Liverpool FC Forum

PabloAimar wrote:

HantsRed wrote:

PabloAimar wrote:ballack should not hav been red carded

   I thought it was a pretty clear red card

be realistic. as happy as i was to see him off - he deserved a yellow and no more. his eyes were fixed on the ball and he was just late and clumsy.

PabloAimar wrote:its not as bad as everyone's making out.

chelsea at stamford bridge and everton at goodison are never Guaranteed points at the beginning of the season.

we WILL hammer them at anfield and im sure man utd and/or arsenal can take away 2 points from them in a draw at home, thus eliminating the ENORMOUS 5 point gap

ps. andy gray is a nob

PabloAimar wrote:its not as bad as everyone's making out.

chelsea at stamford bridge and everton at goodison are never Guaranteed points at the beginning of the season.

we WILL hammer them at anfield and im sure man utd and/or arsenal can take away 2 points from them in a draw at home, thus eliminating the ENORMOUS 5 point gap

ps. andy gray is a nob

I agree that the league isn't over yet but it is getting harder by the game with the last two results. Man U and Chavski cetainly don't look untouchable and are capable of dropping more points during the season. The fact remains though that we must start picking up points and our play HAS to improve and quickly.
I haven't bothered to read through most of this thread as I got sick of some of the really negative feedback that was being posted.
I am not deluding myself that we were simply unlucky and we are still in with a decent shout of the league. Our chances are diminishing by the game currently and many more of these negative results are gonna have us struggling for a champions league spot never mind the title. However we haven't had the easiest of starts with 3 out of 4 games away from home and two of them at very difficult grounds to go so early in the season. Still our performances could've been better by a country mile in some cases.
Clearly our form needs to improve and the rotational policy isn't helping and I think an astute manager like Rafa will now realise that he needs to settle on his strongest 11. Hopefully come wednesday we'll see a core side of todays team with one or two changes (i.e.Gerrard moved to CM) and either Speedy or Aurelio in at LM assuming Riise is still injured.
All w can do for now is put these bad results behind us and get behind the boys and hope that they deliver teh 6 points that we must have from the next two games to get us back on some sort of track. 

Gaunt wrote:Can't believe people are already saying Rafas no good, talk about a knee jerk reaction.

red37 wrote:i thought the defence at least looked solid today. its little point in calling JC or Reina for the goal...it was just a sublime strike, nothing more could have been done. (if there can be any criticism of it, that can only be that carragher was a bit outmuscled too easily as the cross came in). apart from that, both he and daniel agger had the two chelsea forwards in their pockets most of the game.

fwiw reina was hardly put through the grinder either...

the problem obviously lies in creative attack and the execution of the two or three chances you can reasonably expect to earn during a game at this level.

it isnt made any easier by the capacity of our best player being wasted by having to compensate for all and sundry in nigh on every position across the park, in order for anything to materialise...gerrards versitility is possibly his weakest asset in some bizarre way.

for me he must play central  -AGAINST QUALITY OPPOSITION-  of course, by all means use him tactically to create/negate the opposition in other areas if necessary...but have him do it where he actually hurts them, not aids their cause. there is enough 'muscle' if you like behind stevie to allow him the freedom to roam and cause havoc supporting the attack from deep. not from the flanks. (the likes of zenden cannot do this the same for my money).

that isnt to say he cant do it, we know he can. but there are so many facets of his game being sacrificed for the ineptitude of other components of the team needing a helping hand.

that brings into focus the wide areas. the supply simply isnt good enough. yes there maybe numerous being crosses swung in, at least a damn sight more than last term. but they either 'bounce' off crouchy's head, or worse yet, fail to clear the first man. pennant is great at controlling a moving ball and bombing on. but time after time he fails decisively to go round the marker, opting instead to either cut inside then lose possession, or, launch the early bomb into no-mans land.

equally the feed from out left is sadly lacking. for all the industry from fabio aurelio, he doesnt half seem to have little end product. as for mark gonzalez you can only assume the rigours of top-flight premiership football are beyond his scope for the time being. which doesnt exactly come as a big surprise, bearing in mind the hype the poor lads received based on half a dozen good performances for RS. a lot of faces (including me) expected, or at least hoped he would be the improvement needed. he could still be. although for my money he'd be bringing quite a bit more to the table than the current options do. though whether gonzalez will get the chances at the moment, thats a different tale. lets hope he takes any that do come. (lets face it we've waited long enough for him)

but certainly from rafa's perspective these possibly are the reasons behind the 'shoe-horning' of gerrard, quite simply because the midfield seems capable enough of absorbing the skippers abscence to allow him to provide enough ammo from the width of the pitch. because, the occupants of those positions are, to put it politely...not having the best of times!

there lies the problem for me.  central midfield may well be able to operate without gerrard in it, defensively.  but for the time being, are having some difficulty in taking on the mantle a player like gerrard gives going the other way..offensively.

especially and partcularly against the stronger teams... he is just one less headache for them when deployed outside the mix.

fwiw i honestly think we could have salvaged something from the game had it not been for the switch. but you know what, i dont blame rafa...he can only spread his strengths so thin over a football pitch. if anything it highlights the gaffers courage. albeit not of his convictions, but of necessity.

in summary, this wasnt exactly a banker anyway. so losing, although a hard pill to swallow, isnt the end of the world.
neither is it the evaporation of our title hopes...yet.

but its clear that work must be done to link the midfield up better with the strikers. and that means steven gerrard in his most effective role.

plus points from the game: Agger/ JC  and the drive and energy of sissoko and gerrard. added to the enthusiasm and determination of kuyt and to a lesser degree bellamy (today, not so much of a threat)

and when you speak of those above, youve got yourself the spine of a team as strong as any out there.

for the others, well i thought alonso had a better game today than of late. finnan was his usual unfussed self, without straying too far from the comfort zone. and warnock fell foul of the yellow card courtesy of your friend and mine...

as for newcastle at home....the perfect opportunity to get this show well and truly off and running.

