Liverpool FC Forum

[112-1077774096]

i had a thought after watching the interviews last, i watched gerrard and rafa. neither of the had the balls to come out and be honest. or maybe they thought they were being honest.

if they genuinly believed their comments then god help us, if they were just soundbites the god help us. where is the fire, where is the anger at the performance.

"oh we will go back and watch the video but we played well" just doesn't cut it. i would rather "we were sh*t, we have no cohesion, we were devoid of ideas and we played like a team of strangers" would be much better

[account deleted by request]

One last thought, I would rather finish fourth and not qualify for UEFA CUP THAN FINISH THIRD AND HAVE TO PLAY IN IT.

[red37]

Just a heads up to those who are travelling home from Istanbul to arrive safe and sound. Threads closed.

Reopened for a bit.

[Leonmc0708]

Crowd was 400 to 500 mate according to Andy Gray and co anyway. They said a lot had bought tickets for the stubbs(?)but didn't travel.

andy Gray is not exactly the oracle is he ?

He cant spot a decent player from twenty yards or a foul fro mthe gantry never mind counting fans in a crowd.

Also the buying for loyalty idea wont work, as all fans know. Marsielle tickets will be sold to people who have attended (and supplied proof) and not those who simply bought a mtach ticket. Any decent journalist would have doen their homework on that . . .

Not sure about that mate, this is what was written about the Porto match :-

Liverpool have sold all of their tickets for tomorrow night's Champions League game in Porto but there is absolutely no chance of the away end being full.
All 2,500 tickets were snapped up but if 2,500 Liverpool fans make the trip to Portugal it'll be the biggest shock of the season.
In fact, I'd expect no more than 1,000 to make it over with most choosing to sit at home and watch the game on TV with their £36 ticket sat on the sideboard gathering dust.
The ones who have bought tickets but don't go are, to use a euphemism, "playing the system".
They pay the price of the ticket and get another credit to their name; a credit which will then go towards entitling them to a ticket for more glamorous games should Liverpool progress in the competition.

And it is here that the "loyalty" system breaks down.
People are being rewarded for not going to the game, for staying at home when Liverpool are playing when they have indicated to the club that they will be going.
The mess is of the club's creation, of course. For some reason, they acted in good faith and came up with a system which demanded honour and honesty if it was ever going to be fair and equitable.
They should have known better.
The warning signs have been there for some time. Last season when we played Galatasaray in Istanbul, the club sold over 3,000 tickets for what was a meaningless game with Liverpool already having qualified for the knockout stages.
The more naive amongst us thought this might have had something to do with the Istanbul effect as supporters made an emotional return to the scene of the Reds greatest ever triumph.
But those of a more cynical mindset knew the score - the credit hunters had come out to play, greedily gobbling up the £6 tickets that could serve as a passport to more glamorous locations in the rounds to come.
And when those of us who travelled got to the ground on a freezing cold December night we found that the cynics were right and the romantics were wrong; there were no more than 600 Reds in our end.
Basically, a situation has been created where you get as much reward for buying a £6 ticket and staying at home as you do for paying £500 (plus the rest) to travel over a thousand miles to support your team.
And it's a situation that has to change.
As a season ticket holder I qualified for a ticket for Porto but I didn't buy one because I'm not going. Plenty of other lads have taken the same principled stand.
The problem is, plenty of other lads have decided to work the system again and they have created a situation in which our end will be half empty tomorrow night despite the fact our tickets have offically sold out.
They have paid £36 to not support their team.
And they have paid £36 to take themselves another rung up the loyalty ladder.
It is up to the club to do something about this problem because at the moment we do not have a loyalty system, we have a cheats' charter.
Maybe the time has come to look at doing what other clubs and national teams do - only giving tickets out to fans (and awarding them loyalty) when they get to the town or city where the game is taking place.
In their rare incursions into Europe, this is what Everton do. They select a prominent hotel in the city centre and ask fans to be there to collect their tickets. No show = no loyalty.
I know this system is far from perfect and it would make life more difficult for those who do travel but if the current situation is allowed to continue then the sight of half empty Liverpool ends in Europe will be a sight we will have to get more and more used to.

that was the porto game mate.

