Liverpool FC Forum

by **LegBarnes** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:07 pm

I been thinking about alot of things since we got done 3-1.

One thing has come to mind over and over agian it's maybe just maybe we are playing above our station do we expect to much to soon ?

I meen It was clear to me we have been in quite good form as of late untill wensday night , One might say its the best we have played in over 18 years.

But I am feeling more and more we are just in great form and our base level is still some way of the other top 3.

I feel we have a strong spine in our team great passion but as it showed vrs chelsea you need more then just a great spine and passion.

The key thing that showed it self was how good chelsea are in wide areas and it pointed out how much we are lacking in those areas.

Yes of course on there day we have great wide players but those day seem to be few and far between much of the time we have to hope gerrard , torres or alonso have great games to pull of a result.

We have made improvements in those areas riera on his day is class , no doubt now and agian babel can shine as can benny or even kuyt but I can't help get the impression they will never be week in week out performers.

Then I move onto our full backs who are not very consistent , arba has good days and days where he is always out of position as can doss or fabio.

I feel we really need to work on this areas more then any thing as they are key to our sucess in future challanges.

People are saying we need a 2nd striker in the summer I would say we really need a better RB , LB , RW more the any thing else.

What do you all think ?

by **Sir Roger** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:28 pm

I think the players weve got are fine in comparison to any of the top four.
But only if they play to their potential. You cant beat madrid, united and villa soundly with those players and be :censored:

. No way. What was missing from tuesday was the attitude and desire. The mentality seemed different. The motivation was missing. We crumbled basically. Hopefully we tw@t blackburn and get that self belief back.
Then...who knows?
:;):

by **tubby** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:46 pm

Our first 11 is not perfect but as we can see we can beat anyone on our day. The problem lies when we rotate. We do not have the same strength in depth as the other top 4 teams. This is where we need to build on in the summer.

by **GOAT** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:48 pm

You say we're some way off being as good as ARSENAL??

by **tubby** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:02 pm

I think they have more creative players capable of scoring goals than we do. We are too 1 dimensional in the sense that we only have 1 established striker (Torres) and 1 midfielder (Gerrard) who can on a regular basis score. When either or both of them are out we look like we do not know what to do or how to create goals. If we had more atacking based players we might be able to kill of the lesser teams which proved to be such a pain this year.

by **The Good Yank** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:06 pm

I think it's just a matter of depth. Is it reasonable to expect the top notch performances for a solid month from the same starting XI, on two fronts, and not expect there to be a drop off?

This club has shown to a great extent that they can beat the top clubs in both Europe and the Premiership consistently. But in order to do so the starting XI needs to be fit. And if there are any injuries the defense needs to be absolutely spotless. Something that occured in both winsearly in the season against Chelsea and the Mancs. Defense first won those two matches with an early lapse against the Mancs allowing Tevez to score the only goal allowed in those two fixtures. The second win against Chelsea and the win against Real Madrid away were both of the smash and grab variety.

Were the wins prior to the International break marvelous? Of course they were. They were achieved by having the best XI Rafa could put out on the pitch and playing an agressive style of football.

The match against Fulham, with a midweek QF upcoming was something that worried me, not in that I didn't think we could get the job done, but the manner of which the job against Fulham was done. Some minor changes were made, but the main core of excellent players were needed in order to get a result against a mid table team. Not enough depth in the squad to allow players who had just played two matches for their respective nations a break, and get a result.

What then was to happen in the CLQF vs Chelsea? Well again, the same cast of characters, with a couple of minor changes, were called upon again, without significant cover. Chelsea were without there first choice RB, his cover netted two goals. Drogba was a questionmark prior to the match. If he was unable to go, they had Anelka waiting in the wings.

It's my opinion that the first choice XI at Rafa's disposal needs little tinkering. That said, one of the mains problems is that there really is no tough decisions to make regarding the first choice squad. The only debatable one being Agger or Skrtel. Quality in depth is needed, not only for competition in both the league and the Champions League, but also at Melwood. A player, no matter how great he is, has little incentive to strive to improve if he knows his place in the team is already secured. I'm not saying this as a knock against the work ethic of the team, I'm simply stating that the motivation is much greater if there is competition for very high stakes, and I think you'll all agree that there is no higher stake for a professional footballer than to lose his place in the side.

by **JoeTerp** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:14 pm

Torres has been injured for much of the season and somehow we still score more goals than all the other teams

by **tubby** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:22 pm

JoeTerp wrote:Torres has been injured for much of the season and somehow we still score more goals than all the other teams

That may be true but did we score in all the right games? If we had we would dead set to win the league. You cannot just look at the number of goals and say we scored more than everyone else so we have no problems in attack. What about those games where we couldn't find a goal?

by **Lando_Griffin** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:24 pm

The Chelsea result was down to the fact that we're concentrating on the league, and Chelsea played above themselves.

