The Offical Liverpool - TNS Match Thread!

mike65

Oh God here goes...this could be either an embarrasingly one sided game which leaves nothing to play for at the Wexham ground next week OR a shock wake up call with a nailbiting climax in 7 days.


This from shanklygates

Liverpool are set to hand debuts to new signings Jose "Pepe" Reina and Bolo Zenden.

Reina is expected to line-up in goal behind a defence of Steve Finnan, Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia and John Arne Riise whilst Zenden is being tipped to join Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso in midfield.

Djibril Cisse and Fernando Morientes should lead the attack whilst there are rumours that Milan Baros will be left out altogether so that he is not cup-tied for any potential new clubs.

so

---

Reina
Finnan----Carra----Hyppia----Riise
Luis Garcia-Alonso-Gerrard-Zenden

---

Cisse---Morrientes

At a guess!

Mike.

ianomccabe

Yeah i'd go with that too. You never know though xabi was given an extra rest cos he was on internationals so he might decide he's not ready to start.

Could see hamann or even one of the youngsters

StickyMcGinty

has sissoko signed properly yet? wouldnt mind seeing him make an appearence tonight!

i'd like to see the same as mike there, but i wouldnt mind seeing some of the new lads in action at some stage tonight!

TheMonster

1-50 odds say it all - a joke of a mismatch - no win situation for Liverpool - if they win well it was expected - if not they will be slated - biggest danger is TNS doing a lot of kicking and injuring sombody.

ianomccabe

Don't think sissoko has signed yet.

Le Tallec and Potter both looked good on Saturday against Wrexham, might get a run at some stage

seabee

Sissoko (from here on to be know as sisko) isn't officially signing until friday AFAIK. I'd like to see Potter & a few more get a game. What is his favoured position? He played just off the striker in a good few reserve games,he's played center of midfield & he played on the wing against Wrexham.

ianomccabe

he plays in the middle but like you said played on the right against Wrexham. He's more of a passer so not likely to skip past people on the wing and whip in balls

p.pete

Any sign of an official lineup yet?

Thumper Long

is this game on rte or tv3 or is it just available to eseason ticket holders, its just id prefer to watch it on the big screen rather than the PC

bizmark

How much money will tns get from this single game?

cregser

well there not allowed to swap shirts because they can't afford new ones.

People, I NEED to see this game. Where is on? I'm in football cold turkey here.

bizmark

cregser wrote:

well there not allowed to swap shirts because they can't afford new ones.

People, I NEED to see this game. Where is on? I'm in football cold turkey here.

lol you jokeing?

btw its on tv3 at 7,30

cregser

Thank you!

And I read it about that in the highly respected and reputable paper that is The Sun.

So take it or leave it. But they had quotes to back it up. Rather than their usual sensationalist "paraphrasing".

uberwolf

Reina, Finnan, Hyypia, Carragher, Warnock, Potter, Alonso, Gerrard, Riise, Le Tallec, Morientes.

TwoShedsJackson

1-0 Gerrard after 7 mins, TNS a bit all over the place really.

bizmark

Nice little lob by gerrard 2-0

This will end up 5-0 or so

shabbyroad

2-0 Gerrard

could it be a dream hat-trick in his first game since signing new contract ?

am enjoying Morientes.

KdjaCL

bizmark wrote:

How much money will tns get from this single game?

€250,000 gauranteed from uefa and about half a million from tv assuming more than 4 tv stations showing it.

So .75 million for a thumping and another half mill next week if 4 stations or more show it.


kdjac

bizmark

KdjaC wrote:

€250,000 gauranteed from uefa and about half a million from tv assuming more than 4 tv stations showing it.

So .75 million for a thumping and another half mill next week if 4 stations or more show it.


kdjac

Not bad money for being humiliated for 180 minuets

Villain

Humilated???? I wouldn't say that with 88 minutes gone, the pool have been awful since the second goal went in, Morientes looks like he's still on beach on his holidays.

Gerrards hat-trick is nice but TNS have done themselves proud.

Ronan|Raven

Liverpool really stepped off the gas after the second goal and seemed content to just pass it around. More competitive (obviously) than a normal pre season game at this stage good for the players. Lord Frodsham (cisse) can fairly accelerate when he wants to.

bizmark

That post was writen dureing the first half when it seemed they would be owned still 3-0 is hardly anything to be proud of and if Morientes bothered it could of been more

Guy:Incognito

It was never going to be 6 or 7 nil, thats not what Liverpool were after. Whats the point in going hell for leather and hammering a team in a pretty pointless game in the grand scheme of things when you can coast to 2 or 3 nil. The reward is the same. No point in risking injuries when a win is a folmality.

