Liverpool FC Forum

[Bad Bob]

The match thread will be closing shortly.  All post-match analysis and euphoria/relief in here. 

[maguskwt]

bad bob the dictator... 

anyway... some of my opinions...

alot of people are criticising riise... he may not be as dangerous as last time but he doesn't suck... he doesn't make many mistakes that were detrimental

babel looks promising... but i still reserve my praise... because his wingplay still doesn't look convincing... he ran into defenders a few times and when he should've crossed he took a shot at goal... if we were still deadlocked he wouldn't have the space to run... lacks the trickiness of benyaoun to go pass defenders...

gerrard to me is still below his best... didn't deserve 8/10... maybe 7/10... other players were more influential in this game... but i have no complaints about that...

[skatesy]

alot of people are criticising riise... he may not be as dangerous as last time but he doesn't suck... he doesn't make many mistakes that were detrimental

Riise has been absolutely horrible. He is slow, has no creativity, his passing has been horrid and he gives the ball away far too much. His big quality in the past has been his shot and even that has been off.

Sure, maybe his poor passes, slow movement or lack of creativity has not directly resulted in a detrimental occurence in the game like a goal, for example - however, just because this hasn't happened do not make his mistakes any less of an issue.

The fact of the matter is that for more than a handful of games, maybe even the whole season - Riise has been absolute . And furthermore, because of the fact that we have so much other talent that could do much more than he could in his "favoured positions" like LB or LM just makes the whole situation worse.

[Raj_Xedos]

i disagree.....with anyone that says riise is poor.

that man bombs up and down that pitch all game and always overlaps wingers when he is playing at right back.....

he is consistant and i would challenge anyone to point out a mistake riise has made that has cost us!

if im wrong, i'll put my hands up......

[skatesy]

i disagree.....with anyone that says riise is poor.

that man bombs up and down that pitch all game and always overlaps wingers when he is playing at right back.....

he is consistant and i would challenge anyone to point out a mistake riise has made that has cost us!

if im wrong, i'll put my hands up......

Why does a mistake have to cost us (like a goal) for it to be a bad mistake?

Have you been watching the last five games? How many times does the guy give the ball away, make a bad pass and consequently give the ball away? How many times has he been closer to hitting the corner flag than the net?

And I really think that characterizing him as "bombing" up the field is a bit over stated. The guy is pretty slow.

[maguskwt]

ok now... why are praises fewer than criticisms...  this forum is seriously ruled by doomers and gloomers...

fair play to bigmick he's the only 'doomer and gloomer' that enthusiasticaly still posts EVEN after we win...

oh i saw peewee's too but one liners compared to his long doom and gloom posts... 

[mungi]

we r being realistic here. we may have won 2 nil but for the first 80 mins we whould of put them away. riise has been poor. he may not cost us games on the whole but his poor passing and lack of creativity is stopping us from getting the goals needed to win.

[Yessicajax]

so...on the end of the year...kuyt can leave:D

[bigmick]

fair play to bigmick he's the only 'doomer and gloomer' that enthusiasticaly still posts EVEN after we win...

In fairness mate, though I'm not in least bit offended by being called a "doomer and gloomer" (I actually think it's got a bit of a ring to it  ) I'm not entirely sure it's accurate. I'm about the only person on the forum who thought we had a team good enough to challenge for the title last season, and I certainly think we had this season.

Just about my only beef with rafa is the, IMHO, over rotation. I think he has bought excellently and is a shrewd tactician. I think he should try a bit harder to build the players up sometimes perhaps, and I occasionally think he's over cautious but in the main, if he cut down on the rotation I'd be quite prepared to join the happy clappy club.

A few more days like yesterday for rafa and we'll have to put an advert out for a new driver for the anti-rotation express   

[maguskwt]

we r being realistic here. we may have won 2 nil but for the first 80 mins we whould of put them away. riise has been poor. he may not cost us games on the whole but his poor passing and lack of creativity is stopping us from getting the goals needed to win.

right... and so a single player is the cause of our dismal performances... oh and I forgot... of course riise's our main playmaker and so the reason we can't score goals is because of his underperformance...

when gerrard is giving away as much possession in the middle and misplacing passes, when mascherano is showing brilliance and carelessness at the same time, the focus is on the bad play of riise who runs into defenders just as much as babel... the biasness of us liverpool fans is sometimes amazing...

and of course since we beat besiktas 8-0 we should at least put 4 pass fulham don't we... it's the same team after all... and no we dont' need to give credit to the opponents cause they're anyway...opponents are always ... so the reason we couldn't score in 80 mins must be because of riise!... right...

oh wait... we didn't play well also did we. We just attacked non-stop for 90 mins and never gave up. But that is useless becaus what's that if we can only score 2 goals in the last 10 mins... we should be scoring 4 goals in the first half... right...

we just need to have a scapegoat don't we... even after a 2-0 win... amazing...

