Villa Post Match

[dww]

I'm not convinced by all this talk of Kuyt being bad. He wasn't very creative but he covered Johnson well and in my opinion had a decent enough match.

We were far too narrow though. Every one (except Torres) of our attacking players deserves part of that blame though. Unless of course it was a deliberate ploy in which case Rafa should face the questions.

[wildman]

I thought him and Aquilani offered very little. They both gave the ball away a fair few times.

Take your blinkered glasses off,lucas is here to stay, get used ot it and support him

[MrMichael]

Buying a quality 'right forward' costs a lot of money, unless a bargain is found, so I don't think criticising Rafa for failing to bring in someone who could do that job is fair. He's trying to improve the players we have at the moment and at the same time to promote youngsters to fill in that job (or allow flops like Babel to flourish).

Thing is, with money to burn, it's easier to build a winning team quickly, than the other way round. Our problem is that we don't have many players who can fill in when our best players aren't performing or are off form.

Quality replacements for Torres, Gerrard, Benayoun, Agger and Reina cost a lot of money, and we haven't really got any one to cover those positions effectively enough. Rafa has a method that he's sticking to, such as buying a lot of potentially good youngsters and is trying to develop them into players that could fill that void, without costing the club much in terms of outright transfer fees.

Things are levelling out in the PL. If you look at it, despite our horrible season, we're still 7 points off Man. Utd and 11 or 12 points off Chelsea, which says a lot about the competitiveness of the league.

If we weren't in such dire straits financially, I'd have been very confident that Rafa would have built on that second place last season, but there is also a case of the top teams (apart from Man. City for teams in the top 6) not being able to build on previous seasons too.

Chelsea are stalling, as well as Utd, and the real development in terms of forward progress by any team, is coming from the likes of Man. City, Villa, Spurs, Birmingham and Sunderland who are splashing out more money than anyone else.

I don't particularly disagree with any of that, and I'm not really "criticising" Rafa in a having-a-dig sort of way, I'm commenting on an aspect of the squad I don't think he's ever really managed to fully address in his 5 years at the club. Fact is, we're still 7th in the table and were behind Birmingham before last night, so we're far from being perfect, and I think its perfectly valid to look at what the problem areas on the pitch are.

You're talking about the difficulty in bringing players in to cover for the quality we have in many positions, I'm saying Rafa's never really managed to bring in a true quality premiership wide player in all his time at Anfield, which is a bit odd because he's got almost every other position right at some point. Garcia was probably the closest, but he was rather like Benayoun positionally. The likes of Pennant, Gonzales & Leto it never happened for, and we've often ended up playing either converted strikers or converted full backs in wide midfield roles instead. And now we have Kuyt, Riera, Babel and El Zhar, all players with some ability but who you know deep down have not at the moment proven to really be what we have needed for what seems like an eternity.

Its something we really need to fix. Somehow.

[Roboklopp]

I'm not convinced by all this talk of Kuyt being bad. He wasn't very creative but he covered Johnson well and in my opinion had a decent enough match.

We were far too narrow though. Every one (except Torres) of our attacking players deserves part of that blame though. Unless of course it was a deliberate ploy in which case Rafa should face the questions.

Kuyt really struggles without craft from other players. As our team as a whole is struggling with creativity, he is an easy target. He looked ace last season, but Gerrard & Torres were on fire, Riera was playing well & adding balance & width, we had Alonso's spark & Yossi was deputising brilliantly. For Kuyt to shine again , we really need the other front players to be playing well cos he wont create anything for himself- that is the problem.

[badpiggy]

I'm not convinced by all this talk of Kuyt being bad. He wasn't very creative but he covered Johnson well and in my opinion had a decent enough match.

We were far too narrow though. Every one (except Torres) of our attacking players deserves part of that blame though. Unless of course it was a deliberate ploy in which case Rafa should face the questions.

nearly every attack breaks down with him or at least loses momentum because he can't accelerate past a player. just because he runs back and covers for his mistakes by winning the ball back again isn't enough because he then loses it again and has to run back to cover for his mistake aaaaghhh!!! the kuytian cycle - 90 minutes of continuously winning and losing the ball on the right hand side of the pitch

[Roboklopp]

I don't particularly disagree with any of that, and I'm not really "criticising" Rafa in a having-a-dig sort of way, I'm commenting on an aspect of the squad I don't think he's ever really managed to fully address in his 5 years at the club. Fact is, we're still 7th in the table and were behind Birmingham before last night, so we're far from being perfect, and I think its perfectly valid to look at what the problem areas on the pitch are.

