Liverpool FC Forum

by **bigmick** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:23 am

Strange game and one which we could have won with a little more quality going forward. Got to say that defensively we were very good, but when you create as little as we do with as much posession as we have, sooner or later you are going to get a bad result as the defence won't keep a clean sheet in every single game.
I thought the goal was a good free-kick and obviously a training ground manoevre. The big centre-half who's name escapes me was fully aware the guy wasn't going to shoot, whereas Sami was caught a little on his heels and got wrong side. Fair play, good goal.

As to where we go from here I'm a little unsure really. Rafa persists with Morientes despite the glaring evidence that he's a shadow of the player we expected, and we as his greatest admirers await Fowler catching fire with baited breath. Cisse looks like a 100m sprinter who has never played football before in his life but who somebody thought they'd give a go to while Garcia, one of my favourite players was absolutely awful tonight. Kewell looks like he needs a rest as does Alonso who is struggling to influence games in a positive way just lately. Having said all of that, all is not doom and gloom :eyebrow

I expect, providing we pick the right team and get the intensity/tempo right for the return at Anfield that we will roll them over 3-0 or so. The first twenty minutes though will be crucial. it's gonna be a nail-biting night.

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by **murphy0151** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:31 am

Dont worry gents its only half time.

by **ivor_the_injun** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:33 am

Sod Robbie Earle - Finnan was man of the match for us, closely followed by Riise. Carra and Reina too can emerge with some credit for good performances at the back. That's about it though.

Benfica's goal was well-worked, and to be honest had been coming ever since Karagounis came on to wake them up. That said, it wasn't exactly brilliantly disguised, so quite why every player in a white shirt was bracing themselves for a piledriver I have no idea. Cisse in particular didn't exactly shower himself with glory by jumping at the taker with his back to him. Hyypia got beat by some clever movement, but to be honest we really should be dealing with situations like that. We've got such a tall team, there's absolutely no need for us to be undone by high balls into the box.

Our midfield tonight was absolutely dreadful. Yes, they controlled the first half, but that was more as a result of Benfica not pressing as opposed to them doing anything particularly incisive. All the possession we had for the first 45 was as a result of easy passes across the two banks of four, eventually going back to Reina for a punt upfield. We'll get absolutely nowhere playing like that, and we can't feel harshly done by if we're going to show that little ambition. Alonso was poor, Kewell wasn't great, Sissoko didn't do masses before the injury, Hamann was wasteful in possession when he came on...but as for Garcia - tonight really was a new low as far as I'm concerned. I can tolerate misplaced passes and showboating if he's putting the ball in the net for us, but other than some cultured first touches and the odd bit of reasonable interplay in not-particularly-useful areas, he was utterly, utterly dreadful. Some of the balls he played when we were on the move forward were so bizarre that he may as well have been playing for them. I'm guessing Rafa's given him an absolute rocket tonight, and rightly so.

The strikers had a couple of sniffs but they'll need a lot more than that to go on, and with the quality of passing talent we have in the side you'd expect a lot more than lobs upfield. You can point the finger at your front players if they're getting hatfuls of glaring openings without putting them away, but they were given so little it's hard to criticise. Cisse didn't bring much when he came on, but by then we were playing so deep and he was playing so wide that he may as well have not been there. There was an instance very late on when the ball went loose off him in the far corner, which to me looked like it was gettable given his pace, but he just turned away from it as if it was a lost cause. I don't know if anyone caught when they cut to Rafa, but I don't think I've ever seen him look so disgusted. I won't dwell on it, but it's not really the kind of attitude we need from players in situations like that.

We still haven't seen Fowler and Crouch play together, and I think Rafa may need to look at them for the second leg. I hate saying it, because we're far from a one-man team, and we've got far from a one-man midfield, but we really missed Gerrard badly, and with him hopefully back for the second leg I can see a very, very different game back at Anfield.

It'll have to be, because while they're not great, they have a couple of dangerous players, and with encouragement they can get a goal. It may take three goals at home to get through. No-one stepped up to offer us anything going forward, and that's disappointing on a huge stage like the Champions League. You'd expect your big game players to be up for a night like tonight, and they just didn't look it at all.

F*cking awful performance lads.

by **Sabre** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:35 am

To be honest bigmick, I'm usually quite calm in my reactions, but today, I'm really dissapointed. For the first time this season. But I've seen the match with crappy image, so I do not dare to speak up. I will see the match again with better quality, and post more calmly tomorrow.

Anyway I agree we may have a problem with Morientes and our strikers, but I'm not sure that it is the only problem.

by **murphy0151** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:39 am

Crouch and Cisse 2nd leg Rafa toldme after the game

by **bigmick** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:43 am

Sabre wrote:Anyway I agree we may have a problem with Morientes and our strikers, but I'm not sure that it is the only problem.

There is no may about it Sabes, we have a problem alright. You are correct though in that it is not the only problem. One of the midfielders or the wide-men, somebody has to occasionally run beyond the ball and commit themselves into a goalscoring position. If they don't, then we won't score many if any goals it's that simple.
Jeez those people on here who reckon we would still have been top three without Gerrard if Rafa had bought Essien with the money need to watch that game. Without our captain there is no drive, no pace and no clue.

by **7_Kewell** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:47 am

bigmick wrote:
Sabre wrote:Anyway I agree we may have a problem with Morientes and our strikers, but I'm not sure that it is the only problem.

