Espanyol v Liverpool FC - Match & Post-match

[vlahka]

Not going by just today mate. But I've never been convinced with players like Dossena, Degen, Ngog, Voronin, or Plessis. I think Babel and Lucas need to be loaned out somewhere because they arent anywhere near at the level they should be that we need.

[Guest]

Great performance from the lads tonight, great game. Degen is just an excellent right back and excellent cover for Johnson, Xabi did well when he came on and proves that he's going nowhere. Voronin and Ngog looked as ever, impressive upfront albeit lacking some end product but nice touches and interplay between the two. Ngog especially is so strong with his back to goal, reminds me of a young Mark Hughes.

Babel well, he's forever playing in Benni's shadow (not Benayoun but the Jets, as used to sing Elton back in those days). As for little Jay Spearing, his performance deserved the standing ovation he got when he was substituted after coming on in the second half, he must have felt it really warm in his heart of hearts.

All in all it was a good run out, which I'm sure will prove to be extremely beneficial for the player's fitness. I expect us to trounce that Norwegian team, even though I expect them to give us a really hard game, as I'd expect from a team which stands at the top of the bottom of their league. Then the final flourish at Anfield against Athletico, which should top off an excellent pre-season, in which we've amassed one prestigious trophy by beating high flying Singapore 5-0, undoubtedly the high point of this campaign.

Bring on Spurs.

[Shanks]

This is a ****ing friendly.

[Marky]

We should build our team around Philip Degan.

[BigChief]

Useful runout. I had my doubts about San Jose partnering Carra and I thought it would cost us. I've never been impressed with him even in reserves. Kelly should have started, which leads to believe he'll be given his chance next to Carra in our next game. Hooray.

Spearing, wow, not a bad cameo. Will probably go unnoticed but I think I just saw a young Paul Scholes in a proper red shirt today!!

[Tee]

We should build our team around Philip Degan.

[wiw]

Funny that, but on a serious note, he looks like he has never played football before. What on earth will happen to us if Johnson is injured for an extended period of time? Darby can't be this bad surely?

I thought that. Worrying performance. Degen's defending was woeful. I'd **** him off to the reserves and get Darby in because he's earned it IMO. San Jose looks out of his depth, Babel was his usual uninspiring self, Dossena likewise

On the plus side I thought Lucas was quite good. Insua played well. Spearing as well - if we go into the new season with him as backup to Mascher I wouldn't complain

Alonso got what, 7 minutes? He's off He obv didn't play to avoid injury

[Shaggy]

I thought that. Worrying performance. Degen's defending was woeful. I'd **** him off to the reserves and get Darby in because he's earned it IMO. San Jose looks out of his depth, Babel was his usual uninspiring self, Dossena likewise

On the plus side I thought Lucas was quite good. Insua played well. Spearing as well - if we go into the new season with him as backup to Mascher I wouldn't complain

Alonso got what, 7 minutes? He's off He obv didn't play to avoid injury

Although I thought Spearing was pants too.

[Tatterdemalion]

Great performance from the lads tonight, great game. Degen is just an excellent right back and excellent cover for Johnson, Xabi did well when he came on and proves that he's going nowhere. Voronin and Ngog looked as ever, impressive upfront albeit lacking some end product but nice touches and interplay between the two. Ngog especially is so strong with his back to goal, reminds me of a young Mark Hughes.

Babel well, he's forever playing in Benni's shadow (not Benayoun but the Jets, as used to sing Elton back in those days). As for little Jay Spearing, his performance deserved the standing ovation he got when he was substituted after coming on in the second half, he must have felt it really warm in his heart of hearts.

All in all it was a good run out, which I'm sure will prove to be extremely beneficial for the player's fitness. I expect us to trounce that Norwegian team, even though I expect them to give us a really hard game, as I'd expect from a team which stands at the top of the bottom of their league. Then the final flourish at Anfield against Athletico, which should top off an excellent pre-season, in which we've amassed one prestigious trophy by beating high flying Singapore 5-0, undoubtedly the high point of this campaign.

Bring on Spurs.

Is this Gerard Houllier's match report?

[wiw]

Although I thought Spearing was pants too.

Hm he wasn't great I suppose, started to zone out to be honest but yeah, the point still stands

Just hope the training is taking it out of the players and that's the reason for the lacklustre performance. At least everyone was a bit wank

[Icon]

**** me we were awful....

Nevermind Villa/Silva all the bloody time we need 3 defenders!

