Liverpool FC Forum

[redsince2001]

yeah i know..this rotation thing is getting really frustating........SPECIALLY WHEN U MAKE STUPID DECISIONS LIKE PLAYING GERRARD ON THE LEFT........I MEAN WAT WAS RAFA THINKING ? HAS HE LOST HIS MIND?

[redsince2001]

RAFA BENITEZ SCREWED UP AGAIN!!!!!!

WHY WAS THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE CENTRAL/RIGHT MIDFIELDER IN THE EPL PLAYING LEFT WING 4 60 MINS? ???


WE CREATED THE BEST CHANCES AND SUD HAV WON IF WE HAD STARTED WITH GERRARD IN THE MIDDLE AND GONZALVES/ZENDEN ON THE LEFT.


I HOPE RAFA LEARNS 4M DIS AND NEVER DEPLOYS GERRARD ON THE LEFT AGAIN 2 MAKE WAY 4 ALONSO/SISSOKO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARK.

Oh shut up with your whining. Your speaking out of your backside mate.

Gerrard wasn't a fixed left midfielder for the game, he roamed. As for the midfield selection - it was fine. Alonso and Sissoko in the middle looked comfortable and Pennant saw absolutely loads of the ball.

The one reason we didn't come away with anything is the same old story - we couldn't finish.

ROTATING MY ...... HE WAS PLAYING ON THE LEFT ....AND WUDNT U AGREE DAT WE LUKED MUCH MORE TREATENING ONCE HE CAME BACK 2 D MIDDLE...WHERE HE BELONGS....IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE......









OUR  BEST PLAYER  MUST   PLAY   IN  HIS   BEST   POSITION!

[Redbilly1960]

RAFA BENITEZ SCREWED UP AGAIN!!!!!!

WHY WAS THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE CENTRAL/RIGHT MIDFIELDER IN THE EPL PLAYING LEFT WING 4 60 MINS? ???


WE CREATED THE BEST CHANCES AND SUD HAV WON IF WE HAD STARTED WITH GERRARD IN THE MIDDLE AND GONZALVES/ZENDEN ON THE LEFT.


I HOPE RAFA LEARNS 4M DIS AND NEVER DEPLOYS GERRARD ON THE LEFT AGAIN 2 MAKE WAY 4 ALONSO/SISSOKO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARK.

Like he did in the 2005 Champions League Final ?

Like he did in 2006 FA Cup Final ?


We all knew when he came to Liverpool he liked to use the rotation system he won the Spanish Title with it. He has used it from day one. We, Like the team have to get used to it but as I said earlier Gerrard is the heart of the team build around him.
As for "RAFA BENITEZ SCREWED UP AGAIN!!!!!!" no mate we were beaten by an average team with a few world class players and a very very special goal you cant blame Rafa the buck stops with the guys with the boots on.

"RAFA BENITEZ SCREWED UP AGAIN!!!!!!"
Oh how fickle we fans are

[stmichael]

I feel like the whole world is against us at the moment, that absolutely nothing is going our way.

In many ways this was much worse than last week, perhaps one of the most frustrating afternoons to be a Red in a long long time.

Every shot we hit at the moment seems to be going straight at the keeper or hitting the post or bar. Every goal we concede is a cracker or a freak, and every major decision seems to be going against us.

We'll come through this like we always do, it's a really testing time for everyone at the club, and a few characters are going to be tested. The captain needs to step up here and take more responsibility. Bellamy and Pennant lose their on-pitch attitude, because the chips are really down at the moment, and we need people who want to fight to turn this around, not whine about our misfortune. Alonso needs a rest - a few weeks rest.

There were positives to come from the game. We defended really well until Aurelio came on when we were pushing forward a lot. Pepe has bounced back well, and Sami is going to struggle to get his place back provided Agger stays fit.

Is it just me or are the commentators on sky sports desperate for us to get beat every time we're on? I find myself wanting to trash the TV every time we're on at the moment.

[puroresu]

RAFA BENITEZ SCREWED UP AGAIN!!!!!!

WHY WAS THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE CENTRAL/RIGHT MIDFIELDER IN THE EPL PLAYING LEFT WING 4 60 MINS? ???


