Liverpool FC Forum

[7_Kewell]

Have I been the only one to notice this?  For the last few weeks now Alonso and Gerrard have been well off form and I think today has shown just how far they have dropped.  I don’t mean to say they have become bad players, both are class, but their drop in form has affected our entire team.  Their passing is off, concentration off and their overall awareness of off.  Is it tiredness? 

I hope they pick it up soon because they're the Engine room for LFC and without these lads our season could fall apart.

[Cool Hand Luke]

We were good in the centre today. Our defence, wingers, and strikers were awful.

[metalhead]

No, i disagree with you, i think the whole team is off form, Finann isn't super finnan we know today! Carragher was avarage, Gerrard cost us the game but assisted a goal as well! Alonso was very silly with his tackles to get sent off! as for luis garcia he needs to stay in the starting line up because he is the only one that has the ability to score goals in the team!

today's game shows how low our confidence is

[metalhead]

We were good in the centre today. Our defence, wingers, and strikers were awful.

yes our defence was awful, Crouch didn't get any service! Alonso's sent off was the turning point of the game

[7_Kewell]

No, i disagree with you, i think the whole team is off form, Finann isn't super finnan we know today! Carragher was avarage, Gerrard cost us the game but assisted a goal as well! Alonso was very silly with his tackles to get sent off! as for luis garcia he needs to stay in the starting line up because he is the only one that has the ability to score goals in the team!

today's game shows how low our confidence is

thing is, even when our team is playing poor, we can normally rely on Gerrard or Alonso to come up with the goods.  Both have been playing poor, today Gerrard and Alonso couldn't pass the ball and i hoenstly think its to blame for our drop in form.  how can we score goals when we are reduced to hoofing the ball up from 45 yards?

[metalhead]

No, i disagree with you, i think the whole team is off form, Finann isn't super finnan we know today! Carragher was avarage, Gerrard cost us the game but assisted a goal as well! Alonso was very silly with his tackles to get sent off! as for luis garcia he needs to stay in the starting line up because he is the only one that has the ability to score goals in the team!

today's game shows how low our confidence is

thing is, even when our team is playing poor, we can normally rely on Gerrard or Alonso to come up with the goods.  Both have been playing poor, today Gerrard and Alonso couldn't pass the ball and i hoenstly think its to blame for our drop in form.  how can we score goals when we are reduced to hoofing the ball up from 45 yards?

I though Alonso passed the ball well until he got sent off! it is just low confidence from the benfica defeat, and we need to pick up ourself against fulham on wednesday!

Poor Gerrard, he assisted the liverpool goal, it was a great shot! but then a stupid mistake!

[Sean]

Garcia must be the most frustrating player ever to play for us.  The guy cannot retain possession and yet he popped up with the equaliser.  However, in the long term he is not good enough for us.

Our approach to the game was wrong.  Every man and his dog knows that the way to beat Arsenal is to hit them hard and not top allow them settle on the ball.  Allardyce and Bolton have perfected this.  However, today we stood off Arsenal and allowed them to play and subsequently we were punished.

Once more when Fowler came on (even before Alonso was sent off) he was playing outside the box, coming deep to gain possession.  We brought the guy back to the club to score goals and not to help out in midfield.

[Ciggy]

Something about the fact they have played like 50 games this season may have something to do with it dont ya think? Its an idea like.

[welsh wizzard]

I don't know what all the fuss is with Alonso, he is a good player but he ain't nowt special. Can pass a ball, but doesn't score enough goals. I would take 20m from Real Madrid for him anyday, He plays well only in parts of a game, but then goes missing for long spells of the game, i know sissoko is a different sort of player but i would have him in there next to gerrard. His work rate is far superior and he disrupts alot of the oppositions play, giving stevie a more attacking player next to him. Stevie has good passes, can tackle, score goals etc Alonso doesn't come anywhere near him, So if Madrid come Knocking let them have him for 20m. Then we can get two decent forwards, and another midfielder like Barton or Nolan. But come on Alonso he ain't all that special...

[7_Kewell]

Garcia must be the most frustrating player ever to play for us.  The guy cannot retain possession and yet he popped up with the equaliser.  However, in the long term he is not good enough for us.

Our approach to the game was wrong.  Every man and his dog knows that the way to beat Arsenal is to hit them hard and not top allow them settle on the ball.  Allardyce and Bolton have perfected this.  However, today we stood off Arsenal and allowed them to play and subsequently we were punished.

Once more when Fowler came on (even before Alonso was sent off) he was playing outside the box, coming deep to gain possession.  We brought the guy back to the club to score goals and not to help out in midfield.

