Liverpool FC Forum

Posted: **Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:28 pm**

I thought Johnson did very well tonight, he played out of position on the left and did well to contain Reyes, except for that error in the end. However, who the f*ck was marking Forlan? how can you leave him unmarked?!

We played well, the tactics was spot on in the first half and we deserved to go ahead. However, it showed we are :censored:

, we don't have the quality to win anything! Look at our bench, its made of reserves and youth players for FFS.

F8cking gutted really, the lads played with all their heart today, but Gerrard was not himself, in these type of games he usually plays a big part but he didn't tonight.

Posted: **Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:29 pm**

aCe' wrote:
Benny The Noon wrote:
Greavesie wrote:
aCe' wrote:Credit where its due, Roy did a magnificent job tonight..

jaysus is it every boss bar rafa with you?

He is trying to be funny or smart or clever mate - ignore him

On a serious note, nice to see you've finally got yourself a boyfriend there sweety...

You must be lost - this thread is about a Liverpool match , the maureen wa.nk fest is at the bottom of the forum , your at home there

Posted: **Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:31 pm**

Dundalk wrote:
RedSi35 wrote:2248: Plenty of messages from Liverpool fans encouraging Rafa Benitez to consider his future. Plenty of others complaining about the rule that away goals count in extra time - as in, Liverpool only had 90 mins to score an away goal, while Atletico had 120

interesting point tbh

Just an excuse, the rules have been their for a long time now.

In days gone by we would have went through with the golden goal

Ever since A.madrid entered the Europa from Champs League. Haven't they gone through all the way on away goals???

Posted: **Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:34 pm**

s@int wrote:
da9thkill wrote:gerrard in extra time was anonymous, and rafas sub are just weird. I still cant believe we are not in the final

I agree mate

. kuyt is only good to bring on the last 5 mins of a match to waste time when we are defending a lead. aquilani puts him clean through what does he do passes it back to there keeper. plus everytime aqua plays we look ten times better but he has to go off early only because rafa hasnt played him enough and isnt matchfit. if aqua was totally matchfit we cud of won tonight

Posted: **Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:48 pm**

Can't fault the lads for their effort. Just so disappointing to see the lack of belief in the players and the crowd once they scored but the players and the fans had absolutely nothing left to give, we just kinda limped out of the competition and quietly shut the door on the whole dreadful season.

Main thoughts on the game were:

- Gutsy performance, lots of effort but for the most part they looked quite comfortable and you always felt they could get a goal if they needed one.

- As well as Masch played, Johnson at Left-Back was a COMPLETE head-scratcher for me. It rendered one of our best attacking players (and only genuine wide threat) totally impotent. It completely took him out of the game. I would have played Masch at LB, at least that way you only have ONE player playing out of position in your back four, tonight we had two. I was screaming at the TV for Rafa to swap them the moment Forlan scored but to no avail.

- I thought Masch was quality and Babel has really turned a corner so far as attitude, effort and commitment goes.

- Once again (as in the Fulham game) our passing tempo really dropped off once Aquilani was taken off (to be fair he looked knackered - lack of match practice) and Stevie seemed to disappear from the game.

- Rafa's subs (once it was time to make them) were as late and peculiar as usual. I cannot believe he didn't simply throw on both of our last 2 subs at the half-way point of ET. Why wait? It's nonsensical and can't be justified as far as I can see.

- I should be more gutted than I am but (like may) am simply stuck in a 'what do you f**king expect' mode as far as this season goes.

Someone turn off the lights.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:02 am**

Aquilani was absolutely superb tonight ,I think the mistake was in playing Babel he offered nothing in an attacking sense ,whereas Pacheco would have linked up well with Gerrard and Aquilani and provided the guile needed to unlock Athletico's superbly marshalled defence
Johnson is a liability as a defender , and I have said on more than one occasion he would cost us dearly in an important game ,and Benayoun's withdrawal was for me personally completely mystifying ,but when all is said and done the lads put in a sterling effort with limited resources but it was all sadly to no avail ,roll on next year this has been a season that should be erased from the memory as quickly as humanly possible

