Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread [mod warning #11145, #32140 (see OP)]

SlickRic

Headshot wrote: »

liverpool are against stoke during the week,im not sure does that coming into rafa's thinking

maybe play him against spurs but rest him for the stoke match (no offence to stoke fans)

that's the kind of way rafa normally thinks alright.

personally i'd prefer him rested for Spurs if there's any risk. i'd prefer him 90% fit against Stoke than 60/70% against Spurs (re: injury, and yossi can cover more than adequately if gerrard's only at 60/70% fit imo.)

joe123

Headshot wrote: »

before anyone ask it's not to do with FF (dont get me started with that:rolleyes:)

anymore updates about gerrard fitness for sunday ?

Why do you not like Fantasy Football?

Im of the thinking Gerrard will be sound for the game, I reckon he was just pulled from the england game as it was a friendly at a very bad time....

Headshot

joe123 wrote: »

Why do you not like Fantasy Football?

Im of the thinking Gerrard will be sound for the game, I reckon he was just pulled from the england game as it was a friendly at a very bad time....

I dont mind ff at all but it's being mention in every match day thread and posters actually come into the super threads and ask users for tips

just grinds my gears

joe123

Headshot wrote: »

I dont mind ff at all but it's being mention in every match day thread and posters actually come into the super threads and ask users for tips

just grinds my gears

Ah right fair enough. Suppose we all have our annoyances!

Anyways how do people reckon we will fair tomorrow? Personally now im getting nervous about it. Dont want to be bringing up the whole Lucas thing again but at the minute hes basically replaced Xabi which is a big loss to the team and if Gerrard is in fact out we will have a very poor midfield.

Along with the fact im expecting big things from Spurs this season. I could just see Defoe making carragher fall over himself tomorrow. Tough Tough game to start with.

SlickRic

joe123 wrote: »

Dont want to be bringing up the whole Lucas thing again but at the minute hes basically replaced Xabi which is a big loss to the team and if Gerrard is in fact out we will have a very poor midfield.

genuinely, if he plays as he has been in pre-season, lucas is the least of our worries. plus we still have masch alongside him too. midfield's fine.

gerrard being out will not be ideal, obviously, but benny can fill in just fine. plus there's a pretty handy Spanish guy who'll frighten the sh*t out of a patched up spurs defence.

i'm most worried about defence. people are either injured or just coming back to fitness, so i hope whoever is in there is on the pace.

spurs have plenty of problems in defence, but yes going forward they look handy.

i suspect there'll be goals tomorrow. 2-2 or 3-2 either way is my guess.

rossie1977

joe123 wrote: »

Tough Tough game to start with.

rafa has never had an opening day game at home, all 6 so far away from home, just found that an interesting tidbit

D'Agger

SlickRic wrote: »

genuinely, if he plays as he has been in pre-season, lucas is the least of our worries. plus we still have masch alongside him too. midfield's fine.

gerrard being out will not be ideal, obviously, but benny can fill in just fine. plus there's a pretty handy Spanish guy who'll frighten the sh*t out of a patched up spurs defence.

i'm most worried about defence. people are either injured or just coming back to fitness, so i hope whoever is in there is on the pace.

spurs have plenty of problems in defence, but yes going forward they look handy.

i suspect there'll be goals tomorrow. 2-2 or 3-2 either way is my guess.

Dead right about Lucas he's been playing well as of late. Defence is the big issue - Insua vs. Lennon will be very interesting and hopefully Masch will snuff out Modric who's extremely under rated imo. I'll be closing my eyes every time Carra jumps against Crouch in case he lands badly on that ankle and with Skrtels hamstring everytime Defoe runs at him

whatawaster

With Lucas we still have a better midfield than Spurs, though i like Palacios a lot. We are also better in GK, defense, wings and up front. There are no excuses tomorrow

GBX

rossie1977 wrote: »

rafa has never had an opening day game at home, all 6 so far away from home, just found that an interesting tidbit

He was giving out about it during the week to the press. Its unusual for sure. Hopefully we can reproduce the result of the last day

Karmafaerie

I'm honestly not worried at all.

As we all know, anything can happen in football, so I'm not guaranteeing a win by any means, but personaly I'll be fairly surprised if we don't win.

Tottenham are a team that while promising, have still to prove that hey can handle any kind of mental preasure.
If Liverpool go 2-0 down, I can still see them winning, if Tottenham go 2-0 down, game over.

