Liverpool supporters: Should Rafa risk Torres against Portsmouth?

Mikey - February 6th, 2009 at 9:47 pm

I’d have him on the bench – give Babel a go up front, his pace and shooting can frighten anyone – play Yossi just behind.

If we did go behind or are 0-0 then bring Torres on for 30 mins. I’m more worried about the Spain game to be honest. Every time he comes back from internationals with a bad hamstring – Liverpool should be demanding compo from the Spanish FA.

MRS - February 6th, 2009 at 9:52 pm

i agree. but if there is 0-0 to half time put torres on for benay!i wanna see babel and torres on top..

Georgiie - February 6th, 2009 at 10:22 pm

Rest Torres on the Bench and Have Babel and N’gog start up front or instead have Kuyt up front with Babel.

Reina

Arbeloa – Carragher – Skrtel – Aurellio

Mascherano

Benayoun – Alonso – Riera

Babel – N’gog

Fan - February 6th, 2009 at 10:41 pm

torres should be rested or else he will suffer the hamstring like gerrard.
gerrard has been overworked by benitez thats why he is suffering.benitez should go because he does not know wat he is doing…..he is a very poor decision maker.not at all clever in the transfer market.he is buying players who are not working thats why gerrard and torres are haing a very heavy workload and suffering hamstring.keane should have been fairly treated.

john - February 7th, 2009 at 3:22 am

I think Babel and Kuyt could tear apart teams. Kuyt works his ass off and creates trouble and Babel can get by people and create chances.

kermit - February 7th, 2009 at 3:32 am

id play babel up with kuyt off him, if torres is suffering then he isn t worth the risk

James C - February 7th, 2009 at 4:04 am

HELL NO.

With Keane gone and Gerrard done in, we absolutely cannot risk Torres to long term injury.

mark - February 7th, 2009 at 4:15 am

start him so we win the game then take him off OR have him on the bench until 30 minutes left if the game is still in the balance. kuyt and ngog upfront. play babel behind them or on the wings maybe, or in my opinion leave him on the bench

slicky4 - February 7th, 2009 at 4:46 am

RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this whole situation at Anfield is absolute bollocks as usual….. THE PRESS as usual are stirring things up, apparently we’re f**ked now that GERRARD is injured and TORRES doesn’t look fit or happy and we got rid of KEANE….. KEANE wasn’t really given a fair crack at Anfield, but it doesn’t fair well when you show disrespect to your manager when your subbed…….
This season we’ve beaten manure and chelski and drawn with arsenal without TORRES and in 1 game GERRARD….now i know that doesn’t win you titles, but we’ve been beaten once in the league, yep we’ve drawn too many and got beat in the cups…. the cups i ain’t bothered about, except the champions league but thats purely financial….
After watching on Wednesday at good(as it gets)ison, yeah we got beat, BUT and it may be a false dawn but BABEL looked exciting and determined upfront on his own, BENAYOUN did well, even DOSSENA had his moments…… if periphal players start coming good it bodes well for us,……. because i think alot of them are playing for their futures….WE HAVE A BIG CHANCE THIS YEAR IF WE BELIEVE……………………………………

DOWNUNDER - February 7th, 2009 at 5:54 am

Look none of us have the crystal ball. For all you know, Torres could break his arm slipping in the bathroom after a shower tomorrow morning. So what…don’t shower? Don’t cross the road? Crap!

I think we need the 3 points as badly as last Sunday against Chelsea. To do that, you need the best 11 out there. Torres would start and if he does show signs of fatigue, Babel can come on. You need Torres’ guile, team play and ability to keep the ball against the likes of Sol Campbell and co. So i say start with Torres. Ignore Rafa, he’s just playing games with us all! Watch, Torres will start.

ian - February 7th, 2009 at 8:59 am

i wanna see a very good squad

arbeloa carrager skrtel aurelio

kuyt spearing alonso(mascherano) riera.

benayoun
babel(torres)

alonso has got a problem i think. we must give spearing a chance. he’s much better than lucas.

dave stopher - February 7th, 2009 at 11:34 am

Torres will have to be well looked after for the rest of the season for me!!

colin - February 7th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

reina

arbeloa – carra – skrtel – aurelio

mascherano

el zhar – alonso – riera

benayoun

babel

i really belive in zhar. he has the skills. him or kuyt.

