Topic: Mansfield Town 1-2 Liverpool - Round Table

[StevenLFC]

*Warning - this post may contain some FA Cup clichés *

It could have been a banana skin, but we won. It was a typical cup tie, one that truly brought to light the true romance of the FA Cup...blah, blah, pitch was a leveller, blah, blah, blah, so many places between the sides, blah blah, David v Gooliath....


Right, enough of that crap. Let's get down to it. It was a strange game really. We started so well, and Sturridge scored a very good goal. We should have killed the game first half, we had so many chances but didn't convert. They started the second half really well and deserved an equaliser but Suarez scored a perfect, simple non-contentious goal and things looked fine and dandy. They showed fight and got a deserved goal but we hung on.


So, let's get this discussion going.


The starting eleven, was you happy with it?


Sturridge's debut, how do you feel he did?


Suarez. Hero or villain?

[Corkboy]

I didn't really get to see this properly but I like following the spin. Sky used to be awful for it, back in the days of Rafa, picking an agenda and riding it for all it was worth. ITV have the rights for this competition, and I watched the game on an awful stream with the ITV commentary, which was strident ("cheat") on the handball incident. Oh dear, I thought. Is this to be the spin? Suarez as arch villain, oh, he has form, don't you know?

And so it was that I sat down for the ITV highlights, and was pleasantly surprised. The Mansfield manager was classy and fair on the subject, as well as being complimentary to Luis, Strachan went as far as to compare the matter to blocking a shot or, weirdly, parking on double yellow lines and even our own manager openly acknowledged the handball but asked for and got an explanation. Overall, no real negative spin and no demonisation.

Edit: spoke too soon. The fuckwad presenter just signed off the entire programme by comparing Suarez to Maradona. I despair.

[Azi]

I didn't really get to see this properly but I like following the spin. Sky used to be awful for it, back in the days of Rafa, picking an agenda and riding it for all it was worth. ITV have the rights for this competition, and I watched the game on an awful stream with the ITV commentary, which was strident ("cheat") on the handball incident. Oh dear, I thought. Is this to be the spin? Suarez as arch villain, oh, he has form, don't you know?

And so it was that I sat down for the ITV highlights, and was pleasantly surprised. The Mansfield manager was classy and fair on the subject, as well as being complimentary to Luis, Strachan went as far as to compare the matter to blocking a shot or, weirdly, parking on double yellow lines and even our own manager openly acknowledged the handball but asked for and got an explanation. Overall, no real negative spin and no demonisation.

Edit: spoke too soon. The fuckwad presenter just signed off the entire programme by comparing Suarez to Maradona. I despair.

to be fair some of the runs our suarez goes on only maradona could do 

[Zeb]

The thing which struck me about the team when I saw it initially was how young it was. Average age of under 24 even with Carra in there. Given the level of opposition it seemed fair enough, we've sent similarly young teams into Eastern Europe over recent seasons, but it showed a lot of trust in some very young men when you consider this was the big giant killing of the weekend waiting to happen should they fall short. Don't think we'll see that centreback pairing too often out of choice - and really Green's performance in particular, and Mansfield's overall, in the second half kind of highlighted why that would be for me. The temptation for both of them seems to be to drop deeper and deeper and, from comfortably controlling the match, you go to digging in round the six yard box to defend.

The pitch was poor, as was expected, and the bobbles made it difficult to play passing football. But we dominated the first half playing our way, and we really should have had a comfortable cushion going into halftime. Credit to Mansfield for coming out the way they did second half, they pushed us back by threatening to outpace Coates and Carra, and we ended up exceptionally deep and playing on the counter. You wouldn't have thought that was the gameplan for the second half so it wasn't really particularly well done by us to get into that situation. Still you pour on the cliches about character and cup matches and take the result, don't you? Thought Brad Jones did a decent job in that kind of situation yet again.

Do like the look of Sturridge. Thought we'd see him at some point but wasn't expecting him to start, and he started well. You got a glimpse of what he offers with his desire to get behind the defence and onto the end of intelligent passes into space. Two months without football before today wasn't it? So needs a bit more oil on the hinges if he's going to get the dance right, but it was an encouraging beginning.

Suarez has got all the headlines. It's too easy a story for the press not to run with. That the officials ruled that he did not deliberately handle the ball will go largely unmentioned apart from a few pockets of the press who'll not try to fit it into the 'Suarez the cheat' narrative. The ball hitting your hand has never been an automatic foul. Even if you get an advantage from it, it's still not an automatic foul. Same goes for the penalty claims which never were. Has a new directive gone out from the referees' guild on this after some pretty farcical decisions given this season? Who knows, but Suarez will take a hell of a lot of flak for this, and he's done absolutely nothing wrong other than play to the whistle. It's frustrating but I'm at the stage where I'm just laughing at it now. How can you have a football press which doesn't know what deliberate handling of the ball means and shifts the referee's decision onto the player?

[PhaseOfPlay]

The thing which struck me about the team when I saw it initially was how young it was. Average age of under 24 even with Carra in there. Given the level of opposition it seemed fair enough, we've sent similarly young teams into Eastern Europe over recent seasons, but it showed a lot of trust in some very young men when you consider this was the big giant killing of the weekend waiting to happen should they fall short. Don't think we'll see that centreback pairing too often out of choice - and really Green's performance in particular, and Mansfield's overall, in the second half kind of highlighted why that would be for me. The temptation for both of them seems to be to drop deeper and deeper and, from comfortably controlling the match, you go to digging in round the six yard box to defend.


