Liverpool FC Forum

[DanAn]

I think we should play:

-------------Kuyt---------------
Riera--------Babel------Benayoun
------Alonso----Masherano-----
Dossena--Hyypia--Agger--Arbeloa
-------------Riena---------------

Bring on Gerrard, Torres at the 70' mark.

[Eagle]

Agger – We need a centre back to bring the ball out and commit the midfielders
Dossena – Not ideal but when Aurelio plays too many games in a short period he gets injured.
El Zhar – Kuyt has been awful lately. Surely El Zhar he deserves a start to show what he can do.
Benayoun – Given the freedom behind Torres he could be quite effective

                         Reina

Arbeloa    Carragher    Agger    Dossena

El Zhar      Gerrard   Mascherano Riera

               Benayoun
                              Torres

Subs

Babel
Kuyt
Pacheco
Alonso
Aurelio
Hyypia
Cavalieri

[Eagle]

How can you leave out Carragher and Gerrard in a derby?

[Reinas No.1 Fan]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/everton/article5655100.ece

if you guys aint seen it.

hes left a few incidents out!!

[Zidane]

I expect a lot of styling and resting of some key players, who knows who those will be but I can't see our strongest team being put out.  We'll win it in the end though.

[tonyeh]

I hope we put out a strong team.

I know a lot of people these days couldn't give a toss about the cup, but I'd love Liverpool to win it.

[SupitsJonF]

Ngog - instructions...ur a fast get the ball & run down the line.. c what happens

I'm a big believer in the term "paralysis by analysis" and I can't help thinking that if you overburden players With over elaborate instructions like these, you run the risk of nullyfying his instinctive tendencies.

Like Redknapp telling Pavlyuchenko to run about 

[bigmick]

Ngog - instructions...ur a fast get the ball & run down the line.. c what happens

I'm a big believer in the term "paralysis by analysis" and I can't help thinking that if you overburden players With over elaborate instructions like these, you run the risk of nullyfying his instinctive tendencies.

Like Redknapp telling Pavlyuchenko to run about 

Precisely  Or Brian Clough to Larry Lloyd, "you are there to head the ball. That's your job. When the opposition cross it into our box, you head it out."

Or when Chris Woods was rushed into the team for his debut in the Coca Cola cup final (it was a big trophy then) against us. "You lot" pointing to his defenders in the dressing room, "this young man is making his debut today. If he makes any mistakes, it's your fault. He's a nice young man so look after him".

All words to that effect etc as I'm going from memory.

[Number 9]

Whats the snow like at Liverpool?

Cause if I come home from work with me fanta and this match is snowed off I will be gutted.
Wheres John Ketley?

[account deleted by request]

No snow here at the moment mate. Shouldnt be a problem tonight.

[Number 9]

No snow here at the moment mate. Shouldnt be a problem tonight.

Good stuff!
I hate work when we are playing at night,the day drags in!

[Ciggy]

Cheeky b@stard

Tim Cahill hopes the FA Cup fourth round replay against Liverpool is remembered for all the right reasons.

The clash at Goodison will be the third time the two sides have faced each other in a matter of weeks and the Australian international thinks the game will be played with plenty of passion.

With that in mind Cahill is wary of the performance of the referee going into the game – a man whom which the result of the game can often hinge on.

Indeed, when the Reds faced Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, the London side were forced to play a period of the game with 10 men after Frank Lampard was sent off by referee Mike Riley – a decision that has now been rescinded.

“It’s always massive playing Liverpool,” explained the make-shift striker during an exclusive interview on evertonTV. “It’s just the occasion that takes the lime-light, but the referee could also write the headlines.

“Hopefully that’s not the case and it’s an (Everton) player that get their name in the record books.

“Liverpool had a good result against Chelsea on Sunday after a fortunate decision from the referee. I got sent off by the same ref but games can hang on really harsh decisions.”

Going into Wednesday night’s game, Cahill is confident that this is the best time to play Rafael Benitez’s side – and he reckons the Blues will pull out all the stops to progress through to the next round of the FA Cup.

“I think this is the best time to play Liverpool and we are really confident. Hopefully we’ll get a good result.

“I feel that there’s a lot of hype that goes on and now that we’re at home we should take the game to them and hopefully get a good result.

“I think we should just stick to our game plan. We will hit them on the break and defend well too.

