Liverpool FC Forum

[mistyred]

Crouch was poor today.

For a big lad he falls over to easy if he stayed on his feet for half the challenges he goes down for he might have a chance on goal, for some reason he looks good against teams that cant defend and give him time and space but against more aggressive oponnents he just looks sort of average.

But he still has a role to play i think.

[Thinkpad]

Poor performances... 90% of attacks are the loop up and run ala Wimbledon style. What is going on? Since Houlier times it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that this doesn't work. Why are all foreign coaches come to Liverpool keep adopting this style of play?

When Crouch was bought, it is said he will offer an alternate style of play.. now we only play with that style. What the %^&*%$# are our technical staff doing? Have we forgotten how to pass, and dribble??

I seriously question some of our players capabilities. Why do we buy them anyway?

Kyut first touches is atrocious. Seriously, I am appalled at his inability to trap a normal pass. Most of the time the ball will jump up from his feet or roll far away from him, allowing defenders to come at him and steal it. Not to mention he can't dribble.

Pennant, he can dribble, can run at defenders but can't cross even when his life depends on it. Anyone can loop a ball (back-spinning) to the penalty area. Nothing a school-boy can't do. A winger who can't cross is useless. We need someone who can cross with a wicked curl (side-spinning) ala Beckham style. Yes we have Aurelio, who is undernourish. Because his crosses are always underhit. I dunno, maybe in Argentina the field is smaller.

I really hate the way Liverpool is playing now. I called it the "plague ball" style. Whenever one of our players has the ball, all teammates ran away from him like a plague. Seriously, I am not kidding. You find them running far far away. why can't we play like ManU or Arsenal where players are closeby to provide support? For ManU if you watch carefully, they like to form triangles (3players running together). Really can write pages about their style. There is no shame in learning from others.

Another thing I want to highlight is the lack of rebound during attacks. If you notice there is a lack of followup after a failed attempt at goal. The middle area where the semicircle (penalty area) is, will be mostly empty right after an attempt at goal. 2-3 players will be near the goal mouth but no one near the semicircle. I have started noticing this phenominon a few matches ago. Unfortunate to say, it occurs regularly.

Corners.. Liverpool must have one of the worst record for corners. How many corners must we take before scoring? 30-40? Corners supposed to offer an attacking advantage, but at these rates, it is a joke. Do we practise corners? Do we have a plan when we take corners?

Currently I feel we need a playmaker. There is no fluidity in our game and no real vision exhibited by most players. Is there something impeding our players from developing in these area? Something need to be done quickly.

If we want to be the best we better start overcoming our weaknesses quickly. Now would be a good time to start....

[jonnymac1979]

Just got back from Anfield.  Completely underwhelmed, couldn't even be bothered going and getting pissed after the game.  I've came home. 

Unheard of.

[Rush Job]

Poor performances... 90% of attacks are the loop up and run ala Wimbledon style. What is going on? Since Houlier times it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that this doesn't work. Why are all foreign coaches come to Liverpool keep adopting this style of play?

When Crouch was bought, it is said he will offer an alternate style of play.. now we only play with that style. What the %^&*%$# are our technical staff doing? Have we forgotten how to pass, and dribble??

I seriously question some of our players capabilities. Why do we buy them anyway?

Kyut first touches is atrocious. Seriously, I am appalled at his inability to trap a normal pass. Most of the time the ball will jump up from his feet or roll far away from him, allowing defenders to come at him and steal it. Not to mention he can't dribble.

Pennant, he can dribble, can run at defenders but can't cross even when his life depends on it. Anyone can loop a ball (back-spinning) to the penalty area. Nothing a school-boy can't do. A winger who can't cross is useless. We need someone who can cross with a wicked curl (side-spinning) ala Beckham style. Yes we have Aurelio, who is undernourish. Because his crosses are always underhit. I dunno, maybe in Argentina the field is smaller.

I really hate the way Liverpool is playing now. I called it the "plague ball" style. Whenever one of our players has the ball, all teammates ran away from him like a plague. Seriously, I am not kidding. You find them running far far away. why can't we play like ManU or Arsenal where players are closeby to provide support? For ManU if you watch carefully, they like to form triangles (3players running together). Really can write pages about their style. There is no shame in learning from others.

