Liverpool FC Forum

by **JoeTerp** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:32 am

JoeTerp wrote:people are sleeping big time on Fiorentina. Jovetic has had a good start to the season. Frey is capable of making incredible saves, Montolivo and Vargas are both solid players, and Mutu still has a couple tricks up his sleeve.

people are still sleeping on the quality of the group. Lyon are a much more dangerous side IMO this year than last. I felt like the team that had won 7 titles in a row had become complacent and slowly picked off for talent. They have since reloaded and are much hungrier. I am not sure how good the Hungarians will be in Hungary, but if both Lyon and Fiorentina take 6 points off them, we could be in a bit of trouble.

I think this is the hardest group we have had since I started following the club. I would say Atletico has been the toughest team, but they are on par with Lyon, and then Fiorentina as a 3rd seed, as they showed tonight, can be dangerous.

The three best teams we have played this season have all beaten us, VERY WORRYING. And we looked outplayed in those games as well (not as much in the Villa match, but we did lose by 2) Further, in our lead up friendly that we took pretty seriously to get ready for the season, we got outplayed by Atletico

by **The Good Yank** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:53 am

Well, the match was on over here on a delay, (They had Rangers v Sevilla on first) I was tempted to check in here to see how things were going, but I held off. The weather here has finally started to cool get into more of an autumnlike temperature, 71 F (That's 21.6 for most of you. Thank you Google), so instead of watching the match live, I made a pot of Gumbo in my newly acquired cast iron dutch oven. The Gumbo turned out incredibly. The roux was perfect with the heat being distributed around the pot instead of all on the bottom so the thickness of the final dish was absolutely mouthwatering.

At 5pm my wife and I sat down in front of the TV to watch the match. Luckily I made sure both of my daughters had there homework done by the time the match was kicking off. By the time the first goal was scored, I had just about finished my meal. By the time the second goal was scored my wife was asking me if the beads of sweat covering the top of my head were a result of what was happening in front of us on the tele or from the Gumbo.

I assured her the sweat was indeed from the fine meal I had produced in anticipation of being able to watch a match without knowing the result while having dinner. By the half I thought surely changes were in order. Of course as we all know, no changes would come until at least the hour mark. We finally had a good bit of possesion in the final third. Of course with what seemed 15 men behind the ball nothing seemed to be opening up.

The selection of Aurellio to play as a LCM was an absolute joke. Lucas, well, he was bad, but he seems to be taking a big brunt of heat here for the result of a total :censored:

effort from the entire team. Rafa got this one wrong, there's no way of sugar coating that. That said, there is no way that the result could be pinned on Lucas or Rafa, not individually anyway.

Why Riera was left on the bench to start with is a mystery to me. But for him to not be brought on at halftime, or even the hour mark is an even further blight on Rafa. The rest of the blame has got to go to the players on the pitch. Skittles and Carra were once again carved apart. I still have a sneaking suscpicion that Skyrtl is still not quite right from the knock he took to the head from Carragher. Carra, love the lad, he's just been more than a step too late against any team that has shown they can form an attack.

The old adage is that a day without something learned is a day wasted. Well than this has surely not been a day wasted.

I've learned

1. Champions League Group Stage Matches are still eye gouging material.
2. I can make a kick :censored:

pot of Gumbo (I'll give the recipe, just PM me)
3. Aurellio is a :censored:

midfielder
4. At least we aren't giving up goals only on set pieces.
5. This team is so thin in quality that more than half of them looked completely knackered at the final whistle.
6. Rafa could have played a team of nearly all reserves and rested all of the key players ahead of the Chelsea match and still gotten the same amount of points.
7. Don't make a great dinner prior to a CL group stage match. It doesn't taste as well as it should.

by **Toffeehater** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:30 am

I thought Skrtel was good though , played well defensively and couldn't do anything for the 1st goal as it was insua playing jovetic on and also the 2nd one just hit jovetic . He made a couple of good tackles , and had that one brilliant run , he was far from poor. Carragher still looks lost out there , be tempted to drop him and play agger against the chavs

by **JoeTerp** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:33 am

Skrtel has far too many clearing headers that don't actually clear the ball

did like that run and cross though

by **Ciggy** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:42 am

No english team has ever won on their ground, they beat Everton and Man U 2-0, and arsenal got a draw.
They havent been beaten at home in 22 games.

Only plus is they dont travel well and we will beat them at Anfield once we break down that parked bus.

by **SupitsJonF** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:34 am

Ciggy wrote:No english team has ever won on their ground, they beat Everton and Man U 2-0, and arsenal got a draw.
They havent been beaten at home in 22 games.

