal, he did nothing.

Haihz...Alonso again...Yesterday Liverpool also play very good lah. They reduced our usual possession from 60-70% to 50% which is a very good achievement. Kinda surprising Liverpool can play possession football too.

the main passing problem Liverpool has is nobody come to support if team-mate having ball at his feet. Everybody shouting for long accurate pass... this is what i noticed.

There's no use dealing with the attacking issue(be it holding ball or supporting teammates in attack) when the problem lies on the lapse of concentration in defense.We had been leading for several matches and still ended up losing all of them.Where's the problem?Defense, obviously.

And it's not like we have players dominating aerially. So, I don't see the point of passing long ball forwards and let Torres to latch on the ball. Unless, opponent's defender makes mistakes leading to goal But Torres missed a 1 on 1 chance yesterday

Unless we deal with the
1.morale
2.Confidence
3.concentration

of players, I can't see us winning any games.

if you cant hold the ball long enough it means giving away possession which ended up being attacked and the back 4 will be punished... who's fault?? defend??
for me all parts have to share the blame. for my eyes, i dont like the passing play Liverpool adapting right now...
asyik2 passing kat defender... then balloon... hilang possession.... backfoot again....

i think we are suffering from the good old score-first-switch-off syndrome. we were all over the cockney kiddies in the 1st half and really should have put the game to the bed.. but we didn't.

we have lost many points due to this.. hopefully we can sort this asap.

come on lads , We are liverpool. We don't blame the refs.
Rafa did not blame , the players did not , the staff did not.

On another note, please CARRA stop pumping the damn ball up in to the air everytime u hold the ball. FFS.

we are tend to lose the 2nd half on most of the games