anfield

What exactly did Yossi expect. Although, its been said before, the likes of Sissoko, Crouch, Voronin and Yossi are not going to be happy this season.

Last year Rafa would have brought Sissoko on at 1-1 to shut the game down, this year he brought Babel and Crouch on, huge difference. However, I wonder how long we can go keeping Benayoun, Sissoko, Voronin etc without even a place on the bench

66,000 to watch LA galaxy play the NY Redbulls. The game normally averages 11,000. Now I can't stand him at all, his wife even less, but if (and a big if) he continues to be a big draw for footie in the US then fair play to him for actually being worth the money. FYI, LA galaxy lost the game 5-4 with Beckham getting 3 assists.....

Voronin is one of the most bizarre looking players we've ever fielded. And he scored a cracking goal today. Riise is still s***e and Rafa is still obsessed with Heinz for reasons no one can fathom. In other news everyone is laughing at Spurs.

My Monkeys are in Third place WOOHOO, eat rubber all the rest.

Can we never play Risse again? Extremely selfish play from him at times, that and crap passing when he tried to not be selfish......

Great cameo from him today, looks really good and certainly had more end product than Pennant. Although as someone else said, it remains to be seen how well he performs when starting.

Torres has made a major difference for us upfront. That said I don't think we have been that much better than Villa, still the same problem of midfield not really getting forward, with the exception of Pennant.

Bianchi, Chopra and Nzogbia all in my team

Bolton.

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Are you for real? I atleast try to wait for 5 games into the season before I start sharpening the knives. Preseason games are never a good gauge of anything.

Agree with most of that. I think if Momo could improve his passing, he would be a permanent fixture in the team.....but that looks like its a long way off.Right now, I see us better off without him on the field especially for the lesser teams. Exceptions made for Barca etc

My point being strikers are asked to perform defensive duties while the midfield contributes poorly to the attack. By all means have the strikers perform their defensive roles, but provide them proper support in turn. If Momo is not a defensive midfielder then I don't know what he is. He certainly does not contribute to our attack, his passing has become atrocious, he does win the ball but gives it away just as often if not more so. Claiming that Momo is on the field to support the attack is really twisting facts to support your argument.

stop playing two defensive midfielders and we'll see more goals. Just the simple fact of having more bodies in the box, even if they do absolutely nothing will help the strikers as it will pull defenders away and create space. Time and again you see either crouch or Kuyt pick up the ball 40 yards from goal (they have to because the midfield is too busy lounging aorund at the halfway line and won't push up). Then they look up and theere is no one ahead to pass to, no one running up in support etc etc. Neither of them has pace to beat defenders....... Even when they get the ball in the box they have no support from the midfielders and so are crowded out by the defense. and then they get lambasted by Kaizer and co for not scoring.

Not arguing with that. Just saying that a combination of having defensive duties and poor support from a static midfield is why our strikers have trouble scoring. If you're going to have a defensive minded midfield then you need to accept that this will make it harder for your strikers and let them hang around the box a little more.......

Comparing our current crop of strikers to Ian Rush tells you what? Ian Rush was one of a kind. However, he also got FAR more support from the midfield than our current strikers do.

You missed the "since GH" part haven't you?

The reaction to Kaizer's post is just as bad as his stats themselves. Back to the topic, I think one can hardly blame Crouch for not being prolific when he has to come down to the 40 yard line just to get the ball. It seems foolish to expect a player like Crouch (no pace) to be able to do anything beyond passing it to someone else.........of course not suprisingly, he is the furthest player forward and has no support. We need to get the ball to Crouch in the box and have bodies to pull defenders away and provide passing options. Its been the same story for years now and neither GH nor Rafa seem to have ever been able to change it.

Certainly but not to the extent that our current players do. Surely at some point we have to admit that just maybe our history of spectacular failure with supposedly quality strikers maybe down to the team and not them? And its not just the defensive duties, its the lack of support from our midfield which is down to the fact that we consistently play 2 defenisve midfielders.

Since the time of GH, our strikers have had shackles put on them, they are expected to do defensive duties, and to top it all off, the poor mobility of our midfield means they get crap support up front, is it any shock that we have a history of buying prolific strikers who turn into duds. Fault lies with the manager pure and simple.

One of the worst attempts at an analogy I've ever seen.

Bingo on point number two. Let the frakking strikers stay around the box instead of taking up "defensive duties". Is it any shock that we have not had a prolific strikers in years............its not because all of them are crap.

None but its easy enough to come to that conclusion from individual performances isn't it? Mascherano is not and has not in his career ever been a significant goal threat. As I said he may free up Alonso to move forward, however that remains to be seen, Alonso is also not the kind of player who gets directly into the box to support the strikers. The amount of optimism regarding Kewell here is amazing considering he has done absolutely nothing to justify it in his time here. We all know what he is capable of, but he has not delivered in 3 years and to think he can do it regularly over an entire season is foolhardy. We need midfielders who make runs into the box to create space for the strikers as well as passing options. Our biggest problem is not getting enough bodies into the box. In the midfield you mention, only Gerrard can thus be considered a goal threat for the team on a regular basis. I do not think we need to sign 3-4 more players, in fact over this summer I wish we had signed less. We need to change the mentality of the team. I would prefer to see Gerrard and Mascherano on central midfield with Pennant on the right and Kewell/Babel/Benayoun alternating on the left.