Pre-game thread for the trip to Spurs. On recent form, we should be able to take the points here. It looks as if Stevie G. is unlikely to play, and Diouf is off to the ANC. I'll assume the Carra and Finnan won't be ready quite yet for the first-team squad, though their reserve run-outs last night appeared to be successful. So . . . I say that GH will go with: ...............That Welsh Guy .....Henchoz--Biscan--Hyypia--Riise ....Smicer--Murphy--Hamann--Kewell ................Owen--Heskey Subs: Luzi Traore Cheyrou Pongolle LeTallec If it were up to me, I'd start Traore instead of Riise. But it's not up to me. Discuss. ----
I expect we'll see Cheyrou instead of Vlad the Intermittently Effective. Other than that I think you got it right. I'd love it if SG were available.
my predictions: 2-1 us, Owen and Kewell to score... god knows they are overdue. gonna be a good match and a good three points optimism is a good thing,
I honestly couldn't say if I'd rather see Bruno or Vladi. Smicer is "intermittently effective", and Bruno "one time effective".
Houllier might play Bruno in his natural position behind the strikers. In that formation Murphy could play on the right, and Hamann in the holding role. Are we sure that Diouf will be leaving already? Maybe he can hang around for one more game.
Already gone. http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/archivedirs/news/2004/jan/12/N143374040112-1334.html ----
i hope Traore plays instead of Riise as well - he was a giant against Chelsea and Riise always makes me nervous. on a side note, anybody see the brief article linking Heskey with AC Milan? haha.
I'd prefer Traore on recent form also. This is another of those matches we "should" win again We really have to do it convincingly this time, not the 0-1 and hold out hoping we don't have to settle for 1 point. You can see my stste of mind! Yeh, saw the Emile article, interesting! How about Rovers taking in James to save them, are they blaming the Gorilla for their form and losses??? I'd have thought it was their lack of scoring goals rather than how many they're letting in.
I'm off to my local today for breakfast with the Reds. I'll be back for the postgame discussion. After all the news I expect: --------Jones Henchoz--H--Igor---Traore Cheyrou---Didi--Murphy---Harry ------St Michael---Em Luzi TLT Riise FSP Welsh
'Arry scores a brilliant goal acording to Hunter to make it 2-1. Late handball appeal in the box goes unnoticed by the ref. 2 minutes to go, doesn't look good (much like the Reds for long stretches)
2-1 to Spurs. Liverpool can't play in the south of England seemingly. 7 losses already this season. Two long ball Wimbeldon style goals, both due to Biscan errors. Bloody hell. Cheyrou was awful according to Hunter (shocking and a joke he said) no Le Tallec or Pongolle either. What is GH thinking??
This was a real shame. Credit to Spurs for exploiting Biscan. That was the difference in the match. Really fine efforts from Kewell, Heskey and Hamann; and Murphy with a much better match than his recent form. Owen is still rusty. Finnan got on for the final half-hour. Cheyrou was absent. We had a credible hand-ball penalty appeal in the final couple of minutes, but Rennie ruled that the ball had played the defender. We led in attempts, corners, shots on goal; possession was even. Spurs outfouled us 22 to 9. ----
Liverpool played miserably and with no conviction. We couldn't hold the midfield. Spuds is a good squad player but he can't run the team. Cheyrou was both invisible for long periods and incompetent when on the ball. Biscan was beaten for the PK call and it was indeed a penalty. He was also toasted again by Postiga who also took his chance well -- Jones was left with no chance. By the way, on the PK Jones did get a hand on it but couldn't stop it. Owen did not look like a Champions League striker today. Might still be getting back into shape but he did little. Keane was clearly the better man today. But Michael did get a late ball that he tried to center to Heskey and Doherty clearly played it with his hand. Should have been a PK, and we would have had a chance at a draw we probably didn't deserve. Kewell took his shot brilliantly but he wasn't effective for long periods. He got the chance due to Heskey working to win a long ball played to Heskey's head. He won it and played Kewell in with one headed touch and then ran into a position that opened the near post for a great shot by Harry. Most of our chances came through Heskey's work as we seemed to rely on long balls or very direct passes down route one. Without Diouf we seemed unable to hold the ball in midfield and or get a decent cross in. Diouf with all his faults also is willing to get stuck in which Cheyrou is incapable of. GH --- who knows what to say. Playing Traore and Henchoz signalled our plan to play defensively yet it was defensive lapses in the middle that killed us. We looked much more dangerous with Finnan and Riise at the end and with Henchoz back in the middle. Then with 12 minutes to go, and down a goal, he keeps Cheyrou in and doesn't bring on either FSP or TLT to chase a draw. I don't get it. I'm sure we'll hear how we had so many injuries and were unlucky, blah blah blah.
Although Murphy was better than in recent weeks, you're right that he can't run the team. That's Gerrard's job, and we sorely missed him today--although Hamann and Heskey deputized admirably. They've really been terrific for us over the past month--even today, in a losing effort. As with Cheyrou's goal against Chelsea, Kewell's score was a formality--the goal was created by Emmo. I tend to back Houllier pretty consistently, but I'm with you on the player decisions today. It seems Spurs watched the Villa tape, and GH didn't. Spurs attacked the right side of our defense all day long, with obvious success. The good news is that Finnan seems to be back, which will put Henchoz and Hyypia into the middle again. I think Traore has re-earned temporary custody of left-back over Riise, at least until Carra returns. ----
Bad Football On Film What can one say, except...that wasn't very good, was it? Before the apologies commence, let's all agree that this was tantalisingly icky! So deliciously bad, one couldn't help but savour the very essence of its inadequacy. To describe the rotting corpse that starred in this two-act shambles would be an insult to death, and all that is "stench".
Good to see you and Lanky at the local. And MiniLB, of course. He needs a new strategy to get us late goals. Stig
Well, a tremendously dissapointing result. Makes me feel a bit better after waking up at the girlfriends house at 6:30 AM on two hours of sleep and deciding to catch the 1 PM replay. I can't really say anything until I see it, but it seems to me to be the same kind of complaints we've had for awhile.
"Gerard Houllier is adamant his side were denied the chance of a draw at Spurs by Uriah Rennie's refusal to give the Reds a late penalty at White Hart Lane." http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N143453040117-1758.htm ----