Liverpool FC Forum

by **Effes** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:15 pm

It would be daft to sell Arbeloa

by **SundanceKid** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:23 pm

NANNY RED wrote:
SundanceKid wrote:
The Manhattan Project wrote:We can get Huntelaar.

Ajax only made it into the UEFA Cup.

Sell Crouch and buy KJH

I would cut off a finger so Liverpool could sign Huntelaar

Nah i wouldnt go that far maybe a nail

Idk, which is more painful?

by **account deleted by request** » Tue May 20, 2008 7:41 am

JoeTerp wrote:
Sabre wrote:
s@int wrote:
JoeTerp wrote:
stapo1000 wrote:
Redman in wales wrote:
SundanceKid wrote:I'd like to say Arbeloa, but it's only a matter of experience. He might be skilled atthe position, but he's too young to be starting every game.

too young? - He's 25 mate

we ahould offload arbeloa. he's slow, error prone and offers nothing going forward

also our most versatile defender, capable of playing across the back 4, was the only undroppable player at the beginning of the season, and is now a full Spanish International.

Hate to p!ss on your chips mate but Carra is our most versatile defender as well as our best. Arbeloa can do a job at either full back position but as a CB he is too lightweight imo.

I agree.

Perhaps Joe's opinion is based on we have seen Arbeloa on the left aswell, but then, We saw Carra as a holding mid last season when we had our CM unavailable.

Arbeloa, who was in the Spanish ranking of playes a lesser player than Riera btw, has done a good job here and he's been useful. Still , I agree S@int on this.

Everyone would have their panties in a bunch if Carra was played regularly at RB, and I am not so sure how well he would do at left back in 2008, so I may still have you there, because Arbeloa played most of the beginning of the season at left back and most of the end of the season at right back, while Carra played about 4 times at fullback.

And if you want to get really technical with it, I guess Stevie G is our most versatile defender, he came up as a right back, and look now he can play all sorts of midfield roles too. Although Arbeloa probably is too lightweight to be a regular man in there at centre half, Rafa trusted him more than Hobbs, and when he did play, the sky didn't fall.

Anyway, the whole point is that Arbeloa DOES have value to the team and should NOT be sold. He has shown to be good enough to play RB regularly in a winning side, AND if we do bring in the top quality fullbacks, Arbeloa still has value because he can be used as cover for both right and left, and as such Aurelio and Finnan could both be let go.

Carr has played Left Right and CB for England Joe, I don't think there is any doubt (at least in my mind) that he could still do a great job there.

I do agree that versatile squad players are of great value to the team, and wouldnt advocate selling Arbeloa. Its always been one of the reasons I have always defended Riise and presumably why Barry is wanted.

As for playing Arbeloa instead of Hobbs, I think that says more about Hobbs' lack of progression more than any great faith in Arbeloa at CB.

Back on point, I think Arbeloa is great back up, but I wouldn't really want him as first choice left or right back tbh. I think we need better quality myself, whether we get better is another matter. Certainly he could do a job, but next season I think we have to be looking for that bit more, but with/if money tight who knows?

by **JoeTerp** » Tue May 20, 2008 2:26 pm

if we get all of our very strongly rumored signings AND they turn out to be pretty good we could go with:

by **Almighty Red** » Tue May 20, 2008 5:37 pm

JoeTerp wrote:if we get all of our very strongly rumored signings AND they turn out to be pretty good we could go with:

On the one hand... that's a pretty decent team. Certainly, awesome defensively. However, we're going to have the same bloody problems offensively... that Barry position would be better filled by a more attacking player to help out Stevie and Torres...

by **JoeTerp** » Wed May 21, 2008 12:24 am

Almighty Red wrote:
JoeTerp wrote:if we get all of our very strongly rumored signings AND they turn out to be pretty good we could go with:

On the one hand... that's a pretty decent team. Certainly, awesome defensively. However, we're going to have the same bloody problems offensively... that Barry position would be better filled by a more attacking player to help out Stevie and Torres...

yes it does seem to be pretty defensive BUT we didn;t have much a problem scoring in the 2nd half of this season and we really only had 4 attacking players and one of them was KUYT!!! All this system is doing is changing Barry for Kuyt which doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me as far as loosing premier league goal scoring threat, apparently these two fullbacks can attack better than the ones we have so there should be more support from outwide. Major difference is that Masch is all alone instead of having Xabi in there helping him. Well defensively he has the aid of 3 centre halfs instead of 2, and offensively he has the aid of much more advanced fullbacks that can throw slightly more caution into the wind due to the fact that there are three solid bodies in the back. Really it is very similar to our 4-2-3-1 in that there are 6 clear defending positions at the back and then 4 attackers with much less defending responsibilities. the difference is that the 4-2 is now a 3-3 and the 3-1 is a 2-2, which could also easily switch to a 3-1 with Babel on the right and Gerrard more central like this year.

