Who should play in midfield against Man United?
Submitted by tony on Fri, 2007-03-02 21:03.
With Sissoko returning from injury, Mascherano having an impressive debut , Alonso and Gerrard on form, who should play in midfield against the mancs?
Sissoko had been out for 3 months with a dislocated shoulder, but returned against Barcelona to put in a UEFA man of the match performance, Liverpool need his physical presence in the centre of the park, as this highly anticipated tie is always a tough battle in midfield.
Javier Mascherano had been left out in the cold at West Ham, but his debut against Sheffield United showed what he is capable of, fair enough, it was only one game, but he got some good hard tackles in, and sat back allowing Gerrard to go forward.
While Sissoko was out, Alonso and Gerrard played well together, and Liverpool need someone like Alonso tomorrow to spread the play, hold up the ball and to stop United going forward, but we cannot go all out defense, and there is no way Gerrard as captain is going to sit this game out.
Are we likely to end up playing Gerrard on the right tomorrow with Alonso and Momo in the centre? Will Rafa do as he did against Chelsea at Stamford bridge and put Stevie on the left with Pennant on the right?
Had he not been injured, Luis Garcia would have started against United, as he is a big game player, he scores when it matters, but with him out it looks as though Benitez has a selection problem in midfield.
From our midfield players, Gerrard has the most goals with 8 from 38 appearances, Alonso has 3 from 35, Mark Gonzalez has 3 from 26 appearances, Sissoko and Zenden have yet to score this season, and Pennant has only managed one goal in 37 appearances.
Rafa may opt for 5 in midfield, with Finnan and Riise/Aurelio acting as wing backs, allowing Sissoko and Alonso to play just infront of the defence with Gerrard supporting a lone striker.
United will be coming to Anfield thinking they will win, and will do anything to do so, (mainly diving from that winker Ronaldo), we need someone who can hit them hard, but Sissoko and Alonso are not attacking minded enough for this game? Hopefully we won't leave one striker upfront, as this does not give us enough options to get a goal.
Who do you think should start and where?
Despite the disappointment
Despite the disappointment of the defeat to that lot, the performance was a big improvement on the 2-0 earlier this season, far from angry about anything, in the 1st half our midfield looked nervous, lack of composure, stray passing, on occassions we were trying to beat invisible men (mainly alonso & sissoko), sometimes they did'nt always appreciate the time and space they had, the 3 points and bragging rights should definitely have been ours, the mancs looked ordinary in the 2nd half, but like Liverpool of a bygone era they rode thier luck and snatched the win (all title winners have that about them), a bit more of the 2nd half and stepping forward with the ball should see us through against barca, we are not as far off a title winning squad as some fans believe, yesterday 2 or 3 did'nt play anywhere near thier ability, yet we still should have won against thier best team, if we progress through Champs League i hope we are drawn against them, the title was gone from way back so i hope yesterday's result does'nt bring out the sack rafa brigade, we should finish top four and since Jan 9th only one trophy has mattered, to all at ANFIELD on tuesday for the full 90 " THE NOISIEST ARENA ON THE PLANET ".
Missed Chances
I could see a Utd winner coming a mile away. That game was a carbon copy of the old trafford game last season. Remember Cisse missing that chance and then we lost as a result of a free kick in injury time. That was the day Rafa decided he needed a proper striker, enter Robbie Fowler. Crouch showed us yesterday that he doesn't have the balls to play for a big club. He clearly wasn't fit to play, thats why he didn't head the ball and why every other header he tried went all over the shop. But why was he on the bench then. To me he has clearly deceived the coaching staff about his fitness just so he can be involved in a big game. By doing this he has let his team-mates, the club and the supporters down. A good display by the team in general. But in the end we deserved to lose because we just haven't learnt anything from previous games. If you fail to take the chances we had or create even better ones you will be punished. That is not a great Man U team, the part of the field they beat us in is the fowards. In that game we saw six strikers and I'd take the utd 3 over the 3 that we have any day.
chances
I genuinely thought that we would win that games and was pleased with the performance... This is how we need to play week in week out minus the dodgy shooting of course!
