Liverpool FC Forum

[Sabre]

Now it looks like Alonso's not only have played below his standards, don't go up enough, his passing was poor and is far too easily marked with the oppo striker, but he's also responsible of Gerrard not playing that well due to the deterioration of his game. Maybe next week he'll be the real killer of John Kennedy.

Come on Sabes, he wasn't even born when Kennedy was shot. Was he 

No seriously, I hope Xabi proves me wrong this season and returns to his very best. He is absolutley crucial to Lioverpool prospering, and if he were to regain his very top form, I'd have Gerrard back on the right in a shot with Sissoko restored back into the centre. Masherano in this instance wouldn't even get in the top three.

As for your comment about all the players getting plenty of games i sincerely hope this isn't true. Rafa needs to settle on his central pairing nice and early (and as we all know it'll be Xabi and Gerrard) and stick with it for a month or two to give the team time to bed down. None of this fecking around with it every week please.

Of course I was joking, or as I think you say, it was a tongue in cheek comment.

However, I can't bring you good news when it comes to the stop of using rotation. Giving a player a 5 year contract, or for that matter 4 year contract in the case of Sissoko isn't a sign of lack of confidence in the players. I hardly think that a man like Mascherano or Alonso will be warming the bench say, 2 or 3 weeks in a row.

IMHO we saw many games in the league last season in which we started with Zenden (!!) and Sissoko, not to mention that game we had lot of injuries and Carra played as a holding mid. That kind of midifield configurations are the ones that makes us lose points because other teams had men like Arteta, Benayoun that are as good as that. Of course we won't see games against Arsenal in which Guthrie, Paletta, and Dudek are the ones to win matches -- Dudek received his first defeat and 2 goals against PSV last day, BTW.

If instead of Zenden-Sissoko, we have a Mascherano-Sissoko, Alonso-Sissoko, or Alonso-Gerrard partnerships in the middle we'll win many games that we didn't use to win.

The bad news: we won't stop rotating.

The good news: We'll get much better results, and probably, we'll have a regular team for the league and the changes as in noticeable rotation will be introduced in cups and early Europe games.

[JoeTerp]

I think the solution is obvious.  3-6-1
                          Reina
         Finnan          Carra          Agger
            Mascherano/Momo    Alonso
Pennant                                         Riise
             Gerrard                 Kewell/Yossi/Babel
                             Torres
If you can't decide on if Gerrard should be a CM, RM, or CAM, then he will just have to play RCAM 

I TAKE IT RACM MEANS RIGHT ATTACKING CENTRAL MIDFIELD?Move over rafa i think some could do a better job! 

Of course we wont know for sure if it works until I test it on Pro Ev or FIFA 08   

[roberto green]

I think the solution is obvious.  3-6-1
                          Reina
         Finnan          Carra          Agger
            Mascherano/Momo    Alonso
Pennant                                         Riise
             Gerrard                 Kewell/Yossi/Babel
                             Torres
If you can't decide on if Gerrard should be a CM, RM, or CAM, then he will just have to play RCAM 

I TAKE IT RACM MEANS RIGHT ATTACKING CENTRAL MIDFIELD?Move over rafa i think some could do a better job! 

Of course we wont know for sure if it works until I test it on Pro Ev or FIFA 08   

A big lol

[Bad Bob]

You know, I think Chris Bascombe may have just hit the nail on the head regarding Gerrard in his match report on last night's game:

"Tiresome though the debate has become, only when Benitez has enough trust in the overall balance of the team to play his best player in his best position against the best teams will Liverpool be serious title contenders."

Will Pennant, Benayoun, Kewell and Babel step up this season and allow Rafa to feel confident playing Gerrard at CM against the likes of Chelsea and Man U?  That may just be the key question for the coming season.

[roberto green]

You know, I think Chris Bascombe may have just hit the nail on the head regarding Gerrard in his match report on last night's game:

"Tiresome though the debate has become, only when Benitez has enough trust in the overall balance of the team to play his best player in his best position against the best teams will Liverpool be serious title contenders."

Will Pennant, Benayoun, Kewell and Babel step up this season and allow Rafa to feel confident playing Gerrard at CM against the likes of Chelsea and Man U?  That may just be the key question for the coming season.

Chris Bascombe is a legend      

[roberto green]

saying that i think he comes on here and robs my quotes sometimes:angry:

[JoeTerp]

You know, I think Chris Bascombe may have just hit the nail on the head regarding Gerrard in his match report on last night's game:

"Tiresome though the debate has become, only when Benitez has enough trust in the overall balance of the team to play his best player in his best position against the best teams will Liverpool be serious title contenders."

Will Pennant, Benayoun, Kewell and Babel step up this season and allow Rafa to feel confident playing Gerrard at CM against the likes of Chelsea and Man U?  That may just be the key question for the coming season.

That makes a real good arguement for why we should have looked harder to bring in the likes of Quaresma and Mancini instead of Babel (player for the future, wants to be a striker, right-footed plays on the left) and Yossi (role seems to be utlitiy flair man).  I am a big fan of Pennant and I hope he becomes more solid this year as a legit right winger for a top class club, and I hope Kewell can regain fitness and form, but it is not OK to have both of these issues of wishywashyness on the wings.

