Liverpool FC Forum

[onizukaeikichi]

alright so she's a lady, i just want to know what is she trying to say, i speak English but what is she trying to say? My name doesnt have anything to do with what the thread is discussing, so whats are you trying connect between my name and the game?

[RichardLFC1]

We played poor today and is a BAD loss for us When we sit down at the end of the season we will be looking back to this and thinking why oh why did we only get a drew and look lucky and some points of the game to get that. The players must improve as this performance from us is not acceptable.

[woof woof !]

Having calmed down a bit my post match impressions are .

A very disjointed Liverpool performance . Losing Carra and Riise left us with a back four that didn't instill confidence and we were fortunate that Sheffield failed to take further advantage of it. I'm not going to rubbish the players as in any team all departments need time to gel , and none more so than the defence , however  (:D ) .Kronkamp had possibly his worst game in a Liverpool shirt and although I've seen him put in some half decent performances when subbed on at right mid he certainly doesn't look like the "future" as far as our right back position is concerned . Agger ,did well enough but still has a long way to go before he can seriously challenge for a starting place in the middle of our defence. Aurelio ! I could really rip into this fella but I won't , I'll just say , going forward he looks decent , defensively ? we may as well pencil in a wet paper bag at left back .

Zenden. A decent fill in at CM or LM when we have no other options . Think Rafa f'ucked up here today . Should've had Gerrard and Sissoko in CM with Pennant at RM ,and Zenden on the bench. Gonzalez ? some have criticised his defensive play ! the fella is an attacker , don't expect him to defend , it's not in his play book . He might make a nusiance of himself defensively but nothing more . I'm happy with his contribution but we do need a decent LB behind him (not Aurelio) .

Fowler , this may sound like blasphemy to some but he was never the quickest and it was obvious today that he's not getting any quicker . Wouldn't be in my starting lineup but deffo a threat from the bench . Bellamy  , no real criticism considering the service he recieved , caught offside a few times but again the ball to him could perhaps have been delivered earlier ?

Gerrard , Many now think RM is his best position , pmsl , He is extremely effective when he stays there ,but given licence to roam as he invariably does means that for many periods in a game WE HAVE NO ONE AT RIGHT MID ! , how many times today did we see Sammi covering the RM position as Stevie went walkabout ? Gerrard is too good to be shackled to the touchline but Liverpool need an RM that will do exactley that   . If Alonso is out Gerrard needs to stay where he belongs ,Central Midfield where his influence and his options are at their greatest.

Rafa, what can I say ? the fella's got a lot of new toys in his box and wants to play with them ?
I can only echo what I said in another thread , "play one game at a time and always play your best 11"
Today Rafa , you did neither .

[adamnbarrett]

Stay positive. I was also disappointed by today's performance but I think it will give us a kick up the arse like when we lost to fulham 2-0 last season. Also remember, the last 2 seasons we have drawn on the opening day when we should have won and we finished both seasons with a winning a competition. Some of you are already thinking we have lost the title already after just one game. There are another 37 games left in the premiership season FFS. There is a long way to go. I'm sure we will improve. Rafa is not stupid, he knows he made the wrong selection today but you live and you learn. I have confidence in my team. The players will play on knowing we have confidence in them.

WE ARE LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB

[woof woof !]

WE ARE LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB

  Adam , I've been suppoerting Liverpool for 51 years , what part of "we" are you ?

[adamnbarrett]

WE ARE LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB

  Adam , I've been suppoerting Liverpool for 51 years , what part of "we" are you ?

LFC is a family. That includes players, staff, fans, supporters etc. That together creates we.

[Ciggy]

alright so she's a lady, i just want to know what is she trying to say, i speak English but what is she trying to say?

sort yer name out lad Keep Liverpool scouse 
Messoin but FFS there are some bad ID's on here no wonder we get ripped the sh.it from tha mancs an the bitters.
KEEP NAMES SCOUSE   

[woof woof !]

Stay positive.  There are another 37 games left in the premiership season FFS.

Fair enough , just don't patronise me with stuff like the above .   

[adamnbarrett]

Stay positive.  There are another 37 games left in the premiership season FFS.

Fair enough , just don't patronise me with stuff like the above .   