Garcia is a luxury player who (if we got a good offer) i would sell.  I don't know if Rafa is telling Fowler to stand out the box, problem is, he's too slow to get into the box once the action starts.

[7_Kewell]

I don't know what all the fuss is with Alonso, he is a good player but he ain't nowt special. Can pass a ball, but doesn't score enough goals. I would take 20m from Real Madrid for him anyday, He plays well only in parts of a game, but then goes missing for long spells of the game, i know sissoko is a different sort of player but i would have him in there next to gerrard. His work rate is far superior and he disrupts alot of the oppositions play, giving stevie a more attacking player next to him. Stevie has good passes, can tackle, score goals etc Alonso doesn't come anywhere near him, So if Madrid come Knocking let them have him for 20m. Then we can get two decent forwards, and another midfielder like Barton or Nolan. But come on Alonso he ain't all that special...

shut up idiot.

[metalhead]

Garcia must be the most frustrating player ever to play for us.  The guy cannot retain possession and yet he popped up with the equaliser.  However, in the long term he is not good enough for us.

Our approach to the game was wrong.  Every man and his dog knows that the way to beat Arsenal is to hit them hard and not top allow them settle on the ball.  Allardyce and Bolton have perfected this.  However, today we stood off Arsenal and allowed them to play and subsequently we were punished.

Once more when Fowler came on (even before Alonso was sent off) he was playing outside the box, coming deep to gain possession.  We brought the guy back to the club to score goals and not to help out in midfield.

what? Garcia is the only player who can score goals for us right now!!! he didn't lose possesion alot today! he held up the ball well in part of the match! He needs to watch on his tackling!

HE IS VERY IMPORTANT!

[bigmick]

I personally don't think you need to be a master tactician to spot what is wrong with our team at the moment and with the greatest respect, while Gerrard and Alonso not playing to their very best maybe a symptom, it's certainly not the cause of our woes.
I'm not going to be particularly original here but our problems stem from the fact that we can't score goals. That, and only that is the problem. All the other component parts of the team which are beginning to creak are as a direct result of the fact that we don't score when we should.
Crouch's header today was a poor attempt at a fairly basic skill. The whole motion cloaked in anxiety, no timing at all as he flexed his neck muscles an age before the ball arrived. Misses in a manner such as that spur on the opposition and deflate our team. It's hard to work the ball into a wide area and pick out a cross. It takes effort, imagination and skill. Crouch's circular movement away from the ball and then back in towards the penalty spot was good, and almost certainly practised regularly. That he made such a poor attempt at the final action is bound to make the players say "FFS" under heir breath. It's the most natural reaction. Similarly the Arsenal players can't help but think "this games won as they aint gonna score". It was an awful attempt from the big man.
Gradually our confidence and belief has slipped away like sand through the fingers, to be replaced by hurried passes and snatched first touches. Where once the defence looked calm and assured there is an air of desperation, a knowledge that one mistake probably means game over as we won't be able to pull the game back. Similarly teams are able to defend against us with ease and confidence, the litany of long punts and lack of pace and/or channel balls to turn the defence around allowing them to predict where the ball will land and cover accordingly. Not for the opposition the anxiety of mistakes, they know they will rarely be punished even if a Liverpool striker gets free.
Sorry mate in a nutshell that is the problem for me, nothing else. Solve that and you solve the other problems. My suspicion is that if we had Thierry Henri, we would defend better and pass it better. Also, steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso would play better too. We'd probably be an absolutely cracking side aswell.

[metalhead]

I don't know what all the fuss is with Alonso, he is a good player but he ain't nowt special. Can pass a ball, but doesn't score enough goals. I would take 20m from Real Madrid for him anyday, He plays well only in parts of a game, but then goes missing for long spells of the game, i know sissoko is a different sort of player but i would have him in there next to gerrard. His work rate is far superior and he disrupts alot of the oppositions play, giving stevie a more attacking player next to him. Stevie has good passes, can tackle, score goals etc Alonso doesn't come anywhere near him, So if Madrid come Knocking let them have him for 20m. Then we can get two decent forwards, and another midfielder like Barton or Nolan. But come on Alonso he ain't all that special...

stop talking welsh wizzard! do you think we would be this far without alonso?

hell no! do you think we would be in the quarter final of the F.A cup without Xabi Alonso? hell no!

[Houllier=LFC]

Maybe we can try playing Garcia as striker, hes the only poacher in the team.
Desperate times sometimes really calls for desperate measures.