Liverpool FC Forum

by **Scottbot** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:52 am

The match kinda sums up where we are at the moment. the lads put in a very workmanlike, hard-working shift and managed to turn the game int a scrappy afair which is what you need to do against Arsenal (unless you the mancs or Chelsea). We certainly had our chances and were really pressing for it in the last ten minutes. Once again we looked organised and difficult to beat but going forward it's a struggle without Torres and Benny. I don't understand playing Maxi ahead of Riera, Rodriguez is a good player but why is the lad an instant first choice when he has clearly yet to find his feet in this league? A real head scratcher.

I'm not too dissapointed about the result because i was worried we were gonna get dicked tbh. It's encouraging to see the players working as hard as they did last night and I think a similar performance against City will be enough to turn them over at their place.

by **Homebooby** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:54 am

john craig wrote:
made in UK wrote:
john craig wrote:1 goal was always going to win that. Unfortunately they got it.

Game changed when Carra came off, we were instantly under more pressure defensively. Degen made a few slack passes and was then beaten in the air by Diaby for the goal. Great header and great cross though, not sure Carra being on would have made more difference for that.

We still could have got something out of it. Maxi had 2 or 3 really good chances from the edge of the box and seemed to shin every one of them. We looked more likely to create something when Gerrard dropped back to centre mid.

Fu.cking Howard Webb though, he bottled that decision big time. Wasn't in their box but he obviously wasn't sure and thought he'd play it safe and pretend he didn't see it. In fairness though he could have given a pen for Bendtner's...ahem ... dive.

John Degen wasn't beaten to the header, he was knowhere near it. Watch the reply as the cross came in, he started running AWAY from his marker?

Fair enough Bam, by 'beaten to it' I really meant nowhere near it. However such was the quality of the cross and the height at which Diaby met it (he's a big lad and was on the jump) it might not have mattered who was near him. Still frustrating seeing Degen's sh.ite defending of it though.

It was his running up and down the line like he was on speed that pis.sed me off though. Playing cr@p one-twos and trying to bomb down the line - he's so obsessed with getting down the line he doesn't take any care with the passes. He should never be risked again at right back, I said it before after the Fulham game.

agree on that one. It isn't often I get really irritated by one of our own, but the careless abandon he showed from the start was ridiculous. The moment Carra went off and he came on, the defense looked vulnerable and that is when Arsenal came to life and got the momentum for the goal. After the goal he settled down a little and so did the defense and they did little to bother us again after that.

by **Owzat** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:59 am

Reg wrote:Avi, the problem is we dont have a striker, you dont expect Ngog to honestly score 2 or 3 goals tonight do you?

If we lose its cos we dont have a clinical finisher.

No you're right............................................

in his last 595 minutes he hasn't scored. Babel has played just 105 minutes in the last nine games, N'Gog last didn't play a part in the villa game and the only game he played less than 65 minutes was against Wolves when in all truth he probably should have started.

I wouldn't say Rafa got it wrong last night, I think too many were carried away by a good spell of FORM in which our season's problems were still present but we got one or two 1-0s which helped - our only two 1-0s in the league this season.

Perhaps this game reflects why we're struggling for fourth and Arsenal are in the periphery of a title fight. We insist on playing two DMs all the time, maybe justifiable in a 'big game' but we showed last season that when we cut loose we get runs of wins and not this scrappy 1-0 or 2-0 mentality that Rafa seems cosy in. Again subs were tardy and in fact we didn't use them all, N'Gog hasn't gone this many consecutive games without a goal before and yet Babel can't get a look in. Sure Babel hasn't exactly bust the net from hitting it all the time, but people argued Kuyt should be dropped when N'Gog contributes next to nothing when he's not playing well.

