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English Clubs Liverpool Football Club- The Kop Talks 2010, Do Your Part, Save The Club!

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led_zep_freak
post Aug 24 2010, 05:10 AM

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Oh well, we deserved to lose. The sad thing is that City weren't as good as what people would be saying. Adam Johnson and Tevez aside, they were pretty average. First goal was due to non-existent marking, 2nd was down to poor defending (Man-marking vs Zonal, anybody?) and 3rd was brilliant individual effort by Johnson.

Credits to Roy for going for an attacking formation, but we fell flat on our faces and had no answer. It was clear that we were losing the battle in midfield and we needed a proper holding player.

Nevertheless, there's no need to sound the alarm yet as it's still early days. At least we've gotten 2 tough matches over with.

On a sidenote, I was thinking how Rafa would've set the team up given the circumstances. Probably a 4-2-3-1 with a makeshift holding player next to Lucas. Would we have done better? Perhaps muster a draw? Back then there was a lot of talk on nullifying opponents, in which today's case we failed to contain Johnson and paid the price. Agger and Jovanovic did fairly ok to stop him to a certain degree, but what happened to Lucas and Gerrard? If anything, the first goal was partially Gerrard's fault for allowing Milner (?) so much space.
led_zep_freak
post Aug 24 2010, 11:43 AM

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QUOTE(RedSiglap56 @ Aug 24 2010, 10:49 AM)
Given that both Jova and Kuyt are actually strikers and not midfielders, we effectively played with two midfielders : Gerrard and Lucas!

I would either haved played Poulsen and Maxi in place of Lucas and Torres (let him come on later) or Poulsen and Agger again in place of Lucas and Torres, and played Carra as LB with Soto & Skrtle as CBs. As it turned out, I think we were out-skilled (Johnson & Milner) and outmuscled (De Jong & Toure) in the middle.

Perhaps RH is still getting to know his players and has overestimated Torres and Gerrard.  This is a major hiccup!?

The only positive thing about it is that this has happened early ..
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I hope that's truly the case as it was pretty obvious after the first half we were overrun in the midfield, yet it took so long for a substitution to take place.

On a sidenote, nobody seems to be pointing out Roy's "weird" decision to take out Torres or the poor man-marking that led to the 2nd goal. Bloody ass-licking media c*nts.
led_zep_freak
post Aug 30 2010, 09:14 AM

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Finally someone brought up the issue of Insua? Is that guy leaving already? If he's set to leave I hope the club doesn't waste any more time and just release him.

Funny Roy should say he would like to sign another striker because I believe our main problem is the LB. We've resigned Aurelio but he has yet to be played (Benched? Injured? You can't even argue that he hasn't 'settle down' since he was a Liverpool player lolx!) and Agger cannot play there every game.
led_zep_freak
post Sep 13 2010, 11:55 AM

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One month into the PL and people are writing RH off already? doh.gif I'm not a big fan of his, but have some faith people, it's not even close to January yet.

Truth to be told on yesterday's match, we still look clueless and nervous whenever pressed. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is Poulsen who has yet to get used to the PL's pace and will soon get over it.

Also, I don't recall us winning much headers lately. How we gift opponents free headers seems to be norm now. Yesterday, Reina saved us the blushes but eventually we will be punished.

Konchesky had a decent debut, showed how much we miss a proper leftback, shame about the injury though. Meireles looked promising when he came on, hopefully he would be the player Aquilani should have been. Jova, I still can't figure out what Rafa sees in him, has a lot to prove imho.
led_zep_freak
post Sep 13 2010, 07:53 PM

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QUOTE(livingmonolith @ Sep 13 2010, 06:07 PM)
this may sound redundant, but since alonso left, there isn't any players who can take control of the midfield and stamp their authority. gerrard can do that, but at the same time he can't be the one dominating midfield and creating chances while being at the receiving end himself.

lucas is not a versatile player, he's good without the ball. can't do much when he receives it. and now poulsen looks like he's a player with the same quality. masch, before he left, is also a defensive midfielder who excels in winning tackles rather than spotting opportunistic passes.

aquilani last season was more like a player with good feet and composure, but he too lacked the vision and ability to carve chances from nothing. and a bit too flimsy to play in the middle anyway.

benayoun was good with dribbles and runs, but is also not the type with good vision and strong passing ability.

in all the matches so far, we are losing the midfield battle and normally we'll see us gaining some possession when gerrard drops back, but when that happens most of the time torres will be isolated up front because lucas and poulsen aren't daring enough to dart into the box.

up until today we haven't seen the team gel and play in a formation we're accustomed to. i'd like to see how the team plays with gerrard sitting back in front of the back four winning tackles and spraying passes, cole taking over gerrard's attacking midfield role and meireles running from box to box.
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It's no longer 2005 you know, age is fast catching up with Gerrard and you can no longer rely on him as the sole DM. Rather than putting the responsibility solely on the CM, I would like to see the team as a whole work together as a unit. At the moment, everybody is doing their own things. Defenders hoof when they want to, CMs win the ball and that passes sidewards/backwards, and attacking players waiting as if the ball would magically drop into space. It's like we're still stuck in the Alonso hangover.

