Oh my god!!!! what a load of shit I watched. Liverpool should offer Kewell a contract about 10,000 a week, after sitting on his fat arse for 3 years he would turn it down and be in Newcastle before midnight. (He's a nice guy but is not Liverpool standard) Kuyt is the invisible man, he is on comparison with that joker johnson down the road. Who is that man Alonso? he is a completely different player to last year and even the start of this year. In Rafa we believe is now getting hard to swallow, I don't want to knock the manager, its not the Liverpool way and support means support, but Kuyt and Kewell being picked for league games is a joke. Rafa please don't lose the plot and give the british media their headlines that they want and have been trying to achive all season. Something is missing in the team and adding new players won't cure it, it is called heart and wanting to play for the Liver bird on your chest, I saw very little of that last night.
Roy, for all his single-mindedness, would certainly see that we are lacking in attack. Gandalf, Red, a couple others... good on ya for mentioning support play as well. When you watch the Gunners, watch the movement off the ball, then watch ours. Part of the problem there is we don't pass quick enough. Players stopped making clever runs into space when players stopped looking to make quick, short passes.
I'm really tired of the Kewell bashing and I'm even more tired for having to come here and defend him. It just seems a mindless tirade against him. Kewell was poor, let's that get out of the way, but he was not even close to being as poor as Yossi "I hardly got in the game" Benayoun, Dirk "I can't touch a ball without it turning to shit" Kuyt, Fabio "I love giving fouls in terrible dead ball positions" Aurelio, Xabi "I forgot how to pass" Alonso... At least 5 players were worse. Now, I'm not going to lengthen that rant because it really isn't worth it...as Kewell was crap too. Not much defending that. But our problem is...we don't play football. Full-stop. I keep hearing how this squad is better than our others...that's tripe. We used to play football. We used to have one touch, fast, movements across and through the field. Now we cannot hold the ball in the opponents half. Now, we really DO just kick it up. It really IS "a shit on a stick". The only plays that looked dangerous were the link-ups by Kewell and Torres. That's it! Everybody is in a rut and thinks scoring a goal, at the expense of passing it to a player in a better position, will alleviate him of responsibility. Players shooting at SHITE angles. Players not passing the ball around to create space for OTHERS. No off-the-ball running. We can't hold onto the ball long enough to give our defense some breathing time. And some, if not a lot, of this has to come down on Rafa's shoulders. Is it actually the plan to have Carragher loft the ball up for a hail-mary like attempt? Even with 30+ minutes left on the clock? How do you justify putting a player like Kuyt on for 90 minutes when he did f-all. I mean, he didn't even lose the ball after getting it into a good place. He just lost the ball or slowed the play. I don't care what people say, put Crouch beside Torres. People keep bitching about how they get in each other's way...what?! You mean more than Kuyt does? At least Crouch is a threat when we're just lofting it up. He even has better footwork than Kuyt and, dare I say, looks faster too. This team needs to learn how to play the ball on the ground again. To move into spaces and create a pass for others. The team DOES have the technical ability. Alonso, Gerrard, Benayoun and Kewell...don't tell me these players don't know how to pass. Something's goin' on...but it isn't football.
A fair point. Not only that, we'd have to winning during that "poor spell". Frankly, I just want us to win the next match and let other teams get on with their business.
maybe due to the fact that Rafa won't allow our players three steps outside of their "zones" during a match. look at arsenal or chelsea or man u...their attacking players are constantly moving all over the pitch. ours don't leave their 3 yd wide patch of grass.
Is that really true? I know it certainly looks as if the shackles are on but I wonder how much of this is simply down to the lack of confidence on the ball from key players.
The points some of you have made about a lack of creativity and running into space are well taken. Make some runs BEFORE the player on the ball sees you -- not after. He'll find you. And if he doesn't, so what, at least you've made some space. Run!
It seems to me that Liverpool have been spoiled by their ability to hit shot from outside and lack the short-ball game needed to change pace. Do you put that on the coaching? http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/soccer/blog/
I think the one great failing of Benitez has always been our style of play, we have never rarely had one. when we have had success its generally been a hop skip and a jump getting there rather then a casual walk, or a sprint. Houllier had a style, sure it was ugly, but never the less if was a style the team stuck to, unless the other team was particular poor then we tried to be abit daring, it also had its failings too, but anyway. So what is it that Benitez team does well? well the defence for most is pretty solid but apart from that, there isnt that much, for all his ugly football Houlliers team spear headed by Owen had one of the best Counter Attacks going, it was a great weapon, now we have far more weapons in our arsenal (no puns) they just seem to dont work, jam to quickly, not the right ammo, or no one knows how to use them properly
and you could reasonably argue that the defense is 50% Houllier and 50% Benitez. further, i think Houllier knew his options better than Benitez does. just for kicks, i went thru stats on soccer365, and what i found out is that Liverpool is notoriously bad at coming back when losing at halftime, except for 2004 - 05, when the Reds gained 11 points from 13 games when they were down after 45 minutes. now, it's not good to have been behind in 13 out of 38 matches after the first half of football, but it shows a lot of resolve. in most seasons, fewer games behind, but only two or three points gained, all draws. this season, the Everton match was won after being down 1-nil, but there were no goals from open play, just 2 PKs.
