Liverpool FC Forum

by **Well Red** » Thu May 24, 2007 2:04 am

Positives to take from Athens 07:

*UEFA will surely never again be allowed to allocate tickets so poorly and unfairly.
*Anfield has become a fortress again and, because of this, we've become the team to fear in Europe alongside Barcelona.
*Mascherano is absolutely world class. Marked Kaká out of the game.
*Pennant is starting to produce Liverpool-standard form and he's young enough to be able to develop into a really top player.
*Alonso finally showed signs of rediscovering his world-class form
*Harry Kewell is back
*It's now painfully obvious that players like Zenden and Bellamy are simply not good enough to play for Liverpool. Queue long-overdue exodus of players this summer; Cisse, Paletta & Dudek amongst others. Good riddance.
*This is the first season since Owen left where we have finished without a big trophy win to smokescreen the fact that our attack is impotent. Finally, we've reached a summer when we can no longer shirk away from this fact any longer: We NEED a world-class FINISHER. Eto'o, Villa, Van Nistlerooy, Tevez, etc. Players like Crouch & Kuyt are support strikers - nothing more than that - and we haven't had a quality Finisher at the club since Michael left.
*Rafa's sat down to discuss summer plans with the new chairmen so Hicks and Gillette will be willing to splash more cash this summer because we evidently need strengthening. Had we won they might have not been able to see where problems with the squad lied.
*We still dont support Chelsea.

Any more positives to take from this?

by **mungi** » Thu May 24, 2007 2:18 am

i actually dont think pennant had a ggood game. his crosses were poor and rarely beat his marker 1 on 1. he only looked good becasue milans mid is very narrow thus allowing him space to move

by **LFC2007** » Thu May 24, 2007 2:19 am

I'm not sure these points are exactly positives from Athens, most of us recognised them well before then.

Likewise I think Rafa, Gillett and Hicks are savvy enough to know exactly which areas need strengthening and the corresponding budget to meet those needs. Athens is no somokescreen of our need to improve.

The problems within our squad don't appear in one game they have become apparent over the whole season, win or lose in Athens, Hicks and Gillett woul have backed Rafa in his plans.

Have we ever supported Chelsea?

The positives from the game for me are:

1) Controlled the game
2) Mascherano's performance
3) Tactical wit from Rafa
4) Showed immense heart and courage despite going a goal down.
5) Controlled their key players.
6) It's no disgrace being beaten by Milan given we played better.
7) The game emphasised how much we lack cutting edge up front, and to a degree on the wings.

In terms of Rafa's tactics DURING the match, I agree that he could have made a change to two up top a little earlier, but with hindsight it is a lot easier to judge. I'd also say we didn't get enough shots off, I also think Alonso could have supported us more in the latter stages by getting in the box, for me there were not enough bodies in the box when crosses were delivered.

by **yckatbjywtbiastkamb** » Thu May 24, 2007 2:39 am

any time that you dominate a game against an a.c milan side that took the p1ss out of united home and away i think you have to praise our manager.
if he would have played it differently who`s to say we would have played as well as we did.
we lost a game due to a deflected free kick, before that we had the game in the bag, milan were that rattled by the pressure we applied up the field they couldnt put two passes together.
we made united look like knobs.

by **Keris** » Thu May 24, 2007 5:25 am

Liverpool just lack quality in parts of its team. True, we dominated the game for periods of time, but I was just aching for that quality final ball, or 1-2 to unlock that 'old' milan back four. That is what frustrate me the most. Hopefully things will change in the summer and I'm sure it will.

Onward and Upward. Bring on the silly season :laugh:

by **112-1077774096** » Thu May 24, 2007 5:29 am

we can blame the deflected free kick, or we can blame the second goal on us pressing, but at the end of the day we never scored more than them, and that has been the problem too many times this season, goalscoring or lack of it.

i am not a big fan of playing one up front, as pointed out it leaves us short up there, too many times there is nobody on the end of crosses and then pennant gets slated as though it was a bad cross.

anyway positives, mmmm, well we showed again that we can perform with a full strength team, but we have already shown that this season so nothing new there.

i have to be honest guys last night was a shock i really did expect us to win the game, i was looking forward to seeing us run at their aging defenders and putting them under pressure, we just didnt do that and it cost us the game, once again poor finishing and poor play in the final third cost us, it could have been changed earlier by rafa and i think that extra spark that could have been delivered by bellamy and crouch up front could have turned the game in the secong half, when you play against pace you need to sit deep, milan had the freedom of the stadium as they only had to worry about kuyt who spends more time in midfirld than he does upfront.

so positives, yes like i say we showed something, and we also showed that some of our players just dont cut it, this biggest thing i can see is that we know we need to change and now we have the money to do it

by **mungi** » Thu May 24, 2007 6:21 am

next summer we shall win the treble:;):

by **Sabre** » Thu May 24, 2007 6:31 am

So, positives, right?

