The Liverpool discussion thread 2006/2007

Obispo wrote:Back to the right for the under-performing, would-be central midfielder. Clearly best suited to the role on the wing.

what are you thinking about 2moro nite obi.

gerrard on the right with a 4-4-2 or in the middle with 4-2-3-1. Im not counting your 3-4-1-2 because it has no chance of happening . Or could you not be bothered even speculating.

Ive got good feelings about this game which I really didn't expect to have about a month ago. looking forward to it

Not going to even bother speculating on various permuations of the line-up - there are too many. I can see cases for anyone of Arbeloa, Kuyt, Momo, Bellamy, Crouch, Gonzalez, Aurelio, Hyypia playing and equally good reasons why they shouldn't in most cases. Best not to second guess and thus not be disappointed when Rafa chooses a different line up.

I'm sticking to the 3-4-2-1. It'll work, honest.

YES!

Can Mascherano play against Barca? If he can...Gerrard on the right, Pennant dropped to the bench! Happy days.

I'd like to see Aurelio and Riise on our left flank, the later pushing into midfield. I wonder if Gonzalez will be given a chance tomorrow...

Well then they can't deduct us points then..they can't punish us for playing them and then let you play him...

oh well..good news

Calm kids, calm.

Yes, he can play against Barca but he has no match fitness and he's never played in this side before. Give him time. I think if we see anything positive from him before the end of the season then that's a good start but really, I've got one eye on next season with regards to Javi.

My hope this year is that Momo shows the ability with the ball at his feet that he did first half of the Newcastle game. Some of his passing was superb. He just needs to look up more before making silly 5 yard passes to the opposition.

Is Mascherano on loan till the end of the season?

or has he signed for Liverpool?

Rai Krol wrote:Is Mascherano on loan till the end of the season?

or has he signed for Liverpool?

no idea. all i have heard is an 18 month loan with an 18 million deal option at the end of it.

have no idea about the loan fee or the obligation to actually commit to this 18 million at the end of the 18 months.

£18million ? fuck that, we could buy 3 Sissoko's with that kind of dosh !

Let the Americans pay for it..

Football Genius wrote:£18million ? fuck that, we could buy 3 Sissoko's with that kind of dosh !

he has 18 months to prove he is worth it.

If he isn't then out he goes. perfect deal if it's true

I guess first we must see how much transfer funds the yanks are looking to give Rafa, i wouldn't want to see 18million paid for a central midfielder when we currently have much more pressing needs for positions, i.e a right winger, world class striker, right back and centre back. If Kewell goes at the end of the season then a left winger also.

If the opportunity costs us priority signings i won't be pleased.

Obispo wrote:Calm kids, calm.

Yes, he can play against Barca but he has no match fitness and he's never played in this side before. Give him time. I think if we see anything positive from him before the end of the season then that's a good start but really, I've got one eye on next season with regards to Javi.

My hope this year is that Momo shows the ability with the ball at his feet that he did first half of the Newcastle game. Some of his passing was superb. He just needs to look up more before making silly 5 yard passes to the opposition.

he's been training with us for 2 weeks now, wouldn't be suprised to see him feature at some point in this game, possibly even starting as part of a 3 man midfield. If ever there was a debut to remember it would be away to Barcelona!

Don't you still have to officially purchase Mascherano? I thought he was still on loan to you from (I assume) MSI?

Glenn Hysén wrote:

Obispo wrote:Calm kids, calm.

Yes, he can play against Barca but he has no match fitness and he's never played in this side before. Give him time. I think if we see anything positive from him before the end of the season then that's a good start but really, I've got one eye on next season with regards to Javi.

My hope this year is that Momo shows the ability with the ball at his feet that he did first half of the Newcastle game. Some of his passing was superb. He just needs to look up more before making silly 5 yard passes to the opposition.

he's been training with us for 2 weeks now, wouldn't be suprised to see him feature at some point in this game, possibly even starting as part of a 3 man midfield. If ever there was a debut to remember it would be away to Barcelona!

Aye, I can see him playing a part off the subs bench, but that's about it. I genuinely do think Arbeloa will get a game tomorrow though. He's not as out of match practice.


He's on loan until summer 2008 Kas. At which point we have the option to purchase - no idea how much for, I've seen everything from £6m to £18m. If he plays to his potential then he's certainly worth the latter.

