Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2007/2008

Pighead

No chance of Kewell starting? Thought he had a decent pre-season?

Thanx 4 The Fish

I would like to see him playing some part today, he has done well in pre-season and this season is his last chance.

The Rooster

Pighead wrote:

No chance of Kewell starting? Thought he had a decent pre-season?

He was "decent" but not much more than that, and reportedly he was poor for the Aussies (tho most of them were). Benayoun and Pennant were better than Kewell in pre-season from what I saw. He'll get plenty of chances but I'm sure himself, Yossi, Pennant and Babel wil be constantly rotated.

Malice

I would like to see Kewell starting too. As a starting line up, I'm going to go with:

---

Reina

---

---

Finnan

---

Carragher

---

Agger

---

Riise

---

Gerrard

---

Alonso

---

Mascherano

---

Kewell--

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Kuyt----Crouch

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This is based on the fact that both Pennant and Benayoun looked sharp in pre-season therefore Martin O'Neill will be expecting them to start, therefore Rafa will leave them on the bench Torres and Pennant to feature in the second half and hopefully combine for the winner.

whatawaster

I'm wildly optimistic about the new season. I think once we have a centre back on board, we have all the depth we need.

My team for Villa:

Reina

Finnan
Carragher
Agger
Riise

Pennant
Alonso
Gerrard
Babel

Torres
Kuyt


Up and Atom!

Cyrus

yeah! our thread is back

cmon the pool!

Malice

whatawaster wrote:

I think once we have a centre back on board, we have all the depth we need.

Assuming Carragher and Agger are first choice, is a backup pair of Arbeloa and Hyypia with Palletta also available not enough?

whatawaster

malice_ wrote:

Assuming Carragher and Agger are first choice, is a backup pair of Arbeloa and Hyypia with Palletta also available not enough?

In a word - No. Not in my opinion anyway.

Arbeloa is unproven at centre back, Paletta is not (yet) good enough. Hyypia I wouldn't mind stepping in the odd game, but I think we need someone else - preferably someone with pace.

Malice

But it is going to be very difficult to attract a player of sufficient quality to be in effect a fourth choice centre back. I agree with Arbeloa being unproven. Maybe Jack Hobbs could be the pacey centre-back? I haven't seen him play but he's highly regarded and as far as I know hasn't been sent on loan this season.

gary the great

Delighted the thread is back.

Can't wait to get going this evening, i don't think i've ever been so excited about a new season starting. We need that all important good start.

dardoz

fiiiiiiiiiinaly!! missed this thread!

This is definitely the most exciting I've ever been at the start of a season. That probably has a lot to do with having all the setanta and sky sports channels so I can watch every game till xmas

\o/

mike65

Heinze hearing is on Monday 20th.

Mike.

whatawaster

But Heinze wants to come, at least he has experience there

mike65

Full Fixtures List

Aston Villa-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs Chelsea
Sunderland-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Derby
Portsmouth-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Birmingham
Wigan-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Tottenham
Everton-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Arsenal
Blackburn-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Fulham
Newcastle-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Bolton
Reading-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Man Utd
Liverpool-vs-Portsmouth
Derby-vs-Liverpool
Man City-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Wigan
Middlesbro-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Aston Villa
West Ham-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Sunderland
Chelsea-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Middlesbro
Bolton -vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Newcastle
Liverpool-vs-Reading
Man Utd-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Everton
Arsenal-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Blackburn
Fulham-vs-Liverpool
Birmingham-vs-Liverpool
Liverpool-vs-Man City
Tottenham-vs-Liverpool

Mike.

~Rebel~

Nah we definately definately need a decent CB. All the building in other areas will come to absolutly nought if Carra gets injured. To be honest if he was gone for any real length of time we'd be lucky to grab 4th! Possibly the most important area of the team and by a mile our weakest for backup.

I really think we'll win today, but i also really thought Spurs would win so who knows! Anything can happen in football.

Come on the pool!

whatawaster

Pepe Reina
Alvaro Arbeloa
Jamie Carragher
Daniel Agger
Steve Finnan
John Arne Riise
Steven Gerrard
Xabi Alonso
Jermaine Pennant
Dirk Kuyt
Fernando Torres

Subs:

Charles Itandje
Sami Hyypia
Andriy Voronin
Ryan Babel
Momo Sissoko

Davei141

Cant believe no benayoun on the bench

Im_No_Superman

Is Benayoun inured or something?

whatawaster

He'll probably play on wednesday, along with Mascherano and Crouch.

Villain

Villa team for you guys in case you were wondering:
Taylor, Gardner, Bouma, Mellberg, Laursen, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Barry, Young, Carew, Agbonlahor. Subs: Osbourne, Moore, Cahill, Harewood, Maloney

Best of luck hope its a good game, I'd take a point if it was offered now.

Edit Thats no goalkeeper on the bench!!!

mike65

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Reina
Finnan--Carra--Agger--Arbeloa
Pennant-Gerrard-Alonso--Riise

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Torres-Kuyt

Strong and simple and almost very predictable!

Mike.

Dub13

Lets hope we get of to a good start with a good win today.

~Rebel~

mike65 wrote:

---

Reina
Finnan--Carra--Agger--Arbeloa
Pennant-Gerrard-Alonso--Riise

---

Torres-Kuyt

Strong and simple and almost very predictable!

