Figo?

Right.....we paid £14M for a substitute striker.

 

if Figo comes, here is his song:

[Kingsmen] Ah Lou--ee, Lou--iiii, OOH Fi-Go [Kingsmen]

 

It's a win-win situation for me. If he arrives at Anfield then we've got ourselves a great player. If he stays at Madrid then I get to seem him play on the 18th in Los Angeles.

 

Yeah and played him in a European tie so where ever he went he wouldn't be able to play against them, such a righteous, sincere, and trustworthy club.

 

figo works hard on pitch, unlike zidane and becks who just waits for the ball to be passed to them.

 

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i think they paid for a striker that would work hard and score goals. Cisse has shown all the skills they paid for, before the injury. since the injury, he has perhaps not been fully match fit, and his performance has been spotty. baros has been equally spotty, but he works very hard, and i think he still deserves the opportunity to play minutes. if the club wants to sell him, fine. that's a personnel decision, and i believe the club has the right to do anything that the management feels is best for the club.

i would like to see Cisse doing what he's paid to do. please remember that there was some doubt that he would ever play football again. he may never be able to perform at the pre-injury level.

he did score two against Villa, and that is an excellent sign.

 

Next season we will play Cisse up front with Morientes in behind him. That, more often than, not, will be our starting configuration at home. Away, we will (shudder) play Peter Crouch up top with Morientes or Baros behind him. The standard formation will be 4-3-2-1.

Figo, therefore, will be fighting it out with Garcia and Kewell for a slot alongside Morientes.

 

Figo is by far the most consistent real player.I dont know what real are doing by putting beckham instead of figo in the right side,but if they dont want him then we will gladly have him.We need a player who can perform at the same level week in and week out and figo can certainly do that.

 

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thanks. does that mean that Cisse won't travel?

 

If figo does play,moro would surely be the target man and either baros or cisse would play a little bit behind him,dont you think?And is zenden already relegated to the bench?Im sure rafa will give everybody minutes and we wont see the same players week in and week out,but hopefuly we can stick to a same formation for home and away games.

 

OMG, are u saying Figo would have to compete with Kewell for starting position.

If Liverpool are gonna start that useless Australian ahead of Figo, then i dont see Liverpool going too far. However, having said that, if Figo starts, alongside Gerrard, Xabi and either Garcia, Hamann, or whoever, i think Liverpool are going to have one hell of an offensive midfield. With Morientes upfront to get at the end of the crosses, should be very very good to watch.

 

I highly doubt that Figo will come here with the intention of sitting on the bench. He could do that at Real Madrid and make much more money.

 

So you are saying we will play without wingers? I don't like the sounds of that at all, nor do I think that will be the case. If he plays your formation I believe he will play one striker of either Morientes or Cisse up front, with two recognised wingers and the three in central midfield. I think that makes more sense than playing either Cisse or Morientes in a deeper second striker/att mid position.

 

No, Morientes is the neat link man - it's also clear that Rafa has accepted Morientes is not ever going to lead the line in the standard English way. Playing him deep, almost as a midfielder, is hardly an unusual way of using him - plenty of coaches, from Clamente at Spain to Deschamp at Monaco, have used him in this way on occasion.

Zenden was not an automatic starter at any rate. Plus as I said in the Sissoko thread, I smell rotation. Lots of rotation.

 

Of course - we don't have any wingers. Only about three or four teams in the world do.

 

Clearly you have a different interpretation of what a winger is. As far as im concerned substitute winger with right midfield or flanker etc. Someone that will consistantly put in crosses and run at players.

 

Yeah - a winger. Like I said, we don't have anyone like that.

 

"What we have here is failure to communicate"

 

When people think aerial ball winners they think "hoof" and automatically think Mori' will be the man farthest up the pitch. It's Mori's naturally instinct to always check back for balls played in front of the oppostions defense for him to win with a good chest trap and then for him to turn and look for shots.

With the ball in central midfield you're going to see Mori' checking back like crazy. With the ball on the wings hopefully you'll see him in between the 18 and penalty spot looking for balls to put on net with his head.

If we had signed a defender [ex:Milito] I would have thought we would have seen a lot of 3-4-1-2 <or> 3-3-1-3. Now we may still do that, with a backline of Carra, Hyypia, Traore.

We did sign Rafael Benitez as our manager. Based on his tactics and philosophies with Valencia wasn't this pretty much a given?

Squad rotation of second tier players is something we need to do to be effective in all four competitions. Which is something the fans of LFC demand.

 

theres the problem,and thats why we HAVE to buy a new CB.We cant leave hyypia as our stopper ,hes not quick enough!If we do play with 3 at the back with the players we have at the moment,then it would have to be Finnan-CR-Traore.Plus theres no way Rafa will ever take Carragher out of the center of the defence,so i doubt well ever see those 3 at the back in that formation.

 

Those three at the back [when defending in our zone] would see Hyppia falling back and sweeping or marking a large CF. Carra and Traore would pinch in and possibly pick up other forwards and advanced midfielders. In that formation Riise and Finnan would act as wingbacks who fall back into wide spaces only when necessary. It's basically like playing five at the back.

As far as "stopping" that job would be left down to the DM who at the time would be Hamann. He would be responsible for closing out any creative presence at the head of the oppositions midfield. The only thing I don't like about this is that it's questionable whether Hamann can give us enough minutes this season to be dependable.

Although with 5 "defenders" behind Didi and Alonso + Gerrard around him, he may not have to cover much ground.

 

Ok let's play the winger game. Are these players wingers?

Pennant?
Downing?
Joaquin?
C.Ronaldo?
Giggs?
Pires?
Figo?
Duff?
Robben?

I see what you are saying Matt. A lot of RM and LM no longer hug the touchlines and drift to the center.