Liverpool FC Forum

[puroresu]

Our passing has been poor this season.  Its not quick or slick enough. Just watch Arsenal now and u see slick possession football.

[Anfield rapper]

That sheff Utd result did matter.  0-0 v sheff utd is poor result, simple as that.  Doesnt matter if its the 1st game its 2 points dropped and was a vital 2 points.  A win v Sheff Utd and even a draw at goodison would of been ok.

Aurelio is becoming another scapegoat such as Traore.  Its a joke.

Traore wasn't a scapegoat, he was a fucking liability.

I do agree Aurelio's becoming a scapegoat though. It's a lot harder for defenders to settle in this league & I don't think he's done too badly, not great, but not bad.

And traore was also always blamed when things wet bad even though it wasnt always his fault.

Traore was shocking. The only game i ever saw him play well was the CL final.

[Espionage]

Listen mate Rafa is to blame he continues to rotate, no palyer knows where the other one is,.
This rotation has got to stop, no one else does it.
Whys should we?
Gerrard will leave next season I am 99% sure of it.
He is not a winger, he is getting played out of postion on a weekly basis because he is so flexable, and if he does leave because of this reason.
I will not forgive Benitez, no matter how many tropheys we win.
Cause lets face it this title is over AGAIN.

And leave Momo on the bench.... I think not.

2 Changes..... How is that over-tinkering?
Its the fault of the players this time, Rafa played this one right.  I wouldnt have changed anything.....

Mate.... I disagree..... Rafa has to take some of the blame yet again.... Gerrard on the left? You have to be kidding me!

THE best Central Midfielder in the world IMO and we have him out on the left when he's right footed? You have to be kidding me..... Sometimes I wished he wasn't so versatile... then Rafa couldn't try to shoehorn him willy nilly into the midfield wherever it suits him....

Ciggy's right.... we may loose him in the long run if we don't get him back into the centre of the park...

C'mon Rafa.... either drop Momo (bad idea IMO) or change the system and play with 3 across the centre in a 5-3-2 or something similar.

Pennant was poor today.... passing and crossing were terrible and he seemed desperately afraid to take on Cashley Cole.....

4 points from 4 matches.... terribly disappointing.... Is it ok to feel bad that we'd dropped 2 points against relegation fodder like Sheffield United now?

v Sheffield ~ Lucky to get a draw via a generous penalty
v West Ham ~ Deserved to win and did but did not play well
v Everton ~ Played like and got our bottoms spanked
v Chelsea ~ Competitive but lacked attacking ideas and impetus... too predictable and Chelsea held on easily even with 10 men.

v PSV ~ too defensive minded and should have won but didn't

Tactically, I'm starting to question the gaffer's ability.... All this bleeding rotation and apparent tactical naivety is worrying me....

Already in 2 major finals, we fell behind partly due to his tactics.... was it really his tactical nous that got us back on track in Istanbul and v West Ham or did we just get lucky and rode on the back of Stevie's passion for the club?

I'm not so sure now.....

Hell, it could be that I'm a little drunk right now and need someone to blame... plus feeling a little melancholy.... not thinking straight.... I'll sleep this off and see what I think tommorow....

 

Tell me a one midfield 4 that would not be 'controvertial' and have half the people on this forum asking for his head.

I bet that no one can.

Mate.. with the players we have right now and Rafa's insistence on playing Momo, Stevie AND Xabi, any midfield 4 I suggest would be controversial.....

What I was saying is that if he does insist on playing ALL 3, he needs to change the midfield formation..... 5 across with 2 wingers or 3 across with 2 wingbacks......

No point shoving Stevie around as he is our best central midfielder IMO..

Name the formation.  I am curious.....

Sorry the personel 

[puroresu]

Listen mate Rafa is to blame he continues to rotate, no palyer knows where the other one is,.
This rotation has got to stop, no one else does it.
Whys should we?
Gerrard will leave next season I am 99% sure of it.
He is not a winger, he is getting played out of postion on a weekly basis because he is so flexable, and if he does leave because of this reason.
I will not forgive Benitez, no matter how many tropheys we win.
Cause lets face it this title is over AGAIN.

