No offence but I try to draw a line between being optimistic and delusional. We've almost always played well against the mancs and have on a few occasions conceeded late in the game despite having the better chances. We have been guilty of not being ruthless enough in front of goal which is suicidal if you're up against quality opposition. Do I truly believe we can turn them over as we did 2 seasons ago at Old Trafford? No I don't, not with the ease in which we've been relinquishing possession, and how static we look going forward. It may be too soon to tell but I can only call it like I see it and from what I've seen we're no better than we were last season despite our new signings.

normally big teams rise to the occasion, so expect Manu, especially Liv vs Manu games like this. unless they are really crap (like what we are now), or someone gets sent off

You signed monkeys, surely will get peanuts!
Let's face it Hodgson is just another normal manager. At the position we are in right now, he is lost as to how to move us up the table or win games.

nothing we can do until

- joe cole suspension is over
- the change of new owner
- tis january



main problem of the team mostly come from

- 2 holding midfielder who dont hav their own special abilies
- 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 wingers who is slow / not creative / cant cross the ball well / dribble

this is why arsenal really love wenger

I have always thought of us not being clinical enough in front of goals, playing a little too much like Arsenal at times and I complained and wanted result more than the quality of football, I wanted goals instead of entertainment.

Now, we lost both, quality and goals, to a certain extent I felt that we are worse now with set pieces, even though we did not score much or did we score any from corners? We lacked the presence inside the box when the opponents cross the ball, even the ever present Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel played like they are at least 3 inches shorter than the strikers playing against us, I have never seen Liverpool this fragile in defense since a long long time. So is a proper zonal defense really that bad?

Ok, perhaps I'm biased, but being an optimistic guy, there's nothing there for me to be optimistic about. If a manager can't figure out how to finish goals, that's better for me, but if he can't figure out on how to break a defensive line and only praying for time to end just to make it a draw, it makes me miss Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier.

It hurts to see the Birmingham City manager shouting and screaming his lungs out whereas our manager just stood there quietly.

RBS classifies Liverpool loan as toxic-asset


source

"RBS has the option to put Liverpool's UK parent and related companies into insolvency. However forcing Kop Football and Kop Football (Holdings), and Gillett's loan-security vehicle, Football UK Ltd, into administration can result in a nine-point penalty for the club and this can make this choice unpalatable."

This post has been edited by digilife: Sep 15 2010, 11:49 AM

I agree with the holding midfielder. We have two def mid that is not creative at all. They kept passing the ball back to carra and carra will huff the ball 50 yards and lose possesion.

looks like we will see again the 2 holding (not quite good defensively) midfielders + 4 defenders, or maybe throw in another defendsive minded-forward against manu.

i think thats how we might steal a point there, 10 at the back & 1 forward (torres) much like how we stole the game against arsenal under houllier. Only 1 attack moment & titi scored.

now the optimism may crept in.

Not that I am happy to see Valencia injured, but the fact that we, at the moment, failed to deal with crosses means that the absence of Valencia next match is something positive.

Hopefully, we can get something out of next league game against manu

lets digress for a bit shall we? I know we are facing the Mancs but the thing is we have an Europa League match coming up midweek and seems like most of us are starting to forget that match altogether.

I for one am seriously looking forward to our Europa League matches more than the bread and butter of the Premier League to be honest since i feel that will be the only tournament that we can see the likes of Kelly, Babel, Pacheco, Shelvey, getting a run out. with the morale of the team at an all time low, putting in these players might be just what we need since they are much much more eager to perform with in view to displace the regulars in the side.

Lots has been said about Shelvey, and i for one look forward to him getting a match against Steua, and its at Anfield furthermore, what more better match and environment to start him. to be honest I've never seen him play but he draws comparison to a younger Gerrard, a box to box midfielder who can boss the park, now thats not a bad comparison isnt it? Steua aint pushover's but we are playing at home, It'll do everyone a world of good if we got in a good result.

I'd say rest Torres, Gerrard Carra and Reina keep them fresh for the Utd match and put in the likes of Ngog and others.

My lineup (in an ideal world) for the Europa League

--------Jones------------

-Kelly-Soto-Agger-Konchesky-

-------Shelvey--Meireles-----

----Babel----Pacheco-----Cole

-------------Ngog------------

Honestly I'm not expecting much against Man Utd. A draw would be good for us I think based on current performance. Defence really needs to improve. we gave Birmingham strikers far too much space in the box when crosses were coming in time and again. Johnson was very sloppy when bringing the ball forward as well. Cole will be back. I hope that will bring some much needed spark in midfield. But before that we really need to win the Europa League match to gain some confidence.

a draw is a "victory" itself going by current standards. I just hoping we wont be blown into smithereens (manu rested many 1st team)

this is not the tight zonal marking that we been accustomed to stiffle more aggresive teams.
(wait ... we even been struggling with bottom table teams like WBA)

Even the fans now happy with a draw.Bloody hell, where is our club heading to.I bet RH going to the game, AGAIN, with one point mentality.He must be watching over and over again how Rangers played with 5 defenders at the back and plan to emulate it this coming Sunday.

Well, just being realistic. I'd love a win at OT but here's why I'm not THAT optimistic:
- we've struggled to play our best football in the league so far
- we defended poorly in the previous game and had Reina to thank for the point gained
- midfield has not been at its best, thus the service to Torres has been below par.

On the bright side though:
- mancs conceding late goals
- rooney's distracted
- valencia's injured
- we did win 4-1 at OT before
- cole will be back from suspension.

We'll have to see how the team performs tomorrow. If there's significant improvements from the previous game only then I'll raise my level of optimism for Sunday's game.

If Everton and Fulham and hell, even Rangers drew, no reason why we can't go for the win. Unless you're suggesting we're worse than aforementioned squads.

Haha, of course I'm not suggesting we're worse than those teams. Just saying the team isn't playing at a level I expect them to at the moment. Maybe because the team hasn't really gel-ed yet under RH's playing style. Or maybe we are being slow starters yet again this season.

ManU wont look down against Liv as dey did against Ranger.. tis is the main prob y other team can while we cant...
tats y burnley can beat Manu while we cant

Old Trafford is like a fortress... We can only beat them convincingly when we're on highs... The problem is, we're on lows, so i'd rather pray that they won't thrash us...

right! it's not about how good the opponent is but how well we perform..as I said earlier, our form have been consistently poor so far... we've been relying too much on individual brilliance instead of playing like a team.

well u know what...so do we..our players were so pump up when playing against m.u...ask torres if u want confirmation...u can juz throw out the current form when these two teams met...there's little things separate between these two old rivals..things like ref judgement,miss absolute sitter or juz plain lucky...well except when we beat them 4-1!

---

Added on September 16, 2010, 1:34 amwe beat them 4-1 when we are on a lows & they are on a high..dont u remember???

This post has been edited by leftist: Sep 16 2010, 01:34 AM