Some Home Truths

[Sarb]

Newcastle when Keegan was in charge played some fanstastic football but won jack. Arsenal play brilliant football but haven't won anything of late. Judge it at the end of the season rather than now. You need ruthless efficiency to go with that style of play. Arsenal missed two sitters yesterday...clear cut chances to win the game but they never took them.

At the beginning of the season we were playing some good stuff but also finishing it off with wins

People are going way overboard on Arsenal at the moment. Let's see what happens come the end of the season.

Prentice has written a brilliant article today. We are nowhere near the top of our game and haven't been for a while, but we're not far off the top.

And I'm not using injuries as an exucse, but like I said that many injuries to any team would have an affect. We've done well to remain unbeaten

[Dhav]

Newcastle when Keegan was in charge played some fanstastic football but won jack. Arsenal play brilliant football but haven't won anything of late. Judge it at the end of the season rather than now. You need ruthless efficiency to go with that style of play. Arsenal missed two sitters yesterday...clear cut chances to win the game but they never took them.

At the beginning of the season we were playing some good stuff but also finishing it off with wins

People are going way overboard on Arsenal at the moment. Let's see what happens come the end of the season.

Prentice has written a brilliant article today. We are nowhere near the top of our game and haven't been for a while, but we're not far off the top.

And I'm not using injuries as an exucse, but like I said that many injuries to any team would have an affect. We've done well to remain unbeaten

Great post, and one with which I wholeheartedly agree.

Yes they played some nice fancy stuff, and clearly they're better than us at present, but they're a team on a high and we're low on confidence with key personnel missing. Too soon to judge them or us IMO.

[Imy]

this is a good article

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/tm_headline=too-many-questions-unanswered-on-credentials%26method=full%26objectid=20025820%26si teid=50061-name_page.html

Too many questions unanswered on credentials

Oct 29 2007

The Final Word

by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post


AT least it’s only Manchester City presently keeping Liverpool’s place in the top four warm for them.

Rafael Benitez should get his team there eventually and yesterday’s events only do more to convince it will be a matter of time.

But looking beyond that, the wait for a 19th title seems set to agonisingly drag on into a 19th year.

A draw might be considered a good result against a rampant Arsenal, but they and Liverpool remaining the only unbeaten sides in the top flight going into November is pretty much where the parallels end. Because for a side that hasn’t lost yet, Liverpool are looking far from championship contenders, based on not only the genuine test their credentials faced yesterday, but events leading up to it.

Such as the uneasy friction between manager and captain, the disappointing league position caused by too many dropped points at home and a Champions League campaign that promises little other than the need to keep Thursday nights free in the new year. If they’re lucky.

All the while down in north London, the only disputes raging seemed to be about what was most impressive. The nature of Arsenal’s stunning 7-0 victory over Slavia Prague in midweek or the fact that it was their 12th in succession.

Once they got their heads round that, the only puzzle left to figure out is how Arsene Wenger has somehow managed to construct – in the summer he lost Thierry Henry – possibly his best ever squad.

It’s what building title-winning dynasties is all about. Something, of course, Liverpool are the original pioneers of, but memories of their last one are fading faster than daylight hours after yesterday’s bout of annual clock-altering.

Although it is depressingly premature to make shouts at who will be leading the way again at this time of year, the inescapable fact of the matter is that if you’re looking the part now then it’s usually serving notice that you will at the business end of the season.

Arsenal have the swagger and, as they proved yesterday, the staying power of Wenger’s invincibles from four years ago.

Manchester United started slowly but they’ve scored four in each of their last four games and, disregarding the Carling Cup with the same disdain their manager does, that run punctuates a 12-game winning streak.

Even Chelsea seem to have had their blip. Somehow, they’re still below Manchester City but should soon trample all over them with the ruthlessness they did at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. All three of Liverpool’s perceived main rivals are settling into the defining part of the season and striding ominously towards the Premier League riches they’ve shared between them for the past 12 seasons, not giving anyone else a sniff in the process.