Momo and Alonso had poor games and you just felt if anyone should have come off it was one of them 2 but certainly not Bellamy... I mean when was the last time one of them were match winners?
Now the team has a bit of continuity it seems that we are moving in the right direction but if we can't get goals from somewhere I'm afraid it will be a battle to hang onto fourth and I'm sure this is in the back of Rafa's mind!
Yesterday Rio was a rock for united and too often crosses were just cleared by him and Vidic.... In those situations you'd hope Robbie gets a run because his clever movement can make space and the balls are then played to feet making it a lot harder for the scums back four, especially with Bellamys pace!
Where is harry Kewel ??????
Same Old Crap
We were better than a poor Manc team on the day - but the misty red spectacles seem to be on again. Before and after the Barca hysteria we are 19 points behind the Mancs and probably 13 points behind Chelsea. Arsenal will probably wrap up third place. We are closer to Reading, Bolton and the Blue Shite than the top - fact. We get to the last ten minutes at home to the Mancs, they are substituting more defenders on to the pitch than you can believe praying for a point. It's tense and its probably going to get a little heated near the end. OK Rafa - so let's take Bellamy and Sissoko off ( the one guy who puts his boot in and the other guy the only one up front to cause them probalems all game ) On come bloody Crouch and Pennant. Crouch gets one 6 yards out and side foots a curling fart at the perfect height for Van De Bollocks. O'Shea gets one 6 yards out and smashes it in to the roof of the net. Tactical genius or what. We will never win the League with Benitez but it doesn't seem to matter to some people. "We've won considerably more than you" proclaimed one banner - not for much longer. If we reach the CL quarter finals there will be probably be two teams in the draw we cannot beat and another looking for revenge. Whatever happens on Tuesday we will be closer to Reading, Bolton and the Blue Shite on Wednesday morning. Not good enough senor. Yes we know "We controlled the game, the squad is playing with confidence - blah, blah, blah" No killer instinct up front - no league title. Voronin - 6 goals in 30 appearances - looks like the very man we need. 07/08 League Title only - nothing else will do. Enjoy Tuesday.
Substitution & Foolish tactics...Alonso???
As my dear friend is saying here..Did Rafa always make the right substitution?? I doubt that, he is not the kind of manager like Ferguson who make intelligent substition, WHY play Alonso always!!! He brings nothing great to the squad, how many match has liverpool dominated by possession yet they loss!!! So why keep playing Alonso who just pass the ball and does nothing else in the squad!!! HE does not even score any goal, just pass the ball and keep possesion, IS THAT THE RIGHT TACTIC?? How many teams does that?? NONE!!!!
By removing Sissoko, Gerrard was shifted to the defending role, meaning we have just one useless midfielder...Just think if Alonso was removed, Sissoko would have prevented the ManUres from reachin in front of the keeper and Gerrard would have got the chance to go forward dangerously for the other team!!
By Bringing useless crouch, he commited another Blunder, Crouch knows only to score against lowly teams, i've repeated that so many time!!
Lets go back to Istanbul..Had Kewell not been injured, Gerrard would have been playing defending midfield and we would have never win that match, its ONLY when Hammann Got in that place, that Gerrard was free to move forward..
And see for other teams, everytime its defenders of ManU or Arsenal who scores against Us, When will our defenders start scoring??? I don't mind but, we can't always blame the keeper, coz its irritating to see players missing chances upfront!!
strikers
i have said all along that our strikers are not good enough bell crouch even kuyt yes he works for the team but we want a striker who scores let the rest of the team work for robbie and even now he will score more than any of them my god if only we had owen back and fit rafa make sure the next striker you buy is a striker not a work horse torres is not ready for the prem its eto or owen genuine strikers and we need vincete and sabosa from benfica get rid of pennant and zenden we need to have wingers who can go past players and score in other words class players
our life
It's a roller coaster being a LFC supporter these days and nothing is ever assured. We are at the money end of the season with champions league qualification essential, will we do it I really couldn't say! But we do have a good core of players and with the right direction it should be a formality. This direction seems however to be all to sporadic and doesn't feel natural, if that makes any sense?
