boro vs. pool mathc thread (scores and what not)

mayordenis

just over an hour before kick-off,
gonna be a good test of the new liverpool team,
when can we expect squad news?

Chong

Just stayed tuned to their website.

Guy:Incognito

Not asking much out of this game. A goal each from Luis Garcia and Gerrard and a clean sheet for Carra will do nicley for my fantasy premier league 1st weekend.



Course a goal from Carra wouldnt be unwelcome, but he 's already scored this decades goal.

Drag00n79

I'd be a little worried about Yakubu making his competitive debut but I'll go with a 2-1 win. A win and no injuries would be my wish.

Chong

I hope Carra scores and keeps a clean sheet because he is in my FF team.

mayordenis

id much rather see cisse and nando on the score sheet we really need a strikers scoring this season.

Necronomicon

Zenden has recovered from injury to start against the team he was player of the season for last year, probably to a chorus of boos. Hard to predict any game at the very start of the season, but with Liverpool's summer additions I think they'll win.

Davey Devil

Liverpool go 4-5-1 with Morienties up front and Cisse on bench. It's gonna be a paint dryer.

Necronomicon

Boro:
Schwarzer
Reiziger
Southgate
Ehiogu (man I can't spell)
Quedrue

Mendieta
Parlour
Boateng
Downing

Hasselbaink
Yakubu

Liverpool:
Reina
Finnan
Hyypia
Carra
EDIT: My mistake, Warnock not Riise.

Luis Garcia
Alonso
Gerrard
Sissoko
Zenden

Morientes

stevoslice

'watching' game on bbc.co.uk, looks like pool are all over em...
75 mins gone
12 shots to 4
53% to 47% posession.

please don't tell me our strikers are playin crap?

stevoslice

ooh, and ehiogu's just been sent off. c'mon lads, get an away win in early...

mike65

This has got 0-0 written all over it. Baros is on.

Mike.

PHB

poor show from liverpool. Gerrard should have killed off this game like 6 times

zokrez

I am afraid Liverpool are gong to struggle yet again , in the premiership. If we are going to have any chance, these are the games we MUST win. 0-0. Full time.

stevoslice

FT 0-0, not a bad start i suppose, boro are a good side n that, yada yada yada, wanted a good win though.

zokrez

Liverpool actually played well and in particular in the 2nd half. Gerrard should have scored.

jubbly

0-0, not bad not great

mike65

My fivers down the pan but its two points more than the same game last season. Hey we're gonna finnish forth!

Mike.

StickyMcGinty

well we were all over them for the whole game and should have won, but it was a strong performance for an away tie.

sissoko was hungry for every ball on the pitch, had a good game, defence looked strong too - gerrard and xabi put in good performances, cisse was muck but he was out if position, baros looked like he just didnt want to be there.

the biggest disappointment though was boros attitude that they were delighted to get a point at home, i was disgusted when they just killed the game with the last corner, really negative stuff!

Davei141

What on earth is going on. Benitez watches cisse and morientes tear sofia apart mid-week then decides to play morientes on his own up front. Garcia who normally links up with the striker was out on the wing until he was took off, he crossed 0 balls. Cant believe not one of gerrards chances didnt go in, he played quite well. Sissoko had a very good game, won alot of ball. Alonso wasnt the best. The defenders didnt have much to do. Cisse when he came on was superb, shame there was only baros in the box. I wasnt expecting this match to be any good, everytime we play them at home its tediously painful to watch, but i hoped all the same. We really have to use 2 strikers from the start.

Chardee MacDennis

just shows you we need an out and out RW, Garcia is as weak as a kitten and gives the ball away way too much. Cisse just not a winger but seems to be our only option for the moment

jubbly

mike65 wrote:

My fivers down the pan but its two points more than the same game last season. Hey we're gonna finnish forth!

Mike.

yeah , fourth position is written all over this liverpool team. its money in the bank IMO

Guy:Incognito

mike65 wrote:

My fivers down the pan but its two points more than the same game last season. Hey we're gonna finnish forth!

Mike.

We got -1 for the game last season?

