Liverpool FC Forum

[66-1112520797]

Okay, I'm clutching at straws here to get a half decent discussion going.

Regarding the fixture list, its the tail end of March and we've got a CL quarter final with Madrid. But unlike last season, we're sitting one point behind league leaders Man U, and funnily enough this mouth watering CL fixture has squeezed its way in between the Mersey side derby and the Arsenal fixture.

So lets just say for arguments sake we've got exactly the same squad as we have now.

How would you play your cards, no injury concerns to worry about, but you have a fixture against Everton coming up. Its imperative you claim three points as your still in with a great shout of the league title. But you have to take into account the up and coming fixture with Madrid in the CL and possibly the Arsenal after that.

So again for arguments sake    these three games come in the space of eight days. Everton - Saturday, Madrid - Wednesday, Arsenal - Sunday.

Bearing in mind we've got the same squad (including a fit Kewell) I'll ask you two simple questions.

1) How would you approach these important fixtures (what would your line-ups be) ?

2) How do you think Rafa would play it, we've never been in the situation where we've a shot at two big trophies like that with him. Would he rotate, would he play his strongest line-up against Madrid and " rotate " in the Prem fixtures ?

[account deleted by request]

Rafa would rotate, I wouldn't. I would just hope ambition and adrenaline would be enough.

Reina

Finnan carra agger riise

Lukas Gerrard mascherano Kewell
                Garcia
            Crouch

[66-1112520797]

Rafa would rotate, I wouldn't. I would just hope ambition and adrenaline would be enough.

Reina

Finnan carra agger riise

Lukas Gerrard mascherano Kewell
                Garcia
            Crouch

No Alonso Saint     

































I'll get my coat.

[account deleted by request]

I'm saving Alonso for the second half

[redtrader74]

I'd play the best side possible, the excitement and adrenalin should be enough to get them through, and all the rotation early on in the season will have kept them fresh

There would be no harm in changing one or two players for each game though, each game would present us with different problems, eg home, away, oppositions weakness.

If we ever got a 2 goal lead then i would take off those that need a rest asap.

Rafa i think would make more than one/two changes if as you said the sqaud was the same.

[bigmick]

Now let me think (Mick scratches his chin with one hand, and his b0ll0cks with the other, causing an involuntry twitching of the right eyebrow), I reckon I'd play my strongest team in all three games. I might be boring (there's no might about it to be truthful) but I'm kind of into this revolutionary notion that if you play your strongest team in the most important games, by and large that's your best bet.

I suppose in the interests of freshness you could stick a new goalie in for one of the games, maybe rest Crouch regardless of whether he got a couple of goals in the previous game, you could even stick Gerrard wide-left for a change of scenery, or give Bolo a game at the Emirates if he's still around like we did this season. On balance though, I'd go with my strongest team. By that point of the season, we'll have probably tried every single concieveable formation and combination so we should know which is the best one by then, if of course we can remember them all.

I suppose somebody in the coaching staff writes down which team we played in each particular fixture, so if we get lost and can't remember why we are playing sh!te we can refer back to a game we had a couple of months ago where we played quite well and just change the team back to whatever it was there. If that is the system, I'd do that and pick one of the games we played well in and pick that team again. My first and preferred option though, is to have a core first team with a few regular replacements. It stays like that until somebody loses form or gets injured. When somebody wins the title with multiple rotations I'll change my mind, but until then I reckon my ways the best way.

[spion]

Reina,                         Subs, Martin, Hyypia, Sissoko, Garcia, Kyut
Finnan, Carra, Agger, Riise

           Mascherano

Gerrard     Alonso    Kewell

      Crouch       Torres

[LFC2007]

Invariably the strongest line-up for each game, with the odd exception for minor rotation of one or two players - perhaps a formation change in the midweek UCL game. It depends if it's the home or away leg.

[Ace Ventura]

Reina,                         Subs, Martin, Hyypia, Sissoko, Garcia, Kyut
Finnan, Carra, Agger, Riise

           Mascherano

Gerrard     Alonso    Kewell

      Crouch       Torres

Wow, when did Torres sign ?

[LFC2007]

Reina,                         Subs, Martin, Hyypia, Sissoko, Garcia, Kyut
Finnan, Carra, Agger, Riise

           Mascherano

Gerrard     Alonso    Kewell

      Crouch       Torres

Wow, when did Torres sign ?

We signed him and Kyut together last week.

