Liverpool FC Forum

[drummerphil]

Here here, Sean and Woolly, Benitez wll analyse this game bit by bit and make the lads take not of lapses and poor misses.. hope he lashes Cisse for his shockng performance and miss, time to get shot of, defo

hes not the only one either.

[el_stinger]

Once again Mike "The Rat" Riley makes a controversial decision in awarding a free kick in the dying minutes which, arguably, was very soft. Thank you for ruining my day, and making me lose money, you little rat faced pr1ck!

[The Manhattan Project]

Man Utd can celebrate like they've won a cup final. We don't need to, because we actually did win the cup final last year in Istanbul.

The facts paint a good picture of LFC, bar the result of course.

- We controlled the game for the most part.

- It exposed the need for a clinical striker. If we had one, we would have won the match.

- We are still clear of Spurs and Arsenal.

- We are only four points behind Man Utd with two games in hand, and there are many games left to play.

- It's only our third defeat of the season. Last season we were fighting for fourth, this season we're fighting for second, which shows the amazing progress we've made under Rafa.

- We went to Man Utd's own ground and largely dominated, and were beaten by a last minute goal from a set piece. We weren't crushed or intimidated. We never looked in danger of crumbling.

All reasons to be positive in our outlook for the forthcoming games.

[stapo1000]

A few thoughts on today's game:
Our own performance was very good and typical of how we've recently approached big games like this. Solid at the back, plenty of posession and created enough chances to have won the game. Yes, we were the better side and we did deserve something from the game. But, deserving to win the game just isn't enough. You have to be able to finish the chances you create. Only a few moments will arrive(ie. cisse's chances...)when these chances come along and you have to be able to finish them off. imo it's our lack of experience in these big games that cost us 3 points today and manure's killer instinct from having been involved in so many of these games over the years that won it for them.This experience will come to us over team- The squad is still a work in progress and not quite the finished article yet.

The performance was great though and its great to see us better manure's performance at castle greyskull. Rafa initially had planned to turn us into a team capable of winning the premiership in his 3rd season and from my point of view and looking at the progress we've made we will be exactly that.

Cisse's performance for me was the last straw. I know plenty of you may call me fickle but the fact is he's seldom shown the abillity to be a top striker in england. He panics in front of goal, looses the ball too easily and doesn't show any intent by chasing down defenders. There are plenty of strikers out there who we can move for in the summer and i think rafa should and will do so.

Alonso was sheer class today. He showed once again that when it comes down to the big games he has the bottle to stand up and be counted. His passing was assured, defensively he did so many favours for the back four and got some crucial bookings. His foul on giggs which saw him booked just highlights his footballing intelligence and ability to make big decisions at key moments. That foul was well worth swapping a booking for. If he hadn't committed it we would've been in big trouble.For me he was our best player today.

Any of you watching motd2 will have seen graeme le saux make the point that the fact kromkamp had only come on meant that he was flat footed and thats why he let ferdinand in. Spot on imo, wouldn't blame kromkamp there.

I'd also like to mention that gary neville is, in a word, a c*nt. He incensed the liverpool fans when the mancs scored and should be delt with. That sh*t's not needed in the game. That show of 'professionalism' just highlights how good a role model he is to kids and why he is justifiably the most hated man in the red half of liverpool. I also was disgusted at how much time rooney spent bitching to the ref for no good reason. It didn't what way the decisions went he just went up whinging like a pussy. That should also be dealt with by refs.

YNWA

[Lando_Griffin]

can't believe we lost, just can't believe

feck off manc

oops, maybe I made the wrong smiley. Still losing to mancs yet again in the injury time, can't stop laughing 

F*ck off you Manc b*stard, and take your whore-slut mother with you. 

[Lando_Griffin]

I don't know if anyones mentioned this, but check out the match report on ceefax (p.303).

Rudolph's assisstant (that pile of sh*te ex-Real Madrid boss Queirez(sp?)) has, I kid ye not, stated publically that he and red nose chose to allow LFC to appear to dominate the game, rather than us just being better than them.

Can you f*cking believe it!?! Does this stump of dessicated horse droppings not realise that he looks like a complete and utter fool?

I will have to paraphrase - "We employed tactics that made it appear that Liverpool were in control. Our tactics worked perfectly."

Your f*cking damn right they did, you f*cking fartbag. We absolutely hammered them. (But it was all because they wanted us to.) A-f*cking-hem.

[A.B.]

I read those comments and almost fell out of my chair. Who is he trying to fool? We had them on the ropes for almost the entirity of the second half, it wasn't until the last 5 or 10 minutes that they managed to stay for more than 30 seconds in our half.

