Liverpool FC Forum

[Emerald Red]

Dossena had a very poor first half , but I thought he played well second half.

Agreed, did really well in the second half, bombed forward and defended well.

People say the turning point was Alonso. I disagree. Nearing the end of the first half, we started to put pressure on, but this only happened once Dossena started getting into more advanced positions in a very wide area up in their own half. He continued on in that fashion and we started to get more time on the ball, which afforded Alonso the luxury of time he had to get his head up and start picking passes. In fact, the very first time Dossena found himself just outside-wide of their area, it led to the debated penalty that we should have had. Benayoun is a real pain in the ar$se at times. He just wants to drift inside constantly. As soon as he cut that out, it gave Dossena enough support to get up and down the pitch without exposing himself. Once Babel comes back, we'll be fine on the left. The real worry is that right side. Kuyt does  an OK job, but he too likes to come inside, which is annoying, and Arbeloa just stops half way up and either passes square or floats a feeble cross in.

[Dundalk]

Can we see the goal??

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1481990/

[Toffeehater]

Keane played well in the 2nd half and he created a good chance for himself in the first half , there was some nice exchanges between him and torres . Our players seem to prefer passing than taking a shot themselves , sammy lee needs to work on this and get their confidence up , at the moment the only players who would take a shot on their own is gerrard and torres . Kuyt had a good chance to score and he squared the ball to alonso.

[akumaface]

Alonso was class. Stick with him and hope he and Rafa can make friends again as Alonso seems had asked to leave. I think we were lucky to get 3 points. We played poorly is one thing but we basically not fit (we were so slow and soft). We should be more fresh as the season just started. This is a sign of getting worry.

Dossena is basically a left footed Josemi but more expensive. 8 million quid should get you a defender that is more skill and flaired. It never convince me someone from the Italian league would do well in EPL. Simply totally different game and speed. Kuyt was unbelievable as he seems he had surpassed last season form. He was getting slower and slower while his touch is getting worse and worse.....Sell him to Hambury while someone still wants him for a decent amount.

Does anyone knows if Pennant was hurt? If not, he is probably going to get sold since now El Zhar is ahead of him in the depth chart. Also, Arbeloa also performed poorly. Way off form (maybe too long a holiday after the Euro). Anyway, Sami was awesome today as he was dominant in the Air. I saw some of the Pre season game and the Liege game, we were losing in the air and inserting Sami a good decision. I think this season, all our opponents would try to intimatate us with physical play. Hopefully, we can play tougher and more importantly, need speed on both flanks.....

[Toffeehater]

Dossena had a very poor first half , but I thought he played well second half.

Agreed, did really well in the second half, bombed forward and defended well.

People say the turning point was Alonso. I disagree. Nearing the end of the first half, we started to put pressure on, but this only happened once Dossena started getting into more advanced positions in a very wide area up in their own half. He continued on in that fashion and we started to get more time on the ball, which afforded Alonso the luxury of time he had to get his head up and start picking passes. In fact, the very first time Dossena found himself just outside-wide of their area, it led to the debated penalty that we should have had. Benayoun is a real pain in the ar$se at times. He just wants to drift inside constantly. As soon as he cut that out, it gave Dossena enough support to get up and down the pitch without exposing himself. Once Babel comes back, we'll be fine on the left. The real worry is that right side. Kuyt does  an OK job, but he too likes to come inside, which is annoying, and Arbeloa just stops half way up and either passes square or floats a feeble cross in.

Spot on .

[Dundalk]

[shakey]

Hard 3 points won away from home,got to be happy with that
Obviously some improvement needed but hey.
Those are the sort of games we would draw last season!!

We said that last season after the Villa match 

Ha yep that is true lol

[muzodziwa]

This is how championships are won, average performance, sheer determination and individual briliance, good day.

This was easily a no score draw, but we have one and 2 more points in the bag, a lot of things to comment on this game but i will restrict myself to these;

1. Fantastic defensive understanding between Hyppia and Carragher, not too bad from Dossena and i think Aberloa will settle down more knowing that he is going nowhere this season.

2. Great performance by Reina, good command of the goal area and very decisive when it came to dead balls, good ball distribution bar one.

3. Not a great day at the office for Kuyt, Keane, Plessis, and Yossi, hopefully it will be better for them in the next match.

4. With the introduction of Alonso we started to control the middle of the park and our possession led to meaningful attacks, was encouraged by the Gerrard-Alonso understanding and if Mash returns we might see Gerrard being  moved to the right.

5.Torres, he might have on off day but he is THE MOST LETHAL STRIKER IN THE WORLD, there i have said it.

Good substitutions by Rafa, and this year we might celebrate, yes i know its early to call but im satisfied.

[Number 9]

NANDO!!!!!

[rafa09]

TOLD YOU SO. We won ugly,thats how mange do it. If we do that every game. I,ll be happy.Cos at the end of the day it will be number 19.

[account deleted by request]

I can't say I agree with anyone who says Keane played well, I thought he was poor, he got virtually no good balls, but did nothing with the possession he did get. Torres was only slightly better (if that)until Keane went off .

[p_i_n_g_u]

I'm not heavily in the pro or anti Rafa camp- he's done a good job overall but this season looks worrying to me. Terrible performance in midweek and the finances and situation with the owners seem to be getting worse. Rafa has made some great signings and seems to have bought some kids with great potential but some senior player signings I just can't get my head around. Pennant and Voronin need to go, not good enough. Benny I can take or leave as a fringe player- not quite up to LFC standard for me I suspect though. Its pretty clear to me our problems are simply the four wide positions - we need at least one quality winger and the team needs to have two quality fullbacks. I fear Dossena and Deggen will be far from that. I know it's early but Dossena won't cut it, I fear and suspect Deggen is much worse. I know he was free and may not be a first choice starter for Rafa, but that's no excuse. The spine of the team and squad are fine and we may have the players to move into these wide areas but there's simply not enough quality in the squad in those positions. I fear a 4th-6th position in the league is inevitable and the whole Rafa/Parry/Gillette/Hicks thing is going to implode before the season is out. Oh and I think Ngog deserved to come on instead of El Zhar judging from the pre-season games I've watched. DIC SOS. Peace.

[Dundalk]

I agree Saint Keane wasn't great today, his passing wasn't the best and and times he seemed to be trying to hard, but I think he will be okay when he settles

[Toffeehater]

I can't say I agree with anyone who says Keane played well, I thought he was poor, he got virtually no good balls, but did nothing with the possession he did get. Torres was only slightly better (if that)until Keane went off .

He created a superb chance for himself in the first half , he exchanged some nice passes between him and gerrard and torres . HE worked hard , showed good awareness to go for the same ball with torres and to be fair , he may not have been so supern because the game was played through the middle of the park with not much width and no service was being proceeded to keane , torres can create openings for himself but today we saw , the same tricks he tried last season were figured out by defenders and he was shut out well but you gave him a chance and he will take it . Its going to be a difficult 2nd season for torres but he will still get over 20 possibly to 28 goals .

[Rush Job]

Hope that Rafa will buy 2 wingers (18M + 10M (Kuyt) + 8M (AV) = 36M) before the 2nd match at home

8m for who? Voronin? Surely not.