Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2007/2008

mike65

Christ on a bike.

Pennant poor, Gerrard who? Finnan doing little, Kuyt the only player working properly out there.

Mike.

Zapp Brannigan

Very boring game. What's the point in wingers if you don't give them the ball?

machiavellianme

Zapp Brannigan wrote:

Very boring game. What's the point in a WINGER if you don't give him the ball?

Corrected that for you. Pennant off.

Daemonic

This is painful to watch (again)...Liverpool have barely a passing resemblance to a football team tonight.

Thanx 4 The Fish

In fairness this ref is not helping things. He seems to want to stop the play at every opportunity.

Not helping the game at all, anyone remember this guy from the Porto Celtic game where he let them away with all sorts when they decided to waste as much time as they wanted ? He was awful then and is the same now.

NotWormBoy

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

In fairness this ref is not helping things. He seems to want to stop the play at every opportunity.

Not helping the game at all, anyone remember this guy from the Porto Celtic game where he let them away with all sorts when they decided to waste as much time as they wanted ? He was awful then and is the same now.

Agreed, the ref is really blowing up for anything. Terrible display from him.

Guy:Incognito

I think he must be a basketball ref on the days he's not reffing football. Any contact is a free. As for that yellow for Torres :rolleyes: .


I'd love to see these diving fairys play in the NEglish conference for a season. At least then they'll get proper bruiese to send them down.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Please understand that I am not using that as an excuse for Liverpools poor performance but that is certainly a contributing factor to it...

And as for diving, there is not any doubt for me that (in this game, not normally) torres is as bad as any for going down under minimum contact.

But yes, the porto lads certainly spend alot of time rolling around

Skittlebrau

Good to see Aurelio back. Makes Fantasy Rafa even harder now though.

Shocker of a game. I should have stayed in bed.

Can't believe we've given away so many penalties so far this season.

Thanx 4 The Fish

But on the flip side it is good to know that we have conceded no goals from open play. Surely that is something to be glad about. Shows that people are not often making their way through the defence that often and that when they do the lads will often make the challenges (even if they are not always all that good)

Zapp Brannigan

Defence was good enough, thats about the only positive we can take from this game. Gerrard was anonymous, and Masche had quite a poor day. Hope Rafa is roaring at them in the dressing room.
And Pennant had no business tackling Fucile for the ball. It was a bad pass, leave it go out and just get on with it. Silly 2nd yellow.

mike65

Fupp me if Liverpool were'nt copying the Ali rope-a-dope technique after Pennant got sent off.

That was bad, they never recovered from the lackadaisical start, Pennant should get benched for a month, he spent the game hacking and moaning when he got a telling off. The ref was picky but he had plenty to pick at on the right. After he was off the team looked muhc better with Kuyt doing yomen work. Gerrard was almost not there dunno why but he and Masch never imposed themselves or got a passing game going. Torres a passenger but that was mainly down to others failing I think.

Aurelio looked good in his cameo

Mike.

mike65

Double postage.

Mike.

Skittlebrau

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

But on the flip side it is good to know that we have conceded no goals from open play. Surely that is something to be glad about. Shows that people are not often making their way through the defence that often and that when they do the lads will often make the challenges (even if they are not always all that good)

Yeah that is good but I'd be even happier if we stopped conceding so many bloody penos

PHB

If this is what you get for resting against Portsmouth, I think you gotta really reconsider one's rotation policy.

Hyypia shown up for pace again, he's just too old at this stage to be playing at the highest level. Why wasn't Agger playing? That said, not sure Reina should have come for it. Bit of a dodgy game from him, that peno he gave away we've seen before from him, and from that and his dealing with that cross that Quaresma squandered.

Pighead

PHB wrote:

That said, not sure Reina should have come for it. Bit of a dodgy game from him, that peno he gave away we've seen before from him, and from that and his dealing with that cross that Quaresma squandered.

As well as that, his distribution was shocking. The amount of times he booted it upfield to nobody in particular was unreal.

el rabitos

holy hell. just watching the highlights of this disaster. when did we re-sign david james? pennant thinks he's one of the fantastic 4, trying to stretch his leg round a player?? wtf

i dunno. i've just seen the highlights, but it didnt look good.

i'd like to see the team come out screaming against birmingham and kill them tbh. i expect nothing but a convincing victory, none of this letting some ****hawk keeper have the game of his life against us that always seems to happen when we play birmingham or derby or whatever relegation/midtable fodder we play. thats about all that would restore some faith. the last 2 games have been shocking and a kick up the arse is needed or big sam will start looking less crazy.

jesus_thats_gre

Was shocking to be honest. Every player was totally off the boil..

p.pete

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

But on the flip side it is good to know that we have conceded no goals from open play. Surely that is something to be glad about.