The pitch was poor, as was expected, and the bobbles made it difficult to play passing football. But we dominated the first half playing our way, and we really should have had a comfortable cushion going into halftime. Credit to Mansfield for coming out the way they did second half, they pushed us back by threatening to outpace Coates and Carra, and we ended up exceptionally deep and playing on the counter. You wouldn't have thought that was the gameplan for the second half so it wasn't really particularly well done by us to get into that situation. Still you pour on the cliches about character and cup matches and take the result, don't you? Thought Brad Jones did a decent job in that kind of situation yet again.

Do like the look of Sturridge. Thought we'd see him at some point but wasn't expecting him to start, and he started well. You got a glimpse of what he offers with his desire to get behind the defence and onto the end of intelligent passes into space. Two months without football before today wasn't it? So needs a bit more oil on the hinges if he's going to get the dance right, but it was an encouraging beginning.

Suarez has got all the headlines. It's too easy a story for the press not to run with. That the officials ruled that he did not deliberately handle the ball will go largely unmentioned apart from a few pockets of the press who'll not try to fit it into the 'Suarez the cheat' narrative. The ball hitting your hand has never been an automatic foul. Even if you get an advantage from it, it's still not an automatic foul. Same goes for the penalty claims which never were. Has a new directive gone out from the referees' guild on this after some pretty farcical decisions given this season? Who knows, but Suarez will take a hell of a lot of flak for this, and he's done absolutely nothing wrong other than play to the whistle. It's frustrating but I'm at the stage where I'm just laughing at it now. How can you have a football press which doesn't know what deliberate handling of the ball means and shifts the referee's decision onto the player?

From what I could see (and I had to watch highlights - missed the actual game for a game of my own), they played a 4-1-4-1 formation and were quite direct. This played into our hands in terms of formation, but we didn't make the best use of it. By a simple change of the midfield roles to make our central midfield a 2-1 rather than a 1-2, we could cover all of the zones in midfield that their players occupied, our fullbacks could push up on their outside midfielders to keep them restricted (direct teams tend to play in straight lines), and Downing and Suso could push up on their fullbacks to prevent the long pass down the line. In fact, in some respects, with a lower-level team playing a direct game like Mansfield, often a good strategy is to LET them have the ball, with the gameplan of high pressure, knowing that within 3-5 touches they will give you the ball back under pressure, and close to their own goal too, giving the possession a higher starting point, and the earliest possibility for disrupting their defensive shape:



Instead, we saw Coates and Carra drop, Lucas and Allen unable to assert themselves on the game, Shelvey is not an imposing type of player defensively, and Downing and Suso in the start of the second half at least still playing as orthodox wing forwards. With Mansfield's second half motivation boost evident from the start, it meant that we played ourselves into a pressure situation from the start, we weren't able to get composed possession like we've seen recently.




Yet again, though, a direct pressuring team caused us some problems. The key thing is that this team was from several levels below who we normally play, but we also played with a different defensive line-up, so clearly there are system issues that need to be worked out (of all four potential central defenders, Carra and Coates have to be the most "suitable" for a team playing direct, but they were still under pressure in some of Mansfield's attacks). As it was, though, we dropped back, allowed the Mansfield pressure to dominate our central spaces, and made a tricky game even trickier than it needed to be. In all, Mansfield would have been worth a draw and a replay, but we did show some grit and determination over the course of the second half, and the ability to bring on a Suarez as a substitute was nice to have. Sturridge looks good for a rusty player coming off an injury. He definitely has an eye for the spaces behind defenders, and when you think of the runs that Suarez makes with the ball, the off-ball running of Downing, and the way Sterling attracts players to him as the ball approaches him, you can start to see possibilities for patterns of play that will release Sturridge into space where he will do damage.

[royhendo]

No bad thing to be compared to Maradona!

Only one thing, cliche wise. That's cup football - the later rounds can bring the pretty stuff. We won. That's mostly what we've been complaining about at times - "we almost didnt win". But we did win.

Thought Sturridge showed what he'll add from the off. Beyond that, we betrayed our youth a little - if you've high falutin ideas about playing football on the deck, keep it out of the quagmire lads!

[royhendo]

Highlight was the Brendan / L6 Red Zaphod Beeblebrox impersonation just before half time.

[PhaseOfPlay]

No bad thing to be compared to Maradona!

Only one thing, cliche wise. That's cup football - the later rounds can bring the pretty stuff. We won. That's mostly what we've been complaining about at times - "we almost didnt win". But we did win.

Thought Sturridge showed what he'll add from the off. Beyond that, we betrayed our youth a little - if you've high falutin ideas about playing football on the deck, keep it out of the quagmire lads!

There's a story about Cruyff and Ajax playing a game against a team on a rain-soaked pitch, and they deliberately played the ball into certain areas of the field knowing the ball would stick but the opposition defenders would keep running expecting the ball to travel. The Ajax players would just knock the ball out of the sticky patch and use the space the other team gave them with their running for a ball that wasn't getting there.

Now THAT'S game intelligence!

