Liverpool FC Forum

[XSD]

Anfield, Sunday
Liverpool vs Man Utd

Arguably the biggest game of the season is coming early, and it would be massive for us to boost our, as of yet quiet, start to the campaign with a win over the old enemy, and send out a message to Chelsea and the rest of the league at the same time.
Roy Keane is already missing for 6 weeks, and with the trio of Gerrard, Sissoko and Alonso surely set to start we could take a very tight grip on their midfield infront of the anfield crowd.

The biggest threats are Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo as we already know, Ronaldo will probably operate down the right so it remains to be seen whether Traore, Warnock or Riise will be playing there? I'd fancy Riise against him most, Traore was starting to look uncomfortable against Joaquin last night, but there is still a need to decide whether Riise or Zenden will take the left wing spot.
Rooney will drift in from the left so Finnan and Carragher will need to be at the top of their game to close him down and make sure he doesn't get a shot away from his kind of range like last year. Van Nistelrooy has good movement and needs little space to make a goal, so there is a possibility he will be tracked by Hyypia or Carragher for a lot of the game, or we will treat him as any other striker and use our zonal marking system.

The last thing to decide is the forwards, it's very tempting to play Pongolle after his touches last night, his ability to get back and the delightful goal he scored. He could be competing for a place with Luis Garcia, but I'd expect the Spaniard to win it.
If we go with a midfield 5 as expected it's most likely Peter Crouch will play upfront with Garcia/Pongolle drifting in to support him. Rafa could change this and pick a 442 with Cisse and Crouch both upfront probably causing Sissoko to miss out, so we'll have to wait on that one.

Lastly, lets pray there are no goalkeeper errors such as those that have haunted this fixture in the past. I have a lot of faith in Reina he looked top class last night, so we hope he can continue his impressive form.

[stmichael]

roy keane is out for them which is a big boost. he was man of the match last season in this fixture and he generally gave gerrard a footballing lesson.

rooney's the danger man. control him we win the game simple as.

[The_Rock]

Last year i broke my TV when rooney scored ......

This is one game where i would take a draw.  As long as we don't lose to the scums....

[Paul C]

I think we'll be ok in the middle of midfield but it's the wide players we deffo need to watch like Park, Giggs and Ronaldo.

[lee_297]

What time is the kick off? I know its early afternoon but Ive got to get my seat reserved down the pub

[Paul C]

It says 12:00 on the official site.

[stmichael]

team for sunday

                                  reina

           finnan       carra        hyypia      warnock

                          sissoko      alonso

           garcia             gerrard               riise

                                  crouch

[thegreedo]

team for sunday

                                  reina

           finnan       carra        hyypia      warnock

                          sissoko      alonso

           garcia             gerrard               riise

                                  crouch

Don't think I'd argue with that at all St Mike, good shout.

Layed out like that we look strong, bring 'em on!!

And to you all remember...

Weeeee all hate manc's and manc's and manc's, we all feckin' hate manc's!!!!

[FrankM]

roy keane is out for them which is a big boost.

Is there confirmation of this? I'll believe it  when I count 11 scummers on the pitch at 12 noon and he's not one of them.

[Redtribe]

I would personaly use a very similar formation as we used against betis!

We need to use wide players to negate their wingers and with playing luis off of crouch it allows him to drop back into midfield and help out!
Probably sacrafice Momo for stevie as he run his heart out last night!

                      Reina

Finnan      Carra        Hypia       Warnock

Sinama     Gerrard     Alonso       Rise

                     Garcia
                             Crouch

[mighty mo]

our midfield trio of gerrard alonso and sissoko is going to totally control scholes fletcher and the untried smith in the middle of the park

[SouthCoastShankly]

I think Rafa is a genius resting Gerrard for a big champions league game and making the squad perform without Gerrard leaving him sharp for Sunday.

I think we'll see a different Gerrard on sunday, a lot more bright and energetic as we all know him to be

BTW : 2-1 Liverpool, Garcia to score first

[ry_math]

c'mon u reds!

[FrankM]

Just heard Keane's injury is now a two week one. Dont count the ******* out yet

[REDTILLDEAD]

Just heard Keane's injury is now a two week one. Dont count the ******* out yet

Yeah!..he will have made a "Miraculous recovery" by sunday!..you watch :