Chong

Benitez is one serious fussy git tbh why cant play two strikers EPL has he got a mental block or something.

mike65

Ooops! Okay one more point, we're still goning to finnish forth though.

Mike.

Davei141

cisse was muck but he was out if position, baros looked like he just didnt want to be there.

Ah i have to disagree, cisse put in loads of crosses that were missing all game (Zenden and garcia crosses 1 ball between them) and he won free kicks in menacing positions. Baros didnt really have a chance to do anything when boro packed around the box. He did put the pass that sent gerrard through only to have ehiogh (whatever) chop him down shamefully. Really gutted, should of won. I hope benitez is more attacking at the start of the next away match.

Ronan|Raven

Sack Benitez quick!

Chong

Finishing 4th is not a goal ,ye are Liverpool once the biggest team in England . You should be aiming for first and no lower.

StickyMcGinty

Davei141 wrote:

Ah i have to disagree, cisse put in loads of crosses that were missing all game (Zenden and garcia crosses 1 ball between them) and he won free kicks in menacing positions. Baros didnt really have a chance to do anything when boro packed around the box. He did put the pass that sent gerrard through only to have ehiogh (whatever) chop him down shamefully. Really gutted, should of won. I hope benitez is more attacking at the start of the next away match.

cisse was sh1te, his touch was aweful, and i wouldnt call getting chopped down by the reckless quedrue a plus on his performance!

garcia was ****e, i'm really likin this sissoko feller though

on another day we would have run out 5 nil winners, dont worry lads a top 3 finish is on the cards this was a much more improved team than last year

Dont be at yourself

Dire, dire game.

4-5-1 is fine when we travel away to teams that are going to put us under pressure, but Middlesboro never attempted to do that to us. Rafa needs to stick two strikers up front against these teams away from home.

Cisse hasn't convinced me as a winger, he makes some sloppy passes and I think he'd be much more potent up front.

Sissoko had a good game, he looks like a good buy and should offer cover/fresh legs in place of Alonso or Stevie G.

Chardee MacDennis

i think we played well, we were away from home and we limited the home side to 0 shots on goals. dominated the game, a little unlucky gerrard didnt score, but i am pleased. we will only go from strength to strength

StickyMcGinty

Call_me_al wrote:

i think we played well, we were away from home and we limited the home side to 0 shots on goals. dominated the game, a little unlucky gerrard didnt score, but i am pleased. we will only go from strength to strength

totally agree, wouldnt be too pessimistic lads we've gotten stronger and stronger

Davei141

When it settles im sure it wont be too bad but im still absolutely gutted, i cheered 4 times only to realise they just missed horrible feeling

PHB

I still am not convinced that Liverpool have what it takes to go and really take on teams that are happy with a draw.

Drag00n79

Fairly disappointed with the formation from the start. It appeared that we were setting out our stall not to lose rather than to win. However, when Ehiogu was sent off and they put only one up front, I could not believe we still persisited with 4-5-1. I would have thought Riise coming on for Zenden after the sending off would have helped too. Im just going to have to keep saying to myself tonight it is only the first match of the season and we did not have the luck of some other winning teams today.

Take it

PHB wrote:

I still am not convinced that Liverpool have what it takes to go and really take on teams that are happy with a draw.

blah blah blah, if liverpool won 5-0 youd say they scored to many

Liverpool played well and were v unlucky not to win, im personally not reading to much into this game, 1st game of the season against boro away is no easy game. they had zero shots on target which is hopefully a sign of what the defence can do all season.

i think Rafa will go for a 4-5-1 away and 4-4-2 at home in the EPL this year

Necronomicon

I'm surprised that Rafa started with the 4-5-1. I thought he'd switch to the 2 up front when Cisse came on, surprised to see him stay on the right. Especially when 'boro went down to ten men.
I don't think you can really judge how far a team are going to get in a season based on the first game, but on this game you'd think that Liverpool would have to finish their chances a bit better. They were throwing the kitchen sink towards the end. Then again, I guess you could chalk it up to being just one of those days. Gerrard on another day probably would have finished off one of the many chances he had.
As for 'boro, I wonder which strike-force Mclaren will favour for the season. None of them had too much to do today, the Yak looked bright though.