[Gnurglan]

The starting eleven, was you happy with it?
Sturridge's debut, how do you feel he did?
Suarez. Hero or villain?

Starting eleven, thought it was a good mix of players. Would have liked to see Sahin, but that's about it. Before the game, many wanted to throw in half the Academy, but I've never understood the point with that. Surely the whole purpose is to let some of the young players play with more experienced ones? That's how they'll learn. It was an opportunity to mix it up and we took it. Well done, Rodgers.
As it turned out, Robinson got to play with more experienced CBs, Suso was trusted to play a bigger role. That's the right way. And Sturridge got his debut and Lucas was given another game. Couldn't have asked for much more.

Thought Sturridge did well. His only fault was he scored a couple of minutes too fast for me. Didn't have my stream up and running in time. Just wondering if he's the one who has scored the earliest in his LFC career. 7 minutes must be high up the list.

Suarez... what can you say? Yes, it was a clear handball and it shouldn't have been a goal. Was it intentional etc? The ref gave us the decision and I won't complain. After all the penalties we should have had this season, maybe we got one key decision back here. I'd just like to add that I think Mansfield have every reason to be disappointed with the ref for the call. Had it been against us, I know I would have been.

Sounds good so far, but we should have closed the game better than we did. This was a Conference side and as much as they're up for it in front of their home crowd, we fielded a strong side. And we allowed them to get back in the game. We must have known that they'd look for set pieces from everywhere. And they got them. I believe we should have been able to keep the ball further away from our goal. We got some opportunities to counter-attack, but we should have been in control. All season we've said that we should keep possession and control the game. We play Mansfield away, and then we sit back, counter-attack and let them play to their strengths. Pretty much the last thing we should have done. I feel we could have done better there. In the end, we won and we got the job done.

[Gnurglan]

Yet again, though, a direct pressuring team caused us some problems. The key thing is that this team was from several levels below who we normally play, but we also played with a different defensive line-up, so clearly there are system issues that need to be worked out (of all four potential central defenders, Carra and Coates have to be the most "suitable" for a team playing direct, but they were still under pressure in some of Mansfield's attacks). As it was, though, we dropped back, allowed the Mansfield pressure to dominate our central spaces, and made a tricky game even trickier than it needed to be. In all, Mansfield would have been worth a draw and a replay, but we did show some grit and determination over the course of the second half, and the ability to bring on a Suarez as a substitute was nice to have. Sturridge looks good for a rusty player coming off an injury. He definitely has an eye for the spaces behind defenders, and when you think of the runs that Suarez makes with the ball, the off-ball running of Downing, and the way Sterling attracts players to him as the ball approaches him, you can start to see possibilities for patterns of play that will release Sturridge into space where he will do damage.

Agree about Sturridge. Borini and Sterling have also shown they can use that space. That's been one of the best things this season. Those runs, even Downing is beginning to make them now, I think that's what we were missing last season. And I think it's a key reason to why Suarez has scored more. Can't see a direct link there, but I believe we get better movement in our attacks and that it's what helps Suarez. Somehow.

The thing about direct sides, why is it that we can't deal with it better? I'd agree that it's system related. Can't be anything else when even Mansfield can cause us problems, can it? But is that it? Put the CBs closer together, let the CMs drop a little to create a tight block in the center. I still think we should have handled things better than we did. Is it the players we have? Is it about mentality? Is it perhaps about lack of help from the front three, so the balls are allowed to be played in the first place? How should we try and fix it, long term?

[Yorkykopite]

In the first half we imposed our game on them. In the second half they imposed our game on us. By the end we were every bit as agricultural as Mansfield. Not a single Liverpool player was thinking about passing the ball in the last five minutes. Even Lucas Leiva was just lumping it. You have to love the FA Cup! It's always great to see royalty behaving like peasants.

I guess the reason the English cup is better than any other in the world is that no club that enters the competition is actually daunted by any of the other teams in the hat. Call it 'British spirit' and 'never say die' if you like. It does exist. We have it in spades over here and it's a quality that can get you a long way on very little. Mansfield had precious little technique but they were filled with enormous self-belief. Hard running, a willingness to get hurt and a succession of long throws and high kicks into the penalty box ensured that this would be a gruelling test for Liverpool and not a one-way street of domination. Add the muddy pitch (and how odd that the muddy tracts were in the inside right and left positions and not the penalty areas), a demented home crowd and star quality in someone called Radford and it was (almost) Hereford v Newcastle again.

Sturridge looked good. Beautifully balanced, even on that slag heap, and full of enterprising running. Jack Robinson played well until the last quarter and Brad Jones showed once again that he's a capable replacement for Pepe. Shelvey had a decent first half but proved an utter failure in front of goal again, while poor Lucas and Allen struggled with a succession of shocking passes from Carragher at the back. I'd rather Jamie hoof the thing than try and pick out his midfielders. Carragher defended his 6-yard box extremely well but it's the only bit of the pitch that he's capable of defending now. Anywhere there is space he's going to get picked off - easy. He knows it too, hence his extraordinary decision to retreat to his own goal and allow the Mansfield centre-forward a free strike on goal in the first half. Good save by Jones by the way.

