Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2007/2008

Dont be at yourself

Didn't see the game, but happy with the result, even if we did play bad.

10 games in, and we're 6th, 6 points off top with a game in hand on 3 teams above us. We've been struggling with injuries and form, and we remain unbeaten - including in games against Chelsea and Arsenal. Already we've nearly as many away wins as we did in the whole of last season. The league leaders have a run of tough games ahead of them and hopefully Agger will be back soon to help us close the gap.

mike65

Thanks for that, I feel all warm and cosy now!

Mike.

d22ontour

Indeed , i infact would have loved to see him play for a big team , even Liverpool , for him to get the adulation his talent truely deserves.People say Ireland don't have any world class players , we have 1 but he is a goalkeeper.

KdjaCL

NekkidBibleMan wrote: »

Didn't see the game, but happy with the result, even if we did play bad.

10 games in, and we're 6th, 6 points off top with a game in hand on 3 teams above us. We've been struggling with injuries and form, and we remain unbeaten - including in games against Chelsea and Arsenal. Already we've nearly as many away wins as we did in the whole of last season. The league leaders have a run of tough games ahead of them and hopefully Agger will be back soon to help us close the gap.

mike65 wrote: »

Thanks for that, I feel all warm and cosy now!

Mike.

One didnt see the raping one did, i think mike should tell nekkid how "little" pool were towards the "awesome" arsenal


Or leave it at the cosy feeling, god knows they dont come along too often

usually theres a 100 odd posts after a pool game todays there likes 12, if pats ever play arsenal i hope they try and play like pool did.


kdjac

mike65

I wuz of course being somewhat stoney faced ironic.

Mike.

Cyrus

d22ontour wrote: »

Wow that must make it absolute so ?

Cech and Given are better keepers and i don't need some awards to tell me different.I said he is a good keeper but great , i think not.He is infact Barthez-esque, wobbly at moments but can win a game for you too.

yeah it does

but sure maybe you know better :rolleyes::D

d22ontour

As a football fan 'non-blinkered' it's easy to find both of them to be better keepers than Reina tbh.Oh , he saves penalties , how wonderful , catching crosses shouldn't be that hard so then ?

PHB

Now you actually have an injury crisis:

Liverpool players Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano all face spells out after suffering injuries in Sunday's 1-1 draw against Arsenal.

Alonso (metatarsal) and Torres (abductor muscle) both had recurrences of the injuries which had kept them out for a month before the game.

Alonso limped off after 68 minutes while Torres was replaced by Peter Crouch at half-time.

Mascherano suffered a foot injury and left with his foot in a medical boot.

Manager Rafael Benitez said: "Alonso has suffered the same injury again, the metatarsal, he felt something go in his foot.

"Torres also has a similar injury, a problem with an abductor muscle. Maybe he is not as bad as before. But he could not work as hard as we wanted, we wanted his pace and it was not available.

"He just was not fit. We talked beforehand and he said he was fine. Now we must wait again, he had been out for some time and we have been pushing to get him back, but he has not been right and he still is not right.

"I will need to check with the doctor to see how the players are in the next two days."

Momo and Gerrard in central midfield, Yossi on the right Babel on the left, the team picks itself

machiavellianme

PHB wrote: »

Momo and Gerrard in central midfield, Yossi on the right Babel on the left, the team picks itself

Picks itself? Well now that Harry is near his first team return it does.

I wouldnt mind seeing Flynn or Spearing one of the youngsters given a run or El Zhar up front as he looked good in the pre-season fixtures when he came on. Now is the time to blood a young player or two because I fear Momo may be too reckless against a team carrying Robbie Savage . Perhaps Lucas against Blackburn but one of reserves should be capable against Fulham. Not sure what to do in the Champions League. Cant see us leaving the group now.

mike65

Steady on PHB, you are right but the midfield will feature Yossi/Babel/Kewell (soon) and Lucas and of course Gerrard. I'm sure Sissoko will get some time but I can only hope Rafa has seen the problems createrd by playing him.

Mike.

zing

PHB wrote: »

Momo and Gerrard in central midfield, Yossi on the right Babel on the left, the team picks itself

Don't forget Lucas for the middle of the park too. Hopefully the injury to Masch isn't too serious and we're just back to where we were last week.

And remember it's Rafa we're talking about - the team never ever picks itself regardless of how obvious any potential selections might be

PHB

Gerrard and Lucas, quite the offensive midfield. The most offensive midfield Rafa's ever played has been Alonso and Gerrard, and even that, that's a rare case. Considering the suspect nature of Liverpools defense of late, I'd be incredibly surprised to see no DMC playing.

