Liverpool assess Gerrard fitness

[BBC Sport]

Liverpool are assessing the fitness of captain Steven Gerrard after he was impeded by injury during the Champions League defeat by Chelsea.

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[ajw]

Impeded by injury, or by being in Essien's pocket all game?

If he is actually injured that will be a huge blow, obviously.

 

[Khanvicted]

rafa's just looking for an excuse to rest him so he can play dossena, arbeloa and aurelio in the same side again.

In Rafa we trust!

 

[Lee]

Better than playing Neville at CB. Check-mate?

I also don't see what's wrong with playing those three in the same side either. The two left sided can play either as LB or ML and then Arebeloa plays RB.

 

[Khanvicted]

Better than playing Neville at CB. Check-mate?

I also don't see what's wrong with playing those three in the same side either. The two left sided can play either as LB or ML and then Arebeloa plays RB.

Gary Neville is a legend. Best English RB ever. Just because he is playing like Djimi Traore in his old age does not mean we should forget his massive contribution to the game. Especially that celebration infront of all those kopites a couple of seasons ago!

Nothing wrong with playing 3 full backs mate, especially if your Rafa Benitez.

 

[Zebedee]

Or Aurelio can move into midfield, pushing Lucas further forward which is where he plays best.

Genuine injury/niggle with his groin. He's been doubtful for a past three Liverpool games but has played. Just hoping it's not going to be a season-ending injury.

Essien is still class though

edit: Liverpool train to play three formations as basic. 4-2-3-1, 4-1-3-2 and 3-5-2. Aurelio played central midfield at Valencia btw.

 

[Khanvicted]

In my opinion Lucas plays best on the bench.
I know Aurelio can play several positions, as can drossena etc. i mean John O'shea can play right wing, but he is a full back. As are your two.

Like I said, In Rafa I trust...

Essien, What a quality player, what a ***** man.

"Since I was a boy, my dream was always to play for manchester"...

*Russian Godfather pulls out cheque book*

"My dream is to play for chelshee"

 

[Zebedee]

Well he's progressed better than players who cost twice as much as him, and Lucas has contributed to our 3 best league away performances. Obviously coincidence

Aurelio is class on the ball. He can play centre-mid quite easily. Only problem is that he's made of glass. Which is a bit of problem when he has to make tackles repeatedly.

Essien is typical of many of the modern footballers sadly. Just the way it is.

 

[Khanvicted]

five of your best away league performances. Don't forget the massive contribution he made against Wigan, lol, and the Boro.

 

[Zebedee]

five of your best away league performances. Don't forget the massive contribution he made against Wigan, lol, and the Boro.

He played well against Boro. In fact, that was a match we dominated but failed to score in and then got done on the break.

Against Wigan, his performance was perfectly fine. He stuck out a leg and the Wigan player went over it. Such is football. He won't be the first player to have a decent match and then get villified by numpties from the sticks for giving away a penalty.

Nani's having a cracking season, isn't he? And Anderson has been a dominant figure in central midfield... 36 million the pair. A bargain Do you think they'll scale the heights which Kleberson, Djemba Djemba and Veron reached?

 

[Khanvicted]

Nani and Anderson. £36m for the pair? Are you sure, just because the press says it so don't make it so. Fergie said he paid a lot less.

Now Anderson has been injured for most of the season, how old is he again? Truthfully who would you rather Anderson or Lucas? He will come good, not only come good but become one of the best mids in the world. Will Lucas?

Nani, now he's another kettle of fish. I personally can't stand the guy but again he is young and extremely talented. Im going to go on the common belief that he is just adjusting as Ronaldo did, to the English game and lifestyle. He has scored quite a few goals (made your defence look like a bunch of lost gimps at OT last year for the 3rd goal), but ballooned a whole lot more. Also maybe if the lad played a bit more he would improve faster.

again I ask would you rather Nani for £17m (approx) or Riera, Pennant, Yossi (hes decent but never going to be a world beater) for the same price as a young, very gifted, potentially world class player like Nani?

Youv had your fair share of ***** in your squad, but to be frank Rafa has made nearly as many transfer (or more) mistakes as Fergie has in 20 years at the top. Fat Rafa has made em in 5. Well done manuel.

 

[Lee]

Is it me Zebedee or are a lot of the Man Utd fans on this forum really that ignorant.

Now Anderson has been injured for most of the season, how old is he again? Truthfully who would you rather Anderson or Lucas? He will come good, not only come good but become one of the best mids in the world. Will Lucas?

again I ask would you rather Nani for £17m (approx) or Riera, Pennant, Yossi (hes decent but never going to be a world beater) for the same price as a young, very gifted, potentially world class player like Nani?

