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Liverpool Thread

Re: Liverpool Thread

I'm going to be controversial here. Torres, when fit and healthy, is the best striker in the world in my opinion.

But is it worth keeping Torres if he can't even manage to string 3 games together before getting an injury? Would it be worth letting him go for £100m or whatever and using it to upgrade the team instead?

I'm getting fed up of being on pins and needles everytime Torres plays knowing that there's always a high likelihood that he'll go off injured at some point and we're having to bring in an inexperienced Ngog on to hold the front line.

Don't get me wrong, Ngog is a good little player. But if we're going to keep Torres, we need another top quality striker because Torres just can't play enough games frankly.
 
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Would help if we actually started playing football, instead of the ridiculous kick and rush game we have now. It's like watching kids play, kick the ball forward as fast as you can leg after it and hope for the best. Utter sh!te. Im nto surprised Torres keeps on getting injured, the amount of pointless work he has to do to even get the ball, and that's usually with 2 defenders on his back at all times.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Gerrard "injured" now as well. If it was an injury, surely Babel would've been changed in the dressing room beforehand?

More to it than an injury I reckon.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Would help if we actually started playing football, instead of the ridiculous kick and rush game we have now. It's like watching kids play, kick the ball forward as fast as you can leg after it and hope for the best. Utter sh!te. Im nto surprised Torres keeps on getting injured, the amount of pointless work he has to do to even get the ball, and that's usually with 2 defenders on his back at all times.

When I said you played awful football Dags said I was wumming!
 
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Re: Liverpool Thread

You were talking about in general. Before this season of utter crap, we played decent football.
Second half of last season, I thought you guys played some very good, attacking football but other than that, it's been pretty average.
 
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I said this once before Torres best on this planet ,but it seems he is not allowed to recover properly with the rushing back too early . Even at 70% Torres is better than most strikers and pardon me here... Pool`s defense moves like slugs.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Piss poor performance. In my opinion Rafa can't be blamed for this one because the team he put out was clearly good enough to beat Reading but the players were fucking embarrassing. Carragher and Agger were woeful at the back, Insua's shit, the rest were worse than pathetic.

Kuyt, Benayoun, Aquilani, Babel, N'Gog, Carragher, Agger...All established players who played today like fucking kids.

Yeh their penalty was a dodgy one and if that was given then we should have had two because we had two equally soft shouts for pens turned away. But the point is we never looked like winning, the whole team were fucking awful.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Aquilani played well I thought, easily the best player for us. The rest of them need to take a long, hard look at themselves and ask if they're really giving their all. And they should get the answer back that they aren't.

Their penalty wasn't dodgy in my opinion. The ankle was kicked, if it happened to a Liverpool player and we didn't get a penalty then I'd be fuming.

Nothing else to say that I haven't said all season about the team. Something has to give. Players or Rafa, but a change is needed because this is just embarassing and we've turned into the joke of the Premier League (if not the country) with us constantly turning out shite.

Edit: I'd just like to add well done to Reading. Some of their players are dirty bastards (Mills comes to mind in particular) and they were overly aggressive a lot of the time, but they worked their arses off and gave everything. And that's the best you can ask for from your players. Fair play to them and I hope they go on to do well and enjoy their night because they deserve it.

Did Rafa seriously blame the ref in his interview? :SHOCK:

I'll tell you what's pissing me off reading comments on Facebook and RAWK etc. It's the people saying "Yanks out!". Hang on a minute, the players in the squad are good enough to beat teams like Reading. That has nothing to do with the Americans. As much as I want them out of the club, you can't constantly excuse shite performances by blaming the Americans. Fair enough Rafa hasn't had the support he should've had, but Rafa and the players are up to a good enough standard to beat most teams in the league and we can't do that.

I'm all for being optimistic, that's great. But STILL trying to defend Rafa and the players and blaming the owners after half a season of garbage? Behave.
 
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Re: Liverpool Thread

Aquilani played well I thought, easily the best player for us. The rest of them need to take a long, hard look at themselves and ask if they're really giving their all. And they should get the answer back that they aren't.

Their penalty wasn't dodgy in my opinion. The ankle was kicked, if it happened to a Liverpool player and we didn't get a penalty then I'd be fuming.