If Khuyt stays up front instead of dropping deep he scores more goals .. simple!! If Bellamy and Khuyt start more games together they get a better understanding and play better as a force.
Gonzalez is the latest player to fall foul of the Rafa/anfield curse i.e he can't reproduce the form and to be honest that has been the name of the game so far!!
But if you think Rafa will leave this summer you will be mistaken as he's filled the reserves with young Spaniards and got such a core of them that He's blatantly guaranteed his future interaction with the club.
I've been on this site for a few months now and what I've found is that our problems aren't just on the pitch they are off it as well and we as supporters have to be held accountable also. For too many years the powers that run this club have been able to get away with dodgy managerial appointments and general poor business decision making, and we as fans have backed them to the hilt! It's been going on for so long now that it's ingrained and everyone is wearing anfield coloured spectacles which keep repeating the glory years.
Truth is we are in trouble, as if we can't mount a decent tittle challenge 3 yrs into Rafa's reign and his excuse has been lack of funds ... he now has funds and is linked with Veronin ... well you do the maths. Because of the footy he has the team playing we will never attract those top quality players to anfield and so he must root around in the mix and match department in the hope he plucks a good'un!!
Welcome to LFC supporters life
maybey
i do not want rafa to leave yes we are loyal to our mangers we allways will be were liverpool give gonzales time he will come good i think you need to do your maths pal most players thease days come for money first bellamy will allways be only a average player and kyut is only a striker who will only score 10 12 goals aseason wheather he stays up front or not he is pleasing on the eye works hard he is no keegan iremember kevin he could score goals i think he just s lacks pace ayard short i do agree though next season rafa will be judged by everone and there is no moores to save him anymore and to be fair rafa knows this
fundamental
I would love to be proved wrong and we can sign eto ... villa ... ribery ... vincente etc !! But I don't think we'll get em some how as they don't seem to be cash driven like a player such as Beckham!
Crouch is blatantly not good enough but I feel with a run in the squad and the correct system Khuyt and Bellamy will do well!! It isn't just the strikers fault
Sinnima leaves LFC does well
Nandos leaves LFC does well
La tellec Leaves does well back in france
Cisse top scorer in France ... flops at Liverpool
Dirk Khuyt ... top player in Holland now he's being questioned !!
There is something fundamentally wrong with the way we are handling strikers and if an arm chair pundit can see this, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Europe's finest also can
are u sure
all the players u mention with the eexteption of morientos play in a league well below the prem that is why they shine they have found there level kuht played in holland there league is crap when is the the last time a dutch team won any think
Where do we need improvement?
Everyone is talking about new signings all the time, so where do we need them?
We dont need any central midfielders thats for sure, we have Gerrard, Alonso, Sissoko and now Mascherano. I personally reckon we need a proper left winger more than anything, Gonzalez is quick and gets up well for headers, but he does not often take people on. We also need something more on the right wing, Pennant gets crosses in but they dont always get to the right place. Gerrard is wasted on the right, as he is used to playing in the centre and he drifts back in to get involved .
We cant just keep buying strikers and putting the blame on them if we dont win, Next season we will have Kuyt, Bellamy, Voronin, Crouch and possibly Fowler, do you honestly think Benitez is going to go and buy another 1 or 2 strikers, bearing in mind that Cisse is still a Liverpool player also?
We also need to bolster the defence, a left back and another centre back, Agger seems to get caught out quite often, and it seems he only gets a game because he is faster than Hyypia, but Sami is a far better reader of the game, and better at clearing the danger, but age is not on his side.