Oh.

I was hoping he'd still be an option for us in the summer. Maybe we can show him what he's missing tomorrow.

it's probably the case of after 18 months we have first option at £18m, that's not to say if we want him he will cost us £18m, if anything it's weighted in our favour. If for some reason he's "worth" £30m at that time then we get him for £18m, if he's only "worth" £8m then we can still offer £8m.

I know nothing of Arbeloa, let's hope he good at football.

Good luck for tonight guys.

Benitez fines fifteen players
Soccernet

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez prepared for Wednesday night's Champions League clash with Barcelona by fining 15 of his players for their part in the squad's headline-grabbing, boozy end to their trip to Portugal last week.

Click here
The Liverpool manager is incensed that preparations for their tie with the European champions have been overshadowed by reports of drunken brawls and has already fined striker Craig Bellamy two weeks' wages for attacking John Arne Riise.

The Daily Mirror claims that another 14 players from the 22-man squad will also be hit in the pocket and The Sun reports that fines will total a club record £150,000 once all participants are dealt with.

Although Benitez won't identify those involved in the post karaoke shenanigans at the exclusive Monty's restaurant and bar in Vale Do Lobo Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek has spoken of the incident on his official website.

The Poland international confirmed he and others had felt the manager's wrath, but played down the exaggerated and 'unreal' stories published in the media.

'Most of the press printed strange, unreal stories concerning our going out for supper to the nearest restaurant, while we were in Portugal,' Dudek said.

'Among others, I have read, that I wanted to beat up the policeman, was handcuffed and detained by the police. Nothing of that kind happened.

'I admit that we behaved inappropriately for the situation. We have betrayed our coach's trust, because we returned to the hotel around several dozen minutes after the 'zero hour', as well as other hotel guests, because we disturbed their peace and night time.

'The next day we felt stupid. Our coach talked to us and punished those who deserved it the most. I was one of them.

'We have to draw a conclusion from this incident, so as to avoid such a situation in future.'

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What's Bellamy's wage (2 weeks)?
Just want to subtract that from 150.000 and divide the rest between the 14 players.
Just to have an idea how bad it all was, and how much the others are fined.

He said yesterday that he's fined "nowhere near as many as the papers were reporting". And the press reports have been proven to be bollocks. Carragher was mentioned in one of them but he wasn't even there last night because he was attending a funeral in Liverpool. Go figure.

true, carragher is on none of the pictures took whilst there, it's bull shit.

pretty hard to give an unbiased view of the raatings but here are mine within the context of the system employed


Reina- 9 - Would not trade this man for any other keeper in the world. He makes mistakes but his ability to snatch certain goals from strikers is priceless. amazing

Finnan- 9- barely gave ronny a sniff and also made himself available to go forward regularly. the best crosser at the club and another assist

carragher 9 - bailed us out on a number of occasions. YET ANOTHER stunning performance against a top side

agger- 7- didnt have much to do in all honesty as he was shielded well

arbeloa- 7- had a simple job marking the hapless messi. out of position so impressive enough but boy could you tell he doesnt like his left foot

gerrard- 7- totally at fault for the goal but I was highly impressed with his contribution after that. he passing was mostly shit but his determination and positioning was top rate and vital. also his through ball made the second goal

alonso- 7- not as great as some have been saying purely because he didnt have that many passing options but still comfortably better than anything barca could throw at him

sissoko- 8- his passing was abysmal but here the fcuk cares when you are such a monster all over the park. ref gave him a horrid time for many excellent tackles

riise 6- shite. wasted practically every opportunity he had going forward but somehow knocked that goal home. would have much preferred him at left back

kuyt- 6- tireless workrate as usual which was one of the reasons we were able to make barca look so poor but he missed two unforgiveable sitters. he really needs to step it up a gear

Belllamy 8- brillant movement and hold up play, a constant threat, a goal and a good assist. excellent


Rafa 9.5- he only doesn't get 10 for not going for the kill at the end. the third goal was there for the taking. masterclass in tactics against higher quality players

what so Reina was better than Sissoko?

Luis wrote:what so Reina was better than Sissoko?