Also I feel our problem this year was more to do with leaking goals after getting a lead than with the initial breakthrough. I guess you could also argue that this was because we couldn't score 2 or 3 goals and kill the game off, but there are some games where that just isn't going to happen because people forgot their shooting boots, I feel like there is NO excuse for defensive lapses.

by **cpc4eva** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:15 am

defensive lapses did cost us dearly wed get a lead then forget there was still x amount of minutes to be played and games needed to win.....

like u said its not good enough at this level to have lapses like we did it basicaly cost us any chance of making a serious challenge for the title...

perhaps changing formation after we get the lead to have 5 - 3 - 2 ? or 5 - 4 - 1 ?

by **Toffeehater** » Wed May 21, 2008 3:42 pm

NANNY RED wrote:Sorry for puttin this in here but ive been crackin up laughin someone sent me this joke

On a rare day off, Rafe Benitez was cleaning out his cellar when he came across an old vase. Thinking it was valuable he rubbed it to clean off the dust. To his surprise out popped a Genie who said, "Oh master, I grant you one wish."

Rather surprised, Benitez thought for a while before replying, "Hhmmm… I know! Since I like going to Spain to find young players I would like you to build a bridge from Liverpool to Spain since I don’t like flying and the trains are unreliable - this way I could drive."

"Oh no master," responded the Genie, "that is an impossible request, it would take the will of a thousand genies to grant you that wish - you must choose a task I can grant you."

Benitez mumbled under his breath for a bit before saying, "I have a player in my team who should score more goals, can you make Kuyt into a 20 goals a season player?"

To which the Genie replied, "OK, what colour lights do you want on your bridge."
how sad am i

by **flamingpoe** » Wed May 21, 2008 4:11 pm

if we can get arshavin he could play in the barry position!........just a suggestion!

by **Toffeehater** » Wed May 21, 2008 6:37 pm

Rafa's not even mentioned about arshavin mate , so we can keep dreaming

by **Owzat** » Wed May 21, 2008 6:46 pm

Toffeehater wrote:Rafa's not even mentioned about arshavin mate , so we can keep dreaming

That for me is what is so disappointing, I'm looking for an inspirational potential signing to be linked with us and I read about Degen, Barry and Krancjar. I want to see us linked with bold moves for Berbatov, Arshavin, Santa Cruz, Bentley or anyone like that to capture the imagination. Fair enough some relative unsung heroes or unknowns may turn out to be fantastic signings, but let's have another Torres type signing linked.

And I've now come up with a poll................ I won't continue with what I was going to

by **The Manhattan Project** » Wed May 21, 2008 6:54 pm

Bentley and Santa Cruz would be good additions. Though I doubt Hughes will sell them both to us.

Berbatov is a non-issue IMO. No chance will be join us. We'd never be able to afford him anyway.

Arshavin I'm not sure about. He looked good in the UEFA Cup, but it was only against Rangers.

Besides, Diao looked good in the 2002 World Cup.

by **SundanceKid** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:21 pm

I'm still kind of puzzled how we weren't in the title race this year. We lost stupid points in the winter. I'm sure if we just play the same way, and add a few new players, we can get 2nd place easy.

Then again I'm just comforting myself by being overly optimistic.

by **flamingpoe** » Thu May 22, 2008 4:41 pm

somewhat you are sundance.....but in respect you aint, that is a fair enough point, but we need to go out there and be confident in the transfer market, problem is the americans seem to be somewhat hesitant to do anything about it!!, from what i can see we are buying 0 - 10mil players and unfortunately it is not looking brilliant, but i just got a feeling that we might get one good signing for example last transfer window we where all worried that we were just buying loads of young excuse my language :censored:

, some even not so necessary players, but then right at the end we were rumoured to want malouda, he went to chelsea and we signed torres!, so hopefully it happens somewhat like the same as last time, besides arshavin wont sign a new contract with zenit, he knows rafa has had a consistent scout on him for the last 4-6 months and he may be looking to come to us at the end of the transfer window, cause his contract is up at the end of the transfer window.

there may be some leverage for us to sign matias fernandez, for 10 - 12mil because he wants to leave villareal because it has been stated that he wants to leave after his mentor(ish) left asin juan roman riquelme so we might just be able to stick our noses in there, and also valencia are gonna lose half theyre team so lets hope we end up with some good players from them personally i would be aiming for the wing and i wouldn't be going for silva, seeing as many many many other teams are going for him, i would be looking at joaquin and vicente, old but that way we can get on the cheap for a couple of years and sell em on for a bit of a profit if they are shizzit

by **ruskiy playmaker** » Thu May 22, 2008 5:25 pm

Has anyone seen this kid before? I only saw him a few times and I've been really impressed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_6cTsuX-XY

He'd be a useful little player, but Juve will probably want to keep him.

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