Nothing else to say that I haven't said all season about the team. Something has to give. Players or Rafa, but a change is needed because this is just embarassing and we've turned into the joke of the Premier League (if not the country) with us constantly turning out shite.

Edit: I'd just like to add well done to Reading. Some of their players are dirty bastards (Mills comes to mind in particular) and they were overly aggressive a lot of the time, but they worked their arses off and gave everything. And that's the best you can ask for from your players. Fair play to them and I hope they go on to do well and enjoy their night because they deserve it.

Did Rafa seriously blame the ref in his interview? :SHOCK:

I'll tell you what's pissing me off reading comments on Facebook and RAWK etc. It's the people saying "Yanks out!". Hang on a minute, the players in the squad are good enough to beat teams like Reading. That has nothing to do with the Americans. As much as I want them out of the club, you can't constantly excuse shite performances by blaming the Americans. Fair enough Rafa hasn't had the support he should've had, but Rafa and the players are up to a good enough standard to beat most teams in the league and we can't do that.

I'm all for being optimistic, that's great. But STILL trying to defend Rafa and the players and blaming the owners after half a season of garbage? Behave.

FINALLY!
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Seriously though, certain things aren't helping, Insua isn't good enough yet to be regular, he's good going forward but hes getting the piss taken out of him by Championship players. Carragher is past it but he's an alright squad player.

I still think Gerrard will leave this summer, either him or Rafa anyway.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Galatasaray claim they have signed Everton full-back Lucas Neill on a one-and-a-half-year deal.

Reports had suggested the Toffees were considering a £750,000 bid from the Turkish side for the 31-year-old.

However, a statement on Galatasaray's website said they had sealed a deal for the Australian.

Australian Associated Press reported that Neill said: "I'm delighted to have signed with Galatasaray and play for a big club with big ambitions in Europe."

:LMAO:

Even their own players are saying Everton aren't a big club :D
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

From RAWK:

I'm sorry to sound negative but I've written Aquilani off already.

He's VERY slow. He's weak. And 5/10 simple passes go astray; 9/10 when he tries to make a killer ball.

I'd love him to prove me wrong - but I've said the same about so many dud signings over the last few years I can't see it happening.

He might have been brilliant before his injury. But he isn't now. It happens. Fowler was never the same player after his injury.

This risk hasn't paid off and we've ended up with a dud - which is why we didn't see him for so long.


:ROLL:

Seriously? After a handful of games? Coming back from a serious injury?

Some people just shouldn't have an interest in football, they're dangerous.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Torres out for 6 weeks, Benayoun for 4, Gerrard for 2.

Assuming Torres and Gerrard stay fit when they return, will they have only played half a season each again? Is something wrong with our facilities to keep causing these injuries? Are the medical staff not doing their job.

At least we're in the transfer window so we might be able to bring players in, but then we have no money anyway.

Maybe Spearing and Pacheco will get thrown in. Get Nemeth back as well. In fact I'd be happy for a lot of the reserves/youth to get games and drop the useless lot of "first team players" because, let's face it, they're not doing a very good job. At least the reserves/youth will actually play like they give a shit.
 
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Re: Liverpool Thread

Some people just shouldn't have an interest in football, they're dangerous.

they're not dangerous dags. they're just idiots. being an idiot can be dangerous just for the idiots themselves... not for those who listen to them. it gets worrying when someone pays attention to an idiot's opinion.... but, even in this cases, those listeners are the "dangerous ones", not the idiot.

anyone is entitled to an opinion, and we all tend to have an opinion on any subject.... even about those things we have no clue about... of course smart people tend not to express their opinions on those subjects they know nothing about, as they realise they would probably make a fool of themselves.
but u can't really blame someone for "not being smart", do u? :))

i've just seen aquilani's first 2 games and he didn't seem to be doing bad... especially considering what he went through in the last 2 years....
i still have serious concerns about him performing well at liverpool (wich doesn't mean i don't consider him a fantastic football player), but i hope i'll be proven wrong (as it usually happens :D )

btw what's rawk?
 
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Red And White Kop, a Liverpool forum.

I think Aquilani is going to be a very good player for us, but to write someone off after a couple of games is just crazy.
 