Mike.

heh thats a 10 for me for fantasyrafa.com anyway. I wonder if anyone predicted arbeloa at LB!

mike65

10 for me as well, I doubt many had Riise at LW.

Mike.

mike65

Yay! OG from Villa under pressure from Kuyt (as in he is on the pitch!).

Mike.

Zapp Brannigan

Reina already flapping at that things. Let's hope he steers clear of any early season blunders. Kuyt and Torres looking very good together. Gerrard revelling in playing in the centre.

whatawaster

Decent display first half. Torres looks good, so does Gerrard. Pennant has been too quiet, and Riise poor, but we're winning so let's hope we can carry on

mike65

Dunno why Riise is playing tbh, Babel should be on 10 mins into second half with any luck. I hav'nt seen Pools away strip so far, is it another garrish horror?

Mike.

Zapp Brannigan

It's white. I quite like it actually (I own it!)
I'm hoping Torres gets a full 90 minutes, I really want to see him score on his debut.

opr

I still have major doubts about Kuyt. He keeps getting himself into great positions and seems to do the wrong thing everytime. Gerrard played a great ball into his path between the back two and he was running onto it and decided to check back.

He really is frustrating to watch at times.

Opr

Zapp Brannigan

What a free kick!

Thanx 4 The Fish

opr wrote:

I still have major doubts about Kuyt. He keeps getting himself into great positions and seems to do the wrong thing everytime. Gerrard played a great ball into his path between the back two and he was running onto it and decided to check back.

He really is frustrating to watch at times.

Opr

In fairness to Kuyt he did very well with that ball he has pulled back to Babel, right thing to do and played it very well and Babel has missed by miles...

Nice to get our first away win out of the way, on balance of play, well deserved.

gary the great

That Stevie G is a f-ing legend!

Great game (well last 20mins)!
babel looked decent when he came on, should of scored though. Looks a dam sight better than he did in pre season.

p.pete

lord that was painful to watch - some good football but we let villa play far too much from about 30mins onwards, could have gone seriously wrong. Sissoko had a terrible cameo at the end, Babel and Torres both look like they could be excellent. Veronin won't find it as easy as pre-season...

Villain

Well done lads you probably deserved the win.

Zapp Brannigan

The ref was awful though wasn't he? Alot of strange decisions went in Liverpools favour. Yeah Momo looked shocking, Babel very lively.
It's sad to say but Ashley Young made Finnan look old at times.

Let's all hope we don't have to rely on Stevie for the rest of the season.

opr

Wonderful free kick but yet again its that one man getting us out of jail.

Opr

Zapp Brannigan

Also, Riise really started to annoy me. Very wasteful. But Arbeloa seemed quite comfortable at left back today.

Dirk Gently

That was one of the best free kicks I've seen in the PL.
Babel looked dangerous when he came on, hopefully he'll be good enough to start as the season progresses. It was scary how much Carew was dominating our defence though.


EDIT: Just noticed nobody managed to get the full 11 on fantasy rafa

Dub13

What a free kick.

el rabitos

frustrating game to watch, typical efficiant liverpool performance, but as usual your left wondering where the goals are going to come from, well...actually, you do know where the goals are going to come from, and thats the problem.

the play was good and there was some good moves and all that, but there were no killer balls that cut open villas defence and it wasnt looking like there was ever going to be that second goal to kill villa off.

torres fought well for the ball and didnt look out of place in the 1st half, but in the second half he was completely annonymous.

all in all, a good win, but i'm hoping when babel and beneyoun get settled they'll be the link between the midfield and the forwards that seems to be lacking a bit.

mike65

Well 3 points on day one beats the last 4 seasons so I won't moan or at least not until I've seen the highlights.

Mike.

fullstop

Zapp Brannigan wrote:

The ref was awful though wasn't he? Alot of strange decisions went in Liverpools favour. Yeah Momo looked shocking, Babel very lively.
It's sad to say but Ashley Young made Finnan look old at times.

Let's all hope we don't have to rely on Stevie for the rest of the season.

Thought it was a shocking decision to award the free to pool for the winner.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Of course you did, you are a villa fan and from the villa thread can see you think it was for the challenge as opposed to the impedance.

fullstop

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

Of course you did, you are a villa fan and from the villa thread can see you think it was for the challenge as opposed to the impedance.

OOh big words for a liverpool fan:rolleyes:

fullstop

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

I like boys

Honestly, this is neither the time or the place. This is a soccer forum:mad:

RE*AC*TOR

You're playing a blinder....

Drag00n79

Shamrok wrote:

Just a heads up on this, the Toulouse - Liverpool Champions League Qualifier is live next Wednesday on both ITV1 and Setanta Sports 1 (K.O. 3.30).
ITV1 is definitely doing the second leg live too on Tuesday 28th August (K.O. 8.05). No word from RTÉ on either yet.

Sorry, change that! Setanta have the first leg and ITV the second leg.

Dub13

Anybody else think the Setanta coverage looks a bit tacky...?

Thanx 4 The Fish

Would go with minimalistic mself. Not sure about making the players watch replays at the interviews, Gerrard looked plain uncomfortable there.