I think thats due to a number of reasons: 1. We don't neccessarily have the players to play a "certain style". Cisse was one type of striker, Morientes was another, and Torres etc. To play a particular style you need players that compliment each other, in other words, players that have a similar style and can adapt to each other. It seems like we have a collection of players that really don't fit that model. Whether that is because they aren't naturally good enough or simply because they can't adapt really makes no difference since the end product is a team that lacks chemistry. 2. Formation/Tactics. Rafa can be a great tactician but his formation changes a lot. I don't mean rotation, I mean playing a player like Gerrard in a supporting striker position. This changes what happens offensively and whatever system players had down before is again altered with such a move. And when you have players that are out of form or tactically lost and unable to string passes together properly its not going to help anything. 3. We need a core group of players that are always going to enforce that certain style. In particular, I am talking about an offensive group of players that represent that certain style and are largely responsible for it. Our offensive core is made up of Gerrard and Torres only. Everyone else is inconsistent, injured or out of form. I'd like to see a consistent core of players. Then again, this is a project in the making and I think Rafa made the right steps in getting this team going and creating a style. He now needs to get players that compliment Babel and Torres's style of play and integrate them into the team alongside Gerrard, Mascherano etc.
I was trying to be positive Of course realistically we have to try and get 4th, but you can always hope.
Ohh the Humanity. 7 Freaking seconds left in et. so many players are off the boil from where they were/could be. Before he got hurt last year fabio was starting to settle in pretty well, now hes got me pining for risses steady defending! i said ! WTF? rubbish. our whole left side is in the shitter unless you count babel as a lw. at this point we're pretty close to tear it up and start over. The whole right side is only marginally better. In the middle xabis been slow to come back to form and mash is a defender foremost. up front kuyts still attending his fathers funeral and it looks like crouch and veronin are pallbearers. How can so many wheels fall off so many wagons at the same time ffs. Our only current problem areas are r and l d, r and l w, the middle and forward. (takes deep breath) "We got the best gerrard in the world..." Can you just imagine if sami haddnt upped his game this year? imo hes been MOTM for about 5 games running hes played fantastic ball for quite a while now. freaking disaster otherwise too. Ahh well, im an optimist by nature so i will just figure this to be one of those cyclical dips that life brings on and look for the upturn to happen soon. hopefully, really really soon. fa cup or bust lads. Bring on Keano.
FFS...im sick of people commenting on the situation when they know nothing and make up BS. This time...ex-red Steve McMahon attacking Rafa's ability and decisions. This article doesnt deserve its own thread but it frustrated me that much that i had to post it. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...all.html?in_article_id=511606&in_page_id=1779 I will correct his idiotic points:...Ronaldo has been rested for 2 games and for 'big games' our best players have been playing. Xabi has been injured most of the season and SG has been playing with Masch for most of the season...when he was injured, he played with Momo or Lucas, or against Hammers, Masch was suspended...thats a forced change!!! About the spine of the team...Reina, Carra, Hyypia, Gerrard, Masch, Torres is the current spine and they have played almost every game for all comps in the whole season. Then he says that he wants to see SG and Torres play every game...well they have played almost every game...maybe watch some games rather than commenting from the outer. This article has made me so f***in angry...i absolutely hate it when people make these ignorant comments just when the owner issues have settled down. Steve McMahon isnt going in my all-time draft team.
Just to add my 2 cents to the mix: I often say we should put other teams in their place but we played this game as if our place is in the middle of the table (or worse). We defended far too deep in the first half, possibly hoping for a counterattack and gave West Ham too much respect. Why put attacking players in the game when they are not being used properly - Gerrard was invisible and too far behind the play. Players were poor, from Aurelio (crossed like Riise), to Alonso (poor passing for his standards), Kewell (he can't go around defenders anymore) and Torres (poor touches all night long). Kuyt was Kuyt - he runs a lot and you want to see him do well but as soon as he receives the ball one knows our attack is finished (to be fair, only in 95% of possession). I don't know if Pako's departure has anything to do with our form (I barely even heard of the guy) but since he left we begun to suck... Positives - hey, at least it wasn't a draw...
i dont know what happened with liverpool this season, because in the begining, i was positive youd compete for atleast 2nd place, maybe 3....now, getting 4th will be a complete dog-fight. The talent is there, but IMHO, the mix of player talent/ability/creativity isnt on par. Torres and gerrard are the best players on LFC, torres gives you that goal threat at any moment thread and has amazing touch/pace/power, while gerrard can push the team forward with his determination and sheer gut brute strength, i really like his play. But, after those two, you have a huge drop in talent, sure, "potential" is there, guys like babel, lucas. then you have some mid-tier players such as yossi, veronin, kuyt, riise, industrious players but all have different styles. players need chemistry to perform. oh well, theres allways the CL, win it again and it wont matter what place u finish in.