Fiorentina V Liverpool- Match Thread

[Craig_H]

Utter ****e that first half, no hunger or fight, they've chased us all over the park and wanted it more.

Centre backs still look uncertain, Insua's been destroyed, Aurelio invisible, Lucas weak and **** at retaining possession, Benayoun into blind alleys and Torres/Gerrard non existent.

As usual away from home, there's little or no tempo, we've not looked like creating anything because we play at this lovely little snail's pace tempo, making it easy for the opposition to all be back in position and set up in plenty of time to stifle us - while we happily knock it across the back four and play tiddlywinks for 10 minutes.

Rafa wont change it, he never does at HT.

[Shaggy]

Aurelio's having a shocker but WTF has happened to Skrtel?

[Craig_H]

What would you suggest?

They're letting us have it up to a point and then they press and break. No tactics will work when you front six can't trap a back of cement we're giving it away for fun at exactly the wrong time. The ball looks like a bouncy ball the way we're controlling it. Dunno wtf is going on, hard pitch maybe?

Aurelio needs to stop vacating midfield time and again

Liverpooltj's suggestion is a good one. We're not so dim that we cant possibly think of alternating the way we're playing.

[Marky]

Outfought, outpassed, outplayed.

This is embarrassing.

[Zapater]

I'm not going to blame the midfield, I'm blaming the defence that has done nothing but hoof the ball forward giving possession straight back to them when we have it. The midfield (on the occasions it's been in a decent position) has largerly been bypassed with long balls to Torres. Then to aid to that Lucas, Gerrard and Aurelio have been bad too.

Crux of the matter is they have been faster, stronger and better than us. Our attack is predictable and if we don't change something the second half will be more of the same.

[DannyMan2006]

We'll not change it, as Rafa never does.

But what we need to do is get Lucas or Aurelio off the pitch for Riera. Then get Gerrard in CM, Riera on the left and Kuyt back on the right.

Either way, Fiorintina will tire out in the second half. If we can get the next goal I still think we'll win.

We've been tactically outclassed tonight. Not often that happens to Rafa. Our left flank was ripped apart. Poor old Insua didn't know what to do with himself. Yossi was ****ing useless at offering protection, unlike him that. Maybe there is a question over his fitness after all.

Not happy with Aurelio and Lucas jogging back after they gave the ball away either.

[tsb]

Midfield is terrible. Aurelio might be okay against ****e like Portsmouth but this is the champions league.

[Pablo]

I'll say it again. The weakest midfield pairing we've put out for years.

And it has been proven.

Can you say it one more time please, it sounds so good when you say it!

[JohnDoe]

Fiorentina look like they're on drugs. They're running like rabid dogs, harrassing us and giving us no time on the ball. Aurelio and Lucas have been murdered, Gerrard choked out of the game while Kuyt and Benayoun have been closed down completely. We're losing the ball too many times and they're hitting us on the counter very fast, which murders Carragher&Skrtel (the latter looks to be in his own little world at times), and catches our full backs out of position.

I don't think any substitution is going to help here though Aurelio has been ****ting out of the game completely and we might consider taking him off, but we look laboured while they have been outrunning us and playing out of their skin.

Seems like we were going into this game a bit too comfortable and confident.

[wiw]

Liverpooltj's suggestion is a good one. We're not so dim that we cant possibly think of alternating the way we're playing.

It's an option

Hard to tell what we need really..everyone's been so ****, where do you start Don't care what we do as long as we get Aurelio out of the middle

[Craig_H]

It's an option

Hard to tell what we need really..everyone's been so ****, where do you start Don't care what we do as long as we get Aurelio out of the middle

442, Insua off for Riera or Babel, Gerrard CM, Benayoun RM, Kuyt up front, Aurelio LB.

[FatTony]

Aurelio's having a shocker but WTF has happened to Skrtel?

Skrtel is a very average defender, I've been saying it all along. He's not the long term answer for us at all. Always stays rooted to the spot on crosses, has poor awareness and positioning.

He's not poor, just very, very average.

[BobTheCharmer]

Aurelio's having a shocker but WTF has happened to Skrtel?

he's playing exactly the same now as when he arrived. remember havant in the cup? ****ing shocking. same end of last season and all of this. he looked a donkey against england and looks short of all confidence. sell him on in january. load of tosh. it reminds me of the pallister hysen days. we got one and utd the other, similar to vidic and skrtel. Wouldn't be SO bad if he ever looked a threat in the opponents area. but never wins ****.

[Joe King]

Chasing shadows certainly applies here. They've harried us in the middle where the retention has been non-existent and Mutu and Jovetic have done brilliantly at isolating each centre back. Zanetti and Montolivo have done a job at shielding and distributing to the wide areas as much as possible. Insua has had little to no protection from the left side and has been picked apart from Marchionni.

Liverpool need to set the tempo, that parts obvious. The passing needs to be quicker and it has to be penetrative rather than square and back.

[Exiled_red]

We need to seriously up the tempo second half!!