Everyone talks about making new signings all the time, but, whats the point of changing the team every season, and never giving anyone a chance to work together?
We're not light years away from the title, just 2/3 signings in the right areas are what we need.
carra
as jamie carragher said:"better players,really". that is the divide between Liverpool and ManUtd. We have got a good side but when put against ManUtd. and arsenal we pale by comparison!
core
Well said Tony!! 2/3 signings and a system that gets the best out of all players and we'll mount a strong challenge as the core is there!
Our attack lacks creativity
I agree with many of the points made; it's clear that while we have many good players we lack enough top class players to win the league. Rafa has to stop looking at unknown players like Iaquinta at Udinese. He needs to spend all his budget on three top players because we have enough squad players at this stage.
As regards the strikers problems, I believe our attacking mentality is the problem. You could see Giggs, Rooney, Ronaldo and Scholes always playing nice one-touch attacking moves that can split a defence wide open at any moment in a match. Liverpool rely on more simplistic football to create chances; we lack technical creativity in the offensive third. Too often we play stupid direct balls on to Kuyts or Crouchs head hoping for a flick on. Even Luis Garcia adds a new dimension to our attack because he has creative touches rather than predictable touches. But we need a world class Luis Garcia type player and not the 2nd rate one we have; the likes of Kaka springs to mind. Yes, we won't get him but we need a player like him. Morientes thrives in Spain because Villa, Vicente, Baraja and Joaquin don't lump the ball up to his head for half the match.
Overall, it's obvious Benitez prefers more consistent work-man-like players to creative playmakers. Would Wenger or Fergie have bought Kuyt? This might end up being the reason Rafa won't win the league in England. We have a lot of workhorses but not enough real match winners over a full season to win the league. I'm not sure Rafa has the eye for the type of player we need.
And I'd prefer Hyppia to Agger to start against Barcelona at Anfield because I fear the young lad is going to make a big mistake soon; he was very lucky with the Saha penalty and looked very nervous to me in the Nou Camp.
hyppia
i love hyppia to bits he is a liverpool legend but time waits for no one agger needs to learn he has the speed hyppia now lacks as 4 reading the game agger will learn i hope hyppia stays we will allways need his experince but agger will be a class player as 4 morientes he came to england 2 late 2 slow and 2 old 2 change do what arsenal do get them young and train them its like cisse he had pace but lacked skill what our coatchers 4 to train players he still scored goals he just needed that final tuning
Vanishing Creativity..
yes mate indeed liverpool lacks creativity, but thats the problem when u have the most creative player injured and the only one remaining playing a defending role(Gerrard) if he is played alongside a Defendin player like Sissoko/Mascherano he is more free to move upfront or create more.. But Benitez don't understand that..
But i need to dissagree with u on one point, Agger is young, he has more hunger than Hyppia to move forward and try to score, thats what each player should be doing, occasionaly push forward and try to take their chance..Our strikers are crap, but what about other teams apart from Chelsea, its always midfielders or defender who opens the scoresheet for ManU or Assnal, so this means there is a lack of creativity and hunger in liverpool..
We don't need anymore workhorse like ALonso or Kuyt, we need players who wants to score and be famous...
Cisse, No way!
Cisse always done my head in. No fight in him, not a big game player and always sulking, he's worse than Anelka for that. Anelka by the way is a real footballer. I had the good fortune to see him play for LFC in a merseyside derby. Owen was up front with him that day and he was very ordinary compared to Anelka. He had great movement off the ball, worked hard and more importantly he scored. Our problem now is we have 3 strikers that only have one of these attributes each. Bellamy has plenty of fight, Kuyt works hard and Crouch, sometimes, works hard. In five league games against BIG teams they have managed ONE goal between them. 1Red1Pool is right about the lack of creativity. We need a player that the manager can just say, "Go out there and do what you do". I don't think Fergie has much control over Ronaldo, his only instruction seems to be, "Your startin' on the right, but you can go over to the left anytime you like". But despite this obvious lack of creativity we still had the chances to win, only for Bellamy's poor first touch and heavy passes, Kuyt playing too deep and Crouch once again amazing everyone with his strange style of football. How someone with his lack of knowledge of the game is an International footballer truly boggles the mind? I'm offering my services to LFC as a striker. I'll play for a third of Peter Crouch's paycheck and I'll miss just as many chances. Think of the money we'd save.