We've conceded ~3 goals from penalties already? That factors in penalty saves and the fact that we've hardly played 5 or 6 games? FFS, when playing properly it's not a big deal for us to go 6 games without conceding, 3 only from penalties is a load of crap.

Pennant should have been taken off earlier, before being sent off - it was bound to happen with that ref. Ref made some bad decisions but he gave out a lot of "fair enough" yellows to liverpool. It seemed obvious that he was punishing most half tackles from behind and Pennant was being an idiot diving in.

Liverpool's passing was crap, couldn't hold onto the ball. Lots of hopeful passes forward or else passes made without thought ended up giving the ball away.

I didn't see the game at the weekend but get the impression we could have conceded more goals including the penalty save. The same is true of this evening and in hindsight I think we're lucky to get away points from both games. Before both matches we'd have been wanting the win though, a kick in the ass is needed.

Guy:Incognito

p.pete wrote:

We've conceded ~3 goals from penalties already? .

Plus Kanu missed a peno on Sat. 4 penos given away so far this season.

Mr Magnolia

Shockingly poor performance. Rafa has lambasted them too. Birmingham may feel the wrath on saturday.

DeadSkin

Mr Magnolia wrote:

Shockingly poor performance. Rafa has lambasted them too.

Wouldn't call it 'lambasted', but I do hope he's given Pennant a good bollockin' in the dressing room.
Not a big fan of Pennant, and he just proved last night he can't tackle.
The lineup looked like a nice attacking side, well on paper anyway. As someone says earlier no one was on the boil. Masch/Gerrard were a big disappointment last night.
The only player on the pitch who always impresses me with his workrate is Kuyt. The man doesn't know when to stop, sorry, actually he does, when the final whistle goes

HashSlinging

grafting out a draw against porto with that performance was impressive, they were all over the place, mid-field was just terrible so im very happy with the result.

Did anyone watch Dunphy after the match, he has Liverpool written off already.

The Rooster

Good result, mediocre performance.

The back 5 got off to a bad start generally, but after we conceded they were solid and only offered up one real chance to Porto (where Sami cleared off the line).

The pitch was such a super surface that it was like playing indoor soccer - you're touch has to be excellent or else the ball flies away on you. Kuyt worked very hard, but his control was the worst I thought. Every time the ball came to him he lost it when he was up front. Having said that, from the time he went right midfield, he was excellent. I'd be very tempted to play him on the right v Brum, with Torres and Voronin up front.

I thought Torres was our best player in the first half. Always able to control the ball, and he also worked tirelessly, and must have had a right pain in his hole playing the Niall Quinn role, when Sami, Carra and Pepe were launcing air to ground missiles at him. Babel was the other player who's control was generally first class. The game bypassed him for much of the first half, which didnt seem to bother him, but he got himself much more involved in the second.

Mascho could control the ball, but his passing was too often too firm on the zippy surface. At least he was demanding the ball and trying to influence things, unlike his partner.

I have no doubt, that as a collective unit, Porto are the biggest shower of divers in the Champions League.

yom 1

Yeah took him about 2 seconds to say they are piss poor compared to United with absolutely no attacking ability. And said the pool are turning their backs on the traditions of the club and its ethos of "pass and move". But I didnt hear him moaning about our attacking abilty when we destroyed Derby 3 weeks ago. Giles wasnt happy at all either. Neither was I, it was an awful preformance from Liverpool. Nobody could string a pass together. Nobody wanted the ball. But we came away with a point from arguably the toughest game from our group whilst playing poorly.

I did laugh at them bout though because Bill asked them towards the end if Liverpool could win it this year with the style they play and both said they could very well!

Vokes

HashSlinging wrote:

Did anyone watch Dunphy after the match, he has Liverpool written off already.

Nice one, the customary Dunphy Seal of Approval! That's us into the semis at the very least then

Kimbot

The Rooster wrote:

I have no doubt, that as a collective unit, Porto are the biggest shower of divers in the Champions League.

I have to agree with that!! Then I remembered who their old manager was and to be honest I am not surprised!

mike65

HashSlinging wrote:

Did anyone watch Dunphy after the match, he has Liverpool written off already.

Exellent news!

Porto really should have wrapped that game up with 3 points, I wonder if they'll regret not doing so.

Mike.

redspider

Yeah, it was a very poor display by Liverpool. If they play like that again, in the CL or the league, they will get punished. Far too many of the players were not at the races and the passing moves were not coming off at all. The penalty incident could be seen coming. I think Liverpool must have played deep for the rest of the match to avoid a one on one 'sprint' between Hyppia and any of the Porto players. Hyppia was at fault for the goal in my book. He made up for it partially with his clearence later, and was he involved in the goal. However, our goal was more to do with their poor defence. Their centre backs should have got it or it should have been punched clear by their goalie, instead Kuyt had a simple head in from 3 yards out.

