Marseille Home CL - Post Match Discussion

[saj]

Babel never seemed like a Rafa type player from day 1. Always felt he would be better suited under the guidance of Wenger.

Rafa does not like unpredictable players it seems. He has 11 soldiers on the pitch all witha role to play and easy to orchestrate from the touchline. Too many individuals and he is not in control.

There were a lot of players who looked out of sorts tonight - thank **** we have no more games in November!!

Sad but true

I don't know what he's done but Rafa doesn't seem to rate him anymore.

Then why did Rafa buy him?

IMO Babel has more potential than any other player at the club.

It just seems madness to me to have a player of his obvious quality not getting the amount of play he should.

Really seems odd why Rafa purchased a player (at great cost) to leave him on the bench, unless Rafa will be introducing him more over the next couple of months so he's chomping at the bit for the final half of the season?

Exactly, he is not a a Rafa type player. But I truly believe that the missing pieces's in Rafa's jigsaw does not require hard working steady players - we need non Rafa type players. Quaresma would potentially have been good but we have Babel. Babel is that player - inconsistent, but someone who can pull something out of nothing. Defenders are **** scared of him and thats a fact.

And yes it is sad but very true, in fact it's hearbreaking . Lesser players have been given more of a chance under Rafa, Pennant etc etc. But yet Babel proved he is good enough for any of the top clubs in the world but yet Rafa no longer wants to play him.

And it is baffling why Rafa purchased him. But I don't think Rafa will be intrducing him sloly at all- he did all his introducing last year and people with weak memories will disagree with me, but Babel was devastating last year. And I've noticed that lately Babel has been coming off the bench, he's not looked the same as the player of last year. Clearly, Rafa's reluctance to play him and put useless players ahead of him must really be knocking his confidence.

I just thought of/remembered Babel's performance against Arsenal at Anfield in the Champions League quarter final 2nd leg when he came off the bench.

[billy_mac]

Also tonight Mascherano was woeful........ Again. Much was said about Lucas on the weekend but Javier was just as bad, if not worse. Are best displays this season have been with Gerrard and Xabi in the middle.

Our best passing football displays are when Xabi and Gerrard play in the middle. Our best displays, although not pretty, were against united and chelsea becuase the results were right. I don't think we've played a full 90 minutes to our potential yet in a dominating passing attacking performance yet, maybe not even 70 minutes in one match.

We turn into a counter attacking team with Mascherano playing. For me Mascherano is a specialist that should only be called upon when needed, namely the big games and away. The same goes for Dirk.

I don't think we have the players in the squad to play like Brazil against the big boys and I think Rafa knows this by bringing teams down to our level by squeezing the play and creating pressure and then hitting teams on the counter attack.

Against the lesser teams at home we need to dictate the play and need more passers, and less runners and tacklers on the pitch.

Still overall, joint top in the league, qualified in europe, not playing at all well with lots of room to improve. I'm happy.

[dww]

My observations on the game:

Alonso had a great first 30 and then was poor for the rest of the game and the team faded with him.
Riera has started cutting inside too much and it limits our options enormously.
Mascherano looks tired and keeps giving away cheap fouls.
Kuyt had a decent game in attack and a very very good one in defence. Played some of the best balls of the match but should have kept things more simple late in the game.
Lucas looked good when he came on he kept the ball and encouraged others to do the same.
Dossena was frustrating - made some horrendous errors and continued to not use his body well against smaller/faster players but also made a first rate block and did a few other decent things. I've not given up on him yet but he needs to sort things out soon.

[Tee]

My observations on the game:

Alonso had a great first 30 and then was poor for the rest of the game and the team faded with him.
Riera has started cutting inside too much and it limits our options enormously.
Mascherano looks tired and keeps giving away cheap fouls.
Kuyt had a decent game in attack and a very very good one in defence. Played some of the best balls of the match but should have kept things more simple late in the game.
Lucas looked good when he came on he kept the ball and encouraged others to do the same.
Dossena was frustrating - made some horrendous errors and continued to not use his body well against smaller/faster players but also made a first rate block and did a few other decent things. I've not given up on him yet but he needs to sort things out soon.

Very good points about Riera starting to cut in rather than stay out wide, and also about Mascher looking a bit jaded.