Our second goal should not have stood but to call it "the work of a cheat" as Jon Champion did is almost actionable. Only someone with a poisoned mind and/or zero experience of actually playing ball games could come up with that phrase. Suarez was simply unable to get out of the way of the ricochet as any fair-minded person watching the replay at real speed can see. Still photographs show that he's scrunched his hand into a fist at the point of contact - a lousy way to control the ball and a sign of someone trying to make his hand smaller to avoid contact with the ball. Should he have owned up? Course he should. And every player on the pitch should be equipped with a whistle to blow when the ref misses something.

[MichaelA]

Games like that turn a squad into a team. The line up had a flavour of the 'suck it and see' Europa League approach that Brendan used in the early rounds, and just like those games, we've scraped through and earned a C- for the performance. At this stage of his progress, I hardly care about performance, as long as we get a result.

Sturridge will have enjoyed an early goal, I expect that we will see more sooner rather than later. It always augurs well for confidence for a striker to notch early on.

Luis is clearly a heroic talent, and the Maradona comparisons are an interesting comparison, but I think our man is fitter and has a better attitude to his physical well being

Opposition players and managers must have sleepless nights before they face him - he's world class, and would walk into every Premier League First Eleven. His character reminds me of Graeme Souness - ferociously competitive, aggressive and a bit rough around the edges. I don't especially like him as a person but I bloody love him as a player for us.

[Aristotle]

Only watched this on a dodgy stream so I can't really judge too much about the game itself. One thing I noticed that I don't know how much is to do with Rodgers and/or Peters coming in. But there seems to be a change in mentality in the players that us the supporters haven't gotten around to. In the previous games we've had so many 'classic Liverpool concede' moments that haven't actually come to anything. There seems to be an inherent belief in this side that's been missing for too long. We're not as scared of making mistakes as we were. And there is, and granted this isn't the most scientific of terms, a hint of the spirit of 'Fuck you, we're Liverpool' about the squad. Yes there was the Benteke disaster but that still feels like an anomily. And Stoke doesn't count for the same reason that Jersey Shore exists, some people just don't know any better. I can't really put my finger on it but there doesn't seem to be the same thing as before. It's very subtle - and as Yorky pointed out in the FA Cup teams always go out thinking they can win. But at least for us there's a subtle difference. Downing (despite a few moments where he didn't want the ball) actually took on players believing that he was much better than they were. There were a few occasions where he could've scored himself or gotten an assist if Shelvey could actually sprint. Again whisper it quietly but there is a subtle difference. That brief moment of hesitation where you can just see it in the attackers that our goal shrinks before their eyes and it widens in ours. It isn't much, but there is a noticable difference.

[Corkboy]

On the continuing saga of news and spin, this is the back page of the Times today.

[stara]

ESPN have issued a statement regarding the comments Jon Champion made about Suarez.




“We take our responsibility to deliver the highest standards of coverage to our viewers. ESPN’s editorial policy is for commentators to be unbiased and honest, to call things as they see them. Inevitably this can involve treading a fine line on occasion, especially in the heat of the moment. Comments during the Mansfield v Liverpool match caused offence where none was intended and we have spoken to our commentator about this incident.”

[kkjellquist]

Was happy with Sturridge considering it was his first time in the squad, coming off injury, and not playing regularly for quite some time.  He probably should have had the second and put the game out of reach early.  I'm looking forward to more of him!  It was obvious he was extremely happy to open his LFC account immediately and get it out of the way.  Hopefully he gets his first league goal for us this weekend. 

[Cadno]

I thought we caused ourselves a lot of problems with the lack of pace in the CB position and how deep we sat because of this.  Carra and Coates individually were good in recovering but I really do feel it was them that caused us the problems to begin with. 

Sturridge looked alright, a change of pace and a directness gives great hope for him.

The Suarez stuff is quite interesting, whilst there is a fair bit of negative headlines the gist of most of the articles is that he did little wrong.  The tide is shifting with Suarez he is winning people over, of course they will try and get a little mileage out of these sort of incidents but the tone is moving from "that nasty little foreigner" to "Suarez the lovable rogue"

[johnsmithlfc]

Suarez. Hero or villain?

I don't think he's either, he's just a great player who will do anything for his team and anything to win.
There are elements to his game I wish weren't there but to be honest, that's more a criticism and reflection on modern day football rather than Suarez personally....he just plays the game as it is nowadays.

Whatever he does is irrelevant frankly.... He's passionate, tireless, committed and has the desire and drive to want to score in every game and to win in every game.

If only every LFC player showed the same passion and grit.

[robgomm]

Good post by Phase of Play there. We still aren't coping very well with high pressure, which is exactly what we will face at United you'd have thought. We will have to be bold there and sharp in our passing. We also need to be more organised in our pressing I think, we don't seem to press consistently.

Re: Suarez, there are two points at issue. One is that the player has a responsibility to play to the rules in the spirit of fair play; the other is that if they don't, the ref is responsible for dealing with it. Players stopping to tell the ref about a foul they committed would generally be a frustration, not a help. I'd have applauded Suarez if he did tell the ref but it's not his job to. He should not, though, have used his hand in the first place, so some criticism is due.

[Anywhichwayicant]

The starting eleven, was you happy with it?

Yeah, had no complaints, was mainly delighted that Sturridge started. First 20 minutes were good, but after that, pretty abysmal, we went from 90% possession, creating some good chances, to "FUCK THIS PITCH, GET US OUT OF HERE!"

