one main disadvantage of playing zonal: our players' positionings during corners are predictable and opponents will have a good week training set pieces to attack the weakest link in the formation, and also to pinpoint the danger 'zones' unprotected by our players.

all they need is one good corner that falls into an area they intend to exploit, and they will get good chances to score.

With Johnson out i guess we're gonna see Degen again. Read somewhere Rafa gonna cash him in on January but might cancel now. I think Degen is good at attacking and pumping the ball upwards like Evra.

Also, any news on our attempt to get RVN?

WOW.We are left with FA Cup 

I wonder if we can get £10 million for ryan babel. Since he failed to perform for us, probably another league would fit him better. Definitely, at a discounted price. As for dossena, we're asking for about £4.5 million pounds.

TM HSBB will be our sponsor? 

heh. and i dont even know why, but the commentators during the game(CH 813) was completely bias against us.
Keep on mentioning the penalty appeal, etc. Didnt even once mention the keeper handled the ball outside of the penalty area.

I'm just saying he's just too young for our squad and what if Dossena start and Insua join in the second half because he's not ready enough to play 90 minutes imo. With him starting all the time as LB, i don't think he's under any pressure for the LB position. Aurelio is being played as LM to take free kicks and corners. We need experience this time of the season. We are not in a position to be experimenting with too many youngsters now. Insua,Ngog,Lucas,Pacheco,Spearing.

we currently hav only a few players tat can send good crosses into the box for Torres to score

Aurelio, Johnson , Benayoun, Javier , Reira and ofcourse my avatar, StevieG

Lucas, no way lose cannon
Ngog , no way   lose posession  always, let alone to score  
Aqua, maybe  

I see what you mean and if you ask me it brings up the point I made much earlier about adopting a more positive approach to the game. We may say that the players lack motivation but maybe it's because they are instructed to play the way they have been. Lucas' report card says he is an attacking minded player so given the option, why would he keep passing the ball back? Keeping possession seems to be Rafa's priority but what is the point in keeping the ball but only mustering a shot on goal against Portsmouth? I really do wonder if the likes of Lucas and Ryan Babel are not reaching their potential because they are playing with too many restrictions. If they are it can only lead to frustration which in turn leads to a drop in motivation levels.

Are we playing to the strength of our players or are we trying to fit square pegs into round holes by asking them to take up unfamiliar roles e.g. Aurelio/Dossena on the left wing, Kuyt playing wide right instead of on the right of a 3 pronged attack, Lucas at defensive mid. This is where the manager has to make a decision. Do I continue to insist they play in those positions until they get it right, or do I change my tactics to suit their strenghts? It's obvious that when we were more positive, we were a handful and this was proven last season.
It can but only as a variation. It shouldn't be your only tactic or we become predicatable as we did under Houllier. Team sat deep thus negating Owen's pace. I do agree however that we do quite often, look lost when in possession.

Kuyt: Not attacking too much?Who was the one always scoring a poacher's goals?None other than Kuyt.How can someone like him always lurk around in penalty box is called a player who doesn't attack much?

LIVERPOOL have rejected a £9million bid for Ryan Babel from Premier League rivals Birmingham City.

The unsettled Dutch international has endured a miserable season but manager Rafa Benitez has insisted he is not for sale.

City boss Alex McLeish has been promised £40million by owner Carson Yeung to strengthen his squad and is hoping to make Babel his “marquee” signing.

However, the Midlands club will have to increase their bid considerably if they are going to test Benitez’s resolve.

Liverpool paid Ajax around £11.5million for Babel in the summer of 2007 and if Benitez reluctantly allowed him to move on they would insist on at least recouping that fee.

Even if City made an offer Liverpool couldn’t refuse it’s uncertain whether the 23-year-old winger would accept a move to St Andrew’s.

liverpoolecho.co.uk
come onnnnn..ur wealthy owner can give us more than that

It's not about no money to buy players.If I'm not mistaken, Platini seems to come out with a new rule preventing in-debt clubs to participate in CL(or so which I read few days bac) which is yet to be implemented but is a possible new rule in future.In order to take part in CL, we would have to clear out debt and clearly the only way of doing so is to sell our prized assets.Also, there is another case where if we fail to qualify for CL will means the exit of our stars since we lose a lot of money for not participating in CL.

