So who are we missing more?

[LondonLiverpoolFan]

Well?

 

I'm not sure if Agger would have prevented either of their goals tonight so for me it's either Xabi or Torres. We created some decent chances but failed to finish most of them so I suppose Torres.

[Paul_LFC]

I'd say Agger as we look so shakey at the back, its unreal. Our team is used to having a solid back line to rely on and we got caught out so many times tonight because of pace.

[Gunga Din]

Ayesteran.

 

we need an assistant manager in there i reckon, i dont know what it is, but i have a feeling the players are struggling under Rafa on his own.

[Cam]

Pako.

 

Freedom for Torres & Gerrard.

 

The real beardless Rafa.

 

My number one answer... Garcia. Magic, creativity, heart, belief, goals. Frustrating occasionally but in Europe... the true heartbeat of the side.

[Gunga Din]

I'd say Agger as we look so shakey at the back, its unreal. Our team is used to having a solid back line to rely on and we got caught out so many times tonight because of pace.

without Agger, the defence sits too, deep, as a result of this the midfield is finding itself falling between two stools. its either sittiing too deep, leaving a huge gap between them and the strikers, resulting in our attacks breaking down because we cant get bodies up front quick enough, and we then result in playing long balls (Portsmouth away), or pushing too far up, leavinga huge space between midfield and defence leaving us vulnerable against pace (spurs at home).

 

i'd be tempted without Agger to go 3 at the back.

[Paul_LFC]

Yeah, and with Agger, one of his best skills is to bring the ball out and give it to Stevie and Xabi and open up play. Carra and Sami just pass to themselves, a bit wary of where to play the ball.

[LondonLiverpoolFan]

Do you know what Luis Garcia is a cracking call.... He's exactly the type of player that would have pulled something out of the hat.

 

The Pako situation is odd but you're right Wayne, things haven't been right since.

[Barnesy_10]

Agger

 

Not just his defensive qualities, but hes like an extra midfielder when he brings the ball forward...

[Jim D]

VERY worrying, this is no longer a blip its chronic, we've not played well now for EIGHT games. Something is seriously not right and quite frankly I am now dreading the Arsenal game at the weekend. We play like we have been doing they will murder us. Sami unfortunately no longer has the legs to act as ample cover and we have desperately missed Agger. He is the difference for us I believe, he enables us to hold a higher line and thus compress the play. The problem we've had over the past 8 games have been two things:

 

1. Forwards/Strikers - Not potent enough, not enough movement, little goal threat, our forwards don't even play upfront, most of the time they are back in Midfield!

 

2. Really as a consequence of point 1, our defence is sitting far too deep, at different points of the game we find either our forwards being too isolated or the midfield players. When the midfield push up it leaves a huge space between them and the defence. This is where the opposition have hurt us in recent games. When the midfield drop back to help the defence then the forwards are isolated, which means Kuyt/Voronin have to drop back into midfield.

 

To turn this around, we gotta push our team/play 20 yards further up the pitch. This just shows how crucial Agger is he enables us to hold that higher line, we can compress the play, control the ball better and players aren't isolated. Funnily enough our bad patch coincided with Agger getting injured.

Edited October 24, 2007 by Jim D

[Cam]

Do you know what Luis Garcia is a cracking call.... He's exactly the type of player that would have pulled something out of the hat.

He have fecking shot when he needed to.

 

Found space, run, faced the goal, dribbled, found a little slide rule pass, won a freekick. Anything at all and all positive & attack-minded.

[smurfinaus]

Torres just shading Xabi. Fact is we have no pace in our attack with exception of Torres and Babel (and the fact Kuyt for all his workrate still acts like a 5th CM)..- and the latter isnt clinical enough at this stage of his career.

Xabi because we are sputtering with our passing and we seem to be allover the place with that right now.

[Bailo]

Have to say, Crouchy caused more worry in their defence tonight with 10mins than Kuyt (who I thought was fine, good touch, linked up play OK, worked his a*** off) and Voronin, who did very little.

[Kindred]

Ayesteran.

 

we need an assistant manager in there i reckon, i dont know what it is, but i have a feeling the players are struggling under Rafa on his own.

 

Thats certainly the obvious thing that has changed and coincided with the downturn in form, confidence and belief in each other. It may simply be the 'friendly arm round the shoulder type management' that Pako apparently brought to the table. As rafa has intimated, he is not a manager, he is a coach. An extremely capable and thorough coach, but his approach seems to treat all people as machines or pawns on the chess board rather than a group of individuals needing to be merged into one team, with confidence and belief in each other. Thats what seems to be missing and it seems to have gradually drained most of the confidence away from the individuals as well as the team.

[Gomez]

Agger, by some way. Sami has lost it. Funny how with some player it just goes, we'll it's gone with him. Utter legend, but we kept him a season too long, not that we were to know.

 

With Agger in the team and we win tonight.

[Coyler]

Well it's a pity the treacherous Basque baldie left us in the lurch, then, isn't it? How come none of this is Pako's fault, the Chelsea-loving prick?

[Paisley]

I think the man we're missing most is Tevez - we should have moved hell and high water to get him last summer.

Instead we got a free transfer from Bayer Leverkusen.

[bax]

Close between Agger and Torres but Torres just shades it for me. The annoying thing with Agger being injured is that surely we should have had a contingency in place if/when the Heinze transfer fell through? This was always going to happen if one of our CBs got injured.

[Paisley]

Agger, by some way. Sami has lost it. Funny how with some player it just goes, we'll it's gone with him. Utter legend, but we kept him a season too long, not that we were to know.

 

With Agger in the team and we win tonight.

 

It's too convenient to blame it all on Sami, Carragher and even Finnan have been shocking lately.

[alias75]

I think we have too many poor technical players in the team, too many players that are poor passes or struggle to keep it under pressure, you can get away with having maybe 2 or 3 of these players because they add other things that the team needs, but at the moment i reckon we have maybe 5 (Carra, Riise ,Hyppia, Mascherano? Kuyt) they start regularly but arent the best at keeping the ball thats 2 too many in my reckoning.

[blago]

We are missing Xabi the most. The Gerrard - Mascherano partnership isn't working. Torres pace has been missed as well as has Aggers composure at the back.

 

So basically we are missing all three.

[Reggie]

Where is Arbeloa gone? Riise and Finnan were muck tonight.

[Dan]

Well it's a pity the treacherous Basque baldie left us in the lurch, then, isn't it? How come none of this is Pako's fault, the Chelsea-loving prick?

 

Good call

[Cam]

his approach seems to treat all people as machines or pawns on the chess board rather than a group of individuals needing to be merged into one team, with confidence and belief in each other. Thats what seems to be missing and it seems to have gradually drained most of the confidence away from the individuals as well as the team.

I got laughed at here at few weeks back for saying "Rafa needs managing".

 

He fecking does. Tom, Rick, George or Foster (The Bootleg Beatles?) need to get him in and say "look, it's all gone wrong. Something's missing. Fecking sort it now." He can't be given carte blanche - what happens if he falls out with Reina; would he be allowed to get away with not playing a 'keeper?

 

I think he believes he would.

[Benzo-13]

All of them!!

[Guest Kaizer]

Alonso without a shadow of a doubt.