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RAWK is like a nuthouse Ben. You should only visit it if you're feeling down and want to laugh at some of the most deranged, aggressive, paranoid people on the planet. :D

Re: Aquilani, far too early to write him off. He has been misplacing passes and looked off the pace but he's barely played for nearly a year so is bound to be a bit rusty. The guys clearly got talent, he just needs time and the right team to show it. Unfortunately Rafa's Liverpool right now is not it.

Why hasn't Rafa had a word with Carragher about him totally bypassing the midfield with his ridiculous hoofs upfield?? Surely Rafa wants his £20m investment to have some decent time on the ball to dictate things and create openings, not standing watching helplessly as the old fucker at the back whacks it over his head to the opposition centreback time and again?
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Torres out for 6 weeks, Benayoun for 4, Gerrard for 2.

Assuming Torres and Gerrard stay fit when they return, will they have only played half a season each again? Is something wrong with our facilities to keep causing these injuries? Are the medical staff not doing their job.

It could just be that they're simply injury-prone players. I don't really know if Torres was at Atletico but it could just be a simple flaw of his body. Some players consistently have problems with certain things throughout their careers and will always get injured with it. Maybe him and Gerrard need to think about the way they're playing/running/etc and make some alterations?

I remember Giggs saying he hasn't fully sprinted for about 7 years because he always used to do his hamstring in when he was tearing around, now he just focuses on bigger strides to cover the distance.

Maybe Spearing and Pacheco will get thrown in. Get Nemeth back as well. In fact I'd be happy for a lot of the reserves/youth to get games and drop the useless lot of "first team players" because, let's face it, they're not doing a very good job. At least the reserves/youth will actually play like they give a shit.

Might as well give them a go, you've got nothing to lose really. Pacheco has seemed like a proper talent when I've seen him play, definitely offers something a little bit different to what you've got now and after everything I've heard about Nemeth it'd be nice to see him given some games up front.

I also think Rafa needs to tell Babel he's gonna be playing regularly, shift him up front and give him some backing. If he's trully got the talent then he should at least be able to show it in a run of games.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Why hasn't Rafa had a word with Carragher about him totally bypassing the midfield with his ridiculous hoofs upfield?? Surely Rafa wants his £20m investment to have some decent time on the ball to dictate things and create openings, not standing watching helplessly as the old fucker at the back whacks it over his head to the opposition centreback time and again?

I was discussing this with my Dad last night, and he doesn't even follow football and he noticed the hoofing. I said that you think Carra, his family or his mates might've mentioned that the fans are completely fed up of his hoofing and he needs to sort it out. If not, why hasn't Rafa said something?

The worst thing is that Carra is barking instructions and now Skrtel, Insua, Agger, Kelly and Degen are being told to just clear it instead.

He's been doing it for a while now, a season or two? And like you say, it's bypassing some quality players while Torres and Ngog have to try and shield the ball whilst hefty defenders plough into them.

Carra kept having a go at Degen yesterday for bombing forward and running with the ball. I'm sorry but just because Carra shits himself when he gets the ball, he shouldn't expect everyone else to be the same. Degen was far better going forward then Carra was when he moved to RB as well. A bit fed up of him to be honest. And don't get me started on the defending where a cross came in and he decided he'd lift his leg and let the ball go straight to their forward for a brilliant chance :BRICK:

Saying that, Rafa needs to have a word with the whole team in general.

Can you tell I'm pretty pissed off with the team? :LOL:
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

I also think Rafa needs to tell Babel he's gonna be playing regularly, shift him up front and give him some backing. If he's trully got the talent then he should at least be able to show it in a run of games.

Babel wont get games as a striker, in his natural position. It doesn't work like that. You get shifted to the wing as he has been, as Kuyt has been, as Keane did.

Mystifying really as I reckon he could be decent up front with his pace, strength, height and powerful shot.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

I was discussing this with my Dad last night, and he doesn't even follow football and he noticed the hoofing. I said that you think Carra, his family or his mates might've mentioned that the fans are completely fed up of his hoofing and he needs to sort it out. If not, why hasn't Rafa said something?

The worst thing is that Carra is barking instructions and now Skrtel, Insua, Agger, Kelly and Degen are being told to just clear it instead.

He's been doing it for a while now, a season or two? And like you say, it's bypassing some quality players while Torres and Ngog have to try and shield the ball whilst hefty defenders plough into them.

