I usually approach games like this feeling nervous but for some reason I wasn't overly worried today, even when we went 3-1 down I still felt we wouldn't lose, not because of how we were playing, it was just a feeling. The warning signs were there very early, they had a striker who was 6 foot 6 and all elbows, we had a centre back whose name was Sebastian Coates.
Firstly let's get the excuses out of the way - there was a clear foul in on Sturridge in the build up to the second Oldham goal, and later on the same player should have had a clear pen. Andy Townsend said it wasn't a foul on Sturridge and he was wrong, and Twitter was full of people saying as much. But that's irrelevant, I've seen teams lose to dodgy refereeing decisions but I've never seen anyone lose due to a biased commentator. There was ample opportunity to defend the situation properly and we didn't, to blame anyone other than ourselves would be wrong. And the penalty? Well there's no guarantee we'd have scored it, and we were two goals behind at that point anyway so it may not have saved us even if it had been awarded and we'd stuck it away. It's got to be said that the result today was entirely fair, Oldham deserved the win, Liverpool deserved the defeat. We don't usually do very well against Stoke, and it turns out a poor man's Stoke has the edge over a poor Liverpool, we just can't handle a team being physical and determined against us.
Cup ties like this are rarely won by skill alone, it needs to be combined with experience and the right attitude to overcome a hostile, up for it crowd and a team of hard working, determined professionals on the biggest day of their lives. Our squad is young and full of potential, but what it lacks is a lot of experience. There's only one way to get that experience and that is to play in these types of game. And that's why I'm not feeling overly disappointed after the result, every player out there in a red shirt today will learn from today's experience and it WILL help us in future campaigns.
It will be hard for Brendan Rodgers to miss the flaws in our play today, and in his team selection, so I fully expect a day like this not to be repeated any time soon. There were obvious problem areas, Coates and Robinson don't look up to it, Borini works hard and makes intelligent runs but isn't close to being clinical enough, Jones is a back up 'keeper and nothing more. But it's all a learning curve and the players out there who have Liverpool futures ahead of them like Wisdom, Henderson, Allen, Sturridge, Suarez and Sterling will get their heads down and take the lesson on board.
I've not seen Oldham since their visit to Anfield last season so I'm not sure if today was their usual style of play, but if it is then I think our scouting department has a few questions to answer as we clearly weren't fully prepared for what we faced. And the team selection wasn't right and must be learned from. It's easy to say had we had Reina, Johnson, Agger, Lucas, Gerrard and Downing from the start we would have won but this may not have been true, Oldham fought hard and played well, simply saying our first choice XI would have battered them is disrespectful to their efforts today. But not having any of these players on the pitch from kick off was a mistake - experience was what was called for and wasn't what was selected.
The team chosen wasn't the right one to win today, but the next seven days will show whether or not it was the right call to leave out Johnson, Lucas, Agger, Gerrard and Downing. If we manage two positive results at Arsenal and Man City then the manager's decision will have been vindicated, two defeats and we might as well have played our strongest possible side today and given ourselves a better chance of progressing.
I'm not too gutted by today, but if we don't learn from it then I'll remember it as a turning point missed. I am gutted however since the draw for the 5th round was made and we've missed out on a home tie with Everton. But for today it's well played Oldham, you deserved the win.
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