Liverpool FC Forum

[Jimmy the Weasel]

You should write for a newspaper mick. Good read.

Ta v much mate, much appreciated. Note to any newspaper editors (like there's loads of em on here)-that would be my dream fecking job, although I might have a bit of bother with the old "keep it under 800 words" bit lol.

You'd probably struggle with the "writing contrived nonsense to fill space" element as well mick, given that's what most "professional" journalists seem to do!

[tubby]

Working in central London I tend to read the Metro as well as the Lite/londonpaper. The back pages are filled with London biased drivel. I hate those guys. With the Chelsea game coming up it's been filled with all week.

[hello_red]

We don't have to play two up front, we changed a successful system as used towards the end of last season to accommodate Keane.

And, oh how it's cost us so far: undefeated, joint top of table and in pole position in the CL. So, you might say we've replaced a successful system with an equally successful system and that all of this fuss about whether Keane is justifying his price tag or not matters little in the grand scheme of our season to date.

I would be inclined to agree with this statement. In the grand scheme of things so far it has not mattered that Keane has not performed to the exceptional standards he set at Spurs last year. But there are signs of it coming through for LFC.

[Reg]

We don't have to play two up front, we changed a successful system as used towards the end of last season to accommodate Keane.

And, oh how it's cost us so far: undefeated, joint top of table and in pole position in the CL. So, you might say we've replaced a successful system with an equally successful system and that all of this fuss about whether Keane is justifying his price tag or not matters little in the grand scheme of our season to date.

I would be inclined to agree with this statement. In the grand scheme of things so far it has not mattered that Keane has not performed to the exceptional standards he set at Spurs last year. But there are signs of it coming through for LFC.

Yeah but he wasnt going to score today no matter what, he's a provider, a builder not a hitman, he was running around like a headless chicken looking for Torres who wasnt there so didnt know what to do - he didnt change his game to suit.

He needs to be more selfish and start going for goal. Remember, Kenny wasnt Rushie's 'provider' and Rushie defo want Kenny's 'provider' - they were both selfish tw@ts who wanted to score as many times as possible - they were ruthless.

Keano's got to mature, have more self confidence and start putting himself on the scoreboard and as history shows, the Keane/Torres partnership will flourish as a result.

He cant live for Torres, he must play his own game and become more goal orientated.

Babel showed more goal orientation today than Keane ??

[puroresu]

I think Babel was a more of a threat than Keane was. Keane has disappointed me so far.

[radun5]

Owzat, why do you hate Keane so much ? You hated Crouch, you hated Barry, now you hate Keane. Can't you be more relaxed about it ?

I don't 'hate' Keane, I just didn't want us to spend £20m on a player who has yet to prove worth even half what we paid for him.
I don't 'hate' Barney  either, you must have real comprehension problems if you think I hate someone, having explained many times that he a) isn't worth £18m, b) we don't need ANOTHER CM and c) the money would be better spent on a striker/winger - except it was spent on Keane instead 

Seems to be such a daft mentality of some on here, if you say you don't want a player or criticise them (with justification) then apparently you hate them. Keane was a very good player - for spudz. But like Bellamy, we should never have signed him - and Crouch for that matter. His record FOR OTHER CLUBS has been good for some, not so good for others. BUT we're not 'other clubs', we have higher standards and expectations. Except to come on here you'd think we were little villa or pompey or Blackburn who are just happy to be in the Premiership or aim at Europe.

Find me a post where I say "I hate Keane/Crouch/Barney" or one where I say we should sell Keane. Funnily enough I expect that search would prove as fruitless as your post was pointless

You are so biased in everything concerning these players, that I thought you simply hated them. For example, you were so "against Crouch" you said that we won't get a good price for him, last I've heard of him, he brought us a few quid and he is in good form for Portsmouth.

Anyway you should just relax, that was my main point. It's a great moment for us, we have beaten our main rivals and are doing great on all fronts. Why are you still moaning about the price we paid for a good player that you say you don't want to sell ?

[bigmick]

Keane yesterday provided some interesting talking points. His substitution ended up looking like a stinker from Rafa, but I can't help thinking that that's a bit unfair on the manager. Nobody could have known that Babel would be so completely innefective when he came on, and I get the feeling it was more the invisibility of the Dutchman than it was the excellence of keane pre-substitution which ended up making us look like a much poorer team.

