The Way I See It.

[zimbo]

And play your best centre back in Carra where exactly? Right back? ****ing hell why do people think Skrtel is so good? I'd rather have Carra & Agger everyday. Carra defends lost causes and Agger brings composure on the ball. Only thing they lack is dominance in the air. This will come.

Carragher, in particular, seems a bit old for a growth spurt.

[BobTheCharmer]

Carragher, in particular, seems a bit old for a growth spurt.

I meant in terms of coming together as a pairing. You don't have to be 6ft4, look at Cahill.

[PTP]

How long are we waiting for Babel to step up? Not holding my breath.

Our problem is width as always.

------------------------------Kuyt----Riera
Beat a man------------------- No------No
Cross-------------------------No------Yes
Pace--------------------------No------No
First touch--------------------No------Yes

When is the last time you saw them get to the line and get in a cross that finds a head thats attached to a neck thats attached to a red shirt?

I do see where u are coming from, but with regards the last point - granted the deliveries from the wide areas are either non existant or poor quality.

but for me one major problem that hampers the wide areas is we just do not get enough men in the box......EVER.

We only have one man, torres, in the box when we attack, at a push maybe two, and sometimes when torres has the ball outside the area, we have none!.

Now unless we have someone who can cross better than beckham and literally drop it on torres is head every time, well it's a piece of piss for the defenders to clear.

I think i mentioned this the other day somewhere, but watching chelsea the other week (not the game gainst us) - and I heard the commentor say

"boswinga on the right with the ball, with SIX to aim for in the box!

****ing six......and it wasn't like it was a super counter attack or anything, they just managed to get men in the box. In the same game ashley cole, the friiging left back, came close three times with efforts that a striker prob would have scored, but still their ****ing left back had made runs at the back post, so when the cross came in from the right, if it missed everyone he was running in late at the back post!!! -jesus wept our wingers don't even get into the box and make a gamble/late run to the back post let alone our full backs!!

At one of the two derbies at home, can't remember which one now cause they have morphed into on memory haha, but we put three or four good crosses in from wide areas, torres had gone near post which is fair enough, but the ball went past him, and there was no one else in ared shirt within 40yds of the ball, so the everton defenders had no pressure, no worries, all the had to do was mark torres, make sure he didn't get to it, and then just let the ball run right across the area unchallenged and easily dealt with.

[zimbo]

I meant in terms of coming together as a pairing. You don't have to be 6ft4, look at Cahill.

I did once, but it just made me feel a bit dirty.

I can see the sense in playing Hyypia tomorrow, to counter the threat of Crouch. And I certainly dispute your opinion of Skrtel, who has shown that he is comfortable bringing the ball out of defence on numerous occasions and is rarely wasteful in possession. In fact, if anything, he seems less susceptible to making costly mistakes than Agger, although I think both can only improve with experience.

But at the moment, as you say, the thought of leaving Carragher out is ludicrous.

[The Birdman]

I still find it amazing sami has to play against teams who are strong in the air.
Carra, Agger and Skrtel are all full internationals - to be able to play at that high a standard means they must be able to head the bloody thing and mark tall players.

Please don't tell me he gets picked to help us attack corners, you stop the delivery into Crouch and sit a holding midfielder in front of him, he isn't going to use electric pace to get in behind.

[zimbo]

I still find it amazing sami has to play against teams who are strong in the air.
Carra, Agger and Skrtel are all full internationals - to be able to play at that high a standard means they must be able to head the bloody thing and mark tall players.

Please don't tell me he gets picked to help us attack corners, you stop the delivery into Crouch and sit a holding midfielder in front of him, he isn't going to use electric pace to get in behind.

Surely it makes perfect sense to play your best header of a ball when the opposing centre forward is 6" 7 though.

And there's not too much you can do to stop David James pinging it 70 yards down the field.

[Joe King]

What we can do is try and push a high line against Crouch who isn't one of the quickest on the ground. The only threat with pace is Armand Traore from the wide areas - Pennant is suspended so John Utaka could play on the right side. We win the second balls and pass it quick around the wide positions and get low and inventive crosses into the Pompey box, we have a good chance of winning and going back top of the league.

