Liverpool FC Forum

[Sabre]

I can't really understand why people are criticising the defense today, I thought we were absolutely excellent again. We didn't concede a clear cut chance and Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo won't be kept as quiet as that all season. The goal wouldn't have happened if Benayoun had got his erse off the post, and all in all you won't see a better defensive performance against United all season.

While there was a defensive mistake (especially Benayoun's) in that corner, I agree the defence played well.

In fact I think both defences, played better than the strikers today, Manchester United's best bit of their game IMHO were their CBs.

[Lando_Griffin]

if you wanna finish 4th every year then kewell and benayoun are fine as wingers

but if you wanna challenge we need better wingers, kewell has never been good against the very best teams for us

arbeloa looked like our best winger on show and hes a bladdy right back

also dirk kuyt once again showed that vs good teams he doesnt have the quality either

That's right - he didn't drag Sh*tski all over the shop in the CL semis, did he?

No - he's never done anything for this club...

[NANNY RED]

one thing stood out for me

our wingers just aint up the standard in big games

ive noticed it a few times and today was another example

players like kewell and benayoun are good in any other game but against the best teams they aint good enough

giggs and ronaldo are in a diffrent league to our wingers

They had SUCH an effect on the result, didn't they?

Their masterful contribution of f*ck-all was just f*cking AWE-inspiring!

LOL Lando cant wait till you get to the post that says were a cheesy team

[holylamb2006]

You dont like what has been our best surprise player of the season, a player who kept out ronaldo who rips apart the world best defenders, a player than can play anywhere across the back 4, who cost us jack all

Tell me an "avarage" player that can do that? cant can ya

Obviously u like Arbeloa .......

So there is nuttin i can say to change ur mind on that player...........

So everything i would say about Arbeloa .. ur just going to disagree with me so there is nuttin i can say...

[Lando_Griffin]

one thing stood out for me

our wingers just aint up the standard in big games

ive noticed it a few times and today was another example

players like kewell and benayoun are good in any other game but against the best teams they aint good enough

giggs and ronaldo are in a diffrent league to our wingers

yep.  The problems out wide have been there for a long time yet still have not been solved.

Sorry, but our wingers may of been bad today, but please, PLEASE tell me what giggs and ronaldo did today? Somebody tell me? Thats right nothing. This match was just defence stopping attack, apart from a stupid goal from the set piece, nobody looked like scoring, nobody.

we were at home

at home it us up to us to destroy and kewell and benayoun didnt have the quality

Yeah - the scum ALWAYS score at the old toilet, don't they?

F*ck me - they've never ONCE lost 1-0 at that sh*thole...

[username]

I believe the ideas we lack could be righted if Ryan Babel gets a little more pitch time. He looked confident comin on today, tried a few times to take a few on - somethin we didnt do most of the match - and seemed t be capable of doin some damage. I aint sure he's a starter type player (tho I guess he's paid for 90+ minutes?) but he sure seems a damn fine sub to call in if required. Slowly comin round to thinkin he could be a good investment, but jus wish he could show it now!!

Xabi Alonso agrees this.

He just said to a local newspaper the he thinks he's a quality player but needs still settle in the team and improve in some decission taking, Xabi reckons it's a matter of playing matches in the team.

Whats good is he could play a great second striker with time, he can get past players, he can hold on to the ball, and has a great strike from outside the box. His only problem is making the wrong desions, which is where time is needed.

[Lando_Griffin]

good old kuyt  running around like a mindless talentless clown lol.

we just lost to manu yet i can't help but see the funny side of playing kuyt.

benitez is clearly taking p out of us by playing this guy.

either kuyt is really that bad or there is something more serious taking place here.

i think the owners should give benitez more money to waste on guys like kuyt....in rafa we trust.

from the 1st half defensive display we will probably get to another champions league final.

but we all know if we do people will say the champions league is not as tough as the prem.

we  did better than i expected us to.
i feared we would be defensively sloppy and lose 3-1, but we were solid enough and i had no fear from manu.

i've been a harry kewell fan ,but i did not like the vibe from him.
but then again ronaldo is also very quiet when he plays liverpool so maybe i should  not take it to heart.

atleast we did not lose because the whole team was complete junk.
we lost because  kuyt could not hold the ball up.
kuyt only played because he is faster and more mobile than crouch,yet kuyt is slow.

kuyt is out of his depth at liverpool,and we have seen that benitez playing a dutch players does not actually mean he rates them. zenden played the champions league final then hours laters was no longer a liverpool player.

Good old Jeff - f*ck me, did we lose again?

Why else would you be here, right?

We lost because of Kuyt? Are you on f*cking drugs lad?

Dear oh f*cking dear.

[bigmick]

On the question oif the goal, how on Earth can it be blamed on zonal marking (as somebody said it is been on SKY in the UK)? Zonal marking by definition does not mean that Rooney is allowed to arrive at the edge of the box in acres of space. If it did, the self same free-kick would be used against us every week. The reason Rooney has that space is because nobody attacks the ball until it's too late (Carragher I think almost got to him but not quite). It was bad play, not a bad system.

The routes of the goal were probably sewn in the last couple of season when Ferdinand has scored against us ona  couple of seasons, and from hours watching videos of the way Vidic attacks the ball in the box. This caused us to sit a yard or two too deep, and not be alert to the ball being pulled back.