Sturridge's debut, how do you feel he did?

Really impressed, Mansfield or not, the movement was great, showed great pace, ability to beat his man, and took his goal very well. Probably should have added at least a second, but not to worry, promising start.


Suarez. Hero or villain?

He's Dexter.

[theredguy03]

Referring to the OP:

I didn't mind what line up we put out, as long as we got through. The hectic fixture schedule and next week's match allowed us to change and chop our team.

Sturridge has already shown promise with his goal, once he get a few more games and goals under his belt then hopefully will prove to be a valuable asset. Could he play on the wing possibly? That might be an option.

Suarez only did what predatory goalscorers do and put the ball in the net. The saying 'play to the whistle' springs to mind, if the officials do not spot a handball, how could it be Suarez's fault for scoring? As for the 'disgraceful' act of kissing his hand (everybody knows it's his celebration) and 'laughing'. These descriptions are plucked from thin air and adds fuel to the fire to help give the media ammunition. I see there is no condemnation of the fan who made his way onto the pitch. Selective memories I think. If the Mansfield manager can accept what happened then why can't the anti-Suarez brigade see sense and follow suit?

Had to get that off my chest

[fatlip13]

the starting 11 have all played premier league football for us, rested players and still gave respect to opposition and cup

sturridge did ok, should have scored more and his movement was good. with more fitness and against better opposition we will see a better test of what we bought and if his attitude is right

suarez will be the vilain to some people no matter what. lately the diving has disapeared from his game. it was hand ball and if technically it was not deliberate he gained a major advantage then the rule is wrong

i do think carra was close to giving a penalty away, his hand was away from his body and this stopped the ball going across goal

[exiledintheUSA]

Think this was a good test for some of the younger lads, Suso despite being fairly ineffective will have learnt a fair bit yesterday.  The game was certainly one of two halves, I though after the way we had played in the first 10 minutes we would have been 3 or 4 to the good by half-time, had we been then all that followed would have made about 1 inch in newspaper columns.  Fair play for Mansfield for having a good crack at it in the last 20 minutes or so.

Luis Suarez is the player of the year, simple.

[Eeyore]

I think yesterday showed up our limitations as a squad, when it wasn't a day for retaining possession and looking to pass through teams we didn't have a plan B. You look at the teams who have won the Premiership in the last 7 or 8 years United, City and Chelsea and they have all had the option of knocking it up to a central striker and playing from there. Sometimes it comes down to actually forcing your opponent backwards and physically dominating them.

Yesterday we were like a boxer without a punch we clearly had more ability but didn't have the punching power to force our opponents backwards. Mansfield just swarmed  all over us and we ended up getting deeper and deeper. There was no outball and no way of getting territory.

Lucas looks to have lost half a stone of muscle, Allen is quick but too lightweight and Shelvey is powerful but too ponderous add in Suso and Downing and it's not really surprising that we were overpowered in midfield. Combined with an inability to hold the ball upfront and Carra's one man catenaccio and it wasn't good to watch.

On the brightside we are unlikely to come across a pitch like that and the 2nd half may of provided food for thought for the manager.

[b_joseph]

The starting eleven, was you happy with it? - More than happy with it...In fact, I thought Brendan showed Mansfield a lot of respect, more than I would have and I have to give him credit for that because most Managers would have gone with a really soft line up...I think.


Sturridge's debut, how do you feel he did? - Movement was great...always looking to get in behind and also had a understanding that he had to come deep every now and then to help link up the play ( first 30 mins or so for the most part ).
For a guy who should be rusty, he didnt half look agile and quick over 10-15 yards.


Suarez. Hero or villain? - Both, like most of us. We love him though and thats all that matters.




The only issue I had with the game was that we didnt seem to understand that we had to fight a little bit harder around the middle area of the game to regain the dominance that we enjoyed in the first 25-30 of the match. Whcih, unfortunately, has become a little bit of an issue with us...not being able to deal with teams, no matter the standard, who will try to bully us, to fight us and push us backwards with that physicality.
The first 5 minutes of the 2nd half pretty much told a story for how the remainder of the half was going to play out. Ugly, sloppy and with us having to make more last ditch tackles that we should be making against a team like that.

That being said, We'll all forget about this game in a day or two. So there is no point in getting pisy about it.

[Vulmea]

Very young team - most of the youngsters stood up well to the challenge. I thought Robinson in particular was excellent.  I haven't been sold on the lad and he made one real ricket but I thought he looked good.

Also a good word for Jones - I thought second half we had a difficult a time and he coped very well with all the pressure. We've had plenty of stand in keepers who've crumbled before. He didn't.

Once again we had the chances to kill the game and didn't - if we could have taken a couple of those chances first half the 2nd half 'fight back' never even happens  - we need to be more clinical. Its not good enough for Sturridge to be happy to score on his debut when he should have scored a  hatrick.  And that dance - he should be taken  out and given a kicking. If we'd have finished it first half then maybe we dont have to use Suarez or we could have given a couple of youngsters a run.

I did find myself thinking even if we lose here a lot of these young kids could learn a great deal - its why I've been surprised we have not used the kids more in the cups - clearly overall BR is not as confident in the youngsters as he could be. Suso and Shelvey are both struggling for form. As is Allen. Not sure what has to happen to sort that.

