Liverpool FC Forum

[bigmick]

feck of Judgy with that will ya? (Was quite funny though I must admit).

[JBG]

The problem is not really with the strikers, is it?

Only Peter Crouch has consistently missed good chances this year.

Look at it this way.

1. Cisse is starting less and less and comes off the bench. In almost every game I have seen him play this year he has been under orders to run down the right channel. Yes, he has missed a number of chances, but he's hardly ever in the box.

2. Morientes worked his socks off last night against Benfica and also against Man UTD. He chased down the opposition keeper a lot and hassled the back four. He has only one or two half chances from headers.

3. Fowler worked very hard and showed flashes of skill. Yet he had no attempt on goal, aside from causing the goalkeeper to fumble the ball and having a shot from outside the area charged down.

The reality is, we are not creating enough chances, despite playing well and dominating possession in games.

The strikers are partially to fault, but it is not simply a case of replacing the strikers, unless we can afford a Ronaldo, Henry or Shevchenko, who can create chances for themselves.

[Judge]

feck of Judgy with that will ya? (Was quite funny though I must admit).

your the best man, my life is empty when your not writing here

steady tiger 

[115-1073096938]

But stu, mori has lacked confidence for nearly 2 years now with us.
All i want is for rafa to pick 2 guys, shove em up front, and keep them there so they know each other a bit, its just a bit of a shambles right now. (we at least agree on that?)

And the sissy lacking ability is a little harsh, he should have started last night. Mori hasnt shown anything recently and we needed pace yesterday from the get go.

He's only been here 13 months Dawson.

[GOAT]

Yea i dont think its any coincidence that the 3 strikers who have arrived at anfield are playing poorly, 3 players who we all know have tons of ability arent going to turn cr.ap overnight, its not entirely their fault they are not scoring, they dont get the right service at the moment, they are haviong no chances in any matches and having to feed off scraps and cisse and morientes seem to be suffering from a huge lack of confidence for a long time now, cisse hasnt been given a good chance in the team and rafa has no faith in him.

Our 3 strikers have not suddenly turned into rubbish players and i dont think its their fault at all that they arent scoring enough although i do think moro should be scoring more, he has had chances he should have put away lately. Even Fowler hasnt scored a goal since his return. The service is absolutely awful lately, the midfield has been dominating games but not giving the strikers enough chances, hence the embarassing lack of goals in our past like 10 games. We've been scoring 1 goal at most in our games and holding on for the 1-0 win, we need more

[Cool Hand Luke]

I think the Crouch/Fowler or Crouch/Garcia combos are going to be most effective for us. I’m guessing Crouch didn’t get on the pitch because of that knock to the head he had from the Man Utd game.

On the case of Moro, I said from day one that despite his undoubted class he will not produce the goods for us. The fact that he is scared of physical contact means he will always struggle in any side playing the Premiership, and you cant expect a guy just to come good in Europe, football doesn’t work like that. But Moro does do a lot of good stuff that people don’t mention, he always gets himself into good positions to receive passes(unlike Cisse), he keeps the ball well, finds a team mate with his passes more often that not and works really hard.

I think Crouch and Fowler upfront and Cisse being used from the bench.

[bigmick]

The problem is not really with the strikers, is it?

Sorry JBG I don't buy it. I know we aren't creating many one on ones, but against the types of teams we are playing certainly in the last three games you're not going to. Good defences don't concede many clear cut chances, but good attackers carry threat.
Remember the Man U game on Saturday morning. They didn't make a chance all game because we defended really well. Doesn't mean there was no threat though. Doesn't mean that Van Nistelroy didn't get open in the box, run into intelligent areas from free-kicks and make my heart miss a beat every time the ball went accross the area. Doesn't mean that we weren't on the edge of our seats when Rooney got the ball in and around our box. That's threat.
Check out the goals in the Prem every week. How many of them are pure, clear-cut, teams being ripped apart chances? Not many I can tell you. Unless teams are chasing the game and leaving themselves short at the back, they can defend and don't get pulled all over. Goals are made by a clever piece of movement, a piece of skill, a fient to get infront of the guy who is marking you.
Look at our last three goals. Hyppia's was a bit if a freak where a ball hoisted back in drops on him and he scores with a scuffed volley. Garcia made his goal with his alertness and clever movement to get himself open in the box. He got lucky with the rebound but was open in the box through movement. Crouch got open in the box through good movement and finished with a good header. You have to give a little as a striker. it's not good enough to stand around in the box and say the service was sh!te. Come in short, spin and go. Attack the near post when a cross comes in, gamble FFS do something. Last night Cisse gets pushed wide, gets his foot round it and gets a cross in. Straight into the keepers arms. Poor service but where was everybody else? Covered in the box, nobody open and nobody prepared to take a gamble ad go front post ahead of the keeper. It's not just that our strikers are not scoring, it's that they don't look like scoring.

[Sabre]

Sorry JBG I don't buy it. I know we aren't creating many one on ones, but against the types of teams we are playing certainly in the last three games you're not going to. Good defences don't concede many clear cut chances, but good attackers carry threat.

Ah, well. . After watching Real Madrid - Arsenal game, I can say that Ronaldo is a division three striker...

