Liverpool Vs Feyenoord

[willa1975]

I haven't seen any of the preseason...but if Kewell's as slow as some of you here make him out to be, I think we should give Babel as much playing time as he can handle. He's young and inexperienced, and will probably frustrate us to no end at times, but he's a genuine talent with skill and pace, and, at the tender age of 20, his chances of becoming a danger man for us are more than those of Kewell doing the same if he's as ineffective as so many of you suggest. Babel needs experience, and he's too far along to develop any further in the reserves.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Villa game. We should be a better unit with Torres, Crouch and Finnan in the side.

By the way, might it make sense to try 4-3-3 with Gerrard, Alonso and Masch/Momo in midfield, and Babel, Crouch and Torres up front? I'm sure Rafa's weighed that option--he knows a bit more about football than I do.

[bigfooty]

Harry looked fit today but the pace did seem to be lacking, there were some moves where he appeared to be free, or up against the last man on his shoulder, but just didn't take it on and try himself, preferring to slow up and wait for support.

From what Babel has shown pre-season he does not look any more ready than Gonzalez which is worrying, even if his long-term potential is greater. Would we have been better off keeping Gonzo and buying a maturer, more ready player? Perhaps, only time will tell.

Whatever the view on Babel I still think we need a real quality wing player to boost the squad. If you look at it what out and out "proven" wingers do we have? Kewell and Pennant. That is it. Yossi, Babel and Gerrard are all versatile but none are convential wide men and all look to cut inside at the first opportunity. We have Leto, El Zhar and maybe a couple other youngsters but if Kewell or Pennant got an injury we'd be struggling and forced to play people out of position, such as Riise at LM with Arbeloa behind him. Not bad I guess, Riise can deliver goals and some people prefer him there rather than in the back line, but not exactly great either.

It's not even a cover issue as such. The fact is we are short on real quality and flair. Against two pretty solid and reasonably fit sides - Pompy and Feyenoord - we've created chances but lacked the killing instinct to finish them off up front and not made the most of others because the final ball has been lacking from wide areas. Now where have I seen that before...

[Guest]

We won't be signing another winger this season and we don't need one imho.

What's worrying me from the performance yesterday is that I've seen nothing different from how I've seen us play away from home last season. Too many times we seem devoid of ideas upfront. Carra's tendency to hoof it up when teams are sitting deep against us is another worrying trend which hasn't been addressed.

Either we're still lacking a great deal in terms of fitness, which could explain our lack of movement and creativity upfront, or we haven't defined a new style of play in order to be more 'pro-active' as Rafa says.

On the plus side, this game was a very good work out, with a very competitive edge which will do wonders to the players' fitness. Voronin has done okay and is a clever player. I just feel that it's a straight choice between him and Kuyt on who will partner Torres upfront next saturday.

We need to drastically improve our attacking play if we are to challenge this season. I still haven't seen the flair we've been promised we will be witnessing, yet.

[kev776]

Dont think Babel will be too happy with gerrard. He got nutted by the guy Gerrard 'slapped'

I dont know why people are praising Gerrard for this, he is supposed to be our Captain and is there to calm things down, not get stuck in. It was a meaningless friendly and if UEFA do their job properly, Gerrard will be banned.

Stupid behavior.

[kev776]

Overall the performance was poor and if it proved one thing, Kuyt and Crow cant play together, they are to similar. Crow will only ever be an emergancy striker and Harry Kewell offers nothing more than a certain Dutchman we have just let go.

Rotterdam would struggle to survive in the EPL.

[Reece]

I dont know why people are praising Gerrard for this, he is supposed to be our Captain and is there to calm things down, not get stuck in. It was a meaningless friendly and if UEFA do their job properly, Gerrard will be banned.

Stupid behavior.

Well no actually, if UEFA do their job then he won't be banned, as their own rules state that no action can be taken if the referee dealt with the situation during the game.

[Harv]

unliesh the scally

really like that strip...hope we wear it more than our previous third strips

[Woobus]

Have the players been training on the day of the matches? I know when they were in Asia they were training then playing a match as well. I am sure if they have been then this will have had a knock on effect.
For the first 20 minutes yesterday we were great and didnt let them see the ball. Maybe tiredness was kicking in after that? I think we will be on fire and ready for the new season.

[ningnangnong]

Farken hell, Agger is turning into a bit of a unit.

He's a tank, hopefully he drops Drogba or Ronaldo this season.

[justcruisin]

we should have just left kuyt behind in rotterdam.another expensive **** up he is

[Harv]

we should have just left kuyt behind in rotterdam.another expensive **** up he is

:whatever:

[Gazzla]

we should have just left kuyt behind in rotterdam.another expensive **** up he is

Would you have said that if his goal had been given?

[Shaggy]

we should have just left kuyt behind in rotterdam.another expensive **** up he is

Wait til you see "the other thread"

[justcruisin]

Would you have said that if his goal had been given?

i've seen enough from last season

[justcruisin]

wonder is there any club out there willing to buy him...any club stupid enough that is