I'm not so sure which position Kyut plays though.

[Ian Rush's Right foot]

Reina,                         Subs, Martin, Hyypia, Sissoko, Garcia, Kyut
Finnan, Carra, Agger, Riise

           Mascherano

Gerrard     Alonso    Kewell

      Crouch       Torres

Wow, when did Torres sign ?

We signed him and Kyut together last week.

I'm not so sure which position Kyut plays though.

LMAO

   

[Igor Zidane]

I would play my strongest team in all 3 games , and so would rafa without a doubt. That's you might say , and i would say that rafa would have rotated  and rotated in the first half of the season . Which means all his players are now fresh and he can play his strongest players 3 games on the bounce . That's my theory anyway and i'm sticking to it.

Ok ok it didn't work last season and we were out of it in the league by jan , but and it's a big but i know. He will have a better knowledge of he squad this season and a settled squad at that .So in theory he will be better placed to rotate .

Do you know what i'm almost convincing mysef here , not really ,but it all makes for good footy talk.

[Bad Bob]

How would I play it?

Against Everton:

                     Reina

Finnan     Carra      Agger        Riise

Pennant   Gerrard    Sissoko     Kewell

              Kuyt      Crouch


Against Madrid:

                    Reina

Finnan     Carra      Agger        Riise

          Alonso       Mascherano

Gerrard          Garcia            Kewell

                  Crouch

Against Arsenal:

                    Reina

Finnan     Carra      Agger        Riise

           Alonso    Mascherano

  Gerrard        Garcia          Kewell

                  Crouch


My reasoning is that the Everton match will be a war not a football match whereas both Madrid and Arsenal will play more of a continental style, despite the fact that we'll be playing Arsenal in the league.  So, Sissoko and Gerrard in the middle to win the midfield battle against Everton, with Pennant and Kewell providing the width and the danger balls for Crouch and Kuyt to bundle home.  Against Madrid and Arsenal, the Gerrard, Garcia, Kewell triad will provide the creativity and will link up well with Crouch while Alonso pulls the strings from deep and Mascherano shields the defense.  I'd be somewhat tempted to slot Aurelio in at LB ahead of Riise against Madrid and Arsenal for a bit more quality on the ball but I've not seen him do it consistently enough yet to make the switch. 

So, for me, a little rotation (horses for courses) in our deepest area of the squad but otherwise consistency throughout the three games.

How would Rafa play it?  Same as me, of course!

[Simari]

Ah.

Rotate Garcia, Benayoun and Leiva !

Winning EPL strategy 

Andy Gray on tv " Gerrard rushes down the middle leaving players in his wake, passes the ball to Benayoun - who erm is at the halfway line?. Benayoun rushes down the middle and erm ..."

[bigmick]

Ok ok it didn't work last season and we were out of it in the league by jan

Igor on another thread you (at least I think it was you) said that this year you hoped we were still in it by Christmas, and here that we were out of it by January.

Mate we were out of it by October. After six games of fecking about we were out of it. Now assuming Bob's point about the West Ham game being re-scheduled because of Champions league commitments is correct (and no doubt it is knowing Bob) then the alarm bells are already ringing for me. We have a start of Villa Away, then Chelsea at Home.

Now if we go to Villa and like we did at Sheffield Utd last season open up with a fecked about line-up and then have to settle for an extremely fortuitous point, and then make five changes for the Chelsea game and lose that one, we are likely to be five points behind them and Man Utd after two games. Would we be out of it? Probably not but we wouldn't exactly be in it either. How far can you afford to drop behind TWO leaders like Man Utd and Chelsea? Well maybe seven or eight points at an absolute push.


So what do you do? Well I know what I'd do. I'd use the first couple of pre-season games as feck around let's get fit affairs, and then I'd be playing pretty much my strongest team in the last two before the opening game. If we have to play Champions League qualifiers, you want your very strongest team in the first leg, then when you've won that one 4-0 let the players have a rest and rotate. Not like last season when we scraped a 2-1 win at home in the first leg with a last minute winner after playing Bellamy on his own up top, before having to field an absolute full-strength eleven in the away leg to ensure we qualified. That's what I'd do but I won't hold my breath.

I tell you this here and now, if we go to Villa and try and take the p!ss like we did at Bramhall Lane on the opening day of last season we may get a very nasty shock indeed. While we're at it, I wonder if Chelsea will rotate much in their first few games, or Man Utd for that matter.