Youv had your fair share of ***** in your squad, but to be frank Rafa has made nearly as many transfer (or more) mistakes as Fergie has in 20 years at the top. Fat Rafa has made em in 5. Well done manuel.

Anderson will be world class and Lucas won't? I think Man Utd should hire you as a scout or something, how are you so sure? Oh and I'd also prefer Lucas in my team, he's got good vision, nice range of passes, and rarely wastes possession. Anderson is only 20, just 2 years younger than Lucas so Lucas is obviously past it.

On how they've played I would have to go with Riera (and Yossi because he's brilliant) instead of Nani as well. His performances haven't been amazing lately but he's playing well.

I'm not even going to go into the details of Rafa's transfer record I've already been over it once or twice in depth in a few posts before. But basicly Rafa has a good record with transfers.

 

[Khanvicted]

Is it me Zebedee or are a lot of the Man Utd fans on this forum really that ignorant.



Anderson will be world class and Lucas won't? I think Man Utd should hire you as a scout or something, how are you so sure? Oh and I'd also prefer Lucas in my team, he's got good vision, nice range of passes, and rarely wastes possession. Anderson is only 20, just 2 years younger than Lucas so Lucas is obviously past it.



On how they've played I would have to go with Riera (and Yossi because he's brilliant) instead of Nani as well. His performances haven't been amazing lately but he's playing well.



I'm not even going to go into the details of Rafa's transfer record I've already been over it once or twice in depth in a few posts before. But basicly Rafa has a good record with transfers.

When did I say Lucas was past it? You would prefer Lucas maybe but I am pretty certain the majority of people, pundits and the like would not.

Yossi is brilliant at the moment because he scores you some important goals but when the chips are down and it wont be going so well, half of Anfield and the Kopite fraternity will be back on his case. Like I said, he is a decent player but never quality/World Class. Does Nani have the potential to be a world beater, yes he does.

Rafa may have a decent transfer record, I am not going to argue that, but does Fergie have a poor one as subtly suggested by Zebidee?? Has he made loads of more mistakes in 20 years then Rafa has in 6?

Mate its not ignorance its an opinion. An opinion shared by many others, including non mancs. When are a manc and a kopite ever going to agree on anything to do with their teams?

 

[Lee]

Yeah, the same pundits and fans who don't see any of the good Lucas does and just see the bad. I remember looking at the BBC Player rater after a few Liverpool matches where Lucas was one of the better players and he was always the lowest rated by a long shot.

Like I said before about Anderson, how do you know Nani will be world class?

I'm still not going into detail on the transfers either but you're not taking anything into context with your wild claims.

Sure, it's an opinion that sounds as though it's based on what the MotD pundits spout.

 

[Khanvicted]

Yeah, the same pundits and fans who don't see any of the good Lucas does and just see the bad. I remember looking at the BBC Player rater after a few Liverpool matches where Lucas was one of the better players and he was always the lowest rated by a long shot.

Like I said before about Anderson, how do you know Nani will be world class?

I'm still not going into detail on the transfers either but you're not taking anything into context with your wild claims.

Sure, it's an opinion that sounds as though it's based on what the MotD pundits spout.

I never said Nani was going to be world class, I said he has the potential to be world class. Something none of your wingers have. Anderson will be class, I have no doubt. Its my opinion which is shared by loads of people in a better position to make the judgment. (Dunga, Queiroz, Fergie, Mourinho, Tim Vickery, lol)....My opinion and the opinion of others too namely ex coaches, team mates, south american experts etc.

The BBC player thingy is a load of *****, its based on things that we cant see obviously, lol.

Nothing wild about my claim. Zebidee had a laugh by mentioning the likes of Veron, Djemba etc, so I just wanted to make sure he knew Rafa has had his fair share. (Keane, Pennant, Morientes etc). Whats wild about that?

When I said "Pundits" why assume it were the ones from MOTD? Not all the pundits, so called experts are on the telly. The ones on MOTD are all ex Liverpool so if they are calling Lucas ***** they may just be right..

I personally prefer Radio and print to the telly.

 

[Zebedee]

Is it me Zebedee or are a lot of the Man Utd fans on this forum really that ignorant.

To be fair, there's a lot of fans from all clubs who obviously watch football through a Sky Sports filter.