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:06 am**

Could/couldn't believe it when Forlan scored. I half expected the occasion to see us through, all the while in the latter stages of the game thinking that we're dicing with death here by being so open and failing to control possession. You can't give teams with quality passers/runners that much space and expect not to conceed. We needed to keep it tight and retain the ball much better than we did but with our fitness levels falling dramatically and Kuyt ploughing a lone furrow up top, in the end we were relying on a lucky break of the ball or a mistake or a penalty to get the third. I couldn't understand why our fitness levels - Gerrard, Kuyt, Lucas, Babel, Aquilani in particular wnet down so markedly compared to Atletico. It is not a criticism at all but I was expecting to see more from Gerrard in second half/extra time given how intrumental he was in the first half. The subs for me were bizarre. Ok, Aquilani faded and perhaps needed to come off but why for El Zhar and not Pacheco? The Spaniard is better and more suited to the role. Why Masch - easily one of our best performers - and not Lucas (moving Masch into the middle) for Degen (and why Degen anyway?)?

Anyway congratulations and good luck to Fulham in the final.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 1:03 am**

LFC2007 wrote:Could/couldn't believe it when Forlan scored. I half expected the occasion to see us through, all the while in the latter stages of the game thinking that we're dicing with death here by being so open and failing to control possession. You can't give teams with quality passers/runners that much space and expect not to conceed. We needed to keep it tight and retain the ball much better than we did but with our fitness levels falling dramatically and Kuyt ploughing a lone furrow up top, in the end we were relying on a lucky break of the ball or a mistake or a penalty to get the third. I couldn't understand why our fitness levels - Gerrard, Kuyt, Lucas, Babel, Aquilani in particular wnet down so markedly compared to Atletico. It is not a criticism at all but I was expecting to see more from Gerrard in second half/extra time given how intrumental he was in the first half. The subs for me were bizarre. Ok, Aquilani faded and perhaps needed to come off but why for El Zhar and not Pacheco? The Spaniard is better and more suited to the role. Why Masch - easily one of our best performers - and not Lucas (moving Masch into the middle) for Degen (and why Degen anyway?)?

Anyway congratulations and good luck to Fulham in the final.

ask rafa why aquilani faded second half. Il give u a hint. To get matchfit you have to play regular. No ammount of work on a treadmill or bike will u get u matchfit. Its the most bizarre man management of a player ive ever seen.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 4:27 am**

RED BEERGOGGLES wrote:Aquilani was absolutely superb tonight ,I think the mistake was in playing Babel he offered nothing in an attacking sense ,whereas Pacheco would have linked up well with Gerrard and Aquilani and provided the guile needed to unlock Athletico's superbly marshalled defence
Johnson is a liability as a defender , and I have said on more than one occasion he would cost us dearly in an important game ,and Benayoun's withdrawal was for me personally completely mystifying ,but when all is said and done the lads put in a sterling effort with limited resources but it was all sadly to no avail ,roll on next year this has been a season that should be erased from the memory as quickly as humanly possible

I see things are going to be the same if things don't change. If we still have the same owners with not much transfer fund/budget, we are not going to challenge the title or even fourth place. If the manager is still the same, we will have the same defensive tactics we have witness all season long. And if we still have the same players (especially the likes of Insua/Lucas/Kuyt IMO) in the starting XI, we'll have no quality to challenge at the highest level. The players like Gerrard and Carragher(hoofballer) not getting their form back then we are going to struggle in the Europa League.

Hope things will change this summer but I just don't see the end of this :censored:

coming to an end.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:50 am**

aCe' wrote:The back 4 selection and the substitutions cost us tonight...
The tactics towards the end were a mess aswell..

Too much hoof forward, Kuyt was taken out of the game by constantly having to try and play a ball aimed long and at his head, flicked it on but noone was up. Once they knew they needed to score we were too deep and unable to retain possession to get out of our own half.

Rafa seemed to be saving substitutions for 20 mins from the end - of extra time. Kuyt played well up until the latter stages of the second half when he had zero service worthy of the name. I thought taking Benayoun off was questionable, what on earth was El Zhar going to do and if N'Gog was on the bench couldn't he have come on once it went to extra time to play two up top?!? Babel needs a good end product, if only he could have put a few crosses in maybe Kuyt wouldn't be getting his mandatory slating for the usual "faults". Tactics descended to the worst and most desperate far too early, reminded me so much of watching England. Noone put their foot on the ball, we're very good at charging forward and getting caught on the counter, last ditch defending against the counter but then taking a long time to get proper possession back and launch another charge.

