Liverpool FC Forum

[account deleted by request]

dont worry heimdall, not everyone on the board is happy clappy at everything we do, some people do get annoyed by some performances.

i agree that we should aim to win every game and we did aim to win today, the problem lays with rafas insistence on playing kuyt i think, the guy is not a goalscorer and never will be, rafa has promised attacking football next season and if kuyt is played then we know that wont be the case, lets hope torres and crouch are first choice and kuyt is left warming the bench, he works hard but so would i if i was wearing the shirt, hard work doesnt make you a good player.

anyway mate, have your rant, its your perogative, say what you want to say and don't be bullied, its just different opinions about things, the same people were making excuses throughout last season and we ended up with nothing, it will be the same next season, they will blame tiredness, new players etc etc etc.

lets home we start winning next season so we dont have to listen to excuses

Cheers mate.

I do think we'll be better this season, I just really HATE loosing, especially when we don't try hard enough, there's no excuse for that.

I wonder if Rafa will be wondering around Hong Kong til the small hours wondering where he screwed up this time 
The answer would be simple, don't play Kuyt, why didn't Voronin or Crouch play, oh yeah I get it, they may have scored and that wouldn't do now would it. I just don't get Rafa, I'm trying though, I'm trying ral hard to be behind Rafa this season but he'd better deliver something, and right from the start.

Maybe the idea was to try to get Torres and Kuyt off the mark, and build their confidence before the season starts ? Same with Sissoko, he had a bad time of it towards the end of last season and maybe needed more playing time to rebuild his confidence.

I am not happy losing, but I get the feeling the whole atmosphere on here would be different if we had won on penalties, which has no reflection on how we actually played.

[tommycockles]

Torres took a bit of time to get into it but showed a few flashes and linked up well with Kuyt. Although my initial feeling with him is that he will need to use his body and physical strength more because he appears a little blase and relaxed as the ball comes into feet. I was dissapointed to see Crouch stay on the bench all game

Have to disagree- seeing as he only came on half-way through the second half he took his first touches very well and only fluffed his shots because he was rushing them after getting the ball out of his feet and beating a man. Personally i think he looks like our only striker who can create himself a goal rather than having to be fed-thorugh for a tap in.

For the first time i've seen him he definitely added a bit of class up front and will worry alot of defenders this season.

[jeff capes]

the thing is i want a liverpool team who are so good that even in not trying that hard mode they look stylish and classy. so that they quite clearly in a different league from teams like south china.

i watched that china match and our play was not visibly on a much higher level than china.

the sad part was at the end where our players was looking around for china players to ask for their shirt, but the china players were quite clearly underwhelmed by our performance and the names of the players we have and were no remotely interested.

what angers me is we don't seem to have players who just loves football and even in friendlies there is nobody with any tricks or flicks to show off. just a bunch of dirk kuyts running around and working hard.

i'm bored with just hard work football, i want to see something clever once in a while.
the only player we have who does this is kewell and he gets injured easily.

the whole point of winning the champions league is for a large section of the footballing world to think of you as the best.

we have been to 2 champions league final in the last 3 seasons and even won it once.
yet football world is totally underwhelmed by liverpool.

the only reason for this is the players we have excite nobody.
they all have a grey feel to them.

riise can be exciting with his long range shooting,alonsa long range shooting, gerard long range shooting.
but these guys rarely display silky skills on the ground.

then you have the hard workers like sisoko who is not silky.

to sustain a 60-80 thousand crowd you will need silky football to go with the hard work.

we have mastered the hard work part all we need now is a few silky but tough south americans don't want to fail and will fight through the grey skys and rain.

the problem is spain is just next door and so some of those guys will start thinking when its cold and wet , i could be back home in spain i don't need this(morientes,reyes).

[jeff capes]

is this not the seaon we are meant to see the real kuyt... thats funny he looks like the same hard worker from last season.

[JoeTerp]

I would rather win than play pretty. Everytime.

[The_Rock]

Good performance from pennant & alonso (finally seems to be getting back to form).

But i still stand by these views

1)Kujt is just average. He won't be in chelsea's, arsenal's or manure's 1st 11.....so when he seems to be our 1st choice, i just have to wonder...

2)We paid over the odds for babel. He was average in the dutch league...i don't think he is suddenly gonna change into a world beater (like ronaldo) here.

3)Torres ain't a prolific enough... If we are to win the league the other attacking players like crouch, gerrard, kewell, voroin, kujt (think rafa will play him in most of the games..so he should get a decent tally) & alonso (yes alonso can score goals if he gets to the opposition penalty box) have to chip in double figures. But he does have the potential to become an awesome (world class) striker.