The rules for the Beskitas game where:

PRIORITY FOR THE AWAY GROUP STAGE MATCH AGAINST OLYMPIQUE DE MARSEILLE
 
It is IMPORTANT for supporters traveling to Istanbul to retain their travel documents which will provide proof of travel, e.g. the original stub from the flight boarding pass(es) or original documentation from other means of travel,
as these may be requested to be attached with the application forms for the away fixture in France. The documents may also be taken into consideration for any future matches within the UEFA Competitions

This is from the official site.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N157233071007-1434.htm

[aaaabbbb]

hi guys..from turkey..
do you know this?
the record of noise decibel in a match was broken by besiktas fans "CARSI" last year.
after this score..
i think you will never walk AGAIN

[red37]

hi guys..from turkey..
do you know this?
the record of noise decibel in a match was broken by besiktas fans "CARSI" last year.
after this score..
i think you will never walk AGAIN

....Flushed.

On yer bike.

[puroresu]

Why do some people seem to think that the CL is not top priority so it doesn't really matter?  It wasn't long ago that Rafa was saying how he wants to get through the group stage ASAP and not have to go down to the last games.  I dont expect to win the CL or reach the final every year but going out in the 1st round is a disgrace regardless of the league form.

[Owzat]

Why do some people seem to think that the CL is not top priority so it doesn't really matter?  It wasn't long ago that Rafa was saying how he wants to get through the group stage ASAP and not have to go down to the last games.  I dont expect to win the CL or reach the final every year but going out in the 1st round is a disgrace regardless of the league form.

We seem so wrapped up in what is effectively the icing on the cake, that we end up with no cake at all! Winning the CL is somewhat hollow when so many remind us we've never won the renamed 'Premiership'.

Truth is we still are short of a strong enough squad, the absence of Torres, Agger and Alonso is all too telling and on a truly strong squad it wouldn't

[damned_turk_gs]

live did not play so bad , but besiktas was good and the thing make bjk won was the incredible besiktas fans , they were not silent for one minute and pumping the players every moment, still liverpool can qualify from this group it is not so difficult for them...

[account deleted by request]

The rules for the Beskitas game where:

PRIORITY FOR THE AWAY GROUP STAGE MATCH AGAINST OLYMPIQUE DE MARSEILLE
 
It is IMPORTANT for supporters traveling to Istanbul to retain their travel documents which will provide proof of travel, e.g. the original stub from the flight boarding pass(es) or original documentation from other means of travel,
as these may be requested to be attached with the application forms for the away fixture in France. The documents may also be taken into consideration for any future matches within the UEFA Competitions

This is from the official site.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N157233071007-1434.htm

Thanks for clearing that up Leon

[KOPMATT]

I'm just soooo bloody gutted at our lack of width, effort/application lately, we seem to have gone backwards. Yes we had chances to score b4 they did but come we have been doing that for the last few seasons! There just doesn't seem to be a hunger there at the moment or a desire that we all know we need to compete it's either that or the bottom line is we've been found out as b4 and are just not good enough? We've no pace at the back cept for Carragher and he ain't exactly billy whizz! Riise is playing well below par so too is Finnan, Sorry but Sami has had his day and it'll be sad to see him go after all he's given to us. Gerrards been given his so called favoured role in the centre but whats that exactly done? In my opinion nowt! Pennant started so well but has gone back to wher he was, Sissoko and Mascherano too are not playing well Crouch is having a poor season albeit not getting many chances to play but when he does he does nothing of any real note, I could go on moaning but i know it won't do me or us any good!
The team need to get there heads outta the shed and Rafa too or all will be lost before b4 christmas!
I hate being a pessemist but can anyone really see us qualifing for the knockout stages of the CL?
I hate moaning so I'm gonna stop.........4 now.
I'm taking my son to the Cardiff game on wednesday hope we get it together and the blkoody Gooners on sunday the way they're playing at the mo I really.............Forget it you all know where I'm going with that! 

[EddieC]

Reina didn't have a chance with the own goal but could maybe have done better for the second, apart from that & one other save I can't recall him having to do anything else all night. Hyypia can't play this many games in succession anymore and it showed last night, if Agger or Arbeloa isn't back for Sunday it will have to be either Jack Hobbs or play someone out of position (Mascherano possibly?). I feel sorry for Sami cos he's inevitably gonna take a lot of stick, but I feel Rafa should've known he was asking too much of him to start with. Carragher's performance was hard to judge as he was having to do a lot of covering for Sami, not his greatest game but I think this had a lot to do with it. He needs to learn sometimes though that he was the one at fault, a couple of occassions he was screaming at his colleagues for something he had done. Both our fullbacks were poor, but for different reasons. In terms of skills like passing and tackling Riise pretty much got it right, but tactically he was all over the place, his runs were mistimed and he was caught too high up the pitch on a number of occassions. Finnan too was unusually poor, everything he did just seemed to go wrong last night, most notably the bizarre chain of events leading to the first goal. His passing was wayward & some of his tackling left a lot to be desired, let's just hope normal service is resumed from 'Mr Reliable' on Sunday.