RE*AC*TOR

good performance second half for the pool. Boro never really figured and we should have applied more pressure in the first half.

Morientes never got the service he needed - Baros was far more effective with that type of play. We're gonna need a right winger to get the best from morientes. Cisse is not a winger, nor is garcia.

+points - Gerrard looked up for it, defense looked solid, sissoko had a good game and looks a prospect.

ianomccabe

I'm as frustrated as anyone else with a point today but i have to say i'm delighted with the performance.

Back 4 were solid, reina showed great commanding presence within his area apart from one lapse.

Sissoko was as hungry as i've seen a liverpool player in ages, he really wanted every ball and never stopped running. Gerrard created chance after chance, just a pity he couldnt put one away. alonso looked sharp and his distribution was good. Garcia and Zenden linked up well with the other midfielders but neither are the type of winger that will whip in cross after cross.

Morientes looked good in patches, lack of pace let him down at times. Cisse looked like a player pisd off cos he's playing out of position. He voiced his concerns within melwood towards the end of last season that he did not want to play out on the right. Baros looked like a player who knows he has no future at the club.

If a out and out right winger can be sourced by benitez then i think this team can click. They created enough chances without one to win 4 or 5 games.

I think benitez was right to go with 1 up front. Liverpool's problem away from home was they could never get a grip on games. They definitely did that today and i know as cliched as it sounds i think they could have won 3 or 4 nil on another day

Chardee MacDennis

Nando cant really pull it off by himself up front, cant wait to see how crouchie does in that role

PiE

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

4-5-1 is fine when we travel away to teams that are going to put us under pressure, but Middlesboro never attempted to do that to us. Rafa needs to stick two strikers up front against these teams away from home.

They were my exact words in the pub yesterday.

Gutted about the result, considering how many chances we had but hey... we lost this fixture last season didn't we?

Jivin Turkey

Im surprised at the negativity of some peoples reactions to this result.

I agree it was a little disappointing, but only because we completely dominated the game. 4-5-1 was obviously the right formation because it totally nulified Boro who hardly had a kick. We would have won the game had Gerrard not been cut down when clean through.

Boro are a good side and not a side that we can just expect to turn up and beat. They beat us 2-0 at the Riverside last year. This year we totally owned them. They will take points off a lot of teams at home.

Dont be at yourself

4-5-1 was obviously the right formation because it totally nulified Boro who hardly had a kick.

If we have any real title aspirations, should we going to the riverside just no nullify boro, or should we play for a win? We need to aim higher than scoreless draws away from home to teams like Boro, and the tactics and mentality yesterday, especially in the first half, aren't going to push us up the table.

Jivin Turkey

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

If we have any real title aspirations, should we going to the riverside just no nullify boro, or should we play for a win? We need to aim higher than scoreless draws away from home to teams like Boro, and the tactics and mentality yesterday, especially in the first half, aren't going to push us up the table.

For a start I dont think we have any real title aspirations.

And its not like we didnt go for the win, we had all the chances. We didnt go there to just "nulify" them we played in a way that did that and they hardly got a kick, and we still got a few chances to boot. On another day Gerrard would have scored a couple (which he admitted himself).

Benetiz said after that it was two points dropped, but Id imagine that underneath he is not that disappointed with the result as it was the type of game that we were losing last year, and as I said this year we dominated it and could have (should have?) won.

Dont be at yourself

But why don't we have any real title aspirations? We're not short on talent. It's because we drop points to these teams. We have the quality to go out and attack teams like Boro away from home more than we did yesterday.

Liverpool didn't go for a win until the latter stages of the second half. We had one clear chance in the first half, and not much more until Ehiogu's sending-off. And by then it was a big ask, with Boro playing inside their penalty box. Gerrard could have scored one or two, but that'd mask a pretty laclustre attacking performance, if you ask me.

The result is hardly a disaster (and it, after all, the first weekend of the season), but I hope it's not a sign of things to come.