As for Kewell, I had forgotten about him

I gather Alonso is out for a good few weeks, but how long is Torres expected to be out for?

mike65

About the same I think. Gerrard can play defensive MF

Mike.

machiavellianme

Besides, I wouldnt call Sissoko a Defensive Midfielder. More like temporary set back to their attack midfielder because its inevitable that he returns the ball to them once he wins it

event

why wasnt lucas on the bench?

thought that was a massive oversight, and it looked like arbeloa came on and played in centre of midfield? He was awful there (not his fault) and lost the ball a good bit

liverpool were blessed, i think arsenal has possesion in the 60's, who was the last team to do that at anfield?

though at least the penalties have well evened themselves out now, can carragher not wait until the end of the game to try and swap shirts?

Chardee MacDennis

lucas can play both as an attacking cm and a defensive one. Pretty sure I saw a Gremio game with him playing the holding role.

mike65

---

Reina
Finnan-Carra-Agger-Arbeloa
Benny-Gerrard-Lucas-Kewell

---

Crouch-Kuyt/Babel

the Physioroom has Agger down for a Nov 3 return, we'll see of course but pray it is so.

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=FLLUPNZ7

Mike.

Melion

Jesus christ i cant stand it anymore.

If Rafa hadnt played Torres there would have been holy fúcking war, then he does play him and everyone gives out that he was rushed back. Im beginning to think he can do no right in some peoples eyes

machiavellianme

mike65 wrote: »

---

Reina
Finnan-Carra-Agger-Arbeloa
Benny-Gerrard-Lucas-Kewell

---

Crouch-Kuyt/Babel

the Physioroom has Agger down for a Nov 3 return, we'll see of course but pray it is so.

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=FLLUPNZ7

Mike.

Thats not a bad team. Personally I'd pick Babel over Kuyt. Leaves Riise and the two so-called strikers as super subs.

Tusky

Agger
Alonso
Mascherano
Torres
Aurelio
Pennant

****.

I'd go for something like this...

---

Reina

Finnan----Arbeloa---Carragher---Riise

---

Lucas---Gerrard

Benayoun

---

Kewell

---

Babel

---

Crouch

Ideally I'd like to drop Riise as he has been awful for a while. Hyypia needs to be dropped, Ive lost count of how many goals have been a fault of his in recent games. Lucas, Crouch, Kewell, Babel & Benayoun should be given a run in the team. You could replace Kewell with Gerrard and put Sissoko alongside Lucas if needed to be mroe dfensive.

astrofool

Melion wrote: »

Jesus christ i cant stand it anymore.

If Rafa hadnt played Torres there would have been holy fúcking war, then he does play him and everyone gives out that he was rushed back. Im beginning to think he can do no right in some peoples eyes

You just don't play him saying he wasn't fully recovered from the injury? Not much to argue with or go to "war" over there.

mike65

If he was'nt fit he should'nt have played full stop. No-one would criticise that.

Now about the Carling Cup game against Cardiff (wednesday). Does anyone even care at this stage?

Send out the kids and bench

Mike.

kryogen

How long is your big name striker out for exactly?? when players get injured straight after coming back the manager tends to say he was rushed back. also, its not exactly uncommon that a big player is played a little too early as the occasion needs him. every team does it, sometimes it works out sometimes it backfires, i really think liverpool fans should give benitez a break, i mean he is doing the same things for 3 years now and it didnt seem to bother many people in the first 18 months, i have never changed my opinion of him, and i doubt i will. but i dont understand (besides the obvious ficklety of footie fans) how so many pool fans can turn against him so much, he doesnt seem to be able to do anything right! that game against the gunners was huge for your season, and at the end of the day you werent beat, benitez's usual gameplan works, go out to not be beat and snatch something from the game! i am only referring to the games against bigger teams here.

ButcherOfNog

The Alonso news is disasterous, Mascherano plays so much better when he has Alonso beside him. Hopefully Agger will be back soon and at least that'll plug the defensive up. Torres has and will be a big miss for another 3-4 weeks, he's our only top class striker, our only striker with pace.

Yeah, we now have problems.

On the Arsenal game, yeah they played lovely stuff but it was a game that could have gone either way, both teams had plenty of chances.

Tusky

mike65 wrote: »

If he was'nt fit he should'nt have played full stop. No-one would criticise that.

Now about the Carling Cup game against Cardiff (wednesday). Does anyone even care at this stage?

Send out the kids and bench

Mike.

