Liverpool FC Forum

[anti-hero]

Yeah.. I thought Riise had a bad night today.

Haifa got behind the defence way too much.

On the bright side, Pennant was lively. Our right side seems to be a bit stronger than the left I guess.   Pity Crouch and Garcia didnt make the most of them.

Haifa were decent, I'll give them that.

But the team is still rusty. Liverpool at full-strength would have wiped the floor with them.

[GOAT]

At least them b@stard maccabi fans have gone..i wonder why.. 

[mybloodisgreen]

good match liverpool deserve to win but i think we got a good chance at the next game 1-0 will be enough i hope until then the war will stop and the game will return to israel and with all the fans there maccabi will win even more than 1-0 you can say what you want but every one saw tonight that maccabi haifa isn't an easy team to defeat.

[Lando_Griffin]

It was there for all to see that we lacked cutting-edge sharpness.

We can't expect the lads to be up to their end-of-season standard, when such as Xabi and Finnan have hardly had any time in the pre-season due to injuries.

Realistically, if we had to go to their gaffe, I'd be worried, but as it's a neutral venure, we should be ok with a 2-1 scoreline.

[mybloodisgreen]

good match liverpool deserve to win but i think we got a good chance at the next game 1-0 will be enough i hope until then the war will stop and the game will return to israel and with all the fans there maccabi will win even more than 1-0 you can say what you want but every one saw tonight that maccabi haifa isn't an easy team to defeat.

[kirankara]

oh my god we were poor tonight, only ppl to come out with any credit was steve finnan, bellamy, and momo, all others were average at best really. Reina was ok, carra-ok, hypia ok, but made bit of a mug of himself 4 their goal, riise was poor, looked slow and bad positioning all way thru, finnan played well, got forward and back all night, momo=legend in making, stevie-g=was ok , but asked to play a position or three not natural to him, still oozes class even not on his best night, alonso-kinda poor at times in distribution and looked too slow on ball sumtimes, not like him at all,pennant, i thought he did quite well, but should have ran at them more at times, and some crosses were poor, but decent enuff debut, zenden-bench for ever more i feel is his natural position, slow as hell at times, maybe just lacking fitness, but for me a non starter, bellamy, was pain in their all night, but needed sumone to feed off really, which for me should be crouchie , but luvin him allready,subs, garcia-did well i thought, a real pain in , crouch-well not great, but caused trouble and fred up space, speedy- boys legend just for that goal imo, nuthin like a last gasp winner to win affection of supporters, bloody well taken too. Overall tho, if i was rafa .. well id  be screwin at them all as they looked too relaxed and without good reason

[matrix]

now ive calmed down  2-1  is a good result   being its the first game  pennent played well tonight,  garcia was verry important for us when he came on  sissoko was great as usual   gerrard was good being it was his first real game since the world cup  last of all  what a goal from gonzo  his first touch was magestic 

[anti-hero]

It was there for all to see that we lacked cutting-edge sharpness.

We can't expect the lads to be up to their end-of-season standard, when such as Xabi and Finnan have hardly had any time in the pre-season due to injuries.

Realistically, if we had to go to their gaffe, I'd be worried, but as it's a neutral venure, we should be ok with a 2-1 scoreline.

Whoa.. Lando's back.


-----

So, since the second leg is being played at a neutral zone venue does that mean that the away goals rule still count?

Or was that a stupid question? 

[ivor_the_injun]

If we play 4-4-2, with any combination of the strikers we currently have pairing up, plus wingers on both flanks, we'll coast the second leg. When they went forward, we had a ton of space in midfield, and if we put out a side than can spread the play out, Haifi will be well beaten.

In all honesty, I'd even consider dropping Gerrard to the bench for the second leg and let him have another game off. Alonso and Sissoko, with Gonzalez and Pennant on the flanks, will easily be sufficient if we've got at least 2 strikers in and around the box to feed.

[Graeme Noble]

We played merely average tonight. Bellamy looked good until he got substituted by Crouch who played pish as per usual, and has absolutely no awareness or heading abilities.
Zenden, well he was poor, did absolutely nothing, and Finnan looked ordinary.

Pennant looked lively on the wing, hopefully he will keep improving. Garcia should have started.

[ivor_the_injun]

"Pish as per usual"? Oh f*ck off. On another night he'd have had a 10 minute hat-trick.

[Ciggy]

Just got back from the match typical Liverpool always leave it to the last minute got no nails left, but what do yer expect, new players gelling together Pennants crosses to short at times but hey cant complain, the lad done well first game at Anfield an that.
Alonso was fecked, Sissoko mean machine  .
We still need another forward though, but who?
Great to be at our home again FFS I hate the WC now and Ive missed our Raffa 

[thegreedo]

It was there for all to see that we lacked cutting-edge sharpness.

We can't expect the lads to be up to their end-of-season standard, when such as Xabi and Finnan have hardly had any time in the pre-season due to injuries.

Realistically, if we had to go to their gaffe, I'd be worried, but as it's a neutral venure, we should be ok with a 2-1 scoreline.

Flamin' hell big fella! we were about to send a search party out for you!!

I think we should have more than enough to avoid defeat wherever it's played to be honest. They do like to make us sweat though, In your case probably more than most Lando!

[L-type]

We should be worried, but there is no reason to suggest that we can't beat them again.  It seems to me that we're getting our sh|t straight, and soon with the new players starting top gel with the squad we'll be as solid as we were last season, just growing pains thats all

[account deleted by request]

Momo is turning into a fcking monster of a player. He must be a nightmare to play against. Liverpool played ok but not nearly enough shots or chances created and Hyypia is probably suffering from pre season training more than most cos of his age. Once he gets a few games he will be back to his best.Our free kicks were again. Hopefully the goal will boost Speedy's confidence and we will start to see the best of him in a red shirt.