And leave Momo on the bench.... I think not.

2 Changes..... How is that over-tinkering?
Its the fault of the players this time, Rafa played this one right.  I wouldnt have changed anything.....

Mate.... I disagree..... Rafa has to take some of the blame yet again.... Gerrard on the left? You have to be kidding me!

THE best Central Midfielder in the world IMO and we have him out on the left when he's right footed? You have to be kidding me..... Sometimes I wished he wasn't so versatile... then Rafa couldn't try to shoehorn him willy nilly into the midfield wherever it suits him....

Ciggy's right.... we may loose him in the long run if we don't get him back into the centre of the park...

C'mon Rafa.... either drop Momo (bad idea IMO) or change the system and play with 3 across the centre in a 5-3-2 or something similar.

Pennant was poor today.... passing and crossing were terrible and he seemed desperately afraid to take on Cashley Cole.....

4 points from 4 matches.... terribly disappointing.... Is it ok to feel bad that we'd dropped 2 points against relegation fodder like Sheffield United now?

v Sheffield ~ Lucky to get a draw via a generous penalty
v West Ham ~ Deserved to win and did but did not play well
v Everton ~ Played like and got our bottoms spanked
v Chelsea ~ Competitive but lacked attacking ideas and impetus... too predictable and Chelsea held on easily even with 10 men.

v PSV ~ too defensive minded and should have won but didn't

Tactically, I'm starting to question the gaffer's ability.... All this bleeding rotation and apparent tactical naivety is worrying me....

Already in 2 major finals, we fell behind partly due to his tactics.... was it really his tactical nous that got us back on track in Istanbul and v West Ham or did we just get lucky and rode on the back of Stevie's passion for the club?

I'm not so sure now.....

Hell, it could be that I'm a little drunk right now and need someone to blame... plus feeling a little melancholy.... not thinking straight.... I'll sleep this off and see what I think tommorow....

 

Tell me a one midfield 4 that would not be 'controvertial' and have half the people on this forum asking for his head.

I bet that no one can.

Mate.. with the players we have right now and Rafa's insistence on playing Momo, Stevie AND Xabi, any midfield 4 I suggest would be controversial.....

What I was saying is that if he does insist on playing ALL 3, he needs to change the midfield formation..... 5 across with 2 wingers or 3 across with 2 wingbacks......

No point shoving Stevie around as he is our best central midfielder IMO..

I agree.  If Rafa wants to play all 3 in midfield he has to change the system.  Gerrard can play out wide but why should he have to when we signed 2 out and out wingers.

[Raoul]

we need a settled side gerrard should be playing in the middle...surely even rafa can see that!. Why buy two wingers if you are not going to use both of them? there's been too much fukking around with the team selections if you ask me, and its costing us. Crouch should have started the game or been brought on earlier, couldn't understand why he swapped one full back for another?...and what does zenden give us?.

Gerrard shouldn't really start on the left, but in the centre.  I'd agree that Crouch came in to late - Rafa does seem to hav e a habit of leaving his laste sub till quite late in the game (of course, Riise injury perhaps explains why).

But to give Rafa his due, he introduced Zenden so that Gerrard could shift into the centre - I guess this is the reason Rafa kept Zenden over Hamman - because he does offer the wide option if needed.  And Fabio for Warnock was hardly like for like - Fabio played much further up the pitch and was also there as a dead ball specialist I would guess.

Despite what many are saying (well recently, I haven't read all the pages), I thought both Alonso and Pennant looked OK. 

I think Rafa needs to decide whether he is going to play two or three in the middle of the park, and build the rest of the team around that.

[welsh wizzard]

One person is to blame for the start of the season and its no other than Senior Rafael Benitez.

Was it his fault that Gerrard missed that sitter?

What mistakes did he make today?

Rafa made no mistakes today thats the problem, the other problem is however this starting 11 wont play again together in the next few weeks, thats the problem.

