Pure Poyetry: mixed emotions for Gus at Liverpool

Malcolm Dawson writes….with M. Salut travelling home through the Gallic hinterland and John McCormick a victim of RSI caused by hours hunched over a calculator working out all the possible permutations of results that may see us avoid the drop, it falls to me, with a dodgy hotel internet connection, to pass on the manager’s thoughts in his post match e-mail. I managed to catch the bulk of the game on TV via the Serbian equivalent of Sky and my own immediate thought was (as I’ve commented elsewhere) that losing by a single goal has at least kept us in touch with Palace, who have to be the only team we can realistically expect to overhaul now after West Ham’s win and Swansea’s draw. All is not lost but there’s little left to hang on to. Gus is proud but we all know the old saying about pride and falling.

Jake captures the Bard, with thanks to Owen Lennox
Jake captures the Bard, with thanks to Owen Lennox

Dear Colin,

Liverpool were calling for time and trying to finish the game; you could tell how happy their fans were to hear the final whistle.

That makes me happy because nobody expected us to come here and perform or to make it difficult for Liverpool, which is a great credit to the players. But now we need to take this into the next game; that’s what’s most important. We can’t just keep playing like this every now and again and then not perform at home.

A result against West Ham now would be perfect for me because we have shown the type of attitude to go out and score goals and try and win the game and I want to see this again.

Scoring goals changes games; last week we couldn’t do that, but today I felt like it was coming. Lee [Cattermole] hit the crossbar and I just felt like a goal was coming. We were really pushing forward and it nearly came off for us.

I’ve learnt an awful lot today, I know I keep saying this but I’ve only been at the club and with the players for a few months and every game is different.

[Adam] Johnson and Ki [Sung Yueng] came on and they were just what we were missing from the game. We started off solid and we were difficult to break down, but for some reason we lacked quality on the ball and then I made the two substitutions and the players were outstanding when they came on.

I’m not happy that we lost, but I’m proud of how we approached the game.

All the best,

Gus Poyet


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5 thoughts on “Pure Poyetry: mixed emotions for Gus at Liverpool”

  1. Your upbeat outlook is admirable. I’ve tried to remain positive. Listen, we’re all committed to the cause and will keep the faith. But as you know it’s not always easy. So if my rant was OTT then sincere apologies. I’ll give up cynicism for Lent……..still think Suarez is a tw@ mind you

  2. Come on. You’ve got to love the fact that our fans were singing louder than theirs. V funny. L’pool were at their snarling best due to gravity fluctuations…Vergini…who is (as Bob Paisley would say) shite, could have had a fine selection of red cards. Suarez is still rolling around after one non-tackle. Our defenders must have the IQ of oak considering the number of pointless fouls..by all means et stuck in but some of the tackles suggested what we all know….football is a game played by morons payed millions

    • I think your being a bit harsh, the performance was symptomatic of a side with little confidence, struggling to string any sort of results together, limited ability with no real goal threat. When you have a team at this stage the last thing they want is to exposed via the world media to perform against the heirs apparent to the PL title.

      Desperate situations require sometimes desperate measures and the tackling at times was a fair reflection of this. Additionally Liverpool made the most out of the situation, the grimacing and rolling over and over that Suarez did on occasion was sicking to observe, but this is the modern game, this is what the TV money has done it.

      I would rather take the positives from the game, we only lost by one goal, Vito could of perhaps done better on the first, the second was an unlucky deflection, we both hit the bar, we pressed them in the final twenty, they were time wasting in the last ten, we didn’t get hammered.

      • Harsh? Possibly, but look at the fouls in the first half an hour. Every one was pointless gaining nothing whilst ceding possession. OShea put both hands on a player who was always going to fling himself on the floor. Vergini was very lucky to stay on the field. The attack was leaden. We were lucky it didn’t turn into another Villa….and at the end of the day we lost. We lack smart players, we lack pace, we don’t adapt eg revisit the number of times the ball is hoofed despite Gus advocating a passing game. I’ve defended Cattermole many times but how many times has he been caught in possession and we’ve onceded? Our attacking pair used mobiles to keep in touch they were that far apart. A normally reliable keeper was at fault for the first goal. Our central defenders can’t distribute the ball. So possibly harsh, yes……to offer some balance the substitutions made it easier to chase the game. Should we have started with that line-up? Despite all of this I could hear our fans all night….class act

      • Agree about the fans, they were magnificent. Additionally I agree that we are shite in a lot of positions and that ultimately we got nothing from the game.

        However you have give credit where it is due and the performance was a big improvement on the Norwich fiasco. But as Drummer points out, is it just a question of raising our game for the big boys or the shop window effect of being live on TV?

        I try to stay optimistic, so we didn’t get thumped and we limited the damage to our goal difference against a side who may well win the PL and have been scoring for fun of late.

        The up-side is that confidence will be improved and Poyet now knows his best line up with a couple of exceptions. It a question of keeping the faith. As I said I don’t necessarily disagree with your sentiments but we have a limited number of games to save the season so we must get behind the current squad to produce that. There will be plenty of time to critically appraise the playing staff in the summer.

        After all, your admiration for the away support indicates that you support them and they are keeping heart and supporting the team, therefore one and the same.

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