WE CREATED THE BEST CHANCES AND SUD HAV WON IF WE HAD STARTED WITH GERRARD IN THE MIDDLE AND GONZALVES/ZENDEN ON THE LEFT.


I HOPE RAFA LEARNS 4M DIS AND NEVER DEPLOYS GERRARD ON THE LEFT AGAIN 2 MAKE WAY 4 ALONSO/SISSOKO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARK.

Oh shut up with your whining. Your speaking out of your backside mate.

Gerrard wasn't a fixed left midfielder for the game, he roamed. As for the midfield selection - it was fine. Alonso and Sissoko in the middle looked comfortable and Pennant saw absolutely loads of the ball.

The one reason we didn't come away with anything is the same old story - we couldn't finish.

Isn’t that a problem though?  You don’t really have a balance when a wide player can roam wherever he likes.  I find it strange that Gerrard was deployed wide left when he signed a genuine left winger.

That stat of not playing the same side for two games in a row in 90 games is amazing.  I can’t believe that.

[Bad Bob]

The usual rubbish posted when we lose...jacked up to even greater absurdity because we lost to Chelsea.  Some people really, really need to get a grip.

This thread, however, is an instructive read because there is no consensus as to what went wrong yesterday.  What does that tell us?

1) that everyone on here talks sh!te and has not the first clue about football (tempting in some cases but I refuse to draw that pessimistic conclusion)

OR

2) That there is no simple explanation to explain yesterday's result or our recent struggles.  Is it Rafa?  Is it our lack of cutting edge up front?  Is it Alonso?  Is it Gerrard out wide?  Is it Aurelio?  Is it Reina?  The diversity of explanations suggests that there is no simple explanation, which also suggests that simple solutions do not exist.  It follows, then, that everyone screaming for Rafa to pull his finger out and make the obvious adjustment is talking rubbish because this board reveals that no obvious solution exists.  Rafa did not suddenly forget how to manage nor did our top players suddenly forget how to play.  The team will come good.

As for my two cents, I think it's a matter of the team needing to gel over time.  We have a lot of new faces and the team has not yet had a lot of time to practice playing together.  Given the brutal schedule we've been handed this first month of the season, it is disappointing but not utterly surprising that we're sitting on 4 points after 4 games played.  But, it is becoming a confidence thing and this is the bigger worry.  The lads need to find some form so that they can shake this slow start off.  A return to Anfield provides the perfect opportunity to right the ship.  If we can beat both the barcodes and Spurs this week and get on a bit of role, we'll see an entirely different team coming together over the next month or so.

Walk On.

[Pedro O'Maradona]

I hate Sky Sports, I cant stomach their punditry anymore, it is football punditry for the terminally stupid ..it would insult the intelligence of a grapefruit....I want to have andy gray shot! The Anti-Liverpool bias from that clown is unbelievable! As for LFC v Chelsea....we were unlucky but cud and will do better, Chelsea are going to drop points this year as will arsenal and Man U, Once we get a kickstart we will be fine (and SG is played in centre midfield) and the Newcastle game is now vital.......

[crazyhorse]

we've now not played the same team two games in a row for 90 GAMES. it's got to the stage now where we need to pick a settled side and stick with it.

Absolutley agree; Yes today with the number of games we play in a season, coupled with the added pace and fitness required to play the game and increased injuries that go with that, you do need some rotation. But there has to be a spine in any side that plays 80-90% of all the matches, there has to be continuity in the side to provide cohesion and consistancy.

There are a few players in the squad who are capable of sustaining good form and high levels of performance for 40-50 games a season, Gerrard, Carra, Sami, Alonso, Finnan are examples of such players, and Kuyt seems to me like he could become the rock up front we have all been crying out for.

With the majority of positions we have good competition for places, but Rafa has to settle in his mind what his best team is, because at the moment i do not think that he does... The players need to build themselves into a fluid unit, and adapt to what Rafa wants tactically; this understanding of each others game will eventually lead to the type of football we saw in the 80s; and we will meet so called championship favourites like Chelsea with absolutley no sense of fear.

