by duk » Fri May 04, 2007 10:43 am
Got bored and thought id compare the Teams of 2005 & 2007, i personally think whilst our team have got stronger theirs hasn't got any better (possibly worse), look at these two line ups:
First XI Milan v Liverpool 2005 First XI Milan v Man U 2007
---------------Dida--------------- ---------------Dida---------------
Cafu---Stam---Nesta---Maldini Oddo--Kaladze--Nesta--Jankulovski
---Gattuso---Pirlo---Seedorf--- ---Gattuso---Pirlo---Seedorf---
----------------Kaka--------------- -------Ambrosini--Kaka-------
-----Shevchenko---Crespo----- --------------Inzaghi--------------
There current team contains the same keeper that we scored past 3 times, and recently he has been very clumsey, no longer 'the best keeper in the world' (never was imo but hey)
Stam has gone and I personally don’t think Kaladze is as good as him. Stam was a reliable rock, great in the air, Kaladze simply is not.
Same Midfield, still some quality and probably Milan’s best area of the field, however Liverpool too have some great CM’s easily a match for these three. 2 years older than last time, will this effect them?
Kaka has shown that he is becoming brilliant needs to be approached with caution and really can change a game.
Ambrosini and Inzaghi are nowhere near the class of Shevchenko and Crespo. Crespo scored two fine goals last time out but I don’t see the seem kind of finishes from either of these players, Shevchenko was Europe’s best striker last time out and again neither of these match him.
Maldini has expressed his wish to play in this final. Mixed reaction to this as he is a great player, however playing despite knowing that you need surgery is a risk and something that might not pay off, is he now at an age where he can’t impact the game as much as he used too? Pennant surely could beat him a few times down the right (Assuming either players feature)?
On the other side of the coin lets look at our team from that final:
---------------Dudek---------------
Finnan-Carragher-Hyypia-Troare
--Garcia-Gerrard-Alonso-Riise--
-------------------Kewell-----------
----------Baros---------------------
Dudek had a great final but admitted himself that some of his saves were flukes, Reina is a better goalkeeper and showed that he can save penalty’s.
Finnan has settled into this team and is one of the consistently good players in it.
Carragher gets better and better.
Hyypia might not play but is still on his day more than capable of keeping ANY attacker quiet. Agger has some way to go before filling this man’s boots and imho shouldn’t start the final, having said he is a much better defender than Troare (or however u spell it) who walked away from turkey with a CL Medal.
He has since moved on and his place will surely be taken by Riise. A massive improvement in the LB position.
Garcia will miss out on this final and I think having a right footed player running down the right at Maldini will be a better option, either Pennant or Gerrard.
Gerrard will feature once again his position probably not as obvious. If he doesn’t play in the centre we will have Alonso (form is temporary, class is permanent ‘nuff said) and the new boy Macherano. Kewell is a big question mark but if he does feature surely it’ll be on the left meaning no Zenden. However even if Zenden does play he can not be any worse than Troare was in Istanbul. Having two strikers rather than 1 and a Kewell will be an advantage, it will be Bellamy’s last game to impress so I expect a big performance from him. With Kuyt playing you know he will give 110% effort… and Crouch has been on form recently. All 3 better than Baros and Cisse were.
Now I do realise that we too had Hamman, who came on at half time and really changed the game for the better, I believe we have a new Hamman in Mascherano and to an extent Momo.
Smicer came on in his last appearance and really give it everything he had, scoring in the game and one of the penalty kicks. (Zenden?)
Based on this I believe we have a much better chance than a lot of people give us credit for.
Come on you reds!!!