Yes purely because sissoko misplaced practically every pass he had luis. it bugged the hell out of me in the first half.

in the second half he was a monster though.

reina saves us so many goals luis when most other keepers just stay in their boxes. he is so vital to the defence

COTR wrote:pretty hard to give an unbiased view of the raatings but here are mine within the context of the system employed


Reina- 9 - Would not trade this man for any other keeper in the world. He makes mistakes but his ability to snatch certain goals from strikers is priceless. amazing

Finnan- 9- barely gave ronny a sniff and also made himself available to go forward regularly. the best crosser at the club and another assist

carragher 9 - bailed us out on a number of occasions. YET ANOTHER stunning performance against a top side

agger- 7- didnt have much to do in all honesty as he was shielded well

arbeloa- 7- had a simple job marking the hapless messi. out of position so impressive enough but boy could you tell he doesnt like his left foot

gerrard- 7- totally at fault for the goal but I was highly impressed with his contribution after that. he passing was mostly shit but his determination and positioning was top rate and vital. also his through ball made the second goal

alonso- 7- not as great as some have been saying purely because he didnt have that many passing options but still comfortably better than anything barca could throw at him

sissoko- 7- his passing was abysmal but here the fcuk cares when you are such a monster all over the park. ref gave him a horrid time for many excellent tackles

riise 6- shite. wasted practically every opportunity he had going forward but somehow knocked that goal home. would have much preferred him at left back

kuyt- 6- tireless workrate as usual which was one of the reasons we were able to make barca look so poor but he missed two unforgiveable sitters. he really needs to step it up a gear

Belllamy 8- brillant movement and hold up play, a constant threat, a goal and a good assist. excellent


Rafa 9.5- he only doesn't get 10 for not going for the kill at the end. the third goal was there for the taking. masterclass in tactics against higher quality players

Agree with almost all of that, Reina flapped at a few crosses, and was beat a couple, would give him a 7, and Finnan an 8 having Gerrard who is prepared to track back when/if neccessary will have helped in making Finnans evening a bit easier, although it was by far not close to his best performance he was still in my opinion our key player in this fixture, Sissoko his constant energy and pressure put on their midfield and attackers made their job a hell of a lot harder and due to this broke up what usually is fluid passing for Barcelona.

Good result, shall be interested to see what Benitez pulls out the hat for the return leg at home, one goal could really kill the tie for us if we defend as well as we did tonight for the most part.

Congrats guys, thoroughly deserved the win.

IMO, Sissoko motm. Awesome debut by Arbeloa, he had Messi in his pocket all game.

La Saeta Rubia wrote:Congrats guys, thoroughly deserved the win.

IMO, Sissoko motm. Awesome debut by Arbeloa, he had Messi in his pocket all game.

what's the reaction from spain LSR (if you live there )

Let's go out in the first 20-30 minutes at Anfield like we did against Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea and just blow them away in the first quater of the game. If we can get one goal in that time, that gives them a mountainous task. If we can get two, that's curtains.

We've got to remain cautious but another goal really could end this. No team has scored more than once past Reina at Anfield this season.

I don't think your players deserved such high ratings. If Saviola had scored with either of his 2/3 one on one chances, none of your defence would be getting scores that high.

Sorry to sound like a sore loser, but I feel we lost that rather than you winning it. And I'm not a Wenger-type who never gives the other team credit.

Obispo wrote:We've got to remain cautious but another goal really could end this. No team has scored more than once past Reina at Anfield this season.

Keep him wrapped up in cotton wool until the game then.

Dudek's record this season hasn't been the best.

COTR wrote:

La Saeta Rubia wrote:Congrats guys, thoroughly deserved the win.

IMO, Sissoko motm. Awesome debut by Arbeloa, he had Messi in his pocket all game.

what's the reaction from spain LSR (if you live there )

I watched it on canal plus and the commentator is an ex liverpool player (Michael Robinson) he was trying to contain himself but you could tell he was ecstatic. He obviously didn't expect Liverpool to win but he says that with a team like Barça anythings possible and to not let "our" guard down in the return leg.
People are in shock i think, they didn't expect Barça to lose at home, some people saying Rijkaard put out a poor team seeing as Iniesta should have started, Oleguer should have played for Belletti and Gudjohnson should have come on earlier. And of course the inevitable question, Why didn't Etoo play ?!?

So far 67% of Barça fans they will go out after tonights result