Liverpool FC Forum

[tel]

You can slag off Morientes all you want, and you can harp on all you want about Crouch giving us more than just goals, but its a load of .

Robbie Fowler and Morientes showed a better understanding on how to play together in 10 minutes than Crouch has shown all season.

He is just not good enough. He doesnt have a football brain. He cant finish, he cant combine with other strikers, he cant even friggn head a ball on goal. 6ft 7 and he heads a perfect cross from Finnan where he had the sit wide.

I'm disappointed because with Chelsea dropping points, we would have gone to Stamford Bridge with our tails up. They're not in form and they would have been worrying about ours. Now they wont be so much.

Expect another 0-0 draw on the weekend when we had a chance to show them they could be beaten at home. Not for this season, but next one when we'll be challenging.

[GunGod]

Seems to me the big discussion here is about whether Gerrard should have went off.

Lakes and Ciggy have their points, and that's where football is not about right and wrong decisions due to the unpredictability of the results your decisions create.

Taking off Gerrard for me, was a wrong move. That's because what's the point of resting a player for 20 mins? If Rafa wanted to rest him, he might as well not have started him.

Then again, what would you have done if you were Rafa? 1 man up and 1 goal up. 20 mins left against a lifeless Brum side. You take the gamble and freakingly an OG made you wish you hadn't do what you did.

Nobody's to blame for today's results, perhaps.

Nevertheless some players are turning in the same sort of performances which won't measure against the top half teams. Moro, is never going to bang in the goals like he did at Monaco. Garcia can't even complete a simple pass to our own people at times. This is not an exagerration, I saw him pass to Gerrard on the right flank when a Brum player had completely blocked Gerrard for Garcia's view. Furthermore, Garica can't shield the ball well. For all his terrific goals, which I appreciate, possession mostly stops when Garcia has the ball. He is, IMHO, just supersub material.

On the other hand, Riise has been putting in terrific consistent performances for sometime now. Defensively yes maybe he can improve, but going forward he is definitely one of the best left backs in the league.  And going forward is perhaps what we need now given our scoring woes.

Kewell is also putting a Committed performances, running after most balls. That's what I want to see and today he was our best player. Gerrard is also, at his consistent best.

And Crouch, I wonder how much his head shaking when being taken off for Fowler endears him to the fans. Crouch seems to have lost the eagerness to impress the fans and manager. Maybe its because of the constant change of strike partners which is unsettling him. But he is, really, not a striker that would match our ambitions in a couple of seasons time.

Picture this, Manc, Chel and Ars have strikers that for every match you wouldn't bet against scoring. But I do think other teams don't really care about our strike force becos its inept. If we don't put fear in the teams we face right in their backyard, we have a harder task to contain their movements. Fowler is a good choice to bring back to the club, but he will probably find it hard to outrun defenders.

That said, we should have put this game away but there's no time for normative retrospection. So I just hope we can get sometime from Chel in the next game if not just to put them in their place.

[ivor_the_injun]

Gerrard smites City but 10 men blight the return of God

Dominic Fifield at Anfield
Thursday February 2, 2006
The Guardian


The banner behind the goal read "Fowler God 11, welcome back to heaven" and, for a split second deep into stoppage-time last night, Robbie Fowler must have felt fulfilled. Liverpool were laying siege to the Birmingham goal when he eked out rare space to conjure an overhead kick and batter the loose ball into the net. The Kop erupted, the fairy-tale return apparently complete, only for a linesman's flag to snuff out the dream. "It would have been the perfect ending," said Rafael Benítez.

The second coming had overshadowed this fixture, though all that is left this morning is a nagging sense of frustration. This was a sloppy performance, the hosts' inability to dispose of opponents reduced to 10 after only 28 minutes damning. The frenzy of the final few minutes - when Dietmar Hamann struck the bar, Maik Taylor somehow tipped away a Xabi Alonso free-kick and Fowler was denied by the linesman - masked the fact that Liverpool hardly deserved a ninth consecutive home league win. "Very, very disappointing" was Benítez's assessment.

For so long it had appeared made for the returning No11 to make his mark, the poise and purpose of City's play in the opening half-hour utterly wrecked by Damien Johnson's harsh dismissal. Thereafter, with the visitors retreated into their shells, it took Fowler's emergence on the touchline, to bellowed applause, to generate the momentum to edge them ahead.

The striker was skipping back to the dug-out for his introduction when Steven Gerrard, a modern-day Kop idol, slipped Fernando Morientes to the byline before prodding the Spaniard's pull-back through the muddle in the goalmouth.

The roar that greeted the goal was matched by that for Fowler's introduction, his 25-minute cameo crammed with clever turns and neat passes. Luis García, Harry Kewell and Morientes should have come up with a second goal, but a side with only 29 league goals in 21 games lived up to its reputation. City duly rallied.

Only Chelsea had previously punctured Liverpool's defence in this arena all season, and the hosts were seeking a club-record 11th consecutive clean sheet. But with three minutes remaining Stan Lazaridis crossed from the left and Emile Heskey, another returning forward, saw his header palmed away by José Reina. From the resulting corner, the excellent Chris Sutton nodded back and across and Alonso, beyond his goalkeeper on the goal-line, saw the ball dribble from his body into the net.

"A result like this can turn our season," said Steve Bruce. City had been the contest's more coherent side until, 28 minutes in, Johnson crunched his boot into the inside of Daniel Agger's left knee as the debutant centre-half slid in to clear. The tackle was ugly but hardly malicious, yet Uriah Rennie, standing over the challenge, flashed red.

City will appeal the dismissal today. "The ball's off the floor and both of them are tackling for possession, and Johnson's even got the ball," said Bruce. "To wave the red card was rash, but we all make mistakes."