Our ball retention after the first 30mins was the most worrying aspect for me. At this level we must keep the ball better and it was getting very frustrating the amount of back passes to a CB or GK because o fteh lack of movement ahead.

[Craig_H]

Can I just say that if Lucas had performed as Mascherano did last night he would be getting slaughtered on here. That is all.

Not if Lucas had performed as Mascherano had done for the majority of his LFC career.

[Xabi_is_God]

Tired performance but job done.
Qualified for last 16, Joint top of league with Chelsea.
Torres and Gerrard have been in and out with injuries. Best form ahead of both of them.
Keane due a run of goals (has always been a confidence player throughout career. Doesnt score in 15 games and then scores ten in ten before going on a drought again).
Struggling a bit to break down teams who just defend but hopefully Torres being fully fit will help with this and maybe a new signing to play in Yossi's role in January.

Everything is looking rosier then it has been for years.

Next game please.

[cled the red]

Tired performance but job done.
Qualified for last 16, Joint top of league with Chelsea.
Torres and Gerrard have been in and out with injuries. Best form ahead of both of them.
Keane due a run of goals (has always been a confidence player throughout career. Doesnt score in 15 games and then scores ten in ten before going on a drought again).
Struggling a bit to break down teams who just defend but hopefully Torres being fully fit will help with this and maybe a new signing to play in Yossi's role in January.

Everything is looking rosier then it has been for years.

Next game please.

What - sitting on the bench??!!!

[Sarb]

I'm sure I made these points about Reira now starting to cut inside about 3 league games ago.

And I'm sure I also made the point about Mascher being poor for quite a few games a while ago also

Reira, is doing nothing much at the moment. Seems to have got a bit of what Yossi has at the moment. Mascher.....well for me he's never been a good passer of the ball and now when he's starting to give silly fouls away, his poor performances are magnified even more

[Craig_H]

Dossena is an enormous liability.

[Sarb]

Had high hopes for AD when we bought him to be honest. Been very disappointing. Apparently it should have been a penalty against him.

Why Insua wasn't promoted I'll never know

[Woobus]

Had high hopes for AD when we bought him to be honest. Been very disappointing. Apparently it should have been a penalty against him.

Why Insua wasn't promoted I'll never know

No way was it a penalty but why he decided to tackle when he did I will never know.

[The Erectile Banana]

LOL. We seem to have exceptionally high standards and high expectations don't we? We conquer the top teams in europe on a regular basis and after each conquest their always seems to be a post mortem on here to discuss how badly we played. I say that we got the job done, our defensive held them off late on and thats what we do best when we are ahead. Well done to all the players and Rafa n co on another qualification (with a game to spare) from a difficult group.

On the subject of Babel- I don't think its very clever to write off his Liverpool career just because he is not first choice at the moment. Im pretty certain he hasn't been involved the last 2 games purely because he has been mouthing off in the press. Iv no doubt that he will get games this season, we have a very busy period coming up and its up to Babel to show his worth.

Dossena- Yeah he looked shaky when he came on last night and was getting turned and beat easily at first but then did he not recover? Im pretty sure that i remember him blocking shots and covering for our centre halfs when the pressure started to mount. Im also sure i remember seeing him winning a couple of corners up the other end. I wouldn't write him off just yet, he said himself that he is not playing well and he is obviously short of confidence. Clearly he is struggling for pace but i think he could sort it out. Might take a month or 2 so i wouldnt write off him off just yet

Good post mate. Dossena certainly looks shaky at the moment but he deserves a bit more time to prove his worth.

[red g]

No way was it a penalty but why he decided to tackle when he did I will never know.

wasnt the player through on goal? it was quite a few centimetres out of the penalty box, perfection

[Woobus]

wasnt the player through on goal? it was quite a few centimetres out of the penalty box, perfection

Hehe you're probably right if it had of been Carra he would be getting praised for snuffing out the danger.

[ronanm]

Andy Gray was co-commentator on my channel. That guy is so blatantly anti-liverpool. In the first half he really pissed me off. But then I had a good laugh to myself in the second half as he was clearly getting annoyed that Marseille hadn't scored. Dossena was a shambles.