FWIW I think that in build up and link play, keane is actually playing very well right now. Where his game is shockingly lacking is in the total lack of goal threat. Like the dark days of Kuyt before him, or even dare I say it Morientes, Robbie right now simply doesn't get into the correct positions frequently enough or at the right times in order to score heavily. Watch the better strikers, your Berbatovs, Drogbas, Torres's, Adebayors etc and not only do they score, but they get open and available in the box very regularly. Once a strikers confidence starts to go though, they subconciously don't get into the heat of the kitchen anywhere near as mcuh, and Robbie is now relying on his perceptive passing, effort and teamwork in order to make a contribution. Unfortunately, good player though he is it isn't going to be good enough to get a game once Torres is fit. Unless we can find a way in which he can fit into the team in such a way that he do what he's doing now AND score goals, he's going to be a misfit I'm afraid.

This is where I really believe the management has a role to play in handling him with a bit of imagination and sympathy. Having seen him today, I definately think he should have started at Home to Pompey as he's clearly lacking in confidence. I counted two seperate occasions where he spurned a shot in order to pass, and overall he was staying well and truly out of the red zone as much as he could.  Equally, pulling him off today so the Spurs boo boys could get stuck into him (although in fairness many Spurs fans went against the grain) may not have been the most sensitive move either. Now I absolutely know people will say he didn't play on Weds because he was injured, and the same reason applies to why he was prematurely brought off yesterday but whatever, I think he needs the proverbial arm round his shoulder right now.

It's all very well saying "it's for him to sort out FFS", but the feeling persists that if we are going to be right up there, we need two strikers that score goals and not just one.

[Thewaykokid]

Keane yesterday provided some interesting talking points. His substitution ended up looking like a stinker from Rafa, but I can't help thinking that that's a bit unfair on the manager. Nobody could have known that Babel would be so completely innefective when he came on, and I get the feeling it was more the invisibility of the Dutchman than it was the excellence of keane pre-substitution which ended up making us look like a much poorer team.

FWIW I think that in build up and link play, keane is actually playing very well right now. Where his game is shockingly lacking is in the total lack of goal threat. Like the dark days of Kuyt before him, or even dare I say it Morientes, Robbie right now simply doesn't get into the correct positions frequently enough or at the right times in order to score heavily. Watch the better strikers, your Berbatovs, Drogbas, Torres's, Adebayors etc and not only do they score, but they get open and available in the box very regularly. Once a strikers confidence starts to go though, they subconciously don't get into the heat of the kitchen anywhere near as mcuh, and Robbie is now relying on his perceptive passing, effort and teamwork in order to make a contribution. Unfortunately, good player though he is it isn't going to be good enough to get a game once Torres is fit. Unless we can find a way in which he can fit into the team in such a way that he do what he's doing now AND score goals, he's going to be a misfit I'm afraid.

This is where I really believe the management has a role to play in handling him with a bit of imagination and sympathy. Having seen him today, I definately think he should have started at Home to Pompey as he's clearly lacking in confidence. I counted two seperate occasions where he spurned a shot in order to pass, and overall he was staying well and truly out of the red zone as much as he could.  Equally, pulling him off today so the Spurs boo boys could get stuck into him (although in fairness many Spurs fans went against the grain) may not have been the most sensitive move either. Now I absolutely know people will say he didn't play on Weds because he was injured, and the same reason applies to why he was prematurely brought off yesterday but whatever, I think he needs the proverbial arm round his shoulder right now.

It's all very well saying "it's for him to sort out FFS", but the feeling persists that if we are going to be right up there, we need two strikers that score goals and not just one.

completely and utterly agree with that. Not starting Keane will do him no good. 

[Bam]

Once a strikers confidence starts to go though, they subconciously don't get into the heat of the kitchen anywhere near as mcuh, and Robbie is now relying on his perceptive passing, effort and teamwork in order to make a contribution

I tried to say that in the opening thread, that was my main concern.

I didnt watch the Spurs game, I accidentally came accross the result on the net. So I didnt bother downloading it, well I tried but no fecker was seeding it.

Anyway I cannot really add too much more to this at the moment, but I did see Adebayors display up at Stoke yesterday. I have to say, he was awful. Stoke ruffed him and Arsenal up, to me his bottle went and didnt have the stomach for the cause. He went off, and did feckall during the game. Arsenal had the Liverpool syndrome, they couldnt break Stoke down. While I heard yesterday we broke Spurs down but didnt kill them off.

