Liverpool FC Forum

[Lando_Griffin]

I thought Garcia was awful. He just give possession away all the time. He's got to be one of the most skillful players in England, but his decision making is w*nk.

Alonso was MOTM for me.

[112-1077774096]

i manged to find this pic of kewell in the changing roms after the game

[azriahmad]

Kewell, short of match fitness or not, still did nothing with his tiny heart. Should get rid of him, rathe than retain him at 65k a week and know that he'll do absolutely nothing if he is required to dig in and work hard in a tough game.

About that sumo wrestler picture, peewee, you are being unfair to him. He has a better hairstyle than Kewell!

[66-1120597113]

dry your eyes the lot of ya:D
ffs by no means a classic match but 3 points away in europe is not easy no matter what the opposition is........could be a lot worse you could be a manc:cool:

[SouthCoastShankly]

I thought Garcia was awful. He just give possession away all the time. He's got to be one of the most skillful players in England, but his decision making is w*nk.

Alonso was MOTM for me.

Totally agree.

I'm normally a fan of Garcia's but last night he was appalling, how you can call - Shit passing and being a total liabilty  - vision I don't know?!

But it got me thinking, the formation was 4-5-1, a formation I normally dispise. But Sissoko was quite impressive on the right and Hamann and Alonso worked really well together. Until Garcias wasted performance I was wondering why change things and how Rafa would reintroduce Gerrard.

I think this would work:

                        Hamann

      Sissoko        Alonso        Risse\Kewell

                   Gerrard

                            Cisse


Why not give Gerrard the role Garcia plays, its fairly obvious he would show Garcia how to do the job comfortably

[JC_81]

Well, 3 points were the main thing last night and we got them, so looking at it that way we should be happy.  In fact 3 points away from home in europe is good no matter who you're playing.

But I can't help feeling dissatisfied with the game somehow.  Why?  Because not for the first time this season I disagreed with several of Benitez's decisions.  Sissoko out right made no sense to me at all.  Josemi and Traore?  Don't trust either of them.  Cisse as a lone striker?  Benitez himself has said that Cisse is ineffective in that position.  But ok, the guy knows a hell of a lot more about football than me, so I thought I'd see how the game went before passing judgement.  And in hindsight, I still disagree.

However the most worrying thing was that about half way through the second half, we were under immense pressure from Anderlecht and we were crying out for a substitution or tactical change.  Maybe bring Sissoko in-field more and let Garcia watch the right flank?  Maybe get Zenden/Kewell on for Traore and drop Riise back? - because a lot of our problems were, once again, coming from Traore's inability to pass, head or hold his position.  Even bring Warnock on for Traore?  Maybe bring a forward on in place of Cisse who could hold the ball up more?  Any of these would have helped take the pressure off us in my opinion.  Instead Benitez does nothing, we ride our luck and almost concede a penalty on top of them having other chances from open play.

And when a sub arrives, who is it?  An overweight Kewell who is clearly in need of some time in the reserves to get into some shape.  And who comes off?  Our only striker, therefore inviting even more pressure onto us.  I couldn't believe it.

Okay, so we won in the end, so that means Benitez got it right on the night?  In my opinion, no.  In the second half he got it wrong and we rode our luck.  I'm happy with the 3 points, don't get me wrong, and I know a manager can't get it right every time, but last night was worrying.  The team selection baffled me and the substitutions even more so.

[kazza]

Great goal by Cisse and thought Alonso mom by a mile

You thought Alonso's mom was as big as a mile?? She is heavy set but that is going too far!

[kazza]

Oh and i word to the spanish lads, you dont have to start time wasting once we score a goal and Josemi the fu*king gobsh!te how immature and pathetic was it to stay down with ten minutes to go with an injury when you knew play would continue with us having to defend with ten men. The lad needs a word or two in his fu*king ear.

Anyone that plays football knows what a dead leg feels like. He got a knee right in the thigh and after a dead leg you cannot move it for a few minutes. Even Andy Grey (a bitter blue) was understanding!

