Liverpool FC Forum

[account deleted by request]

I would play a strong team against Birmingham. 1/ Because we need to get our confidence and passing game back 2/ We need 3points AND a good performance and can't afford to take games like this one for granted.

Same team as last night for me, get a few goals to the good and then bring on a couple of the new or newly returning players.

[lakes10]

after our last two games i would not like to be Birmingham, this could be a cricket score

[stmichael]

they've been a bit of a bogey team in the past. a couple of years back, alonso scored an own goal in the last minute to give them a draw. in rafa's first season, we lost 1-0 at home after having about 25 shots on goal. the ref also missed muzzy izzet clearing the ball of the goal line with his arm. and even futher back, i remember us being 2-0 up and cruising only to let clinton morrison score twice and salvage a 2-2 draw.

on that premise, put me down for 3-0 to us.

[lakes10]

they've been a bit of a bogey team in the past. a couple of years back, alonso scored an own goal in the last minute to give them a draw. in rafa's first season, we lost 1-0 at home after having about 25 shots on goal. the ref also missed muzzy izzet clearing the ball of the goal line with his arm. and even futher back, i remember us being 2-0 up and cruising only to let clinton morrison score twice and salvage a 2-2 draw.

on that premise, put me down for 3-0 to us.

dont forget the


Birmingham 0 - 7 Liverpool

    Sami Hyypia (1)
Peter Crouch (5)
Peter Crouch (38)
Fernando Morientes (59)
John Arne Riise (70)
Olivier Tebily (og 77)
Djibril Cisse (89)

[metalhead]

I expect a victory and the line up should be similar to that of Porto, if Alonso is fit, then he should play instead of mascherano.

Torres and Kuyt to start up front
Benayoun, Gerrard, Alonso and Pennant to start in midfield
Finann, Carra, Agger and Arbeloa(if Aurelio is a 100% fit then he must start) will start in defence.

i guess its a 2-0 or 3-1 win for us.

conceding another penalty 

[ConnO'var]

Well if it was me I'd have myself a little rotate in this one and lets have a look at what we've got. THIS is the game for resting players, and even though we made a mess of it at Portsmouth I'd still have some of the lads putting their feet up.

In goal it's obviously Reina, I'd get Aurelio back in the team at left-back as he's the best one at the club and now he's getting back to fitness we should use this game. After compunding the various theories on tiredness by playing seemingly about 148 times consecutively, I'd rest Finnan and switch the ever more impressive Arbeloa (what a good buy he is proving to be) over. At centre half I'd give Sami another game, while in central midfield I wouldn't go with Gerrard who can go home and go to bed, or Masherano who can get over his jet-lag (he did properly have a long haul flight from somewhere even further away than Albania). It'd be Alonso and that Lucas bloke in the centre for me, with Momo waiting in reserve. I'd give Yossi the chance to make me look a mug, while on the left I'd go with the Argentinian winger. Up top, It'd be Babel for reasons discussed in a previous thread, and Crouch becuase whoever plays up front will probably score in this game and the big fella needs a goal. I actually still think he's a good player. Less than a year ago he was really good, and somewhat controversially I suspect he probably still is.

I think rafa could play any combo he likes and we'd win. I somewhat mischeviously suggested he "got it out of his system" but I actually think Aurelio starting, Arbeloa been given a go in his favoured position, having a look at Lucas and The Argentianian bloke, while giving Crouch and Benayoun much needed game time is quite sensible. Allied to that, Gerrard has a broken toe, Masherano is probably waking up in the middle of the night and feeling hungry, while Torres can have a week off. If the season goes well, he won't get many opportunities to have one of those.

Brave, brave call, mate.

You nearly gave me a heart attack with that post.... the leader of the ARDS (anti-rotation death squad ) advocating mass rotation??

  Only kidding mate.....

Disagree with you btw.... with the exception of maybe Lucas...

Too risky to put the 3 points at risk especially against a team where we really should have pencilled in a gimme 3 pointer.

[stmichael]

they've been a bit of a bogey team in the past. a couple of years back, alonso scored an own goal in the last minute to give them a draw. in rafa's first season, we lost 1-0 at home after having about 25 shots on goal. the ref also missed muzzy izzet clearing the ball of the goal line with his arm. and even futher back, i remember us being 2-0 up and cruising only to let clinton morrison score twice and salvage a 2-2 draw.

on that premise, put me down for 3-0 to us.

dont forget the


Birmingham 0 - 7 Liverpool

    Sami Hyypia (1)
Peter Crouch (5)
Peter Crouch (38)
Fernando Morientes (59)
John Arne Riise (70)
Olivier Tebily (og 77)
Djibril Cisse (89)

check my last prediction. put me down for another 6-0

[slickrick]

"Except for Crouch..... prefer Kuyt at the moment. I don't think Peter has shown that he deserves a starting role."

how can any1 name crouch in their starting eleven when he's our 4th choice striker, i'd have kuyt and voronin in before crouch any day! and if they were out injured i'd play gerrard in behind torres jus so that crouch still wouldn't be playin! this might seem abit harsh but in fairness crouch just isn't good enough for us!