Yep you are right, but i would not have stuck SG out on the left and and i would have put longlegs on for the last 30 mins.......but hey what do i know lol

Maybe Crouch could have come on a little earlier, sure I will accpet that.

IMO
undroppable players: Gerrard, Alonso, Momo
That means that either Gonzalez, Aurelio or Zenden.
I would rather have Pennant on then any of these three.

I dont see what the problem was, our midfield played well and had good balance.


But what would your midfield would have looked like, if you claim that you would have don it differently?

How come Alonso is undropable. The way he is playing at the moment is shocking. He is well out of sorts to many stray passes. He hasn't had one good game this season yet and needs dropping. You don't become a useless player overnight i know that but he is playing with no confidence at all.

                          reina
finnan         carra        agger         aurelio


                            sissoko


    pennent                                     gonzales

                             
                       
                           gerrard



                 crouch             kuite

Best 11 at the moment..

Read that post I made after it, I rephraised it......

I think that its funny that people complain about too many changes, and then suggest that we should have dropped Alonso

Get a clue

Knobheadd like i said Alonso has had a poor start to the season been well off the pace. Once again today proved that, he should be dropped to the bench and put stevie back in the middle with mommo. If the likes of Aurellio and pennent gonzales were given a run in the team we might start playing some better football, My point is that we need more of a team that is not being swapped and changed every game. But the way Alonso has started the season,  and he has played a few,  he has been poor by his own standards.

[The_Rock]

The scum will tail off as they don't have a good enough squad. They will take points off Sh*tski (who we'll beat at Anfield), and we should get 4 points off the scum this season, and at least 3 from Arsenal.

Why does everybody think that manure will drop loads of points this season Or that it is a for-gone conclusion that we will beat chelsea and arsenal at home   Give me a break.

The way i see it, there's no point hoping for arsenal, chelsea & manure to drop points... Why ?? Becos that is out of our hands. What we should be hoping for is rafa puts out his strongest team  whenever possible.

Todays result is a bad one compounded by the fact that we lost to sheffield united & everton. If rafa had played this team against those 2 teams we could have been better of by 4 points. Then todays defeat would not be so painful.

My take is rafa tried to be too smart when he picked the team against SU & eversh1t. He tried to be too smart when he picked the team against PSV (and dropping gerrard so as to save him for chelsea).... Well look how that turned out ?

I still respect rafa for what he did in his last 2 years at this club..... But he has to change his policy on rotation. It ain't gonna work becos zenden is not = gerrard (ie.....our "2nd team" players are not good enuff to replace our better players.

[Ciggy]

The answer is quite simple really to get results and that is to play your best players end of.
Rafa is talking about resting and tiredness FFS to work for 90 minutes a week earning 90 thousand pound, whats there to be tired of.
I understand he wants to protect our captain but at the same time he is ruining his game.
Stevenb Gerrard is an attacking midfielder why is he not played in this roll.
Every club in europe wants him, why are you defying them rafa through his flexablity?

Please god from now on play our best 11 starting against Newcastle at home on Wed, and from now on.
We need stabilty and fast.
At this rate we will be lucky to get a UEFA Cup place and Im not joking and its not knee jerk.
The bitters have Andy Johnson, and Pompey have improved, dont make the same mistake as your first year incharge everything is possible in football, so dont take anything for granted.

[48-1119859832]

No one to blame but ourselves.. 

Gerrard will leave next season I am 99% sure of it.

I agree the title is over but i think maybe your being a bit hard about Gerrard leaving.

What an over reaction, Gerrard will leave next season. So what if he does? People come and go, the club still remains. If he's scared of putting in hard graft to earn trophies then he shouldn't be playing for us, it's a simple as that.

[Espionage]

One person is to blame for the start of the season and its no other than Senior Rafael Benitez.

Was it his fault that Gerrard missed that sitter?

What mistakes did he make today?

Rafa made no mistakes today thats the problem, the other problem is however this starting 11 wont play again together in the next few weeks, thats the problem.