If I had to guess, I'd say either 2-0 or 3-1.


On a side note, I hope Crouchie gets a good reception at the game.
A good servant of LFC.

Ardent

Can't see a win tomorrow, we will struggle in the middle of the park (assuming Gerrard is fit and plays up front with Torres). It's a sad state of affairs that we are stuck with Lucas in midfield.

Fromvert

Ardent wrote: »

Can't see a win tomorrow, we will struggle in the middle of the park (assuming Gerrard is fit and plays up front with Torres). It's a sad state of affairs that we are stuck with Lucas in midfield.

Always the pessimist.

Can't wait, Lucas and Masch to boss the middle and Nando and Stevie to do the business up top with a little help from Kuyt. The defence will get caught though with one. 3 - 1 to the pool.

bUILDERtHEbOB

Ardent wrote: »

Can't see a win tomorrow, we will struggle in the middle of the park (assuming Gerrard is fit and plays up front with Torres). It's a sad state of affairs that we are stuck with Lucas in midfield.

Aye, he'll probably give away 3 penalties and not make a single forward pass all game, I think we need to pull a damage limitation job and just hope they don't hammer us 5 or 6 nil, the useless fecker.

raven136

Ardent wrote: »

Can't see a win tomorrow, we will struggle in the middle of the park (assuming Gerrard is fit and plays up front with Torres). It's a sad state of affairs that we are stuck with Lucas in midfield.

did you watch him towards the end of last season?during the pre season?Remember his sublime pass against newcastle.Lucas is no alonso yet but he is a decent player who is getting better.

monkey9

raven136 wrote: »

did you watch him towards the end of last season?during the pre season?Remember his sublime pass against newcastle.Lucas is no alonso yet but he is a decent player who is getting better.

I'm not sure he ever watches Liverpool, i think he just reads the back pages of the newspapers

Malice

raven136 wrote: »

did you watch him towards the end of last season?during the pre season?Remember his sublime pass against newcastle.Lucas is no alonso yet but he is a decent player who is getting better.

I thought he was just being sarcastic!

whatawaster

Ardent wrote: »

Can't see a win tomorrow, we will struggle in the middle of the park (assuming Gerrard is fit and plays up front with Torres). It's a sad state of affairs that we are stuck with Lucas in midfield.

Struggle against who in the middle of the park? Mascherano is more than a match for Palacios. And who else have they got? Jenas is doubtful. Huddlestone is not a good player. O'Hara? Give me Lucas any day of the week.
Tell me that if we win tomorrow, and Lucas plays well that you'll come on here and say so. (no replies of "that's never gonna happen)

Malice

whatawaster wrote: »

Tell me that if we win tomorrow, and Lucas plays well that you'll come on here and say so. (no replies of "that's never gonna happen)

As Liverpool aren't playing tomorrow I think Ardent will get away with not having to post that .

noodler

rossie1977 wrote: »

rafa has never had an opening day game at home, all 6 so far away from home, just found that an interesting tidbit

Never knew that, Christ thats unlucky.

Am I right in thinking the last home game on the first day of the season was the 2-1 defeat to the Chelsea Revolutionaries?

dannydiamond

Karmafaerie wrote: »

On a side note, I hope Crouchie gets a good reception at the game.
A good servant of LFC.

Absolutely.
I'm sure he'll get a warm reception.

For all of you worried about the Spurs game, you must be cr@pping yourselves for us for the rest of the season.
This is Spurs ffs,we're in right trouble if these are the games that worry us.
Obviously no easy games etc and this certainly isn't one but we're at Anfield and we're title contenders,Spurs should be bricking it imo.
I expect us to win well.

Stargate

Is Stevie G going to be playing today?

mike65

As Spurs are at home I'm sure Crouchigol will be fine.

dannydiamond

dannydiamond wrote: »

Absolutely.
I'm sure he'll get a warm reception.

For all of you worried about the Spurs game, you must be cr@pping yourselves for us for the rest of the season.
This is Spurs ffs,we're in right trouble if these are the games that worry us.
Obviously no easy games etc and this certainly isn't one but we're at Anfield and we're title contenders,Spurs should be bricking it imo.
I expect us to win well.

We're playing away.

copacetic

dannydiamond wrote: »

Absolutely.
I'm sure he'll get a warm reception.

