Liverpool FC Forum

[sithlord]

We all know that Rafa wanted a central defender and a right midfielder.  By why wasn't left back identified as a problem area?  At the end of last season, if I had to list my signing priorities, I would've had a new central defender to start ahead of Hyypia and a left back to replace Traore as number 1 and 2.  Instead we spend most of our money replacing Baros with Crouch, and Dudek with Reina, which are minor improvements if that.

[REDTILLDEAD]

Totally agree!...its what iv'e been saying all along we should have gone straight after the CL final and brought in quality players. We left it far too late to much dithering and not enough encouragement from the board room, now we are paying for the indecisive dithering of messers moores/parry? its gonna be another "also ran season" if we dont put this right in january. Too many of our fans have been getting carried away with our CL victory in Instanbul, the harsh reality is we have not moved that far forward since then, the prem is a whole different ball game, it is the "yard stick of great teams" it has always been our number 1 priority and should be so. 

[scally sally]

should of bought parker, joaquin, owen, huth and kept baros. Itsanbul has covered the cracks beginning to appear from the previous year.

[andy_g]

so how easy do you guys think it actually is to just go out and get someone? ask yourselves this, do you really, really, really believe that the manager and the board didn't try to get the right players for the club?

[Benitez No1]

I don't think left back is a priority to be honest, I think warnock has been player well in that position and don't understand why traore has played instead of him.

I think our main concern was to get a right wing, which rafa and the board tried to get but never pulled it off, I would of rather us sign no-one than someone for the sake of it.

People are only saying this because we have just conceded 4 goals, but before that everyone was praising our defense.

[scally sally]

rafa has boo booed - ever since owen went, he's tried to shape a team around what exactly...he should had owen up top gerrard in the middle carragher at the back and built the team around that. Instead he's bought a cache of players who have drifted in and out of the squad in various positions, without a decent spine being built and maintained. what exactly would there have been to shout about if Istanbul hadn't of happened?

[115-1073096938]

I wanted Parker. He's a quality player. However we signed Sissoko who i believe is just as good if not slightly better. Parker is more like Hamann, sits mostly and tends not to go forward.  He's got god vision though and can spot a clever pass.

Sissoko is also younger. I'm happy with him.

Joaquin, we all know how i feel about him. He's the difference between being able to break teams like Chelsea down and cause them problems and us being like we have in the last two games.

Huth? Can't say i've seen enough of him to comment. What i have seen he doesn't look mobile enough or technically good enough and i doubt he'll be as good at reading the game and marking as Sami.

No we shouldn't have kept Baros. We should have sold him last summer.

[Benitez No1]

In my personal opinion until the Chelsea defeat I was happy with our premiership performances,  I think we have got a good season ahead.

In the summer I think the main buys we need is a right winger who can take people on, hopefully Joaquin. and center back to partner carragher and give Hyypia a rest.

[Rafalution]

I agree that the Chelsea game was lost in the summer. We never got in one decent cross from a wide area yesterday and didn't once get behind their full backs.
Crouch did well with the service he received, but even Pele isn't going to score when he receives the ball with his back to goal outside the penalty area all the time !

Garcia is not a right winger and although he didn't play overly well, he improved some aspects of his game yesterday which he has taken stick for on this forum. I don't think I've seen him tackle back as much as he did yesterday in any other game he's played for us. Also, he cut down on his fancy flicks in our half yet he's still getting slated on here. For me, Risse was way poorer. He was playing against Gallas who was clearly carrying a knock for most of the game and caused him no problems whatsoever all game.

Those two players highlight our problem. Risse should be being played at left back. Djimi not in team. Less problems in defence. Garcia should be playing as a support striker giving Crouch some support and causing damage where it has more effect. Problem is, we have no-one else to fill the wide roles so these players will have to fit that role until the transfer window re-opens.

I mean, does anyone on here honestly think that we would have done any better against Chelsea with Cisse/Pongolle on the right and Zenden on the left ? I don't think they would have offered anything at all over the players who played on Sunday.

Hopefully we will see Kewell return soon to play on the left wing and (fingers crossed, but somehow doubt it !) finding some of his old form to give us some cutting edge on the left until Gonzales hopefully arrives.