Yep you are right, but i would not have stuck SG out on the left and and i would have put longlegs on for the last 30 mins.......but hey what do i know lol

Maybe Crouch could have come on a little earlier, sure I will accpet that.

IMO
undroppable players: Gerrard, Alonso, Momo
That means that either Gonzalez, Aurelio or Zenden.
I would rather have Pennant on then any of these three.

I dont see what the problem was, our midfield played well and had good balance.


But what would your midfield would have looked like, if you claim that you would have don it differently?

How come Alonso is undropable. The way he is playing at the moment is shocking. He is well out of sorts to many stray passes. He hasn't had one good game this season yet and needs dropping. You don't become a useless player overnight i know that but he is playing with no confidence at all.

                          reina
finnan         carra        agger         aurelio


                            sissoko


    pennent                                     gonzales

                             
                       
                           gerrard



                 crouch             kuite

Best 11 at the moment..

Read that post I made after it, I rephraised it......

I think that its funny that people complain about too many changes, and then suggest that we should have dropped Alonso

Get a clue

Knobheadd like i said Alonso has had a poor start to the season been well off the pace. Once again today proved that, he should be dropped to the bench and put stevie back in the middle with mommo. If the likes of Aurellio and pennent gonzales were given a run in the team we might start playing some better football, My point is that we need more of a team that is not being swapped and changed every game. But the way Alonso has started the season,  and he has played a few,  he has been poor by his own standards.

Alonso played fantastic today.  Were you watching how many tackles he made today?  He played the holding role to perfection, beautiful defending and good distribution.

Also Momo and Gerrard is sort of untried, they are both box to box players and both of them would be limited by having to accomdate for each other.  As everyone knows that way that Liverpool usually play is with a holding midfielder staying just outside the play and having one of the fullbacks go forward and attack........

[Anfield rapper]

The scum will tail off as they don't have a good enough squad. They will take points off Sh*tski (who we'll beat at Anfield), and we should get 4 points off the scum this season, and at least 3 from Arsenal.

Why does everybody think that manure will drop loads of points this season Or that it is a for-gone conclusion that we will beat chelsea and arsenal at home   Give me a break.

The way i see it, there's no point hoping for arsenal, chelsea & manure to drop points... Why ?? Becos that is out of our hands. What we should be hoping for is rafa puts out his strongest team  whenever possible.

Todays result is a bad one compounded by the fact that we lost to sheffield united & everton. If rafa had played this team against those 2 teams we could have been better of by 4 points. Then todays defeat would not be so painful.

My take is rafa tried to be too smart when he picked the team against SU & eversh1t. He tried to be too smart when he picked the team against PSV (and dropping gerrard so as to save him for chelsea).... Well look how that turned out ?

I still respect rafa for what he did in his last 2 years at this club..... But he has to change his policy on rotation. It ain't gonna work becos zenden is not = gerrard (ie.....our "2nd team" players are not good enuff to replace our better players.

I don't the only things i want to get out of the prem this season now is a CL place and beat Everton and Chelsea at home.

[ConnO'var]

Listen mate Rafa is to blame he continues to rotate, no palyer knows where the other one is,.
This rotation has got to stop, no one else does it.
Whys should we?
Gerrard will leave next season I am 99% sure of it.
He is not a winger, he is getting played out of postion on a weekly basis because he is so flexable, and if he does leave because of this reason.
I will not forgive Benitez, no matter how many tropheys we win.
Cause lets face it this title is over AGAIN.

And leave Momo on the bench.... I think not.

2 Changes..... How is that over-tinkering?
Its the fault of the players this time, Rafa played this one right.  I wouldnt have changed anything.....

Mate.... I disagree..... Rafa has to take some of the blame yet again.... Gerrard on the left? You have to be kidding me!

THE best Central Midfielder in the world IMO and we have him out on the left when he's right footed? You have to be kidding me..... Sometimes I wished he wasn't so versatile... then Rafa couldn't try to shoehorn him willy nilly into the midfield wherever it suits him....

