Liverpool FC Forum

[europian-kings]

Saying that we should of had one in the second half when Gallas done Torres,

Thats what i thought Nanny but it wasn't shown again. BTW our lot were in superb voice, outsung them for most of the game, could be heard clearly.

do you know the words to that new song we now sing?
i heard it today and i heard it at everton very clearly?

its a very catching tune lol but i just dont know the words,

[NANNY RED]

Saying that we should of had one in the second half when Gallas done Torres,

Thats what i thought Nanny but it wasn't shown again. BTW our lot were in superb voice, outsung them for most of the game, could be heard clearly.

We was bouncin again  im gettin to all for all this dancing at footie matches,

Was any of the yanks there there was someone who looked like Hicks but couldnt tell properly . But didnt see no Gillette unless he was in a box behind the windows

[redtrader74]

Saying that we should of had one in the second half when Gallas done Torres,

Thats what i thought Nanny but it wasn't shown again. BTW our lot were in superb voice, outsung them for most of the game, could be heard clearly.

do you know the words to that new song we now sing?
i heard it today and i heard it at everton very clearly?

its a very catching tune lol but i just dont know the words,

The Fernando Torres song? Its on You tube, look for Torres bounce i think

[redtrader74]

Saying that we should of had one in the second half when Gallas done Torres,

Thats what i thought Nanny but it wasn't shown again. BTW our lot were in superb voice, outsung them for most of the game, could be heard clearly.

We was bouncin again  im gettin to all for all this dancing at footie matches,

Was any of the yanks there there was someone who looked like Hicks but couldnt tell properly . But didnt see no Gillette unless he was in a box behind the windows

Better watch the old knees 
There was something on Sky about the owners, but i missed the very start.

[The Manhattan Project]

We intimidated Arsenal today because we were wearing black.

[Thingy]

Fantastic result. Gettin the away goal could prove vital. Replying just after they scored was key. Still unsure as someone else said about zonal marking, everytime we concede a corner or a free kick close to the area where it can be crossed into the box i get nervy. Overall great result, really confident about the second leg.

[account deleted by request]

Good result, we got lucky, because they still managed to cut through us without any of our players actually playing badly, (Babel aside who was very poor, 4 passes, 33% completion, he seems to lack in confidence). They had a nailed on pen, and it would just be Kuyts luck to have given a pen and score poor bastard, well played though Dirk. I thought we also had a shout on Torres midway through the second half, but it wasn't shown again.

I still do not like the system, against a good side Torres has to do masses of work and will be knackered and probably lose a little sharpness over time. Gerrard also gets drawn deep into midfield against the better teams, and leaves Torres isolated. The system might still get us through to number 6, because its strengths are better suited to European football as it will allow us to soak up pressure. Although long term i will always prefer Gerrard in midfield, doing what he does best and two strikers infront of him, at times you could see plenty of space was there for a second striker had we one. The only way i can see the formation working at its best is if we have wingers and fullbacks with enough skill and pace to get involved, and in Babels case the heart.

next week will be a nervous one again, and its far from over, i'd be tempted to change nearly the whole side for Saturday, and get them to harass and knock seven shades out of Arsenal, because by the end of tonight the gooners looked goners.

Spot on mate 

[Emerald Red]

We were a little fortunate, aye; but then again, we are playing a class side and you always have to be fortunate. I certainly don't think we were outclassed in any way whatsoever tonight. They had home advantage, so they were always going to have a great deal of the ball, and possibly lion's share of the chances. Fact is, they never created enough and failed to take their chances (what little they had). It was a stone wall pen, though paradoxically, it would have been a tad harsh on Kuyt, who was absolutely without doubt MOTM, though I'm sure Kuyt haters will still find something to pick at. Hypocrites.

We were the better team in the first half, I thought.  Baring Babel's absolute madness with his square ball across our own area, we never really had a player on the pitch that failed to do their jobs. It took Gerrard about 15 minutes to really get firing, though. Mascherano was outstanding as per usual, and skyrtel at the back was immense. He just looks like he's been with us for years and a worthy successor, dare I say it, to the legend that is the big Fin Sami Hyypia.

Now, it's indeed squeeky bum time. The job's not done yet. Not by a long shot. I'd have taken an arm off if offered 1-1 before this game (which is oddly enough, my match prediction that I forgot to post. No Lie ) which is a brilliant result. One solid performance at Anfield and it's another semi-final for us, and going by what I've seen of Chelsea and Fernabache, we have nothing to fear. Another final beckons.