Anelka could be ideal
I know it's been said before many times, but the more I think about spending 20-25 million on a striker like Villa, Torres or Trezequet the more I fear they will flop and not adapt to the physical English league and rainy weather.
Crouch sold to Newcastle for 8 million would allow is to buy Anelka for 10 million. The lad knows the Premiership inside out, loved playing for Liverpool and knows what's expected and most importantly, seems to have matured with age and realised his past mistakes. If we signed Anelka this summer I would be very happy.
To think of the times when we had Owen, Anelka, Litmanen (and Heskey as the workhorse) puts into perspective our lack of class up front nowadays. Houllier had an excellent squad in 2001; he just wouldn't let them attack to their true potential.
I remember the game against Ipswich at Anfield at the end of the season when Owen and Anelka looked top notch together. What price thm both returning for 25 million? Proven Premiership goalscorers.
Strong Midfield
We have four centre midfielders at the club now that are good enough for the first team. With our current formation we are forced to move the best of these four, Steven Gerrard out to the right. We are clearly lacking consistancy on the wings, hence the need for the captain to fill in "the graveyard shift" as he likes to call it. We have played with 3 forwards on a couple of occations this season and, although it was against weaker teams, we did look very comfortable in winning those games. So how about a 4-3-3 line up, Gerrard and Alonso providing some class and Mascherano holding in the middle of the park. Sissoko to provide nice cover for either 3, I'd be reluctant to play Sissoko as I think his passing can be poor and he fails to get goal side of players when defending, he can be very clummsy in the challenge to. I think his developement has been severly hampered by his long term injuries last season and this season. Lets hope he learns fast cos he's a player with a lot of potential. Bellamy and Kuyt would be certain starters in the front three, with the third place going to Fowler or one of our redundant wingers.
4-3-3 would be my choice
It's clear Barce will come at us with all guns blazing and we need men sitting in front of Carra and Agger (or Hyppia) to prevent them being torn apart. Louis Saha proved when he came on that pace can hurt them one-on-one and Eto'o is way better than Saha.
Mascherano could sit in front of the centre backs with Sissoko and Alonso breaking up play ahead of him. He is a good tackler and intelligent passer so this game is ideal for him as we need to keep the ball. Gerrard given a free role behind Ballamy and Kuyt would allow him to exploit spaces Barce leave behind as they attack. Pushing him out the right never lets him play well in big games.
I fear Rafa will start with Gonzales again out the left or Zenden which would leave us a man down really.
4-3-3
I pray that he doesn't start zenden or gonzo!!!
No I think you got the tactics bang on with momo / mascherano /alonso all protecting the back four and stevie getting forward to link up with the strikers. I feel barca will be tight at the back this time round so perhaps Fowler could get a game as his clever movement would be an advantage! It would be Fowler and Bellamy upfront for me and we would have the right balance of defence and attack at home!!
yes
sounds good 2 me i think fowler should play with bell to feed him and have kuyt and crouch on the bench and gonzo come on you mighty reds
Ok ..instead of causing crap
Ok...instead of stirring up trouble here ..i decided to invade a certain manure site and post this ...i couldnt find away to download it and delete the crash bit so ..sorry if it offends anyone here..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXdqq9skLAg&mode=related&search=
love the part about nuking man utd and the part about the EC in our museum....havent seen this b4 ..thank god i saw it today.
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