Liverpool FC Forum

by **LFC2007** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 9:46 pm

Ince, Dalla Valle, Ecclestone, totally out of their depth. Cole did reasonably well holding the ball up between the lines and keeping the ball moving. Mistake apart (reminded me of Agger vs Wigan), Ayala had a good game, read it well. Carra was a bit rusty but did OK. Insua was awful. Johnson was OK. Shelvey, iffy to begin with, better as the game wore on without being anything special.
Overall, not enough discipline in the midfield and not nearly enough quality up front or on the wings. I found it all very mundane tbh.

by **Scottbot** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:21 pm

LFC2007 wrote:Ince, Dalla Valle, Ecclestone, totally out of their depth. Cole did reasonably well holding the ball up between the lines and keeping the ball moving. Mistake apart (reminded me of Agger vs Wigan), Ayala had a good game, read it well. Carra was a bit rusty but did OK. Insua was awful. Johnson was OK. Shelvey, iffy to begin with, better as the game wore on without being anything special.
Overall, not enough discipline in the midfield and not nearly enough quality up front or on the wings. I found it all very mundane tbh.

Pretty spot on assessment of the game that.

by **7_Kewell** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:26 pm

Insua isn't good enough, full stop! Yes he's young, but he lacks the basics and we don't have the time to wait to see if he develops them.

by **In and Out** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:30 pm

bigmick wrote:Some brilliant football posts on the thread. To be totally honest I'm going slightly against the flow and saying I was bit disappointed with us today. I know it's not been easy as we've hardly had chance to work together, but the Shelvey/Gerrard pairing was positively shambolic at times and it should have been sorted. Given the fact that we all know what Gerrard can do anyway, I couldn't for the life of me understand why he didn't just sit in and give the kid license to get foward. I say that whether or not Roy had told him to sit, he's an experienced enough player now to read the situation and act accordingly. As it was, him and the kid were almost cancelling each other out they were so similar, and each time we lost the ball we were under threat. I know Roy is well known for having his teams play very compact, well hopefully that's what we're going to be working on from now on.

Cole also disappointed me a bit, and once more I was a little concerned with just how much license he was given to roam. I felt the same about Aquilani in the previous game, and these "in the hole" players are going to have to get it into their heads that they do actually have to contribute a little more than a flick here and a flick there. Neither Cole nor Aquilani bothered closing anybody down, both dropped extremely deep at times, and neither were anywhere near so effective as Gerrard is in there. Benitez certainly wouldn't have stood for such obvious lack of application, and IMHO at least Roy would do well to let these players know in no uncertain terms what is expected of them.

Neither of them are good enough to be carried, and we aren't good enough to carry anyone anyway.

I didn't see the game myself but your analysis of the Shelvey/Gerrard combination does seem quite critical. When things don't work out you tend to learn more from it.

I know time isn't on our side in preparing for the opening fixture of the season but Roy isn't a miracle worker. He may have to revert to playing Lucas in the middle with Gerrard to find the discipline you're speaking of in midfield.

by **bigmick** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:36 pm

In and Out wrote:I know time isn't on our side in preparing for the opening fixture of the season but Roy isn't a miracle worker. He may have to revert to playing Lucas in the middle with Gerrard to find the discipline you're speaking of in midfield.

I don't think I'ver been more depressed to admit someone is probably right mate

.

by **7_Kewell** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:37 pm

i'm confident we'll bring in another 2 or 3 players before the window ends. I imagine the Masch transfer will have a big bearing on things too.

by **In and Out** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:40 pm

bigmick wrote:
In and Out wrote:I know time isn't on our side in preparing for the opening fixture of the season but Roy isn't a miracle worker. He may have to revert to playing Lucas in the middle with Gerrard to find the discipline you're speaking of in midfield.

I don't think I'ver been more depressed to admit someone is probably right mate .

I don't think I've ever been more depressed in acknowledging the need to use Lucas.

by **metalhead** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:50 am

Its all about getting the right balance, What I like about Hodgson is that he prefers short passing rather than long ball or direct. With short passing and the right players in midfield we can keep the ball better and we can have better momentum when we go on the attack. As many have said here that we need someone who can sit above the backfour and play as an anchor role is spot on. However, this applies in our case because our defence lacks balance to be honest. We need a center back who lead the line, dominate in the air and stamp his authority (we had hyppia before). Plus we can let Agger or Carragher do their part "sweeping" and let our fullback support our attack. Our midfield is an excellent one, so its going to be really interesting how we are going to play it out with the right balance

by **Benny The Noon** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:57 am

The one thing we need to improve on from game yesterday is the passing - at times it was shocking , both short and long passes seemed to be either too hard or easily cut out , also Cole decision making when on the ball - he seemed at times to try and play the impossible ball when other easier options were available - many times we seemed to gift the ball to the opposition hopefully we can eradicate that before the real season starts which isn't too far away . Still not happy with our lack of options up front . Is insua staying now ? If so are we still buying figeroua ?!

by **stmichael** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 10:26 am

A lot of how our season evolves depends on the back 4 imo. What I mean by this is that playing Carra for example automatically means that the team sits deeper and consequently the lone striker tends to get isolated as happened too many times last season. We then struggle to get the supply into Gerrard in the right areas and he ends up getting frustrated an coming deeper and deeper to pick up possession. Of course the further up the pitch our defence plays, the less need we have for a Mascherano type destroyer week in week out.

by **kunilson** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 10:44 am

wish Pacheco had been playing this pre-season....if it werent for those U19 championships....

anyways we looked lathargic yesterday. There were some periods of decent play...signs of Cole/Gerrard were encouraging. I thought Shelvey put himself about well but as mentioned previously he is very similar to Gerrard to the point they made the same run at times and left nobody covering....

young wilson looked comfortable on the ball when he came on....ecclestone did alot of running but did not make many crucial impacts, same can be said of Ince. I think those two need to improve their decision making but that will come with experience i hope. Id like to see more of Dalle Valle...especially when we are attacking more fluently because he is a very good finisher.

Disappointed with the result, the loss of posession cheaply with misplaced passes and cr@ppy control.....but it is pre-season and im looking forward to seeing more from these players because we do look like we have the right ingredients for a decent campaign.

Id like to see improvments and quick because there's no way we can afford to start another season on the backfoot.....that would be disappointing and it would make me angry because our whole team knows how that panned out last season....the Europa win last week was well received and destroying them on Thursday at Anfield would be the perfect tonic.

by **Thommo's perm** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 4:06 pm

The new boys showed promise yesterday. The kids were overawed and lightweight. Insua was worse than last season and has to go.
Overall average. Roy has got his work cut out, that much is clear

by **Benny The Noon** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 4:15 pm

The one thing that has been poor so far in the pre season games and also in the EL game is creating goal scoring chances - seems to be very low amount we have had which isnt good .

by **Thommo's perm** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 4:19 pm

Benny The Noon wrote:The one thing that has been poor so far in the pre season games and also in the EL game is creating goal scoring chances - seems to be very low amount we have had which isnt good .

I am always disappointed with our lack of shots from outside the box. Its like theyre frightened to have a go. Or have they been told not to?

by **Owzat** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 6:51 am

I'd rather we got bodies in the box and put the ball in than take pot shots from outside the box. Let's get bodies in the box, crosses in, and then players can have shots from the edge of the box or just inside when the ball breaks loose

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