I wasn't trying to patronise woof. My post was not even in reply to yours. It just happened to be that my post was after yours. Sorry but it was not meant 

[Kev Huyton 2006]

That was a bad start. Anyone saying a draw is good enough against a newly promoted side needs shooting.

Sorry folks, havent read all of the posts in this topic up to now, so im sure a lot of this has already been said:

1. Why on earth was Aurelio playing on the left wing, when he is an attacking left back, and Gonzalez was bought for this purpose??

2. Why was Gerrard playing right wing when he was never going to get the supply with no alonso, and only zenden and sissoko in midfield?

3. Why was Zenden playing Centre midfield, when Gerrard does a better job there.

4. Why was pennant on the bench when he was bought to play right wing as we were lacking one.

5. Some of their attackers were startig to dribble thorugh the liverpool defence for fun in the first half, with no tackles going in! ??

6. where was finnan and alonso?  And I thought Kromkamp was getting sold, so was suprised to see him start?

I blame Rafa's tactics for this one, sorry. Strange choice of line up.

Was it just me, or did Sheff Utd look a lot sharper than us first half, and got to every ball first?

For some reason, there was no cohesion, and we gave the ball away a lot. when we got the ball, we should have kept hold of it. I thought we were going to control the ball and play.

I thought Rafa had been training these guys hard?

WHERES THE SHARPNESS?

I thought overall we were average, but I thought craig bellamy looked sharp, and put a good ball in for Fowler which he should have buried.

Like Rafa would say....We need to IMPROVE !

[woof woof !]

Stay positive.  There are another 37 games left in the premiership season FFS.

Fair enough , just don't patronise me with stuff like the above .   

I wasn't trying to patronise woof. My post was not even in reply to yours. It just happened to be that my post was after yours. Sorry but it was not meant 

apologies mate , got my wires crossed (cue a line of people shouting "not for the first time Woof ! "     )

[woof woof !]

That was a bad start. Anyone saying a draw is good enough against a newly promoted side needs shooting.

Sorry folks, havent read all of the posts in this topic up to now, so im sure a lot of this has already been said:

1. Why on earth was Aurelio playing on the left wing, when he is an attacking left back, and Gonzalez was bought for this purpose??

2. Why was Gerrard playing right wing when he was never going to get the supply with no alonso, and only zenden and sissoko in midfield?

3. Why was Zenden playing Centre midfield, when Gerrard does a better job there.

4. Why was pennant on the bench when he was bought to play right wing as we were lacking one.

5. Some of their attackers were startig to dribble thorugh the liverpool defence for fun in the first half, with no tackles going in! ??

6. where was finnan and alonso?  And I thought Kromkamp was getting sold, so was suprised to see him start?

I blame Rafa's tactics for this one, sorry. Strange choice of line up.

Was it just me, or did Sheff Utd look a lot sharper than us first half, and got to every ball first?

For some reason, there was no cohesion, and we gave the ball away a lot. when we got the ball, we should have kept hold of it. I thought we were going to control the ball and play.

I thought Rafa had been training these guys hard?

WHERES THE SHARPNESS?

I thought overall we were average, but I thought craig bellamy looked sharp, and put a good ball in for Fowler which he should have buried.

Like Rafa would say....We need to IMPROVE !

1 and 6 aside , some good questions there , ask Rafa .   

[Bad Bob]

I'm as disappointed with the result as anybody on here but, FFS, some people are way over the top with the negativity.  Here's my view of the match...

Team Selection
Lots of people having a go at Rafa on this one but let's look at things.  Finnan was injured so he had zero choice but to play Kromkamp (who was poor).  Aurelio has been played at LM in preseason and showed promise so no big surprise he was selected.  Plus, he would have come on for Riise anyway even if Gonzales had started, so you can't criticize Rafa playing him at LB. Alonso, I believe, needs rest and both he and Garcia had a midweek trip to Iceland to deal with, so I'm not surprised that they weren't even on the bench.

No, the only real selection question marks for me were starting Zenden at CM and Fowler at CF.  In my opinion, Gerrard should have definitely started in the middle, with Pennant on the right for this game (since Pennant had no midweek duty).  I can only imagine that Rafa was looking for Gerrard to replicate his midweek form on the right today.  Up front, Fowler starting after an injury lay-off is a bit odd but there may have been a fatigue issue with Crouch from midweek that we don't know about.  So, Rafa didn't get the team selection spot on but it wasn't the shambles that some on here suggest it was.

