Boro V Liverpool - Post match thoughts and rants

[AFII]

Carra is the holy one that you can't mention that he should be benched without being slaughtered.

The truth is that the other top teams have two ball playing central defenders, we don't and the attacks start from the back.

We hoof the ball and then our central midfield must first get it back and then we can start to build our attacks against an already organized defense. We have more or less no quick counter attacks.

[Morph]

cant argue with most of that ,


i am not convinced by benny though, he's o.k. but not enough of a winger for me, hasnt got enough pace, and a bit predictable

i agree he's not a winger and should be playing 'in the hole'

[John_Gotti]

BBC Sport:

1920: No prizes for guessing that hat-trick man Cristiano Ronaldo is your Player of the Day on 8.71, just ahead of Aston Villa's John Carew (8.65). It's a race between Derby's Claude Davis (3.15) and Liverpool striker Andriy Voronin (3.35) for today's donkey.

[Morph]

Pissed away in the last window? You mean after he won the title?

yep that's exactly what i mean, whats the answer

[JPK]

Why did we leave Pongolle go aswell.Rafa ****ed up at Fratton Park at the start of the season and then with Birmingham.It baffled everyone.We dont have a good enough squad to rotate weekly.

[Morph]

Carra is the holy one that you can't mention that he should be benched without being slaughtered.

The truth is that the other top teams have two ball playing central defenders, we don't and the attacks start from the back.

We hoof the ball and then our central midfield must first get it back and then we can start to build our attacks against an already organized defense. We have more or less no quick counter attacks.

mate i agree with you, he frustrated me greatly today, love the guy, but he really can't play the ball well and seems to panic when put under pressure, as slow as hyypia is i prefer seeinghim on the ball than carra

[cobain]

BBC Sport:

1920: No prizes for guessing that hat-trick man Cristiano Ronaldo is your Player of the Day on 8.71, just ahead of Aston Villa's John Carew (8.65). It's a race between Derby's Claude Davis (3.15) and Liverpool striker Andriy Voronin (3.35) for today's donkey.

[bigfooty]

yep that's exactly what i mean, whats the answer

My answer would be where is your proof that Rafa would be a success with the money Ferguson has had? After all, he outspent him GROSS and NET in Summer of 2006 and took a side 1 point worse in the league and turned them into a side 21 points worse. Hardly grounds for giving him significantly more money, is it?

[Kopite_Colin]

The most disappointing aspect is we still could've lost to 2 of Utd & Reading / City but beaten Wigan and Boro and we'd still be in there. SO it wasn't asking an awful lot and we still couldn't do it.

I want to see a DRASTIC change from Rafa now in terms of attitude and selection approach - but sadly I don't think we'll see it.

[alunevans]

We need an "in the hole" player to link the midfield with Torres. Simple as.

He's not an in the hole player as such, but Crouch links the midfield well with Torres in my view. But he never gets played.

I'd love us to get a Beardsley/Dalglish type player yes, but in the meantime Crouch links midfield and Torres up better than any other player in the squad.

[L10]

see, that tree didn't budge!

[alunevans]

we are much more than 1 or 2 quality players away from a title winning team. We need a LB, 2 wide players and 1 striker. Thats alot of players and a fair wad of cash. then they'll need 2 seasons to gel and hey presto a title challenging team is born.

To gel? How do you mean by "to gel" ?

[Howard_lfc]

He's not an in the hole player as such, but Crouch links the midfield well with Torres in my view. But he never gets played.

I'd love us to get a Beardsley/Dalglish type player yes, but in the meantime Crouch links midfield and Torres up better than any other player in the squad.

I've never seen a player link up the midfield when he's not even in the squad!!
Not having a pop at you Al.

[garymac]

I was at the game today and we were truly awful for 70 minutes. Boro weren't good but they looked sharper to the ball.

We didn't really get troubled by them barring the goal and the one off the post.

Pepe had a few rushes of blood, sprinting out of his area and missing on one occasion.
Arbeloa was dreadful.
Riise was very poor in front of him and only slightly better when he went to LB.
Sami had his usual "hoof" moments......not too bad otherwise.
Carra made some crucial tackles and blocks.
Finnan did ok but didn't make the most of some of his possession and was being caught for pace.
Stevie looked like he'd rather have been somewhere else. Too deep, lacking interest, frightened to shoot, not tackling, no encouragement to the team. He only came to life after the goal.
Mascher was by far our best player, running and tackling with passion.
Yossi was anonymous. Might as well have stayed in the dressing room.
Voronin was truly awful. Only once did he make a run in to space (the pass didn't come) and he couldn't pass or control the ball.
Torres was quite quiet until the goal but he didn't get too much in the way of service.

We improved when Babel came on. He did ok on the left but no end product.
Xabi did ok when he came on.
Kujt had one chance but chose to play the ball back across rather than go for goal.

Pretty damn disappointing but we scored for the first time in ages at the Riverside. We didn't lose when we probably should have and we could/should have snatched the win at the end.

[JPK]

Can't believe he still can't understand that I didn't actually want Voronin to break a leg. Actually, I can believe....

You wanted it.I see you are getting bitch slapped in this thread Riise