Liverpool: The New Valencia?

[Imy]

jeez, look at the teamsheets from the CL match

Liverpool (4-4-2): Dudek; Carragher (Cheyrou, 82), Traoré, Hyypia, Riise; Gerrard, Diao, Hamann, Murphy (Smicer, 61); Heskey (Baros, 61), Owen.

Valencia (4-4-1-1): Canizares; Curro Torres, Marchena, Pellegrino, Carboni; Rufete, Albelda, Baraja, Kily Gonzalez (Vicente, 88); Aimar (Angulo, 68); Carew (Mista, 79).

Referee: T Hauge (Norway).

and somewhat bizarrely, the article describes Diao as "outstanding"

But to think with a near identical team Rafa got the it to win the Champions League


Rafa

[Parm]

But to think with a near identical team Rafa got the it to win the Champions League


Rafa

[kopsea]

The nice thing about our current squad is that we can nearly put together two FULL elevens which could beat either the Old Liverpool or Valencia on that day (with only three players overlapping - in itlaics - between the two teams!!)

New Liverpool 1 (4-4-2): Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Arbeloa; Pennant, Gerrard, Alonso, Babel; Voronin, Torres

New Liverpool 2 (4-4-2): Reina; Arbeloa, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise/Aurelio; Benayoun, Mascherano, Sissoko, Leto/Kewell; Kuyt, Crouch

Old Liverpool (4-4-2): Dudek; Carragher (Cheyrou, 82), Traoré, Hyypia, Riise; Gerrard, Diao, Hamann, Murphy (Smicer, 61); Heskey (Baros, 61), Owen.

Valencia (4-4-1-1): Canizares; Curro Torres, Marchena, Pellegrino, Carboni; Rufete, Albelda, Baraja, Kily Gonzalez (Vicente, 88); Aimar (Angulo, 68); Carew (Mista, 79).

[spider-neil]

As soon as the Benitez rumours began circulating there was no other manager I wanted at Liverpool, and that was based on the European Cup lesson Valencia taught us at Anfield.

If it had been a boxing match, they would have stopped the fight well before half-time, they made us look like a conference side.

And if there were any doubts about the influence of Rafa on that team, you only have to look at what they have done since he left.

And I don't think Rafa had Villa.

CL quarter final
challenged for the league till the final month

[Maestro]

CLICKY

That was truly a **** video.

[Fivex]

That was truly a **** video.

Funnily enough I couldn't get into it either

[Assassin]

Nicely written piece but it has one major flaw.

We are not playing like Valencia, we are playing the way Rafa wants the game to be played.

[AFII]

Nicely written piece but it has one major flaw.

We are not playing like Valencia, we are playing the way Rafa wants the game to be played.

We are playing the same system as Valencia did with Rafa. They had Albelda as the holding midfielder and Baraja as the box to box midfielder. They played with a defensive striker(Aimar) we are also doing that(Kuyt, Voronin) and with one striker(Mista) and in our case, Torres.

[Zapater]

Sorry for the late reply but I can't help getting annoyed while reading over this thread. We aren't as much like Valencia were as people think. They played a genuine 4-2-3-1 (4-5-1) using genuine wingers (and occasionally Angulo who's close to one) the majority of the time. Those being Vicente who imo is the best left winger in the world when he isn't injured bar none. Giggs was the only one in his class. Rufete despite not being the greatest player managed to stay wide, beat players and get in crosses. Much like Jermain Pennant is capable of. We don't have a Vicente or a player near him, I don't us expect to ever have one he's a one in a million player. Capable of hugging the line, cutting in, passing well, fantastic crossers and scoring goals from in and outside of the box. We can fool ourselves as much as we like we don't have and probably will never have a Vicente. We have a Rufete in Pennant, but we're not emulating Rafa's Valencia in terms of formation. Also forget to add earlier, when Vicente was unavailable/before he came they had another winger who was an old fashioned winger. Capable of beating players and delivering good crosses in Kily Gonzalez. We simply don't have wingers like this.

Now the next person to label Kuyt or Voronin playing an Aimar role I'm going to bash. Aimar is one of the most technically gifted players in Europe. He was clearly playing as a number 10, more of an attacking and not the withdrawn striker type off the striker like Rafa has been using. Aimar has scored some great goals but he never got into the box like a forward like Kuyt or Voronin do when playing alongside Torres. He arrived late in the box like a midfielder. Aimar doesn't usually score more than 5 goals a season. He plays strictly in the hole making through balls, receiving the ball, taking on players and creating chances because of his high skill level and unpredictability. Although on he did stick Angulo as a second striker sometimes who is closer to Voronin and Kuyt. But overall what a lot of people are saying is quite incompatible.

Rafa has learned about the Premiership and what it takes to succeed and his now attempting it and applying his brand of football and a similar style/approach to what he had there. The type of players are different to the type he had there. But it's a different league, he is conducting his own transfers not some sporting director and it looks like he could really be finding something. I'd love us to have an Aimar here but in the EPL skillful players like that could find it difficult to settle here. But if he really wanted to Yossi could do it, but Yossi will not play that role because he'll be used on the wing.

We're not the new Valencia, we are Liverpool and I wouldn't want to be any other way.

If we want to compare us to anyone I think that Rafa's closer to most of Ferguson's 4-4-2's in the past where if you paid attention you'd notice almost everytime he plays on of his strikers off of the other.

If you want to compare the players man for man they are quite different in the whole. All of the players even in the same positions play differently i..e Mascherano being an Albelda that isn't ****, Gerrard being a more attacking version of Baraja (although it sounds like Lucas is very similar to Baraja) and Alonso being like a super version of Gerard who was pretty average. etc there's some similarities but they not that close that it would seem Rafa'd be trying to emulate anything. This is Liverpool and he's doing it his way.

Pleased about it too.