Liverpool FC Forum

bunglemark2 wrote:Aside from all of that - anyone know where Skrtel was last night - deliberately omitted ?

ivor_the_injun wrote:Kevin Blackwell's been sacked by the administrators at Luton.

They were never a big club by any means, but what's happened there in recent years in a very good example of how badly things can go wrong. They'd better hope the Nick Owen-fronted takeover happens or they're finished.

It would serve the inbred f*ckers right - chanting "Freak" all f*cking match at Crouch, AGAIN.

And they actually thought we'd give them our gate money!?!

Luton - you're having a laugh! 

Bad Bob wrote:Torres did have a quieter night but I wonder how much of that had to do with partnering Crouch?  This is not a dig at the big man, BTW, who I still rate as our second best striker.  But, with him on the pitch, I think Torres was asked to play a slightly different role.  Indeed, we saw him dropping deep on occasion or getting the ball out wide on the touchline more than once, rather than just playing off the shoulder of the last man.  That's what it looked like to me, anyway.  If it's true that he was playing a different role to accommodate Crouch and if it's true that that role neutralizes his goal threat somewhat, I can understand why we've not seen much of their partnership.  I'd be curious what others thought of the Crouch/Torres combination?

Scottbot wrote:

Bad Bob wrote:Torres did have a quieter night but I wonder how much of that had to do with partnering Crouch?  This is not a dig at the big man, BTW, who I still rate as our second best striker.  But, with him on the pitch, I think Torres was asked to play a slightly different role.  Indeed, we saw him dropping deep on occasion or getting the ball out wide on the touchline more than once, rather than just playing off the shoulder of the last man.  That's what it looked like to me, anyway.  If it's true that he was playing a different role to accommodate Crouch and if it's true that that role neutralizes his goal threat somewhat, I can understand why we've not seen much of their partnership.  I'd be curious what others thought of the Crouch/Torres combination?

No doubt they found themselves occupying the same sort of spaces/positions at times during the game and Torres did have a fairly quiet game. But saying that they have hardly played together, have had little to no time to form any real understanding and yet some of their link-up yesterday was good at times. No doubt it would take a bit of time for the partnership to work but it is still my favoured front-two by some distance. Torres has been playing almost as a lone frontman for much of the season and has (at times this season) had the freedom to work the entire back four (though the middle and down both flanks) and a lot of space to play in. Crouch plays a lot higher than Kuyt and Voronin so Torres current role would be compromised slighty but a Torres-Crouch partnership offers up other options ie. Torres running onto flick-ons, feeding off bits and pieces, second balls etc. Also, Crouch is great with his back to goal (as we all know), he does a good job of bouncing the ball back into our midfield who then have the option of hitting Torres first time over the top or into the flanks. This could be particularly important in the 3 big aways we've got coming up against Chelsea, Arsenal and the mancs, Torres can't be expected to do it all on his own against the likes of Ferdinand, Toure, Gallas etc.

I liked the side we palyed last night. Two attacking wingers, Two out and out frontmen and Alonso (who is probably more suited to games at home where we expect to see a lot of the ball) in for Mascherano. That was a side that said 'Here we are, this is us, NOW DEAL WITH IT'

JohnBull wrote:It's only the 5th time they've started together and it was good to see the two of them talking to each other during the game.
They're still learning about each other and the start of a pertnership is there OK , it's just got to be encouraged.