Liverpool FC Forum

[redstorm]

Who do u think is most suitable to partner sami hyypia to be the central defending partnership in liverpool?

[ynwa]

i would try jamie at centre back for a couple af games

[JBG]

Maybe we should be asking whether Sammi Hyppia is "untouchable" as the first choice centre half.

Obviously replacing Hyppia and Henchoz by bringing in two guys who are better than both of them and will raise us to a higher level would cost us in the region of £20-25million and the money simply isn't there for that at the moment.

Spending £7-8million on a new partner for Hyppia is probably within our limits as things stand.

Hyppia is a good player but he lacks pace and has mediocre distribution and even his biggest fan would admit that he is not playing as well now as he did two years ago.

I like Henchoz but I fear with Hyppia and Henchoz in the same side we lack pace and distribution from the back, although both are excellent defenders when our back is up against the wall.

However, if we are to challenge for the championship we can't afford to be playing "backs against the wall" football, week in, week out.

[Starbridge42]

well said

[stmichael]

lack of pace is a problem but henchoz and hyypia always got away with it due to their superb positioning and reading of the game. carragher at centre half is not a bad shout, with riise at left back. where is riise anyway? has he just fallen out of favour?

[RedSi]

Riise has been well out of form in the last 18 months, I've a feeling he may be another Houllier victim.

In the event that we don't but a centre-half I would stick with Henchoz and Hyppia as I think Stephane still is a solid classy player. That said I would advocate us buying a top drawer centre-half and have Sami and Stephane fighting it out for the other place.

I can't think of a suitable British player who would be available so I guess he will have to come from Spain or Italy.....

[115-1073096938]

Riise isn't the best of defenders and has probably the worst distribution and hoof tendancy in english football so that clearly isn't an option. He's also lost that attacking edge to his game.

Hyppia is a good player but he lacks pace and has mediocre distribution and even his biggest fan would admit that he is not playing as well now as he did two years ago.

I like Henchoz but I fear with Hyppia and Henchoz in the same side we lack pace and distribution from the back, although both are excellent defenders when our back is up against the wall.

However, if we are to challenge for the championship we can't afford to be playing "backs against the wall" football, week in, week out.

I would say both Sami and Stephane's technical play and distribution are superb to be honest. Henchoz is the better of the two, Sami does hoof once or twice which can be a problem though.

Personally i don't think he has been as bad as everyone thinks in terms of form. Granted two years ago he was a rock. But i think its because of the change in tactics and the personel he's had around him. He always looks a better player with Henchoz and Carragher either side as apose to Igor and Riise.

For me he's still one of the top 5 in England and easily top 10 in world football.

Your point on "backs to the wall football". We finished second amassing 80 points with this style of play. We got to the quarter finals of the champions league and we have won 4 major cup compititions and 2 exhibition matches against europian cup winners and league champions.

If you play to your teams strengths you will always win games. The only reason Liverpool didn't win the league with these tactics were the players weren't good enough. The tactic was amazing. If you look at the side that finished second the midfield consisted of Smicer, Hamann, Gerrard, Murphy. The season we finished second Gerrard wasn't at the level he is now and If we had Kewell for Smicer that would have earned us more points.

[ynwa]

traore biscan r sh##e defenders

[115-1073096938]

Traore isn't that bad. He's a decent squad player. Worth having imo.

[JBG]

I kind of agree with Stu to some extent.

Hyppia and Henchoz are very good defenders, and to a point both of them are technically sound in that you hardly ever see them make a first touch error or give the ball away through poor control (which you couldn't accuse Biscan of!). However, I would prefer if they had a little more pace and slightly better distribution. In fairness, if you watch Henchoz he always plays the ball very simply to the midfield and he never shows any ambition whatsoever.

Both are excellent defenders and if their distribution and pace were better then we would probably have the best defence in the world! I guess you can't have everything.

I would advocate keeping both players and signing a fresh young fellow with plenty of strength and pace to challenge them. Boumsong looked like the answer, but we all know what happened there!

I would sell Biscan, but keep Troare. Traore is far from perfect, but he is improving slowly.

My point about questioning Hyppia is that his own form hasn't been what it used to be. Much of this is down to the fact that Henchoz has been injured and Houllier forced Hyppia to line up alongside Biscan and Troare.

I still disagree with you Stu about 2002. That year, aside from Houllier's illness, a hell of a lot of things went Liverpool's way. The entire team played well. Houllier's side had reached its peak. We were a very good side in England and Europe. However, we still finished a long way behind in second and no-one really believed that we would catch Arsenal. We did very well to over take ManUre, which was an excellent achievement given the time.

I think the consensus among analyists, supporters, journalists and former Liverpool greats was that Houllier would have to play a more open game to go to the next level. Houllier acknowledged this by signing Cheyrou and Diouff and later Finnan and Kewell.

Unfortunately things didn't quite work out.....

[Owzat]

Hyypia and Henchoz, until we can get another quality CB. Traore did ok but perhaps might have been better left side rather than right (as against Basel). Carragher is good but I'm not convinced CB is his best position, not better than H&H. Biscan is a definite no, RB maybe but too many chances go through his position. IMO Biscan defends like a DM in the CB position - surprise, surprise!

[Lx_here]

Buy Daniel Van Buyten he is at manchester city. a great player...

[Evertonpowaa]

Moi j'aurais plutôt tenté de leur refiler seb pérez, mais bon..

au fait c himself. wesh cousins, je vois que vous avez fait une percée..


ps , my pseudo isn't a provocation, certainly not.

[b4Rbu]

Boumsong would have been perfect, this guy is really top class, with Mexes the French League defenders, and now the sub of Desailly in France squad....

I still don't understand why he and GH haven't agreed on a deal....For free !!!

[Lx_here]

ps , my pseudo isn't a provocation, certainly not.

Bon les smileys c'est pas leur truc....mais je t'aurais bien mis un UP pour ton speudo.