“They talk about us parking the bus at their place, but they’re not a team that really like to move six players out of the front of their goal. You saw that on Sunday against Chelsea.”

And.

David Moyes has accused referees of favouring Liverpool during Merseyside derbies as the Everton manager turned up the heat before the teams’ FA Cup fourth-round replay at Goodison Park this evening. He believes that his club have suffered in recent matches against their neighbours because officials are unwilling to punish Liverpool players.

Moyes was particularly incensed by Javier Mascherano’s apparent attempt to get Tim Cahill sent off during the first tie at Anfield ten days ago, when the Argentina midfield player tumbled theatrically under a challenge from the Everton player, who had already been booked, and motioned to Steve Bennett, the referee, to show a second yellow card.

Moyes felt that Mascherano’s actions warranted a card in their own right and was dismayed that Steven Pienaar was not awarded a penalty when Álvaro Arbeloa appeared to trip the Everton midfield player in front of the Kop. “I think Liverpool have had an awful lot going for them,” Moyes said as they prepared to meet for the third time in 16 days. “We are wholehearted, but when you get players lying on the floor waving their hands suggesting cards and the referee is missing challenges, it’s very hard.

“But we will keep going. We won’t be provoked by it. The Everton players have done really well. We will be disciplined but, more importantly, we will keep doing what we have been doing.
“We thought we had a penalty kick when Steven Pienaar was tackled from behind. Was it much worse than the one Mikel Arteta gave away at Old Trafford on Saturday? There are moments in games when you think it could have gone for you, but it doesn’t.”

Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, having claimed during his infamous rant at Sir Alex Ferguson last month that the Manchester United manager wields too much influence over referees, is likely to view Moyes’s remarks as little more than an attempt to put pressure on Alan Wiley, who will referee this evening’s game.

Since Moyes took charge at Goodison in March 2002, Everton have had eight players sent off and Liverpool two in 15 derby matches. Moyes conceded that some of those dismissals had been warranted, but he pointed to the decision not to show Dirk Kuyt a red card for a waist-high challenge on Phil Neville, plus the refusal to award Joleon Lescott a penalty after he was dragged to the ground by Jamie Carragher during the 2-1 league defeat at Goodison Park in October 2007, as examples of poor officiating. “And there have been tackles from Steven Gerrard,” Moyes said. “We’re no angels, we admit that, but there is always a bit of fairness required.”

Benítez expressed the hope yesterday that Everton would attack more after accusing Moyes’s team of being over-defensive in the 1-1 draw at Anfield, but if it was an attempt to goad Moyes into changing tactics, it does not appear to have worked. “It won’t bother me two hoots what anyone is thinking or saying,” Moyes said.

One player that Moyes will not have to contend with this evening is Robbie Keane, who returned to Tottenham Hotspur on Monday, with Benítez claiming that the £16 million offer was too good to resist and that David Ngog and Ryan Babel are more capable of filling in for Fernando Torres — or complementing the Spain striker — than a player who cost Liverpool £20.3 million and who has found the net more than 100 times in the Barclays Premier League.

“Could you see Keane scoring a lot of goals?” Benítez said yesterday. “We were talking about ‘maybe, maybe’. He was not playing at the level he can play at. We had a very good offer for a player who is 28 and wasn’t playing at the level we were expecting, so maybe it was a good deal for him and us.

“You can put a lot of things together to try to explain why he didn’t do as well as we thought . . . but at the end of the day he wasn’t playing at the level that he can. We watch the players in training every single day and we can see a lot of things that the people who don’t watch the training can’t see.”

[bigmick]

We watch the players in training every single day and we can see a lot of things that the people who don’t watch the training can’t see.” [/b]

This is not the first time Rafa has alluded to this kind of thing, and it's one of the areas that I don't agree with him.

Many players over the years have been notoriously poor trainers, some very good players haven't been trainers at all due to injury and being nursed through for matches only. The idea that you pick your team based on what's going on on the training pitch is a newish one in England. Like some of the other ideas, I don't think it'll catch on to be honest.

[stmichael]

I'd play Agger over Skrtel. With Skrtel's tendency to give daft free kicks away, he could put us under severe pressure as that's Everton's strength.

[Redman in wales]

I'd play Agger over Skrtel. With Skrtel's tendency to give daft free kicks away, he could put us under severe pressure as that's Everton's strength.

and that means no lucas as well