Anfield Red

After Liverpool lost to Lyon 2-1 last night at Anfield; what do you think went wrong?

Do you think it was the formation, the players, the lack of atmosphere, the injury to Gerrard or was it a combination of all of these things that cost Liverpool the win?

When we have Gerrard and Torres fit, the 4-2-3-1 works wonders in some matches, however when one or both of them are missing I can’t help but wonder why there is no change in tactics? Babel could have come on in place of Gerrard and we could have gone 4-4-2 with either Babel and Ngog or Ngog and Kuyt, rather than sticking with the same formation that obviously wasn’t working too well?

One of the main talking points of any defeat is always Lucas and how he does nothing to shape a game. People say he had a solid match, or how his passing stats are so high, yet when does he do anything other than a simple 4/5 yard pass to Mascherano or our full backs (the majority of the time whn they have a player on their backs). Having read Tim Vickery singing the praises of Lucas by saying:

“He’s an exciting player of a type that Brazilian football hasn’t produced too many of recently. Of late their central midfielders have tended to be ‘holders’ who sit and allow the full-backs to push forward.

Lucas is different. He’s a big, blonde figure whose power and physical strength comes with attacking ability.

He can pass well and loves to rumble forward. He gets on the scoresheet both with blistering shots from range and from bursting beyond the strikers.

You can certainly imagine him playing alongside Javier Mascherano, for example.” You can’t help but feel disappointed when we see time and time again him having little to no impact on a game. When have we seen this physical strength, attacking ability or seen him “rumble foward”? Fans who love to get behind the team no matter what will say “he had a great game against Newcastle where we won 5-1″ but he can’t ride on one game last season for the rest of his career; there’s no way he’d be getting as many games for Arsenal/Chelsea/Manc scum/Villa so why is he a regular in our starting 11?

Few players did well last night so maybe it is a bit harsh to aim criticism at Lucas, but something needs to change and fast, and if we had someone better in that position I have no doubt we’d start winning games.