Liverpool FC Forum

[LittleHobo]

ratings for me

martin......6.....nothing to do

finnan.....7.......best right back in england

palleta....5......utter garbage...the new ayala....dont think so...get rid

hyppia......6....average

insua....7.....reminds me of harkness mixed with stig inge bjornabye

benayoun.....7.....good energy and flair

sissoko......7........looked good again

leiva.......6........doesnt look brazilian to me, not much ability

leto.....7.......looks like he has some potential.....nice pace, nice touch

crouch.......6.......not sharp, needs more games

torres.....8......looked a class apart

[red37]

Leto looked very much at home for the most part and impressed me. Benayoun showed some deft touches in and around the box and played a sublime through ball for Torres to finish. Which he did with consummate skill.

Insua, was another who appeared to hold his own (albeit) against inferior, at times dogged opposition. Babel, im not so sure of yet...there are positives, yes. But nothing outstanding from him as of yet. Sissoko was his usual rangy self, breaking up and distributing (better today) service around him.  Leiva fared well in a largely untroubled midfield. A useful backup. The rest were all solid enough, the usual suspects unsurprisingly so.

Palletta though....i fear for.

All said and done, at times there was some neat interplay and an obvious leaning towards a short-passing, quite technical way of finding the nearest red shirt that hasn't been all too familiar of late. And you could tell that the likes of Gerrard and Alonso weren't present spraying 30 yarders here there and everywhere. Still, its nice to see a different dimension to our style...one that will be refreshing to see implemented. On the subject of service from deep, Crouch did look the worse for wear at times and offered the bare minimum it has to be said.

Overall, another fitness boost for the lads ahead of a more testing game on Sunday. Which is what they are ready for now, particularly defence wise.

[Paul C]

Fookin hell guys, you depressing sometimes!!!

Rafa played quite a weak side and we still played good football, some of the passing and moving was very good, we passed the ball really well.

No Alonso, Riise, Reina, Agger, Pennant, Kewell or Voronator who will all be starters in the coming season.

Paletta (no excuses for him), Leto, Leiva and Insua are new or young.

Try and be positive please 

[Ciggy]

Fookin hell guys, you depressing sometimes!!!

Try and be positive please 

Positive Paul?
No one is positive because everyone knows Rafa is going to rotate and tinker again and I will personally give you my 4 bed house if he doesnt.
I am not positive about the new season everyone should be jumping through hoops that Torres has signed but no one is I wonder why?
Because he is going to rotate again and make whole sale changes I feel it in me bones.
I pray to god he wont this season but FFS 45 players now he is going to do the same again.

Dont get me wrong I love him as a manager I couldnt thank anyone enough for 2005 but I pray to god we can win away from home more than Bolton this season because we had the same results as them away from home.

Its not good enough, we want goals, we should be killing teams off, feck this negative aproach.

Go for the jugular.
And we better beat Everton in the derby.

[Paul C]

Fookin hell guys, you depressing sometimes!!!

Try and be positive please 

Positive Paul?
No one is positive because everyone knows Rafa is going to rotate and tinker again and I will personally give you my 4 bed house if he doesnt.
I am not positive about the new season everyone should be jumping through hoops that Torres has signed but no one is I wonder why?
Because he is going to rotate again and make whole sale changes I feel it in me bones.
I pray to god he wont this season but FFS 45 players now he is going to do the same again.

Dont get me wrong I love him as a manager I couldnt thank anyone enough for 2005 but I pray to god we can win away from home more than Bolton this season because we had the same results as them away from home.

Its not good enough, we want goals, we should be killing teams off, feck this negative aproach.

Go for the jugular.
And we better beat Everton in the derby.

Ciggs I understand where your coming from as I agree on a lot of those points but do you not this that weve been more attacking/positive in the pre season games, as confirmed many times we don't know what Rafa is going to do come the start of the season and maybe thats the reason people are starting to get pi55ed off?

I'm sure come next Saturday we'll see a different LFC line up and formation:

Reina

Finnan Carragher Agger  Riise

Benayoun Gerrard Mascherano Alonso Kewell

Torres

[lfcwonderboy]

Goals
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-VK1gkkYTyA

[The Manhattan Project]

Good to see Torres get his first.

Nice goal from Stevie G too.

[hello_red]

Cheers for the link, was working during the match! Good goals, liked Torres goal. Simple but effective!

[joko]

this is the best pre season match since rafa came i believe. it was a lovely link up and touch given many players are newcomers. alikes of leto and leiva looked like last season players. babel and benayoun looked improving, torres scored, gerrard returned genius, finnan stayed humble hero.

vs portsmouth was another, but remember the line-ups were the stronger ones; bremen was another, but voronin took more credits for this.

i'm optimistic for this season.

[NiftyNeil]

I don't understand the negativity towards Crouch. A few people have said he didn't look interested. I thought he linked up well with Torres and as usual, he didn't hide. I don't think he looked that sharp though, but then again, he hasn't played as many pre-season games as some of the others.
Palletta, once again looked shit. I suggest Rafa loans him out for the season to a Championship club where he can get a season of first team English football under his belt. If he hasn't shown drastic improvement by the end of the season, he needs to go. As it stands, he is a danger to us with him in the team.

[FRfanatic]

this is the best pre season match since rafa came i believe. it was a lovely link up and touch given many players are newcomers. alikes of leto and leiva looked like last season players. babel and benayoun looked improving, torres scored, gerrard returned genius, finnan stayed humble hero.

vs portsmouth was another, but remember the line-ups were the stronger ones; bremen was another, but voronin took more credits for this.

i'm optimistic for this season.

Best game so far but also the worst opponent so far.
2 outstanding performances for me Yossi and Gerrard.

Looking forward to tomorrow

[woof woof !]

Man for man we were superior to the oppositon in all departments, winning by just two goals was disappointing .

Hardly what I would call a good "team" performance, there was a distinct lack of "understanding" between some elements of the team but thats not surprising given the starting line up.

On a positive note , there were  some good "individual" performances from the likes of Torres, Benayoun, Sissoko , Finnan and some very promising displays from others notably Leto and Insua .

[lakes10]

oh by the way i forgot to say....can we sell palleta....or can we just give him away, he still looks c*ap

[Ola Mr Benitez]

Do you think Palletta is related to Titus Bramble??  They have very similar positional sense!

[LittleHobo]

i think he should be giving hobbs more first team games in pre- season

palleta looks a lose cause to me

yesterday he was up against real awful players and still looked terrible