Ciggy's right.... we may loose him in the long run if we don't get him back into the centre of the park...

C'mon Rafa.... either drop Momo (bad idea IMO) or change the system and play with 3 across the centre in a 5-3-2 or something similar.

Pennant was poor today.... passing and crossing were terrible and he seemed desperately afraid to take on Cashley Cole.....

4 points from 4 matches.... terribly disappointing.... Is it ok to feel bad that we'd dropped 2 points against relegation fodder like Sheffield United now?

v Sheffield ~ Lucky to get a draw via a generous penalty
v West Ham ~ Deserved to win and did but did not play well
v Everton ~ Played like and got our bottoms spanked
v Chelsea ~ Competitive but lacked attacking ideas and impetus... too predictable and Chelsea held on easily even with 10 men.

v PSV ~ too defensive minded and should have won but didn't

Tactically, I'm starting to question the gaffer's ability.... All this bleeding rotation and apparent tactical naivety is worrying me....

Already in 2 major finals, we fell behind partly due to his tactics.... was it really his tactical nous that got us back on track in Istanbul and v West Ham or did we just get lucky and rode on the back of Stevie's passion for the club?

I'm not so sure now.....

Hell, it could be that I'm a little drunk right now and need someone to blame... plus feeling a little melancholy.... not thinking straight.... I'll sleep this off and see what I think tommorow....

 

Tell me a one midfield 4 that would not be 'controvertial' and have half the people on this forum asking for his head.

I bet that no one can.

Mate.. with the players we have right now and Rafa's insistence on playing Momo, Stevie AND Xabi, any midfield 4 I suggest would be controversial.....

What I was saying is that if he does insist on playing ALL 3, he needs to change the midfield formation..... 5 across with 2 wingers or 3 across with 2 wingbacks......

No point shoving Stevie around as he is our best central midfielder IMO..

Name the formation.  I am curious.....

Sorry the personel 

0ne of two formations...

1. Against the stronger teams, I'd go for

Finnan                                   Aurelio
             Gerrard Xabi Momo


&

2. Against the weaker teams, I'd have

                         Xabi
Pennant    Gerrard      Momo      Gonzalez

In both formations, Riise would fit in quite nicely on the left once he's recovered...

Opinion?

[The_Rock]

The answer is quite simple really to get results and that is to play your best players end of.
Rafa is talking about resting and tiredness FFS to work for 90 minutes a week earning 90 thousand pound, whats there to be tired of.
I understand he wants to protect our captain but at the same time he is ruining his game.
Stevenb Gerrard is an attacking midfielder why is he not played in this roll.
Every club in europe wants him, why are you defying them rafa through his flexablity?

Please god from now on play our best 11 starting against Newcastle at home on Wed, and from now on.
We need stabilty and fast.
At this rate we will be lucky to get a UEFA Cup place and Im not joking and its not knee jerk.
The bitters have Andy Johnson, and Pompey have improved, dont make the same mistake as your first year incharge everything is possible in football, so dont take anything for granted.

I agree about gerrard playing in the centre (in fact i did mention last week). And rafa puts him on the left flank

Its time to drop alonso. He doesn't have a god-given right to be in the starting line-up when he is below par.

Rafa should stick with Gerrard & Sissoko midfield pairing until Alonso gets back to his best.

I can't believe some ppl suggested that alonso should play until he gets back to his best.... Isn't that what training sessions are for ? (ie....To get back in form).

[Ciggy]

What an over reaction, Gerrard will leave next season. So what if he does? People come and go, the club still remains. If he's scared of putting in hard graft to earn trophies then he shouldn't be playing for us, it's a simple as that.

JUST OFF

[Ciggy]

I can't believe some ppl suggested that alonso should play until he gets back to his best.... Isn't that what training sessions are for ? (ie....To get back in form).

I have no qarms with Alonso what so ever, but him and Lius set us on fire when they first arrived, and maybe the two of them just dont look as good anymore.
Because we have better players now than we did then?