by bigmick » Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:05 pm
As St Mike touched on in another thread, it's likely the defensive rotations are over for a while as we're running out of personel. It may not be a bad thing to be perfectly honest. We need a bit of cohesion back there and not only that, Agger and Aurelio have been in my opinion the two brightest sparks of the new season so far and more games in a settled line-up can only help.
Further forward you would think that Gerard and Alonso will almost certainly fill the central midfield slots for the next couple of games. This has been a partnership which despite looking good on paper has lacked balance in the past but my hunch is that the way the games of the two players have developed, it's about to become a very strong one indeed. Alonso plays a bit deeper than when he first came and these days is very much the sitter, while Gerrard seems to have finally come to the conclusion that he is more Bryan Robson than Glenn Hoddle (though obviously better than either) and seems to concern himself more with his explosive attributes and game breaking qualities than trying to hit seventy yard balls and show us all how clever he is. The combination will really work this time I think.
The two wide midfielders pick themselves from our injury ravaged ranks, though I remain deeply concerned about the progress or lack thereof of Gonzales. Given the way he plays I am at a loss currently to imagine a way in which he will influence games for us in a positive fashion but that is for another thread I suppose.
For now I would like to see both wide-men show much more willingness to come in off their flank when the ball is over the opposite side of the pitch. Both men have lots of pace and in the case of Gonzales and probably in Pennants case aswell a good shot so they should be providing more of a goal threat. I'm not referring to the type of goal Gonzales scored against Haifa (and however long he plays for Liverpool he'll probably never score a more important one) but to the sort of situation you had last night when Garcia shot accross the face of goal and the keeper parried it out. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but I'd like to see Pennant on the move infield as Garcia pulls the trigger. Bust a gut to get into an area where you can score a goal, you ain't gonna influence play still stuck out on the touchline. Similarly Gonzales may find if he drops infield, sort of Gerrard style he can influence proceedings and maybe get a shot away to become more of a threat. Also in the case of Gonzales he needs to switch on a bit quicker when tracking back. He went to sleep a bit last night and on another night, him getting wrong side of the runner may have resulted in a penalty rather than the guy being booked for diving.
Uptop for saturday it must surely be Crouch plus somebody else. Personal preference would be for Bellamy as I think they are a natural partnership and having played on his own uptop against Haifa, and being paired with an unfit Fowler and having non-existent service against Sheffield United the fella probably deserves a go. My feeling is that if we are to excell this season, Bellamy is going to have to be a key player for us. The sooner we can get him scoring regularly and influencing games will the better for all concerned and hopefully he can score his first league goals in a red shirt on saturday.
Hopefully around the hour mark when we are 2-0 up, you can pull off the front two and we send on Kuyt so we can all have a look at him and Robbie can continue his march back to fitness. I have a feeling many of us are going to be pleasantly surprised by the Dutchman. Rafa's no mug and he's chased him for Two years. I take us to win 3-0, two goals for Bellamy and the final one from Fowler who whether he is fit or not is still the best finisher at the club.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".