Some manu fans already praying us not getting into CL.Some ManU already dreaming of signing Torres after all these sissy Spaniard and other insults.I suppose they forget they got 700m debt and 70m per year interest to pay eh?

UEFA are currently finalising the regulations which will prevent clubs from making consecutive losses over three seasons.
Details should be revealed in the next few months. Despite the gestures of Roman Abramovich and Sheik Mansour in writing off the debts of Chelsea and Manchester City respectively, all three clubs will have to find huge cutbacks in the next three years if they wish to qualify for the Champions Lleague or Eeuropa in 2012.
Chelsea recorded losses of £44.4million last year, their sixth consecutive year of huge deficit, while Manchester City lost £92m during Sheik Mansour's first year in charge and next year may even beat Chelsea's record of £140m from 2005.
Liverpool lost £40.9m in 2008 and selling Torres would bring in a £40m fee

i dont think our current predicament needs a knee jerk reaction that leads to the sacking of the manager...we can always do it at the end of the season...keep rafa's track record in a file, review it at the end of the season and see if he needs to go or not...

it is always easy to find fault or ask someone to take on the responsibilities but tbh....i dont think we r that far away from 4th spot....even 2nd...we r just 2 losses away from man utd...nobiggie....with 17 more games to play...anything could happen....

now we should have cooler heads n wait till the season's over...

It's like I said earlier though. When we played crap football at the beginning of the season and I cited concerns, my posts were met by such feedback, "relax it's still early days", "it's only a quarter of the season gone", "we're just going through a purple patch". When is it time for us to realise that it isn't all peaches and cream at the moment? When the season is over it will be too late. Finishing out of the top four will be a huge hit to us financially and this is a very real scenario.

Sacking Rafa might not be the answer, but something needs to be done quick. We cannot afford to pretend that everything's going to be alright.

I'm too used to 1 striker upfront .That's why. Anyway, wonder if we have the chance to see 3 in the midfield .

i feel aquilani performance so far is a little too controlled..i blv it is rafa's instructions.. hence u c him playing simple passes n mostly non threathening. from what i've seen,i personally think he is a very technical player .. he loves to attack n not sit on the midfield area to spray passes around..u can c him always moving forward when he pass a ball in the final 3rd of the oppenent half n sometimes he just sits back too deep with lucas..n there is no support for ger tor n our wings.. i wish i'm at melwood nw..i'm really very interested to see whats actually going wrong with the team after finishing so close to manu last season..its definately a huge motivation to go on n win this season..plus its a world cup season n players would want to have lots of playing time n finding their touch n form come this june..

right now..the injuries to 3 of our top scorers is a huge blow..huge one..n maybe its time to push aqua up the pitch n give him more freedom against stoke. i still think once he get used too to the quick play in bpl he can b a good signing, u can c he is pressured by the huge price tag on his head n the crap performance of liverpool fc this season so far, he get close down much much quicker n give less time on the ball as he would have gotten in italy... btw i think rafa is too tight on his players.. take babel for example..he was quite good in his first season n everyone started to blv he could go on n be one of the better players in the league but right now..his first touch is way worst than before n he look out of sorts n low in confidence.i dont blame him..cuz i blv the person at fault is rafa.i think the babel kind of player would love more freedom on what he does on the pitch.. look at his goal against lyon..it proves he has much much potential.

so how many of you all here criticized rafa's rotation policy?
skeleton?
like u said...last season, rafa hardly rotated...he tried to give a final push in an attempt to land the league.
what this has done is obviously resulting in the players playing just too many matches, especially with some involved in the confederations cup and world cup qualifying.
torres back then during the end season also mentioned about fear of burning out.
and of cos dont forget the team's travel to asia.

and the results of all this over-playing can now be seen in the injuries the team are getting.

so are all those naysayer's now wishing rafa went back to rotation?

ever experienced burn out?
when u play too many games etc, that u just lose motivation cos too tired.

read my previous post very carefully.

season before the team played lots of games with some say with hardly any rotation.
plus CL games, plus confed cup, plus world cup qualifying, plus asia tour...basically no rest all at...carry all that into the current season...and what do u get?