Liverpool vs Trabzonspor ITV1 19:45 19/08/10

[19-11-08]

That 1-0 could so easily have been 3-0, Torres should have taken the pen and there was no foul on the keeper, should have been a red card for simulation.

Torres looked a beast today and was great to see Lucas running midfield, finally starting to look like the player Rafa paid £10m for. Poulsen was pretty poor today, certainly couldn't be compare to Masc but once fully fit I'm sure he'll be perfect cover. Kelly played a solid game and actually managed to get higher up the field later on in the game, however having such defensive forwards is a terrible idea for Liverpool.

All in all we were unlucky to only have finished 1 goal ahead but this Turkish side have very little quality and it would take a miracle for them to reach the next stage...

Simulation is not a red card offence.oO)

 

[Aannddyy]

Simulation is not a red card offence.oO)

Lol, very good point, okay - the goalkeeper should have been booked for simulation (K)

 

[gokhancalis]

I think that (Poulsen's goal) was an offside but not so sure.

 

[The Rossoneri Glover]

I dunno why everyone was either underestimating Trabzonspor or overestimating Liverpool. All these 3, 4 goal winning margins. I didnt see the game but I would have gone for a 1-0 win for Liverpool maybe 2-0 at a stretch. Certainly not 3 or 4-0.

 

[Ride The Walrus]

Poor Poulsen getting cheated out of a goal. Trabzonspor had allot of the play, but not that cutting edge

 

[Billy]

Awful, awful football.

At least our game against Young Boys was entertaining.

 

[Humanded]

After our chances and our bad penalty and disallowed goal we sorta lost all will to fight harder. Torres was awesome tonight and after coming back from injury is brilliant because it means he's fresh and ready for the premiership. 2nd or 3rd here we come

 

[Nixon]

Poor Poulsen getting cheated out of a goal. Trabzonspor had allot of the play, but not that cutting edge

It was a bit of a shocker from the ref there. Luckily for him Poulsen was actually offside so it shouldn't have counted anyway.

 

[Ride The Walrus]

Poulsen didn't particulary play well, too many way-ward passes Tackle-wise he done well

 

[Zebedee]

Much better second half. But then again it almost exposed the big weakness at the heart of our defence when we do push on that extra 10 yards and start dominating games.

Ho-hum. Bit unlucky not to be going there with a two goal cushion. Good to see that we haven't totally forgotten how to play football.

Also: the Serb is going to become a cult hero. Brilliant attitude. When he clicks with Torres there's going to be some fun down the left.

 

[Mike.]

Much better second half. But then again it almost exposed the big weakness at the heart of our defence when we do push on that extra 10 yards and start dominating games.

Ho-hum. Bit unlucky not to be going there with a two goal cushion. Good to see that we haven't totally forgotten how to play football.

Also: the Serb is going to become a cult hero. Brilliant attitude. When he clicks with Torres there's going to be some fun down the left.

there were orginally fears that he was going to be sidelined because of cole's arrival. earlys days but hes easily the better player so far, been really impressed with him. he's like kuyt, but with more guile about him

 

[Darth South]

Well, mates, as a Turkish I will now give you the hints to beat them:

1-If you aer evil, and will do everything to get past Trabzon, Injure their goalkeeper, he probably is going to be the best Turkish one.
2-Make them lose their faith, they are probably the most determined team in Turkish Super League
3-Pass to feet, tire them, use their technical disadvantage
3-Defend hard, don't play attractive football(I know passing is attractive buti don't do it in an artistic way!)
4-Close your ears, cause there is going to be a lot of noise, in Trabzon Hüseyin Avni Aker.
5-And close your ears while sleeping as well, because players probably won't be able to sleep that night, a lot of drums they'll hear...
6-Liverpool board must fire Sammy Lee, and take me as their assistant manager

 

[NUFC_Tony]

I think Poulsen had a game few moves, he did dictate the midfield aswell.

Poor game of football really, you could tell Liverpool were missing Gerrard and Masherano.

 

[Lee]

Poor game of football really, you could tell Liverpool were missing Gerrard and Masherano.

But we played just as poorly against Arsenal. How do you explain that one?

 

[NUFC_Tony]

Yeah you did play poorly against Arsenal, but you weren't as poor as you were last night.

I don't think one team had the ball for a minute before losing it. Terrible match.