Let's not forget that we've beaten them twice this season. And Man Utd.

by **tubby** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:40 pm

Lando_Griffin wrote:The Chelsea result was down to the fact that we're concentrating on the league, and Chelsea played above themselves.

Let's not forget that we've beaten them twice this season. And Man Utd.

Do you think that latter fact perhaps made the players a bit complacent?

by **LegBarnes** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:03 pm

GOAT wrote:You say we're some way off being as good as ARSENAL??

In wide areas yes I think you seemed to have missed my point as in I am not saying the wide players are not good players I only saying they are no very consistent not as much as others players in prem.

They do have good days and runs of form but no where near as consistent as you need to be I feel.

Tho this year some of them have improved I feel to ask them to improve any more it's touch and go.

by **LegBarnes** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:06 pm

The Good Yank wrote:I think it's just a matter of depth. Is it reasonable to expect the top notch performances for a solid month from the same starting XI, on two fronts, and not expect there to be a drop off?

This club has shown to a great extent that they can beat the top clubs in both Europe and the Premiership consistently. But in order to do so the starting XI needs to be fit. And if there are any injuries the defense needs to be absolutely spotless. Something that occured in both winsearly in the season against Chelsea and the Mancs. Defense first won those two matches with an early lapse against the Mancs allowing Tevez to score the only goal allowed in those two fixtures. The second win against Chelsea and the win against Real Madrid away were both of the smash and grab variety.

Were the wins prior to the International break marvelous? Of course they were. They were achieved by having the best XI Rafa could put out on the pitch and playing an agressive style of football.

The match against Fulham, with a midweek QF upcoming was something that worried me, not in that I didn't think we could get the job done, but the manner of which the job against Fulham was done. Some minor changes were made, but the main core of excellent players were needed in order to get a result against a mid table team. Not enough depth in the squad to allow players who had just played two matches for their respective nations a break, and get a result.

What then was to happen in the CLQF vs Chelsea? Well again, the same cast of characters, with a couple of minor changes, were called upon again, without significant cover. Chelsea were without there first choice RB, his cover netted two goals. Drogba was a questionmark prior to the match. If he was unable to go, they had Anelka waiting in the wings.

It's my opinion that the first choice XI at Rafa's disposal needs little tinkering. That said, one of the mains problems is that there really is no tough decisions to make regarding the first choice squad. The only debatable one being Agger or Skrtel. Quality in depth is needed, not only for competition in both the league and the Champions League, but also at Melwood. A player, no matter how great he is, has little incentive to strive to improve if he knows his place in the team is already secured. I'm not saying this as a knock against the work ethic of the team, I'm simply stating that the motivation is much greater if there is competition for very high stakes, and I think you'll all agree that there is no higher stake for a professional footballer than to lose his place in the side.

But did we not have our starting 11 FB's and wingers on pitch and they looked very poor.

I meen you could take route like lando said about them not to worried about it due to league but come on this is rafa's no1 objective no matter what you say he wants this every year.

I feel unless we get a few top class FBs in team we will never be able to hold good enuff form to win the prem.

I hope I am proved wrong.

by **The Good Yank** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:35 pm

LegBarnes wrote:But did we not have our starting 11 FB's and wingers on pitch and they looked very poor.

I meen you could take route like lando said about them not to worried about it due to league but come on this is rafa's no1 objective no matter what you say he wants this every year.

I feel unless we get a few top class FBs in team we will never be able to hold good enuff form to win the prem.

I hope I am proved wrong.

I don't think at all that they did not want to win that match. And yes, the starting FB's and wingers were on the pitch. The hole created by Mashers absence cannot be overlooked either, so actually the first choice XI was not on the pitch. Not that I'm trying to use that to explain away the loss.

And I agree with you about your point about the FB's. I just happen to think that our first choices aren't too shabby. It's the depth that is what hurts.

by **LegBarnes** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:45 pm

The Good Yank wrote:
LegBarnes wrote:But did we not have our starting 11 FB's and wingers on pitch and they looked very poor.

I meen you could take route like lando said about them not to worried about it due to league but come on this is rafa's no1 objective no matter what you say he wants this every year.

I feel unless we get a few top class FBs in team we will never be able to hold good enuff form to win the prem.

I hope I am proved wrong.

I don't think at all that they did not want to win that match. And yes, the starting FB's and wingers were on the pitch. The hole created by Mashers absence cannot be overlooked either, so actually the first choice XI was not on the pitch. Not that I'm trying to use that to explain away the loss.

And I agree with you about your point about the FB's. I just happen to think that our first choices aren't too shabby. It's the depth that is what hurts.

Well I can't remember one clear chance they made up middle every thing possitive they did seemed to come from wings.

I did feel tho Alonso had a pretty poor game by his standards his pass was ok but he didn't really create alot.

But I guess you could say that was just down to the teams movement.

by **tubby** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:51 pm

Here is an example of our weakness.

"Gerrard will be carefully managed through the remainder of the season". If he were to tweak his groin again do you all still think we would be turning over teams the wy we have been? We need more creative attacking players.

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