Until January I would like to see Rafa play Gerrard on the right side of midfield as at least he has the ability to get behind defences and put in decent crosses. We have Sissoko now who looks like he can replace Gerrards drive in the middle of the pitch, and Alonso who can provide the passing, so why not get Gerrard out wide whipping in some crosses for Crouch ?

I would like to see the team line up as below and maybe we might get a bit more joy out of games as the front players might get a bit more service from wide areas.

                     Reina

Finnan      JC            Hyppia          Risse

Gerrard    Alonso      Hamman/Sissoko   Zenden/Kewell

                   Morientes/Garcia

                    Crouch/ Cisse

[stmichael]

I wanted Parker. He's a quality player. However we signed Sissoko who i believe is just as good if not slightly better. Parker is more like Hamann, sits mostly and tends not to go forward.  He's got god vision though and can spot a clever pass.

exactly. parker was a box to box player at charlton. he got "turned" into a defensive minded holding player at chelsea.

[LiverpoolMadman]

Hope that JAN there will be some new players in to replace some of our players that not fit in EPL.

[woof woof !]

Rafa is playing 451 without the personnel who can make it work . Without wingers Crouch is not getting crosses that he can attack and is instead reduced to trying to provide knock downs that a non existent support can run onto .I say back to 442 until we at least have the players who can play Rafa's (apparently) preferred system .

As for the left back positon , I wouldn't give that priority , Warnock is a rough diamond and can do the job given sufficient opportunity . IMO i would list our priorities as , Right Mid/Winger ,the problems there are obvious to us all,  CD as Sammi isn't getting any quicker and everybody incliding the opposition knows it . Left Mid/Winger is also a problem and if we had Chelseas kind of cash I'd be looking to strengthen that position but with Riise ,Zenden and maybe a resurgent Kewell ,I think we can manage for the time being, therefore my third priority would be a striker who can score  ! Let's face it our strikers goal ratio is pi'ss poor . Crouch can't do it on his own ,Cisses hardly gets a look in and when he does seems out of sorts and Morientes ?    Beginning to look like one of the most dissapointing purchases we've ever made .(I'm hard pressed to recall a player of his reputation and quality who has joined us and produced so little ) .

Rafa's success in the CL has earnt him deserved affection and respect amongst us fans but after sundays result I think the honeymoon is now over , we got spanked in the second half on Sunday ,we can moan all we like about the players but they were playing to his system and lets face it , that system without the quality needed to make it effective brought us nothing but humiliation .We lost a lot more than 3 points on Sunday , we lost CREDIBILITY .

[Ace Ventura]

rafa has boo booed - ever since owen went, he's tried to shape a team around what exactly...he should had owen up top gerrard in the middle carragher at the back and built the team around that. Instead he's bought a cache of players who have drifted in and out of the squad in various positions, without a decent spine being built and maintained. what exactly would there have been to shout about if Istanbul hadn't of happened?

The point your making about the spine of the team is a good one, but to say what if Istanbul hadnt happened is a pointless statement, it did happen.
Things are far from rosey at the moment, but were not in the worst state either.
We have had an indifferent start to the season, and yesterday was really disappointing, but we did not deserve to lose by that margin.
I think Chelsea are that good defensively that they will run away with it this year.
But our target should be to improve on last year and so far we have.
We have imo had a pretty bad deal with the fixture list, so far only Sunderland at home was an easy game.
Last season we lost at Birmingham, lost at home to united and lost at boro, we also lost at home to Chelsea.
Things are not all doom and gloom, and hopefully now we have got that fixture out of the way we can start picking up some points and move up the table.
Realistically i feel we can challenge for 2nd lets just hope that Rafa gets the players he wants in January.
But we are Champions of Europe, and again in the champions league have made a solid start.
It could be worse look at the blues.

[woof woof !]

Realistically i feel we can challenge for 2nd
It could be worse look at the blues.

       

Did you actually say "Realistically"   

[woof woof !]

Realistically i feel we can challenge for 2nd
It could be worse look at the blues.

       

Did you actually say "Realistically"   

I'll have whatever it is you're drinking .