Has Suarez said he wants to play every game? Is it part of his fitness coaching? Seems very odd that our best player plays every game whilst others are 'rested'.

all in all - we're through I guess thats the main thing.

[Cpt_Reina]

The result is about the only thing we can take away from that game.

The opposition were seriously substandard and provided little to no reference point for the performance. As was the case for the pitch.

Was nice for Sturridge to get his goal (should have had at least 1 other). Got the monkey off his back good and early. He looked good, albeit as I say against seriously poor opposition.

All in all we got what we came for. We wanted to be in the pot for the next round and so it came to be. That's all that matters in cup football, progress to the next stage.

You could look in to why we retreated so far in the second half if you wanted. But I honestly cant see the merit in it. This game was in and of itself.

3 wins on the bounce, poor opposition or not, is the sort of run and sort of form that will do the players the world of good.

Winning is a habit and hopefully we're getting the taste for it.

Onwards to Old Trafford.

[fowlermagic]

Love the FA Cup as nothing like a David v Goliath battle in Jan to get the old nerves jangling and how Mansfield jangled ours. Just shows what effort and heart can do for you as Im sure their weekly budget is spent by us on spit for the football boots every week. Just based on the highlights they sure deserved something out of the game and imagine us defending if it was 1-1 with 10 to go.

Team looked pretty impressive first half as they made light of the pitch but Mansfield def came out swinging the second half as they realised they were up for it and left their nerves in the dresssing room.

Sturridge looked good even against the minnows as we def need some cutting edge added to the starting 11. Not sure where he will end up but I fancy him in the leading berth attracting a defender or two with some room for movemnet while Suarez is let off the reins and do what he pleases on the pitch.

Suarez - did he mean it? I say the lad could catch a fly with chopsticks so he probably did, just a natural reaction as he nearly pulled up afterwards waiting for the whistle to blow. Some slack today in the papers but it will old news by tomorrow and considering some of the classics that he will knock in over the year he will be right up there for Player of the year awards by seasons end.   

Well done again to Mansfield and if they can ship some of that heart n effort our way for the rest of the season it would be appreciated.

[gamble]

There's a story about Cruyff and Ajax playing a game against a team on a rain-soaked pitch, and they deliberately played the ball into certain areas of the field knowing the ball would stick but the opposition defenders would keep running expecting the ball to travel. The Ajax players would just knock the ball out of the sticky patch and use the space the other team gave them with their running for a ball that wasn't getting there.

Now THAT'S game intelligence!

In the second half Mansfield took a punt straight from the kick off - at first I thought it was just a lousy attempt at goal but I think they wanted the ball in that area of the pitch as soon as possible and all moved up from there putting the pressure on our defence.

Good run out if not the best game by all our players, but just glad to be through. Sturridge was a big positive as was another look at Robinson. Thought Mansfield and their manager were impressive and have a lot of respect for them.

[Corkboy]

Has Suarez said he wants to play every game? Is it part of his fitness coaching? Seems very odd that our best player plays every game whilst others are 'rested'.

Rodgers lavished praise on the striker, suggesting that playing as often as possible was the best way to keep him on top form, before comparing his professionalism with that of Messi's......

"He's a striker that has to play two or three times a week to be on top of his game - one game a week is no good to him. He needs to be playing.

"And you see the response you get from him. His work has never dropped. Like Messi he is a real team player and trains every day.

“He is never in the treatment room and then he comes out and performs. As the ball moves he finds the spaces. He's a wonderful talent, and it will be fantastic to see him develop here."

QPR boss Harry Redknapp also echoed Rodgers’ comparison to Argentina international Messi after the London outfit’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool on December 30.

“I was talking with Harry Redknapp after our game at QPR,” Rodgers explained. “He said Luis is a Messi-type character,” source

[Nessy76]

The starting eleven, were you happy with it?

Yes. It's always going to be tough going somewhere like that, terrible surface so no chance of playing our usual passing game, good to give some of the younger lads a different experience to the immaculate PL Academy pitches they've grown up with.

Mansfield are a non-league side, and in the opening 20 minutes the gulf was immense. On a better pitch, I think we'd have buried them by half time. As it was they came out for the second only a single goal down and really gave us something to think about.

Squad rotation is vital when you're playing as many games as we are this season, but this was still a fairly strong starting line up, no sign of Yesil, Morgan, Coady or any of the other genuine fringe players.

Sturridge's debut, how do you feel he did?

Scored. You can't ask more than that. Movement looked sharp. Seems to have an understanding with Shelvey. If he can link up with Luis that effectively that quickly then they can run amok against most defences out there.

Suarez. Hero or villain?

Nuff said.

[Swright90]

I think it would be wrong to over analyse a game between a Premiership club and a Conference club, especially away from home. It offers absolutely nothing for the top flight club as they have very little to gain. If they win then nobody bats an eye-lid, if they only just win then it's not deemed good enough and obviously if they lose then they will become a laughing stock. Also, the team will have learnt nothing because they were playing against players and tactics that they will never face again, as well as performing on a pitch that they will never step foot up again.

I was delighted with the team selection because it pretty much guaranteed victory in my eyes. It was more than strong enough to win, yet still meant we rested the very important, injury-prone players such as Gerrard, Skrtel and Agger. I think we've seen before that Suarez seemingly struggles in his next match when he has over a week without playing so I liked how he was introduced, and Lucas getting more minutes could be crucial in his recovery.