Given that Bruce lost David Dunn to a calf strain six minutes later and the substitute Mikael Forssell to a similar injury while warming up near the end, he deserved his luck when Sutton's flick cannoned off his own bar. Not even divine inspiration could see the hosts home.

[SouthCoastShankly]

Rafa rotated the squad massively, with Carragher and Alonso on the bench. It was a risk he had to take, our fixture list in the next few weeks dictated that. Out of all the games to leave those vital players out for I think Birmingham at Anfield is the one I would of used too. Shame about the own-goal - it happens to the best of them. We we're just unlucky, there's nothing to be overly upset about other than we should of sealed the game earlier.

I mean we we're lucky to have the 1 man advantage cos' the sending off was harsh.

[SouthCoastShankly]

Taking off Gerrard for me, was a wrong move. That's because what's the point of resting a player for 20 mins? If Rafa wanted to rest him, he might as well not have started him.

I think resting Gerrard was the right decision. Rafa took him off against Portsmouth in the last 20 mins, combined with last week Gerrard has been rested for 40 mins - almost a half. I think that will  have an affect on his freshness, especially considering the last 10 minutes in the most frantic and tiring.

[112-1077774096]

i think once again we have been punished for not finishing a team off

[dawson99]

Rafa rotated the squad massively, with Carragher and Alonso on the bench. It was a risk he had to take, our fixture list in the next few weeks dictated that. Out of all the games to leave those vital players out for I think Birmingham at Anfield is the one I would of used too. Shame about the own-goal - it happens to the best of them. We we're just unlucky, there's nothing to be overly upset about other than we should of sealed the game earlier.

I mean we we're lucky to have the 1 man advantage cos' the sending off was harsh.

the sending of was harsh? no offence mate but he more or less jumped up and down on aggers leg. agger was lucky it wasnt broken if u ask me. thats a straight red if i ever saw one!

[ivor_the_injun]

We failed to win because of a freak goal two minutes from time.

It's all the more disappointing because it was self inflicted, but other than that and our failure to turn pressure into goals, there's not really anything else we should beat ourselves up for. Their keeper was inspired at times, and on another day it could've been 3-0 long before Alonso chested it in.

We need to make a habit of killing off games and situations like that. We've ironed out so many flaws in our game in recent times, but I think we'll only realistically challenge for the Prem when we make a habit of putting teams to bed without having to resort to a last minute scramble. Particularly when they're a man short for so long - if it was 11 v 11 for 90 mins, it'd be easier to take.

I'm not too interested in arguing whether Gerrard should've stayed on or not. They didn't really look like scoring, and without Alonso's moment of madness, they wouldn't have and this would all be immaterial. It's not like having Gerrard on the pitch would've stopped the goal going in, and we had so many chances without him, it's a moot point really. Their goal just came too late for us to do anything in response to it.

F*cking phenomenal effort though - I can't remember us having that many quality chances so late on in a game. Three great saves from the keeper, intervention by the bar, and the steely eye of a linesman.

[Bretc]

I thought Fowler looks good, his movement and passing - the signs are positive. A half fit Fowler is so much better than a fully fit Cisse, that's the difference between class and . One can easily tell from Fowler's movement off the ball, he provides options for others. Cisse can run all day long but provides nothing. Qualities like pace may be lost with age but a good football brain will always remain. That's Robbie Fowler! 

[flipmode]

Fowler won it! biased lineman

[Paul C]

Why don't we kill games off, we go one up and then seem to slow the game down rather than going for the jugular

Felt sorry for Xabi cos understandably he looked gutted when he walked off at the end, good save by Taylor and hitting the bar twice also didn't help

CHELSEA NEXT............... CHIN UP LADS

[ToTinho]

i'm very disappointed for not winning the game yesteday , but the only thing missing the team is the ability to kill teams and the lack of hunger in our strikers . Crouch and Moro are very intelligent players but they are always roaming outside the penalty box and that is unacceptable , u wont score if ur 2 main strikers are outside the box , they lack understanding between them . We have an average of 1.3 goal/game and that is simply not enough , our midfield is creating endless chances but the strikers r not converting. I dont want to criticise individuals now but honnestly PC , Moro and Cisse needs to deliver ASAP coz i believe that they'll be under probation till the end of the season and if they dont improve i'm afraid that they wont be seen again in a red shirt .
thank you
YNWA

[Sabre]

i'm very disappointed for not winning the game yesteday , but the only thing missing the team is the ability to kill teams and the lack of hunger in our strikers . Crouch and Moro are very intelligent players but they are always roaming outside the penalty box and that is unacceptable , u wont score if ur 2 main strikers are outside the box ,

I cannot blame the striker for being outside the box. In some moments it seems as if we were in a hurry, we tried too many times to enter through the middle, and too quickly. Ironically we used better the wings before the red card than after it. Yesterday we had all the time of the world to make a build up play, make the pitch wide, and do lots of crosses. But we simply seemed to be in a hurry. And the goal was a good example. Gerrard -> Morientes -> Gerrard -> Morientes , back pass goal. Great goal, yes, great player Gerrard, but too difficult. We tried too many difficult things when we didn't have to.

Good news? it's easy to fix that

[ToTinho]

Sabre , look at all the team that plays with 2 clear strikers and u'll find that 1 of them is always in the box ( juve : tezeguet, bayern : makaay,acmilan: gilardino ) . i get ur point that the situation is very much under-control, Rafa will sort it out but the players must help him and help themselves.
p.s Sabre : i like ur footballing views and i like Nihat too 

[ivor_the_injun]

Got there in the end - 8 minutes of highlights from last night's match attached.

Much better vid quality than the youtube links I posted earlier in this thread.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9V76UJO0
MPG - 83.29mb