If we continue to break teams down I think the goals will eventually come. But more often than not we cannot break our opponents down, and this is more of a problem at the moment imo than killing teams off. In order to kill them off you need to carve them open, we dont do this regulary IMO.

I just hope we see the Keane of Spurs rather than the Keane of Inter. Give it time we'll know one way or the other.

[Bad Bob]

Once a strikers confidence starts to go though, they subconciously don't get into the heat of the kitchen anywhere near as mcuh, and Robbie is now relying on his perceptive passing, effort and teamwork in order to make a contribution

I tried to say that in the opening thread, that was my main concern.

I didnt watch the Spurs game, I accidentally came accross the result on the net. So I didnt bother downloading it, well I tried but no fecker was seeding it.

Anyway I cannot really add too much more to this at the moment, but I did see Adebayors display up at Stoke yesterday. I have to say, he was awful. Stoke ruffed him and Arsenal up, to me his bottle went and didnt have the stomach for the cause. He went off, and did feckall during the game. Arsenal had the Liverpool syndrome, they couldnt break Stoke down. While I heard yesterday we broke Spurs down but didnt kill them off.

If we continue to break teams down I think the goals will eventually come. But more often than not we cannot break our opponents down, and this is more of a problem at the moment imo than killing teams off. In order to kill them off you need to carve them open, we dont do this regulary IMO.

I just hope we see the Keane of Spurs rather than the Keane of Inter. Give it time we'll know one way or the other.

Bam, it was a world of difference between our attacking play yesterday and that shown against Pompey.  We had no trouble creating chances yesterday whereas we seemed to really struggle and strain to carve any openings out against Portsmouth.  The difference--and this is something you've mentioned--is that Pompey to Anfield to park the bus, while we were comfortable in our counterattacking role yesterday away to a somewhat resurgent Spurs side.  In short, if teams come out and play we can generally fashion a half dozen decent chances, which often--though not always--is enough to get something out of the game.  But, when teams sit deep and look to shut up shop against us, we quickly run out of ideas for breaking them down.  It's something that seriously needs addressing in January if we wish to remain in the title race, IMO.

[account deleted by request]

I think that once Torres is back, Keane should be rested as I think Masch, Alonso and Kuyt are offering much more at the moment than he is. A few people seemed to think he had a good game yesterday..... I don't! I thought he was slow at moving the ball, his passes and movement were poor and while he worked hard never looked like scoring. TBH it reminded me of Kuyt when Kuyt was at his lowest ebb, no confidence, no goal threat ..... but he works hard!

I don't believe we can afford to carry Keane until he gets his goalscoring boots back, we need players who are on form, not struggling to make an impact. Let him be our supersub for a while ..... he's got to be better than Babel or Benny at the moment anyway.  Once he gets a couple of goals off the bench,THEN think about putting him back in the team.

[Number 9]

I think that once Torres is back, Keane should be rested as I think Masch, Alonso and Kuyt are offering much more at the moment than he is. A few people seemed to think he had a good game yesterday..... I don't! I thought he was slow at moving the ball, his passes and movement were poor and while he worked hard never looked like scoring. TBH it reminded me of Kuyt when Kuyt was at his lowest ebb, no confidence, no goal threat ..... but he works hard!

I don't believe we can afford to carry Keane until he gets his goalscoring boots back, we need players who are on form, not struggling to make an impact. Let him be our supersub for a while ..... he's got to be better than Babel or Benny at the moment anyway.  Once he gets a couple of goals off the bench,THEN think about putting him back in the team.

I dont agree mate that Keane should be rested!
I hope once Torres is back Rafa goes 4-4-2 with him and Keane up top and sticks with it!And i hope a hell of a lot more that the 2 of them get an understanding going and be as prolific as they should be!

[account deleted by request]

No problem Barry, its one of those things were there is no right and wrong, just opinions. We could leave him in the team and his form just sinks and sinks , or he could just click with Torres and have a great season.

[Number 9]

No problem Barry, its one of those things were there is no right and wrong, just opinions. We could leave him in the team and his form just sinks and sinks , or he could just click with Torres and have a great season.

I fecking hope so mate!
There were a few signs just before Torres injury that they were developing a little understanding.Hopefully they can get it going and compliment eachother,cause we'll be great if they do!

[GYBS]

He needs to start clicking soon thou - if we really want to challenge we cant afford him mis firing for much longer - esp after paying 20 mil for the guy .