They were good, but it’s fair to say that we were also very poor in the second half today.
Their goals were far too easy, well worked from their point of view but you simply don’t stand a chance in a game like this if you give the opponent that much space to operate him. The first goal in particular, every Liverpool player in that phase of play seemed to be in an acre of space. We were never going to match them on quality but we at least had to scrap and make things as difficult as possible for them, we fell short in the second half today.
As for the players, not too many positives but-
-felt like Christie showed moments of quality and worked his socks off.
-Hill certainly acquitted himself well and can be proud of his afternoons work.
-Aarons looked a threat going forward, a real shame that he has picked up another injury.
-Moore looked lively when he came on, yes the game had gone by that point but at least he showed good movement and posed them a threat.
-Brooks also looked lively when he came on, despite the missed sitter. His big problem is that he doesn’t provide any defensive cover to his full back.
The negative performers:
There were quite a few but some particularly stood out today-
-Neto. For the love of God just come off of your goal line man. It’s like he’s playing the hokey cokey every time a ball is whipped in anywhere near his six yard box, starts to come out then quickly scampers back towards his goal line. We have a very bad set piece record since promotion, and I think he has been a big factor in this. He needs to show authority and command his box in certain situations but he just doesn’t.
-Mepham. Very weak performance in the second half, he was always going to struggle against the pace of their attack but he even got physically dominated by a player who must be close to a foot smaller than him (Jota) in the second half today. Just can’t be bullied like that.
-Cook. Has been very good this season but today he was way off of it. His quality in the ball was nowhere near the level required, passed to Liverpool players more often than our own it felt like at times.