To that end, Liverpool feel more left out than most. But while the aforementioned trio are emphatically answering their various doubters, at Anfield there are too many questions.

Like, how are Liverpool still unbeaten and only sixth behind Blackburn? (And how perilous is this Saturday’s evening at Ewood looking?)

And what’s the best team? The best formation? Hard to believe it was yesterday’s three-striker gamble. Or a diamond, as some suggested it might be, albeit one badly in need of a good polish.

At least it worked in starving Arsenal of vital space in midfield, especially as Liverpool could afford to sit on Steven Gerrard’s superb early goal and swallow those gaps up.

But even leading 1-0 midway through the first half, Benitez showed his unease with the whole thing by sitting down and scribbling frantically – despite the furrowed brow of concentration, you can bet he wasn’t doing Sudoku.

Also, can Liverpool win the vital games against fellow top four occupiers when it really matters?

They can certainly get themselves up for the occasion, although in Gerrard they have the match-winning talisman whose shoulders they still rely too heavily on to lift them there.

He might have equalled Cesc Fabregas in terms of goals on the day, but for the Liverpool captain this is where the similarity with the 20-year-old ended.

Given the superior ball retention the Spaniard’s team-mates displayed and the options he had when they gave it to him, it’s clear there’s aspects in Fabregas’s armour that Gerrard should be envious of.

Chances are at the end of the season, a Premier League winner’s medal will be added to that collection.

[Sarb]

Rubbish article. Typical flavour of the month article. Like he knows that Arsenal are going to win the title based on the first ten games of the season.

The Mancs are flying at the moment and Chelsea are coming back into it as well. Obviously Nick was listening to Andy Gray too much yesterday afternoon

David Prentice's is a much better read.

Oh and Gerrard has been doing the business for years. Fabregas needs to do this season after season to be compared to Gerrard. Nick talks sh*t

[red g]

rewind a couple of seasons and arsenal started exactly this way, everyone was saying thn how amazing they are they then played scum and went downhill from there.a few injuries and lets see what happens

[friedk]

What were Arsenal singing? "liverpooooooool, HOOF the ball" or something?

That was funny.

we do play a little too many long balls. Gerrard needs to be told to stop trying killer long balls and just find his man.

Remember an interview with Aldo when he said, in training Ronnie Moran's sole job was to shout "pass the ball you bugger!" - it was all about picking your pass and moving into space.

It's something we're capable of, but too often we attempt the defence splitting pass when pass and move is the better option.

[kewellnthegang]

Newcastle when Keegan was in charge played some fanstastic football but won jack. Arsenal play brilliant football but haven't won anything of late. Judge it at the end of the season rather than now. You need ruthless efficiency to go with that style of play. Arsenal missed two sitters yesterday...clear cut chances to win the game but they never took them.

At the beginning of the season we were playing some good stuff but also finishing it off with wins

People are going way overboard on Arsenal at the moment. Let's see what happens come the end of the season.

Prentice has written a brilliant article today. We are nowhere near the top of our game and haven't been for a while, but we're not far off the top.

And I'm not using injuries as an exucse, but like I said that many injuries to any team would have an affect. We've done well to remain unbeaten

prentice

bitter blue **** must kill him havin to say nice things about us

[Nicey]

I'm getting sick and tired of some of the stick Rafa and the team are getting off the press and even people on here. Yeah we're not playing great at the moment but we're only 6 points behind the leaders. That's three draws or two defeats away. It's nothing. Can go three clear of Chelsea with our game in hand and three behind the Mancs (or something like that)

First off - Injuries

Carra, Agger, Gerrard, Alonso, Torres - All been injured for a significant amount of our ten games. You're telling me if the Arse were without Toure, Gallas, Fabregas and Adebayor, Mancs without Ferdinand, Vidic, Rooney, Carrick/Hargreaves at the same time then they wouldn't drop points? Chelsea struggled big time without Drogba, Terry and Lampard in the team