You're talking about the difficulty in bringing players in to cover for the quality we have in many positions, I'm saying Rafa's never really managed to bring in a true quality premiership wide player in all his time at Anfield, which is a bit odd because he's got almost every other position right at some point. Garcia was probably the closest, but he was rather like Benayoun positionally. The likes of Pennant, Gonzales & Leto it never happened for, and we've often ended up playing either converted strikers or converted full backs in wide midfield roles instead. And now we have Kuyt, Riera, Babel and El Zhar, all players with some ability but who you know deep down have not at the moment proven to really be what we have needed for what seems like an eternity.

Its something we really need to fix. Somehow.

Aye. Problem is those kind of players tend to cost the kind of money of which we are sadly so lacking.

[Roboklopp]

nearly every attack breaks down with him or at least loses momentum because he can't accelerate past a player. just because he runs back and covers for his mistakes by winning the ball back again isn't enough because he then loses it again and has to run back to cover for his mistake aaaaghhh!!! the kuytian cycle - 90 minutes of continuously winning and losing the ball on the right hand side of the pitch

Is some truth in this sadly.

[MrMichael]

Kuyt really struggles without craft from other players. As our team as a whole is struggling with creativity, he is an easy target. He looked ace last season, but Gerrard & Torres were on fire, Riera was playing well & adding balance & width, we had Alonso's spark & Yossi was deputising brilliantly. For Kuyt to shine again , we really need the other front players to be playing well cos he wont create anything for himself- that is the problem.

Totally agree

[Guest]

nearly every attack breaks down with him or at least loses momentum because he can't accelerate past a player. just because he runs back and covers for his mistakes by winning the ball back again isn't enough because he then loses it again and has to run back to cover for his mistake aaaaghhh!!! the kuytian cycle - 90 minutes of continuously winning and losing the ball on the right hand side of the pitch

Kuyt does frustrate me too, but I appreciate what he does for the team. Thing is mate, it's very difficult finding someone with 'rounded qualities' like him. If you have a very attacking full back, who does all the damage, rather than the right winger doing it, then you can see the sense of it all. The fact that Johnson is struggling at the moment maybe explains why Kuyt is playing a little bit below his level.


He still pops in from time to time and scores the odd important goal though, but yes, I'd rather see Rafa giving him a rest but I can't see anyone coming in for him, unless you play Aurelio left midfield and Yossi right midfield. And Yossi is somewhat struggling too with his precision at the moment.

[The_weatherman]

nearly every attack breaks down with him or at least loses momentum because he can't accelerate past a player. just because he runs back and covers for his mistakes by winning the ball back again isn't enough because he then loses it again and has to run back to cover for his mistake aaaaghhh!!! the kuytian cycle - 90 minutes of continuously winning and losing the ball on the right hand side of the pitch

But he didn't really lose the ball that often compared to other players like Benni or Gerrard, he actually keeps the ball rather well, would like to see him take more risks going forward once in a while, like shoot more.

[Armchairkopite]

Until we get Riera playing on the left wing our attacks are all to predictable. Kuyts positional sense moving forward is also fantastic but it needs the width iof Riera and the vision of Alonso/Aquiliani to maximise Kuyts positioning, too often the ball is played behind him and he has to check back.

Riera will add another dimension to our play his return cant come quick enough.

[red g]

But he didn't really lose the ball that often compared to other players like Benni or Gerrard, he actually keeps the ball rather well, would like to see him take more risks going forward once in a while, like shoot more.

he keeps it 'ok' but then cant control it when passed to him!!

he just isnt a fluid sort of player , play slows down almost everytime he gets the ball. Him and Johnson potentially are a decent combo on paper, Johnson attacks and kuyt defends johnson when out of position, problem being when johnson is only half fit, playing poorly like he is at the moment, it highlights kuyts poor play further.

[red g]

hope kelly/darby are fit for the RB role the thought of agger/skrtel in the centre is frightening!!

we need to keep carra and agger at CB.

[dww]

To be really effective Kuyt requires movement around him. Yesterday Johnson and Gerrard didn't offer much. In the circumstances I still think he would be better off in the middle, swapped with Gerrard. In theory Kuyt, Benayoun and Gerrard could form a very fluid attacking combination behind Torres. At the minute they spend too much time bunched together in the middle in attack or too deep to hurt the opposition.

[Guest]

hope kelly/darby are fit for the RB role the thought of agger/skrtel in the centre is frightening!!

we need to keep carra and agger at CB.

Not sure Darby is the answer but Kelly certainly looked promising but is currently injured.

It'll be Carra at right back.