Liverpool FC Forum

[heimdall]

F*ck me, are people only noticing this now?

I've been banging on about this for years but as usual people just ignore me.     

[tonyeh]

I think the "release" of the midfield around March last season was the key to the success that Liverpool enjoyed and produced some great results. I also think that a lot of that hinged on Alonso's presence in midfield. Alonso is a player who I've felt has been both under-rated and over-rated at times, but he certainly offered the most in terms of forward movement. Something that is completely absent now...and that'll cost us in the long run.

I know we're only one game in, but the realisation of my fears last Sunday was no surprise. We dead in midfield and Torres will be absolutely useless, if there is no one feeding him. Gerrard cannot do all the time, he needs feeding himself and we can't expect him (and Torres for that matter) to track back and pick up the ball all the time). They'll be finished by Christmas.

If the choice was there, I would have happily got rid of Macherano and kept Alonso. Unfortunately Xabi wanted to go, no doubt brought on by Benitez's dicking around last Summer, so we are where we are.

There's a lot of people saying that it's Liverpool's year, this year (like we hear every year), but I'm not that convinced. Even more so, if the stories of Benitez being denied cash by the owners is true and we're left with what we've got.

Hopefully, we'll see a different Liverpool tonight in the match against Stoke. But will anyone be really THAT surprised if we get a draw?

[KOPMATT]

I honestly felt that if any year was to be ours then it was last season even tho Chelsea & ManUre had more strenghth in depth than us. This year as we all know ManUre are weaker supposidly but then even with the addition of Aquilani we have weakened our midfield by arguably selling our best player last season, however our hand was forced and Rafa has to praised for the fact that we held out for top whack for him.

Just one game into the season and it's not looking as rosy as a lot of us were expecting is it.

[heimdall]

I think the "release" of the midfield around March last season was the key to the success that Liverpool enjoyed and produced some great results. I also think that a lot of that hinged on Alonso's presence in midfield. Alonso is a player who I've felt has been both under-rated and over-rated at times, but he certainly offered the most in terms of forward movement. Something that is completely absent now...and that'll cost us in the long run.

I know we're only one game in, but the realisation of my fears last Sunday was no surprise. We dead in midfield and Torres will be absolutely useless, if there is no one feeding him. Gerrard cannot do all the time, he needs feeding himself and we can't expect him (and Torres for that matter) to track back and pick up the ball all the time). They'll be finished by Christmas.

If the choice was there, I would have happily got rid of Macherano and kept Alonso. Unfortunately Xabi wanted to go, no doubt brought on by Benitez's dicking around last Summer, so we are where we are.

There's a lot of people saying that it's Liverpool's year, this year (like we hear every year), but I'm not that convinced. Even more so, if the stories of Benitez being denied cash by the owners is true and we're left with what we've got.

Hopefully, we'll see a different Liverpool tonight in the match against Stoke. But will anyone be really THAT surprised if we get a draw?

The way we played against Spurs I wouldn't be shocked at a loss, that is the depressing part.

[account deleted by request]

F*ck me, are people only noticing this now?

I've been banging on about this for years but as usual people just ignore me.     

To be fair Heimdall, people don't usually ignore you ...... insulting you is the usual response. 

[heimdall]

F*ck me, are people only noticing this now?

I've been banging on about this for years but as usual people just ignore me.     

To be fair Heimdall, people don't usually ignore you ...... insulting you is the usual response. 

And most of the time they're right in doing so but sometimes I actually say stuff that makes sense.

[Bad Bob]

F*ck me, are people only noticing this now?

I've been banging on about this for years but as usual people just ignore me.     

To be fair Heimdall, people don't usually ignore you ...... insulting you is the usual response. 

And most of the time they're right in doing so but sometimes I actually say stuff that makes sense.

[Owzat]

I honestly felt that if any year was to be ours then it was last season even tho Chelsea & ManUre had more strenghth in depth than us. This year as we all know ManUre are weaker supposidly but then even with the addition of Aquilani we have weakened our midfield by arguably selling our best player last season, however our hand was forced and Rafa has to praised for the fact that we held out for top whack for him.

Just one game into the season and it's not looking as rosy as a lot of us were expecting is it.

Well the mancs had a nice easy opening game, so did Chelsea and so, as it turned out, did the goners. We got a team that hasn't lost at home since 30/11/08 and were the only side of the four to lose.

But would we have been as doom and gloom had we played a nice easy home game, won away scrappily and then lost at spudz? We didn't exactly start convincingly last season, a narrow win over slumberland then a draw against the villa.

For me the crux isn't necessarily who we sold or who we bought, but how quiet/poor a game the players we normally rate so highly had. There were brief spells when players like Kuyt and Gerrard got into the game, but not enough. That said, there was no commanding presence in the middle to control the flow, maybe the one thing Rafa didn't get across was how they were going to play, score, win etc You can't expect to have lion's share of possession against decent sides, so what was the plan - hope? The goal we did score was from a decent move, but a clumsy challenge for a penalty that didn't need to be made where GJ was.

But I think I'll be calling for Rafa's head if we don't win against Stoke, unforgivable and it will probably be down to one of the root causes that cost us last season that I think I've posted already this morning. If nothing has improved on last season then my feeling is that we will struggle to match that points tally let alone best it or that of our rivals. If we don't win at ot and SB then that is points off the 86, no guarantee we'll beat either at Anfield either and that could easily be 9-12 points knocked off the 86 and back down to our usual kind of tally. The mancs didn't rely on beating us, Chelsea or the goners although they will do well to repeat their phenomenal record of beating weaker teams consistently

[RedBlood]

i think the problem is we either score 3 or 4 and walk it or we draw 1-1 or 0-0 i think our biggest problem is scoring the first goal against defensive sides and this is were a break from midfield or a centre back coming up and scoring from a corner can make the difference

torres gerrard benyoun aqnd kuyt agger auerillo all contribute well in their respective positions imo but the likes of mascherano lucas aquialini riera babel ngog carraghar skrtel johnson etc all have to do more (ive added johonson and aquailini because its yet to be seen how they adapt)