For all of you worried about the Spurs game, you must be cr@pping yourselves for us for the rest of the season.
This is Spurs ffs,we're in right trouble if these are the games that worry us.
Obviously no easy games etc and this certainly isn't one but we're at Anfield and we're title contenders,Spurs should be bricking it imo.
I expect us to win well.

as pointed out already, we're away and spurs caused us plenty of problems last year.

Malice

noodler wrote: »

Am I right in thinking the last home game on the first day of the season was the 2-1 defeat to the Chelsea Revolutionaries?

I just had a quick look on LFCHistory.net and you are correct. In 2003/2004 we played them at Anfield and lost 2-1. Interestingly that game saw the debuts of both Steve Finnan and Harry Kewell.

Stargate

Haman was talking on sky was saying Alonzo will be a big loss to Liverpool . I know people are saying its only spurs etc , but ( and i hate saying it ) Im not tooo comfortable if Lucas is in the middle of the park , gives the ball away too easily , stupid fouls , if he has to play i hope he has improved from last year , because for me hes simply not good enough , hope he proves me wrong , specially if he is OUR long term midfielder

Stargate

noodler

dannydiamond wrote: »

Absolutely.
I'm sure he'll get a warm reception.

For all of you worried about the Spurs game, you must be cr@pping yourselves for us for the rest of the season.
This is Spurs ffs,we're in right trouble if these are the games that worry us.
Obviously no easy games etc and this certainly isn't one but we're at Anfield and we're title contenders,Spurs should be bricking it imo.
I expect us to win well.

Yeah strange one that. Spurs are decent, our record atthe lane is only above average and Harry is their manager which always seems to improve teams.

dannydiamond

Deleted User wrote: »

We're playing away.

Oops, I had to look it up, lol waiting all summer for our first game and all summer I was thinking it was sweet kicking the summer off at Anfield.

Karmafaerie

I meant from the away fans.
We have the loudest after all.

It's be nice to hear a rendition of

"He's big
He was a red
His feet stick out the bed
Peter Crouch"

Stargate

i always liked crouchy , have him in my FF team , good team player , just hope he dont score a winner today

dannydiamond

dannydiamond wrote: »

Oops, I had to look it up, lol waiting all summer for our first game and all summer I was thinking it was sweet kicking the summer off at Anfield.

I always know about when this particular fixture is. My 87 year old grandad is a die hard Spurs fan. Still able to call me when they beat us like last year, the wánker

Stargate

With Utd looking like taking all 3 points today and Arsenal , Chelsea , Man City etc all winning , if we lose to spurs it will be a real bad start , looks like Stevies fit , hope we get a win today and have a good start to the season , spurs are always a tough game for us , i be happy with a 1-2 win

missingtime

Article in todays Sunday Times:

In the fickle world of football Rafa Benitez has devised a methodology for most things, including pre-season predictions. He talks of “making progress”, of being better than last season, of seeing where that takes you against the competition. Never, ever commit yourself to winning the League.

Sane strategy at a place where the official website states that “no other football club in the world has a history to match Liverpool” and every title accrued by Manchester United seems to be an affront. Hard, though, to sustain when your golden boy centre-forward declares that this time mere progress is not enough.

“It has to be this season, there is no room for excuses any more,” said Fernando Torres. “There is only a slight improvement needed to give the fans and players the title they have wanted for so many years. This is the best Liverpool team there has been in years. That is what many of the experienced players are saying.”

The reasoning is seductive. Torres and co blew through the final three months of the Premier League season, dropping just two points in their last 11 games. The record against the elite was special: home and away victories over United and Chelsea, two scoring draws with Arsenal.
Related Links

As if inviting the Kop on, United then ship their best player out of England, diverting most of the income to their bankers. Chelsea employ a Premier League virgin as manager, prioritising Champions League success. And Arsenal sell on experience, once more reducing their physical and mental stature. Conclusion? Two doleful decades watching others take the title are about to end.

Other arguments support such optimism. After years of studied politicking, Benitez has unbridled control of the football club: bête noire chief executive Rick Parry forced into resignation, co-owner Tom Hicks lined up behind the Spaniard’s banner, player recruitment and the academy refashioned to his liking.

