Liverpool FC Forum

[Emerald Red]

I really don't need to say how sh*t we played. I really don't need to explain it or defend it either. Fact is this: come the end of the second leg after we qualify, it will all be forgotten. In fact, come this Sunday if we play well and win, it will already be half forgotten. They say you are only as good as your last game. Well, that doesn't apply to football, because I know for a fact that we are a lot better than what we all seen tonight.

[Scottbot]

I dont think its just down to a performance. Tonight we didnt show anything and our defence looked all over the place.  Just seeing the basics done tonight would of been something.  Some nice passing and a bit of posession but for whatever reason the team looked a mess.

but look at things a little more closely mate. They had a good start, they played well, they got an excellent crowd into the match and our lads got a little bit rattled. It was a tough way to start the season. Young Plessis struggled, Dossena gave away an early pen and never recovered (although the early signs aren't good), Agger was back playing his first game in near on a year, we missed the Captain and Kuyt (whatever you think about him) couldn't offer the tireless running and effort that you expect because his fitness isn't up to that level yet. And most importantly they played VERY WELL.

Hats off to them, see if they can replicate that sort of form at Anfield when we've got a couple of games under our belt, our best players back and they don't have 30,000 jubilant Belgians baying for their blood.

I'm not saying the performance doesn't deserve criticism but it doesn't mean we all have to turn into your average 'white van man' venting all the usual bulls..h..i..t.....

[LFC2007]

Rafael Benitez admitted his side were lucky to escape with a draw after they produced a below-par display in the first-leg of the Champions League qualifier with Standard Liege. 
The Reds boss was frustrated that his side could not reproduce their good pre-season form against the Belgian champions but feels the Anfield factor will play a vital role when the two sides meet at Anfield in a fortnight's time.
 
"I think we were lucky not to concede," said Benitez.
 
"You never know what is going to happen when a game gets underway but clearly we didn't play well.
 
"The performance was poor but the result was good. We didn't concede away from home which is always important and to play the second-leg at Anfield could make a massive difference.
 
"The positive thing was the result and we didn't have to say too much about the display in the dressing room because everybody already knew it wasn't good."
 
The Reds struggled to come to terms with Liege's fast start to the contest and Benitez felt his side were their own worst enemy and was grateful to keeper Pepe Reina for securing a 0-0 draw with a first-half spot-kick save.
 
"They were very aggressive and we could not keep the ball," he said.
 
"Our passes were bad and we always lost the first and second ball.
 
"In the first 20 minutes they were on top of us and after that we controlled it a bit more.
 
"In the second-half they started the same way and played more long balls and continued to win the first and second balls and if you don't win them you will continue to be under pressure.
 
"I was a little bit surprised because we were playing well in pre-season with a lot of confidence.
 
"I told the players before, after watching their Super Cup game against Anderlecht, that it could be like this.
 
"We knew they could be very aggressive. They were organised and pressed well and it was difficult for us to keep the ball.
 
"I think the entire team didn't play well; so the strikers, midfielders and defenders didn't play well and Pepe Reina was man of the match."
 
With Javier Mascherano, Lucas Leiva and Ryan Babel all on Olympic duty and the likes of Fabio Aurelio and Martin Skrtel out injured, Benitez felt his side lacked options on the bench and admitted he had been forced to bring skipper Steven Gerrard into the frame to try and inspire a late rally.
 
"We have a lot of players away or injured and the competition for the places needs to improve," he continued.
 
"Gerrard couldn't start and he is a player who can change a game and if you have two or three players of this level on the pitch it is different.
 
"We were talking with the doctor before the match and we knew he couldn't start and we were thinking maybe we could use him and in the end we did need him.
 
"I have been really pleased with the commitment of the players in the pre-season but this game was different, it was difficult and we didn't play well.
 
"Fabio Aurelio and Skrtel have been training and when they are available we will have more options.
 
