Post match wash-up - COME ON!!!!

[Kaip]

'cos he understand footie better than you????????????????

One to many question marks there cuntie :whatever:

[tomasjj]

why The **** His He Taking Bellamy Off Instead Of Kuyt And Replacing Him With Pennant

I Was also wondering why he did that....Kuyt was knackered, but he might play better as a single striker.
In a 451 it doesnt really matter if Kuyt is knackered, as we cannot press effectively with just one striker.
So Kuyt held his position and chased our punts upfield instead of pressing alone.

[Laddsy]

Best to let it go now mick

I agree He has probably been on the beers all night so its best to forgive and forget

[Shaggy]

I think it's pretty simple.

I don't think Rafa is willing to sacrifice Kuyt's frankly incredible work-rate. So, while he may not look like scoring in a million years, he has to stay on. It's not as if Bellamy is much more of a goal threat. Bellamy works hard but nothing like Kuyt.

[mick the click]

Best to let it go now mick

If you say so...but I will exercise my right to answer accusations that I have a 'hidden agenda'

Funny finale for a good night...

[Slim]

I think it's pretty simple.

I don't think Rafa is willing to sacrifice Kuyt's frankly incredible work-rate. So, while he may not look like scoring in a million years, he has to stay on. It's not as if Bellamy is much more of a goal threat. Bellamy works hard but nothing like Kuyt.

Spot on Shaggy lad. And we won, so ultimately it was the correct decision.

[blacky]

Rafa is predominatly a defensive minded coach so Kuyts workrate and defending from the frontline will always trump bellamy's pace!!The same goes for Momo who is rarely substituted

[Sir Bob]

We all know Kuyt works hard but lets face facts thats not enough. He's our no.1 striker but is not a constant goal threat, in fact in many games, he's not a threat at all. Would he get in any of the other top 3 English teams, no. Would Barca or Madrid play him, not a chance. Ditto the top Italian sides. I love his work ethic and he seems a really decent bloke but sadly I've just notseen anything to suggest he's quite good enough at the very highest level.

[Shaggy]

We all know Kuyt works hard but lets face facts thats not enough. He's our no.1 striker but is not a constant goal threat, in fact in many games, he's not a threat at all. Would he get in any of the other top 3 English teams, no. Would Barca or Madrid play him, not a chance. Ditto the top Italian sides. I love his work ethic and he seems a really decent bloke but sadly I've just notseen anything to suggest he's quite good enough at the very highest level.

I agree.

Still, I'm not going to lament his lack of goal threat on a night like tonight. He was incredible - a Rush-esque display of defending from the front.

As I said in another thread; long-term, running around loads isn't enough, but tonight isn't the night for that particular debate.

[EST_1892]

I think it's pretty simple.

I don't think Rafa is willing to sacrifice Kuyt's frankly incredible work-rate. So, while he may not look like scoring in a million years, he has to stay on. It's not as if Bellamy is much more of a goal threat. Bellamy works hard but nothing like Kuyt.

Which also makes me wonder if Rafa belives in the type of strikers who can do fook all for 89 mins but score you a winner at the death?

The stats on Sky Sports today that we have not scored a winner after 80mins didn't surprise me. The fact that Manure were near the top of that very same table did not surprise me.

Seems to me Rafa doesn't do Lazy. Kuyt was immense tonight. Yes, he didn't do a strikers job and score. But he kept the barca defenders so busy with his running that they didn't attack much either.

He did 6 of one job, and half a dozen of the other.

[blacky]

Don't forget lads it's Kuyts first season......let's reserve final judgements until next year eh?

[tomasjj]

Which also makes me wonder if Rafa belives in the type of strikers who can do fook all for 89 mins but score you a winner at the death?

The stats on Sky Sports today that we have not scored a winner after 80mins didn't surprise me. The fact that Manure were near the top of that very same table did not surprise me.

Seems to me Rafa doesn't do Lazy. Kuyt was immense tonight. Yes, he didn't do a strikers job and score. But he kept the barca defenders so busy with his running that they didn't attack much either.

He did 6 of one job, and half a dozen of the other.

It is harder to finish when your legs are all gone after all the running as well....

[Shaggy]

It is harder to finish when your legs are all gone after all the running as well....

Tis true.

I see our inevitable "retreat" took place tonight!

We dropped deeper and deeper - it was only a matter of time as it's the most natural reaction, but we defended admirably so thankfully it didn't matter.

[mick the click]

Seems to me Rafa doesn't do Lazy. Kuyt was immense tonight. Yes, he didn't do a strikers job and score. But he kept the barca defenders so busy with his running that they didn't attack much either.

He did 6 of one job, and half a dozen of the other.

Yep! Agree with that. LFC don't do lazy (can you imagine us ever buying a Linaker, for example...) Pass, move and run for the ball. Kuyt has all that and showed some great control tonight.


...all we've got to do is teach Momo to pass...properly

[RedProf]

Phew!

Did anyone really think we'd have an easy night?? Come on we always do it the hard way. Last 20 minutes of ****ting bricks time.

Anyone else like me just get the feeling after 30 mins that we weren't gonna win this game (at Anfield)? I hate games like that where you batter them and every shot/header etc hits the bar/post/keepers cock, anything to stop it going in. Coz you just know you're gonna have to endure some agony later on.

Great great result - **** off Merson you c*nt by the way.

Would rather have seen Bellamy stay on to run the channels.

Fantastic pressing game from our lads, bags of energy, really harrassed and bit their ankles. Think we faded in the 2nd half due to the amount of energy we'd spent harrassing them.

Crouchy - you should have buried that last minute chance. In fact, Kuyt, Bellamy etc should have buried their chances respectively. Hmmm would a Torres or Villa have converted them?

Carra/Agger - look like being a great new unit at the back there (though I still think Agger needs to get a bit more physical for some of the rougher Prem games). Really developing a better understanding of each others games with each match.

Finnan - take a bow lad, solid, great interceptions.

Arbeloa - again, 2 games, very impressive - calm n composed and gave Messi a good boot when he had the chance. Hope he can carry that game into the Prem. Especially liked the way he was right at Messi all the time, giving him **** all room - always where he should have been when playing a pressing defensive game.

Xabi - passing not up to his usual today but put in a great defensive midfield performance, as did Momo.

Stevie - great energy unlucky with his shots.

Riise - again great effort shame those thunderbolts never hit the net.

Bellamy - loved the work rate, always a threat with the pace.

Kuyt - loved the work and toil, just not quite at the races from an attacking point of view compared to his first few games for us.

Great team performance though, but how did we end up losing this game?? I'll end where I started - I hate these type of games where we **** the opposition but dont score and you just feel we're not gonna get a goal.