Performances
The rust always shows in the first game of the season for all teams, not just us.  As Adam's pointed out, we've had opening day draws three years running now.  Arsenal did not look sharp today and we all know how close Chelsea was to losing to Wigan last season.  It's to be expected that we aren't quite in top gear.

Having said that, there were moments today when the rust really showed.  Fowler, for one, had at least two chances to score in the first half--chances he usually buries.  Bellamy was unfortunate to direct his header right at Kenny instead of into the bottom corner.  And, Aurelio's free kick would have caused plenty of trouble had it been into the top left corner rather than the right down the middle.  Plus, both Fowler and Gonzales slipped at key moments with the ball at their feet in the box.  Had any one of those chances been put away, we would be celebrating a victory right now and there would be a lot less doom and gloom around here.

In the midfield I thought we had a slow start to the game.  As time went on, though, Sissoko grew into the match and started winning balls all over the pitch.  I thought Zenden had a fairly tidy game in the second half whilst doing nothing truly spectacular to drive us forward.  That left Stevie to do the build-up work and he looked somewhat off his game in that respect today. Gonzales had some decent touches on the wing but didn't really stretch their defense, which was needed after they scored and parked 10 men behind the ball.

At the back, I liked how Agger carried the ball forward but his distribution was hit and miss.  Sami's distribution was generally poor as well, with a few too many long balls up to our short-statured forwards.  Kromkamp was generally poor (the foul that led to goal was schoolyard obstruction and was totally unnecessary) and Aurelio was patchy.  It seemed as though everyone was nervous after conceding and we were trying to force the play a bit too much.

Ultimately, we had a team on the pitch that was capable of winning the game but a few too many players were not on song--hence the draw.

Injuries
IMO, the loss of both Riise and Carragher changed the game and it was always going to be a bit of a struggle after that.  Aurelio hasn't had many opportunities at LB yet for us and he showed some rustiness out there--especially for the goal which was 100% on him.  I don't think he had a terrible game defensively, however--he seemed to find his form in the second half at both ends of the pitch.  I thought Agger deputized well for Carragher but Sami didn't seem as comfortable as he usually does after being sandwiched in between two newbies (Kromkamp and Agger).  Nothing could have been done about that situation though--Rafa's hand was forced by the injuries.

Most significantly, the injuries really limited our substitution options late in the game.  We would have likely seen both Crouch and Pennant come on in the closing stages to shake the game up had just one of those two injuries not happened.

Bottom line, we had a poor game by our high standards but we were by no means dreadful.  We dominated the game after their goal and created the openings that would ordinarily see us through to victory.  Whether we look back on this game in 9 months time as a key misstep remains to be seen.  I, for one, will not hit the panic button just yet, though!

[JC_81]

Now that I've given myself a few hours to calm down after the game I'll say this...

We were sh.it today and deserved no more than the point we got.  Sheffield United were well up for it and their physical approach worked in taking any fluidity out of our play, as well as injuring 2 of our back 4.

I don't often criticise our manager, but he deserves some today.  The team today was picked with one eye on the Haifa game - personally I don't agree with it and especially not in the first premiership game where you want to hit the ground running.  If ever a game was crying out for Crouch then this was it.  He was brought to the club specifically to help us in away games like this where the ball isn't sticking up front.  If he'd have come on for Fowler just after the penalty went in I'm sure we'd have won today.  Instead Benitez hoped the penalty would boost Robbie's confidence and decided to leave him on despite the fact he was clearly knackered - but it didn't work.

Failing to control the centre of the park is where it went wrong for us.  Sissoko had a poor game by the high standards he's set himself and Zenden hardly had any influence at all, but I guess the 2 of them played so well against Chelsea that Benitez thought he'd leave it as it is.  If we hadn't been forced into 2 changes early on I'm sure Zenden would have been replaced at half time.

