Liverpool FC Forum

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:38 am**

Stu, I agree that counter-attacking game is our strongest forte at the moment and we should concentrate at that to get a 4th place finish.

However, to get to this finish at the end of the season, the attacking players need to be more careful about their passing. Otherwise, we will forever be chasing balls with the likes of Hamann and Gerrard working overtime to win balls and while the likes of Diouf and Murphy keeps loosing possession and the strikers don't get any decent service. If this keeps happenning, we will be winning by the odd goal or keep getting draws.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 12:51 pm**

As I said before defensive, counter attacking football is all well and good, when the other team attacks you. But this is not always going to happen in this league. The best option is too attack as a team and defend as one. Yeah sure it defend when nessecary, but don't be afraid to attack either. If you want defensive stability then just have Hamman protecting a back four ( or three if Finnan pushes on) and let an attacking quintet try to break down the opposition that is the other three midfielders and the forwards. The ball retention in this team does have to improve but we all know that. I don't see why you have to be either attacking of defensive. Play the team your playing. If they have pacey forwards, play deeper, if not you can play higher up to pitchh.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 2:19 pm**

I agree with that, you should play to your teams strengths but also play to your oppositons strengths and weakness's. Too many times at anfield we tend to look lost when teams sit back and defend, only when they attack do we seem to look dangerous on the counter attack. The only game i can say we honestly looked like we were able to play an attacking stlye at home was in the first half against arsenal when we were all over them.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 2:21 pm**

The way we are playing is ruining Steven Gerrard as a player. Watch how he plays. Almost every time he gets the ball he flashes it forward in an attempt to play an early ball into the forwards. 9 times out of 10 the ball isn't even on.

Gerrard has to learn to vary his passes and play some possession football if he is to progress. If he played for UTD and Arsenal he would already be the best midfielder in the Premiership.

It will also ruin Kewell as he'll get ball piecemeal and will have to chase and harass defenders as he tries to win balls from Riise's and Hyppia's long punts upfield..

There's nothing wrong with counter attackign football per se provided you vary it with good technique and have good attacking full backs who can turn into wingers when we need them. Liverpool's version of the counter attack can be very crude and clumsy at times.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:22 pm**

Steven Gerrards decision making on the ball isn't down to the style of play. He'll never be as good a player as Vieira either no matter who he plays for.

The fact is Gerrard has to learn from Hamann. Hamann doesn't play balls that aren't on and to be fair to Steven he doesn't do this anymore if anything he probably doesn't try it enough anymore.

Kewell will benifit immensely from having Carragher behind him who doesn't need as much protection as Riise and also dristributes the ball about 1 million times better. Once Kewell is on the ball he has the ability to fly past defenders, he seems to be lacking in confidence at the minute but we are still seeing flashes. People were saying how bad he was against Villa, while i wouldn't say he was he was superb he did have a decent game. He needs a goal then all will be sorted.

The sloppiest players we have in possession are Gerrard, Hyypia, Riise, Diouf and Murphy. For me Diouf and Riise wouldn't be near the starting 11 and Murphy and Hyypia are more than capable of calming a game down and playing the right pass when the option is there.

Danny loses the ball alot when he holds onto it, the reason he often holds onto it is a lack of movement which isn't his fault.

Once the side is at full strength i expect to see the same sort of passing and possession i saw against Spurs at anfield, Arsenal, and Man Utd in the first half and even the Everton game earlier in the season.

The results will come as the better players come back into the side. That you can be sure of.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:36 pm**

I agree that we should continue to play counter attacking football for now, as i think this would give us a greater chance of finishing 4th. If we get into the champions league then we will be able to attract players of a higher ability and then we could start to build a more attacking team.

I do think that at the start of the season we played very good attacking football however i think this left us very short at the back because are defense is quite slow at times. For this reason i think we should sign a pacey centre back and then i think we could play an attacking system to a much greater affect.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:47 pm**

Yeah but its not just about a pacy centre half.

We'd need a good right sided midfielder, a pacey centre half who can also defend excellently aswell and a pacey left back who can defend excellently.

We also need another striker who can poach goals and score with head who also must have pace.

Then we'd need to replace Hamann with someone like Scholes, or David Dunn or a quality play making central midfielder.

The defensive system will win you trophies with the right players and i think we have the right players with the exception of 2 or 3. No point changing a potentially winning formula and alot of players just to look pretty.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 6:03 pm**

i think jason koumas would be a good buy for our right hand side. He's quick skillfull can score goals and plays with an enthusiasm people like diouf lack in our team imo. He was also the shining light in west broms team last year which proves that he can do it in the premiership. He would also become a better player for playing in a better team.

Do you mean replace hamman all together? I agree we should get a central midfielder with some creativity but in some games we are still going to have to defend and when hamman plays he contributes to the defending better than anyone.

I think there's a lot of areas of our team that need improving and not all of them will be improved in the summer unless some younger players break into te first team.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 6:20 pm**

I think to play a more attacking style Hamann has to be benched and someone in to replace him. But i think this is stupid as he's one of our best players. We should look to build a side around him... which is what we're doin.

To be honest i don't think Koumas is the answer. He's a good player but technically he's not brilliant and he's not really an improvement on Danny Murphy. He also won't get the same amount of goals Murphy gets and he's a central player more than a wide player.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 8:49 pm**

I reckon Gerrard could surpass Viera if he gets his act together. There's not much wrong with him other than he simply needs to learn to vary his passes.

I agree with you Stu about Riise's distribution. Carragher will play the ball neater and to the man. You won't see many 30 yard balls splitting defences from Carragher but he won't give it away that easily either.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:04 pm**

I disagree about Gerrard to be honest.

I think he'll be next best thing and as close to as you're likely to see.

But Vieira is immense. Leadership, Aggression, Determination, Reading of the game, Skill, Touch, Technique, Passing, Vision, Heading, Physique, Pace, Stamina. The only things i would question are his finishing, and long distance shooting andeven those i'd say he's good at. He's also two footed.

For me he's best "alround" player ever. Theres never been a more complete player.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:53 pm**

yeh he must be one of the greatest buys of all time, cos he was quite cheap wasn't he?

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:35 pm**

we just need some new blood:)

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2004 11:29 pm**

i dunno weather it was £1m or £3.5m.

Still its pretty cheap for that kind of class.

Liverpool FC Forum

Counter attack please monsieur