In midfield, Gerrard is starting to get back to his usual self but I thought he was trying a bit too hard last night, attempting something fancy when the simple ball would have been easier & just as effective. Babel showed a lot of endeavour, ok he might not have got everything right but he was one of the few that was actually trying to make something happen. There were times I actually forgot Mascherano was on the pitch, he didn't seem to be very involved in the game, but I can't recall him doing anything in particular wrong. I think this was the wrong game for him TBH, his strength is breaking up the oppositions attack, and there was never gonna be too much of that in this game. Pennant was poor, he didn't really get anything wrong going forward but that was because he didn't try anything, I'd much rather he tried & failed half the time as that would mean he was successful the other half. Defensively he offered absolutely nothing though, and definitely helped contribute to Finnan's poor performance. The difference was plain to see when Benayoun came on, he offered a lot more both going forward & in defence, and was a lot of peoples contender fo man of the match.

Up front I feel if Torres is out then Babel has to move there from the wing. Kuyt & Voronin just doesn't work, neither has that unpredictability about them that it takes to trouble defences. Either one of them would be good alongside a creative player, but together they become mundane & easy to defend against. I was surprised at the number of people calling for Crouch to come on considering that most people seem to want him sold in January, the poor lad must be wondering what he has to do to get a bit of gametime though, 10 minutes was nowhere near enough.

In terms of tactics & selection the only real mistake I think Rafa made was playing Hyypia, apart from that the way we setup should've won the game. The players just didn't play well enough, the amount of shots we had we should've buried them. Seems like the same story as last season, lots of shots but no goals to show for them, I still maintain we should've bought an out and out goalscorer in the summer. One thing the team definitely needs to work on is getting on the end of crosses. Near enough every cross, corner or free kick from a wide area was met by a Besiktas player, this has been an ongoing problem for a while now, you have to wonder if we actually practice this in training?

All in all a very bad night, and I'm still just as pissed off today, but it's done now & we have to look forwards. I hate to say it but I think the Champions League could well be beyond our reach now, so we'll have to focus on domestic competitions. Here's hoping to a better result on Sunday to put the smiles back on our faces.

[NANNY RED]

Hi everyone im back with a earache  there supporters were amazing unbelievable . freindly aswell we went to this great Irish bar there and got smashed the turks kept buying all the drinks even a kebab after wards   The police wernt to bad an looked after me and my mates sound. Bit dissapointed in the number of fans who were there but it was a long way so excuses

As far as the game went, well as a Red im finding it hard to accept the rubbish i m watching at the moment. We have got a tradidion of playing football passing and moving and im not seeing any < thing like that. Ok were playing the ball but then were remaining static.  More often than not we are just playing the long ball.   Not one of our players seemed capable of making any space for themselves . Maybe im gonna get slated for saying this but Stevie  should go back to playing on the right and when Alonso is fit get him and masher in the middle. Ok i know he scored and it looked like he was trying but is sitting far to deep and playing to many 40 yard balls that are going nowhere. And  kuyt  should be told to stay in the ing box and stop coming to deep at one point last night he was dropping back covering Arnie . We have been playing poor now for a while some are blaming the manager but me i blame the players .  WTF  is going on were supposed to have a squad of top class players and yet no one is taking resposibility theres no motivation or determination to win we seem to have forgotten how to pass aball. 


A ,few out there saying we played ok and dominated the gamebut  we need and points. Whats the point in dominating the game when we couldnt put to passes together and were just hoofing it .

Liverpool players need to  take  along look at themselves and remember what it like to wear this famous red shirt cause since the Derby  County game this is the worst football ive seen us play in years and its breaking my - heart

Some fans are saing the Champions league doesnt matter and its the premiership that counts , well i disagree every tounament that we are in i want us to win .

I have tasted the glory days when we dominated everything and i want them back again. 

So lets start with Arsenal . Im going to church Sunday morning to pray

[NANNY RED]

Good pic

Whats Steven saying to Carra ? 

[bunglemark2]

Good pic

Whats Steven saying to Carra ? 

"Another fine mess Rafa's gotten us into ""