FC Showster

Even if you take Giroud out of the equation there was another Arsenal player goal side of Carragher who was waiting to finish it as well

Surely all those factors increase the reasons why you want to pick based on performance and not on reputation. If a player's legs have gone/are going then does it matter if that is at 31 or 35?

Yet the hallmark of the truly great Liverpool sides was that this was not the case

I'd say yes but other people have already answered. Not much he can do there. Has to position himself at the near post and was never getting back across goal to make the save. Looks bad that he's dived for it and not got it but dont think he's at fault at all this time

If Agger doesn't step out then he clears that cross easily before it gets to Fletcher. GJ's tackle was hardly worthy of the name

The only issue I have is the sound levels. Most of the time I cant listen to this on the way to/from work because any passing car drowns out the sound. I listen via an iPod and always boost the sound level in iTunes (ctrl + i) but it doesnt make a difference

I'd guess that the top coaches could watch 15-20 seconds of footage for a goal and identify who made the mistake. From the obvious blunders to the more subtle issues where a player gets themselves in the wrong position and is unable to recover properly. It just depends on their style as to how much time and effort they want to spent eradicating that. A Hodgson will spend hours drilling the team in 4-4-2 to get the shape right while other managers will spread that time around other areas to get a more rounded benefit.

Conceding possession in the other half comes in different types though and the nature of it affects the risk/reward. Luis Garcia was often accused of that because he was trying that final killer ball but to me it wasn't that big an issue as the midfield behind him wasn't massively exposed. Gerrard versus Arsenal was an unforunate situation where we were quite open with everyone expecting us to keep the ball and not ready to move back to a defensive shape and that was exploited. The Soviet one is just horrific as there's such a huge gap between defence and midfield and the mistake is by the most defensively positioned midfielder.

Mistake? Yes Losing the ball in the opposition half? Yes - his miscontrol took the entire Soviet midfield out of the game for that counter attack. Are you having a laugh? No, are you? Because If it's not a mistake then what is it - intentional? Good play by the Soviet midfielder? Great addition to the debate - keep up the good work

I think there's a happy medium between man marking Gerrard and leaving him with an acre of football pitch to himself. Perhaps I'm crazy and those are the only two possibilities Do I expect Hamann to be there? Not him necessarily but you'd want players to be more aware of someone arriving at the edge of the box and it's a mistake to allow that person too much time. Here's Van Basten's goal from 88 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu4LX74PKUI He scores after 12 seconds of that clip. The mistake is in the first 5 seconds

Why is Gerrard allowed to be free in such a ridiculous amount of space? Why is Didi completely unchallenged as he strikes the ball on the edge of the area after a cross? Haven't looked at the Torres one in ages so don't remember the buildup or the positioning of the defence Regarding the Gerrard one, and this is a genuine question so apologies if this comes across the wrong way, do you not see that letting a player of Gerrard's quality have that much space in your half is a mistake?

Sunderland's main striker is able to have a shot like that inside our penalty area with no Liverpool player within 5 yards and no-one has made any sort of mistake? Nonsense Reina also made a mistake in saving the beach ball not the football

Perhaps the mistake isn't the keepers but the midfielder who didn't get close enough to put pressure on/prevent the shot or the full back who allowed the winger time to put the cross in or the defender who doesnt track the run correctly or (talking about Maradona vs England all those years ago) not stopping a run in its tracks with a foul in midfield Post a goal that you think a team could do nothing about

They really are. You don't have perfect defensive displays where you've conceded goals

Hasn't he gone on record this summer about not wanting/having a plan B. It's plan A or die

Highlighting how just how bad Downing is

If we trying to shift Carroll on then I don't see why we'd try to keep Downing

Rumour was that certain concessions were made as they tried to get it off the ground and one of these was City not wanting United in there

As the more creative player we need to get him slightly further forward so that the errors don't cost us as much. Quietly impressed with both him and Henderson tonight

Yeah I have the same issue with sound - a passing car drowns out all speech even at 100%. Haven't listened to latest to see what it's like

Got a clear red card wrong, probably should have been a penalty to Bayern, allowed far too much grabbing by Arbeloa - suppose that is a good game by Webb

Drogba was a 1 in 5 player at Le Mans at 23. Not saying he's going to turn into Messi but there is clearly a player in there that we are not getting the best out of and who, as he ages, could easily improve into a quality player

Our manager obviously agreed with the "Brilliant scouting staff" and agreed to paying 3 to 4 times the amount he is worth. That is not Andy Carroll's fault. Much better performance today from Andy than Suarez - much better - but the knives are out for Andy in a way that they simply are not (yet) for Luis

That's a bigger joke than Carroll's dive. The funniest thing is you probably believe it :lol: Simple minds go for the easiest target

He turned 23 in January - target men tend to peak later in their careers than short, nippy strikers. Anyone who says he'll never make a top player at this point in his career is guessing and any fool can guess