Another thing I want to highlight is the lack of rebound during attacks. If you notice there is a lack of followup after a failed attempt at goal. The middle area where the semicircle (penalty area) is, will be mostly empty right after an attempt at goal. 2-3 players will be near the goal mouth but no one near the semicircle. I have started noticing this phenominon a few matches ago. Unfortunate to say, it occurs regularly.

Corners.. Liverpool must have one of the worst record for corners. How many corners must we take before scoring? 30-40? Corners supposed to offer an attacking advantage, but at these rates, it is a joke. Do we practise corners? Do we have a plan when we take corners?

Currently I feel we need a playmaker. There is no fluidity in our game and no real vision exhibited by most players. Is there something impeding our players from developing in these area? Something need to be done quickly.

If we want to be the best we better start overcoming our weaknesses quickly. Now would be a good time to start....

Kuyt cant controll the ball?
We need to be more like the scum?
Why do we buy players?
And this one`s a killer " maybe in Argentina the field is smaller"
Why dont you pi$$off (by walking forwards)

[adamnbarrett]

"When you play against the smaller teams at Anfield you know the game will be narrow and compact and at times we were a little bit nervous. We have to be disappointed not to have taken all three points."

Rafa's such a legend for that quote
the bitters are fuming. But it's true. They are a smaller club than us.

[Dalglish]

I've just arrived back from the game.

We cannot criticise Everton for coming with a gameplan and defending with a 9-0-1 formation neither can we expect Everton to play free flowing football. No, they left with what they came for , un point ! Most teams do it fortnight in , fortnight out at Anfield and with the exception of Portsmouth and Blackburn (and now Everton) none of them have left with anything.

What was different today wasn't the away team but the Home team. We lacked pace and created very little in front of goal. Riise was woeful, Pennant overcomplicated as oper usual and Alonso had an unusually poor game. Thats 3/4 of the midfield below par and it showed.

The forwards had little to play off and Kuyt got more and more frustrated as the game went on. Bellamy faded after a bright start and Crouch is a thread all of his own !


For me, Carragher and Agger were our best players by a fair way and Finnon was solid.

It was just one of those days at the office that happen except that it was against our local rivals (although rivals flatters them a bit).

Benitez vs Gollum tactically was no contest as Moyes outsmarted his adversary. Rafa was a tad frustrated at the end but one substitute with 5 minutes to go demonstrates either his inability or his reluctance to force the matter. Maybe in the back of his mind was the nagging fear of being the forst Liverpool manager for 22 years to have the double done over him by Everton. Whatever the case he did little to change the flow or tempo of the game and for a manager who has been known to tinker a touch over the years he did little tinkering today.

Everton will boast about 2 clean sheets and taking 4 pts off us etc. etc..... but it does little to dispel the belief that they are simply a workmanlike team who grind out results especially when it comes to their Big Brother on merseyside !

[112-1077774096]

agree 100% on the substitution front ian, i never see the point of huffing and puffing for 85 minutes before a change is made

[Thinkpad]

Maybe you want to get yourself a harddisk recorder, or a VCR so you can watch all the games over and over again and tell me if my observation is wrong. No offence, Kuyt is hardworking, but if you can't score often he's no good to us.

We should be able to learn from other,s it fact we must so we don't have to reinvent the wheels all the time. Find out what works and adapt them (not just adopt), what doesn't and make sure we don't follow. This is how we can improve quickly.

[Dalglish]

Hi Peter, It wasn't happening lad and we could all see that ...... With Gonzales and Zenden on the bench we had what Rafa calls "possibilities" but for whatever reason he seemed reluctant to change anything. I suppose if we had nicked a goal I wouldn't be commenting on this but we were going nowhere and Everton looked comforatble in defence and no team playing at Anfield should be made to feel comfortable.

[112-1077774096]

yes, he seems reluctant to change while we are having possession, but sometimes a difference is need to unlock the defence. when we start to look like we wont score, or look like the defence has the measure of us, we need to change something in the game.

fowler got 5 minutes mate, what good is that, ive commented on this before this season

[premiership fan]

All highlights, extras and full match download are online now! http://redsgoals.blogspot.com/

[Dalglish]

yes, he seems reluctant to change while we are having possession, but sometimes a difference is need to unlock the defence. when we start to look like we wont score, or look like the defence has the measure of us, we need to change something in the game.

fowler got 5 minutes mate, what good is that, ive commented on this before this season

I don't think Fowler would have made that mnuch difference to be honest. It was in the creativity department that we lacked.