To be honest there aren't too many positives to take from this today.  A point against relegation fodder, 2 injuries and a poor all round performance.  However we have several new players and it'll take them a while to gel.  Aurelio especially got a big shock today I think.  I suppose our point is better than the one Arsenal got at home today and Spurs also lost.  Hopefully United and Chelsea start slowly too.

[account deleted by request]

I'm as disappointed with the result as anybody on here but, FFS, some people are way over the top with the negativity.  Here's my view of the match...

Team Selection
Lots of people having a go at Rafa on this one but let's look at things.  Finnan was injured so he had zero choice but to play Kromkamp (who was poor).  Aurelio has been played at LM in preseason and showed promise so no big surprise he was selected.  Plus, he would have come on for Riise anyway even if Gonzales had started, so you can't criticize Rafa playing him at LB. Alonso, I believe, needs rest and both he and Garcia had a midweek trip to Iceland to deal with, so I'm not surprised that they weren't even on the bench.

No, the only real selection question marks for me were starting Zenden at CM and Fowler at CF.  In my opinion, Gerrard should have definitely started in the middle, with Pennant on the right for this game (since Pennant had no midweek duty).  I can only imagine that Rafa was looking for Gerrard to replicate his midweek form on the right today.  Up front, Fowler starting after an injury lay-off is a bit odd but there may have been a fatigue issue with Crouch from midweek that we don't know about.  So, Rafa didn't get the team selection spot on but it wasn't the shambles that some on here suggest it was.

Performances
The rust always shows in the first game of the season for all teams, not just us.  As Adam's pointed out, we've had opening day draws three years running now.  Arsenal did not look sharp today and we all know how close Chelsea was to losing to Wigan last season.  It's to be expected that we aren't quite in top gear.

Having said that, there were moments today when the rust really showed.  Fowler, for one, had at least two chances to score in the first half--chances he usually buries.  Bellamy was unfortunate to direct his header right at Kenny instead of into the bottom corner.  And, Aurelio's free kick would have caused plenty of trouble had it been into the top left corner rather than the right down the middle.  Plus, both Fowler and Gonzales slipped at key moments with the ball at their feet in the box.  Had any one of those chances been put away, we would be celebrating a victory right now and there would be a lot less doom and gloom around here.

In the midfield I thought we had a slow start to the game.  As time went on, though, Sissoko grew into the match and started winning balls all over the pitch.  I thought Zenden had a fairly tidy game in the second half whilst doing nothing truly spectacular to drive us forward.  That left Stevie to do the build-up work and he looked somewhat off his game in that respect today. Gonzales had some decent touches on the wing but didn't really stretch their defense, which was needed after they scored and parked 10 men behind the ball.

At the back, I liked how Agger carried the ball forward but his distribution was hit and miss.  Sami's distribution was generally poor as well, with a few too many long balls up to our short-statured forwards.  Kromkamp was generally poor (the foul that led to goal was schoolyard obstruction and was totally unnecessary) and Aurelio was patchy.  It seemed as though everyone was nervous after conceding and we were trying to force the play a bit too much.

Ultimately, we had a team on the pitch that was capable of winning the game but a few too many players were not on song--hence the draw.

Injuries
IMO, the loss of both Riise and Carragher changed the game and it was always going to be a bit of a struggle after that.  Aurelio hasn't had many opportunities at LB yet for us and he showed some rustiness out there--especially for the goal which was 100% on him.  I don't think he had a terrible game defensively, however--he seemed to find his form in the second half at both ends of the pitch.  I thought Agger deputized well for Carragher but Sami didn't seem as comfortable as he usually does after being sandwiched in between two newbies (Kromkamp and Agger).  Nothing could have been done about that situation though--Rafa's hand was forced by the injuries.

Most significantly, the injuries really limited our substitution options late in the game.  We would have likely seen both Crouch and Pennant come on in the closing stages to shake the game up had just one of those two injuries not happened.

Bottom line, we had a poor game by our high standards but we were by no means dreadful.  We dominated the game after their goal and created the openings that would ordinarily see us through to victory.  Whether we look back on this game in 9 months time as a key misstep remains to be seen.  I, for one, will not hit the panic button just yet, though!

Im very disapointed in you BadBob, you usually leave me something to have a little niggle at you. I couldnt find anything to argue with in your post. I agree with everything you said.