By Chris Rowland and Daniel Rhodes.
W/c Monday April 13th 2015.
Welcome to our weekly round-up, a diary of news and events on the site, matters relating to LFC and the world of football generally.
The Week in Football – Liverpool FC:
Sunday:
Brendan Rodgers says his side need to deal with big-game occasions better after a dismal FA Cup semi-final performance at Wembley: (BBC Sport)
“We were nervous for some reason. Maybe when you want to win something so much, perhaps it plays on your mind,” said Rodgers.
“Dealing with the occasion is something we need to improve at.”
Rodgers added: “There have been other big games where we have dealt with that very well, but there are others where we haven’t.”
Monday:
Steven Gerrard said his Liverpool team-mates let nerves affect them in their FA Cup semi-final defeat against Aston Villa:
“We didn’t play, we looked very nervous for some reason.
“We’re a team that’s built on passing and playing it quickly but we were very disappointing in that aspect and they were much better than us.
“I thought Aston Villa were much better than us and that’s the overriding feeling after the game.”
Kolo Toure insists a “sad” Steven Gerrard will deal with the reality of being denied a fairytale FA Cup final farewell.
“Of course we wanted to do very well for the last game of Stevie for the club but at the end of the day, we wanted to do it for the fans because this club deserves to have a trophy,” said Toure.
“He (Gerrard) is fine. Of course he is sad, like all the dressing room, but he has been in this game for a long time and he knows how to deal with these situations.”
After the Villa match, Mario Balotelli went on Instagram to bemoan his disallowed goal, but congratulated Villa on reaching the final and added: “Head up, we are Liverpool and YNWA especially when we lose.”
BBC Sport ran a poll on Who will be Liverpool’s manager next season?
The results were:
Brendan Rodgers 56.8%
Jurgen Klopp 25.1%
Rafa Benitez 8.2%
Steven Gerrard 4.1%
Other 5.8%
We’re not sure whether that shows the vote wasn’t hacked by rival supporters or confirms that it was!
They also ran a piece entitled:
What’s gone wrong at Anfield?
A year ago, a 3-2 win at Norwich left Liverpool five points clear at the top of the Premier League table with three games remaining.
We all know what happened next – and fast forward 12 months and the club’s FA Cup semi-final defeat means Brendan Rodgers will become the first Anfield boss since the 1950s not to win a trophy in his first three seasons in charge.
BBC Sport’s Neil Johnston has asked former players John Scales and Mark Lawrenson and ex-boss Roy Evans what they make of the situation.
It’s a fascinating read, you’ll find it here.
Tuesday:
The rest of this post is for Subscribers only.
[ttt-subscribe-article]