Blackburn build up

[frank the tank]

i reckon a team of:

...................REINA...................

ARBELOA...CARRA...AGGER...INSUA

............MASH........ALONSO........

...GERRARD.................BENNY.......

.........KUYT........TORRES............



with the full backs bombing forward at every opportunity would be a good move.....

[Matt]

Now is not the time for wholesale changes in personnel or formation.

Give the majority of last night's team the opportunity to put the game behind them and make only the necessary changes - as I said before, Agger back in for a shell-shocked Skrtel and Mascherano in for Lucas to give some bite to the midfield.

If Gerrard is injured swap him for Benayoun and lets get the 3 points.

[Charlie_B]

Now is not the time for wholesale changes in personnel or formation.

Give the majority of last night's team the opportunity to put the game behind them and make only the necessary changes - as I said before, Agger back in for a shell-shocked Skrtel and Mascherano in for Lucas to give some bite to the midfield.

If Gerrard is injured swap him for Benayoun and lets get the 3 points.

I agree. Any call for bringing Babel in is silly. I'd be up for seeing Agger and Mascherano return to the team, possibly Benayoun for Riera or Insua for Aurelio, as both AR and FA were terrible last night.

[johnly]

Not sure if you've seen this yet, but The Times are reporting Stevie's going to have a groin scan before the weekends game agains Blackburn.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article6066502.ece

[Matt]

I agree. Any call for bringing Babel in is silly. I'd be up for seeing Agger and Mascherano return to the team, possibly Benayoun for Riera or Insua for Aurelio, as both AR and FA were terrible last night.

They were pretty terrible but that's Fabio's first shocker for a while - would be harsh to drop him on the basis of one performance.

[Matt]

I agree. Any call for bringing Babel in is silly. I'd be up for seeing Agger and Mascherano return to the team, possibly Benayoun for Riera or Insua for Aurelio, as both AR and FA were terrible last night.

Although if Rafa wants Aurelio for the second leg I'd agree that we might see Insua against Blackburn.

[kingfunk]

I would go with this:

...................REINA...................

ARBELOA...CARRA...AGGER...INSUA

............MASH........ALONSO........

Benny..........GERRARD..............Riera

.................TORRES............


Think Kuyt, Skrtel and Aurelio should be "rested".

.

[Joe King]

Riera should be dropped. Awful game.

[DeeTheDog]

I am concerned with this game quickly following such a disappointing result. We know that Blackburn are going to play long, maybe play Samba as a makeshift centre forward. Big Sami may come into the team, Gerrard will probably be rested, as will Aurelio, Kuyt is in need of a rest; however, Riera was poor against Chelsea.

I will be another tough game with Blackburn in the middle of a relegation scrap, it would be great to kill the game off with early goals, and then put United under pressure for the evening kickoff. Although not in good form Sunderland have a lot of pace and power in their ranks, which as shown by ourselves, Villa and Porto, the United defence is susceptible to direct running.

[Joe King]

Sam spots Reds weakness

Sam Allardyce is aiming to cash in on the Liverpool weaknesses exposed by Chelsea when Blackburn travel to Anfield this weekend.

The Blackburn manager was in the crowd to watch Liverpool beaten 3-1 by Chelsea in the Champions League.

Although Allardyce believes too much blame has been laid at the door of Rafael Benitez's zonal marking system at corners - two of the three Chelsea goals came from that route - he hopes to take advantage of "one or two weaknesses" shown by Liverpool.

"I went to watch what was probably the most in-form team in this country at the moment come a little unstuck on the night," said Allardyce.

"We can only hope that that knocks their confidence a little bit.

"It can happen to us all on occasions, but Chelsea got the tactics right and also used their outstanding ability to punish them very heavily in the end.

"I just want to get as many of my experienced players as fit as possible to go and pick a side who can combat a very good Liverpool team, and then try and expose one or two weaknesses that were shown up.

"But I thought there was a little of unfair criticism of the zonal marking system, because I don't think any system would have stopped those two goals on the night."

Allardyce will warn his players, however, to expect that Liverpool will come out fighting on Saturday - because the Barclays Premier League may be their only chance of silverware.

"Their pride will have been hurt. But they are still just one point off Manchester United, so it will be a very big game for them," he added.

"I think they'll be all guns blazing, but it's something we've come across before and have had to cope with.

"I'd like to see a repeat of the performance of what we did at Manchester United, where we were very unlucky to lose."

[Joe King]

Benítez praises Chelsea and calls on Gerrard to raise game again

EPIC FAIL lulzzzz

[Chris]

Err thanks for posting an article from the build up for the Chelsea game. This is Blackburn.

[Skillz]

Surely you're JoeKing.

[SB]

reina

arbeloa
carra
agger
aurelio

nash
alonso

kyut
gerard
babel

torres

bench: cava, skrtel, insua, benni, riera, ngog, el zhar

BIN: DROSSENA AND LUCAS ****EVIA

That will do me with maybe Insua back in the side for Fab.

[Ben_Itez]

It's a massive game on Saturday and i think Benitez has massive selection dilemnas.

Does he select his strongest XI or does he take next Wednesday into account too?

I reckon we might see something like this (assuming Gerrard isnt 100%):

Reina

Arbeloa
Carra
Agger
Insua

Masch
Alonso

Benayoun
Kuyt
Riera/Babel

Torres

Suns: Cav, Skrtel, Dossena, Lucas, Ngog, Babel/Riera, Gerrard

Could be a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 with Kuyt up top with Torres but dropping deep