Houller Sums Up Team's Performance at Blackburn

[alanclare]

The team did not fully comprehend the demands of playing a team of scrappers and certainly did not relish it.

"The performance against Manchester United needs to be repeated if you want to step up a level," Houllier said. "We were too shy at the beginning. It's a different challenge physically and mentally, and today maybe we were not up to it. As a team we have to show more personality and more character."

"Keep humble - everything is tight. I don't think we gave a fair account of ourselves. But when you have a young team, you have to accept there will be god sides and bad sides. Let's not complain about anybody except ourselves and turn to the next game, against Arsenal."

[deero83]

Spot on, but he needs to drill this kind of analysis into the players!

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Patience is the name of the game, when we get the crocked players back and a couple of new players in January, things will look much brighter.

Houllier knows what needs to be done and he has the ability and nous to do it.

[Bosco81]

Patience is the name of the game, when we get the crocked players back and a couple of new players in January, things will look much brighter.

Houllier knows what needs to be done and he has the ability and nous to do it.

Patience is the name of the game for full backs as well, stop diving in Warnock FFS, the likes of Hogg and Bannan don't deserve to be judged on yesterday when the more experienced players let them down.

[darren woolley]

It was allways going to be an hard match without so many players we have got to try and play like we did against Manure then we will be ok.   Roll on january get a couple of players in and the injured back then we will be fine.

[villasjf]

I feel sorry for anyone who has a No 9 Irleand shirt oh his back what a waste of money.As for the real Ireland errrr what a waste, as someone stated on the match thread an oxygen thief and waste of rations. I doubt he will be losing sleep over his inept performances though.

[Phil from the upper holte]

I feel sorry for anyone who has a No 9 Irleand shirt oh his back what a waste of money.As for the real Ireland errrr what a waste, as someone stated on the match thread an oxygen thief and waste of rations. I doubt he will be losing sleep over his inept performances though.

I would be surpised if anyone has 9 & Ireland on the back, the shirts have only just come out and we've seen him play! might have been a different story in August

[Phil from the upper holte]

If Downing and & Young had scored would have been a different story, would have been 2 up before they scored in the 47th min!!

Was a far cry from Man u performace, You just don't know what team is going to turn up

[Gareth]

Its a worry that we looked so vulnerable at set pieces to be bullied....I know we are stronger when Collins is on the field but teams are going to use that against us from now on......exactly the same tactic as we used to use against others.

I think I would rather we were a dirty team than one who constantly give away niggly free kicks in the areas that Warnock did yesterday and ALbrighton did against Fulham....points wasted via discipline

[Bosco81]

Its a worry that we looked so vulnerable at set pieces to be bullied....I know we are stronger when Collins is on the field but teams are going to use that against us from now on......exactly the same tactic as we used to use against others.

I think I would rather we were a dirty team than one who constantly give away niggly free kicks in the areas that Warnock did yesterday and ALbrighton did against Fulham....points wasted via discipline

We do miss Cuellar and Heskey for defending set pieces, Heskey used to clear at the near post a fair few times a game, and Cuellar was an extra body defending and a threat from our set pieces.

[alanclare]

I feel sorry for anyone who has a No 9 Irleand shirt oh his back what a waste of money.As for the real Ireland errrr what a waste, as someone stated on the match thread an oxygen thief and waste of rations. I doubt he will be losing sleep over his inept performances though.

Tony Cascarino writing in today's Times says of Ireland:

"Good gig he's had for the past year, earning a fortune for doing almost nothing. Has he given up on club football as well as Ireland? Quiet again yesterday. The next Winston Bogarde?"

[Dribbler]

Psychologically speaking, conceeding the first goal when we did was the worst time to conceed. Most players' heads would drop after that, but it affects young players more. We played some nice football at times, unfortunately for the most part it was nice, but ineffective football. It kind of reminded me of a bad Arsenal performance, lots of fancy passing triangles but not really going anywhere and lacking any real penetration, and of course, struggling with the physical strength of the opposition. 

[TimTheVillain]

With Gabby still not fit, we don't have a striker.

That must take a lot of confidence away from the rest of the team ?

No excuse for how shit we were yesterday mind you.

[jembob]

With Gabby still not fit, we don't have a striker.

That must take a lot of confidence away from the rest of the team ?

No excuse for how shit we were yesterday mind you.

I don't think that anybody has made excuses for a change but there are certainly a number of mitigating circumstances. Our main problems yesterday were caused by the injury list, lack of experience and allowing some of our more experienced players (Warnock) to get drawn into Big Sam's tactics. You really need experience to handle Blackburn and it was a bit much to expect Messrs Clarke, Bannan, Hogg and Herd to know what to expect.

Having thought about it for a day I would say that I'm disappointed in a couple of senior players and we were suckered rather than 'shit'. Hopefully a worthwhile learning experience for some of our players that will prepare them for the next game.

[nick harper]

Psychologically speaking, conceeding the first goal when we did was the worst time to conceed. Most players' heads would drop after that, but it affects young players more. We played some nice football at times, unfortunately for the most part it was nice, but ineffective football. It kind of reminded me of a bad Arsenal performance, lots of fancy passing triangles but not really going anywhere and lacking any real penetration, and of course, struggling with the physical strength of the opposition. 

If it had been 0-0 at half time as it should have been, I still think were the most likely winners. Warnock's tackle was unprofessional and he let his team and manager down.

Blackburn were difficult to break down in the second half as they had something to defend. Playing counter-attacking football in the second half at 0-0 would have given us every chance.