The 3rd goal

[tomasjj]

I take your points but I think it's hardly surprising that Dudek might have been expecting a curling shot into the corner. Maybe Reina would have saved it. As someone else said on this thread or elsewhere, we'll never know.

I agree, let's move on. Hope Dudek plays tomorrow. How about you?

Oh, I hope Dudek plays.
Not sure if it was wise to give him a free pass to our FA cup and League cup games nevertheless.

[kurtangle01]

Oh, I hope Dudek plays.
Not sure if it was wise to give him a free pass to our FA cup and League cup games nevertheless.

What if we get to the Final of the CC surely we should play our best possible 11 meaning that Jerzy would be back on the bench?

[tomasjj]

What if we get to the Final of the CC surely we should play our best possible 11 meaning that Jerzy would be back on the bench?

Now that is an interesting question. Do you think Rafa would go back on his promise then?
Dudek has done it before in a final you know.

[kurtangle01]

Now that is an interesting question. Do you think Rafa would go back on his promise then?
Dudek has done it before in a final you know.

I think that it'd be unfair to Pepe to miss out on a cup final place but if Rafa has guaranteed Jerzy a starting place could he really go back on his word? Pepe is No.1 and I must admit to being slightly shocked when I saw that he was left out on Saturday. However Jerzy is a top bloke and has served us well in the past and he at least deserves te respect that Rafa is currently showing him.

[enema of the state]

I'd really like to know why anyone thinks that any goalkeeper should be blamed for failing to save a shot from possibly the best striker in the world when he's about nine yards out from goal, on his favoured foot and with a yard of space courtesy of poor defending from a centre-back who was dumped in it by the far worse defending of his CB partner.

it doesnt matter whos shot it was or how the situation came about, it was a feeble shot that was close enough to the keeper to be saved every time. if a pub keeper let that shot in hed be paying for it in ale

stop making excuses for the dude and his selection. they were the factors that cost us thaty game.

the point is that the lessons have to be acknowledged and learned before its time to "move on"

[breffniboy]

First point - Carra weighed it up and took a percentage risk to keep the ball alive and keep the pressure on Arsenal and it just failed to come off, narrowly. But this guy has one helluva alot of brownie points saved up from previous imperious perfromances for us all to be getting on his back after one error in a blue moon.

The real villain of the piece was Dudek. All three goals were eminently saveable IMO but we'll never know.

On the inferior/superior debate, I saw nothing in this game to change my mind on the theme of the first ever post I published on here a while ago: Liverpool are 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration, and that 10% is generally embodied in Stevie Gerrard alone. Man Poo, Arse and even the Chavs have a massive edge on us in terms of attacking sophistication and creativity especially in the final third, and have better finishers than us when they get the ball up to there as well.
Generally, we play quite mechanically and scientifically under Benitez with more recourse to systematics than verve, spontaneity and outright creativity; there's always the nagging feeling that once we go a goal down in any game, it's game over. The contrast in our stats for winning games when we score first, versus those for failing to win when we concede first, fully back this up.

Look at the amount of huffing and puffing we had to do on Saturday just to score one scruffy enough goal after all the pressure we put on. That can't be right. We eke out goals rather than score them I feel and although Benitez moved to address this with his summer signings, we're simp,y not getting enough value from the likes of Pennant, Gonzalez down the flanks to open up the opposition - so instead we play our "pass it up, then trap it, turn and pass back" type of football. Ho-hum.