[JC_81]

Well if it was me I'd have myself a little rotate in this one and lets have a look at what we've got. THIS is the game for resting players, and even though we made a mess of it at Portsmouth I'd still have some of the lads putting their feet up.

In goal it's obviously Reina, I'd get Aurelio back in the team at left-back as he's the best one at the club and now he's getting back to fitness we should use this game. After compunding the various theories on tiredness by playing seemingly about 148 times consecutively, I'd rest Finnan and switch the ever more impressive Arbeloa (what a good buy he is proving to be) over. At centre half I'd give Sami another game, while in central midfield I wouldn't go with Gerrard who can go home and go to bed, or Masherano who can get over his jet-lag (he did properly have a long haul flight from somewhere even further away than Albania). It'd be Alonso and that Lucas bloke in the centre for me, with Momo waiting in reserve. I'd give Yossi the chance to make me look a mug, while on the left I'd go with the Argentinian winger. Up top, It'd be Babel for reasons discussed in a previous thread, and Crouch becuase whoever plays up front will probably score in this game and the big fella needs a goal. I actually still think he's a good player. Less than a year ago he was really good, and somewhat controversially I suspect he probably still is.

I think rafa could play any combo he likes and we'd win. I somewhat mischeviously suggested he "got it out of his system" but I actually think Aurelio starting, Arbeloa been given a go in his favoured position, having a look at Lucas and The Argentianian bloke, while giving Crouch and Benayoun much needed game time is quite sensible. Allied to that, Gerrard has a broken toe, Masherano is probably waking up in the middle of the night and feeling hungry, while Torres can have a week off. If the season goes well, he won't get many opportunities to have one of those.

Don't know about that team Mick, you'd be a braver manager than me!

I agree this is the week to rest players, but not all at once.

I consider Reina, Carra, Agger, Gerrard and Torres to be the spine of the team.  As long as those 5 are fit, there's no real threat to their position in the starting line up (I'll refrain from using the term 'untouchables' made infamous by Jose Mourinho!).  They'll always play if Benitez thinks we need them.  Finnan could probably also be added to this bunch at the moment, although in time I think Arbeloa will give him serious competition for right back when all our left backs are fit.  Leaving 3 of these guys out in any one game is taking an unnecessary risk imo Mick.  Especially leaving Gerrard and Torres out at the same time.

I'd maybe rest Gerrard this weekend to help him get over his injury, but because of that I'd keep Torres in.  I wouldn't play Hyypia in the Premiership unless we had to, it's getting too quick for him and also I don't like messing around with the back 5.  I'm also not in favour of throwing Leto and Lucas in in the same game.  We'll see what happens though, nothing surprises me with Rafa!

[The_Rock]

Well if it was me I'd have myself a little rotate in this one and lets have a look at what we've got. THIS is the game for resting players, and even though we made a mess of it at Portsmouth I'd still have some of the lads putting their feet up.

Understand your point..but i rather we play our strongest team. Birmingham ain't a mug team...They have a few wins under their belt.

The changes you have mentioned should be done in the league cup....

[Owzat]

I'm tempted to rest the bigger names this game as it's at home and Brum, however I don't think we've beat the brum in the league since 2004 or something like that!

[The Manhattan Project]

Why do Birmingham have the planet Earth on their badge?

[redmikey]

bigmick calls for rotation......... BIG TIME

mick i respect your opinion on here alot as you always put in depth well thought out post on in the sea of daftness and one liners and negativity

but that much rotation can't be a good thing even by rafa standards

i would rotate sami, pennant and babel out as sami got caught for pace and forced pepe into a decision against porto where agger might not be as strong in the air but is anyone he makes up for it with pace and him and carra are starting to look good together

pennant would be washing cars after the show against porto imho as he didn't stop getting in the refs face and didn't stop fouling after getting done     
by the quaresma

babel just isn't right yet and needs to get a run in the coke cola cup team as i think he is a great talent but just isn't ready yet

in would come agger   as above

yossie on the right for balance and to have a player with skill who can play on the deck

and JAR who is fit and dependable if not able to get past people but gives the strength on the left hand side as arbeloa can overlap well

so i go with                   pepe

    finnan         carra    agger         arbeloa

yossie        SG         masha          jar

            dirk             nando

[AB's Red Army]

We need to get back on track and with a convincing win at that. So I would play the strongest XI possible.

No need to rotate now.

Some people are never happy.

[destro]

Reina
Finnan   Carra   Agger  Arbeloa

Yossi     Gerrard  Alonso  Riise
             
            Crouch   Voronin 

Thats the team I think might start, both Torres and Kuyt ran their socks off and looked tired against Porto, and Yossi is due a start, but that has nothing at all to do with the fact that Penant is a spoilt  little brat who not only needs to grow up but also needs bringing down a peg or to, honest ! ( England call up my a.rse)