Liverpool FC Forum

I hope Mr.Houllier starts todays game with the side that will play Chelsea next Saturday.I think it's important to have a settled formation going into your first league game.Chopping and changing for every friendly can be disruptive.It's a certainty that Owen & Heskey will kick-off together,simply because Emile is on a scoring run.The keeper has to be big Chris Kirkland for me.The defence to start,I guess,will be Carragher,Henchoz,Hyypia and Riise.Midfield four,without Gerrard and Hamman,is a hard choice but I'll go with Smicer,Murphy,Kewell and Le Tallec,although I reckon Houllier will start with Biscan.We are so lacking in central midfield cover that a swoop for Sean Davies of Fulham would have helped,even if only for a short term.
     I'll be their this afternoon to welcome in the new season to come.Looking forward to it but it's going to be really hot on the pitch,could affect the way the game is played(slow & stop).

I had big hopes for this season but today was a throw-back to last year.We kicked off with 3 centre-mids playing why?Gerrard was trying his 60 yard cross-field passes why?sorry Michael Owen made himself a chance from one mis hit pass.Biscan played why?Granted he had a half decent game today,perhaps Igor can win a place in the first 11.We need a centre-half who will dominate the defence like a true leader.Things came to life a little when Diuoff,Baros and the 2 french kids,Pongolle and Le Tallec came on.Overall I came away,glad to have been their as always,but with a sense of de ja vu especially when you here Houllier claim we could have won 4-2 or 5-3,please do me a favour;they were technically and physically well ahead of us.On the bright side,Chelsea are probably as disorganised as we are,here's hoping.I hate being pessimistic,thats not me  but I wasn't filled with optimism arriving home after today.Couple more beers,a few more days go by,we thrash Fleetwood Town and Bob's your uncle we are world beaters again.

Well what else did u expect?Miracles?. Sorry to say but moses can no longer part the red sea.And u should love ur club but! not at the price of blind faith which so many do unknowingly including myself admitedly sometimes.I remember when Kevin (campbell) scored for the bluenoses against us and one the game, i cryed drunken tears of sorrow even though we played cr#p.So i know what optimism is like, we need to be stronger as people who love OUR team and take a stand for what we believe in and not show blind faith any more to people that use it to thier advantage like GED so we connot move onward and upwards....

It wasn't a great performance and it didn't fill us with confidence for the forthcoming prem kick off but it is difficult to analyse a pre-season friendly! Ok we didnt match them for technical ability and maybe we didn't show enough commitment to win every ball and win the game but nobody can ask for 100% commitment in a friendly played in 104 degrees heat - the disappointing thing was the continuous giving possesion away and each attack breaking down due to lack of control or bad passing, (i'm sure this can be worked on). . .but the openings we did make, more so when Baros, Diouf, Le tallec n Pongolle came on we looked quite dangerous. At the moment i think we're all living in hope that the football is going to be of a higher standard and the creativity is goin to flow. If we get that right and the effort and commitment is at least trebled for the Chelsea game we'll take the 3pts.

I find it quite interesting that for all the accolades our defence receives, nobody seems to realise how wooden legged sam hyppia is or how slow our defence is on the whole. Close analysis of ball playing from the back suggests that we (liverpool) are one of the few top teams who cannot play patiently across the back. Any fan watching in the last few years would be hard pushed to say they weren't afraid of any pacey forwards our defence have had to deal with. The stubborn nature of our manager is well documented, but the fact remains that overall we are a slow team and present day football is very quick, especially in the premiership. It can be argued both ways as to whether Michael owen is the best player in the liverpool side, but I am sick of hearing how he has to feed on scraps from bad service. Do the naems Van Nistelrooy, Henry, Ronaldo, ok! Ronaldo is in a world of his own, however this does not excuse the defficient areas of his game, like finishing outside the box, strength with back to goal, vision to see a pass, all traits which so called world class players have. To finalise; i find it highly unfair that just because England is in need of a good goalkeeper, it seems to be at the expense of Jerzy Dudek. Admittedly Chris Kirkland did very well and was unlucky in sustaining an injury last season. However Jerzy' mistakes are long gone, he has been playing well and is still a better keeper. By the way, if anybody has wondered why liverpool don't seem to have the style, control, technical abilty etc as other top teams in the premiership, it is because Mr highway (typical bootroom mentallity) chose not to opt for the new brazilian way of coaching taken up by every other club in the premiership - what a suprise! We have some problems which are more serious than they look, but as fans we hope that oneday our faith is repaid ps. I hope Chelsea don't gel instantly, otherwise we will be on the receiving end of an embarrassing scoreline. 

owen does lack in ball controll but so did gary lineker and ian rush, great goalscorers are not always great "footballers".
i think owen performed a minor miracle in getting the amount of goals he did last season. when he goes to real madrid because he cant cope playing with this mob he`ll outscore ronaldo and raul.
there are some new faces but the styles the same.
i had hope when we signed harry but our pre season performances have been awfull. lets not kid ourselves we are not going to metamorphisize into a attacking unit come sunday.i love lfc as much as anyone but if that side who played last saturday win the prem come next may i will show my a#se in w h smiths window the following saturday afternoon.

You won't be able to show your a#se the following saturday because we will all be in Cardiff for the Cup Final.You'll have to wait until England come home with the European Championship Trophy.

so in your honest opinion as a fan who`s watched footy for years you reckon were going to do the double?

Not to go on too much about Michael owen as he is a very good player. The point is that yes he is a great goalscorer but so is Van Nistelrooy and Henry except they have much more to their game so why do i not see any improvement. Both Van and Henry carry their teams at times but you cannot honestly see Michael scoring a goal outside the box or even hitting a pass over 15 yards. He is supposedly our best player, although i personally think it is Gerard is far and away the best. Our lack of world calss talent is evident to everyone. Man UTD have at least 5, Arsenal 5, Chelsea 8 or 9 even though its early days for them and then there's us with 2 1/2 maybe 3. The answer is clear as much positive energy from all our fans may just turn our just above average team into a world beating team. Think Positive.

and england win the euro cup,nah It's only a pipe-dream.If you read other posts I've got us down to come in 5th,if we're lucky we might steal 4thbut then football is a funny old game!