---

Itandje(sp?)

Arbeloa

---

Carragher----Hobbs----Insua

El Zhar

---

Lucas---Spearing

---

Leto

---

Kewell

---

Babel

Thoughts ?

A Liverpool spokesman said: "A scan this morning has shown a tear to a different adductor muscle to his original injury and we expect Fernando to be out for about three weeks.

"As for Xabi Alonso, an x-ray showed a fracture to the fourth metatarsal in his left foot. Xabi will be seen by a consultant tomorrow after which we will have a much better idea of the timescales involved.
"With regards to Javier Mascherano, he had an x-ray which has showed no bone injury, but he will receive intensive treatment on extensive bruising in his foot."

Mr Alan

Most people thought we would be hammered off the park yesterday, we werent, in fact if Alonso hadnt have gotten injured, i reckon we would have won, he showed yesterday why we missed him so much.

Gerrard is coming back into form. Mascherano looks a better player when Alonso is around. Torres injury is a big blow.

Considering virtually nothing went to plan for benitez yesterday, Torres having a recurrence of his injury early on....Alonso breaking his foot again....masch playing while very obviously injured for the last 10...us taking a point is a good result. Especially considering we, as well as arsenal, could've very easily won it.

agger needs to get back as soon as possible, dont think Hypia had a nightmare yesterday, but he was only ever meant to be cover, not to play 2 games a week for long long periods of time!

Still well on course for a title challenge, no complaints from me.

machiavellianme

Tusky wrote: »

---

Itandje(sp?)

Arbeloa

---

Carragher----Hobbs----Insua

El Zhar

---

Lucas---Spearing

---

Leto

---

Kewell

---

Babel

Thoughts ?

Wouldnt mind that at all but I think Reina could do with the game. Fowler will test him a bit and maybe he'll cop on as he made a few suspect decisions yesterday. I dont like Insua or Arbeloa so I'd rather Threlfall left and Darby on the right. Gerrard could do with a game to build on his form too but I wouldnt begrudge El Zhar his spot. I'd swap Kewell and Babel but otherwise that team should be more than capable.

zing

mike65 wrote: »

Now about the Carling Cup game against Cardiff (wednesday). Does anyone even care at this stage?

I care about God scoring one last goal in front of the Kop - even if he won't be wearing red. As for the game itself - couldn't really give a ....

Well not quite - of course I want to see a decent cup run. These are the kind of games where the fringe/youth players need to stand up and show us what they're capable of.

~Rebel~

machiavellianme wrote: »

I dont like Insua or Arbeloa so I'd rather Threlfall left and Darby on the right.

i have to ask, based on what? Arbeloa has been one of our best performers this season, being asked to fill in on his worse side. Id have him in ahead of Riise in a second anyway.

And Insua hasn't put a foot wrong in his cameo's so far. As well as winning the U-20 world cup.

event

Mr Alan wrote: »

Most people thought we would be hammered off the park yesterday, we werent, in fact if Alonso hadnt have gotten injured, i reckon we would have won, he showed yesterday why we missed him so much.

tbh, i dont think many pool fans will agree with you there

no one thought you would be hammered off the pitch, well not on here anyway. It is anfield, liverpool are rarely hammered there

and i honestly cant see how ye would have won, arsenal were the better team, with way more possession, more overall shots, they commited less fouls, were better passers and better tackle completion. i dont think that was all down to alonso going off.

That being said, they did draw with them, and its not a bad result. Gerrard had a great first half, faded a bit in the second but players get that. Torres wasnt great, obviously still carrying the injury so cant blame him there.

PHB

Been wanting to make this post for a while, but now with multi-quote :P

PHB wrote: »

I think Hyypia is really past it. Because of this, I expect a CB bought by Rafa.

el rabitos wrote: »

you keep harping on about hyypia being past it, whats your basis for this? he's still a memeber of one of the biggest clubs in the world, he's been a european champion as recent as 2 years ago, his reading of the game has always been his asset, not his pace.

he has done nothing to warrant the "he's really past it" talk. he hasnt got as much pace as he once had, but he's still an asset to any squad and more than capable still at this stage to do a job, so enough of this he's really past it bollox please

el rabitos wrote: »

if he hadnt still got enough quality and he was as vulnerable as you have imagined and would like others to think then he wouldnt be there. read that again, he - would - not - be - there. he'd be gone.

if benitez felt that liverpool would be very very vulnerable at the back everytime he played hyypia he would be gone

just like if fergie felt that ole couldnt stick the ball in the back of the net at the highest level, he'd be gone.