Hopeful stat that is :nod

by **Ciggy** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:37 am

SupitsJonF wrote:Hopeful stat that is

Another stat Italy play at that stadium and havent been beaten there in 45 games.

by **aCe'** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:46 am

Their next 2 games are against the sht hungarian side so i expect 6 points from them there.. the 2 games after that are away to us and home to Lyon... Its not as easy as many are making it out to be and i think we'll need to step it up against Lyon to qualify from this group...

by **aCe'** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:51 am

For the Chelsea game, i'd have Kuyt down the left side and Babel down the right with Gerrard playing deep... Have Mascherano man mark Lampard out of the game and try to hit them on the break... Realistically, a draw would be an excellent result for us given the circumstances... Aurelio at left back and tell Johnson and Skrtel they needs to step up their game a notch or two...

by **The_Rock** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:07 am

Gosh.......what an awful match.........

Hopefully the lads will be up for the chelsea match now. I think they really got too overwhelmed with 6-1 thrashing and perhaps took their foot of the pedal.

Even Benitez was uncharacteristically c@cky when he brushed off fiorentina's challenge in the pre-match interview...

Anyway, moving on, perhaps this is the "kick" they needed to give it their all against chelsea because even when we were thrashing all the teams at anfield (apart from villa), we did look quite shaky at defence. There was no real enforcer in midfield too who cut off the opposition attack and "imposed" themselves thorughout the match.

Anyway....hope by now, Benitez sees the light again... not about rotation but this time about about Mr Average ....Lucas. He is just too average for a team challenging for honours. He won't even get make it into manure and chelsea's bench let alone their starting line up.

If mascherano recovers in time...he has to play gerrard and mascherano in midfield. No IFs....and no Butts

If mascherano doesn't recover, then no choice, we have to stick with lucas but gerrard has to play alongside him to minimize the impact.

by **woof woof !** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:12 am

JoeTerp wrote:
JoeTerp wrote:people are sleeping big time on Fiorentina. Jovetic has had a good start to the season. Frey is capable of making incredible saves, Montolivo and Vargas are both solid players, and Mutu still has a couple tricks up his sleeve.

people are still sleeping on the quality of the group. Lyon are a much more dangerous side IMO this year than last. I felt like the team that had won 7 titles in a row had become complacent and slowly picked off for talent. They have since reloaded and are much hungrier. I am not sure how good the Hungarians will be in Hungary, but if both Lyon and Fiorentina take 6 points off them, we could be in a bit of trouble.

Agree with you there Joe. In fact I'd say we're already in the mire.
Early days but looking at the remaining fixtures I think we'll have to win away at Debrecen plus both our home games to even finish as group runners up.

I think we're in for some nail biters.

by **SouthCoastShankly** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:46 am

Ciggy wrote:
SupitsJonF wrote:Hopeful stat that is

Another stat Italy play at that stadium and havent been beaten there in 45 games.

Stats courtesy of Sky Sport last night!

Regardless, we went to Barcelona 2 seasons ago knowing no English team had ever won there bar ourselves (once) and still won. You can't use those stats as an excuse for the way we played. We were shocking.

More worryingly players who we're once solid, i.e. Carragher are looking way off pace and vunerable recently. Gerrard was better last night but he has been no where near his peak, it's like he is carrying an injury.

Don't even get me started on the Aurelio selection at CM. When we had Spearing on the bench :veryangry

by **bunglemark2** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:49 am

Uh-oh....
I woke up 10 mins ago and it wasn't a dream.....
Cue all the Manc f@ggots with poxy comments at work....

by **Ciggy** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:52 am

SouthCoastShankly wrote:You can't use those stats as an excuse for the way we played. We were shocking.

Where did I use the stats as an excuse?, we where dogsh!t last night in the first half, I just pointed out we where not the only ones to have been beaten there.

by **tubby** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:50 am

You could say Aurelio wasnt fit but generally he didnt look comfortable at all. Pompey and Leeds are 1 thing but playing him in that role in a CL game has proven to be a mistake on Rafas part. Rafa should have brought Gerrard back into the centre, kept in Riera on the left and played Yossi in that advanced role, even Babel. But instead he once again showed too much belief on Lucas.

On Lucas whilst he is improving last night was a big gamble especially when it was just Aurelio alongside him. We probably should have had a penalty in the 2nd half we generally we were poor. To be honest we need a kick up the :censored:

every now and again.

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