Liverpool V Real Madrid (Champ League) Weds 22nd Oct 7.45pm

Liverpool Football Club - Games

Postby C-R » Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:00 am

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Just seen on the sports news that Gareth Bale is Likely to miss the game, Sergio Ramos and Luka Modric also doubts.... but then there's always Ronaldo, James Rodriguez, Benzema and co...

With Balotelli mis firing looks like we will really miss Sturridge for this

I dont think they will give us a tearing apart, think it will be closer than many think
Last edited by C-R on Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby stmichael » Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:13 am

I don't subscribe to this theory that we'll get hammered at all. I expect us to raise our game, very much helped by the crowd and the atmosphere. Yes Real Madrid have wonderful players in attack but they aren't unbeatable. They're weak at the back, especially at fullback which we can exploit. Bale is ruled out through injury. We quite simply have to defend better though or we'll get well beaten.

                                                                                                              Mignolet
                                                                               Manquillo          Skrtel          Lovren             Moreno

                                                                                                               Gerrard
                                                                                               Henderson              Allen
                                                                                                               Coutinho

                                                                                               Sterling                   Balotelli

None of this 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 malarkey please. Balotelli cannot play upfront on his own and needs help. He was awful yesterday but I feel a bit sorry for him in that the team around him isn't exactly performing either. Play Sterling up top as at least he offers a threat in behind. Coutinho was our best player after coming on yesterday and Allen has become a vital cog in the midfield.

I'm going for a 2-2 draw.
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Postby ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:52 pm

stmichael » Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:13 am wrote:I don't subscribe to this theory that we'll get hammered at all. I expect us to raise our game, very much helped by the crowd and the atmosphere. Yes Real Madrid have wonderful players in attack but they aren't unbeatable. They're weak at the back, especially at fullback which we can exploit. Bale is ruled out through injury. We quite simply have to defend better though or we'll get well beaten.

                                                                                                              Mignolet
                                                                               Manquillo          Skrtel          Lovren             Moreno

                                                                                                               Gerrard
                                                                                               Henderson              Allen
                                                                                                               Coutinho

                                                                                               Sterling                   Balotelli

None of this 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 malarkey please. Balotelli cannot play upfront on his own and needs help. He was awful yesterday but I feel a bit sorry for him in that the team around him isn't exactly performing either. Play Sterling up top as at least he offers a threat in behind. Coutinho was our best player after coming on yesterday and Allen has become a vital cog in the midfield.

I'm going for a 2-2 draw.


That's the team I'd go with as well, bit tough on Lallana who has been our best player so far this season but Allen's mobility and workrate will be needed against this mob. I'm sure Adam will get on at some point in the game anyway.
I actually think we could surprise a few people here myself, this game will be a cup final to our players and I think adrenalin and the crowd could spur them on to a big performance.
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Postby damjan193 » Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:23 pm

There is an interesting stat famous around the interwebs that we've never lost against Real. A bit misleading, since we've only played them three times but still, we've never lost and have never even conceded a goal. Real are the favorites obviously, but the mind is a very powerful thing. With the right motivation, anything's possible.

Realistically speaking though ( :D), I'd take a draw if I were offered now.

I agree with the above mentioned line-up and formation.
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Postby only me » Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:49 pm

Victory or Death !

Anyway the best thing playing for us isn't Bale or any other Madrid injured it's their upcoming League match against Barcelona.
They will saving their energy for Saturday so we can exploit this ,be aggressive and  they might surrender.
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Postby Eagle » Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:54 pm

Without a genuine threat on the counterattack quite frankly they’ll destroy us. This is a seriously good Madrid side. They have so many good players they’ll just push us into our own half unless we give them something to be frightened off and that isn't Balo. Balotelli is offering so little at the moment I’d play Sterling as the furthest player forward and give him free reign to use the width of the pitch to receive the ball with the likes of Henderson and Allen getting into the box. I can see Henderson having success running off Kross when we counter.

                         Mignolet

Manquillo     Skrtel     Lovren     Moreno

                         Gerrard
         Henderson             Allen

           Lallana                 Coutinho
                         Sterling


Subs: Balotelli, Lambert, Markovic, Can, Johnson, Toure, Jones
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Postby Dundreamin is back » Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:14 am

Actually we have won every game we played them I my memory serves me right. I know it's only 3 times. I reckon they might come into this game with the attitude of Milan 2005 and we all know what happened then. BRING IT ON. also I hope gayboy puts in a nightmare performance. I carnt stand that prima donna t.wat
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Postby kazza » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:07 am

Alvaro Arbeloa recalls cramped Anfield dressing rooms, spine-tingling European nights and oh-so-close title tilts as he returns to Liverpool with Real Madrid
Liverpool welcome Real Madrid to Anfield on Wednesday night
It will be a bittersweet return for Alvaro Arbeloa
The defender played for Liverpool between 2007 and 2009
He was part of Rafa Benitez's team that almost won the Premier League
Arbeloa has won Champions League and La Liga since returning to Real

By Pete Jenson for the Daily Mail

Published: 15:30 GMT, 20 October 2014  | Updated: 06:34 GMT, 21 October 2014 

The last time there were this many Spaniards heading for Anfield, Rafa Benitez was signing them all for Liverpool.