Anyone wants to know what will come next season should already know from five seasons of it. Rafa is unlikely to sign three quality ball players, if he did he'd play them sparingly or grind any flair out of them and turn them into workmen. I'm shocked so many are saying Johnson "played well out of position", is full-back not his position?!? Played well on the wrong flank, MAYBE to counter Reyes' left foot, but it's not as if he was playing CB or CM or CF. Kuyt is played in one position one week, another the next, back again the next, and nobody every cuts him that same slack. Paw ickle Glenny Wenny plays LB ONCE and it's a sob story. I would hope at SEVENTEEN AND A HALF MILLION POUNDS he could play the same role on the opposite side to that standard, nobody was expecting perfect left foot crosses. I can't say if Rafa gave him plenty of warning and practice at playing LB, but it requires the same skills as RB except usually left footers play there.

We played ok overall, didn't create as many clear cut chances as perhaps we needed to. It sums up our season that we needed three goals to win because our defence is leaking too many goals. That was our 300th conceded under Rafa, only four short of the most we've conceded under him in SIX fewer matches. Looks like that omen re Burnley proved to be our undoing, we played them in 96/97 when we went out of the CWC in the semis.

But all in all it is a mickey mouse competition, Fulham being in the final may be an achievement for them, but they are TWELFTH in the Premiership so it doesn't say a lot for the competition that a side that low in a league can reach the final. And Atletico are only TENTH in La Liga at the moment, this tin pot was there for the taking.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 7:40 am**

I thought first half we played really well, some of the passing was as good as we have played all season, really chuffed for Aquaman but a shame his delight at scoring on a night we didn't get through.

I always fancied them to score, and never really believed we would score 3.

Load's of 'what if's', especially if Torres had been available, had we been more positive in Madrid and scored that crucial away goal.
Ultimatley for me it was our lack of quality back-up for Torres, not a new idea by any means, but something that has cost us time and again this season.
As well as more quality in wide positions.

We had very little on the bench and if El Zhar is our best option then we are in big trouble.
I don't think Stevie G had a bad game, but he wasn't at his best either.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:00 pm**

thought we played quite well in the first half, and maybe should have taken more than the one chance.

One of our downfalls this season has been the tendancy to drop back once we have scored a goal and try to play counter. doing that in the 2nd half brought Athletico back in it and they bossed it for the most part. we did brilliant to score in extra time, but then fell in the same stupid trap and that d!ck scored.......after that we looked like we had nothing left in the tank.

i was so sure we were gonna go through somehow, with a little more urgency to get the extra goal.....maybe we would have. but the team tried hard for the most part, and so did the fans, voice is battered today..cant wait till next season.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:42 pm**

I think where we threw it away last night was once Aquilani went off (and he needed to coz he was knackered), Rafa should have moved Gerrard forward brought Mascha into Midfield and taken Lucas off and brought Degan on.

Once the Aqua Gerrard partnership was broken up Gerrard was playing too deep and just didnt get involved. Waste of one of the best players in the world..

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 3:59 pm**

Started off great and deserved to be one up at half time.Second half we didnt do much and Madrid started to dictate the play and we got tired and edgy. Despite us knocking in a second the extra time was dominated by Madrid, and after a few scares they eventually they got the away goal that had been on the cards. After that we went out like a light. We didnt deserve to go through and thats the fact of it. Madrid did more on our pitch than we did out there and despite our best effort they where a more accomplished outfit. Just another reminder of what we already knew after a miserable campaign and thats the side just is nowhere near good enough.Benitez has admitted there a big rebuild job required but surely common sense will see him move on and allow us to try to move forward again without him.

Posted: **Fri Apr 30, 2010 9:15 pm**

Game was a fair reflection on the season. Started out desperate for a goal to stay alive. Once the goal came, went back to conservative style to not lose the game...ended up losing anyway.

The last 15 mins of extra time was a deja vu feeling repeated over and over in cup and league play this season. The feeling of having to score to win but because of the conservative style, you just can't turn it off and then on again.

In the second half thought it was Madrid that was the home team, the way they were bossing the game. Isn't this team like the 10th place team in la liga? What were we so afraid of...oh yeah the away goal. Which they scored anyway. :veryangry

Unfortunately everyone is pinning their hopes on that influx of cash that's supposedly coming this summer. But what if it doesn't? Are we doomed to see this bend but don't break football philosophy next season as well?

If we are going to be mediorce, can we at least show some fight and attack and not cower in retreat all the time?

Liverpool FC Forum

LIVERPOOL vs ATLETICO - Europa semi (2nd leg) - Thurs 29/04/10 - k.o 8.05pm