"Argentina play Holland in the Olympics too, so one player will return earlier. If you have more players competing for places it is better for the team." 


.tv

[rscl]

you are soo bad to night!!!
Yours supporters love silence??? i'm realy so disappointing about your fan...it's sad.
allez standard liège

[Number 9]

First competitive match of the term and already the vultures circle like an unforgiving bunch of wannabe eagles with no eyes!
Yes it was a tough game and yeah we were all over the place but the outcome is not catastrophic..far from it in fact!
If we beat them at Anfield we are in the finals...RELAX.Our performance was poor but not suicidally so.
If we win at Sunderland at the weekend we can take everything from it and beat this team at Anfield...Bottom line is they had everything out to contain us and had the majority of the ball on the flanks and yet again it exposed our worrying weakness of having no real good wide players defensively or going forward which we knew about.The biggest worry for me is our central pairing at the back..I hate to say it but Stu is right..We are awful in the air and i mean really really bad!Im not just worried im petrified..Every set piece is gonna be like a lottery now...teams will try and kill us.

Playing LFC just cross the ball?..Thats OK but you need to have the ball to cross..kiddo!
Our only hope is to play keep ball football and limit them to crosses,there is only one thing for it now over the season and he will be back...

[tonyeh]

Our performance was poor but not suicidally so.

Ah come on...I admire your optimisim and loyalty , but Liverpool didn't threaten the goal once in the entire game (even with their £42+ million worth of strikers) and they should have lost that match by 2 goals. They were played off the pitch by a side that they should have beaten to all intents and purposes.

That's a performance worth criticising.

Usually there's something positive to bring away from most bad games, but there's little to be happy about tonight, except perhaps Reina's performance.

The fact is, Liverpool we lucky not to have a much harder mountain to climb in the next leg. They only have to get a goal in two weeks.

That said, I do hope they learn from tonight and go and give Sunderland a good seeing to on the weekend. It'll perk them (and me) up a bit.

Tony

[Number 9]

Our performance was poor but not suicidally so.

Ah come on...I admire your optimisim and loyalty , but Liverpool didn't threaten the goal once in the entire game (even with their £42+ million worth of strikers) and they should have lost that match by 2 goals. They were played off the pitch by a side that they should have beaten to all intents and purposes.

That's a performance worth criticising.

Usually there's something positive to bring away from most bad games, but there's little to be happy about tonight, except perhaps Reina's performance.

The fact is, Liverpool we lucky not to have a much harder mountain to climb in the next leg. They only have to get a goal in two weeks.

That said, I do hope they learn from tonight and go and give Sunderland a good seeing to on the weekend. It'll perk them (and me) up a bit.

Tony

Again I add it was not suicidally the end!does a ninja wanna fight me???

[Rush Job]

Ciggy mate you'd make a great geography teacher   can see you in a pair of cords and a tank top.

[Bad Bob]

Holland thought that in the euros, look where it got them

I didn't see a lack of effort tonight, I didn't see players strolling around the park like they thought it was gonna be easy, did you? I saw us struggle against a team playing with their backs up in their biggest game of the season, their cup final with a fantastic crowd behind them. I don't see why everyone is quite so carried away? Look back at the qualifying round for the 2 times we reached the final of this competition. In 2005 we played poorly in Austria but had 2 Stevie wonder-goals save us and then we lost the return leg at Anfield 1-0 and then 2 years ago we had to rely on a late Mark Gonzalez (of all people!) goal to bail us out of trouble.

I understand everyone is frustrated, me too. you wait all summer for some football, you wake up this morning made up coz we gotta game and then you wonder the f...u.ck why! I'm no different but try and find a little perspective.

Sh...it performance, decent enough result in my book. that's not happy clappy or in Rafa we trust or whatever you wanna call it.

