Can we all just chill the f*ck out?!

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

It's not about out and out wingers, but we do need width it's blindingly obvious - Kuyt and Benny cut in all night, when Babel came on the one time he really got wide and crossed the ball in we scored. This season we have played down the middle in all 3 games, it's predictable, easy to defend against and will ensure we win nothing. The strength of our team is the spine of the team from Reina to Torres so we naturally play to that strength - we do need wide players of some quality and I'm extremely doubtful that even with Mascher back Dossena and Degen are going to be the players to provide that.

[RoadEnd]

It's not about out and out wingers, but we do need width it's blindingly obvious - Kuyt and Benny cut in all night, when Babel came on the one time he really got wide and crossed the ball in we scored. This season we have played down the middle in all 3 games, it's predictable, easy to defend against and will ensure we win nothing. The strength of our team is the spine of the team from Reina to Torres so we naturally play to that strength - we do need wide players of some quality and I'm extremely doubtful that even with Mascher back Dossena and Degen are going to be the players to provide that.

Agree

Both Boro and Liege had big centre backs and midfielders who spent the game just batting back all our long balls. Width is not essential in every game, but certainly against teams like that.

[Jack D Rips]

I actually thought we didnt play too badly last night. It was certainly our best performane so far. I know thats not saying much, but perhaps Liege were a better side than most were giving them credit for.

[Chrono]

True but we are now unbeaten in 4 games and only conceded 1 goal so it doesn't look too bad when you look at it that way.

We will start playing better, how many times last season did we play well and not win ! This could be a more ruthless Liverpool once we are up and running.. keep the faith its only early, we are 2 for 2 in the league and in todays champions league group draw.. Couldn't ask for more results wise before the season kicked off

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy we are still getting the results but my concern is that it took failure in the past for us to improve which we got out of our system early on and took a while to build on.

These results are covering the true story and in my personal opinion is that we are over trained early in the season which means long term we are stronger over the season but in the early stages of the season we get the ball but don't have those burts of pace or turns and reflexes are rusty from wear.

[Tee]

That is the key, wtf is the deal with the long ball bollox or the hit (cross) and hope tactic?

It really irks me that we have such little movement in our play. So many times during the game last night the player on the ball was looking for options and the whole team was just static.

We seem to have the players who are good enough but for some bizarre reason we just do not play pass and move.

[Kenneth]

Stop swallowing that nonsense on the 'Telly', "width, width, f*cking width"!

I'm sick of hearing about 'Wingers', its dated, Rafa wants players who 'play between the lines', how many times has he said it? He wants width from the full backs, hence buying two attacking full backs this summer. Degen hasn't played yet, Dossena is settling in - but either way at the moment the full backs are being held back because of our lack of a real anchor. Alonso can't do the same job, he's too slow and he's an average tackler, Gerrard is wasted deep - So we are exposed at the moment, probably the reason Rafa is being cautious with his full-backs.

So our problems at the moment can easily be attributed to missing our most important midfielder. As soon as Mascher is back, we can release Gerrard into the final third, the fullbacks can push on safe in the knowledge that they have a f*cking monster covering them.

The season starts on Sunday, once the monster is back in, watch us go.

(cue terrible capitulation to Villa! )

I think you are completely wrong. Plessis is no Mascher, but when he was playing we were narrow and ****e. If we can't cope with a stand in DM without our whole shape falling apart, we really are in trouble.

We are slow, not finding space and our passing game is not flowing. If you don't get your midfielders going wide sometimes you just run out of space. When Babel came on yesterday, we were finding much better positions. 'Wingers' or not, we need to get players taking positions on the touch line sometimes. If we rely on the LB/RB to do this is we'll get ripped to shreds against attacking proprer 'wingers', or the fullbacks just won;t get the chance to go forward and we'll be too narrow again. .

[Craig_H]

I think you are completely wrong. Plessis is no Mascher, but when he was playing we were narrow and ****e. If we can't cope with a stand in DM without our whole shape falling apart, we really are in trouble.

We are slow, not finding space and our passing game is not flowing. If you don't get your midfielders going wide sometimes you just run out of space. When Babel came on yesterday, we were finding much better positions. 'Wingers' or not, we need to get players taking positions on the touch line sometimes. If we rely on the LB/RB to do this is we'll get ripped to shreds against attacking proprer 'wingers', or the fullbacks just won;t get the chance to go forward and we'll be too narrow again. .

Good post which will probably be dismissed because it doesnt pretend everything's ok in our early season performances.

[JermainePennant]

Stop swallowing that nonsense on the 'Telly', "width, width, f*cking width"!

I'm sick of hearing about 'Wingers', its dated, Rafa wants players who 'play between the lines', how many times has he said it? He wants width from the full backs, hence buying two attacking full backs this summer. Degen hasn't played yet, Dossena is settling in - but either way at the moment the full backs are being held back because of our lack of a real anchor. Alonso can't do the same job, he's too slow and he's an average tackler, Gerrard is wasted deep - So we are exposed at the moment, probably the reason Rafa is being cautious with his full-backs.

So our problems at the moment can easily be attributed to missing our most important midfielder. As soon as Mascher is back, we can release Gerrard into the final third, the fullbacks can push on safe in the knowledge that they have a f*cking monster covering them.

The season starts on Sunday, once the monster is back in, watch us go.

(cue terrible capitulation to Villa! )

A lot of posters myself included said a top winger should have been our main priority all summer,I think the games so far have shown we are still woefully behind the other top 3 in the wide areas.