[J*o*n*D*o*e]

nanny the fat c*** Hicks was there stuffing his fat face, they said gillett was snowbound in Colorado so wasnt able to make it.

[heimdall]

Very happy with the result although it was nerve racking the closer we got to the end but that's how it goes when you play a very good team like Arsenal. We rode our luck a fair amount but with the help of our 5th defender, Bentdner, we did enough :-)

Very good performance from all of our players with the exception of Babel and Alonso.

Totally agree that Rafa has to rest all the players for Saturday, play the reserves or something, but I expect Wenger will be doing the same as he probably realises that barring a miracle he's not going to catch Manure in the league now.

Overall I'm again very happy, twice in the space of 4 days must be a record for me.

BTW yes Hicks was there but Gillett was apparently snowed in in Colorado, yeah right!! 

[LFC2007]

A great result and we couldn't have expected much better realistically. We managed to hold out for a long time despite being placed under immense pressure at times.

Some of my thoughts:

Babel – massive liability. No fight, desire, passion, heart…will to win the ball at all cost. Shocking passing. He made 4 complete passes in 57 min’s. To put that in perspective -Eboue who had an average game made 22 complete passes. Babel had to be subbed and I would've preferred him off at half time, he was that bad. Benayoun did a much better job at tracking back and tackling.

Kuyt – overall a very good performance – the antithesis of Babel in terms of passion/desire to win the ball. He made a crucial interception tracking back in the second half. He tracked the ball very well , even in attack (two or three times he followed the ball up) he was very alert. He put a good ball through for Torres second half, beat his man on the by-line when there wasn't much else he could do, and got a decent left foot shot off. He DID get a touch on the ball for the goal. He was far from ‘useless’, anyone who says he was in this game is showing their Kuyt-bashing instinct.

We couldn’t keep the ball well enough throughout, but especially second half. Not enough of our players were comfortable in possession. Arsenal have those in abundance, with pace (Adebayor did Carra in the first half, and got in behind) (On that little run Hleb did everyone with his technical ability and mobility, before being tugged by Kuyt) (Walcott skinned a couple with his pace too). This was worrying. Pass completion rates were distinctly apart – 70%-85% roughly (I think). Not good enough. Pace, mobility, movement, passing needs to be better. Unfortunately, only new players can improve this to the required level, but within our current potential we can still be much better.

Their pace and mobility caused us real problems, Adebayor, Hleb, Walcott as mentioned. Whenever they got in behind us, I felt they'd create something. We needed to cut their supply better, i.e. Fabregas, Flamini, - Hleb to a lesser extent. I thought Gerrard at times may have played a little deeper in the second half to press Fabregas, and cut this supply.

Mascherano, some good interceptions, read the game well. Alonso - too static.

Torres fought well, but didn't have enough support up top, esp from wings/full backs – it's imperative that we get quality wingers/full backs if we are going to persist with this formation. Babel has pace, but not much else it would seem unfortunately. Kuyt, doesn't have enough attacking wise.

Aurelio, pretty good performance.

Skrtel, a couple of naïve errors – positioning in first half - got drawn in towards V. Persie when he should've held his position.

Second half – he failed to pick up Adebayor when he played long ball over top.

Overall though he put in a good performance and you can’t expect a lad so young, who’s only been here since January and who’s playing against the most mobile/fluent team in the league/possibly in Europe, to be immaculate. It just doesn’t happen.

The goal conceded was abysmal defending, we didn't find our positions, anticipate the ball coming in then head it. Sami didn’t hold his position, he drifted away from Skrtel and opened a huge gap for Adebayor to exploit. We need to be more compact with these zones, we can't allow gaps to appear between zones. It’s very tough for the opposition to score if the zones are compact and we operate as a unit – it would require a very powerful and accurate header to beat Reina. Hence - the core of the zonal marking system has to be the strongest zone and the most compact zone, it wasn't on this occassion.

A fairly good performance, but we can be much better and there is much room for improvement.

