Liverpool FC Forum

by **Rockthekop** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:02 am

We won, 3pts, next please.

Glad to see Babel got a chance on the right last night and did well. Perhaps Rafa is finally realising he needs to play there, not on the left where he doesn't seem comfortable at all, not surprisingly.

Kuyt scored but his touch let him down in a few great positions, not that it's anything new for him. Always glad to see him score, he earns it more often than not.

Lucas was well, Lucas. Very very ordinary player, but didn't do much wrong.

by **Roger Red Hat** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:06 am

Im worried about Torres. Again he looked average. hmmm, wonder if it is tiredness or theres something wrong in the dressing room? he got 3 goals in 5 league games which is ok I supppose but he needs to start looking like a threat again.

by **kunilson** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:13 am

lacklustre performance. but 3 points....crowd was too quiet for my liking aswell, even in the kop

good that we played bad and still won. kuyt probably best player on the pitch, lucas didnt have a terrible game either although he did lose the ball abit too much at times. thought riera played well and insua gave him good support, got a good engine that kid...skrtel had a more solid game too so thats good for his confidence.

onwards and upwards, need to put in a much better effort at wet ham though...

by **GYBS** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:28 am

So people mentioning lucas was oridnary and loosing the ball yet to me it seemed last night it was our skipper who was loosing the ball in midfield and not lucas .

by **kunilson** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:40 am

the skipper didnt perform too well, neither did Torres. They seemed pretty dis-interested to me from where i was sittin....benayoun blew hot and cold.

lucas showed alot of effort at times yesterday so good on him, more of that please.

by **redbeergoggles** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:48 am

Ok here's the thing ,I don't rate Johnson as a competent enough defender, the space he affords opposing strikers is alarming in the extreme and I expect Liverpool to lose a great deal of important goals this coming season ,I talk of course of his awareness in a defensive capacity ,because while it is no secret he is a formidable offensive player in supporting Liverpool's attack ,it must be said he leaves a huge amount of space on the right side often more times than not leaving Carragher and co extremely vulnerable .

I eventually see Johnson deployed in the role Rafa dreamt Pennant would fill ,and Carragher moved to right back when Agger returns ,I am usually loathe to concur with the media ,but on this occasion they are sadly correct when they talk about Johnson's deficiencies in his defensive capabilities ,last nights match made this all the more apparent ,better sides than Debreceni will arrive at Anfield with the sole intention of exploiting this .

I know its early days but am I alone in noticing how Liverpool have suddenly become more susceptible on the right side of defence , don't get me wrong I think Johnson is a brilliant acquisition for the Reds and he has excited in his attacking forays ,but come on people as Liverpool fans we take great pride in ourselves on our football acumen,and Johnson is not a defender ,I hope he proves me wrong and if he does I will have the honesty to declare it on this forum .

As for Torres I think I would have to concur with Big Michael on this one ,he needed to be rested ,its obvious his mindset is not one of football at the moment ,and in games against quite clearly inferior opposition Rafa should afford him a much needed sabbatical ,on a lighter note though, I thought Kuyt was at his industrious best ,as was the much maligned Lucas who battled well in the midfield and didn't shirk one tackle throughout .
It was also encouraging to see Aurelio make an appearance however fleeting it was ,overall I would have to say it was not a performance in keeping with our European pedigree ,but it was another win and an invaluable three precious points

by **Ola Mr Benitez** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:06 pm

I think Torres looks frustrated with the lack of service.

Did you see in the 2nd half when Kuyt had the ball and Torres was running down the right hand channel screaming for the ball.. Kuyt went the other way and Torres kicked out in absolute frustration..

by **bigmick** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:49 pm

redbeergoggles wrote:Ok here's the thing ,I don't rate Johnson as a competent enough defender, the space he affords opposing strikers is alarming in the extreme and I expect Liverpool to lose a great deal of important goals this coming season ,I talk of course of his awareness in a defensive capacity ,because while it is no secret he is a formidable offensive player in supporting Liverpool's attack ,it must be said he leaves a huge amount of space on the right side often more times than not leaving Carragher and co extremely vulnerable .

I eventually see Johnson deployed in the role Rafa dreamt Pennant would fill ,and Carragher moved to right back when Agger returns ,I am usually loathe to concur with the media ,but on this occasion they are sadly correct when they talk about Johnson's deficiencies in his defensive capabilities ,last nights match made this all the more apparent ,better sides than Debreceni will arrive at Anfield with the sole intention of exploiting this .

I know its early days but am I alone in noticing how Liverpool have suddenly become more susceptible on the right side of defence , don't get me wrong I think Johnson is a brilliant acquisition for the Reds and he has excited in his attacking forays ,but come on people as Liverpool fans we take great pride in ourselves on our football acumen,and Johnson is not a defender ,I hope he proves me wrong and if he does I will have the honesty to declare it on this forum .

As for Torres I think I would have to concur with Big Michael on this one ,he needed to be rested ,its obvious his mindset is not one of football at the moment ,and in games against quite clearly inferior opposition Rafa should afford him a much needed sabbatical ,on a lighter note though, I thought Kuyt was at his industrious best ,as was the much maligned Lucas who battled well in the midfield and didn't shirk one tackle throughout .
It was also encouraging to see Aurelio make an appearance however fleeting it was ,overall I would have to say it was not a performance in keeping with our European pedigree ,but it was another win and an invaluable three precious points

I don't think many would argue Red that Johnsons got some improving to do from a defensive viewpoint. equally, the idea of him playing right side of midfield is one which has come up before a couple of times.

