Liverpool vs Lyon pre match discussion

[andrewces38]

Rafa Benitez has confirmed Steven Gerrard will be available for Tuesday's Champions League encounter with Lyon at Anfield - but Fernando Torres will not figure against the French side.
The duo sat out Saturday's Barclays Premier League defeat to Sunderland after failing to recover from knocks sustained while on international duty.

However, Gerrard trained with his teammates at Melwood this morning and will be included in the squad for the clash with Les Gones.

The boss told a pre-match press conference at Anfield: "Steven is fit. He has been training so hopefully he will be available tomorrow.

"It is important as we have had some problems with injuries since the start of the season, so having Gerrard fit is a big boost for us."

Meanwhile, though Torres will sit out the fixture with Lyon, the boss is hopeful he'll be able to call on the services of the Reds' No.9 for Sunday's meeting with Manchester United.

Benitez added: "Torres is still not ready. Hopefully he will be for the weekend, but not for this game."

[Vermilion]

yep, just heard, ready for the scum hopefully, but probably not the way the season is shaping up.

[Shaggy]

What a nightmare. Even if he plays he ain't gonna be fully fit for the Mancs. Totally ****ing depressing, fed up with this ****.

[Mike]

Kuyt up front.... yippee

[Bender]

Don't understand why Ngog isn't given 90mins leave kuyt in his position......

[TerryJ]

Don't understand why Ngog isn't given 90mins leave kuyt in his position......

That's exactly what I would do, minimum disruption to the team. Hopefully Rafa will do exactly that but I wouldn't be surprised if he switched the whole formation around to make up for Torres's absence.

[DannyMan2006]

We need classy players running of Kuyt for it to work with him up front, like the Dutch national side play. Personally I'd play 442 with Babel or N'Gog up top with him.

Masch and Gerrard in CM, Riera LW, Kuyt and Babel up top and Yossi on the right. But it's likely to be Gerrard behind Kuyt in the usuall manner.

[FatTony]

Lyon, pacey in attack against a back four ****ting bricks at the moment...couple this with the huge amount of pressure because of recent results and we could buckle.

With no Torres up front, Lyon may well push forward and have us under a lot of pressure. Had we been playing better, they would've shown us too much respect and played a cagey game, but playing as we are they'll fancy their chances.

[DannyMan2006]

Lyon, pacey in attack against a back four ****ting bricks at the moment...couple this with the huge amount of pressure because of recent results and we could buckle.

With no Torres up front, Lyon may well push forward and have us under a lot of pressure. Had we been playing better, they would've shown us too much respect and played a cagey game, but playing as we are they'll fancy their chances.

Indeed they will fancy their chances. They are more than capable of beating us, as our the Mancs on Sunday. Time to see if we can raise our game and finally get the rub of the green.

[TerryJ]

Lyon, pacey in attack against a back four ****ting bricks at the moment...couple this with the huge amount of pressure because of recent results and we could buckle.

With no Torres up front, Lyon may well push forward and have us under a lot of pressure. Had we been playing better, they would've shown us too much respect and played a cagey game, but playing as we are they'll fancy their chances.

They are coming off the back of a 2-0 home defeat to the French equivalent of Sunderland so they won't be that confident themselves. I agree with the point about their pace in attack though, our defence have to be up for this from the first minute.

[FatTony]

They are coming off the back of a 2-0 home defeat to the French equivalent of Sunderland so they won't be that confident themselves. I agree with the point about their pace in attack though, our defence have to be up for this from the first minute.

We always seem to do best when we've hit rock bottom and been written off too, so I'm going for two wins out of two this week.

[-V-]

As I have said on many occasions im a big fan of Lisandro Lopez. I fear for us if we continue giving opponents space in the box, especially him.

I don't understand why Riera never played on sat but we desperately need him tomorrow as Babel is just not reliable. Infact I would even go as far as giving Voronin a start

[RedReet]

We always seem to do best when we've hit rock bottom and been written off too, so I'm going for two wins out of two this week.

I argued something similar before the Sunderland game.

[DannyMan2006]

I argued something similar before the Sunderland game.

Me too!

Just shows that nothing can be taken for granted in football. I don't expect us to keep up this bad form, but on the same note, i can't just expect us to suddenly start playing well either.

[Ben_Itez]

Obviously a pretty tough game but i think we'll see an improvement in the performance. I'd expect to see a team like this:

Reina

Johnson
Carra
Agger
Insua

Mascherano
Lucas

Benayoun
Gerrard
Riera

Kuyt

Although i think playing Ngog up top could be an option with Kuyt right, Benni central and Gerrard dropping into CM instead of Lucas.