Liverpool FC Forum

by **made in UK** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:53 am

That felt like a result long time coming and boy we needed a morale boost. The biggest positive for me yesterday was the fact we were able to keep a clean sheet. I remember when Houllier took over Liverpool were a soft touch defensively. He came in and made some excellent signings to ensure we were solid at the back. Infact Houllier's success was built upon the fact he made us a resilient outfit. Rafa's current back four do not stand up man for man to Houllier's back four. But in saying that if we want to get back to winning ways our current back four and midfield must be reslilient. Yesterday we got some well overdue luck and coupled with the fact we kept out a 'gung ho' Everton side out; a foundation has been laid in the wake of the Merseyside derby. Our defence in particular and Reina need to build back up the defensive fort that we've been accustomed to in the 21st century. I have my doubts because of personel, but I'd like to hope and see that we can become a misely unit once again. The clean sheet helped and will be a big confidence booster lets pray the lads can build on that.

by **ConnO'var** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:56 am

I am over the moon that we beat the stinking bitters and right now I'm just soaking and revelling in the result. 2 good victories over the teams I hate the most.... the mancs and the bitters.

But (and I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here), lets not be lulled into a false sense of security. This result is just papering over the cracks that we have in the defensive side of our play. On another day, without the gods of fortune smiling on us, we would have lost.... make no mistake about it. But hey, that's football and today the beach ball bounced on our side.

We cannot however, rely on luck throughout the season. We still have not addressed the defensive frailties that is blighting our season. We were resilient yesterday but resilience (sp) alone is not enough. The root cause of all our defensive issues to date is not the defence per se but the ambigous(apparent) role of the 2 midfielders sitting in front of them. It is causing confusion for the defenders.... Skrtel's tendency to ball watch and Carra's recent habit of over fouling, IMO, is a direct result of this confusion in central midfield.

Our best centrehalf pairing is still Carra and Agger but Martin is not as bad as many on here are making out. With a more stable shield in front of him, he's more than a sound back-up.... something that we saw last year.

Resillience is good.... long may it continue..... but theres much more work to be done.

by **made in UK** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:19 pm

Love it

BTW good post Conn.

by **Ben Patrick** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:49 pm

Resilience is one of the main problems this season.
So it was great to see the lads battle and scrap their way to that win yesterday.
And 2 clean sheets in a row will hopefuly be great for confidence.

However its our reaction to conceding a goal thats been the most alarming thing for me this season.
In past seasons we have gone behind and then come back fighting. That has not happened this season. Heads have dropped when we have conceded and we have often ended up losing games that in the past we would have at least got a point.

by **Waldo** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:02 pm

What a difference Agger makes at the back for us.

by **Yossi_Benaloon** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:13 pm

While the result was definitely favourable, I think we still showed that there are problems in the team. We looked fragile defensively and were fortunate that Everton lacked a great goalscorer and that Reina was in top form. David Moyes was probably correct when he said here that we were a little bit fortunate to come out of the game as winners - but hopefully these little bits of luck can get some confidence into our lads and this victory can be used as a stepping stone.

by **The_Rock** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:15 pm

The defence still has problem dealing with highballs.........

But we gotta keep working hard and try to pick up as many points as possible.

by **Benny The Noon** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:16 pm

Waldo wrote:What a difference Agger makes at the back for us.

Yep spot on - helps out both with the defence as his covering is superb and also with his ability to bring the ball out is a big plus instead of it being lumped out .

by **Owzat** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:20 pm

We keep a clean sheet and now everything is hunky dory

We kept a clean sheet through luck, more than skill or judgement, Biledyatonaivjshegvga or whatever his name is should have hit the target and Beligan Fallus could have done a lot better when he had only a recovering from prone Reina to beat. And if they hadn't had three players competing to see who could be the first to be called offside, maybe they'd have got a goal or more. We could easily have conceded 3+ goals, only thanks to a bit of luck, poor bitters play and Reina did we keep them at bay.

by **Zidane** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:33 pm

And this, Saint, is what woof was talking about. It's all over the forums right now, jesus. We just won 2 in a row the confidence of the team is going to be a lot better now and maybe, hopefully we will play better next game. After the results we've been getting lately you can't expect us to come out and dominate, even less when it's a DERBY. :angry:

by **Owzat** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:35 pm

Zidane wrote:And this, Saint, is what woof was talking about.

Neither seems to have posted in this thread, so who are you talking to?

by **Fauxy** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:48 pm

Benny The Noon wrote:
Waldo wrote:What a difference Agger makes at the back for us.

Yep spot on - helps out both with the defence as his covering is superb and also with his ability to bring the ball out is a big plus instead of it being lumped out .

If Agger wasnt so injury prone he would be the ideal replacement for Carra.

by **yolz** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:16 pm

All teams need lady luck on their side from time to time
Let's not get too emotional over the fact that we've won 2 on the trot
But let's not get too critical and still dwell on the gloom
Let's just get behind the Team and finally enjoy the win that was a long time coming
And pray that the Lads get their confidence boosted and up their play a few notches

by **made in UK** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:52 am

I think I'll :bump

my own thread because it is relevent to yesterdays game.

The result wasn't what we were looking for but I think the performance was.

Going back to when I posted this thread and after a couple of clean sheets I felt that confidence was slowly creeping back into our defence. Yesterday we continued to build on that and it was essential we did in order to stop conceeding and loosing games. It was apparent from that performance yesterday the defence has gained the confidence back that was desperately needed. We were able to defend the set pieces that, have been our achilles heel for the most part of this season. Of course as the game went on in the second half the play became stretched and its always risky in open play when being counter attacked. But suffice to say I think the foundations are there more or less to now, to go out and win games rather than being so tentative in defence. It is an improvement, although Insua highlighted yesterday why I'm on tender hooks when he's playing. He is usually the player culpable of playing the oppo onside and thankfully the dilly-dallying from his fellow countryman Da-Santos allowed Carra to get back in time.

I don't know who the co-commentator was yesterday I think it was Jim Beglin, he irked me as during the first half he kept moaning about Liverpool not creating an opportunity. It was annoying to hear as we had to be wary of the fact Blackburn got a big confidence booster from beating Chelsea midweek. Our own form is still in the balance, I was actually content with our first half performance. Lets not forget though Beglin, Blackburn created feck all in the first half and they were the homeside.

Second half we upped the tempo and I expected us to do so, I was glad to see Riera come off he was useless. And just for the record I'd have Benayoun over Riera anyday of the week in my team. Gerrard became more prevelant in the second half and was much better than he was at Everton last week. You know though for all the Kuyt lovers on the board and for all "his hardwork" the bloke would struggle to trap a bag of cement and lay a good pass off. Therefore it was of no great surprise we looked toothless up top. N'Gog came on and was unlucky to score, in fairness to the Frenchman the ball did appear to bobble up as he struck it. Johnson again for me was man of the match he didn't do too much wrong and his burst into the box was excellent as was his defending. Mascharano was good he may of pipped man of the match but for some sloppy passing throughout the game.

It was a good all round performance from the lads, our fans were great I could hear them from over here in Australia! I also thought that Samba fella had a sterling performance for them.

Heads down , bums up! We need to carry on in this direction and if we do a top four spot may not be out of reach after all.

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