Red Soul wrote:Lady Luck bumped into us on some rundown Cockney street today and stole our watch, our wallets, and three points.

First off, I thought we pretty much battered the gimps over the 90 minutes. People think our forward play is uninventive and lacks ideas - take a look at Chelsea, where an attack usually means hoofing the ball to Dogbreath, who will then squat over it and start flexing his shoulders like Hulk Hogan posing for his fans, until he manages to push the ball into the path of Fat Frank, who's steaming towards the box at roughly the speed and weight of a buffalo stampede. It invariably bounces off his chubby shins at high speed, and then all it needs is a technically perfect course correction from a defender's buttocks and it somehow comes to rest in the net.

At around 70 minutes Robben comes on, they hoof the ball up to him and stand round politely applauding when he performs a stunt from his favourite episode of Jackass should any red-shirted player in his half of the pitch make the mistake of sneezing in his general direction. Fat Frank wheezes up to take the free kick, still recovering from his earlier bout of running, and spazzes the ball into the blue yonder, unless of course he manages to hit one of the defenders in that sweet spot between the cheeks which carries it over the goal-line. Shevchenko ponders the meaning of life, does several Sudoko puzzles, wonders why Chelsea bought him, and wanders off the sidelines to play pattycake with Tiger Woods.

Do you know how close we were to winning this match?

*holds fingers about three inches apart*

This close.

If Kuyt's thunderbolt had been an inch lower, it would have spanged off the underside of the crossbar and be lying in an impact crater a foot or so behind the goal-line. They'd probably still be digging it out now, and pointing Geiger counters at it.

If Gerrard's healthy smack had gone an inch or so to the right, it would have flown past Cech like Superman with diarrhoea. He could have pulled as many Howard the Duck Quack-Fu flapping moves as he wanted, he wouldn't have kept that bad boy out.

If the ball had been an inch or so lower when Kuyt took a meaty swing at the damn thing after it squirted out of the penalty box, we'd have had three goals and Cech would be minus one head. Kuyt would have stuck his fingers in the blood jetting from the stump, and incorporated some impromptu LFC warpaint into his goal celebration.

Three frigging inches.

Our boys did good today. I don't think a single one of them looked out of sorts today, and I like the way Sissoko looks at a Chelsea player with the ball as if they just molested his dog. God knows what sort of training regime he's on, although I'd guess that it involves tying him to a stake in the middle of a field and not feeding him. Perhaps they get Academy youngsters to dress in the shirt of the next team we're going to face, and they eat cheeseburgers just out of his reach. They probably lob half-bricks at him too, just to really piss him off.

Alonso looked better than he has done, although his distribution wasn't quite the masterclass he usually treats us to, it was in no way bad and he performed his defensive duties superbly.

Pennant looked good, always managing to find space on that right wing, and providing a good outlet on the few occasions we were really under the cosh. He's also got an excellent first touch, and I think in this match he sprayed in roughly four times the amount of crosses we had for the whole of last season - I'll have to check Carling Opta for confirmation.

Stevie showed us what we already knew - that he can play just about anywhere on the damned pitch and do a very good job. Not as good a job as he can do in central midfield, granted, but still an excellent player no matter where you stick the man.

Defence looked solid today, with Agger especially looking hotter than Satan's ballbag. Central defence is one of the hardest positions a youngster can come into, as a lot of the game there is based upon positioning and experience, but somehow 21-year-old Dagger has strolled into the position and quietly growled to the Premiership, "Put the word around, I fancy meself and I'll take the lot on yers". Blinding. Finnan was just Finnan, which is good, Warnock looked a bit shaky against Doggy early on but seemed to have mostly got a handle on him as the match went on. Aurelio came on for him, and I thought he had a decent game - one inch-perfect sliding tackle in the penalty box comes to mind.

Kuyt and Bellamy look pretty damn good together, don't they? Kuyt worked hard as seems to be his trademark (rumour has it that his training sessions involve him being loaned to farmers to plough their fields) and Bellamy cracks me up, the angry little goblin. Once he starts getting a feel for offside traps, and Kuyt starts to get an understanding of where he's running so he can slip him an early ball, we're going to start seeing mucho goals from these two. They're not scoring freely yet, but it's the first few dates for these two. Gives them time to get to know each other, snuggle up in front of the fire, perhaps hold hands a little. You don't want to rush it, because you want it to be special. Don't worry folks, a few more games and we'll be seeing these two going fast 'n' nasty on the pitch.

And finally, Ballack should have been sent off. He's German, but not a cool German like our beloved Didi who smokes loads of tabs and wins us Champions League cups. He's one of those horrible ones you see on Eurotrash, dressed in a nappy and getting spanked with a wooden spoon by a former Czechoslovakian teeny-pop star. He just had a swift flashback, and he didn't see Momo outstretched on the ground, he saw a pasty 20-stone dominatrix with greasy hair demanding that he trample her thighs with his sexy studs.

Pervert.

And it was a good goal by Dogboy. So good in fact, that I'm going over to his house at about 2am when he's asleep, just so I can drape my naked, sweaty balls across his forehead.

Another brill post