Fact is the players have managed to keep themselves in the hunt for the title. So we do have a quality squad and the players and managers deserve credit for keeping us in the hunt

Second - Tactics and Style of Play

While I haven't always supported Rafa's tactics and selection, I think the stick he gets is a joke. I mean Sky were running a Rafa rotation list even before the game had started. He knows what he's doing and what he has to achieve. He must believe it's the best way as it's not worth him being stubborn and losing the game

Yeah Arsenal played some fantastic football yesterday. But they didn't win, that's the point. Fabregas said the same thing. Redknapp had it spot on at the end that he worries how they'll cope with injuries. People who think we played rubbish need to get checked out. We had a few efforts on goal, but we kept an on-form Arsenal at bay suffering two injuries in the game and not being in the best of form ourselves.

I see signs that we're turing the performances round. Players are working fantastically hard and can't knock them for that. Would have been great if we held on for a win, but we kept ourselves in the race. Agger will be back soon...that will make a huge difference

Keep the faith. We would have been 12 or 15 points behind in most seasons. 6 points is nothing

Great post

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

No, its not the point. This happens in football, a team can do everything but score, and this happened yesterday. It was just one of those games for them, twice hit the post and missed two open goals. 9 times out of 10 that would've been 3 or 4 goals for them.

We have injuries, granted, but there is no need for one of the big 4 to result to hoofing the ball into nowhere for long periods of the game. That shows a lack of technical ability on the players behalf. It may also say something about the instructions from the manager. I remember in the last season with Houiller we adopted the same tactics whenever Owen was fit, this was no different.

Rafa's rotation policy comes under fire why? Because we've yet to mount a premiership title challange under his management. Until he does, then everyone is entitled to question it. To add to this, I'm really not convinced that it will make a blind bit of difference to the fitness of the players. Injuries happen, but his resting of players hasn't really helped us so far this season has it? Rafa does seem to rest players for the sake of resting.

The squad yesterday had no balance, there was no creativity and no width at all. You don't stick two players with the limited technical ability and lack of pace of Voronin and Kuyt out wide. They offered very little. As Houllier used to do, pack the centre of the pitch to stop them playing and keep hoofing it forward.

There is one reason and one reason only that we are just 6 points off the top, and that is the fact that we've played just 10 games. No doubt we'll go through a decent spell sometime this season, but I think the gap is going to get bigger before that happens.

There is far too much mediocrity in the squad that Rafa has built. People have said that no team can live with Arsenal when they pass the ball like they do, but what sort of defeatest attitude is that for a fan of Liverpool FC?

I expected to see Rafa's team playing as his Valencia side did (the one I was lucky enough to watch when they visited Anfield) and gave him a couple of years to achieve this. A couple of seasons down the line and his football is becoming very, very similar to Houlliers.

Great post mate.

[fred_plasticine]

Its going to be rough the next few weeks with all the injuries but I think we'll cope. We've been playing crap but we are still unbeaten

For all the wonderful, free flowing football that Arsenal play, they were largely contained and stifled. Some say we were out played on our own turf. Right now we are a side low on confidence but I'm very sure we will bounce back. Arse are or were on a run. They dropped 2 points today. Next Sat they have a crunch match against Manure. A draw would delight me. My gut feeling is that Manure will **** them and their season could go pear shaped from next week.

no mate, we did. it's what we always do - score the first goal and have quite good spell afterwards but don't score the second one only to allow them to get back into the game. same thing happened against chelsea, against spurs ...

[El Jefecito]

I agree. I hate it when we don't have any pace up front. It was clear that Crouch scares them in other ways (and actually poses a goal threat), but once Torres went off we lost any potential pace. I think Babel was rested though? - he could hardly stand at the end of the game last week - he seemed to be trying to take them on on his own - I've never seen a player look so tired.

I think he would have come on if we hadn't had the 2 enforced subs.