[112-1077774096]

I don't know if anyones mentioned this, but check out the match report on ceefax (p.303).

Rudolph's assisstant (that pile of sh*te ex-Real Madrid boss Queirez(sp?)) has, I kid ye not, stated publically that he and red nose chose to allow LFC to appear to dominate the game, rather than us just being better than them.

Can you f*cking believe it!?! Does this stump of dessicated horse droppings not realise that he looks like a complete and utter fool?

I will have to paraphrase - "We employed tactics that made it appear that Liverpool were in control. Our tactics worked perfectly."

Your f*cking damn right they did, you f*cking fartbag. We absolutely hammered them. (But it was all because they wanted us to.) A-f*cking-hem.

hilarious, also the plan to come bottom of their european group so they can concentrate on the league is working great. they also allowed keane to leave in the knowledge that in fact flatcher is 20 imes better than keane but they first want to lull everyone into a false sense of security by making us think he is sh1t

[114-1134093424]

[alilo]

do u have the Video of the man U GOAL 

[66-1137139704]

wot we lacked was a striker(baros?) to finish off the game.

[TheoRacle]

I've just spent the last couple of hours refraining myself from kicking the dog,getting p!ssed,or having a sh!t in my neighbours garden (man ure fan).I've tried to reflect on todays performance and a result that beggars belief.Firstly lets take the rose tainted glasses off,today we didnt play well.I agree we were better than Man utd were,but we didnt play well in vital areas.
This Man Utd team is the worst i've seen since the days of Ron Atkinson and they have major problems firstly repeating the success of the 90's but attracting and keeping players there in the years to come i.e. rooney.
To be honest i only ever thought that they were a possible great team between between 1997-2000 and success before that was very nip and tuck and sometimes lucky unlike the Great Liverpool teams between 1975-89.
Anyway back to today Stevie G,Alonso and Sissoko were off colour today in a game where the utd counterparts were in inferior.Yes we controlled possession but 70 percent of our passes forward were wasted and only once did Stevie hit a defence splitting pass which was up by Cisse but i will get on to him in a minute.It was great having the lions share of the possession but passing it sideways and back for 5 minutes and then finishing off with a hoof up the field that either went out of play or straight back to them was never going to achieve anything.
We needed cool heads and intelligent play in the middle and today we got neither which was a crying shame considering the quality of the midfield in opposition.
Up front we are poor yes i know we have just won 11 out of 12 games but unless our captain gets us out of trouble we are averaging one goal every 9 chances not good for a premiership team let alone a team pushing for the top 3.We have been fortunate that when we have won games our determination and keep football especially at home has got us out of situations.
We need a quality finisher ala Rush,ala Fowler ala Owen ala Aldridge  you get the drift because the four we currently have wont get thirty goals between them if your honest.Cisse is awful and cant trap a bag of cement and his off the ball running for an international forward is disgraceful he needs to go.Nando hes had a year now 0ne goal every 10 games not good enough another one who needs to go.Crouch i would keep i had a gripe about him but the lad can play a role i.e the john toshack role.
Sinema needs for chances and more football he does have it him in,but overall we need that killer finisher in the box.
Yes i'm disappointed and yes we were better than Manure today but hopefully this has opened a few eyes that this Liverpool team has a few steps to make yet but i'm sure under Rafa it will come.
In defence we looked steady again but time and time again when Riise and Carra got the ball they just kicked it into the stands , out of play or to a man utd defender we really need to sort out our distribution and final pass.
Anyway although i'm upset over todays performance i would rather be sitting here reflecting on how we were the better team but lost,than out celebrating a very average and lucky team that are on the way down.
We have won 18 titles,we have won 5 european cups and we have a pedigree that Manure can only dream about.Rafa will get it right but today highlighted that we have a way to go yet............

YNWA

Agree with you totally Drummerphil - this is what I said on CGGY's "warnings there' thread...

I dont normally rant but - it's been building up since about half time (got up at 0530 local time to watch a recording of teh game before work) and I've got to vent my frustration at what I reckon was a very dissapointing display all round.

Perhaps my expections have been built up too high because of our recent run of results (I'd say form- but I reckon we've been lucky on a few occaisions - I'll elaborate later) but todays match put an end to what little (if unrealistic) hope I had of being close if not challenging Chelsea come the end of the season.

Lets face it, even if we hadn't succumbed to a jammy goal in injury time, we would have just got held to a draw by a severely depleted Manc side. Without a midfield of any note, no Scholes, Ronaldo or Heinze and with Giggs playing out of position, a FULL STRENGTH Liverpool side hardly caused Van Der Sar to break into a sweat!

