Cisse with another devastating run. I guess that leg doesn't hurt too bad. He runs past the midfielder, beats the fullback, and squeezes off a cross to Moro. Moro couldn't convert. Gets another chance, and Nando sends it over the bar.
FT 3-0 Well,i expected more from the players,but they will improve.Gerrard was great but moro was very poor tonight!
FT: LFC 3 - TNS 0 Gerrard x3 Loved Zenden, Alonso, Gerrard, and Cisse. Nando needs to improve. There should have been many more goals.
3-0 is the score I predicted. We played well enough for the first competitve game of the season. Reina and the back 4 had nothing to do. They weren't tested all match. The center of the midfield was brilliant. The captain scores his first ever hatrick. Stevie was at his best today scoring 3 great goals. Xabi Alonso made some passes that were absolutley amazing. He is truly world class and seems to get better every game. What a pair Stevie and Xabi make...world class. When Cisse came on for Potter he made a huge impact on the right wing. He made some brilliant runs and his crosses were very good. I wonder if Cisse could be the answer on the right. Especially if we play 3 up front, with Zenden on the left. Morientes had chance after chance but wasted them tonight. If it was Peter Crouch up front, he would have scored 4 goals!!! I like the formation we finished the game with. It was a very attacking 4-3-3 with 6 players playing attacking football. Le Tallec was disappointing again. I'm getting impatient with him because he doesn't assert himself on a match. Garcia would have been much more effective in that role.
Don't DIOUF Cisse... bad choice, I think... Start him up top and get a right wing (Figo). If we are paying £7+ mil for Crouch (shudder), Figo is, despite his age, a bargain.
Well, there's a difference between playing Diouf at RM in a traditional 4-4-2 as Houllier did, and playing Cisse on the wing in a 4-3-2-1 which seems to be the case today (full disclosure: I haven't watched or listened to the match). Two very different positions with different responsibilities.
I agree. While I normally feel much better about keeping a player where he should be (e.g., what a difference we saw when we put Biscan back in the middle of the park instead of the back), I have to admit that Cisse made some fantastic contributions on that right side. He was unbeatable in pace and has a decent cross. While maybe we wouldn't be taking advantage of his shot power and marksmanship as a right midfielder, if we push him forward as one of three forwards on the front line, we might find better use for all his offensive weapons.
In one of my most shameful BigSoccer moments, I advocated "Dioufing" Diouf a full season before GH actually did it. The argument I made at the time was, a) Diouf sucks as a forward. He can't score goals, and he can't win balls. b) BUT . . . he can run at people. One at a time. And once in awhile, he can cross the ball. c) We have no wingers. Left, right, or any other variety. d) Let's try Diouf on the right wing, because even if he doesn't do anything, at least he won't be hogging a space at forward where someone could be, you know, playing productively. And besides, a crappy Diouf on the right wing wouldn't be much worse than any other option we might have on the right wing. (Sad, but true.) Much to my delight at the time, (GH must have been an avid BigSoccer reader), GH bought my logic and tried it out. Of course, it failed spectacularly. Why do I bring this up again? Because 1) Rafa is not GH. Rafa has the tactical flexibilty to, say, instruct Cisse to hang out towards the corner of the area, create space, and generally cause trouble against a bunch of slow Welshmen, then let him play in a more traditional role in the EPL. With GH, Diouf was a Center Forward, and every time he came on he had Center Forward responsibilities, until GH decided he was a Winger, and then every time he touched the ball he had to do Winger-type things. And because 2) Cisse is not Diouf. Cisse, unlike Diouf, can score goals. Unlike Diouf, he can keep possession of the football. Unlike Diouf, he can beat more than one man at a time. Unlike Diouf, he has a damn sexy haircut. But I digress. It's not like Cisse is a drain on the team and we need to move him to try to get some utility out of him. He's one of our 4 or 5 best players, and will be left where he is. In sum, the chances of Cisse getting Dioufed are zilch. Oh, and I'm glad to see we're all slagging off on Moro again. So he missed a couple sitters. Big deal. Less than 100 hours ago, he scored twice in 45 minutes of work, and was inches from a third. Deep breaths, everyone, it's only the 1st Qualifying Stage of the CL . . . it's not like he blew the derby or anything.
You must spread some reputation around before giving it to SuperElf again Seriously, the analysis is good and on Nando he's still on a goal a game pace this year Now ALT is another matter. He's being given chnaces and hasn't shown enough. It is also interesting that Rafa is giving Potter a fair shot.
I'll share one rep with ya! I think Nando will do just fine this season, the man is class. ALT....I don't think so.
I'm not worried about Morientes at all. He will score plenty of goals this year. His finishing was just off today. I've been saying the same thing about Le Tallec. I know he's only 20, but he has really shown nothing as a Liverpool player. Today you could barely notice he was on the pitch. Potter played pretty well today. He is a good crosser of the ball. But I think the reason he is getting a chance is because we don't have another right midfielder in the squad right now. That spot is being saved for a new signing.