Mr Alan wrote: »

PHB: to say Hypia has been very very poor when he has played is a disgrace and just leads me to believe you haven't actually watched him play recently.

He had one very very poor game against Chelsea a couple of seasons ago, he was sick at the time with the flu which didn't exactly help things.

Mystifys me how you can write of one of the top CBs ever to play for Liverpool or in the premier league so easily.

He always solid when he plays, granted he doesnt have the legs to be first choice their for long periods of times, but he is more than capable of stepping up to the plate while Jamie is out.

With Arbeloa able to play there too, and even Gerrard having played there a few times as well, i think we'd still be alright if we didn't sign anyone. Also this might be a perfect time for Hobbs to step up a level?

*cough* *cough* :P

ButcherOfNog

event wrote: »

tbh, i dont think many pool fans will agree with you there

I would, Arsenal played lots of pretty football, well, stunning passing football might be more accurate

For all their posession they didn't create many more open cut chances than pool did. The game could have easily gone either way before the injuries to the midfielders.

Peyton Manning

Mr Alan wrote:

Most people thought we would be hammered off the park yesterday, we werent, in fact if Alonso hadnt have gotten injured, i reckon we would have won, he showed yesterday why we missed him so much.

lol are you serious?

event

~Rebel~ wrote: »

i have to ask, based on what? Arbeloa has been one of our best performers this season, being asked to fill in on his worse side. Id have him in ahead of Riise in a second anyway.

aye thats true

when he signed i thought he was josemi/kronkamp all over again, but he's actually top notch, very good defender

Mr Alan

Archimedes wrote: »

lol are you serious?

Absolutely.

Mr Alan

PHB: if you notice where you've quoted me, i was refering to him being able to come in when Carra was out, for 1-2 weeks, not to play the amount of games that he is now. In fact i even say that he doesnt have the legs to be first choice for a long period of time.

jesus_thats_gre

Hypia is up to the job of standing in for 1 match or coming on as a sub to replace an injured player. He is not good enough as a stand in for along term injury to either Carra or Agger. He is not a 3rd choice, he is a 4th choice at best. Off the top of my head, Hypia was directly responsible for 75% of the goals conceeded from open play this season.

Unearthly

What do Liverool fans think of Blackburn away coming up. Not exactly the type of game a team needs who are looking for form it has to be said

Mr Alan

Going to be a very tough game, Blackburn are going great this year.

We're still not playing particularly well, although the improvement with Alonso yesterday was very noticeable imo

for the game we'll probably be missing.....Agger,Aurelio,Alonso,Torres,Mascherano.....gonna be tough.

machiavellianme

~Rebel~ wrote: »

i have to ask, based on what? Arbeloa has been one of our best performers this season, being asked to fill in on his worse side. Id have him in ahead of Riise in a second anyway.

And Insua hasn't put a foot wrong in his cameo's so far. As well as winning the U-20 world cup.

I acknowledge Arbeloa has done ok across the back 4 at times but he hasnt been tested much either. I havent much confidence in him as he seems to be out of position a lot but because he's not down the other end of the pitch squandering possession like Riise he gets away with it. Maybe in time he'll settle more when he gets a position he owns rather than being made to fit in but for now I dont rate him. Also I feel he goes down a little too easy and often just gives up when a player goes past him (like Hyypia has started to do lately).

Got Insua mixed up with Palletta in a moment of madness. Only just realised which one he is now. He's alright I suppose, not nearly as useless as the latter so I'll take that one back.

mike65

Joe Lovejoy has just said on Newstalks Off the Ball that Gerrard is nurseing two injuries right now one of which "he is'nt letting on about".

Mike.

Dub13

What a strange statement from Lovejoy.

jesus_thats_gre

He has really given alot away too hasn't he

Melion

Is the Cardiff game on Sky?

mike65

I think so.

Mike.

copacetic

I checked earlier and Arsenal are on not us..

mike65

Surprised at that, Gods return beats Gunners v the Blades anyday.

Mike.

machiavellianme

It doesnt even seem to be on the full match repeats the following morning either. And they're showing Arsenal Man U on Saturday at noon not that many here would be bothered with that sort of thing.

mike65

I'm bothered, I want Utd to beat Arsenal and get 3 red cards each plus two long term injuries to vital players!

Mike

Mr Alan

machiavellianme wrote: »

I acknowledge Arbeloa has done ok across the back 4 at times but he hasnt been tested much either.

Barcalona-Home and Away? Chelsea?

Give the guy a break, he has done better than ok, he has been super.