[Roger Red Hat]

I'd play Garcia at right back, right back on the fecking bus. He was woeful.

"Errr, 'scuse me, Mr Garcia, the goal is the big thing your stood 10 foot away from, yes, thats right, the thing you've just blasted the fecking football over!"

what a waste of sperm

[Paul C]

What did you guys think of Christan Wilhelmsson? I thought that he looked very promissing, I think Rafa should keep his eye on him as he looks versitile and did a great job for them on the right, he'd cost peanuts too.

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/Players/Player=54364/index.html

[kazza]

I think people have been harsh on Hamman, we did not concede a goal so therefore he did his job.

Sissoko was played on the right wing, not his position and it is not easy for a CENTRAL midfielder to play wide. The positions require different mentalities and he struggled but it was not his fault. He did his job though as best he could. Could have laid off the ball for Kewell to score, instead he tried his luck which was saved by the keeper (you can't blame him really, I am sure he would love to have scored his first goal for the club).

Although not Garcia's best game, I thought he was industrious creative and showed a lot of heart. Ran all over the pitch. I think he does not warrant the critisism he has recieved.

Kewell was a real dissapointment. I remember saying a week ago that that we would tell about Kewells attitude by his weight when he came back. He looked overweight and did not seem hungry (no pun intended) for us. Was so busy whining to Garcia when he did not give him a goal scoring pass (which Garcia should have done), that he did not realize that the goalie spilled the ball and had Kewell followed up and been positive, he might have scored. He continued to whine the rest of the game and even at the end Garcia tried to talk to him and Kewell walked away from him. It is Kewell that owes the team, the team does not owe Kewell. Kewell showed me he should be sold.

I am happy Cisse scored and is getting more confident, this will only be good for us (may it continue). He was selfish on various occasions however, and my opinion of him is still the same. Stll lazy off the ball, and not so sure about his attitude towards his team mates. First skillfull goal he has scored.

Traore is looking dodgy again, and a good team would have exploited that.

Overall, I am happy to be almost through to the next round.

[The Canadian Red Army]

You can see tonight that the team is being broken up gradually from the players that we know, and us english are a bit wary of all these foreigners in what was once mostly an english side.
We had one english player who started today Carra, Warnock came on for the last 10 mins, its very scary indeed.

yes english pride is good, but we are not living in the years of dominance. Football has changed since then, somethings you just have to accept.

[The Canadian Red Army]

good performances from Alonso, Garcia and Risse tonight, and everyone apart from Josemi and Sissoko were decent. Should of scored more but there keeper was good and we lacked a bit of killer instinct up front, but 3 points away from home is always a good result and now leaves us in a good position in the group.

the keepers save on sissoko was pure luck, it hit the keepers thigh. Sissoko didnt play as bas as you make it out to be fowler. Josemi had a solid game yesterday, he stopped the left winger alot of the time or it got broken down by hamman or sissoko or alonso. We played ok yesterday not great, but not bad either. We didnt have the strength to shut them down, maybe it was because we have played so many games and we dont have enough support. To compare us to chelsea is useless. We dont have a billionaire owner to shell out 20million here, 32million there. We got the 3 points, so lets look foward to the fullam game. SELL KEWELL in january.

[andy_g]

i'm so tired of hearing people whining about the team and certain players after every sodding game. it looks like people are only interested in looking for and picking out faults - particularly with garcia and kewell. garcia lost the ball a few times last night and played a few wrong passes - so did alonso, so did sissoko, so did riise, so did cisse, so did josemi - in fact about the only one who didn't was hyppia (who for me was outstanding). but how many of you garcia bashers applauded the number of good things he did? the endless running and working for the team? the moments of amazing vision and awareness that practically no one else in the team showed?

and kewell comes on for a real competetive game for the first time since may and people are on his back because he's not razor sharp and a little short of fitness. WELL WHAT DO YOU FUCKING EXPECT??

get over it. we absolutely destroyed them in the first half and never looked in much danger in the second, despite them coming at us with everything they had. 3 more points away from home and progression virtually guaranteed.

[Paul C]

Go Andy..... it's ya birthday