Lyon (a) - Post Match Thread

[Marky]

I'm starting to really like Lucas. He's coming on very nicely and last night Masherano and himself dominated the midfield with good tackling, positioning and sharp passing.
After we conceded Lucas gave away a free kick and with only a few seconds left you'd have thought he was going to burst into tears, completely empty look on his face. He cares alot.

[Shaggy]

Lucas has always had great potential and he continues his improvement. Shame on the muppets who slag him off relentlessly. Sometimes you have to wonder if some people have ever even played the game.

[BFG]

It's a mirror image of the back end of Houllier's reign.

Only difference is, Gerrard isn't fit enough to drag us to fourth place...

Laughable.

The difference is we had about 10 injuries and we completely controlled a tough away game in the CL and got hit with a sucker punch.

[Scratch]

Is this really as bad as some people are making it out to be?

-------------Reina------------
Johnson--Carra--Agger--Aurelio
------------Mascher-----------
Kuyt--Gerrard--Aqualani--Benny
------------Torres-------------

Subs:
Cavalieri
Skrtel
Insua
Degan
Lucas
Riera
Ngog/Babel

[BFG]

Is this really as bad as some people are making it out to be?

-------------Reina------------
Johnson--Carra--Agger--Aurelio
------------Mascher-----------
Kuyt--Gerrard--Aqualani--Benny
------------Torres-------------

Subs:
Cavalieri
Skrtel
Insua
Degan
Lucas
Riera
Ngog/Babel

No.

It's a good squad when you consider what it's cost to assemble with a core group that are capable of beating any side in the world on their day.

[Scratch]

No.

It's a good squad when you consider what it's cost to assemble with a core group that are capable of beating any side in the world on their day.

Ok, we struggle at the moment, but rob any team of three of their back four, 2 of their midfield and give them a striker who is clearly unfit and lets see how well they perform...we DO have strength in depth, just not enough to cope with 4 or 5 key performers not being available, but i doubt any club in the top four would.

[Rich]

our injuries are bad but please lets not put Aquilani in that list when he was bought injured.

[BFG]

our injuries are bad but please lets not put Aquilani in that list when he was bought injured.

Why? He's still been injured and unavailable so of course he should be mentioned when discussing squad strength.

When you have to sell a hugely talented player for £30-£35mil and you're charged with bringing in equal quality for £15-£20mil then it's going to be difficult if not impossible to achieve. Maybe the only way we could get anything like equal quality was by buying someone who couldn't play for a couple of months? Rafa has indicated this was the case.

[Rich]

Why? He's still been injured and unavailable so of course he should be mentioned when discussing squad strength.

When you have to sell a hugely talented player for £30-£35mil and you're charged with bringing in equal quality for £15-£20mil then it's going to be difficult if not impossible to achieve. Maybe the only way we could get anything like equal quality was by buying someone who couldn't play for a couple of months?

He's played 15 mins for us so I find it laughable to include him in "oh woe is us, look at the number of injuries we have" He's barely kicked a ball since March so we knew he was injured when he was bought so to them claim we're unlucky to have him injured is misguided.

Might as well buy another 10 players with long term injuries and bemoan our luck

[BFG]

He's played 15 mins for us so I find it laughable to include him in "oh woe is us, look at the number of injuries we have" He's barely kicked a ball since March so we knew he was injured when he was bought so to them claim we're unlucky to have him injured is misguided.

Might as well buy another 10 players with long term injuries and bemoan our luck

Maybe it would be misguided to claim it was bad luck to not have Aqualani but noone has, you're the only one to mention it at all.

Scratch and I were talking about the squad quality and that it was better than most people make out and that the injuries we have would hinder any team. Noone mentioned luck.

[Scratch]

Maybe it would be misguided to claim it was bad luck to not have Aqualani but noone has, you're the only one to mention it at all.

Scratch and I were talking about the squad quality and that it was better than most people make out and that the injuries we have would hinder any team. Noone mentioned luck.

Indeed, i'm talking about the depth of the squad...baring Aqualani, we've been unlucky with injuries...we have yet to play our strongest team, even if we take out Aqualani and include Lucas instead.

We have yet to see our strongest back line, altho we came close against united (a clean sheet) with Aurelio covering Insua. We have not seen our strongest midfield (with or without Aqualani, altho for £20million, i'd expect him to be part of that) and we have yet to see the Gerrard/Torres partnership in full flow due to niggling injuries.

My point was that no team, apart from maybe Chelsea, woul be able to cover injuries to 4/5 KEY players (Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Aurelio, Gerrard, Riera, Torres, Aqualani...take your pick) and not suffer...strength in depth means covering two injuries and not feeling it, not being able to replace half a team and still be just as strong.

With a fully fit side, we have a very strong starting 11, and some great options on the bench. And hopefully, in about 3 weeks time, we will start to see this come to fruition.

[Clapper]

I didn't hear anyone call the UEFA cup a second rate trophy when we won it in 2001?

Exactly.
We have been used to great success in the CL during Benitez time at the club, something we weren't even close to before his arrival.
another sign of the progress made under his reign.

[cream]

Would rather be out of Europe altogether than be relegated to the Europa cup.

[Exiled_red]

Krygiakos had a good game overall. Even today's scape goat Voronin wasn't as bad as all that. We have played some ****e this seaon and I have been as critical as anyone, but there is no point slatign the team just because we haven't won. Last night was a decent performance and with so many injuries.

For me Krygiakos was a mistake waiting to happen there were 3 occasions I can bring to mind where he was poor:
1. The goal sliding in I don't know why he did that, admittedly Agger was as bad in this move
2. The header back to Reina that would have let Lopez in had Reina not been alert
3. When he came charging/sliding out in the first half to clear the ball and almost missed it completely, luckily there it came off some other part of his body and bounced to a team mate, but he was under no pressure to do it.

Voronin did nothing aside from the one on one (which was woeful) he had no influence on the game IMO

[Exiled_red]

Carra has been part of the shambles at CB this season so I have no reason to believe this is true.

However Carragher plays he marshalls the defence and organises things admittedly he's made individual error this season but had he been at centre back there would have been communication between him and his partner, neither Kyriacos or Agger seemed to take control of the defence, the organisation was poor.