[roberto green]

wishywashyness.love it:D

[LegBarnes]

Ok i know you all shout at me for this but i personaly think gerrard is wasted in midfield we should have him as an out and out striker.

He is strong powerful , massive work rate , great header of the ball , wonderful finisher , great link up play and great football brain .

Seems to me a perfect striker , now if i am not much mistaken alan shearer was a goalkeeper till the age of 18 and look how good he become put gerrard up front for 10 games i bet he starts knocking in a goal  game   

[Dundalk]

He seems happy enough with the current set up

Steven Gerrard is relishing the prospect of driving the Reds towards glory from the centre of midfield this season.
The Anfield skipper has been employed in his preferred position throughout the summer programme and has responded with a series of fine displays, culminating in a man of the match display against Feyenoord on Sunday afternoon.

Following the arrivals of Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun manager Rafael Benitez has suggested Gerrard will be used more in the middle during this term and that's music to the ears of the captain.

"I've played a lot of pre-season in the centre of midfield, and I've really enjoyed it," said Gerrard. "The manager knows that's where I want to play.

"We've got a big squad with a lot of good players and a lot of competition for places.

"There's a lot of football and I know I'll get my chance in the middle, but that's where I enjoy playing the most and where I believe I have the most to offer for the team.

"It was good to get the goal on Sunday. Before this year, I'd never really scored goals in pre-season, so to get a few this time around has been strange. I've managed to get three but I’d swap all of those for one next week against Aston Villa."

The Reds are desperate to get their campaign off to a winning start on Saturday evening as they look to take the first step towards a hoped for 19th league title.

Gerrard isn't keen on making any unnecessary predictions before the season gets underway, but he's confident the Reds are ready for the challenge.

"I don't want to say anything stupid before the start of the season, but we've got to be ready from the off," he said. "There's no getting away from it.

"Whether we're ready or not, only time will tell. But what I can say is that we have trained hard, we feel as though we are ready.

"Now it's up to myself and the rest of the players to go out and do it. It's vital we are right at it from the off against Villa.

"In this league, you cannot give any of the leading teams a head start because they don't lose many games, so if you trail behind it's difficult to make up that gap."

[stmichael]

Ok i know you all shout at me for this but i personaly think gerrard is wasted in midfield we should have him as an out and out striker.

He is strong powerful , massive work rate , great header of the ball , wonderful finisher , great link up play and great football brain .

Seems to me a perfect striker , now if i am not much mistaken alan shearer was a goalkeeper till the age of 18 and look how good he become put gerrard up front for 10 games i bet he starts knocking in a goal  game   

I think I've heard it all now.

[Sabre]

He's been clear enough about where he wants to play and it seems Rafa will obligue.

It was good to get the goal on Sunday. Before this year, I'd never really scored goals in pre-season, so to get a few this time around has been strange. I've managed to get three but I’d swap all of those for one next week against Aston Villa."

It's good also Steven reminds us that preseason and season have not much to do, different stories. So the same could be apply to any player, the fact they don't score or impress in preseason actually means nothing.

[stmichael]

I agree that we don't need 2 sitting midfielders to win the league. In fact I'd only play that way in away games at United, Chelsea and Arsenal. For all the other games we can go with 1 sitting midfielder with Gerrard in the middle and we should be able to win most games playing that way, home or away.

I think the fact that in 2 massive games at the end of last season (Chelsea in the Champions League semi at Anfield and the final itself) Gerrard played central (albeit in an adanced role in the final) that indicated to me that Rafa was either coming round to accepting that Gerrard didn't need to play wide right or that he was beginning to trust Pennant more.

From Rafa's comments the other night I think we're definitely going to see more of Gerrard in the centre this season, it's just a question of how many defensive midfielders he'll have around him as I think us playing 4-3-3 more often is a distinct possibility.

[LegBarnes]

Ok i know you all shout at me for this but i personaly think gerrard is wasted in midfield we should have him as an out and out striker.

He is strong powerful , massive work rate , great header of the ball , wonderful finisher , great link up play and great football brain .

Seems to me a perfect striker , now if i am not much mistaken alan shearer was a goalkeeper till the age of 18 and look how good he become put gerrard up front for 10 games i bet he starts knocking in a goal  game   

I think I've heard it all now.

well instead of saying that care to prove me wrong or just chat ?

[LegBarnes]

I agree that we don't need 2 sitting midfielders to win the league. In fact I'd only play that way in away games at United, Chelsea and Arsenal. For all the other games we can go with 1 sitting midfielder with Gerrard in the middle and we should be able to win most games playing that way, home or away.

I think the fact that in 2 massive games at the end of last season (Chelsea in the Champions League semi at Anfield and the final itself) Gerrard played central (albeit in an adanced role in the final) that indicated to me that Rafa was either coming round to accepting that Gerrard didn't need to play wide right or that he was beginning to trust Pennant more.

From Rafa's comments the other night I think we're definitely going to see more of Gerrard in the centre this season, it's just a question of how many defensive midfielders he'll have around him as I think us playing 4-3-3 more often is a distinct possibility.

yes 4-3-3 is a big point of this season.

i like to see gerrard play as right forward in that formation with our 2 DM and 1 attacking midfielder like harry or alonso