Liverpool FC Forum

[burjennio]

[Espionage]

I think that he did really well.  Showed some flashy (but not flashy to the point that he looked out of control) touches and brought some needed trickery into the team. 

I look forward to seeing him play more, great start to his Liverpool career..

[Thewaykokid]

I have a little back story for Riera...................I dunno what it is but, when i see Riera, he doesnt look like a football, he looks like an actor. So building on this, Riera is a highly paid spanish actor getting into a new role where he will star as an underated football player, but in some unexplainable way, the well-being of his family is placed on his team winning the premiership................would make a good movie

[redsince2001]

looks good..............

[Simari]

I have no doubt that Robinho wont be worth the money spent on him . will spend the winter cryin its cold and every time he gets touched or tackle will spend most of the time crying and rolling about on the floor - think its a poor signing for city .

Not a poor signing at all. Yesterday's game only showed how far apart in class he is, from some of the City players (Zabaleta, Ireland). They just don't have the sort of skill needed to move the ball effortlessly forward with the space that Robinho created with his passes. No doubt City will be replacing one or both of those very soon.

As for Riera, physically he should have no problems in the EPL. He's got lots of little tricks up his sleeves also. It was a solid display by him yesterday and if he continues to deliver in that vein, we will perform a whole load better in our attacking play. If he does become a fixture on the left, we need to find a spot for Babel. It's quite possible that Yossi and Babel will be rotated a bit with El-Zhar making the sub appearances for the right side?
I guess Babel would also sub in for Riera on the left.

Riera and Aurelio seemed to have a telepathic understanding yesterday on the left. When Riera wasn't asking questions, Aurelio was and vice versa. It would be nice to get that sort of a threat from our right side too

[Sabre]

He's a true left sided player and a good one at that. Not World Class, not top class either, but good. And he will make better other team mates and our attack.

I was a bit worried about how he'd manage in such a big game all of a sudden, would he melt like Gonzalez did? But he played very well.

[tubby]

Not sure if it was mentioned on here but there was talk before the game of him being a good omen having made his debut for City against Utd and winning that day too.

[woof woof !]

I was a bit worried about how he'd manage in such a big game all of a sudden, would he melt like Gonzalez did? But he played very well.

Got better once he learned to stay on his feet, early on he was going down if someone looked at him the wrong way.

Seemed to gel with Aurelio. Looks promising.

[Alonso14]

He does seem in the Harry Kewell mould. I say that in the best possible way.

[faldo]

i love riera's dribbling style, he reminds me of Iván De la Peña at his best. with guys that dribble like that,anything is possible. even if he is rubbish for some games we now know that if he is up for it he will do serious damage.

[Igor Zidane]

Played well and offered great width and balance to the side , worked well with aurelio and had some tricks up his sleeve . He needs to stay on his feet more and not throw himself down like a tart . First game for him ,so he did well ,nothing over the top about him just yet .

[dawson99]

he looked a completely different player to the guy who was at mancity a while back. i think he'll be a massive hit for us

[ConnO'var]

The lad done well...... made up for him. It's still much too early to tell how good he really is but a debut like that does give one hope does it not? Saw the replay of the match when I got in from the airport yesterday and must say that he looks a sound player. Has that little bit of flair which we've sorely lacked the last few years. These type of flair players can come in very useful when we're trying to break down teams who play with 10 men behind the ball. If he keeps that up we should do better against the mid to low table residing sides.

Like our striking positions of the last few years, the left wing is one position where we've had many false dawns. Rieira's contribution against the mancs was not overly spectacular but provided steady quality. Plus he is a true wide man and so should provide Xabi with an outlet out wide there and prevent us from playing too narrowly as we've been wont to do. If he continues at this pace, we'll have the added benefit of freeing up space for Xabi to show his abilities by increasing the options available to him.

Not to get too carried away.... but as always, hope springs eternal with every new signing we bring in.
Well done Albert and welcome to Anfield lad.......

[bigmick]

Well it seems only fair after I wrote Riera off before he kicked a ball to say I think he did pretty well. Already he is probably a better option than the players we have played there previously, and if he can build on what he showed then he has chances of making himself a player at the club.


It's worth considering though that for all his faults (and I remain unconvinced by him) that Babel is developing into a player who can score a goal seemingly whenever he is on the pitch. It's not always the most accomplished of finishes as we saw on Saturday, but it'd be interesting to see his goals per minutes ratio over the last half season or so. Given this, I have a feeling Riera is going to have to be more prolific than he has been previously in his career to keep the Dutchman on the bench permanently.

[Bad Bob]

Well it seems only fair after I wrote Riera off before he kicked a ball to say I think he did pretty well. Already he is probably a better option than the players we have played there previously, and if he can build on what he showed then he has chances of making himself a player at the club.


It's worth considering though that for all his faults (and I remain unconvinced by him) that Babel is developing into a player who can score a goal seemingly whenever he is on the pitch. It's not always the most accomplished of finishes as we saw on Saturday, but it'd be interesting to see his goals per minutes ratio over the last half season or so. Given this, I have a feeling Riera is going to have to be more prolific than he has been previously in his career to keep the Dutchman on the bench permanently.

Or we could think about playing Babel down the right, Mick--as, so many would have us do.  Assuming Gerrard won't be moved out there again, assuming Pennant's well and truly bombed out, assuming that Rafa will eventually realize that Kuyt's no winger and assuming that he realizes that Yossi isn't really either, maybe there's a opportunity for Babel to stake a claim to a new position.  It's interesting though, that I can't remember him ever playing on the right under Rafa thus far...strange that for a right-footed player who's mostly deployed out wide.  I can see the appeal of having him cut inside onto his shooting foot from the left but surely there's more to it than that?