Liverpool FC Forum

[adamnbarrett]

WE MISSING XABI BADLY   

Always makes me laugh comments like these ! Always missing one particular player thats injured that, even win he was fit didnt really change any games.

Nope what were missing more than anything is PASSION !

really?

our midfield lacked the class Xabi brings. We were out of ideas. The ball didnt get to the wingers. Gerrard was man marked out of the game. Alonso would have definately made a difference and would have done so in the last few games aswell. FACT

True there was no passion there but Xabi Alonso is one of the most passionate players I've seen in a Liverpool shirt in recent seasons.

Passion was missing yes 100% but so was a ball player and i tend to agree with Adam, Alonso can put his foot on the ball calm things down and pick out them passes at least we could play through the midfield or out to the wings with a player who can pass a ball, instead we missing out the middle and just playing them long balls

And Gerrard cannot do these things?

yes he can but he cannot do his own job and Alonso's can he?

he's not superman.

Especially when he's being marked out of the game and has beeen for the last few games. Teams recognise that without alonso we are overly dependant on gerrard.

[philou]

Hello!
I was very surprised about the tactical way of Reds tonight, Gerrard was not the usual Gerrard (car accident ?), all most Sissoko et Benayoun. L'OM is a sick team (17th in french league), I hope tonight will be the beginning of our season.
See you in Marseille Reds!

[account deleted by request]

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez defended his selection policy after their 1-0 defeat by Olympique Marseille.
Mathieu Valbuena hit a stunning winner in the 77th minute to leave the Reds, whose European form has been superb since the Spaniard took the reigns, with just one point from their opening two fixtures this season.

But Benitez, whose side showed a clutch of changes once again, refused to blame his rotation policy.

Asked if it had an impact he told Sky Sports 2: "No. Look at the team, we had some big names out there today.

"But the ones we chose were not good enough.

"We gave the ball away and we didn't create too many chances. You must give them (Marseille) credit as they worked hard, were well-organised and they had control - they weren't giving the ball away.

"I tried to change players, to change positions and we used different strikers.

"It's disappointing."

It was a lacklustre night all round at Anfield but Benitez could not blame the crowd for their muted support.

"I cannot say anything about the support because we weren't playing right from the start," he added.

[Kharhaz]

WE MISSING XABI BADLY   

Always makes me laugh comments like these ! Always missing one particular player thats injured that, even win he was fit didnt really change any games.

Nope what were missing more than anything is PASSION !

really?

our midfield lacked the class Xabi brings. We were out of ideas. The ball didnt get to the wingers. Gerrard was man marked out of the game. Alonso would have definately made a difference and would have done so in the last few games aswell. FACT

True there was no passion there but Xabi Alonso is one of the most passionate players I've seen in a Liverpool shirt in recent seasons.

Passion was missing yes 100% but so was a ball player and i tend to agree with Adam, Alonso can put his foot on the ball calm things down and pick out them passes at least we could play through the midfield or out to the wings with a player who can pass a ball, instead we missing out the middle and just playing them long balls

And Gerrard cannot do these things?

yes he can but he cannot do his own job and Alonso's can he?

he's not superman.

Especially when he's being marked out of the game and has beeen for the last few games. Teams recognise that without alonso we are overly dependant on gerrard.

And therein lies my point. Its not down to individuals its a team game.

[Forever_Red]

See you in Marseille Reds!

I hope we see the reds as well!

[NANNY RED]

WE MISSING XABI BADLY   

Always makes me laugh comments like these ! Always missing one particular player thats injured that, even win he was fit didnt really change any games.

Nope what were missing more than anything is PASSION !

really?

our midfield lacked the class Xabi brings. We were out of ideas. The ball didnt get to the wingers. Gerrard was man marked out of the game. Alonso would have definately made a difference and would have done so in the last few games aswell. FACT

True there was no passion there but Xabi Alonso is one of the most passionate players I've seen in a Liverpool shirt in recent seasons.

Passion was missing yes 100% but so was a ball player and i tend to agree with Adam, Alonso can put his foot on the ball calm things down and pick out them passes at least we could play through the midfield or out to the wings with a player who can pass a ball, instead we missing out the middle and just playing them long balls

And Gerrard cannot do these things?

when alonso plays it gives stevie licence to push on not have to sit back behind the half way line were he spent most of the game.We all know stevie can pass a ball but dont you think having more that only one ball player in the team makes sense

[welsh wizzard]

Fecking hell we were a joke simple as that. "No passion" second to every ball, we were not up for this game before it fecking started.

Rafa wants to stop fecking tinkering with his team, play your best 11 players available every game. Why on earth did he play Aurellio and leto is beyond belief, Crouch plays on confidence and he hasn't been playing so why fecking play him now. Sissoko gave away every ball he fecking come near was shittte. That is the worst performance i've seen Liverpool ever play at home.

We have to play our best 11 all the time from the start without a doubt, all this crappp about tiredness come on for feck sake we are only in October, players want to play all the time. We were a disgrace, Ever since battering Derby 6 nil we ave never pushed on, "Was this the time when Paco walked"  Makes you fecking wonder.........