[The Manhattan Project]

We would have won about 6-0.

Niemi had an exceptional game.

[StevieL]

we r being realistic here. we may have won 2 nil but for the first 80 mins we whould of put them away. riise has been poor. he may not cost us games on the whole but his poor passing and lack of creativity is stopping us from getting the goals needed to win.

right... and so a single player is the cause of our dismal performances... oh and I forgot... of course riise's our main playmaker and so the reason we can't score goals is because of his underperformance...

when gerrard is giving away as much possession in the middle and misplacing passes, when mascherano is showing brilliance and carelessness at the same time, the focus is on the bad play of riise who runs into defenders just as much as babel... the biasness of us liverpool fans is sometimes amazing...

and of course since we beat besiktas 8-0 we should at least put 4 pass fulham don't we... it's the same team after all... and no we dont' need to give credit to the opponents cause they're anyway...opponents are always ... so the reason we couldn't score in 80 mins must be because of riise!... right...

oh wait... we didn't play well also did we. We just attacked non-stop for 90 mins and never gave up. But that is useless becaus what's that if we can only score 2 goals in the last 10 mins... we should be scoring 4 goals in the first half... right...

we just need to have a scapegoat don't we... even after a 2-0 win... amazing...

did a single player cause our "dismal performance"?!
we are not saying riise should be bench'd or taken off the side for having ONE poor game... i have not seen him prove to be a match winner ONCE this season...
how much chances has he fired into the stand in just these past 3/4 games?! at least one a match... if you dont have your shooting boots on... DONT SHOOT!!!
gerrard and mascherano.... yes they had below par games yesterday... but they ARE PROVEN MATCH WINNERS!!!
i could care less if riise played on LW, if he was the best option there... but i'd rather give an opportunity to kewell/babel to show their class...
and when you think abt it... if torres didnt score... it would of most likely been a 0-0 draw...

HOWEVER, what im starting to see is a change in styles of play...
remember when reina/carra/hyypia used to just bombs away to crouch etc?!?!
they rarely do it now... and instead reina passes to his defenders and we work it up... im really pleased about that !

[account deleted by request]

Scottbot said

Goal of the season so far from Torres today. Pure Gold, he had absolutely NO business scoring that goal. The touch with his chest to bring down a Reina clearance that had snow on it was amazing, the sell move to cut inside inside and a deft left foot finish that surprised everyone in the ground. It was Fowleresque and there's no greater compliment you can pay than that. What fu...c...ki...n player

Gotta say I agree mate, absolutely top class goal. Torres is looking like the answer to all our prayers, and showed just what we have been missing in some frustrating games over the last few seasons.

I still think we are in with a shout of the title, but we are living on a knife edge at the moment. A draw yesterday with maybe both the mancs and Chelsea winning today and Arsenal winning tomorrow and things would have been looking decidedly dodgy. The win yesterday, coupled with maybe one or two of the top sides dropping points and we could be right back in it.

Three important but winnable games coming up Newcastle(a) Bolton (h) and then Reading (a). Nine points from those games would put us in just the right mood to face the mancs and when we win that one we will be flying.

[Scottbot]

I still think we are in with a shout of the title, but we are living on a knife edge at the moment. A draw yesterday with maybe both the mancs and Chelsea winning today and Arsenal winning tomorrow and things would have been looking decidedly dodgy. The win yesterday, coupled with maybe one or two of the top sides dropping points and we could be right back in it.

I'd say we're still hanging in there, not firing on all cylinders yet but it's gradually coming back and as you say, a draw yesterday would have been a poor result that would have seen us slip further away. It's funny because i'm sure there would have been a load of criticism coming Rafa and Team's way on this board IF Torres hadn't intervened with that piece of magic yesterday. It's amazing the difference one goal can make to your everyday fan's perspective of a match.

I think a lot of fans expected us to roll over Fulham yesterday but they are no Besitkas. Teams like Fulham (despite playing 2 forwards) come to Anfield to defend, they get numbers behind the ball, play compact and dare you to shoot from distance or to try and get around the back of them. If you can get an early goal your quids in and have every chance of putting a few past them BUT more often than not the goal(s) is likely to come in the last 10 minutes when they are tired and a bit of space opens up. The mancs have been doing it to lower level sides for years and it was good to see us do it yesterday.

[66-1112520797]

Couldnt get the full 90 minutes today so I had to settle with MOTD instead.

I'm glad we won, Fulham were never going to be as easy as some around here were making out. From what I saw (which wasnt a lot) we played some good football, the movement in the final third looked really good. And Niemi had to pull off some very good saves, he isnt an easy keeper to beat.

Crouch Has to start from now on for me, he is a good player. Torres's goal was very good, a lovely chest down and turn and finnish. Quality player. Babel's confidence is on the up after the goals he scored in midweek, I think he'll be a very good player once he's settled after a season or so.

Good win lads.