Liverpool FC Forum

by **Espionage** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:55 am

I think that with Kuyt now here, we have an extremely strong squad. But the question that has to be asked now is has signing Kuyt changed your ideal starting XI?

The idea of 3-5-2 has been flung around a bit with mixed opinions, many people believe that we should stick to the tried and trusted 4-4-2.
At the moment I think that we have to play it 4-4-2, we have Pennant and Gonzalez looking well (with Kewell on the way back) and there would be no room for them in a 3-5-2, and now the 4-5-1 is not really an logical option with our current strike force.

I think that our best XI is going to be:

Reina (Dudek)

Finnan Carragher Hypia Riise
(*Carragher) (Palleta) (Agger) (Aurelio)

Gerrard Alonso Sissoko Gonzalez**
(Pennant) (Zenden) (Gerrard) (Aurelio)

Crouch/Kuyt/Bellamy Crouch/Kuyt/Bellamy

*Assuming that Kronkamp leaves
**Kewell when fit will be added into the picture, dont know what will happen, but its a little premature say that Gonzalez has his spot.

-I am not sure how our striker situation is going to work out, at the moment I see them as reasonably equal, poeple will have their opinions on who should play, but I think that truth is, Rafa will rotate heavily in these positions depending on who we play. Last season Rafa used to drag Crouch around the 60minute mark almost every game, I think that this will continue. All strikers will play every game I think with one of them getting only 30mins. A nice selection problem there.....
-Yes i think that Gerrard should play on the right.
-If Kronkamp is still around then give him the back up position at RB, but if he goes then I think that with Agger we dont have to be afraid from moving Carragher around if Finnan gets injured (touch wood).
-Unfortunately it means that Fowler will probably not get too many opportunities, but then again Rafa doesnt owe Fowler anything, he will have to settle with being 4th choice.
-Also, unfortunately Garcia will also not be seen as frequently, and him starting will be even more rare. I think that this season he will be used almost exclusively as an impact sub and maybe start some CL games.

Anyway, what do you think?

by **RichardLFC1** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:06 am

I think yes what about you ?

by **Redman in wales** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:10 am

personally it is a sad day when robbie is 4th choice - not just cause of favouritism - just the fact that he can still do the job, that he knows where the goal is. last season: 5 goals in 9 starts for us......... and he will only improve once his fitness improves

Unfortunately for him, i see kuyt/bellamy as first choice (if they can play together) crouch as a sub to introduce something different. I dont think robbie will make that many appearances this season

anyway enough of the sentimental cr@p ... kuyt signing (bar a 'nando') can only be a good thing!

C'mon the reds!

by **GOAT** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:22 am

Its great that we wont see garcia much this season. In rafas first season he played like nearly ever game but now we are unlikely to ever see him play which shows just how much our squad depth and player quality has improved in the past 2 years

He'll still be there to come on and score us them wonder goals and those ultra important goals

by **account deleted by request** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:24 am

I think we will use all three of your formation options Espionage at some stage this season, but I hope we are going with 4-4-2 most of the time. Trying to guess team selection this season is going to be much harder than last year. We seem to have viable options in almost every position so I will for the time being agree with your selection ,and pick Bellamy and Kuyt as the strikers likely to play the most games.

by **aCe'** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:26 am

GOAT wrote:Its great that we wont see garcia much this season, in rafas first season he played like nearly ever game but now we are unlikely to ever see him play which shows just how much our squad depth and player quality has improved in the past 2 years

why do you think thats so great ? i mean...sure garcia can get a bit frusrtating at times but he's still a really good player in our side ! he's a winner and is terribly talented ... i do agree that with Kuyt, Bellamy and Crouch his chances of starting as second striker are slim but i still wouldnt rule him out yet... is a good player and would be dissapointed if i dont see him in the bench making his way as a sub. every now and then ! is still a great asset to the squad we got !

by **GOAT** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:28 am

aCe' wrote:
GOAT wrote:Its great that we wont see garcia much this season. In rafas first season he played like nearly ever game but now we are unlikely to ever see him play which shows just how much our squad depth and player quality has improved in the past 2 years

why do you think thats so great ? i mean...sure garcia can get a bit frusrtating at times but he's still a really good player in our side ! he's a winner and is terribly talented ... i do agree that with Kuyt, Bellamy and Crouch his chances of starting as second striker are slim but i still wouldnt rule him out yet... is a good player and would be dissapointed if i dont see him in the bench making his way as a sub. every now and then ! is still a great asset to the squad we got !

That is exactly my point. Did you just read the first sentence of my post?

Ill try again...We wont see him play much this season and that just shows the great depth and player quality we now have in our squad that a player like him wont get a look in in the first team every match

by **aCe'** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:31 am

Strting 11... i'd go for

GK..Reina

LB..Riise
RB..Finnan
CB..Hyypia
CB..Carragher

LW..Gonzales
RW..Gerrard
CM..Alonso
CM..Sissoko

SS..Bellamy
CF..Kuyt

would love to see garcia in the bench.... can turn a game around coming in as a sub !

by **aCe'** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:33 am

GOAT wrote:
aCe' wrote:
GOAT wrote:Its great that we wont see garcia much this season. In rafas first season he played like nearly ever game but now we are unlikely to ever see him play which shows just how much our squad depth and player quality has improved in the past 2 years

why do you think thats so great ? i mean...sure garcia can get a bit frusrtating at times but he's still a really good player in our side ! he's a winner and is terribly talented ... i do agree that with Kuyt, Bellamy and Crouch his chances of starting as second striker are slim but i still wouldnt rule him out yet... is a good player and would be dissapointed if i dont see him in the bench making his way as a sub. every now and then ! is still a great asset to the squad we got !