[Emerald Red]

It's back to basics. I won't mention what the most number one basic of all is but I'll bet you can guess     

Passing the ball, right? 

[The Grudge]

Firstly i want to say i do not blame Raffa tonight!
He put 11 players out and they did not perform...not a single outfield player tonight should be able to sleep in their mansion..a bigger worry for me is that all 10 probably will!

When is seen the lineup i was a bit surprised,but hey we always are!
It was good to see Leto given a chance,Sissoko as well.Benayoun was there on merit after his last few performances and important goals.Gerrard was there because he is the captain..mmn!
BUT
Not one of the four put in a performance worthy of the socks,never mind the shirt.
They stood off players,let them have the ball,gave them too much space and generally done nothing positive...A terrible and Un Redlike midfield performance was our biggest downfall.

The defence was suffering from lack of protection as a result of this...to carry weight to the words,its not very often we see Jamie Carragher manhandle or bodycheck opposing players,after all hes better than that!
To a certain extent i could understand someone critisizing the manager but at the end of the day we played Marsielle at Anfield and were beaten in every department apart form the goalkeeper..the team put out should have been good enough....All 10 failed!
The biggest thing we lacked tonight was heart and balls...TBH the last 5 minutes made me feel a little bit embaressed watching half hearted balls fly in from everywhere and praying on set pieces is not the Liverpool way!

I think a few of our players need to take some DvDs and sit and watch what we are about,what we have been about..I just feel a few dont realise who or what they are actually playing for!

[Ciggy]

Hello!
I was very surprised about the tactical way of Reds tonight, Gerrard was not the usual Gerrard (car accident ?), all most Sissoko et Benayoun. L'OM is a sick team (17th in french league), I hope tonight will be the beginning of our season.
See you in Marseille Reds!

Good luck in the league mate.
Ypur fans where superb tonight a credit to you.

[OneHotRed]

Cant believe people are still saying if we played so and so (tonight Alonso) we would have won tonight, were running out of player to put in the side and say this about, its not all down to one player missing, at the moment there are a HELL of a lot of things going wrong in our camp, a combination of things which is causing this horrific run of late.

In my opinion there are 3 things that have happened

1. Paco left
2. Benitez is worrying too much about the other teams tactics and not making the right move when things are going wrong, i.e tonight when we were sitting so deep and Gerrard was in the back four and torres had to come to just infront to even get a touch, he needs to get them to push out, to me he doesnt seem to be managing the team as the football is being played, only at half time and before and after the games.
3. The Players spirit is looking really down, dont know why but i'd hazard a guess at being scared they will not play the next game if they are good or bad and the fact Paco has left, the man they looked up to.

And for the In rafa we trust (admittedly only one of them tonight), sorry you got the wrong thread here tonight, no-one could defend him tonight for what happened.

Also in his interview he was asked "Could rotation be the cause of some of the problems at the moment" he said "Definatley not" <---- Hes just not going to admit when hes wrong, being stubborn IMO

I also hate the fact that tonight I agreed with Andy Gray <----For this reason alone things need to improve

[philou]

See you in Marseille Reds!

I hope we see the reds as well!

The part of the Velodrome reserved for away fans is always empty (in Ligue 1 except a littlewhen we receive psg,asse,lyon) except when you came (also newcastle too).
I remember 2004 in uefa cup, it was a pleasure to see all of you.
I'm sure it will be the same.

It's difficult to think in french, translate and write in english, sorry for the understanding)

[dawson99]

must be loving it eh? rangers beat lyon 3-0 now you beat us! top fans tho, deserved win

[Emerald Red]

Anyway, I refuse to get bogged down from a bad result. As I said in my first post in the other thread, the performance was more important than the result for me, sadly, this turned out to be a terrible one. It's just ominous how we are playing at the moment, but I'll not let it get to me. Maybe we needed a good kick in the ar$e to sort us out. Good thing it came here than in the league, which is far more important. If we drop 3 in the league against Spurs, then I'll worry. I've got to believe we'll bounce back. A good performance against Spurs and the three points, please, to send Jol from his job. No F*cking mercy.

And how much are we missing Alonso, eh?

[RUSHIE#9]

Reina - Not a chance with the goal, best passer in team tonight says it all.
Finnan - Looked his usual self at times and lost track of Zenden at others.
Carragher - Like so many not his usual self tonight.
Hyypia - Steady performance but did struggle with their front man's pace.
Aurelio -
Benayoun - Didn't do much at all, all night.
Gerrard - Maybe the only player with a valid excuse for a poor performance. Still poor though.
Sissoko - Looked like a pub team player (a poor one at that).
Leto - Just not ready yet for top level footy.
Crouch - Not doing much to make Rafa play him more often.
Torres - Had nothing to feed off of all night. Unlucky not to score in dying moments.

Subs:
Riise - BIG improvement over Leto.
Voronin - Didn't really do anything when he came on.
Kuyt - His workrate may have been more fruitful tonight than in recent league performances.

Benitez - Got it all wrong tonight. We all agree that this rotation shite MUST STOP NOW!!!!!!