Allied to that of course Benayoun stands stock still on the line playing Tevez onside and you have a goal. It baffles me really why SKY insist on getting people to comment on the system of zonal marking who clearly don't understand it. There is also the small point that Manchester United were zonally marking set-pieces as well today. I don't watch them often enough to know whether that's a recent conversion, or indeed whther they do it all the time but they were certainly doing it today. Wonder if Andy mentioned that?

[username]

You dont like what has been our best surprise player of the season, a player who kept out ronaldo who rips apart the world best defenders, a player than can play anywhere across the back 4, who cost us jack all

Tell me an "avarage" player that can do that? cant can ya

Obviously u like Arbeloa .......

So there is nuttin i can say to change ur mind on that player...........

So everything i would say about Arbeloa .. ur just going to disagree with me so there is nuttin i can say...

Right, cos I watch football and can tell when a defender does a good job, like almost everyone else on this forum. If he starts to play bad i might agree with ya, but not when hes playing immense in every postion hes told too

[Lando_Griffin]

The same for right wing...lets talk about getting rid of pennant and benayoun once we get ronaldo or quaresma type quality players...

Yeah, because they REALLY f*cked us over in the games against them recently...

[redtrader74]

I've just got back from the game and am still feeling sick, those bastards mugged us again. I can't believe some of the comments on here, IMO we outplayed them, especially the second half, and certainly controlled the first half. They parked the bus infront of the goal all second half, and most sides would be hard pressed to score, they do infact have a good defence, but with another five players in the box it was always going to be very hard, and unfortunatly we are still lacking a bit of class in the final third.

That said Shrek, orc, greaseball and taffy were very well marshalled, Arbeloa is becoming top class and seems to have matured well. Their forwards hardly threatened, and imo it was because our forwards pressed them so well up front that they had to boot the ball down the pitch, instead of passing it out through their full backs. The gameplan was excellent, but the execution never came off.

Their goal was another scrappy affair, (this image they have of being as stylish as Arsenal is bollox), but we should have closed down Rooney earlier. Torres tried all game, as did Kuyt, who did his usual pressing job very well, but his anticipation is non existent, always on his heels, essentially he is meant to be a goal scorer and creator and he is succeeding at neither, i hoped he would but he is not improving, and we need a partner for Torres who IS top quality.

Mascherano was immense throughout, off the ball he blocked a lot of runs and covered lots of potential passes, we need to make sure we keep him.

We played well controlled all their 'world class names'.... they got the break.

[Lando_Griffin]

fergie won the battle of the managers.

he trusts the young players that he buys to put in the performances in the big matches - anderson was superb in midfield and is only 19. he could have gone for experience (carick) but he plays the in form players.

benitez doesn't seem to have confidence in his young signings - how on earth is kuyt better than babel, why not give lucas a game he's just as good as anderson. how are these youngsters going to improve if they only play in the carling cup.

ferdinand and vidic only had torres to mark because kuyt doesn't pose a threat. benayouin was never going to get past evra, kewell has lost a yard of pace - we were too predictable and fergie knew it.

hope he starts babel and lucas in the next few games because they need the experience. babel is good enough to start for holland but he's too young to start for liverpool.

if we play lucas more often and take guthrie back we'll save 17m on mascherano.

Nothing to do with the fact that the Scum can afford to spend £18m-plus on said young talent, then?

[account deleted by request]

I've just got back from the game and am still feeling sick, those bastards mugged us again. I can't believe some of the comments on here, IMO we outplayed them, especially the second half, and certainly controlled the first half. They parked the bus infront of the goal all second half, and most sides would be hard pressed to score, they do infact have a good defence, but with another five players in the box it was always going to be very hard, and unfortunatly we are still lacking a bit of class in the final third.

That said Shrek, orc, greaseball and taffy were very well marshalled, Arbeloa is becoming top class and seems to have matured well. Their forwards hardly threatened, and imo it was because our forwards pressed them so well up front that they had to boot the ball down the pitch, instead of passing it out through their full backs. The gameplan was excellent, but the execution never came off.

Their goal was another scrappy affair, (this image they have of being as stylish as Arsenal is bollox), but we should have closed down Rooney earlier. Torres tried all game, as did Kuyt, who did his usual pressing job very well, but his anticipation is non existent, always on his heels, essentially he is meant to be a goal scorer and creator and he is succeeding at neither, i hoped he would but he is not improving, and we need a partner for Torres who IS top quality.

Mascherano was immense throughout, off the ball he blocked a lot of runs and covered lots of potential passes, we need to make sure we keep him.

We played well controlled all their 'world class names'.... they got the break.

Probably the best post on here since the game mate. I agree with everything you said.

[Kharhaz]

As gutted as I am with the result the season is far from over. We still have to go to there place and nick a result there then everythings all rosy again. It was tight game and no one can be blamed for that result. Rafa stuck with a winning team and at times united were outplayed but reverted to cheating and timewasting. Sad result but its not over yet.

[Lando_Griffin]

Why dont you shut the up maguskwt. Inacase you havent noticed this is an open forum so people are free to discuss their views as best asthey please. You dont like it, then of over to another fourm. Or at least learn a sensible way to disagree with someone other than resorting to using foul language.

And it should be a rule of the forum that chatting utter sh*t is not allowed.