Liverpool FC Forum

[El Nino_#9]

MY TEAM-

......................reina
finnan....carra............hyypia....riise
...........alonso...........sissoko
pennant.........gerrard...........gonzales
...............crouch/bellamy

[Kopite-Jud]

with a midfield and attack like chelsea's it will defo be 4-5-1  same as above ^

[Graeme Noble]

I'd go for the following team:       


                               reina

         finnan       hyypia       carragher      riise

         pennant    gerrard       alonso       gonzalez

                                        garcia
                        bellamy

[El Nino_#9]

does anyone know if fowler and aurelio are still injred and out for this game?

[red_guy]

Seriously...i want us to win against those bast@rds!!! There's no 'friendly match' against cheatski. We should teach moan-rinho a lesson. Any formation will do as long as we beat them.

[TheoRacle]

Team:
                    Reina

Finnan   Carragher   Hyypia   Aurellio

Pennant  Sissoko     Alonso     Riise

             Crouch      Fowler/Garcia

Keep Gerrard, Bellamy and Gonzo on the bench, shows how little importance we place on the game, and then unleash them on a tired Chelsea in the last 30 mins, 3 players with genuine pace and tenacity.

I like this lineup too but with Aurelio out until the 19th it perhaps highlights a weakness we have regarding depth at left back at this moment in time.  Although I'm a fan of JAR I don't think its harsh to say he's is the weakest link in our back four.

I guess with Agger and Paletta fit and fully integrated into the squad, we could always use Carra to fill in at LB but thats a moot point for Saturday.

I'd be perhaps inclined to play both Pennant and Gonzalez from the start with Bellamy and Garcia in front of Sissoko and Alonso and Warnock at LB.

We know Gerrard will be champing at the bit to come on, and Riise can come on for both Warnock or Speedy if either are struggling. With Zenden, Fowler and Crouch also on the bench Rafa has plenty of 'possibilities' when required.

................Reina................
Finnan...Carra...Hyppia...Warnock
...................Alonso.................
Pennant....Sissoko.........Gonzalez
...................Garcia.................
...............Bellamy...................

Matchups to watch? Warnock vs SWP, Sissoko vs Mikel/Ballack, Pennant vs Bridge, Gonzalez vs Ferreira, Bellamy vs Terry.

Bellamy scored twice and hit the bar against Chelsea last season. If it means anything, 4 current Liverpool players scored nearly 23% of all the premiership goals conceded by Chelsea last season i.e. 5 of the 27.

[account deleted by request]

The match may go to penalties which might prove tricky now Didi's gone. My five :- Gerrard, Riise,Alonso,Carragher and Bellamy. I know 4 have missed in big games but they wont miss again!

[woof woof !]

I quite liked Stu's idea of keeping Gerrard and Bellamy and Gonzalez on the bench. Unleashing these monsters on the hour can overwhelme Chelsea.

Sounds good in theory but I think you'll find Chelsea will also have a subs bench . 

[stmichael]

rafa play a weakened team for this one

you must be joking? if we play a weakened team we'll get stuffed out of sight.

[Ola Mr Benitez]

I can't understand why people want to see Gerrard on the left wing.  I know he doesn't really have a weak position but anywhere on the left does not suit him as much as in the middle or on the right.

I wouldn't play Crouch against Chelsea either.  He never does well against them as that horrible Pork and Cheese nob at the back just fouls him and gets away with it.

My team would be...

                Reina
Finnan   Carra   Hypia    Risse

Pennant  Momo  Alonso   Gonzales
             Gerrard

                     Bellamy

[KopStar]

Best team I have seen above.

[stmichael]

I can't understand why people want to see Gerrard on the left wing.  I know he doesn't really have a weak position but anywhere on the left does not suit him as much as in the middle or on the right.

I wouldn't play Crouch against Chelsea either.  He never does well against them as that horrible Pork and Cheese nob at the back just fouls him and gets away with it.

My team would be...

                Reina
Finnan   Carra   Hypia    Risse

Pennant  Momo  Alonso   Gonzales
             Gerrard

                     Bellamy

bellamy upfront on his own with gerrard as a second striker doesn't work and never will. wednesday night was evidence of this.

[Ola Mr Benitez]

You are not seriously going to make a statement like that after only 1 game?  In fact the first game they have pllayed together competitively.

What happened to giving people a chance to get used to each other and to a new managers tactics.

Please lets give the lads a chance to work things out before we start jumping in with our big size 9's

[CardinalRed]

St. Micheal's right, the Swede tried it in the World Cup and it's dreadful waste of Stevie's talent..... Let's have the skipper pulling the strings with Xabi and Momo in the middle, don't see why we can't have a bash at 5 in midfield?

[stmichael]

the main problem with gerrard is he doesn't seem to have a natural role in this benitez side. last season, he played on the right simply because we had nobody else and he did a sterling job there, but it's not his natural position, and it's why benitez bought pennant.

the one criticism i have with playing alonso and sissoko is that neither seem too inclined to go forward. gerrard provides the drive we need coming from deep and that's lost when he's pushed further up front.