* we played very well a formation that we haven't used much, and that was the only answer we had in order not to be spanked and outnumbered in the middle like United was.

* Our collective game was better.

* Our younger players earnt a lot of experience for the future, not everyone of them had played such a final.

* The whole world sees us a great team now, not a team that reached the final through luck and passion. The best players of the world will fancy coming to LFC.

by **bigmick** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:08 am

Well I thought there were many positives but I can't help thinking that not for the first time, as I wasn't privvie to the commentating on SKY the way I saw the game is a little different from many.

The most glaring example of this was the performance of Kaka. Many on here have claimed he was "in Mash's pocket" and the like, but I have to say that from where I was sitting he probably had the biggest impact on the outcome of the game out of all the playes on view. He won the free-kick for the opener, opened us up with a beautifully wieghted pass for the second, was wrongly given offside when clean through one on one, and came within a whisker of feeding Inzaghi in about five minutes before the second. We kept him quiet for long periods but unless I was watching a different game to everyone else, it was he and not the striker who won them the cup. A fantastic footballer of that there is no doubt.

by **garcia123** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:12 am

there are so many positves mascherano amazing
pennant improving
gerrard carra signing new contracts all we need is a top striker

by **bigmick** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:20 am

Anyway positives.

1) We showed once and for all that we are a very good team indeed. I won't re-visit the rotation issue here but we showed that we are easily good enough to challenge for the league title if we actually pick somewhere near to our best team (which doesn't mean the same eleven players every week) in all of the games.

2) Rafa showed once again that he has no tactical equal when it comes to europe. He completely outsmarted their bloke (who's name escapes me surprise surprise) and had we showed just a little bit more composure during our dominance while it was 0-0, we would have brought big ears home again.

3) Daniel Agger. I thought/think that he is a quality young centre half and for me he showed it on the night. Controversial this but I thought he marginally outdefended Carra on the night and there will be many more big occasions in a red shirt for the Dane. That said and as an aside, I thought Nesta was brilliant on the night and kept them in it first half.

4) The players. Is there a safer pair of hands than Reina when his confidence is up? Carra is carra, Agger is on a steep upward curve, Masherano and Alonso are quality, Gerrard is Gerrard, pennant will get better and Dirk Kuyt is playing while safe in the knowledge that his old man will pass away any day now. Crouch although unlucky not to figure for longer showed he belongs in this company, and Zenden has played his last game in a red shirt. Things is looking up all round if you ask me.

by **Sabre** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:29 am

bigmick wrote:Well I thought there were many positives but I can't help thinking that not for the first time, as I wasn't privvie to the commentating on SKY the way I saw the game is a little different from many.

The most glaring example of this was the performance of Kaka. Many on here have claimed he was "in Mash's pocket" and the like, but I have to say that from where I was sitting he probably had the biggest impact on the outcome of the game out of all the playes on view. He won the free-kick for the opener, opened us up with a beautifully wieghted pass for the second, was wrongly given offside when clean through one on one, and came within a whisker of feeding Inzaghi in about five minutes before the second. We kept him quiet for long periods but unless I was watching a different game to everyone else, it was he and not the striker who won them the cup. A fantastic footballer of that there is no doubt.

I think he made a great football match too. Playing the position he or Gerrard play is difficult. You receive everybody's pressure there. Have no time, and have no space. Yet, he managed to be crucial in the game. World Class player.

Mascherano did a great job, but diminishing the harm that Kaka did was up to all the team , IMHO.

by **puroresu** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:02 am

mungi wrote:i actually dont think pennant had a ggood game. his crosses were poor and rarely beat his marker 1 on 1. he only looked good becasue milans mid is very narrow thus allowing him space to move

Agree. Pennant was allowed plenty of space yet his final ball was poor. The pass to Gerrard in the first half was shocking.

I'm not convinced Pennant is the answer on the right side. His performances have improved from the garbage in the 1st 6 months but are they at a level which is required? I dont think so

by **Owzat** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:06 am

The positive is we were Milan's equals and we now know that attack is where we need to focus in the summer. I like Kuyt as a player but if Rafa got rid of Bellamy, Kuyt and Crouch then you could understand why. I'll forgive the defence their frailties, one of the best players in the world and Inzaghi running at you is bound to make you nervous. We also need to sort out the wide positions, I'd keep the likes of Pennant but we do need an alternative on the flanks so these weaker links aren't our best option

by **SouthCoastShankly** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:10 am

mungi wrote:i actually dont think pennant had a ggood game. his crosses were poor and rarely beat his marker 1 on 1. he only looked good becasue milans mid is very narrow thus allowing him space to move

Your an idiot.

I don't know what everyone else thought but I 100% agree with Rafa's selection of Pennant. Pennant looked confident and was creating enough to have two markers on him most of the time. He was my man of the match in the first half.

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