[frank the tank]

spurs lost 2-0 to south china yesterday so perhaps they will be "****ter" than us in 2 weeks time!!!!

seriously though, i have a bad feeling that gerrard and torres and kuyt and bennayoun and riera and babel and even nemeth and ngog will be all brilliant this season - i think we will go and score so many goals and play some very good attacking football.........................................o nly to be left down by some dodgy defending - based on a few things such as:

1. Glen Johnson will be under pressure due to his high fee and will make a few feck-ups defensivly. I think we would have been better off playing him in midfield for half a season or so to get used to LFC - but we cant really do that cos arbeloa has left....

2. Carragher has peaked. Don't get me wrong, the guy is a legend and deserves to be in the team - but i just don't think he is AS good as he was.....

3. If we lose alonso, then we will lose possesion a lot more......particularly when we just gain posession. When a defender, or mascherano gets the ball from a tackle now, they seem to give it to xabi straight away - which is a good thing. If we now give it to lucas, or another replacement for that matter (this isnt a anti-lucas thing), then that players passing simply will not be as good as alonso's - therefore we will lose the ball more when we are mounting counter-attacks and leaving us open when all our players are trying to get forward.....

4. It is hard to know what our best centre-back pairing is..... is it carra and agger......or is it carra and skrtel.........





to be honest, i would actually pair skrtel and agger for a while - and move carra to right back with glen on the right wing..... although it seems a bit defensive, i just think for the first 4 or 5 games, there could be a few curveball results thrown in and we should just be uber-careful.......at the end of the day, i think if we keep a clean sheet, then we should always expect to score at least one goal with gerrard, torres, kuyt playing..........

[Guest]

Of course Alonso is very important to our passing game, allowing us to control games, which has been a feature of Rafa's team to date. We'll probably lose that unless we bring in an equally good passer of the ball. There isn't too many of them around, judging by Real's insistence to buy Xabi.

If we can get one world class attacking player in and maybe slightly change our style of play, meaning we'd lose some of the control in midfield, we wouldn't be far worse off.

As for Carra being 'past it' I think it is very harsh. He is still the mainstay of our defence and his organisational skills and reading of the game is essential to our success. He's still 31 and I think he can play at the top level for 2 more years. He is a tremendous professional who looks after himself very well. He shares those qualities with Steven Gerrard.

[FatTony]

spurs lost 2-0 to south china yesterday so perhaps they will be "****ter" than us in 2 weeks time!!!!

seriously though, i have a bad feeling that gerrard and torres and kuyt and bennayoun and riera and babel and even nemeth and ngog will be all brilliant this season - i think we will go and score so many goals and play some very good attacking football.........................................o nly to be left down by some dodgy defending - based on a few things such as:

1. Glen Johnson will be under pressure due to his high fee and will make a few feck-ups defensivly. I think we would have been better off playing him in midfield for half a season or so to get used to LFC - but we cant really do that cos arbeloa has left....

2. Carragher has peaked. Don't get me wrong, the guy is a legend and deserves to be in the team - but i just don't think he is AS good as he was.....

3. If we lose alonso, then we will lose possesion a lot more......particularly when we just gain posession. When a defender, or mascherano gets the ball from a tackle now, they seem to give it to xabi straight away - which is a good thing. If we now give it to lucas, or another replacement for that matter (this isnt a anti-lucas thing), then that players passing simply will not be as good as alonso's - therefore we will lose the ball more when we are mounting counter-attacks and leaving us open when all our players are trying to get forward.....

4. It is hard to know what our best centre-back pairing is..... is it carra and agger......or is it carra and skrtel.........





to be honest, i would actually pair skrtel and agger for a while - and move carra to right back with glen on the right wing..... although it seems a bit defensive, i just think for the first 4 or 5 games, there could be a few curveball results thrown in and we should just be uber-careful.......at the end of the day, i think if we keep a clean sheet, then we should always expect to score at least one goal with gerrard, torres, kuyt playing..........

Carra is a terrible right back....and he hates it out there.

[Tee]

Anyone else think we might have made a massive mistake letting Arbeloa leave? Whilst I am an admirer of Glen Johnson's attacking capabilities his defending last night reminded me just how bad he can be, and Degen was absolutely out of his depth. RB is a really worrying position IMHO.