Looking back at Premiership Champions over recent years; most have been teams who have played together for several seasons with minimal disruption in terms of player transfers each year. Arsenal have been a classic example, the front unit of Pires, Henry, Llundberg, Bergkamp ect were all on the same wavelength by consistantly playing together week in week out - for the same reason it was no wonder Carra and Sami have been such a rock over recent years - they know each others game by playing together as often as possible. Arsenals back four unit of Dixon, Winterburn, Adams, and Bould (then Keown) were legendary for their consistancy - they were never dropped and always played together.

Rafa and his staff need to decide the best 11, and then tweak and adapt rotation where required; but not to such an extent that the "empathic understanding" that players at the highest level have is diminished.

[REDTILLDEAD]

You can dress it up whatever way you like, but at the end of the day it boils down to one thing...tactical deployment!...and rafa got it wrong. Its obvious to everyone that gerrard is not a left winger and zenden should have never been on the pitch, crouch should have been brought on sooner these are basic mistakes that rafa is making game after game. We need a settled team he must persevere with his best 11 and then the goals, and confidence will come.

[Graeme Noble]

I hate Sky Sports, I cant stomach their punditry anymore, it is football punditry for the terminally stupid ..it would insult the intelligence of a grapefruit....I want to have andy gray shot! The Anti-Liverpool bias from that clown is unbelievable! As for LFC v Chelsea....we were unlucky but cud and will do better, Chelsea are going to drop points this year as will arsenal and Man U, Once we get a kickstart we will be fine (and SG is played in centre midfield) and the Newcastle game is now vital.......

Andy Gray is a biased Evertonian who hates Liverpool and will criticise us to death.
Irritating. Even Jamie Redknapp gets on my tits.

[redsince2001]

You can dress it up whatever way you like, but at the end of the day it boils down to one thing...tactical deployment!...and rafa got it wrong. Its obvious to everyone that gerrard is not a left winger and zenden should have never been on the pitch, crouch should have been brought on sooner these are basic mistakes that rafa is making game after game. We need a settled team he must persevere with his best 11 and then the goals, and confidence will come.

spot on .

[alessandromagno]

What Rafa sometimes doesn't take into consideration is the human element in his rotation. Players don't like being left out when they've played well: nor do they like being forced to play in unfamiliar or uncongenial positions. Just enough bad feeling might counterbalance the tactical gain achieved by the original decision.

I feel that 90% of the time Rafa should stick with his best team: that's the way the PL works!

[66-1120597113]

Im gonna try and call it as i see it!Basically i fell that 4 point from 4 games is a sad state of affairs!
To loose 3 points last week against Everton was humiliating...it was bad enough getting beaten 3-0 but we were practically bullied off the park,personally i blame both the manager and the players for this!More so the players,the manager can do so much but in games like this he can only lead them to the white line...once they cross it the occasion should inspire them to win when clearly we have superior ability to the likes of Everton!
We lost it cause we never fought hard enough,we were too soft and never got stuck in to win second balls!
To sum it up,it was a fuc.king embaressment and hurt me deeply!

Thinking at this early point in the season i wonder if our heads have been down from day one when we played Sheff UTD?Maybe our team expected to go out and walk over a newly promoted team..i dunno?
We got a shock from a team sitting at the bottom now with 2 points!One taken from us!
Maybe this affected the players a bit!

Looking at the league now we can see Pompey at the top:D
Yes fair play to them for a great start..we all know that if they finish mid table they will be happy and they wont stay at the top!We have Utd and Chelsea sitting up around where we all expected and being honest does anyone really expect them to drop enough points to let us displace them..Utd maybe! But i cant see Chelsea doing it!

As for yesterday,its hard to say where we went wrong or if we did atal!
One thing is for sure,Alonso is not himself at the minute.Regardless of how good he is and what he is capable of it was obvious from about 10 minutes in he should not have been on the pitch.With it being so obvious that the guy is either tired or simply not fit we were light in M/F because he was on!

One thing i cannot stress enough is that we need to mix it up more..a lot more!
Yesterday our tactics were to play wide and get balls into the box..Chelsea smelt this from early on and held a defencive line deep keeping the threat out and giving themselves more time to clear the box!
We seriously lacked any creativity in C/M and were way too predictable!

In saying this over the 90 mins we did deserve to win..yes we had chances! Kuyt had his,Gerrard as well but unfortunately in football we know too well that there is no point in complaining about bad luck or saying if this had happened or that had not happened etc. etc!