Good post, Scott.   It was a desperately poor performance but we're still in position to qualify and it will have given us an almighty kick in the a.rse ahead of the real curtain-raiser on Saturday.  As much as it's become fashionable to write off our chances at the earliest sign of trouble in recent times, it's a long, long season and we will most certainly get much, much better before long.  That performance has set off a few alarm bells to be sure but there's no need to panic just yet. 

[Bad Bob]

Ciggy mate you'd make a great geography teacher   can see you in a pair of cords and a tank top.

WTF?   

[ruskiy playmaker]

you are soo bad to night!!!
Yours supporters love silence??? i'm realy so disappointing about your fan...it's sad.
allez standard liège

Just wait till your team comes to Anfield.  We'll rip you guys a new one. 

[Rush Job]

Ciggy mate you'd make a great geography teacher   can see you in a pair of cords and a tank top.

WTF?   

I dont know what a Canadian geography teacher would dress like, unless its a world wide dress code, like you graduate and get immediately handed a pair of brown cords ( with turn ups ) a tank top, parker jacket and a thermos flask.

[Standard Liege fan]

I was about to post a nice comment about the game...Until i saw some disgusting racist comments about Belgium.

I feel very sad for the guys who write this kind of sh1t. Ciggy : you got a problem man, sort it out with professionnal help. Might be frustration after tonight's game...

i was at the stadium in Liege :
1) This is the Liverpool crowd ??? Come on, i didn't hear your 3000 men once and i was 30 meters (yes meters) away !!!
You may have got out with a draw, but you definitely lost the game in the stands. A big disappointment regarding your reputation.

2) Pretty much everyone here was scared of a 0-3 or 0-4 beforehand. Pretty much everyone was disgusted with the draw after the game.
Liverpool looked like a subtop belgian team in weak form, sorry to say it. Whereas Standard played at Champions League pace : like Premiership, Belgian League has not begun.

3) Hope Reina gets injured, great player.

4) I hope your team is as confident as you all are about your win at Anfield. Few come to win at Anfield ? Don't care, we only need a scoring draw. Keep on underestimating us and we'll send you in UEFA cup.

[Rush Job]

I'd be more than tempted to play Sami in place of Agger on sat, still looks rusty to me plus their likely to put a lot of high balls into the box. We dont want to start the season looking shaky in defence because the indecision grows and Pepe starts trying to clam corners he's never going to get anywhere near because of the lack of trust in his defence, he was starting to do it towards the end tonght, completely missed one he wasnt ever going to reach and got luck. And i wish SG would stop taking our corners and get in the box, we've no strength in the air our corners are pointless.

[Rush Job]

I was about to post a nice comment about the game...Until i saw some disgusting racist comments about Belgium.

I feel very sad for the guys who write this kind of sh1t. Ciggy : you got a problem man, sort it out with professionnal help. Might be frustration after tonight's game...

i was at the stadium in Liege :
1) This is the Liverpool crowd ??? Come on, i didn't hear your 3000 men once and i was 30 meters (yes meters) away !!!
You may have got out with a draw, but you definitely lost the game in the stands. A big disappointment regarding your reputation.

2) Pretty much everyone here was scared of a 0-3 or 0-4 beforehand. Pretty much everyone was disgusted with the draw after the game.
Liverpool looked like a subtop belgian team in weak form, sorry to say it. Whereas Standard played at Champions League pace : like Premiership, Belgian League has not begun.

3) Hope Reina gets injured, great player.

4) I hope your team is as confident as you all are about your win at Anfield. Few come to win at Anfield ? Don't care, we only need a scoring draw. Keep on underestimating us and we'll send you in UEFA cup.

You got a nil nil ffs what do you want a medal? if you couldnt even score at home in front of great support agaist a woefull and under stenght Liverpool performance what chance do you have at anfield when we've got a couple of matches under our belt and star players back. You had your chance and you fk it, couldnt even score an absolute gift of a pen and the player who took it wants putting down, worst pen ive seen in a long while, you even missed an open goal, just put your head on it and its in, off his shoulder    were so scared.