[BobTheCharmer]

What we can do is try and push a high line against Crouch who isn't one of the quickest on the ground. The only threat with pace is Armand Traore from the wide areas - Pennant is suspended so John Utaka could play on the right side. We win the second balls and pass it quick around the wide positions and get low and inventive crosses into the Pompey box, we have a good chance of winning and going back top of the league.

its important to win and out the pressure back onto utd. they'll be secretly ****ting the prospect I'm sure. they'll have two games in hand but its better haver the point lead at this stage of the season.

[PTP]

What we can do is try and push a high line against Crouch who isn't one of the quickest on the ground. The only threat with pace is Armand Traore from the wide areas - Pennant is suspended so John Utaka could play on the right side. We win the second balls and pass it quick around the wide positions and get low and inventive crosses into the Pompey box, we have a good chance of winning and going back top of the league.

its' a fair point, i remember we used to have problems marking duncan ferguson who used to win everything in the air, so we tried having two people challenging him but he still won that and caused problems, in the end the best way to deal with it was just letting him win the flick ons and worry about mopping up the 2nd ball, problem solved.

[The Birdman]

Surely it makes perfect sense to play your best header of a ball when the opposing centre forward is 6" 7 though.

And there's not too much you can do to stop David James pinging it 70 yards down the field.

Yeah, Terry (Chelsea's best defender) often gets moved to right back to accomodate Alex when they play Portsmouth or Bolton.
Fergie regulalry moves Ferdinand out as well.

Im in the pro Rafa camp but this picking Sami thing has had me perplexed for some time, he is a legend but also very slow and cumbersome these days, plus you can't drop Carra which means he plays full back which in turn means we leave out Arbeloa/Dossena/Aurelio all of whom provide a better attacking threat and more width.
So picking Sami massively hampers our attacking threat because whoever plays wide right (either Kuyt or Benny I presume) always tuck in, Carra behind them means no attacks down the right hand side

[Joe King]

its' a fair point, i remember we used to have problems marking duncan ferguson who used to win everything in the air, so we tried having two people challenging him but he still won that and caused problems, in the end the best way to deal with it was just letting him win the flick ons and worry about mopping up the 2nd ball, problem solved.

Its essential for Mascherano to play, he does that job well and with Alonso, it is vital that they pick a pass quickly and stretch Pompey as much as possible. I can see Pompey actually going for us because of the position they are currently in although a point might not be a bad result for them so they might struggle in finding the right balance.

Shaggy's player of the season - Nadir Belhadj is suspended which is a good thing for our right back. I would play Kuyt up front merely because we don't need extra cover on the right due to Belhadj not playing, as I said, it will probably be Traore and Nugent who might play on the left so a right side of Arbeloa to provide extra width and Benayoun, who has been impressive recently, to provide the craft in a very narrow Fratton Park.

Glen Johnson could be a threat from the right back position, to negate that possibly, we could play Babel to pin him back and allow us to not rely too much on the counter although Babel has looked better when playing up front.

When we demolished Pompey last season at home, the midfield was Kewell, Mascherano, Gerrard and Benayoun. Benitez might feel Riera could be an option on the left; after all he was subbed against Everton.

[zimbo]

Yeah, Terry (Chelsea's best defender) often gets moved to right back to accomodate Alex when they play Portsmouth or Bolton.
Fergie regulalry moves Ferdinand out as well.

Im in the pro Rafa camp but this picking Sami thing has had me perplexed for some time, he is a legend but also very slow and cumbersome these days, plus you can't drop Carra which means he plays full back which in turn means we leave out Arbeloa/Dossena/Aurelio all of whom provide a better attacking threat and more width.
So picking Sami massively hampers our attacking threat because whoever plays wide right (either Kuyt or Benny I presume) always tuck in, Carra behind them means no attacks down the right hand side

Fine, but I never actually said anything about moving Carragher to right back. Not that I'm completely averse to the idea as an occasional measure, but it's not something I'd proposed in relation to the Portsmouth game.

Actually it might be seen as a compliment to Carragher that he has the ability to do a decent job at full-back, whilst it's difficult to imagine Terry or Ferdinand adjusting with anything like the same level of effectiveness. His experience of playing in both full-back positions means that, like it or not, he'll at least be considered for the role, whereas the other two have no such history.

Also, without Defoe, Hyypia's lack of pace won't be as big an issue (although I'm not sure how their new signings measure up in this respect).

I would certainly agree that Carragher is still our best option in the centre, mind, and would always keep him there as a general rule. But until we have any better alternatives at right back (or until Darby is given a chance to show if he is up to the job), I think it's valid to think about using him there if the situation demands it.