BTW, I don't give a sh1t about this tournament and i know its pre-season and all ....  but i don't really see an improvement in our attacking play. Still lacking cutting edge.

[account deleted by request]

Can't say I agree with the no improvement in attack. I thought Torres when he came on made himself a couple of decent chances from nothing. Admittedly he then went on to miss them but its a start. Kewell and Pennent played well in patches and Kuyt seemed to play further forward than of late, and could have had at least 2 goals with more controlled finishes.

[RichardLFC1]

This wasnt a friendly but i think most players treated it as one. Noone really stepped up a gear because they didnt want to risk themselves. Based on this performance i dont think we have anything to worry about because in my opinion atleast 5 of our strongest players didnt start the game. Torres came on and without working himself to the ground played ok. Gerrard i think just came on to please the crowd. If anyone is looking on this performance and rating our chances in the league by this then think again we never see the best of any of our players today. We may see the players working abit harder when we go to Feyenood

[Igor Zidane]

I'm all for critisism and for saying how things really are . Well can we get a little perspective , this was a match to get the teams fitness levels up , IT WAS ONLY A FREINDLY.

Also rafa is trying different partnerships and pairings across the team , for what it's worth i thought we played pretty well and dominated the game from start to finish . The only worry for me was the finishing from our centre forwards ,Kuyt in perticular  , but this is what pre season is all about, hopefully ironing out all the problems in our game and getting ready to start the season with a good run of performances and 3 pts n the bag . If you want to use the pre-season games as a gage for the rest of the season you'll be onto a loser, we battered Chelsea in the charity shield last year and look where we finished.

[destro]

I was in work so i missed the match but once again the 'Pearls of Wisdom Brigade' have told me all i need to know about our chances of winning the league this season.

Oh well there is always next season ( unless we lose a stupid Pre-season game again !)

What difference does it really make if we don't win some tin pot competition during pre-season ?

Lets all go to Mellwood ,watch them train and then slate them if everything they work on , set pieces,link up play ,passing and shooting isn't up to standard and  they don't look like world beaters.

Cant we just ,for once save the assassination of the Team, Manager and his tactics until the season starts, I.E when it matters ?

Pre-season is for fitness ( Money making aside) , IF all the players were already Premiership match fit and raring to go  then i couldn't care if he took the youth team to participate in these competitions.

We are in for a long hard season and if i am being honest i don't think we will win the Premiership this season coming, so i suggest some of you hide the Razor Blades and memorize the number for The Samaritans.

[LittleHobo]

i am the last to judge people based on friendlies BUT

it worries me that babel didnt try one bit......i was imaging cisse upfront (ok hes not great) but he always looked hungry as fukk

also it worries me that we havent one out and out striker, they all wanna come deep

torres comes deep
kuyt comes deep
voronin comes deep
crouch comes deep

[account deleted by request]

i am the last to judge people based on friendlies BUT

it worries me that babel didnt try one bit......i was imaging cisse upfront (ok hes not great) but he always looked hungry as fukk

also it worries me that we havent one out and out striker, they all wanna come deep

torres comes deep
kuyt comes deep
voronin comes deep
crouch comes deep

They are all blonde as well ! Maybe we shouldn't expect too much intelligent play this season 

[takeactionnow]

this is my first post so i dont want any hassle from from you long termers

I thought the game went well,no we didnt score but we were all over them in the first half and were still better then them in the second.We made some good chances and on another day would have scored one or two.
Torres looks the real deal  very impressed with penant
but i do think there were two problem areas

1. Defence, without carrager we look average
2. Attack, we still need an out and out striker

thats my view you may have your own
thenx for reading

[LittleHobo]

i do wonder why bellamy was sold (a man who sits on the shoulder of the last defender by trade)

and two guys brought in who like to come deep (torres and voronin)

the out and out striker thing does worry me

i dont rate cisse but at least he offers the option of ball over the top

worrying.

[ken_job]

haha...bunch of long haired girls....

Nah, torres looked very dangerous. Momo ran his heart out with great effect, looks like he's improved his touch and short passing game enormously as well. Sami (who showed his age at times last season) had a decent game, Kewell looked like a man who needs a new contract (which is gonna play in our favour this season) and Pennant was creative again. Many, many, MANY positives 

Who gives a snot about the result - doesnt matter an ounce!

What bothers me, as some other posters have noted, is that I get the impression Kuyt is STILL considered a 90minute man by rafa. Surely soon rafa has to take a look at the boys form - he struggles to score...he's a striker FFS. I think on form alone i'd rather see Voronin partner Torres at the start of the season, Crouch also should be above Kuyt at this stage. Babel doesnt look a million dollars either (never mind 11) but we'll give him time...he's only 20 like