Where's Stu the Red's player ratings thread this week? Nobody for me warranted higher than a six - I take that back, the back four plus Reina all played well IMO but after so many clean sheets you've really got to have a shocker to upset me. They certainly kept Van Horseface and Shrek quite but with no midfield to speak of their supply was cut of to begin with.

Our midfield were OK but not their usual excellent - against a cobbled together Scum midfield they really should have had a field day. I didn't notice Kewell and Gerard swapping flanks so effectively like we've seen in the past few games, the killer ball from Alonso just didn't materialise and Sissoko wasnt really effective for me either.

Unfortunately, the less said about the final third the better. More unfortunately I'll not listen to my own advice and rant anyway!

There's no point in pumping balls through to Crouch on the edge of the box if no one is going to support him. Cisse just doesn't seem to get the idea of running off him properly and Crouch for all his 'good touch for a big guy' wraps is patently not a goal scorer.  Morientes was anonymous and Pongo perhaps should have had more time.

Worryingly - all four of our strikers were used against probably the shakiest Manc defence for years and Van Der Sar had f'uck all to do!

I was a detractor of Crouch's and am still not entirely convinced - though I must admit he's worked tirelessly for the cause and has contributed well in other games.  I've also supported Cisse and Morientes in coming to grips with the EPL and Rafa's plan.  But mostly I've argued that we have not taken our chances at the rate required to be at the top of the ladder.

When you have a day like today when the rest of the team are playing 'ok' but not exactly inspring it becomes evident that a striker's primary objective is not 'to link up play' or 'tracking back' it is putting the bleeding ball in the bleeding net!

RAFA WE NEED A STRIKER!!!!!!!

With Chelsea dropping points earlier in the day, this has got to go down as a massive opportunity missed.  I really feel that the gaping hole up front is the limiting factor in our progression to date.  Rafa's system is fantastic and is proven to work in most situations but who can argue that our inability to convert chances hasn't cost us now.  The longer Rafa takes to procure a striker the more concerned I get.  If nothing eventuates in this window (which I doubt it will) are we going to pay through the nose after the World Cup?  Will Rafa unearth some previously unknown talent - if so he'd better be bloody good - it will only have taken Rafa 12 months of searching to find a player that 'fits his system' (excuse my sarcasm) - or will we make do with our current 'strike force' for another season?  If so, 2006/2007 will not be the season we roll over Chelsea.

[matrix]

some great posts in this thread...i think what really hurts today is losing to united is the worst thing in the world did we ever look like losing no, but im proud of our team and what rafa has built, it will be a testing time for us now..we must bounce back straight away...rafa after the game said this was not a setback we have 2 games in hand !!!  i think rafa really rates his side now if only we had an elite goalscorer time will tell 

[dawson99]

im gutted we lost but in all honesty because of how we have performed in this season i can live with this defeat, altho it is very bitter. we can bounce back from this and show exactly what we are made of, and im sure now that we will.
in rafa we trust (dont mean to pile on the blasphemy)

[RedorDead]

Yeah a pretty gutting day all round yesturday wasn't it? With Chelski slipping up it would have been a real morale booster to get one over Utd and really cement our case for second place and even make Chelsea look over their shoulder. The problem was it was Man Utd.....our biggest rivals for some 15 years now. These games used to be classics and real passionate affairs with players doing everything to win....that has somewhat changed now though I feel. While the teams still have a rivallry and the fans certainly feel very passionately the teams are now less concerned with winning and more concerned with not losing.
The two games this season have been absolute stale mates with the teams cancelling eachother out. Chances have been few and far between and while we dominated possession and had control in midfield yesturday we didn't really create many more chances than United did. It reminds me a lot of our games with Chelsea over the last two seasons in the league and cups, very cagey, no teams out playing the other and a goal here or there winning it. While it is disappointing to lose such games I don't think we should over react. We weren't our best yesturday I agree but circumstance often disctates that, not a lack of passion or form or ability.
Comments have been made about our strikers and I guess one could argue that a more accomplished finisher would not have squandered the chance that Cisse had from 5 yards out but these things happen and I think yesturdays result is as much about bad luck as any lack of quality up front or anywhere else. We did go to sleep for their goal and it is hugely frustrating, a minute earlier we had a free kick in a very similar postion which sailed out for a goal kick. Nonetheless we did control the game and out played United and this is cause for optimism. If these two teams play this way from now til the end of the season I am sure we will be the ones in second and not United