Jivin Turkey

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

But why don't we have any real title aspirations? We're not short on talent. It's because we drop points to these teams.

Its because we are short on talent in comparison to Chelsea/Arsenal/United.

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

We have the quality to go out and attack teams like Boro away from home more than we did yesterday.

"Teams like Boro" are not that far off us. They finished three points behind us last year. I think it would be somewhat naive to expect to turn up and attack them from the off, they are a solid unit (as demonstrated yesterday) and have pacey forwards

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

Liverpool didn't go for a win until the latter stages of the second half. We had one clear chance in the first half, and not much more until Ehiogu's sending-off. And by then it was a big ask, with Boro playing inside their penalty box. Gerrard could have scored one or two, but that'd mask a pretty laclustre attacking performance, if you ask me.

Liverpool were constantly probing, and had plenty of chances before Ehiogu's sending off. That sending off cost Liverpool the match.

Im not saying it was a brilliant attacking performance, but I dont think it wasdown to the tactics, more so the poor displays by individual players, Garcia, Zenden and Morientes.

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

The result is hardly a disaster (and it, after all, the first weekend of the season), but I hope it's not a sign of things to come.

I would be delighted if we dominated all our games like we did yesterday. We were never under threat. The forwards will develop an understanding and get sharper, and the goals will come.

PHB

About 2 or 3 years ago teams would have to do the following to win the premiership:

Win all home games against teams outside the top 5
Win all away games against teams outside the top 10
Draw the rest
That'd give you:
84 points

However the bar has been raised.
It's only a bad result because of the preformance, but if you asked most people before the match, they'd take the draw. And i'm sure Benetiz is happy enough

mike65

Calm down!! The only error yesterday was the failure to start two up front, I imagine Rafa will spot this and we'll know quick enough if he has. Is anyone else a little worried that Rafa stuck Cisse on the wing? I can't help but wonder if he'll be offloaded if a decent offer comes in.

Mike.

~Rebel~

mike65 wrote:

Calm down!! The only error yesterday was the failure to start two up front, I imagine Rafa will spot this and we'll know quick enough if he has. Is anyone else a little worried that Rafa stuck Cisse on the wing? I can't help but wonder if he'll be offloaded if a decent offer comes in.

Mike.

Id say its more along the lines of Liverpool were dominating but Garcia wasn't putting any ball in whatsoever and kept loosing possession so cisse was brought on to make his quick runs to the by-line and get those crosses in, which is exactly what he did.

garcia needed to come off and i cant think of anyone else who could have come on besides cisse to put those crosses in. I wouldn't worry about him being stuck out there to much either, rafa has made it very clear a right winger is one of his priorities, its just till he gets it, cisse has proven he does the best there.

He had a dodgy first few minutes but then settled in and won free after free and when he didn't he put in a few excellent crosses at least 1 of which should have been finished (gerrards)

Jivin Turkey

mike65 wrote:

The only error yesterday was the failure to start two up front, I imagine Rafa will spot this and we'll know quick enough if he has.

I really dont think its as simple as this.

So who would be dropped for the second striker? Sissoko who was arguably our best player in midfield? Gerrard or Alonso? Zenden or Garcia thus disrupting the balance of the team?

The reason Boro looked poor is because Liverpool could control the game because of the five man midfield. If they had gone 4-4-2 who is to say Boro wouldnt have had more chances, and judging by JFH's scoring record I wouldnt put it against him putting a chance away had it come his way.

el rabitos

So who would be dropped for the second striker? Sissoko who was arguably our best player in midfield? Gerrard or Alonso? Zenden or Garcia thus disrupting the balance of the team?

exactly

the 4-5-1 system isnt as restictive as it looks, it allows gerrard to have a free role and hover around the box waiting to blast one in.

sissoko does the makele type job and breaks down the other teams attacks and alonso is left to spread passes around the pitch.

4-4-2 is more restrictive on the midfield and it doesnt allow gerrard the freedom he needs to be effective

and without sissoko playing middlesborough would have looked a far more attacking and dangerous team yesterday.