 

[Zebedee]

We're doing a tribute to our Champion's League winning manager Houllier in the first half of matches and then offering up a tribute to Rafa in the second. There's a curious form of Karma in that.

Much as you Geordies did a tribute to Shearer at Old Trafford the other night (Here's hoping the rest of your season is doing a tribute to Bobby Robson - genuinely mean that. Geordies in the top flight is a good thing - we Scousers can't handle the pressure of being the only drama queens ).

 

[sunilvk7]

we Scousers can't handle the pressure of being the only drama queens

Lol..

 

[*Paul*]

We're doing a tribute to our Champion's League winning manager Houllier in the first half of matches and then offering up a tribute to Rafa in the second. There's a curious form of Karma in that.

Much as you Geordies did a tribute to Shearer at Old Trafford the other night (Here's hoping the rest of your season is doing a tribute to Bobby Robson - genuinely mean that. Geordies in the top flight is a good thing - we Scousers can't handle the pressure of being the only drama queens ).

Houllier didn't win the Champions League, Benítez did, Houllier won the treble in 2001. That included the UEFA Cup, but not the Champions League .

 

[Zebedee]

Houllier didn't win the Champions League, Benítez did, Houllier won the treble in 2001. That included the UEFA Cup, but not the Champions League .

It was a joke mate - Ged's still adamant that he won the Champions' League. Comes out with it every year, and you'll hear the press repeat it every now and again. Rafa had nothing to do with 2005. Nothing at all. Honest....

Mind you, Momo left for Juve convinced he had too. Maybe it's something in the water round our way?

---------

This was a good analysis of how we've been playing under Mr.Hodgson in the first halves of matches (lad's called Al555 from RAWK):

The way we set up under Roy has a lot to do with it, we are playing a 4-2-2-1-1 system. It covers up Carra's lack of pace and allows us to play a very deep line and keep the various parts of the team in contact with each other.

The problem is that is only accomplished by the two inverted wingers being incredibly narrow, last night Jovanovic and Maxi were not playing alongside the two holding midfield players they were playing directly in front of them. Whilst it makes it virtually impossible for the opposition to come through the middle and get at your Centre backs it also makes it very easy for the opposition to keep the ball.

There is no pressure or pressing in the wide areas and you just give the opposition carte blanche to play triangles and retain possession with ease. You virtually allow them into the final third every time they win possession. You give the opposition no space behind your back four and no way of running at the centre backs. Your full backs show their wide men the outside and inevitably the ball comes back deeper and your opponents get to play balls into your box.

That is exactly what happened against Arsenal where there was no pressure on the ball that came in for the equaliser and the same thing happened last night when Trabonzsor beat our offside trap with ease for the chance that somehow went over the bar.

The main problem for me though is that it is virtually impossible for you to retain possession without any width. The number of times the two holding players Lucas and Poulson had to try and find eye of the needle straight balls to Jovanovic, Cole and Maxi was ridiculous.

One incident summed it up for me in the first half Poulson played a straight 20 yard pass to Jovanovic that was intercepted, luckily it came straight back to him he looked up and the only pass that was on was the same pass with Jovanovic and Cole five yards apart in the centre circle.

If you are going to play with inverted wingers then your two full backs simply have to play as wing backs and create the width. Apart from Johnson we have no one who can fulfill that role now that Insua is being shown the door. Even if you do pick two wing backs all the opposition has to do is play a three like Trabonzsor did and pin your full backs back in their own half and you end up with a crippled attacking formation. I think we will have to get used to even average sides coming to Anfield and being able to dominate possession.

The biggest worry for me is that Roy shows absolutely no tactical flexibility at all, he picks a system at the start of the season and everything goes into drilling the side to play in that one formation whether it is working or not. A perfect example of this is Fulham's absolutely abysmal away form under Roy, instead of changing things and trying to improve the away form Roy didn't he just continued to drill the side to play in exactly the same way, with not surprisingly exactly the same results.

Hopefully when Roy's methods have been drummed and drilled into the players things will improve slightly, that is all it will be though we will become a slightly better hard to beat narrow side that relies on counter attacking through the middle, not the wide expansive passing side that I for one crave.

We'll see. I hope he's wrong about this not changing. I mean the second half last night was an improvement for 15 - 20 minutes.