Gonzales or even Zenden coming on might have made more of a difference. You kind of knew on the hour that it was drifting into obscurity.

A frustrating day like I said but the Bitters will live off the two results this season. At least one half of Merseyside is happy !

[lakes10]

not much you can say about that game, we did ok but you just have to take what you can get when the other team sits in its own box for 90mins, on one note... our passing was very poor today, i think in the end we was trying to score too much if you see what i mean and rushing our time with the ball instead of the slow build up, i mean its not as if we were beeing pushed by the other team.

[adamnbarrett]

I'm now ready to post my thoughts on today's game.

I have to say that neither team deserved to win today. We didn't play well at all today but you have to give credit to everton because moyes got his tactics spot on today and everton were hard to break down. Whenever we played it in the air it was easy for stubbs to just head away and because everton got men behind the ball it was hard for us to play through them and get it on the deck and play through balls for bellamy. Because of this, we did not create enough chances.

We seemed to go out with the same type of tactics that we used against chelsea. Just like against chelsea, we started with a high tempo and I think we attempted to score the goal(s) inside the first 20 minutes or so. Of course, we did not get these goals and we couldn't keep this tempo going for the whole match.

Although 3 strikers were named, we did not play with 3 strikers. IMO it was a 4-4-2 with Kuyt on the left. I thought Kuyt was quite wasted on the left of midfield and didn't cause hibbert too many problems and had to cut inside on his right foot. I think, just because hibbert has come back from injury he needed to be tested on the outside more and maybe Gonzalez would have been a better option. But, in saying that I don't think Gonzalez would have suited the derby with it being physical. I think had aurelio been fit then he would ahve played because aurelio and riise together seems to give us good balance down the left. But today the left hand side was like a jigsaw that didn't fit and was never going to after we saw the first 25 minutes of the game.

I thought alonso had a shocker today and the passing in genral from the midfield was poor. On so so many occassions I saw pennant on his own on the right hand side and he didn't receive the ball and it was often given away. When pennant did have the ball he didn't do too badly IMO, he put in a few dangerous crosses but his corners were poor TBH.

Once again I find myself frustrated about our lack of ability to do something with our freekicks. I'm sick of this two touch stuff and just passing it sideways when in a shooting position. We have great strikers of the ball in our team who should just be able to strike a still ball and test the goalkeeper.

On the subject of goalkeepers, great save by Pepe to deny johnson. As soon as he cut inside carra, I thought the ball was in the back of the net. All credit to the defenders aswell today, they didn't have alot to do but they were solid except for that AJ chance and that led from an alonso error.

There seemed to be no urgency about us in the 2nd half, often just faffing around with it at the back paaing it to the goalie and back. It's a shame because Everton are a team I expect us the beat at home but it was just one of those games that didn't go for us. I'll think of it this way and say:

we're saving a big performance for Barcelona

At least this will shut up the people who bang on about the title chances. I personally think it adds uneccessary pressure onto the players if you win a game like we did against west ham and suddenly you're back in the title race. Again I read that if the league would have started in November, like last season, Liverpool would be top of the league. We'll have to make sure we start performing in August if we are to get anywhere near the title in the future.

[skipper]

Heard the match on the radio.  Very frustrating result.  Have to give the bitters a little credit for defending but we didn't exactly make things too difficult for them.  Our passing was indeed poor today and the finishing awful.  It's so frustrating that our finishing can be so good one match and so bad the next.

Since we were the heavy favorites, frustration starts to kick in late in the match and we just couldn't break down their defense.

Also, Rafa does have a tendency of hesitating when it comes to make subs.  He should be a bit more assertive and make changes quicker when things aren't going well.

Kudos to Carra for a solid game.  He certainly did his part to try to help us win, unlike Pennant, Crouch, and some of the others.

All in all, 2 points dropped but we did get another clean sheet.  Pepe's been playing extremely well and it's certainly an encouraging sign.

Still got many matches left and the players need to have short memories because the matches in February and March get awfully interesting and we still have a lot to play for.  The character of the team is depicted by the ability to recover from disappointing performances.  There are always bumps in the road but you must always walk on.