carrafan

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Gerrard before Torres, surely?

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Arbeloa is going to kill someone any time now with him looking to jump on any player who scores. Luckily for us, we dont look like scoring a goal, anytime soon.

Think most of the players kept the ball for too long before they released it and it seemed a problem throughout the team. Huth had a good game and Gulacsi is a neat keeper.

Simon misses a sitter.

Thats a nice touch from Riise. And it happened after he left us.

Huth and The left winger Weijl have looked good. Bruna's playing in the centre and has read the game well but has looked to do too much, most of which havent come off. The Darby goal should have stood though.

The Boro and Sunderland games only were about 20-22 pages long. The Villa one is already 43 pages long. God forbid we lose a game.

Owen would be a step back, IMO. We've moved on. And he wouldnt be value for money with the wages he'd be on.

That doesnt count.

It clicks every season and when it does we usually go on a good run of wins. The problem with his first two seasons have been that its been a bit too late when it clicked and we were out of the running. Last season we started very well but had a bad patch of form for like 10 games where we didnt win many points. That hurt us. We have to 'click' this season before we start losing points and to be honest Villa away is a bad game for most big clubs. They're a bit like Boro, do well when they play on the counter and use set pieces to win games and hence take points away from good ball playing teams but lose out when they actually have to go out and play, and hence lose or draw against poor ones. We've missed Mascherano and now Gerrard and it looks like Torres who're all big players in our line up and its understandable that our performances will not be as good as it can get. To be honest, which team has put out its bid to win the league right now? chelsea couldnt beat Spurs, United didnt beat Newcastle, Arsenal lost to fulham and got a lucky win against west brom. New signings are hard to integrate to a team and if you add injuries to that, i reckon we've done well to win 7 out of 9 points against good teams this season. A point against United and victory against Stoke would mean a wonderful start to the season.

Does this poster play football manager by any chance. Nothing rumour, IMO.

Erm, i agree. Will be really interesting to see how Rafa uses Keane throughout the season and Torres would always want to play lone striker. I like Lucas. He is one of our few players who has vision and he usually spots a good run made by a player and finds him. His close passing is quite good but he doesnt have the athletism to get up and down the pitch and hence cannot be a box to box player, which he was touted to be when he came from.. Gremio was it? But seriously, apart from his athletism, every thing is always going to improve. (and he actually didnt seem to get tired as he played the whole 90 minutes today, which he couldnt do last season)He's what.. 21 now and has a long way to go to peak as a midfielder. I like Lucas, cultured footballer who'll do even better in Europe. He'll also need to put some upper body bulk as he seems to get pushed around quite easily. But i reckon he'll come good..good enough to atleast make a decent profit on anyway.

Carra Mascherano Arbeloa

Which meant he was isolated most of the time? Could even have scored if it wasnt for the deflection. I would have played Kuyt myself as him and Arbeloa did a wonderful job stifiling the best left winger in the league. Its left midfield which is the gripe i have with the game and Rafa. Lucas was always going to venture central instinctively because he's not a wide player. Keane was just poor until he came upfront. There was no balance and hence we couldnt control the game. the weird thing is, Rafa always talks about 'controlling' the game which we never did today. Hopefully the Riera signing would make a difference and provide more balance, some trickery and a left footed option as we're severely short of those right now.

f*** me, people were cribbing why El Zhar was playing ahead of NGog after David's good show in the friendlies. Now its the other way round. If he had brought on Yossi or Aurelio, it would have been 'whats the use of 7 subs if you're not going to give the kids a chance' Ngog wasnt great but neither was any forward.

To be fair, Dossena wasnt brought here for being a defensive stalwart. He did show today that he is good on the ball, has a lot of pace and whips in his crosses (been a f***ing while since i've seen a Liverpool player do so, consistently). He'll do much better when we play a left midfielder there to give our play balance or get the whole team used to the system we're currently playing. Arbeloa did very well against Young, who tore Finnan a new bumhole last year.

Why? Keane had a poor game today even if i completely discount his miss. He was involved in a couple of good moves but overall had a poor game. Benayoun keeps the ball well and Rafa probably wanted us to do the same at such a late time in the game. It wasnt as if he brought on a rubbish player for a player who looked like scoring. An out of form player was subbed for another one. But which of our forwards bar Torres is on form?

I would have taken a draw against these lot if you had offered it to me before the game esp after Torres was subbed off that early. But its the performance that pissed me off. We showed no balance at all during the game and the lack of a left midfielder meant that (1) we were too narrow when going forwards (2) We passed the ball to Kuyt most of the time. Now, i like Kuyt but never in a million years are a pairing of him and Arbeloa going to create a chance when the game is that narrow. Secondly, whats with Keane playing everywhere but upfront? I'd understand if it was atleast 'playing on the shoulder of the fullback' wide, but it wasnt. He was so f***ing deep that Ngog was isolated for most of the game. You either play Keane upfront or you dont play him at all... Aurelio would have been a better choice for left mid, we would have had more balance that way. Mascherano put in a class performance.. we've missed him and we're probably going to look class once everyone's back and we click. Oh, and Reo Coker on KEane was never a peno.

Same time, same place, next week.

We lasted till the last day of the transfer window with regards to Owen coming back. I'd say thats progress.

Well you know. Scholesy cant tackle!