Liverpool only had 2 attempts at goal, which is an indication of how bad it was. Still, the silver lining is that it is the result we would have been looking for before the game, so all's well that ends well. But it is a wake up call for all and sundry, players, management and fans.

As for Pennant, its one thing playing bad, but its another playing foolishly. There was no need for any of his fouls. The last one was not going anywhere. The Ref was right to send him off, but Benitez should have hauled his ass off earlier.

As for Chelsea, they had something like 29 attempts at goal, hit the woodwork several times with the goalie beaten, and deserved to win that game. That is 2 pts dropped for them though. Another hiccup could see them getting 2nd and a tough draw in the knock-out stages.

But overall for Liverpool, a poor night, a poor spectacle, and we are lucky enough to come away with what is a satisfactory result.

Redspider

mike65

The lack of any tall attacking payers makes the inclusion of Hyypia over Agger all the more perplexing.

Mike.

Mr Alan

Mike: think Rafa obviously figured that Porto were suspect defensively when it came to set pieces, and thats obviously a major strenght of Samis.

Proved right with the goal too.

mike65

Well thats true on the other hand Agger might have played the ball out rather than have Carra hoofing it so more attacking options may have developed. Ah sure we'll never know!

Mike.

Mr Alan

Escaped with a point, still no goals from open play conceeded, so we should just count ourselves lucky!

although, we would wanna stop conceeding stupid penalties!

woodyg

good point away from home against a decent side. Piss poor performance but still ground out a result. Next game improvement will be needed.

Kanney

No open play goals again. Its incredible to think we are being penalised so much for penalties, now I only caught from 35 mins on and didnt see the actual handball or take down or whatever it was.
But as a whole, I thought Reina's goal kicks were tough to stoamch. He looked unhappy with them too. I heard that Pennant had a yellow when I tuned in and saw some dodgy tackles on players in the end of the first half, and was almost gonna put a sly euro on him to be sent off but didnt.
I do think their will be a goal frenzy on Saturday with Brum. Torres and Kuyt to start with Babel and Pennant. Gerrard and Alonso (if fit)

Didnt Voronin play well when he came on as a lone striker, every time he plays I am imperssed, long live the Vorronators!

event

jonny24ie wrote:

I have to agree with that!! Then I remembered who their old manager was and to be honest I am not surprised!

:rolleyes:

considering there are just 6 players left that played under mourinho, i dont think its down to him

and some liverpool players arent afraid to go down either, so its not really a point

PiE

mike65 wrote:

The lack of any tall attacking payers makes the inclusion of Hyypia over Agger all the more perplexing.

Sky Sports News is reporting that Agger is having a scan on his foot along with Alonso, so I guess it was an enforced change.

Crap performance but I guess it's the kind of result that Utd and Chelsea have been able to grind out in the last few seasons when playing below their best. Could be a very valuable point in the long run.

Jazzy

HashSlinging wrote:

Did anyone watch Dunphy after the match, he has Liverpool written off already.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055057956&page=2

read that for my thoughts on the best our national broadcaster has to offer

copacetic

Jazzy wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055057956&page=2

read that for my thoughts on the best our national broadcaster has to offer

well that was 5 mins of my life I'll never get back.

Tusky

Absolutely terrible performance. Really really bad. No class, barely strung two passes together, two shots on goal all game... really bad.

So far Reina, Carragher, Arbeloa & Finnan have given away penalties! Just need Agger to join in and the back 5 will be all on 1!

Porto were really good in the first 10 minutes, over the 90 I thought they were the better team.

-It was the worst performance I have seen from Mascherano, cant count the amount of times he gave the ball away. Very unlike him.

-Gerrard...was he even on the pitch ? Apart from one or two passes and a clever bit of play in their box towards the end, he wasn't involved at all.

-Pennant ran around like a headless chicken fouling everywhere he went.

-Torres tried hard but had very little support.

-I thought Kuyt (apart from his control) was our best player.

The biggest frustration for me was the way we CONSTANTLY booted the ball from our box to theirs. Did this come off for us even once ? We have the quality to pass the ball through the middle, why aren't we doing it ? This must be coming from the manager...I was hoping this was a style of play that we had left behind. It was a really bad performance and a really bad watch for the spectator.

The ref didn't help things, he didn't let the game flow at all. Neither did the Porto players who were constantly rolling around on the ground. The only positives I can take from the game are that we came away with a point away from home and we still haven't conceded a goal from open play. Roll on the weekend, lets hope we see a backlash.