[Cool Hand Luke]

The thing is, creating chances just isn’t down the midfield. If you take Owen as an example, even if he doesn’t directly create many chances for himself, indirectly he does because he make it so easy for midfield players with his intelligent movements and positioning, it must be dream to play behind someone like Owen. This isn’t happening right now for us, are strikers aren’t really doing this. Cisse movement is awful, Moro is being asked to drop deep all this time, and Crouch hasn’t really got this skill, Fowler is the only one who can really do this for us.

Although the service from the midfield hasn’t been great, the strikers are not exactly helping the case.

[Rafa D]

On the case of Moro, I said from day one that despite his undoubted class he will not produce the goods for us. The fact that he is scared of physical contact means he will always struggle in any side playing the Premiership, and you cant expect a guy just to come good in Europe, football doesn’t work like that. But Moro does do a lot of good stuff that people don’t mention, he always gets himself into good positions to receive passes(unlike Cisse), he keeps the ball well, finds a team mate with his passes more often that not and works really hard.

I think Crouch and Fowler upfront and Cisse being used from the bench.

Morientes is a good player, he is in a patch - remember Cool Hand Luke - you said Carra was never going to be more than a squad player   

[Sabre]

Although the service from the midfield hasn’t been great, the strikers are not exactly helping the case.

This is also true.

[Cool Hand Luke]

On the case of Moro, I said from day one that despite his undoubted class he will not produce the goods for us. The fact that he is scared of physical contact means he will always struggle in any side playing the Premiership, and you cant expect a guy just to come good in Europe, football doesn’t work like that. But Moro does do a lot of good stuff that people don’t mention, he always gets himself into good positions to receive passes(unlike Cisse), he keeps the ball well, finds a team mate with his passes more often that not and works really hard.

I think Crouch and Fowler upfront and Cisse being used from the bench.

Morientes is a good player, he is in a patch - remember Cool Hand Luke - you said Carra was never going to be more than a squad player   

I admit I never saw Carragher’s potential as a centre back, neither did many, as a fullback he is adequate and not good enough for the first team.

Moro will not come good in my opinion, he simple is too soft for this league and takes too much time on the ball, I know many people will say that’s rubbish and class and show anywhere and its just a cliché, but how do clichés become clichés?

[bigmick]

It's about making yourself difficult to play against. If Owen had been playing last night, when the ball goes wide he'd peel back three yards and when the defender glances over his shoulder and eases back he's dart back infront of him and show for the cross. The cross might not even come in but the defender thinks "feck me for a fraction of a second he was in there". Next time it goes wide same defender is feeling for Owen, trying to maintain a physical contact so he can cover his movement. Owen gives the ref the eyes before darting in and going over in a heap. Nothing doing but the defendrs heart misses a beat. Next time it goes wide Owen goes in to the near post early and then peels out and around at pace looking for the ball clipped over.
If his strike partner is Yakubu, he's working the channels. Pace and power so anywhere infront of him and he'll get it giving you a great big target for your out-ball. Soon as it's fed into Alonso he's on his bike looking for the ball towards the corner flag, when it comes he's big strong and powerful and you can all get around him. The defender can't take liberties because if he does, he'll get muscled around and turned. When Owen goes back then darts near, Yakubu stops in his tracks then attacks anything that comes accross the area on the run, going through defenders and brick walls to get on the end of anything that flies accross the box.
You could use different examples for the identity of the strikers, and sometimes they won't score. But this is threat. This is what creates panic in opposiotion defences and is what really good teams posess in abundance. we have everything other than this.

[simolonge]

A message to benitez.
You are class....


but...

Find two strikers, and stick with them for more than 20 minutes (sarcastic time, i know its more)

ow are the strikers ever gonna gel if they are never playing together?

And how come mori will get game after game to sort out his confidence when Cisse is lucky to get half an hour?

finally, it the way we play? do we just not give strikers a chance?

Im just off with the way our strikers have all been playing, and trying to find answers.

A message to Dawson 99.
You should be in class....

but...

Rafa will probably not read this or take any notice.

[66-1120597113]

I would love to see Fowler and Crouch given a steady run of games together!!
I really feel these 2 are our only chance of forming a partnership up front together.I was bemused by Raffas tactics last night.
In that i mean we played a lot of long high balls.These type of balls are fine although its hardly great football!I feel his selection was calling out for Crouch to head the ball down for a fellow striker as he does well or for Cisse who has the legs to catch the long ball...although the end result is often poor with him im sure he could have offered more from the start than Fowler and Moro with these tactics in mind!

I think Crouch and Fowler would be decent together..but only decent!
By no means good enough for LFC and definately not a long term solution..Crouch is an honest average player who will create more than he scores,but is still a good team player!

Fowler although past his best WILL score goals given chances!
Playing alongside Moro or Cisse i struggle to see where Robbies chances will come from as Cisse seems to bomb up the pitch like a man posessed,thats all well and good but someone that can do that and cannot hold up the ball is as much use as a chocolate teacup!
Cisse brings nothing to the team worth keeping..he must go in the summer!!
As for Moro,i was so excited when we signed him but its looking now that he is past his best and showing no sign of any improvement..Personally io dont feel he has been or ever will be happy at LFC!The man just does'nt seem bothered win,loose or draw!

Overall what we have to do is stick it out to the summer and hope that Raffa signs at least one or hopefully two strikers that will prove long term that they are worthy of playing for LFC!!
Its still not time for being negative and its great to think of how good we could have been this season if we had strikers that where just that!

Hopefully this time next year we will be saying how great we are and not how great we could be!