That said though, despite having reservations about the manager I am very confident in his coaching ability, particularly from a defensive perspective. As such, I'm backing Rafa to help Johnson to iron out his deficiencies, although I do agree that at some point this season we are going to be left scratching our heads at his defending (which makes a change from our b0ll0cks at his attacking I suppose).

by **JC_81** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:03 pm

GYBS wrote:So people mentioning lucas was oridnary and loosing the ball yet to me it seemed last night it was our skipper who was loosing the ball in midfield and not lucas .

Are you Lucas' wife or something??

You go out of your way on here to defend the indefensible sometimes.

I can't remember Gerrard giving the ball away once to be honest. I can however remember towards the end of the first half Lucas attempting a ridiculous cross field pass that was intercepted and they broke away. Clearly embarrassed, Lucas chased the lad down and, surprise surprise, fouled him. No change there then, story of his LFC career.

by **Owzat** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:09 pm

DrPepe wrote:Meh

When you're in a team used to winning it garners a strong mentality

Watch out for Oxford United in the cup then..............

by **JC_81** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:09 pm

Overall I think most will agree that was a pretty poor performance last night.

Torres is horribly out of sorts. The question is do you try and play him into form like Rafa is doing, or do you rest him? Benitez isn't usually afraid to rest someone if he feels they need it, so Torres must be fresh enough in training these days. I'd still start him against West Ham.

I thought the rest of the team looked solid enough, they just weren't in top gear last night. Benayoun and Riera looked a threat and our midfield looks better with Gerrard back there.

I don't think playing as second striker is Kuyt's best position though, even though he had a decent game and scored. I'd have played him on the right and Benayoun more centrally. Perhaps Benitez was trying to get someone up there to take the knocks from the defenders and give Torres a bit more freedom, didn't really work though.

Anyway, 3 points will do and we move on.

by **Owzat** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:13 pm

Ola Mr Benitez wrote:I think Torres looks frustrated with the lack of service.

Did you see in the 2nd half when Kuyt had the ball and Torres was running down the right hand channel screaming for the ball.. Kuyt went the other way and Torres kicked out in absolute frustration..

To be fair he wasn't the only one, several players like Yossi and Babel went on runs with passing to a team-mate an after-thought. Kuyt is one of the more aware players in the side, I thought the whole team suffered a bit from Arsenal-esque 'walk the ball into the back of the net' syndrome. Kuyt did find himself in the corner of the area struggling to get the ball to team-mates, I think we walked too much into 'traffic' rather than open the defence up. Having the ball at your feet a few yards from goal may seem a great position, but not so much if there are half a dozen bodies in the way

by **DrPepe** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:49 pm

Owzat wrote:
DrPepe wrote:Meh

When you're in a team used to winning it garners a strong mentality

Watch out for Oxford United in the cup then..............

let's face it , we (and others) have been "done" by strong teams from the lower leagues many times in the cup.... :angry:

by **TheLad** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:01 pm

bunglemark2 wrote:The 3 points aside, there's pretty much nothing to write home about last night's performance...I reckon that must be one of the most inept performances against a Sunday league team EVER...
As one pundit said, those lads were there for the slaughter. They should've been annihilated by half-time.
And it's pretty worrting how "not bothered" both Torres and Gerrard looked last night. SG couldn't string two passes together, Torres completely off the boil....
It looks like something is preoccupying both of them at the moment.

I don't agree that SG wasn't bothered, he had many chances, got forward all the time, could have scored at least 2 easily with some luck. He wasn't playing at his best but to say that he wasn't bothered, ffs? :angry:

by **redbeergoggles** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:15 pm

bigmick wrote:
redbeergoggles wrote:Ok here's the thing ,I don't rate Johnson as a competent enough defender, the space he affords opposing strikers is alarming in the extreme and I expect Liverpool to lose a great deal of important goals this coming season ,I talk of course of his awareness in a defensive capacity ,because while it is no secret he is a formidable offensive player in supporting Liverpool's attack ,it must be said he leaves a huge amount of space on the right side often more times than not leaving Carragher and co extremely vulnerable .

I eventually see Johnson deployed in the role Rafa dreamt Pennant would fill ,and Carragher moved to right back when Agger returns ,I am usually loathe to concur with the media ,but on this occasion they are sadly correct when they talk about Johnson's deficiencies in his defensive capabilities ,last nights match made this all the more apparent ,better sides than Debreceni will arrive at Anfield with the sole intention of exploiting this .

I know its early days but am I alone in noticing how Liverpool have suddenly become more susceptible on the right side of defence , don't get me wrong I think Johnson is a brilliant acquisition for the Reds and he has excited in his attacking forays ,but come on people as Liverpool fans we take great pride in ourselves on our football acumen,and Johnson is not a defender ,I hope he proves me wrong and if he does I will have the honesty to declare it on this forum .

As for Torres I think I would have to concur with Big Michael on this one ,he needed to be rested ,its obvious his mindset is not one of football at the moment ,and in games against quite clearly inferior opposition Rafa should afford him a much needed sabbatical ,on a lighter note though, I thought Kuyt was at his industrious best ,as was the much maligned Lucas who battled well in the midfield and didn't shirk one tackle throughout .
It was also encouraging to see Aurelio make an appearance however fleeting it was ,overall I would have to say it was not a performance in keeping with our European pedigree ,but it was another win and an invaluable three precious points

I don't think many would argue Red that Johnsons got some improving to do from a defensive viewpoint. equally, the idea of him playing right side of midfield is one which has come up before a couple of times.

That said though, despite having reservations about the manager I am very confident in his coaching ability, particularly from a defensive perspective. As such, I'm backing Rafa to help Johnson to iron out his deficiencies, although I do agree that at some point this season we are going to be left scratching our heads at his defending (which makes a change from our b0ll0cks at his attacking I suppose).

I hope your right Mick ,because he could be an exceptional player with a bit of fine tuning ,I do however believe the transformation of Johnson into a solid efficient right back is beyond even Rafa's expertise .

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