~Rebel~

Tusky wrote:

Absolutely terrible performance. Really really bad. No class, barely strung two passes together, two shots on goal all game... really bad.

So far Reina, Carragher, Arbeloa & Finnan have given away penalties! Just need Agger to join in and the back 5 will be all on 1!

Porto were really good in the first 10 minutes, over the 90 I thought they were the better team.

-It was the worst performance I have seen from Mascherano, cant count the amount of times he gave the ball away. Very unlike him.

-Gerrard...was he even on the pitch ? Apart from one or two passes and a clever bit of play in their box towards the end, he wasn't involved at all.

-Pennant ran around like a headless chicken fouling everywhere he went.

-Torres tried hard but had very little support.

-I thought Kuyt (apart from his control) was our best player.

The biggest frustration for me was the way we CONSTANTLY booted the ball from our box to theirs. Did this come off for us even once ? We have the quality to pass the ball through the middle, why aren't we doing it ? This must be coming from the manager...I was hoping this was a style of play that we had left behind. It was a really bad performance and a really bad watch for the spectator.

The ref didn't help things, he didn't let the game flow at all. Neither did the Porto players who were constantly rolling around on the ground. The only positives I can take from the game are that we came away with a point away from home and we still haven't conceded a goal from open play. Roll on the weekend, lets hope we see a backlash.

QFT agree with all of the above.

Worst performance I can remember for a good while. That passing was simply abysmal. Thats something that has to be drummed into their heads. I think the lads on RTE are right about Rafa needing to beat it into Alonso to get him on the ball controlling play so things like last night dont happen again (assuming he comes back to displace Masch as first choice beside Gerrard).

Nunu

Agger and Alonso will be out for up to 6 weeks with broken metatarsals.

Skittlebrau

www.liverpoolfc.tv wrote:

DOUBLE INJURY BLOW FOR REDS
Paul Eaton 20 September 2007
Liverpool have been hit with a double injury blow with the news that both Xabi Alonso and Daniel Agger are expected to be sidelined for up to six weeks.
Both players returned from international duty in midweek with foot injuries and scans have confirmed they have suffered a stress fracture of their metatarsal.

Club spokesman Ian Cotton told Liverpoolfc.tv: "Neither player will require surgery but we expect them to be out of action for between four and six weeks.

"Xabi Alonso has suffered a stress fracture to the 4th metatarsal in his left foot and Daniel Agger has suffered a stress fracture to the 2nd metatarsal in his right foot."

The news means both players are likely to miss a number of Barclays Premier League and Champions League matches, including fixtures against Birmingham, Wigan, Tottenham, Everton and Marseille.

Bloody metatarsals.

Back in my day we didn't know what a metatarsal was, let alone how to break one.

Nunu

Ye, it was always a broken foot in the past.... before Beckham did it and the medical term came into the public domain then.

RE*AC*TOR

Agger is the bigger loss IMO. Centre half is where we have the least amount of cover. Centre midfield we have loads.

redspider

Agger is a bigger loss, as Reactor pointed out, as we have less cover there. Although Alonso will be missed by Rafa for his rotations.

> Bloody metatarsals.
> Back in my day we didn't know what a metatarsal was, let alone how to break one.

I'm nearly sure its some of these modern boots/socks, and/or training regimes, and/or diets, and/or playing surfaces, etc. Broken bones did not happen as frequently, although in the past stess fractures such as these were probably just called a "toe injury". Maybe some sports scientists somewhere are conducting or have done a study on it. Two players at the same time is bad luck.

Redspider

Skittlebrau

Now that we have Aurelio back can either he or Arbeloa cover centre back?

I'm not too confident about Hyypia anymore unfortunately.

yom 1

Very unfortunate to lose both players. Hopefully they come back quicker than expected. We could see Arbeloa used in central defense for some games with Riise/Aurelio slotting in at left back.

I wonder could Finnan do a job there and have Arebloa right back with riise/aurelio left. I would think that would be slightly more stable.

PHB

Carragher got back mighty quick so Hyypia wasn't a big deal in the PL, but Agger out for 6 weeks brings you into some very tough games with Hyypia who is very suspect. Personally I think Mascherano or Sissoko might do better, probably the latter.

zing

Skittlebrau wrote:

Now that we have Aurelio back can either he or Arbeloa cover centre back?

I'm not too confident about Hyypia anymore unfortunately.

I'm not sure if Aurelio can cover CB (don't think so) but Arbeloa can and is supposed to be quite good there but I'll reserve judgement until I see him play in that position. I'd imagine he might need some time to adjust - maybe the CC game next week would be a good opportunity to try him out there.

Hypia is still a great player and reads the game very well - pace has never been his strong point.