Logic

Perhaps Stevie should think about what English players should have been in this squad? Or would he rather have skipped this game and have a more "successful" English national side? LIVERPOOL: GK 1 Jerzy Dudek RB 3 Steve Finnan CB 23 Jamie Carragher CB 4 Sami Hyypiä LB 21 Djimi Traoré DM 14 Xabi Alonso RM 10 Luis García CM 8 Steven Gerrard © LM 6 John Arne Riise SS 7 Harry Kewell CF 5 Milan Baroš Substitutes: GK 20 Scott Carson DF 17 Josemi MF 16 Dietmar Hamann MF 18 Antonio Núñez MF 25 Igor Bišćan FW 9 Djibril Cissé FW 11 Vladimír Šmicer Manager: Rafael Benítez

It was more of the same from him. He simply is the typical good Scandinavian athlete. Strong, can run all day and mostly follow tactical directions but besides that a terrible footballer. We need better. Oh, how I wish Aurelio wouldn't always be injured. That's a proper leftback.

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Don't you mean this forum? (c'mon.... someone had to say it)

1. 5sec in: He can pass to the guy in the centre circle, or to the forward on the left. Correct option would be to release the pressure on himself (and the other possible pass) by passing to the guy in the centre circle. 2. 8 sec in: He chases the ball into an area where the forwards or centre midfielders should take on the player leaving the left side wide open. 3. 16. sec in: He gets back into position but is now isolated with the defence stretched due to him being out of position. 4. 18 sec in: He again chases a ball instead of watching his zone/man. Ball-watching. Besides that he did little wrong for the goal..........

Yup.

I think it's live on LFC TV/e-season.

Looks good except there'd be one thing that worries me about that team. It could get too narrow playing like that. If we have Gerrard on the the right we need someone who'll stay out wide on the other side. IMO we just need one left winger into that (if we are going to be playing 4-4-2) and put Babel up front with Torres.

The problem is that we aren't playing any midfielders. We often seem to be playing a 5-0-5 tactic. Masch in the back 5 and Gerrard in the front 5.

Numero Uno

The Liverpool manager has decided to cash in on Crouch as soon as possible after confirming that he has a £20 million budget to spend on new players in the new year. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...amp;ito=newsnow Sound so much like Don Rafa telling the media exactly how much we have..... doesn't it?

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Probably.... but it sounded so good at the time.

That's where the ref enters the play. But it should be possible to just put the chips in the boots as well as the ball. Then it wouldn't be too difficult to find out who kicked the ball. And you'll always have the ref to make the final decision.

Unfortunately (or luckily based on the comments here) I wasn't able to watch the match yesterday. I'm basing my comments on most of the games this season (especially in the league). We just look so static and with such a huge gap in central midfield that IMO we need an extra man there.

Like I said in another thread. I don't know if it's form or tactics but at the moment it often looks like we are playing some sort of new 5-0-5 tactic. That results in the very popular hoofing and general terrible play we've been seeing. To me it doesn't matter if it's poor form or tactics but we need to increase the options for the defenders to play into midfield and at the same time increase the options for the midfielders. At the moment the only option for both is to hoof the ball upfield and hope that one of our very static attackers can control it and hold the ball until support arrives (usually too late).

IMO Gerrard needs two midfielders in there with him. One who handles the defensive side and one how does mainly link up with the forward. Gerrard wants to do everything. And he's great at most everything he does.... The problem is that the way he plays best leaves us exposed at the back and without balance in midfield if we are just playing one midfielder there with him. He needs someone like Alonso covering the defence and someone like Yossi to link up with the striker. That way Gerrard can do whatever he wants and that's the way Gerrard plays best. He isn't great at playing the tactically aware attacking role of a midfield pair. Doing that requires him to stop making runs between the defenders and also to stop tackling the oppo fullbacks. So again, IMO we should play Alonso as the holding midfielder and Yossi as the link to Torres and then basically tell Gerrard to do what he wants. That way he plays best and when he is on his game he's unstoppable and as a result the team as well.

Chip in the ball.

Lately it has looked to me like we are playing a new 5-0-5 tactic. Basically we have the 4 defenders plus a holding midfielder who holds no matter what. Then we have a whole lot of empty space. Then we have the front 5 who play flat and static. So this quite obviously results in our much beloved hoofing from the back. The defence has no midfield to pass to. This new 4-4-2 (or 5-0-5 as I call it) we've been playing this season might work against the worst teams in the league. But it isn't going to work against decent sides. I want Benitez to return to the tactic he had with Valencia. IMO we almost have the players for it. Defence: Regular back five Midfield: One holding midfielder (Alonso), one box-to-box midfielder (Gerrard), and one linking with the attack (Yossi). Wingers providing width (Babel, Pennant) Striker: Torres. If every single player would be fit we'd line up like this: Reina Finnan - Carra - Agger - Arbeloa - - - - -Alonso - Gerrard - - - -- Pennant - - - Yossi - - - Kewell (or more likely Babel) - - - - - - Torres - - - - - - - - In this team Reina, Carra, Agger, Alonso, Gerrard and Torres should play as long as they are fit. Leaving RB, LB and the attacking midfield positions up for grabs. Then we have Hyypia (or Arbeloa) covering for the position in central defence, Masch for Alosno, Sissoko (or maybe Lucas) for Gerrard, And a whole lot of options for the attacking midfielders. At least here we'd have a link between defence and attack. Something our current 5-0-5 tactic doesn't provide.

Agreed, except more in the way of Benitez' old 4-2-3-1 with Yossi behind Torres.

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