Big players big plays

 Thus sayeth the King, just pass me the ball. With 1.6 seconds left on the clock and with Derrick Rose levelling the game with a lay up previously Lebron took it upon himself to take the shot and win the game. His coach had called another play but that's why Lebron is called the king he scratched that and made the play, he can nail the big shots in the big pressure moments. Lebron would deffo agree his shooting wasn't completely on point last night and he did concede a lot of turnovers but his moment of magic won the game. Interestingly enough now he has the same amount of buzzer beaters in the post season as Micheal Jordan which is 3 hmmm interesting. 

Last Friday Austin Rivers was amazing really taking the game to the Rockets and cooking up a storm in the absence of Chris Paul he had a massive 25 points in the Clippers 124-99 win. Last night the Rockets had a unusual tactic fowling Deandre Jordan relentlessly forcing him to the free throw line. It was crazy Deandre Jordan set an NBA record of 28 free throw attempts in the first half!! All in all he had 34 attempts acoring only 14. Now the tactic seems reasonably considering Jordan converted only 39.7% of free throws in the regular season, Kevin Mchale said he did it to "muck up" the game and disrupt the flow of the clippers but it seems that the rockets where just truly out of it on both the offensive and defensive fronts. There punishment was a 128-95 loss and it looks now very likely that my beloved clippers will be advancing to the next round of the playoffs but never say never the Rockets could come back, if they can pull themselves together. 

Lacklustre Liverpool

To say I was annoyed last weekend is an understatement Liverpool could of closed the gap on the top four teams but instead they drew. It's all well and good having 73% of possession and 22 shots but these days Liverpool are struggling for goals massively. In fact the 22 shots on goal don't tell the true story because only 4 of those where on target the same amount that West Brom had with around half the number of shots, precisely 10 to be exact. Rodgers said Liverpool where outstanding he said ""I thought they were excellent. We didn't get the win, but our overall game was outstanding," He did admit to the goal threat being a problem, I'm not ranting in this blog just stating the facts and letting you the readers take what you want from it. 

Liverpool then lost 1-0 to hull midweek on the Tuesday. Everton had done Liverpool a favour by beating Man Utd 3-0 on Sunday a win over Hull would have cut the points difference between Man Utd and Liverpool to 4 points however Liverpool lost and with that a place in the champions league seems to have eluded them. Again it was the same old story, like a broken record large amount of possession (69%) shots on goal 12 (9 on target) but no goals. Second successive game with Liverpool not scoring. It almost seems like the back to back losses of Man Utd and Arsenal back in the March and April period knocked the stuffing out of the reds and they truly haven't recovered. 

When Liverpool had conceded the opening goal of the game i wasn't surprised that it would lead to a defeat. During this season Liverpool's ability to equalise has been very poor. According to soccerstats its at 18%. Yes goals have been a problem everyone could see that when Suarez has left but other strikers have not be fancied. Funnily enough the combined forces of Balotelli, Borini and Lambert have the same number of goals as Origi who Liverpool bought and loaned this is abysmal. On Tuesday night Messi, Suarez and Neymar took their tally to over 100 goals for the season. Liverpool couldn't manage any against hull.  

I'm not angry or upset I've accepted my fate as a Liverpool supporter for this season no champions league which was the minimum aim. I'm just mind boggled Rodgers knew Suarez was leaving and unless I'm mistaken and this isn't a huge kept secret but Sturridge is very injury prone. He is a quality striker but he gets injured far to much, however this season has been like a freak nightmare. Rodgers knew this and gambled massively, yes squad players where needed for a this season where Liverpool took part in the champions league but Liverpool needed proven quality not young talent. Everyone knew they where in for Sanchez but after that didn't work they should have pushed for other top strikers and proven stars. Sturridge was put on a pedestal to be some sort of saviour but that has flopped and his understudies have been poor. 

206.5m spent on transfers since the summer of 2012 and only 2 have been hugely fruitful is again mind boggling. This summer will be crucial for Liverpool if they have a poor start again I can see Rodgers getting sacked I don't want that to happen but there are huge demands at a top club like Liverpool and we all know how cut-throat the world of management can be!