On the pitch, a way has been found to emphasise the great in Steven Gerrard’s game, pushing the restless energy away from the defence and granting him the freedom of the attacking third. The partnership with Torres is tantalising, each averaging better than a goal every two League appearances last season. Even without them for eight and 14 matches respectively, Liverpool reached 86 points last term, their best in the Premier League era.

“Some people will say that maybe we will need more [points] but I would like to see the top sides playing each other and also Aston Villa, Tottenham or Manchester City,” says Benitez. “I think they will lose some points and we could lose some points, but you never know if 86 is enough.

“The main thing for us is to try to keep that level against the top four but also improve against the other teams. The draws at home could be a massive difference. If the players are just focusing on the next game it will be easier to win against anyone.”

Yet there are doubts that run deeper than preparation and focus. Xabi Alonso’s departure has been a work in progress since he drew Benitez’s ire by missing a Champions League tie for the birth of his first son 15 months ago. That the manager tried and failed to replace Alonso with Gareth Barry last year did nothing to diminish the midfielder’s popularity with the Kop or hide his importance in pacing the play.

Real Madrid further unsettled Javier Mascherano by threatening to pursue him if they couldn’t have Alonso, Barry was swept off to Manchester City long before Liverpool had the cash to act and another potential successor in Felipe Melo was lost to Juventus.

Benitez ended up with Alberto Aquilani, an Italian not accustomed to playing so close to the back four. At £20m, he arrives aged 25 with a damaged ankle and a medical history he seems tired of defending. “I really don’t know when I’ll be playing. I had a thorough medical, Liverpool saw the problem and that they could solve it. I don’t know if I’ll be out for four weeks, five weeks, eight weeks. I want to get better so that I’m not off later on. ”

Liverpool must now rely more on Mascherano. Benitez says he has talked the Argentine through the refusal to let him leave for Barcelona. “It is not easy for any player, but he knew from the first day that we didn’t want to sell him.” Compensation will come from a new contract but Mascherano’s Premier League appearance account will have to rise above last season’s 27, long flights back from international duty notwithstanding.

In every department of the squad there is the same problem with depth. When Torres’s thigh muscles protest, Dirk Kuyt must come in from the wing or David Ngog be promoted beyond his experience. Should Gerrard be sidelined, Yossi Benayoun or the returning Andriy Voronin must ape the irreplaceable. Andrea Dossena and Ryan Babel both passed the summer sporting for-sale signs, yet the Italian can expect to start this afternoon at Tottenham and the Dutchman may be the impact sub. There are just three senior centre-backs, all of whom enter the season carrying injuries, and it’s best not to think of Liverpool’s fate were Pepe Reina to be injured.

Benitez has gone three years without a trophy, Liverpool’s longest drought in a decade. For it to be broken in the League, every star will have to be present, correct and lined up in his direction.

Ardent

Fromvert wrote: »

Always the pessimist.

Can't wait, Lucas and Masch to boss the middle and Nando and Stevie to do the business up top with a little help from Kuyt. The defence will get caught though with one. 3 - 1 to the pool.

Whereas you're another of the deluded optimists on here. Told ye we would struggle, it's not easy being right all the time, sigh. Nevermind though, you guys keep on w@nking over Lucas, Kuyt, Voronin & co.

missingtime

Ardent wrote: »

Whereas you're another of the deluded optimists on here. Told ye we would struggle, it's not easy being right all the time, sigh. Nevermind though, you guys keep on w@nking over Lucas, Kuyt, Voronin & co.

Thought Voronin did OK when he came on. Lucas and Kuyt had a poor day though.

I said in the match thread that it seemed Gerrard had no faith in Lucas and wanted to get into that position.

When Lucas and Gerrard switched, the team had more going forward. Helped by Yossi coming on for Babel as well.

I wonder will Gerrard take Alonso's role going forward.

Ardent

missingtime wrote: »

Thought Voronin did OK when he came on. Lucas and Kuyt had a poor day though.

Voronin is not the worst player in the world but he's not suited to the Premiership - he needs too long on the ball.

jesus_thats_gre

One thing is clear from todays match is that we should be playing Gerrard deeper until we have a chance to use Aquilani:

---

Reina

---

Johnson

---

Skrtel

---

Carra

---

Insua

---

Masch

---

Gerrard

---

---

Kuyt

---

Benny

---

Riera

---

---

Torres

---

whatawaster

Ardent wrote: »

Whereas you're another of the deluded optimists on here. Told ye we would struggle, it's not easy being right all the time, sigh. Nevermind though, you guys keep on w@nking over Lucas, Kuyt, Voronin & co.

you pat yourself on the back. Glad it's important to you to score points over other liverpool fans and aren't too upset by the result

monkey9

Ardent wrote: »

Whereas you're another of the deluded optimists on here. Told ye we would struggle, it's not easy being right all the time, sigh. Nevermind though, you guys keep on w@nking over Lucas, Kuyt, Voronin & co.