Like I said I am not going to get into detail about the match itself because of the opposition. We won. We are in the fourth round. For that reason, we should be happy. I had a silly Man United fan try and laugh at me this morning until I reminded him of draws against Burton Albion and Exeter. Any team can struggle against any team and in an FA Cup 3rd round, away from home, everything was against us.

Finally, I would expect every single of our players to handle the ball if it meant the difference between winning and losing.

[stockdam]

ESPN have issued a statement regarding the comments Jon Champion made about Suarez.

Good as you cannot go around accusing people of cheating with no justification. I hope he looses his job out of this as you cannot go around tarnishing a player's name like that.

[stockdam]

The starting eleven, was you happy with it?

Well yes. We need to protect some of the players who play game in and game out and give the others some useful experience.
I'm not sure if Sahin and Assaidi were free to play - I think they need more games.

It was always going to be one of those matches where we either rolled them over or else one where the pitch levelled both sides up.


Sturridge's debut, how do you feel he did?

He looked up for it. He took his goal well and was very quick at times. He did fluff one great chance for a second goal. Overall I thought it was a promising debut and I think he'll quickly start to knock in the goals. He gives us speed down the middle that we dearly need and takes away some of the attention of Suarez if they play together - he'll revel in that. He'll also give Suarez a well earned rest at times.


Suarez. Hero or villain?

Sorry no offence, but that's just a daft question. If you are talking about the handball then look at the replay slowly and you'll see that Suarez did not move his hand to the ball but that he had no time to move it away. If the ball strikes your hand as quickly as it did then it's not deliberate and since it was a rebound then there's nothing Suarez could do. Every handball is not an infringement.

So let's knock this "villain" crap on the head as he did nothing wrong. Whingers will want to try to claim all sorts of things but ignore the fact that it is Suarez and watch the replay properly and it's very clear that it was a total accident and therefore the referee was entitled to allow the goal.

[Henry Kissinger]

I was reasonably happy with the team Rodgers put out, the only gripe I had was I wanted to see Henderson in the middle instead of Allen. On a rain-soaked pitch against a strong, physical side I felt Henderson was the better choice. Also, I wanted to see Coates alongside Skrtel as we all know Carra likes to defend deep which means Coates has to follow suit. With Skrtel we could have defended higher up the pitch thus limiting the effectiveness of their dead-ball attacks (we knew what to expect). We still would have had a strong physical presence too.

It was great to see Wisdom and Robinson play, and I thought they both did very well indeed. A situation like that will make them stronger mentally, having to deal with a close, fanatical crowd on a pitch that's cutting up can be mentally as well as physically draining but they stood up to it very well. I liked the fact that both were willing to get forward all through the game, supporting the midfield and striker.

Sturridge had a good 55 minutes, got the goal he needs and showed the promise of what is to come. His movement and sudden burst of pace will be a fantastic addition to Suarez, Sterling and Borini. Teams are going to be exhausted playing us in the future and we could well see a lot of games won in the last 15 minutes as teams begin to tire after parking the bus.

To be critical of Brad Jones would be churlish, I believe. This had 'cup upset' written all over it after Saturday's quiet progression of Premiership teams (Newcastle excepted of course) and for a back-up keeper to play behind a rather make-shift defence anything could have gone wrong. However, he punched clear when he had to, and came out and claimed the ball when he had to. A good, solid performance on the whole, I thought.

Downing had another good game, not great as there were a few occasions when he pushed the ball too far and allowed their defenders to regain possession. But when we counter-attacked he ran with pace and purpose. As for Shelvey, if he knew how to shoot at goal he'd be a fantastic player. Sadly, .........

As for Suarez ('the nefarious cheat' according to Mr Champion - I'm paraphrasing slightly) I don't believe it was intentional. You only have to look at the reaction of his arm when the ball hits his hand, and the way he kicked the ball into the net. He thought the goal would be disallowed because he got an unlucky ricochet. I was very disappointed to read that a lot of our supporters on  here felt he was being dishonest.

It was a great cup-tie, and we haven't been able to say that for a while have we? Real blood and thunder (more cliches). As for those of us who may be wondering why this team find the going difficult against teams like Stoke or Mansfield, I would like to remind you that for many years we struggled against the likes of Wimbledon and Crystal Palace (with Palace I'm thinking back to the semi-final in 1990) and back then we had Steve McMahon in the side, not a lightweight really. So for me, it's just one of those things, hopefully in the future we'll perform so well against the other sides in the league so it won't really matter.

My confidence in our future is constantly growing as I see what kind of players Rodgers is bringing into the team. Sturridge will be electrifying for us, I'm moist with excitement (and not in a perverted way OK!).

[Mutton Geoff]

Good as you cannot go around accusing people of cheating with no justification. I hope he looses his job out of this as you cannot go around tarnishing a player's name like that.

got an email from them probably the same one we all got who complained to them but its something!

Thank you for your feedback with regards to the commentators on ESPN. Hearing from our fans and receiving your feedback is important and we have shared your feedback with our production team.