There is no may about it Sabes, we have a problem alright. You are correct though in that it is not the only problem. One of the midfielders or the wide-men, somebody has to occasionally run beyond the ball and commit themselves into a goalscoring position. If they don't, then we won't score many if any goals it's that simple.
Jeez those people on here who reckon we would still have been top three without Gerrard if Rafa had bought Essien with the money need to watch that game. Without our captain there is no drive, no pace and no clue.

our strikers are awful,,,,,,,simple as that really. Morientes works hard, but is too slow...Fowler has some nice touches, but is slower than Morientes and Cisse has no first touch but bags of pace.......the only good striker we have is Crouch. :veryangry

We need 3 new strikers in the summer, simple as.

by **Sabre** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:47 am

I rate Finnan and Riise a lot, and I'm not talking about this match only, but don't you think that out L/Rbacks should overlap the wing midfielders more often?, sometimes you can do more damage in a wing with two decent players that overlap (I think this is the word) than with a Joaquin that tries always the one on one.

Gerrard class is out of the debate. He's WORLD CLASS (in the Stu sense of word), but sometimes I feel we do not try other options.

by **ivor_the_injun** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:52 am

I do like to see them go forward, but I think tonight they'd been told to play fairly deep. They both played great at the back, but they have a lot more to offer us than that.

To be honest, I don't think Garcia and Kewell gave Rafa any reason to think that allowing them to overlap would've been anything other than a recipe for disaster tonight. With passing as poor as they showed, it would've been asking for trouble.

by **bigmick** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:59 am

Yeah I think overlapping fullbacks in the first leg of a European tie with the score 0-0 is probably a little bit too cavalier for my liking. I'm sure you'll see plenty of that at Anfield Sabes.
The point about tonight though is that they look like a team who is at a low ebb confidence wise and I think we could have won by the odd goal at least, and maybe by a couple had we been more fluent. As it is, I think we will still have too much for them at home but they did get a deserved draw at Old Trafford and now they have got the result against us will come with more confidence. If they nick a goal we are deep in the sh!te and will only have ourselves to blame.

One or two have commented on Luis Garcia tonight and though I have often stated that he is one of my favourite players, he was terrible and needs a bit of a talking to methinks.

by **65-1140560321** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:06 am

I thought the defense played well.

But hoofing the ball seemed to be the tactic, and the fast attacking down the flanks by Benfica cause problems.

For some reason we were panicking and just hoofing it.

Go hope they dont bang one in at anfield. then we'll need 3!

and that is a tall order.

by **Espionage** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:33 am

I am pretty disapointed with the result but really we are still in decent shape to move on...

The thing that disapointed me was the fact that we seemed to play long-ball every chance we got.
Dont get me wrong, I understand Rafa's logic behiend resting Gerrard, playing long-ball and settling for 0-0 or 0-1 to us, he would have looked like a genius if it ended 0-0 and no body would have complained.
Rafa is sticking with our strategy from our last campaign; do not concede away at all costs. But last year we were a decent counter-attacking team. We had Baros pressuring and running like a mad man with Gerrard and Garica backing him up. With the team that we fielded today, we are just not suited to the counter-attack.
I think that Benitez is in a tough situation, should he go against the strategy that made us so sucessful or try to play the way we do in the EPL.

For the long-bomb strategy that we played, i think that Crouch would have been a better option and (as much as I hate to say it) Cisse's pace would have troubled Benfica more than Morientes and Fowler (who thrive on quality balls which usually come with spending extended amounts of time in their third (also Alonso having a off-par game didnt help).

I am still confident that we will get through, but its a risk that I think we all didnt want to see this early.

by **Sabre** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:41 am

For some reason we were panicking and just hoofing it.

Go hope they dont bang one in at anfield. then we'll need 3!

This is why I think overlapping is not that risky. If the midfielders do the cover well, it's just another option of the game. I hate not scoring away, and as we can see not assuming some risk doesn't necessarily bring the clean sheet, I'd be more happy with a 2-1 tbh.

Besides doing this gives Gerrard himself more chances, the way I see Liverpool right now, if the opposition manages to stop Gerrard (and there will always be players with good marking) the opposition has lots of the work done

Anyway, if I had to put money, I'd say we'll eliminate Benfica, Although it really concerns me not having scored away. :angry:

by **ivor_the_injun** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:50 am

We have to put them on the back foot from the first kick of the ball. If we do that, my guess is they'll end up playing so deep that their chances of hitting us on the break would be pretty much nil.

Then all we need to worry about is burying 2 or 3 goals past them.

I know they're good after the event and all, but I f*cking hate us having to rely on heroic comebacks.

by **Lando_Griffin** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:51 am

It really was a terrible game for us from an attacking perspective. We controlled the match, yet didn't have a single decent attempt on goal.

Alonso needs a fortnight off, Kewell could do with a breather, Garcia needs a kick up the ar*e, Fowler needs to keep working hard with training and Morientes needs to retire.

At the minute, the DEP decision to disallow Gonzalez's work permit is beinging to bite. I reckon we might see Riise at LM with Warnock/Madame Traore at LB in the next match. Bung Agger in for Hyypia,
Didi and Gerrard in the middle, and a freshly bottom-bruised Luis Garcia adopting the RM position.
This would give Alonso and Kewell the rest they need.

Slap Crouch/Cisse and Fowler together and we should have enough there to see off most sides in the Premiership.

Rest is required folks.

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