Carra kept having a go at Degen yesterday for bombing forward and running with the ball. I'm sorry but just because Carra shits himself when he gets the ball, he shouldn't expect everyone else to be the same. Degen was far better going forward then Carra was when he moved to RB as well. A bit fed up of him to be honest. And don't get me started on the defending where a cross came in and he decided he'd lift his leg and let the ball go straight to their forward for a brilliant chance :BRICK:

Saying that, Rafa needs to have a word with the whole team in general.

Can you tell I'm pretty pissed off with the team? :LOL:

Couln't agree more mate, i've lost all faith in Carragher over the past year or so. Sick of him hoofing the ball, sick of him fucking up before turning round and blaming someone else.

I'd like to hear his explanation for dummying that cross.
 
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That's what annoyed me the most, I'm not too bothered about being knocked out, this season is a right-off anyway. However how can nobody realise that him hoofing it up to the CB isn't going to work?!?! Are they all thick as f#$k?! The amount of times Lucas and Aquilani were in space and only needed a simple pass from carra was ridiculous, I'm sure I even saw Aquilani get pissed off with it near the end. What made it worse was that when Aquilani, Lucas and Gerrard just kept it simple between themselves they easily managed to create a half decent chance with Kuyt, Torres, Beni in the box. Sadly they only managed it about 3 times in the whole match.

And I don't even understand how they couldn't combat Reading's agressive presure game, I mean they have 4 defenders and only Torres up front so with a bit of simple passing in triangles in the CM area and defense you will always outnumber the players pressuring. Just pass it around a bit and let them get tired, they will soon start to back off into their own area.

And I thought Aquilani has done well so far. He's still a bit slow in possesion at times and gets caught and his back tracking is poor aswell. But he's shown enough good passes and movement to see he can do well. It's amazing he's even shown some good skill the way the team is playing. Think he'll do better with Masch behind him.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

I've been particularly impressed with Aquilani's footwork and ball control. Once he's settled down, he looks like he's going to be a bit of a wizard.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

thanks for the rawk explanation guys.
tiktiktik said:
And I thought Aquilani has done well so far. He's still a bit slow in possesion at times and gets caught and his back tracking is poor aswell
the first 2 are down to the fact he almost didn't play at all in the past 2 seasons. as for his back tracking that's not gonna improve... to be fair he shouldn't back track at all, as he should play way more upfront than he is playing right now.... and play a completely different game from what i saw in those first 2 matches as a starter.

for someone who saw alberto playing through the years, watching him playing right now in this system is like watching a great actor, a phenomenal, talented actor, who has always played "the bad guy role" impersonating the hero of the movie. he's actually managing to deal with the new situation (and with the absolute, unbelievable lack of movement of his teammates) in a pretty decent way, and even though he's been asked to do something completely different from what he can do, he's actually showing a very quick-adapting attitude and great determination.....
...but u just can't help but thinking "what a waste.... the movie would have been so much better if only they would have handed him the bad guy role".

as for his "misplaced passes", guys, i don't wanna sound like i'm patronizing him (as a matter of fact i repeatedly said i think he will disappoint in liverpool, afterall), but the 99,9% of those passes which didn't reach the target in his first 2 matches as a starter (which are the only ones i wached) weren't misplaced at all. the point is liverpool players right now are completely unaccustomed, unused to first touch passing and to vertical passing.
they almost act as if they think xabi were still there.... waiting for that horizontal "discharging pass"...they look like they were in trance or something..... completely unaware of each others movements, doing nothing to get rid of their assigned markers...
that easy, comfortable pass is never gonna come though.... at least not from alberto, coz that's just not him.
alberto is not the player who sets the tempo, who hands his teamates that nice, easy-to-get, velvety horizontal pass, who will give the fans that confortable feeling that "your team is in control".... that's not him.

he's not the engine of the car, he's the clutch. he is the one who breaks the tempo (not the one who sets the tempo), the one who, all of a sudden, changes the rpm. the game is going on smoothly along a specific rhythm, your opponents are getting accustomed to that rhythm...... and that's when aquilani gets the ball and fires a 10 meters first touch through ball which goes almost as fast as a shot...... and it's up to u to be there when that bullit arrives..... if u're not there, that's not a misplaced pass.... that pass was perfectly aimed... it was aimed to put u in front of the goalkeeper, while the opposite defenders ask themselves "what the hell just happened?
but if u're not there, if that pass was unexpected to u (as it was for the whole opponent's defensive line), then that's your fault, not albertos.

