roonst83

Correct.

The City result was big for us but I do wonder if, tactically, it's much easier or straight forward for Gerrard to prime the players to sit back and try counter. Obviously the opposition is world class but the nature of defending for your lives and picking them off if you're still in the game, could be argued, is easier to set up. Leicester poses a conundrum for Gerrard as he'll have to weigh up how much we "go for it" by bringing in more creative players, against nullifying the opposition as we did well last week. I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar set up to how we started against City but bring in Countinho/Buendia earlier in the second half if it's still tight.

Big big result that is. Way more than most expected. All credit to Gerrard for executing his game plan. We actually had a game plan. Was refreshing. Every player, to a man, was excellent tonight but special mentions to Ashley Young and Ollie Watkins, both of whom I’ve been openly critical about. Watkins worked tirelessly up front and grew in confidence as the game went on. Young was absolutely brilliant. Really really pleased with his output and performance tonight. You could evidently see this team grow in confidence today. The belief and confidence increased throughout and all credit to the players for that. We reduced a brilliant City team to fairly little in the way of clear chances which we deserve great credit for. What I admired most was how hungry and aggressive we looked to get back into the game and, critically, how positive we were in searching for the winner afterwards. We all felt together, fans as well as players and coaches. And the players definitely seemed driven to succeed for the manager tonight. Really proud. I like the look of Boo Boo and Luiz together, as we’ve been wanting for ages. Offers us more protection of the defence as both can use the ball very well and Boo’s reading of the game is exemplary. JJ is always way more effective for us when driving forwards. I was at Palace and he barely ventured into their half. He needs to be further up the pitch where his strength, tenacity and drive is a real force for us. We looked better without McGinn too. We all love the guy but he needs rotating and with the addition of Dendonker I expect (hope) that to be the case. There’ll be games which suit McGinn more than others - and same goes for other players too - so we should rotate more where we can. Gerrard’s post match interview on Sky was enlightening as he openly said he’s had to ask himself questions and ask himself how he can change things. This is possibly the most important quotation I’ve heard from him. He, and we, need to be able to flex, change and learn all the time. This has to be the start of a more positive time for us all and we have to take the positives and confidence from tonight into the next two games, and beyond to start representing ourselves more accurately. Long way to go but tonight was big. And after a few weeks of feeling dire it’s nice to feel positive about us again. Long may that continue.

Was waiting for this. The guy can finish no question. But I stand by the fact he’s too weak and I never see him beat a man. Lovely finish tonight.

See above image from Twitter.

Only we could sign a player who's out injured with a sore throat.

This has all the feelings of that dreaded day a couple of seasons ago when Danny Drinkwater made his horror show debut. The whole club seems to be lacking confidence and belief ion themselves, from the manager and channeled through the players. And we've got such a weak mentality at the moment too. I'm expecting a battering to be honest. Haarland will just destroy us. I usually have more faith in a better performance playing these at home rather than away. But this isn't the case this weekend. At best I'm hopeful of a decent performance to build some degree of confidence, but it all feels like it's gone too far right now and until we lose the manager I can't see anything improving.

I hope so mate. But he doesn't seem to be able to take a player on which worries me as a winger. Hopefully a better coach can bring the best out of him as we were all so excited when he arrived.

Looks more interested. But really doesn’t look equipped to ever cause a threat in this league.

There’s just absolutely zero signs of improvement.

At least we’ll have something to play for during Spring.

Flattering scoreline. Should’ve been dead and buried by half time. We lack any belief in ourselves, both throughout the game but especially when we score. Such a weak mentality and that’s driven by the head coach. Forget the transfer deadline day. We need a new manager way more than we need a new player

Agree that he's the most naturally suited captain. The decision to remove him as captain was completely unnecessary as smacked of Gerrard wanting to put his own stamp on things without any sound reason. The captaincy wasn't broken so didn't need fixing.

Without wanting to speak for all, I felt the general consensus about Mings was a lot of fans felt we could do with better to achieve our ambitions of pushing for Europe, but most would also agree that the current set up/team is stronger with him in it. For me there's usually a divide between those that see him as a calamity waiting to happen and those that see him a a strong leader. For me, the two aren't mutually exclusive. He is both of these things. He makes calamitous mistakes and loses focus, but leads up well from the back and can also play great.

We go again. Sadly.

The saddest thing about today was the sheer inevitably about it.

Agree with this. Spot on with this summary.

My real fear here is that I’m not sure Gerrard will have “found out” the way they’ve been playing and be able to capitalise on it. Whereas we’ve shown we’re easily found out by the likes of Bournemouth who comfortably beat us. Moyes must be licking his lips at the prospect of facing us to turn their fortunes around.

Enjoyed watching that. Poor first half but it was a competitive opening 45 mins. Our gulf in class showed second half but credit to Bolton for pushing us. Just how a cup tie should be. We were much improved after the break and took complete control. Thought McGinn was a weak spot for us. Just seems very imbalanced with him in the middle for us. Like having Kamara and Luiz in the middle as it provides more protection for the defence without the ball and should allow for some freedom and roaming for the #8 with the ball. We’re still light in terms of strength in the middle of the park but I liked how we matched their effort and we weren’t out fought as we were in our other two away fixtures this season. In the next round of the cup and ran out convincing so content with that. Game probably makes zero difference on what will be a typically very tough game on Sunday but enjoyed it tonight and pleased we gave the travelling support, and us back home, something to cheer.

Arsenal will utterly ruin us.

Result was completely expected. The Everton game papered over the cracks. Only annoyance is getting our hopes up after taking the lead. No cohesion. No game plan. No idea. No togetherness. No team spirit. No chance. Have absolutely zero faith we have the right coach to progress us.

Always looks decent to me, no idea why he hasn't featured much (other than injuries).

I feel Palace would punish us more than Everton did the other day given the opportunities they had. We need them to come right at us and not sit back as we find it too hard to break teams down if they sit back. Palace, I don't think, will sit back.

Won away and drew at home at the end of the season.

I do find myself questioning if Bailey can take a player on. That’s what I was most excited about when he joined. But he really seems to struggle to get past a man and also seems too weak for this division. He’s best used for us in games where the play is stretched and open as he has space. Otherwise, like the us as a team in general, he struggles to break a team/opponent down.