(Apologies if I've stolen anyone's opinion, I've borrowed 'Owzat's' trademark on common sense for the day)

[NANNY RED]

Baring Babel's absolute madness with his square ball across our own area,

He must of heard me screamin pass the ball Babel lad cause it defo came in my direction but i couldnt get my head on it

When he played that ball some fella behind me shouted
hes aimin for the ball boy get a grip Marcus lad Raffa hasnt signed him yet  we all ouselves laughin

[NANNY RED]

Overall I'm again very happy, twice in the space of 4 days must be a record for me.

And thats another compo claim going in against you stop makin me fall of me chair and hurting myself

[ConnO'var]

A great result and we couldn't have expected much better realistically. We managed to hold out for a long time despite being placed under immense pressure at times.

Some of my thoughts:

Babel – massive liability. No fight, desire, passion, heart…will to win the ball at all cost. Shocking passing. He made 4 complete passes in 57 min’s. To put that in perspective -Eboue who had an average game made 22 complete passes. Babel had to be subbed and I would've preferred him off at half time, he was that bad. Benayoun did a much better job at tracking back and tackling.

Kuyt – overall a very good performance – the antithesis of Babel in terms of passion/desire to win the ball. He made a crucial interception tracking back in the second half. He tracked the ball very well , even in attack (two or three times he followed the ball up) he was very alert. He put a good ball through for Torres second half, beat his man on the by-line when there wasn't much else he could do, and got a decent left foot shot off. He DID get a touch on the ball for the goal. He was far from ‘useless’, anyone who says he was in this game is showing their Kuyt-bashing instinct.

We couldn’t keep the ball well enough throughout, but especially second half. Not enough of our players were comfortable in possession. Arsenal have those in abundance, with pace (Adebayor did Carra in the first half, and got in behind) (On that little run Hleb did everyone with his technical ability and mobility, before being tugged by Kuyt) (Walcott skinned a couple with his pace too). This was worrying. Pass completion rates were distinctly apart – 70%-85% roughly (I think). Not good enough. Pace, mobility, movement, passing needs to be better. Unfortunately, only new players can improve this to the required level, but within our current potential we can still be much better.

Their pace and mobility caused us real problems, Adebayor, Hleb, Walcott as mentioned. Whenever they got in behind us, I felt they'd create something. We needed to cut their supply better, i.e. Fabregas, Flamini, - Hleb to a lesser extent. I thought Gerrard at times may have played a little deeper in the second half to press Fabregas, and cut this supply.

Mascherano, some good interceptions, read the game well. Alonso - too static.

Torres fought well, but didn't have enough support up top, esp from wings/full backs – it's imperative that we get quality wingers/full backs if we are going to persist with this formation. Babel has pace, but not much else it would seem unfortunately. Kuyt, doesn't have enough attacking wise.

Aurelio, pretty good performance.

Skrtel, a couple of naïve errors – positioning in first half - got drawn in towards V. Persie when he should've held his position.

Second half – he failed to pick up Adebayor when he played long ball over top.

Overall though he put in a good performance and you can’t expect a lad so young, who’s only been here since January and who’s playing against the most mobile/fluent team in the league/possibly in Europe, to be immaculate. It just doesn’t happen.

The goal conceded was abysmal defending, we didn't find our positions, anticipate the ball coming in then head it. Sami didn’t hold his position, he drifted away from Skrtel and opened a huge gap for Adebayor to exploit. We need to be more compact with these zones, we can't allow gaps to appear between zones. It’s very tough for the opposition to score if the zones are compact and we operate as a unit – it would require a very powerful and accurate header to beat Reina. Hence - the core of the zonal marking system has to be the strongest zone and the most compact zone, it wasn't on this occassion.

A fairly good performance, but we can be much better and there is much room for improvement.

(Apologies if I've stolen anyone's opinion, I've borrowed 'Owzat's' trademark on common sense for the day)

Great post.... agree verbatim.

Babel is very worrying.... he seems to be one ball short of a pair.

Otherwise, happy with the performance put in by the rest of the lads.

Well made up.

bring on the weekend. None of this rest the players stuff please..... but we need to drop Ryan.

[kunilson]

great result, defended very well for the most part but didn't attack much at all especially in the 2nd half.....Torres gets too isolated at times with this new formation but its still early days yet.
Not sure about the pen incident, there was a pull but wasn't worth that sort of fall when he could have easily gone on to shoot. would have probably been angry if it was the other way around but hey thats football.

Very disciplined performance from us in the end, and it sets up the second game nicely.....Kuyt did very well in the amount of ground he covered today, great build up play from stevie for the goal too and great timing.