Things won't magically improve even if you put Gerrard in the midfield, as long as there is lack of movement and possession retention, we'll still end up like yesterday. I think that, is our key problem.
led_zep_freak
post Sep 14 2010, 10:30 AM

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Honestly, whatever boardroom issues we have should stay in the boardroom. The fact that we are playing poorly have little, or nothing to do with the debts. It's not like their wages were freeze. The players, of all people should know better. Even Pompey who were in administration managed to beat us and put a decent display.

I'm keeping fingers crossed that players like Jova and Poulsen need time to settle in the PL but irregardless, we should be expecting something better than last Sunday with the crop of players we have. In fact, I expect us to be no less than 4th place come May. Otherwise, we can wave goodbye to players like Torres and Reina. So much for steadying the ship then.
led_zep_freak
post Sep 17 2010, 11:22 AM

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QUOTE(aiyish @ Sep 17 2010, 11:02 AM)
I beg to differ. Kelly had an ok game last night, but we still need Johnson's run and speed this sunday, Kelly looks a bit sluggish and he really is like carra playing at right back.
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I remember he had a long spell of injury, imho it is Darby that looks more like a Carra Mk II. laugh.gif I forgotten which CL game was it, the one where he got injured. He had a really good game that day, bombing forward and defended well when tested (Except for the set-piece goal conceded).

Apparently his natural position is CB. He could prove to be a versatile addition.

Speaking of these youth, part of me was quite frustrated when Rafa was let go as his youth policy is slowly maturing. Players like N'gog, Insua and Kelly were slowly cementing their places in the squad with promising players like Ayala, Spearing, Pacheco getting the odd first-team appearance. This season we've seen a younger batch of players like Eccleston, Shelvey, Amoo who all impressed on the international stage. At first, I wasn't too happy with the appointment of Roy Hodgson who has been touted a journeyman manager but seeing that he has bed in youngsters so far is a positive sign. More of little Dani please! thumbup.gif

Added on September 17, 2010, 11:23 am
QUOTE(melt @ Sep 17 2010, 11:10 AM)
Maybe it is just me but I dont think Ngog is that great sweat.gif  He might have scored 2 goals but I wouldnt say this is one of the best performance that he did for us. Not that he is having a bad game but he didnt manage to keep the ball occasionally no matters is from the above or below.
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Sounds like a certain Fernando Torres right. tongue.gif

This post has been edited by led_zep_freak: Sep 17 2010, 11:23 AM
led_zep_freak
post Sep 19 2010, 11:03 PM

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Not surprising, really. The last match United had an answer to us after beating them 3 in a row - Fletcher. Let's just say we never played well since the beginning of last season when the opposition presses us high up the field. The scoreline's flattering anyway, we deserve to be trashed 3-0. Less said about our defending the better.

Only positive I could see is that Poulsen is starting to adapt to the game and Meireles could be a quality signing. Unfortunately that alone won't be enough to save our season.

Next 2 PL games are Home games against Sunderland and Blackpool. If we don't win this convincingly, probably it's time to accept that we're a mid-table team after all.

YNWA

This post has been edited by led_zep_freak: Sep 19 2010, 11:04 PM
led_zep_freak
post Sep 21 2010, 05:18 PM

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I am not too fond of players speaking out against their managers in public, especially when the club is in frail conditions. It serves no purpose other than fulfilling one's selfish desire. However, if the topic in question - hoofing is actually one of the root causes of the problem are facing, it makes it all the more worrying. What Roy needs to realize is that we still have a batch of internationals who has the enough experience and skill to play some decent football. Going back 2 steps is not going to do them any favour.

Also, he seems to be content with the form we are having at the moment - eg. conceding that we were lucky to get a point from St.Andrews, or openly admitting that we're lucky to have Torres against West Brom etc... Even though Rafa was always with his usual "We need to analyse the problems... I'm concentrating on the next match," he acknowledges the problem but has never been content with it. This is Liverpool, not Fulham!

Like I've said, we have 2 must-win home matches next. If we don't put out a convincing display (Which is not impossible considering we imposed ourselves on Arsenal when down to 10-men!) we might as well as prepare our farewells for Torres and Reina.
led_zep_freak
post Sep 22 2010, 07:21 PM

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Interview with Purslow

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/News-and-I...wers-21192.php3
Transcript:
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news...1-fan-questions

Thoughts? Comments?
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