As for blame on Degen for the goal, where was the right CB!?!? Sure it isn't up to CBs to mark midfielders, but a CB being between goalscorer and goal might have helped! Shambolic defending costing us a point, although Rafa has a new strategy for dealing with disappointing results - blame the ref/decisions. He's itching to slate the refs after matches, hiding behind 'clever' remarks about the referee being 'perfect' and other vaguely concealed cricitisms. Maybe if he tightened up his own game we'd have more points this season. We shouldn't be relying on decisions, red cards, luck, own goals etc, we should be capable of scoring two goals in more games than we do and should be conceding a lot less sloppy goals. RAFA can do something about that, the ref can't.

While some still defend Rafa to the bitter end, do any of those ardent Rafa fans want Lucas in the side every game? I've nothing against Lucas other than he isn't creative and doesn't score goals so he merely adds to an over-defensive set-up that without Alonso (and Torres when injured) doesn't work. Perhaps Rafa is like Penny in The Big Bang Theory, the 'check engine' light is flashing but she simply ignores it. The only way Rafa can check the engine of this team and get it working 'perfect' is if someone hands him a blank chequebook and even then I have doubts.

Overall the result was one of two likely outcomes, a win would have helped our fight for fourth but we need to concentrate on more winnable games. Sadly we've passed up the chance to pick up three points from such games already this season, villa at home, Sunderland, Pompey, Wolves and Stoke away to name five off the top of my head where three points might justifiably have been expected - with or without blank chequebook

by **Ciggy** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:39 am

NANNY RED wrote:Just watching MOTD an saw my bitter fat gobsh.ite of a son behind the goal., didnt even know he went

by **Boocity** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:53 am

I went to the game last night and was really disappointed, we went into the game game with the sole tactic of not losing, but not winning, playing for the draw and basically handed the initiative to Arsenal. They have just come off a run of very poor results and were looking decidedly nervous, we should have taken advantage of that.

TBH we misssed the Greek and I agree that Riera should have played instead of Maxi and I would have played Babel in place of Ngog who is just not ready to play the lone striker.

by **only me** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:03 am

Boocity wrote:I went to the game last night and was really disappointed, we went into the game game with the sole tactic of not losing, but not winning, playing for the draw and basically handed the initiative to Arsenal. They have just come off a run of very poor results and were looking decidedly nervous, we should have taken advantage of that.

TBH we misssed the Greek and I agree that Riera should have played instead of Maxi and I would have played Babel in place of Ngog who is just not ready to play the lone striker.

At this stage we don't have the players to beat Arsenal At the Emirates, Rafa managed to neutralize Arsenal by applying pressure on the midfield but it was obvious that at no point we were closed to scoring or even trying to score ,placing Riera on the bench was another stupid manager decision other then that good effort but depressing that the best we can hope for in this season is a draw.

Does it even worth asking where is our 20mil Italian?

Hope the summer sees a change in the manager box.

by **Boocity** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:20 am

only me wrote:
Boocity wrote:I went to the game last night and was really disappointed, we went into the game game with the sole tactic of not losing, but not winning, playing for the draw and basically handed the initiative to Arsenal. They have just come off a run of very poor results and were looking decidedly nervous, we should have taken advantage of that.

TBH we misssed the Greek and I agree that Riera should have played instead of Maxi and I would have played Babel in place of Ngog who is just not ready to play the lone striker.

At this stage we don't have the players to beat Arsenal At the Emirates, Rafa managed to neutralize Arsenal by applying pressure on the midfield but it was obvious that at no point we were closed to scoring or even trying to score ,placing Riera on the bench was another stupid manager decision other then that good effort but depressing that the best we can hope for in this season is a draw.

Does it even worth asking where is our 20mil Italian?

Hope the summer sees a change in the manager box.

I think we were strong enough to beat Arsenal last night, perfect opportunity. Negative tactics were our undoing

by **NANNY RED** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:31 am

Ciggy wrote:
NANNY RED wrote:Just watching MOTD an saw my bitter fat gobsh.ite of a son behind the goal., didnt even know he went

werve you been Kinell Cigg ive missed you.
He kept his mouth shut about going up the pit, nearly fell of me chairwhen i seen him with all the other mongrels, snidey get, I never seen him for 2 days since Saturday then he phones me and asked me for a loan of a few bob till he went the bank, i said to you want cash or do you wanna a kite :laugh:

by **only me** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:33 am

Boocity wrote:
only me wrote:
Boocity wrote:I went to the game last night and was really disappointed, we went into the game game with the sole tactic of not losing, but not winning, playing for the draw and basically handed the initiative to Arsenal. They have just come off a run of very poor results and were looking decidedly nervous, we should have taken advantage of that.