Wednesday night's Champions League visit of Real Madrid to Merseyside recalls an era that produced two European Cup finals against Carlo Ancelotti’s Milan and an oh-so-close tilt at the title.

Alvaro Arbeloa was one of the children of the 'Rafalution' and he never doubted destiny would steer Liverpool his way in their first season back in the Champions League. The only sadness is that he can’t share the moment with Xabi Alonso.

The defender is looking forward to making a return to Anfield in the Champions League on Wednesday

‘I spoke to him after the draw and he was fuming, “How bad is my luck? I can’t believe it” or words to that effect,’ grins Arbeloa.

‘He was a marvellous player who won the European Cup with them. People loved him there and I think they would have paid him a wonderful tribute.’

Arbeloa has never been quite so adored by supporters but he has found favour with a roll call of the world’s best coaches that runs from Vicente del Bosque and Luis Aragones to Manuel Pellegrini and Jose Mourinho.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s game, he does not take long to get his ‘Liverpool head’ back on.

‘We would have won the league had it not been for [Federico] Macheda,’ he says recalling the Italian striker’s last-minute goal against Aston Villa that helped Manchester United pip Liverpool — to whom they had lost twice that season — to the title in 2009.

‘We were so close. There were a lot of games where we kicked-off before Manchester United and we would board our flight home and they were losing and we would get off the plane to the news that they had staged a comeback.’

Arbeloa was part of a Liverpool team that boasted Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano and Alonso in its midfield. He would go on to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Alonso against Mascherano in the Clasico wars under Mourinho but things were very different at Anfield.

‘Mascherano supported me,’ he says. ‘Xabi is fantastic but he is a cautious guy. He’ll look you up and down and you can tell he’s thinking, “What’s this guys’ story, can he be trusted?” You have to win his trust so it was much easier to get on with Javier at first.’

If Alonso was hard to win over at first, the Liverpool dressing room in general could not have been more welcoming — and was far warmer than the North West weather.

‘I remember my first couple of days there and looking out of the window at the snow coming down and thinking, “Madre Mia, what have I got myself into?” But the welcome was a warm one.

'Probably far better than if the situation had been in reverse. If you bring an English manager to Spain and he brings in five English players then I’m not so sure it would be the same.’

Anfield’s famously-cramped dressing room was something else Arbeloa had to get used to.

‘You had to hang everything on one peg. In the winter when you are wearing a big coat you get changed with your single coat hanger for your shirt, your trousers, your jacket, there was no space. Maybe the absence of supreme comfort helps keep that connection between the players and the supporters.’

It was still a far cry from Madrid where he had come through a youth team that boasted Roberto Soldado, Alvaro Negredo and Juan Mata and from where he made his debut as a substitute 10 years ago last week.

‘I think the first thing I did was a back-heeled flick to Zidane right in front of the dug-out to furious cries of, “Easy ball! Easy ball!” from the bench.’

Debuting in that Madrid team with four Ballon d’Or winners and Roberto Carlos as the other full back was incredible. But like the rest of that group of young players he had to leave to get first-team football joining Benitez in 2007.

‘Rafa corrects you the whole time, and I mean the whole time. I was so lost at first because it was just a constant stream of instructions. He always spoke to us in English on the training pitch as well. If he heard us speaking in Spanish then he would give us both barrels, “Come on, English!”

‘Just as when you play for Mourinho, Rafa is very demanding. Some coaches, if they see you playing a five-a-side kickabout then they let you get on with it and leave the corrections for later but not Rafa. If he sees something, he’s not going to let you finish the game, he’s going to tell you there and then.’

Never did the meticulous training ground work pay-off as well as in the win over Madrid in the Champions League in 2009 when Yossi Benayoun gave Liverpool a 1-0 first-leg lead before a 4-0 second-leg demolition job.

‘Rafa, in terms of working the tactics, has been one of the best coaches I have ever had,’ Arbeloa says. ‘We knew exactly what to do in any given moment because we had worked on it so well throughout the week.’

It worked against Madrid just as it had worked against Barcelona in 2007 on Arbeloa’s Champions League debut when the young right back was given the most daunting of tasks.

‘I was training at Melwood and Rafa told me, “You’re switching to left back and you’ll be marking Messi”. I stood there looking at him, waiting for him to crack and start laughing. Surely it was a joke.

‘We went to Portugal, taking advantage of not being involved in the Cup, and I was left back every day in training in preparation for Messi.’


That break in Portugal turned into something of a golfing holiday for some of Liverpool’s players with Craig Bellamy hitting John Arne Riise with a golf club in his hotel room.

‘We all went out to dinner and Rafa gave us our curfew hour, I don’t remember if it was 1am or 2am and it had been a lively dinner with me and Mascherano singing a Spanish song on the karaoke that was so bad I have almost wiped all memory of it,’ he says.

