Liverpool FC Forum

[The_Rock]

....we have chelsea on the 28th. So what type of a team do u think rafa would put out against birmingham ?

For me, i would play my strongest team against birmingham & chelsea so that we can get our league campaign going and also scoring a psychological victory against chelsea (given that we would be playing them 3 more times this season).

That last thing we wanna do is put on a somewhat weak team against birmingham and get another 0-0 draw (or worse lose) and then go on and lose to chelsea (and see chelsea_clinton come here and create 10 new threads about chelsea and how good they are  )

So we should play our best team and start our season rolling.

This is my team..... Gerrard has to play right wing. I can't bring myself to watch garcia or pongolle play there anymore...it is just too painful. It really hurts.

                         Reina
      Finnan    Carra    Hyppia   Warnock
              Alonso  Sissoko  Hamann
            Gerrard                         Risse
                              Crouch
Subs
Carson
Traore
Garcia
Cisse
Pongolle

- Drop Garcia because he needs a kick up his a$$.  Shocking performance against the scums.

- Drop Cisse because, lets face it. Cisse and Rafa has major issues. Even when Cisse was coming on to replace crouch, you can see he was ignoring rafa's instructions to him. Cisse won't be here in January.

- Gerrard & Risse to concerntrate on attacking only and putting in crosses for crouch. Should be able to score a few goals.

- With the defence we have and a 3 men central midfield, birmingham won't even get into our penalty box.

Lets start our season rolling against birmingham ..... 

[A.B.]

Mate you have four central midfielders...........

Hamann isn't as sharp as he is lately so playing him in this type of game won't due us much good.

.                 Reina

Finnan   Carragher    Hyypia    Traore

             Alonso      Sissoko

                   Gerrard           Riise

           Cisse

                          Crouch

[The_Rock]

Not really....gerrard will play as an attacking right winger.  I don't think gerrard is as effective if he has to handle defensive duties.

So in having 3 CMs....risse & gerrard only have to concerntrate on attacking. As for hamann, he does have a lot to offer. If he is there just to anchor the defence, he will do an amazing job.... (this will also free up sissoko & alonso to dominate the midfield).

Also no more cisse for me....If rafa starts with him, he will only play right wing becos rafa hates cisse 

[109-1093441336]

Hope the Sisco kid tw.ats Steve Bruce's nose back in line.

thats worth 3 points alone.

[Cool Hand Luke]

The good thing about the 4 games after the Betis one is that they are nicely spaced out with no traveling abroad and at least 3 days gap inbetween each one, so squad rotation will not be such a big issue, we should be able to gather Rafa's current ideas for the rest of the season.

[109-1093441336]

trying to guess rafas ideas is like trying to understand Ranieri during those classic post match interviews.

" claudio, what can you take from this game?"

"well, er well e frunk, pass, err dont lose , tinker ciolla, well, er no good, have zola, no? "

[A.B.]

Nothing to do with us but Barca just lost to Atletico Madrid.

[El Nino_#9]

Nothing to do with us but real madrid just lost to espanyol

[drummerphil]

nothing to do with us but i,ve just had a cup of tea

[Cool Hand Luke]

nothing to do with us, but I'm going to sleep

[A.B.]

Birmingham have lost the last three home games already this season, but they will be up for this game. A draw against them won't do us any favours as we face Chelsea at home afterwards so it's really going to be a test of how much we've improved and can we step up a notch to win an away game we lost last season.

[hobbes]

....we have chelsea on the 28th. So what type of a team do u think rafa would put out against birmingham ?

For me, i would play my strongest team against birmingham & chelsea so that we can get our league campaign going and also scoring a psychological victory against chelsea (given that we would be playing them 3 more times this season).

That last thing we wanna do is put on a somewhat weak team against birmingham and get another 0-0 draw (or worse lose) and then go on and lose to chelsea (and see chelsea_clinton come here and create 10 new threads about chelsea and how good they are  )

So we should play our best team and start our season rolling.

This is my team..... Gerrard has to play right wing. I can't bring myself to watch garcia or pongolle play there anymore...it is just too painful. It really hurts.

                         Reina
      Finnan    Carra    Hyppia   Warnock
              Alonso  Sissoko  Hamann
            Gerrard                         Risse
                              Crouch
Subs
Carson
Traore
Garcia
Cisse
Pongolle

- Drop Garcia because he needs a kick up his a$$.  Shocking performance against the scums.

- Drop Cisse because, lets face it. Cisse and Rafa has major issues. Even when Cisse was coming on to replace crouch, you can see he was ignoring rafa's instructions to him. Cisse won't be here in January.

- Gerrard & Risse to concerntrate on attacking only and putting in crosses for crouch. Should be able to score a few goals.

- With the defence we have and a 3 men central midfield, birmingham won't even get into our penalty box.

Lets start our season rolling against birmingham ..... 

I see you want a 4-3-3 formation . Very attacking.Good .
But I wouldnt use Hamann there. I would save him for Chelsea. Hamann has shown improvement a good reason for extending his contract. I agree with you if we start like this:


                                        Reina


        Finann         Cara            Hypia             Traore
             

              Gerrard                 Alonso            Sissoko

           
                 Ponggole            Ciise               Riise
           
Though I prefer Gerrard in the centre and Finann on the right mid field. But I go for Gerrard there in this formation coz Gerrad, Alonso and Sissoko has the energy to cover the whole midfield area for full 90mins. So I dont worry the trio will be penetrated by Birmingham

Even like this Finann can give support on the right while Gerrrad move forward to the centre.  In fact this is would be the best formation with all our best players. 

I would want to sell Ciise. I would rather sell Crouch and Morientes. Morientes is an inury prone player. Whereas Crouch hasn't shown any calliber better than Ciise. The only reason he is playing/starting is because Rafa had already bought him and he has to play him for a while and see whether the lad fits in otherwise declare him injured and put him on the bench 

[NiftyNeil]

I think Momo should start in the next match. This would give Alonso more freedom to get forward and have more of an influence.

                              Reina
Finnan        Carra                   Hyypia           Warnock
                             Sissoko

       Garcia              Alonso                 Riise

                             Gerrard
                             Crouch

[stmichael]

personally, i'd drop garcia to the bench for this one and play pongolle upfront with crouch to run onto crouch's flick on's.

                                       reina

         finnan         carragher       hyypia        warnock

         gerrard        alonso           sissoko        riise

                          pongolle         crouch

with crouch starting the majority of games we need decent delivery from wide. gerrard is the best crosser of a ball we have. he put one world class free kick in yesterday which nobody attacked. let me emphasise that playing gerrard on the right is only in a 4-4-2 system until january.

[Cool Hand Luke]

Team:

                Reina

Finnan  Hyypia  Carragher  Warnock

          Sissoko  Alonso

Pongolle    Gerrard     Zenden

                Crouch

Subs

Cisse
Garcia
Riise
Troare
Carson