TBH we misssed the Greek and I agree that Riera should have played instead of Maxi and I would have played Babel in place of Ngog who is just not ready to play the lone striker.

At this stage we don't have the players to beat Arsenal At the Emirates, Rafa managed to neutralize Arsenal by applying pressure on the midfield but it was obvious that at no point we were closed to scoring or even trying to score ,placing Riera on the bench was another stupid manager decision other then that good effort but depressing that the best we can hope for in this season is a draw.

Does it even worth asking where is our 20mil Italian?

Hope the summer sees a change in the manager box.

I think we were strong enough to beat Arsenal last night, perfect opportunity. Negative tactics were our undoing

Intresting ,what would you have done to win the game?

by **Boocity** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:47 am

only me wrote:
Boocity wrote:
only me wrote:
Boocity wrote:I went to the game last night and was really disappointed, we went into the game game with the sole tactic of not losing, but not winning, playing for the draw and basically handed the initiative to Arsenal. They have just come off a run of very poor results and were looking decidedly nervous, we should have taken advantage of that.

TBH we misssed the Greek and I agree that Riera should have played instead of Maxi and I would have played Babel in place of Ngog who is just not ready to play the lone striker.

At this stage we don't have the players to beat Arsenal At the Emirates, Rafa managed to neutralize Arsenal by applying pressure on the midfield but it was obvious that at no point we were closed to scoring or even trying to score ,placing Riera on the bench was another stupid manager decision other then that good effort but depressing that the best we can hope for in this season is a draw.

Does it even worth asking where is our 20mil Italian?

Hope the summer sees a change in the manager box.

I think we were strong enough to beat Arsenal last night, perfect opportunity. Negative tactics were our undoing

Intresting ,what would you have done to win the game?

I am totally fed up with two holding midfield players, would have dropped Lucas, moved Gerrard back into midfield, put Riera on the left and played Babel and Maxi up front, my ethos is the best form of defence is attack and thats what ManU did against Arsenal and it worked, but thats only my opinion and I am not the manager so its pretty irrelevant, is'nt it.

by **Boocity** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:49 am

Boocity wrote:
only me wrote:
Boocity wrote:I think we were strong enough to beat Arsenal last night, perfect opportunity. Negative tactics were our undoing

Intresting ,what would you have done to win the game?

I am totally fed up with two holding midfield players, would have dropped Lucas, moved Gerrard back into midfield, put Riera on the left and played Babel and Maxi up front, my ethos is the best form of defence is attack and thats what ManU did against Arsenal and it worked, but thats only my opinion and I am not the manager so its pretty irrelevant, is'nt it.

Or even Kuyt and Babel up front with Maxi on the right.

by **red_guy** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:01 pm

Boocity wrote:
Boocity wrote:I am totally fed up with two holding midfield players, would have dropped Lucas, moved Gerrard back into midfield, put Riera on the left and played Babel and Maxi up front, my ethos is the best form of defence is attack and thats what ManU did against Arsenal and it worked, but thats only my opinion and I am not the manager so its pretty irrelevant, is'nt it.

Or even Kuyt and Babel up front with Maxi on the right.

spot on.

by **heimdall** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:03 pm

Ok I missed this match :sniffle

what is the conclusion, were we unlucky, were we too negative, were we just not good enough etc?

by **Scottbot** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:19 pm

heimdall wrote:Ok I missed this match what is the conclusion, were we unlucky, were we too negative, were we just not good enough etc?

The last one is on the money.

by **bunglemark2** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:28 pm

FFS...this guy heimdall doesn't watch the games, and yet comes on here day after day and winds people up no end....What is it with this tulip ?
G'wan back to your fishing, sunshine...

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