Villain

bizmark wrote:

That post was writen dureing the first half when it seemed they would be owned still 3-0 is hardly anything to be proud of and if Morientes bothered it could of been more

Hardly anything to be proud??? Seriously come one these guys are miles away from the resources Liverpool have, a couple of the players were in Istanbul supporting Liverpool. Going to Anfield and giving a good account of yourselves is certainly something to be proud. Liverpools starting 11 contained at least 8 players who could be in the side any week in the Premier League.

IMO fair play to TNS they should be proud of the performance they gave, keeper was excellent.

Space Coyote

I only caught the 2nd half, so missed SG's first 2 goals. Had to play in a bleedin 7-a-side tourny, jaze the heat was savage! Won though.
I heard one of the TNS lads tries to take the leg off Alonso...was it a bad one?

Davei141

Yeah, hes ok though.

Sooner or Later

Hard to know what to take out of this game. Bright enough opening quarter but really took the foot off after the second goal.

Morientes finishing was woeful. Aldo was giving him a lot of stick in the studio.
Reina had nothing to do apart from that one punch which he came out for and dealt with well. Zenden looked lively enough.

I was puzzled as to why Baros was on the bench. If we don't want to cup-tie him then why waste a space on the bench with him? Surely he should not have even been in the squad. (as Dudek wasn't, interestingly).

el rabitos

wouldnt have noticed le tallec was playing if i hadnt seen his name on the starting line up, he did nothing, muck. the odd time he was on the ball he gave it away.

morientes looked woefull, was jaded after 40 minutes and didnt look sharp at all.

the rest of the team looked good, some good crosses from zenden and potter, cisse looked in great form and alonso could hit a 40 yard ball onto a coin, glad he's a liverpool player

eirebhoy

Why play Potter on the right? He never plays well out there. Every match I seen when he moves into a more central role he plays much better and usually sets up a goal.

BTW "Sooner or Later", leaving Baros out of the entire squad is basically telling him he's not needed. Benitez probably doesn't want him cup tied in case of an attractive offer but if no offer comes in you don't want a player feeling not wanted.

Big Ears

That isn't Smemmon Eire just another case of avater thiefery :eek:

Lex Luthor

Stekelly wrote:

It was never going to be 6 or 7 nil, thats not what Liverpool were after. Whats the point in going hell for leather and hammering a team in a pretty pointless game in the grand scheme of things when you can coast to 2 or 3 nil. The reward is the same. No point in risking injuries when a win is a folmality.

I thought R.Whelan was a bit over critical on his commentary. Liverpool didn't really want to push themselves and get an early injury. 3-0 is a good result.
TNS should be proud of teh result also.

TheMonster

3-0 is an ok result - worrying thing for Liverpool is no striker scoring against that calibre of opposition.

Ronan|Raven

TheMonster wrote:

3-0 is an ok result - worrying thing for Liverpool is no striker scoring against that calibre of opposition.

Morientes should have scored one of his chances. Le tallec isnt a striker and cisse was only on the pitch for a few minutes on the wing... He does have a fetching new hair cut though like a sasuage glued to his head.

~Rebel~

Well we won comfortably which is the important thing though it really should have been about 6 from the chances they had, particularly morientes, but on the other side of things he was always in those positions and there were some great saves so just a little bit of confidence and im sure he'll be finishing those.

Im really not a fan of this Cisse on the wing thing. Saw a lot of that when he came back last year and the way he looked last night i would've fancied him for one if he was up front. The lad can run though!

Le tallec did very little except for his fantastic diving header from riise's wayward shot, would've been a class goal if wasn't straight at keeper.
Thought potter's passing looked good, very controlled and composed hopefully wil get a few chances a bit more centrally..

Would've preferred 5 or 6 obviously but sure it'll do. 3 should be enough to make next week comfortable..

StickyMcGinty

good game i thought, whatever the attendance was they were very enthusiastic!

potter was good i thought, nut my real surprise was seeing the enthusiasm in zenden! there was a 5 minute period where he crossed about 5 balls in to the box, quality deliveries too, i can see morientes & cisse likin him this season.

i thought the first 20 minutes there was some great football played by the pool, for gerrards 1st and second goals there were great passing movements before hand, and morientes got at least one assist so i'm not complaining about him not scoring!

and we we're all questioning stevies commitment before.. his first game after all that contract sh1te and he bangs in a hat-trick!! sweeet!

p.pete

Result could have been much better but overall I'm happy, considering it's the second match of what's effectively an early start to pre-season.