Our main problem last season was breaking teams down and it looks like it will be the same this season,Keane should not have been bought if it was at the expense of a top winger imo, in fact as we sold crouch if we were going to replace him I feel we should have brought in a target man as we know have no one to hold the ball up.

Another season of playing ****e football and fighting it out with everton and villa for fourth,Rafa should have sorted the wide areas out this summer he had the money to do it, the only positive thing to come out of this summer is the owners stopping him wasting money on barry.

You say the full backs are going to provide the width but dossena looks suspect defensively, degen is injury prone, finnan is going, arbeloa puts one decent cross in every 20 games and aurelio is also injury prone.

We will see at the end of the season but I bet we are saying the same things next summer that we need a top quality wide man.

[dww]

Lack of quality out wide is a problem for us though - just that it's not the only problem or as simple as many of the pundits make it out to be. I agree about the fullbacks, and I also think Babel getting match fit will help - IMO we don't necessarily need 'wingers' who will go outside, just players with attacking quality in the wide positions to provide some balance. Do think Rafa should have made a really top class wide midfielder his top priority this summer though.

I largely agree with that argument but I think that we saw last season that Kuyt for example can provide good delivery from out wide if the team is functioning well and consequently making room. I think that there is a lot more ability in the players we have than we have seen so far this season. I do feel that a lot of the problem is psychological. Not sure how we cure it but I guess winning matches is as good a way as any to build confidence.

[Nicey]

Stop swallowing that nonsense on the 'Telly', "width, width, f*cking width"!

I'm sick of hearing about 'Wingers', its dated, Rafa wants players who 'play between the lines', how many times has he said it? He wants width from the full backs, hence buying two attacking full backs this summer. Degen hasn't played yet, Dossena is settling in - but either way at the moment the full backs are being held back because of our lack of a real anchor. Alonso can't do the same job, he's too slow and he's an average tackler, Gerrard is wasted deep - So we are exposed at the moment, probably the reason Rafa is being cautious with his full-backs.

So our problems at the moment can easily be attributed to missing our most important midfielder. As soon as Mascher is back, we can release Gerrard into the final third, the fullbacks can push on safe in the knowledge that they have a f*cking monster covering them.

The season starts on Sunday, once the monster is back in, watch us go.

(cue terrible capitulation to Villa! )

Best newcomer of 2008 award Consistently speaks sense

[Kenneth]

A lot of posters myself included said a top winger should have been our main priority all summer,I think the games so far have shown we are still woefully behind the other top 3 in the wide areas.

Our main problem last season was breaking teams down and it looks like it will be the same this season,Keane should not have been bought if it was at the expense of a top winger imo, in fact as we sold crouch if we were going to replace him I feel we should have brought in a target man as we know have no one to hold the ball up.

Another season of playing ****e football and fighting it out with everton and villa for fourth,Rafa should have sorted the wide areas out this summer he had the money to do it, the only positive thing to come out of this summer is the owners stopping him wasting money on barry.

You say the full backs are going to provide the width but dossena looks suspect defensively, degen is injury prone, finnan is going, arbeloa puts one decent cross in every 20 games and aurelio is also injury prone.

We will see at the end of the season but I bet we are saying the same things next summer that we need a top quality wide man.

Part of me agrees 100% with this, the rest thinks you're a miserable bugger. Not sure which to believe at the moment.

[MindGuerrillas]

I largely agree with that argument but I think that we saw last season that Kuyt for example can provide good delivery from out wide if the team is functioning well and consequently making room. I think that there is a lot more ability in the players we have than we have seen so far this season. I do feel that a lot of the problem is psychological. Not sure how we cure it but I guess winning matches is as good a way as any to build confidence.

We played the bulk of last season with Kuyt and Benny/Babel playing in the 'wide' positions with great success. The problem at the moment isn't that we need new players just that the players we have need to start playing to their potential.

[Craig_H]

Best newcomer of 2008 award Consistently speaks sense

Speaking sense = pretending the problems we have arent really there?

[Pippo]

A lot of posters myself included said a top winger should have been our main priority all summer,I think the games so far have shown we are still woefully behind the other top 3 in the wide areas.

Our main problem last season was breaking teams down and it looks like it will be the same this season,Keane should not have been bought if it was at the expense of a top winger imo, in fact as we sold crouch if we were going to replace him I feel we should have brought in a target man as we know have no one to hold the ball up.

Another season of playing ****e football and fighting it out with everton and villa for fourth,Rafa should have sorted the wide areas out this summer he had the money to do it, the only positive thing to come out of this summer is the owners stopping him wasting money on barry.

You say the full backs are going to provide the width but dossena looks suspect defensively, degen is injury prone, finnan is going, arbeloa puts one decent cross in every 20 games and aurelio is also injury prone.

We will see at the end of the season but I bet we are saying the same things next summer that we need a top quality wide man.

But if you look at the top teams, the don't use width conventionally. Man Utd have been using Fletcher out on the right, but brown provides the width. When Ronaldo plays left, he spend the game coming inside because Evra provides the width.

Watch Chelsea and you'll see Bosingwa and A. Cole putting in most of the crosses.

Once we get Mascher back in, hopefully we can get Dossena AND Degen into the wide areas giving the midfielders more options.

[Pippo]

Best newcomer of 2008 award Consistently speaks sense

Much appreciated Nicey