That is exactly my point. Did you just read the first sentence of my post?

Ill try again...We wont see him play much this season and that just shows the great depth and player quality we now have in our squad that a player like him wont get a look in in the first team every match

did i miss that last part or did u add after my reply ?!
sorry anyways...didnt notice it was there.... read the whole thing.. ! yep...goals and goals...loads of them !

by **NiftyNeil** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:44 am

I think we'll see more variation to the way we play this season.
For the past two years, Rafa has been working with limited resources. But now he has what he needs - two players for every position. On top of that, most of the squad can occupy several positions.
We saw Rafa field a 3-4-3 formation last year against Newcastle which paid dividends. I think this will be used more this year. But the basis of our assault on the league will be a 4-4-2 formation.
Rafa has never fielded a 4-3-3 formation, due to the nature of our squad, and it will be interesting to see whether he experiments with this during the season, now that we have Pennant and Gonzalez.
I'm getting quite excited about the upcoming season. The permutations of this squad are endless.

4-4-2
REINA
FINNAN CARRA HYYPIA RIISE
GERRARD MOMO ALONSO GONZO
BELLAMY KUYT

4-3-3
REINA
FINNAN CARRA AGGER AURELIO
GERRARD ALONSO MOMO
PENNANT KEWELL
FOWLER

3-5-2
REINA
CARRA HYYPIA PALLETA
FINNAN GERRARD ALONSO WARNOCK
GARCIA
CROUCH BELLAMY

3-4-3
REINA
CARRA AGGER HYYPIA
KROMKAMP MOMO ALONSO RIISE
BELLAMY KUYT FOWLER

Is anybody else wetting theirselves?

by **account deleted by request** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:49 am

Is anybody else wetting theirselves?

Is this an age related problem?

by **NiftyNeil** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:55 am

s@int wrote:
Is anybody else wetting theirselves?

Is this an age related problem?

Congratulation Saint.
When I posted that, I knew that someone would predictably make reference to that, instead of the content prior to it.
Well done Finbar Saunders, I salute you :bowdown

by **account deleted by request** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:00 pm

NiftyNeil wrote:
s@int wrote:
Is anybody else wetting theirselves?

Is this an age related problem?

Congratulation Saint.
When I posted that, I knew that someone would predictably make reference to that, instead of the content prior to it.
Well done Finbar Saunders, I salute you

No offence meant Neil ,I thought it was funny.

by **Festy** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 1:17 pm

It'll be better if we keep our minds free from this formation and system thingy

because I reckon we're going to see lots of alterations and rotation this season by Rafa. Only my opinion though.

by **HacksawJimDuggin** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 1:42 pm

Espionage wrote:I think that with Kuyt now here, we have an extremely strong squad. But the question that has to be asked now is has signing Kuyt changed your ideal starting XI?

The idea of 3-5-2 has been flung around a bit with mixed opinions, many people believe that we should stick to the tried and trusted 4-4-2.
At the moment I think that we have to play it 4-4-2, we have Pennant and Gonzalez looking well (with Kewell on the way back) and there would be no room for them in a 3-5-2, and now the 4-5-1 is not really an logical option with our current strike force.

I think that our best XI is going to be:

Reina (Dudek)

Finnan Carragher Hypia Riise
(*Carragher) (Palleta) (Agger) (Aurelio)

Gerrard Alonso Sissoko Gonzalez**
(Pennant) (Zenden) (Gerrard) (Aurelio)

Crouch/Kuyt/Bellamy Crouch/Kuyt/Bellamy

*Assuming that Kronkamp leaves
**Kewell when fit will be added into the picture, dont know what will happen, but its a little premature say that Gonzalez has his spot.

-I am not sure how our striker situation is going to work out, at the moment I see them as reasonably equal, poeple will have their opinions on who should play, but I think that truth is, Rafa will rotate heavily in these positions depending on who we play. Last season Rafa used to drag Crouch around the 60minute mark almost every game, I think that this will continue. All strikers will play every game I think with one of them getting only 30mins. A nice selection problem there.....
-Yes i think that Gerrard should play on the right.
-If Kronkamp is still around then give him the back up position at RB, but if he goes then I think that with Agger we dont have to be afraid from moving Carragher around if Finnan gets injured (touch wood).
-Unfortunately it means that Fowler will probably not get too many opportunities, but then again Rafa doesnt owe Fowler anything, he will have to settle with being 4th choice.
-Also, unfortunately Garcia will also not be seen as frequently, and him starting will be even more rare. I think that this season he will be used almost exclusively as an impact sub and maybe start some CL games.

Anyway, what do you think?

You have got it just about right here mate!

When you see it on paper it's a f*ckin good squad. Here's hoping we don't suffer too many injuries.

Liverpool FC Forum

What starting xi? what formation? - As kuyt is probably our last signing

What starting xi? what formation? - As kuyt is probably our last signing

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