Morientes should have gotten more then one or two but he's definitely lacking sharpness, which is fine for this stage in the proceedings - he was good enough to get into the positions to be a threat. Both Zenden and Cisse looked very good from what little we saw of them and it was nice to see Potter, Le Tellec and Warnock getting involved.

I seem to remember Gerrard starting last season similarly, getting goals and walking away not looking particularly delighted, grumpy sod.

StickyMcGinty

in fairness to SG it was only TNS in front of a half full anfield, you wanna see him when the goals matter (olympiakos last year!!!) he goes bananas!!

p.pete

~ 44,800 there last night I think. I'm not looking for him to go bananas but something a little more then no reaction at all would be nice.

And as for comments such as "It's only TNS...", that kind of talk hands under-dogs trophies

ianomccabe

i know it was a full house there last night but i dont think u can expect Stevey to get too over excited about scoring. Liverpool were expected to win comfortably last night which they did, SG would have looked like a bit of a twat doin a klinsmann scoring against TNS!

Thought Cisse did well down the right but i heard that he's not at all pleased about playing there. Hope it doesnt end up the same as the ged/diuof saga when he started playing him down the right

p.pete

ianomccabe wrote:

i know it was a full house there last night but i dont think u can expect Stevey to get too over excited about scoring. Liverpool were expected to win comfortably last night which they did, SG would have looked like a bit of a twat doin a klinsmann scoring against TNS!

Once again, I'm not looking for over excitement - mild excitement would have been a good starting point.

We are epected to win but for the other players on the pitch having the captain showing a good example (which he did) and then maybe turn to his players and try to motivate them to do the same. We are expected to win easy and we didn't - I blame the captain. He certainly did it against Milan, after his first goal he was screaming at everyone to raise their game.

I'm not expecting all that against TNS but I don't expect him to walk away from his goals without saying a word either. He should be more ruthless against the smaller teams (maybe this includes away games in the league) - we used to beat teams like Dundalk 8 or 9 nil in Europe.

Drag00n79

I'm happy enough with that. Some of the players did not look sharp but you'll get that in pre-season. A few more matches will sort them out. Leverkusen next on Saturday (on Channel Five btw).

p.pete

Sweet, didn't realise the Leverkusen match would be on tv

Shred

I would have liked to see the reds win 5/6-0 but at this stage of the season (two weeks into pre-season training) the second half display was to be expected and 3-0 is comfortable enough I suppose

Lex Luthor

ianomccabe wrote:

SG would have looked like a bit of a twat doin a klinsmann scoring against TNS!

Too true.
TNS or not TNS....it was one of teh first games of the season.
Winning result.
The objective at the start would have probably been to at least get the 3 goals and come out without any injuries

mike65

Guys Morientes DID score last night its just that Cisses cross ball had gone out just before the Frenchman struck it, also Morientes set Gerrard free for his second (?) goal as dummied a run and took two defenders with him.

Le Tellac was a waste of space given what i saw of him (not the whole match) and Cisse down the right is wrong.

Mike.

Lex Luthor

Shamrok wrote:

I'm happy enough with that. Some of the players did not look sharp but you'll get that in pre-season. A few more matches will sort them out. Leverkusen next on Saturday (on Channel Five btw).

great, gotta get out the ftv card and dust it off for saturday

Drag00n79

Lex Luthor wrote:

great, gotta get out the ftv card and dust it off for saturday

Yup, if ya haven't used it in a while, it will have "gone asleep". Mine has but a few hours left in the digibox will soon sort that out

~Rebel~

Anyone know if channel 5 is on sky digital? i dont think it is but just hoping..

Lex Luthor

~Rebel~ wrote:

Anyone know if channel 5 is on sky digital? i dont think it is but just hoping..

you'll get it on a UTV FTV sky card which I acquired a few years back on the side of a road in Wexford for a small fee...
Mine fell asleep there a few months back and it took an overnight stay in the box to wake it up. It's going in tonight before I switch out the lights....
and to think I was gonna sell it....
ps. did anybody notice what squad number Reina has been given?

seabee

Lex Luthor wrote:

ps. did anybody notice what squad number Reina has been given?

I think Reina is no. 25, Zenden is no. 30 and Sissoko (sisko) is no. 22