Lucas is very, very talented. He's our fourth choice central midfielder, a Brazillian international and a winner of the most prestigious award in Brazil for young players. He's been over here for less than 2 years (compare that to Diego and Robinho...) and has done fairly well. A lot more to come and I'd like to see him play further forward, rather than having to cover for Mash but then Gerrard's free role means more discipline for the holding pair and Alonso's game has never been about the level of mobility needed to do the Mash role.

It is amusing to hear about 'Benitez' bungles' on the transfer market. Let's clarify one thing - Liverpool get the CL profit to spend every summer. That's it - about 20 million quid. Rafa's wheeler dealed his way to getting players who have got us pushing for the title. I'm trying to recall a major transfer flop where Liverpool had to take a big loss (Keane? 2 million quid loss tops apparantly, and also not Benitez' choice to spend that much on him! Pennant at 6.7 million is probably the worst in honesty. Moreinetes not so hot. But the combined loss on them is still less than the hit Taggart took on Veron after only a couple of months before calling the press 'idiots' for doubting his superb signing). Liverpool's net transfer spend under Rafa is around 80 million quid. So for the price of four or five Nanis you get a squad (an entire squad!) which is capable of pushing for the league as well as having teams which have consistently performed well in the CL in the meantime. Terrible isn't it?!

Taggart's transfer record isn't stellar. He's had a lot of money to spend - has done ever since the Mancs went PLC. That was the purpose of doing it - finances to expand Old Trafford = more revenue from ticket sales to fund player acquisitions. I think Taggart's net spend since taking over at the Mancs was hovering at 160 million quid prior to this season starting (although that takes no account of inflation - I mean Taggart has broken several British transfer records and even 33 million for Rio would now be more like 40 million if it were to have taken place just a couple of years ago).

On top of that, Liverpool's wage bill is 15 million a year less than the Mancs', 12 million less than Arsenal's and 55 million less than Chelsea's! Liverpool pay 77 million a season (last disclosed accounts). Vidic love Manchester long time - the size of the pay deal being greatly higher than the one Liverpool offered him had nothing to do with it Torres on the other hand took a pay cut to move to us, after refusing Taggart and a fat contract twice.

The prices for Nani and Anderson are on the conservative side mate. It's not all money up front though - which is why Taggart can say he hasn't spent it yet. But he might end up spending even more as there'll be add-ons no doubt based on how their careers progress. Or maybe not if they stall as spectacularly as they have done this season

Anyways, Lucas. Good player, adjusting well and hopefully will continue to progress.

 

[ajw]

Tbh I can't judge Lucas, I don't watch Liverpool's games enough but I'm still liable to say Anderson is better, because like you've seen what Lucas can do, I've seen what Anderson can do. And I love him . Though i think he should play with a bit more freedom for us. And I'll let Nani have this bad season and then see how he does next year.

Not gona get into most of these debates, though I'd like to think I'm not an ignorant Utd fan...even if I do detest Liverpool Football Club.

Back onto topic....Gerrard is out for Sat, likely to miss the Chelsea game and will be very unlikely to make two games a week from now until the end of the season. Bad news for Liverpool, very good news for us .

 

[samleggott]

ive got a few liverpool fans as friends, every single one hates lucas and moan when he comes on or plays. and they watch every liverpool game so i usually take their opinions. and every time ive seen him hes been nothing short of awful

anderson usually looks orite but his lack of goals isnt brilliant but nani has often impressed me

 

[Khanvicted]

All this talk about the money. If Rafa had it he would spend it like a drunken sailor in a brothel. He is no Arsene Wenger.

When Liverpool won things in the 70's and 80's they purchased most of their squad and paid them the best wages at the time, its how football works.

United made ALL their own money, its not like we stole it from a granny. Yes Fergie has had some stinkers. But he has also developed players for nothing and sold them on for massive 100% profits. Beckham, Neville, **** etc. We got rid of the likes of Kanchelskis, Ince, Stam, Heinze all for a profit. Bargains like Cantona, Ronaldo, Ole, Vidic, Evra, Schmeichel also spring to mind. It all adds up, Fergie MADE that club into the financial powerhouse it is. He even purchased a double winning squad in the premiership for the same price (or less) as Robbie Keane.

Just because the Americans youv got are bankrupt crooks, don't mean you can go all high and mighty on the money side. If you did a city and the Dubai lot took over and started banging out £60m on Villa and co, you would love it and defend it with the same argument. If you have the money, why not spend it.

This debate can go on for ever so I will leave it alone after this. Lucas is a decent player, I hope Gerrard is out for the rest of the season with a broke toe.