We take our responsibility to deliver the highest standards of coverage to our viewers. ESPN's editorial policy is for commentators to be unbiased and honest, to call things as they see them. Inevitably this can involve treading a fine line on occasion, especially in the heat of the moment. Comments during the Mansfield v Liverpool match caused offense where none was intended and we have spoken to our commentator about this incident.

Sincerely,

Candice
ESPN.com Customer Care

As for the important bit first well done Mansfield took it to us in the second half and we were lucky to keep them down to the one goal, their manager Paul Cox classy in defeat and responded to the obvious eagerness by ESPN  for him to have a go at Luis with great dignity and rationality.

What did we learn we lack physical players in midfield, not sure think we knew this, however that team and pitch was not good for Suso to ply his trade.
I feel we have another striker who is instinctive and took the first chance well, but when he had to much time fluffed it. He did look good though and linked up with Shelvey immediately. All in all considering he had hardly trained with the lads i think it was a very encouraging performance.

Coates i thought would be good in this game however i felt he was at times looking more like the Non league player than them, this was a shame because i rate him but it wasn't his best game.
Downing continued his steady improvement however although always a good outlet i wish he would not come inside all the time he needs to vary this, defenders are expecting it.
Jones did well if not a little frantic at times, he caught some tough balls in the box, but also flapped at a couple as well. Robinson was steady, Lucas at times seemed a little off the pace still, Carra was a monster in our defence and needed to be!

Then we have Luis what can you say could have scored with his first kick of the ball, and did score with a controversial goal controversial only in the fact that if Mansfield scored it we would be crying foul.
For me and this will have been done to death he was trying to pull his arm away but this all happened in a split second from no distance at all. The way he lashed it in the net made me think he thought he had fluffed it up, it wasn't one of elation but frustration until he turned around and saw no flag.
When i heard them say they had deliberately trained on the pitch on saturday, to scuff it up a bit more,  i was reminded of when my Grandfather took me to see Stanley Matthews at Stoke and Waddington it was believed used to get the local fire brigade to soak the Stoke pitch to help the almost 50 Matthews cope with them quick young full backs.

[NOTBORNIN1982]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/fa-cup/9785650/Luis-Suarez-handball-controversy-ESPN-reprimand-Jon-Champions-over-cheat-comments.html

[John C]

You can cut and paste that type of game from any season in the history of the FA CUP, and we've been involved in quite a few ourselves.

So although its far from an ideal situation in which to judge players, it was an opportunity for those who are fixated by our current midfielders being sufficient to carry us to success to witness a variety of combinations without our captain. None seemed to work brilliantly, but thats for a separate discussion.

I thought Robinson did well despite some criticism elsewhere, and yorkys point about Carra retreating late in the game to permit a free shot spoke volumes about his decision making, only those with a keen eye may have saw it immediately.
I thought Coates had a good game, he made some good interceptions and held his concentration considering he lacks game time.

The fist time I saw Luis' handball I wrongfully thought he'd moved his hand to guide the ball down, but he doesn't, I think he's desperately trying to get his hand down out of the way.

Sturridge looks like he'll bring goals with athleticism - I'm certain now he'll score against MU - the prerequisite of course is that we give him the chances. Really looking forward to seeing more of him.

I couldn't be more pleased for Brad Jones either, if there ever was questions about his competency he proves on every occasion asked that he can step up.

Seemingly where I may be alone is on Downing, I didn't feel he played as well as many suggested, I felt he wasn't prepared to attempt to beat his man or take it to the line often enough. And we know he is actually capable of crossing it with his right.

Overall we were tatty, but it really doesn't matter under the circumstances. From the minute the tie was pulled out of the hat it invited that outcome.

A good experience for Brendan Rodgers too.

[harrylfc]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/fa-cup/9785650/Luis-Suarez-handball-controversy-ESPN-reprimand-Jon-Champions-over-cheat-comments.html

i myself emailed Espn last night regarding their,in particular Champions references to Suarez as a cheat...I only had 500 characters to use else I would had a go a Stubbs too for his pushing for the Mansfield manager to slag Luis off....Anyway,I didn't expect a reply,but received this response a few mins ago...


Dear John,

Thank you for your feedback with regards to the commentators on ESPN. Hearing from our fans and receiving your feedback is important and we have shared your feedback with our production team.

We take our responsibility to deliver the highest standards of coverage to our viewers. ESPN's editorial policy is for commentators to be unbiased and honest, to call things as they see them. Inevitably this can involve treading a fine line on occasion, especially in the heat of the moment. Comments during the Mansfield v Liverpool match caused offense where none was intended and we have spoken to our commentator about this incident.

Sincerely,

Candice
ESPN.com Customer Care


--------------- Original Message ---------------

I've just watched your coverage of the Mansfield v Liverpool fa cup match.Your commentator,John Champion,was totally out of order in my opinion with his description and continued,repetitive reference to Luis Suarez as a cheat....John Champion,in his position should know that Luis Suarez celebrates every goal he scores by kissing his wrist,and this was no way a boast of cheating on Suarez behalf.I feel that had this had been any other player then the treatment would have been totally different..


ref:_00D4080H6._50040OZalr:ref

[Groundskeeper Willie]

We played very well for the first 25 minutes or so while the pitch was playable. After that it turned into a potato field and our passing game suffered. Mansfield spotted the opportunity and pressured us well.

Their center back Geohehohehogan is future Stoke material.

That is all.