he's not the player u want to get your passing game "smooth".... he's not smooth, he's frenzy. he's not the one u should ask to set the tempo as he lives the game on a different tempo than his teammates....and that's most important to him as that's what makes him completely unpredictable. the regista is the one who gotta care about all his teammates movement, his duty is to "run the team" and to make sure the team runs smoothly. alberto doesn't care about this as he' not a regista. he lives the whole game "one play, one pass ahead of his teammates" (that's what i mean by "living the game on a different tempo") and he's completely focused, not on how the whole team is playing, not on how the current play is going, but on a single pass, a pass that might occur in 2, 3 seconds, or that might even not occur at all (if the opponents stop the play and get the ball before it arrives to him).
he doesn't care about anything else but that "window". he looks for that opening and when he sees it, he seizes it.
and it's up to his teammates to be ready for it. otherwise, he becomes an anonymous, pretty useless player.

and yeah, even if he would be playing in his proper role and if his teammates wouldn't dawdle around the pitch like zombies, he would still have a higher misplaced passes ratio than a player like xabi.
but then again, that's another proof of how different they are. alberto's passing game isn't aimed to make his teammates feel confortable; quite the opposite. his passing game is extremely demanding for his teammates, and that's just how it has to be in order to work.

also for the fans, his football can be quite "stressing". since he lives the whole game on an edge, a certain percentage of his plays (passes) will turn into a loss of possession, coz his teammates aren't on his same page of the script or cos he made a "miscalculation" (wich, when he's on form, happens seldom if ever). but, as a fan, u still feel those shivers down your spine, coz, as soon as he touches the ball, u know that play is gonna end with a loss of possession or a scoring chance. he's a "make it or break it" kinda player. unlike a regista, he always takes risky decisions and hardly goes for a flat play.
as soon as he gets the ball, u know that in about 3 seconds, u will be either cursing for the loss of possession or jumping on your seat, spitting your beer and screaming "holy shit, how did he even think that pass!".

so, as u can imagine, seeing him playing in such a different role, seeing him trying to "settle down" to a more flat kinda passing game is pretty sad (although he did much better than i expected).
sometimes, in those first 2 matches i saw, he even tried to play "his game" a couple of times, but his teammates are just on a different page (the only one who bothered to keep up with him was insua....with poor results.... but at least he tried).

and unfortunately i believe it will be much more likely to see him settling down to a more anonymous style of play, rather than seeing all his teammates "getting on his page".

but as i said earlier, i hope i'm wrong :))
 
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Re: Liverpool Thread

Good post Ben,

Having not seen him before I didn't realise what his actual style is, more that he playes further up field and goes for killer balls. Reading that and Rafa's wish for total control he's f&^%ked at Liverpool then. :(

Hopefully a balance can be found that when he gets the ball both Torres and Gerrard start making runs as they know he'll pick them out. With Masch back, and Gerrard out, you would hope he gets to play more in Gerrard's position with Lucas and Masch guarding. Ngog makes a lot of runs so that would suit him, hopefully having a up for it Maxi on the wing can help out to. But he'll probably be a sub on saturday with Ngog and Kuyt up front, Aurelio on the wing (you can never have too many WB's in a team) and Maxi having a run out with Babel coming on or starting.

Can't wait, we'll have 7 defensive players (who have lost the ability to defend), a striker that does his best to play at RB and a striker/winger that can't seem to understand that running past a player and putting a cross in is a good thing. So that leaves our chances of winning resting on the shoulders of a youngster who will have 2 or 3 "thug" defenders around him at all times. Great!
 
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Re: Liverpool Thread

Great post Ben, love your deep explanations! :D

Well Babel's not in the team at all so he won't be playing any part. Apparently Rafa offered no explanation as to why?

Maybe the transfer to Brum is closer than before?
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Great post Ben, love your deep explanations! :D

Well Babel's not in the team at all so he won't be playing any part. Apparently Rafa offered no explanation as to why?

Maybe the transfer to Brum is closer than before?

maybe since brummies are their new rivals and they don`t want to endanger their mid-table spot by handing them a player that could lift the lil brummies :P :COAT:
 
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