‘At the designated hour for calling it a night, us new players left them to it. I only heard about the incident the next day and I couldn’t believe it.’

Neither Arbeloa marking Messi, nor Riise and Bellamy playing in the same team turned out to be much of a problem as Liverpool won over the two legs.

‘Rafa knew how to handle the situation — Riise and Belamy had never had a problem before and they were both in the team. Bellamy did the famous golf celebration when he scored and Riise played in front of me and also had an excellent game.’

Arbeloa rejoined Real Madrid for the second Galaticos project adding Pellegrini and Mourinho to the list of top managers who have made him a first-team regular.

‘It was great with Manuel because he was a coach who played very attacking football but it was a tumultuous period with a lot of pressure from the media and then came the Alcorconazo when [third-tier team] Alcorcon knocked us out of the cup.’

Mourinho replaced Pellegrini and Arbeloa continued to thrive, winning the league title that eluded him in England. He is not surprised that Pellegrini and Mourinho have renewed hostilities in the Premier League.

‘You have two coaches who have a very strong personality. He looks very calm but Manuel is a lot more fiery than people think. I can only say good things about the two of them. I had three great years with Mou but I also had a good year with Manuel.

‘I have had a lot of different coaches who have asked a lot of different things from me,’ he says reflecting on a decade at the top.

‘Mourinho asked me for completely different things to Ancelotti. You have to adapt because you want to play. You can’t only play the way the manager likes if you like it too… well maybe if you’re Cristiano Ronaldo, you can.’

Arbeloa knows exactly what kind of atmosphere to expect from Anfield when Real play there on Wednesday

In similar tongue-in-cheek vein he suggests that it is no coincidence that Liverpool began their exile from the Champions League when he left. He has told his Madrid team-mates to expect an emotional night.

‘I know we’re all used to a stadium of 80,000 and Anfield is only 45,000 but those 45,000 make the atmosphere very special. I can imagine how they are going to sing You’ll Never Walk Alone.

'I can imagine how they will cheer every corner or throw-in close to our penalty box as if it’s going to end in a goal. I have told the players to be ready for that.’
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Postby red till i die!! » Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:27 am

you just dont know what you will get with us. its either jekyl or hyde stuff. european nights in anfield are great but not if your being kicked off the park.
id go with

                                                        mingy

                    johnson            skrtel               lovren          moreno

                                                      gerrard

                                 lallana           hendo       coutinho

                                          sterling          balotelli

hopefully that will be enough to contain them while giving us a bit of creativity and pace on the break.
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Postby C-R » Tue Oct 21, 2014 12:15 pm

Sergio Ramos confirmed out along with Bale now
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Postby Kopite-Jud » Tue Oct 21, 2014 12:45 pm

Here's how i see it...

We're sh!te and still 4th (only missing out on GD) ahead of United and Arsenal and we've been to White Heart Lane and the Ethiad.  We cannot possibly perform anyworse than the last 3/4 games.

If we get a result against Madrid (that we are more than capable of) it may just kick start our season. We have always turned up for the big games ? right ?

Garauntee they wont be lumping it forard to Benzema. We should give them a right go!

:buttrock
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Postby SouthCoastShankly » Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:26 pm

Kopite-Jud » Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:45 am wrote:Here's how i see it...

We're sh!te and still 4th (only missing out on GD) ahead of United and Arsenal and we've been to White Heart Lane and the Ethiad.  We cannot possibly perform anyworse than the last 3/4 games.

If we get a result against Madrid (that we are more than capable of) it may just kick start our season. We have always turned up for the big games ? right ?

Garauntee they wont be lumping it forard to Benzema. We should give them a right go!

:buttrock

Benzema is a doubt also.
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Postby tonyeh » Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:55 pm

stmichael » Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:13 am wrote:I don't subscribe to this theory that we'll get hammered at all. I expect us to raise our game, very much helped by the crowd and the atmosphere. Yes Real Madrid have wonderful players in attack but they aren't unbeatable. They're weak at the back, especially at fullback which we can exploit. Bale is ruled out through injury. We quite simply have to defend better though or we'll get well beaten.

                                                                                                              Mignolet
                                                                               Manquillo          Skrtel          Lovren             Moreno

                                                                                                               Gerrard
                                                                                               Henderson              Allen
                                                                                                               Coutinho

                                                                                               Sterling                   Balotelli

None of this 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 malarkey please. Balotelli cannot play upfront on his own and needs help. He was awful yesterday but I feel a bit sorry for him in that the team around him isn't exactly performing either. Play Sterling up top as at least he offers a threat in behind. Coutinho was our best player after coming on yesterday and Allen has become a vital cog in the midfield.

I'm going for a 2-2 draw.



Yeh, that looks good to me Michael.

Sterling is fast and can knock a goal in, get him up front, cos Bellytelly ain't no lone wolf, that's for sure.

Either way though, this is going to be tough.
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Postby ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:56 pm

The weather is atrocious here tonight, hope it clears up for tomorrow or the game will be a farce.
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Postby damjan193 » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:49 pm

Modric, Bale and Ramos out of this one. Benzema will be available.
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