I'm trying so hard not to get banned here cos i would HATE so much to give you that satisfaction, cos i'm still not sure if you come on here to troll

Your opinions are a joke. You only come on here when we get beaten. You went missing once we hammered Utd in March and yet, here you are again.

You are never here when we win. You are never here to be positive. Even when we beat Chelsea at Anfield last season, you didn't even watch it cos you assumed we would be beaten and you heard from someone that it was a crap match.

What do you get out of it? Seriously, what is the point?

NukaCola

Liverpool just never got going today and were outplayed by Spurs. Just a poor performance by Liverpool overall, they did have a bit more bite when Yossi came on. Bizarre decision to start Babel? I know he needs games but i dont think today was a game to do it, was totally ineffective down the left, Rafa took too long in making the change also. Poor start, hope we can put this behind us and fast.

Ardent

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

One thing is clear from todays match is that we should be playing Gerrard deeper until we have a chance to use Aquilani:

---

Reina

---

Johnson

---

Skrtel

---

Carra

---

Insua

---

Masch

---

Gerrard

---

---

Kuyt

---

Benny

---

Riera

---

---

Torres

---

Spot on.

missingtime

BumbleBee123 wrote: »

Liverpool just never got going today and were outplayed by Spurs. Just a poor performance by Liverpool overall, they did have a bit more bite when Yossi came on. Bizarre decision to start Babel? I know he needs games but i dont think today was a game to do it, was totally ineffective down the left, Rafa took too long in making the change also. Poor start, hope we can put this behind us and fast.

I said this in the match thread that Babel should not be placed out there any more. He should be competing with Ngog.

He is not a winger and, in this posters humble opinion, never will be.

jesus_thats_gre

monkey9 wrote: »

Your opinions are a joke. You only come on here when we get beaten. You went missing once we hammered Utd in March and yet, here you are again.

You are never here when we win. You are never here to be positive. Even when we beat Chelsea at Anfield last season, you didn't even watch it cos you assumed we would be beaten and you heard from someone that it was a crap match.

Exactly.

wcarey1975

First game of the season, now lets hope thats the sh1te game out of teh way. Spurs from what I saw looked okay today but like everton yesterday thats because we let them run the show. Here's to 6 points from the next 2 games. Hope Skittles can shake off the injury in time for the next match otherwise I can see a dip into the market. Anyway 1 down 37 to go.

kingshankly

lucas played better than mach did today was our best midfielder.
cant remember seeing liverpool give away so many fouls.
kuyt was poor and babel was babel

Ardent

wcarey1975 wrote: »

Hope Skittles can shake off the injury in time for the next match otherwise I can see a dip into the market.

Agree we need to dip into the market but feel we have a more urgent need for creativity up front/in midfield. Babel isn't going to do much this season IMO.

whatawaster

Ardent wrote: »

Agree we need to dip into the market but feel we have a more urgent need for creativity up front/in midfield. Babel isn't going to do much this season IMO.

No i agree. I've all but given up on Babel. But i have faith in Yossi, Riera and Kuyt

NukaCola

missingtime wrote: »

I said this in the match thread that Babel should not be placed out there any more. He should be competing with Ngog.

He is not a winger and, in this posters humble opinion, never will be.

Totally agree with you, but Rafa played him down the left today ahead of an in form Yossi, and IMO a costly mistake as we looked much better with Yossi on the field.

Bandit12

Ardent wrote: »

Whereas you're another of the deluded optimists on here. Told ye we would struggle, it's not easy being right all the time, sigh. Nevermind though, you guys keep on w@nking over Lucas, Kuyt, Voronin & co.

Oh no need to drag the thread down. Putting a @ in the word instead of an A does'nt make you look any better.

Esse85

Esse85 wrote: »

Spurs to win 2-1, goals from Keane and Palacios

Cant believe i got the goal scorers wrong