Our team need to be stronger mentally from now on.In games when luck is against us we need to fight more and keep going and take the win not hope they give it to us!

Its strange though that after saying all this,yesterday was our best performance in the league over the last 2 seasons by a mile *Against Chelsea*..yes we were unlucky!But there is no point at the end of the season saying we were  unlucky!Every time we play a game there are 3 points there to be taken or 3 points to be lost...its up to the players which way it goes..last week and yesterday our players lost 3 points or let teams take them if ya like!Thats the bottom line.Regardless of stats,missed chances or bad luck!

All we can do now is start on Wed night and take 3 from Newcastle,then 3 from Spurs on Sat!I think we will take 6 points from these games,we must! Hopefully our players can see the recent games as a wake up call and go out from now on and fight until they win games!The league is getting tougher each season we have the ability to do well and challenge for the top spot!

One more thing..its obvious now that Benitez has to pick his best 11(if he knows it) and stick with it for a while,even for 3 or 4 games to see how it goes.Rotation is not working and our best players need to play if fit!Who are our best 11?Thats for Raffa to sort and stick with!

[Red Dotty]

You can dress it up whatever way you like, but at the end of the day it boils down to one thing...tactical deployment!...and rafa got it wrong. Its obvious to everyone that gerrard is not a left winger and zenden should have never been on the pitch, crouch should have been brought on sooner these are basic mistakes that rafa is making game after game. We need a settled team he must persevere with his best 11 and then the goals, and confidence will come.

spot on .

I am not in total agreement with this as i feel Rafa did have a plan. No Gerrard is not a left winger and i for one feel week in and out should be in the middle of the park dominating play but i put this to you buddy. Chelski went for Essian Ballack and lamps and i think Rafa new they would. So he put gerrard on the left to expose the space left by Ballack or keep him busy. If he left the space then Gerrard would have time and space to get onto chelski's new right back and with either Kuyt or Bellamey get a 2-1 and give him hell. Gerrard is not a left winger but a fooking great all rounder.

Long winded i know but just my thought on why?

[Sabre]

I have read several good posts from people that haven't many posts. People who complain about that only well known posters are read and newbies can't say their thoughts, should read those posts (RedSoul and others) to see that's not true.

I liked a lot LFC in the first half. we dominated the game and they caused us little trouble. Then Drogba made a superb goal, hard luck but it happens. The TV commentator (I find the ITV ones most annoying) said that Reina could have done a little better. I don't think he could reach that ball with the inner curl and power it had, though.

I didn't like LFC in the second half. We didn't play properly against 10 men. In that situations we should have done more orientation changes of the play. Moving the ball from the left to the right, making their whole lines to move together after the ball. When we did that, we made much danger, and chances came. But most of the time we insisted on the right with Pennant, since we insisted Makelele was always near the LB and the CB to help them against Pennant, thus Pennant had to cross from not the best position. When we suddenly changed the orientation of the game to the left (and Chelsea had to roam to the right) those defensive helps didn't come in time and we had a 2 against 2 situations creating more danger. Pennant did a good job, don't get me wrong, it was the team charging too much the game on the right wing. That's what you should do when you have supperiority, making the oposition defensive system move and don't be predictable. But we failed to do that and they did their defensive job well, advancing their defence when they could to "make the pitch smaller" and a great job of men like Makelele helping their defensive mates.

Anyway I'm optimist. I know the gap of points is already there, but I also think that it's difficult to get the amount of points that Chelsea got last year, meaning that I think that the teams that are up in the table will fail sooner or later.

I saw a better Xabi, but I didn't see a massive improvement neither, meaning that I don't think he was that bad in the last weeks. Playing alongside with Sissoko and Gerrard helps so that he seems to be more solid, but I think it's just that he had an easier job to do.

I'm slightly concerned about the left wing. Riise is injured, so is Kewell but Gonzalez doesn't have minutes. Wonder if everything is alright with this adaptation, choosing again Zenden instead of him (Zenden has been used lately , so rotation-wise I expected to see Gonzalez again at some point) dissapointed me a little bit.

We did an overall decent game (despite the mistakes), we had our chances (Gerrard, Kuyt), bad luck. Walk on!

P.S Why do the commentator spell Kuyt, as Cout or something?