S.Liege (a) Match Thread

[lucas]

I hope we just got our worst game of the season out of the way already.

[Manofthebog]

Cest la vie


We'll **** on the Sunderland and win the home leg.

Chins up lads!

I'm happy, we didn't lose.

[BrooklynRed]

We were poor. I am not going to blame anyone or say anything other than Pepe Reina drinks for free tonight and we were poor. Thankfully, we were poor and it is 0-0. We can win this tie at home with a much more seasoned performance. They must be kicking themselves for not winning this 2-0. Let's pull together, find our pace and our legs and roll on from here.

[BrooklynRed]

PS- If my boy Oguchi Onyewu (D, USA) is back for the next leg, there is no way he doesn't give up a penalty to us. He is a penalty machine (sadly for my national side).

Anyway, excited for Saturday! 3 points is the way to start it right!

[marcus50bucks]

The Olympic footy final is on the 23rd Aug 08, so all our players should be back in time for the return leg.

[redheart]

Give it more than 90 minutes before sacking the manager and tearing apart the entire squad....christ on a bike

[Kronenburg1892]

They had some gifted players who were physical and could play to feet. It was their match of the season, and we were lucky.

This was not the game I was expecting.

But it does show up how lacking we are playing against tight determind opposition, even with key players out.

Our back four and our defence against set pieces now gives me the shivers. Too many times too often have we conceided against freekicks and corners. Maybe it's a matter of settling in, but I'm not sure.

What I am sure of, is that every one of those Liege players wanted to beat their man, something I'm not convinced our lot wanted.

We'll see on the return leg.

[Kronenburg1892]

Overall it's our style of play and long ball mentality that's to blame.

To be fair, there was absolutely no space in midfield to do anything else but deliver a long ball. Their defence was very good. But they won't get away with some of their physical play over at Anfield, I'd expect quite a few more bookings if they played the same at ours.

But really, I'm not convinced with Benyoun. Not on the left, and only as back up to some injury to Gerrard or Keen.

[rage]

How can you possibly say that? Do you not feel a bit of a muppet for making a judgment call after one game?

We were utterly abject but I still can't believe the doom-mongering. "We are in trouble on Saturday" - FFS! ONE ****ing game! Away in Europe in a hostile, partisan atmosphere. Christ on a ****ing bike.

do i feel a muppet for thinking dossena is not enough of an improvement on riise? NO. he's strong, powerful, gets forward well - the same attributes riise has. his technique of getting past a man is also the same, hoof it and try and run around the defender but lacking the pace to do so 9 times out of 10. his final ball is also poor. i've seen enough of him to know that a fit aurelio will keep this boy out of the team.

as for keane - he can play in a 4411 as the second striker, in a 4231 he is nowhere near as effective as he can be in a 4411. and the way we play 4411 crouch linked the play better? why - because at least he has a chance of heading the balls that are all too often hoofed forward.

this 4411 formation requires quality wide players, in case you hadn't noticed we don't have a single one. keane is stuck in no mans land. in our best formation he is under utilised. in his best role we don't have the necessary players around him.

oh i didn't say we're in trouble on saturday, but we sure as hell need to sort out a formation with the right players that makes the most of our best available players.

[MrMichael]

I think that was down to Plessis's inexperience and Alonso getting out-muscled as much as anything (hence Rafa's idea to swap him for Barry). Once Gerrard came on we started to hold the ball a bit better, but we were over-run too often in midfield for most of the game and ended up playing rushed long-balls. We've got to instill a bit more patience and composure in the squad as a whole and stop the pointless hoofs upfield under pressure. I don't think it will happen once Mascher and Gerrard are back in the middle, but it's worrying that our lesser players seem to take the easy option too often.

Perspective. First competitive game of the season. Clearly complacent and players still on holiday mode. Contrast that with Liege for whom this could well be their biggest game of the season. 0-0 is far from disaster and will bring the players on greatly for saturday. Can't beat competitive action to bring on a team and this will kick their arse into the new season. Also very much doubt that tonight was an exact barometer of how Keane or Dossena will perform for the rest of their Liverpool careers. Perspective!

^2 of the better posts in this thread^

Yup, that was poor, but anyone who takes it as a sign of the season to come is just being silly. These ties are always tricky, we've gone through each time in the last 5 years but I can remember dodgy performances in at least one of the games in almost every tie. Liege may only be Belgian, but they aren't mugs and this tie will be the biggest game they're likely to play all season. We had a whole midfield of top internationals missing and looked disjointed, rather like the season has hardly started yet..... oh.

Not getting right on the back of the team after a game like that isn't accepting second best or anything equally ridiculous, its taking a sensible and non short-term view about things; Rafa needs to get this team to perform this season, but if we start adding to the pressure with unrealistic expectations and knee-jerk reactions, especially to what was not a disaster, we might as well write this season off now. Lets not do that, eh?

[kop-al-74]

There is some real knee jerk bollocks in this thread.

[MrMichael]

There is some real knee jerk bollocks in this thread.

Aye. And as everyone should know, jerking your bollocks with your knee is a really REALLY bad plan.

Sorry, I'll get my coat

[Elvoz]

Aye. And as everyone should know, jerking your bollocks with your knee is a really REALLY bad plan.

Sorry, I'll get my coat

i dont even need to read the thread to know that

poor game poor performance - still in the CL

lets hope it acts as a wake up call

[el matador]

it was an absolutely shocking performance and if we had lost 3-0 we couldnt have complained.

We seem to struggle in most of these CL qualifiers and always seem to make it hard for ourselves over the past few seasons.

The width issue has to be addressed and it might be rafa's way of telling his board that we still need re-inforcements to the side but at times it was embarrassing.

we got lucky.

[Nicey]

We get lucky a lot in the champions Lg then