Liverpool FC Forum

[66-1112520797]

With the squad purchasing finished until December at least, and I must say I'm well happy with the players brought in. Rafa has really identified key positions that needed sorting out, and in all they were mainly attacking positions. We now have pace and width in Gonzalez, Pennant and Bellamy respectively,also Aurelio looks good going forward too.

I think the team from what I've seen are starting to play the old Liverpool way. Some of their passing and moving against West Ham was a pleasure to watch. But the next probable obstacle for Rafa to cover or sort out IMO will be, not letting our own defence becomine vunrable from our movement and attacking play up front. Last season we only conceeded 25 goals, at the moment I think it looks all tall order as Alonso is our only real " disciplined" midfielder. Some of the time last season we were able to play Hamman alongside Alonso and Gerrard out wide. This season we'll have for the majority of games the destructive presence of Momo. But we all no he's not a holding mid, but when he does play he offers more protection. But against the Hammers last saturday Alonso was the only real defensive minded midfielder out on the park for us. This coupled with our new faces at the back i.e Aurelio and Agger just says to me now that Rafa has to find a balance in the team when going forward and defending.

Its like, last season our defence was immense and out of the three positions, Defence, Midfield and Attack. The defence was our strongest unit obviously aided by midfield. So when Rafa adresses the attacking play by purchasing creative and pacey players who like to attack, he'll  be taking some of that defensive resistance away in order to help our attacking options.

I think this is something he'll need to address, ' the balance ' what do you guys  think.

[inglis5]

I completely agree. Balance to the side will come as the season progresses, it was going to be incredibly difficult for us to incorporate all these attack minded players without the defence suffering a little. In my opinion the balance between left and right still needs to be addressed as well. Rumours today that Spurs are offering £5 million for Kewell. Would it not be worthwhile letting a left sided midfielder go (when we still have Aurielo, Gonzales and Riise - even Zenden) and using that extra money to put a decent offer in for Alves? If we have offered £3 million for Neill then surely we could find the extra money needed for Alves? Alves would give us a better balance on the right being able to play on the wing and full back whereas Neill will only give us cover across the back and I don't think that is soimething we really need...

[account deleted by request]

I think you make a very good point Bamaga, while having Pennant and Gonzales will add to our attacking options they arnt as solid defensively as when we had Gerrard and Riise playing in the wide positions. Having said that I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of work Pennant has been putting in defensively.

         I think once we get Momo and Riise fit, we may see one of the wings taken up by Gerrard or Aurelio and only one attacking winger played, Pennant with Aurelio and Gonzales with Gerrard. This will allow us to spread play when attacking, but narrow the play and cover when defending.

        The thing that has impressed me most up to now about all our new signings, is the amount of hard work they are willing to put in. Rafa seems to have got a good teamspirit and a hard working ethos into the team, and once we get the balance between attack and defence perfected ,I think we will take some stopping.

[Rush]

Maybe Rafa is prepared to concede more goals than last season, while at the same time score more than last season.
Obviously no guarantee that it will happen, but I feel certain that Rafa is thinking along those lines.

[Sabre]

That's pretty much what I saw in the West Ham game, and that's why I defended Alonso's performance, he was really vulnerable.

But I don't think that's going to be a constant through out the season, but just another option between the range of formations that is at Rafa's disposal. From my continental view, the formation we played against West Ham was near to Gung Ho attacking, taking quite a few risks.

I don't think we're going to play that way against all the teams, let alone  the champions league but might be useful against teams that come to Anfield to get a 0-0, or to avoid that kind of game we saw often last year in wich we dominated consistently some games but didn't manage to win the game.

In terms of balance the only decission I don't understand from Rafa is the departure of Hamman. Right now everything is ok, but if an important injury of 3 weeks strikes Sissoko or Alonso... hmmm that would make us a bit wobbly in that position considering the amount of games we have to play.

[66-1112520797]

In terms of balance the only decission I don't understand from Rafa is the departure of Hamman. Right now everything is ok, but if an important injury of 3 weeks strikes Sissoko or Alonso... hmmm that would make us a bit wobbly in that position considering the amount of games we have to play.

Thats a very valid point Sabre espcially if we lost Alonso for a period of time. Hamman would of been the perfect solution to fill the gap if Alonso or Sissoko got injured. But as it is, its either Gerrard or Zenden. I dont think asking Gerrard to do that job would be a bad thing. Obviously he'd have to 'sit' more, in front of the defence and play a more disciplined game. So that would instantly take away the " driving " force Gerrard offers going forward. But with the quality upfront and on the flanks it wouldnt be a major problem to play Gerrard there I dont think.

Hypothetically speaking though if Alonso & Sissoko did get injured and Gerrard and Zenden filled in the middle I wouldnt be too confident if Rafa asked Zenden to 'sit' thus releasing Gerrard more. As TBH he isnt the best tackler in the world nor the best distributer of the ball, and basicly he doesnt have the qualities of either Alonso or Hamman to play that in the position.

[Ciggy]

Good post BM 
I know Ive said it before and I'll say it again, we should have kept hold of Didi for one more season.
He controlled the game much better than any of our players can, Gerrard felt more secure with him being our anchor man.

Its going to take a while before the team gels, and get into a settled rhythm, the balance of the squad last season was great apart from the strikers that where miss firing.
Now thats been sorted out hopefully we can get back to our winning ways and sweep all before us.

[CardinalRed]

I think it's obvious that Rafa sees balance as the main aim for him in building the squad... He makes reference to it in his interview. Not sure about the need to keep Didi though, I think Momo has to be given his head and be allowed to blossom as the holder we all think he can be. It's crucial decisions like that which mark out a manager, getting the midfield equation correct goes an awful long way to sorting the mystical "balance" question....