Stevie D - February 7th, 2009 at 1:38 pm

Start him,win the game and then sub him.
Babel makes more of a impact from the bench and the last thing we need is to depend on another late late show.
We need early goals against these teams or we struggle.
YNWA

joe - February 7th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

yes, start with torres and hopefully we get some early goals. Sub him with babel later in game, babel is the ultimate weapon with we are leading.

jobby - February 7th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

who gives a shit!!!!!!!!!!!!…………………..we love ya LIVERPOOL we do.waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. why do prem teams roll over for Man U?……………….But Liverpool have to sweat blood for the win?…..pissoff portsmouth with your fa cup!

colin - February 7th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

torres… say no more <3

onehundredshots - February 8th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

I’m quite newish to the site, nice to see more than a few not crying about missing Gerard & Torres. It’s a shame some of these ex (especially Liverpool)-players don’t have the common sense shown by some here!

As soon as we draw a game without Gerard, especially if he is rested is “With Gerard this…” or “Liverpol really o rely on Gerard..” blah, blah blah, blah.
But when we draw 4-5 games out of th last 6 with Gerard they have a go at Rafa for taking Gerard off 5 mins from the end of the game when we needed a goal! It’s like what about the other 5 draws when he did stay on the ptich! Why did we draw considering if he is on the pitch “he is always likely to do something” It is so weak, some of our best games have been without Gerard and Torres!! Like against United earlier this year (Although Gerard came on as subs, briging the usual chorus of “Gerard changed things, blah,blah” )
Don’t get me wrong I think Gerard & Torres are very imporant to Liverpool, their dynamism and break neck style suits the premiership at many times but not all the time. On the negative side, Gerard loses the ball a lot and is quite predictable with his over the top pases which Torres loves(“like Owen used to”) but there is a time. Torres is another one, in the Euro he looked out of place in the Spanish team as his touch was so poor, loses the ball very often, but as they are our 2 most dynamic players, so very important, just saying the balance is sometimes better without them.

The best teams can adapt to whatever is needed, that is why the most expensive squads (United/Chelsea and even Villa now) are better prepared for any style they come up against, Chelski problem is not Scolari, they have to look back at why Mourinho left to see their problems come from the manager not having total control over their budget (what ever that be) That’s why Good managers with total control are doing best, Man U & Villa.
I hope Liverpool directors/Ceo’s take note. (I mean Rafa was told he need to sell Alonso for 14-15 mill in order to buy Barry for 18mill, fair enough, but then up to 20million appears for Keane witout having to sell Alonso, does not make sense,”backhanders?” I don’t know, but maybe Keane was not Rafa’s decision at that price or if he was why didn’t he have to sell 14-16 mill worth b4hand as with Barry, someone else is pulling the strings!!)

Even though I think Rafa is quite head strong I think he bowed down to pressure over the years regaring Gerards best position, very dangerous just behind Torres and this is probably his best position, but his best position is definately not centre mid for the reasonz metioned in earlier paragraph. As I think we need to be a bit more attacking to get closer to prem I would like to see him on the right more often this season, with Babel accompanying Torres, especially against the so called weaker teams, Kuyt will never get us 20 goals from the right. but we would probably hear all the ex-Liverpool players on about how Gerard has to be in the middle again, blah,blah and nothing about how his most succesful season in terms of goals was in 2005/06 (23 goals, last seson was 21) playing mostly from the right.

By the way I do not thnk Liverool are good enougho win the prem this year, we do not have the strength in the squad to adapt and nor should we, considering our net spend is way below the big two an also below some of the other so called “lesser” clubs, but anything is possible, at least we have done better than ever since Dalglish, but as Calvo (a Man United fan) has rightly pointed out, what we really need @ Liverpool is UNITY to move ahead, of the dirctors/Ceo were really with Rafa and therefore vice versa we could realistically dream of pushing for the title on a consistent basis over the next few years with Rafa @ the helm!

In God I trust, not Rafa. But he (Rafa) is doing a good job!

onehundredshots - February 8th, 2009 at 10:27 pm

I’m quite newish to the site, nice to see more than a few not crying about missing Gerard & Torres. It’s a shame some of these ex (especially Liverpool)-players don’t have the common sense shown by some here!

As soon as we draw a game without Gerard, especially if he is rested is “With Gerard this…” or “Liverpol really o rely on Gerard..” blah, blah blah, blah.
But when we draw 4-5 games out of th last 6 with Gerard they have a go at Rafa for taking Gerard off 5 mins from the end of the game when we needed a goal! It’s like what about the other 5 draws when he did stay on the ptich! Why did we draw considering if he is on the pitch “he is always likely to do something” It is so weak, some of our best games have been without Gerard and Torres!! Like against United earlier this year (Although Gerard came on as subs, briging the usual chorus of “Gerard changed things, blah,blah” )
Don’t get me wrong I think Gerard & Torres are very imporant to Liverpool, their dynamism and break neck style suits the premiership at many times but not all the time. On the negative side, Gerard loses the ball a lot and is quite predictable with his over the top pases which Torres loves(“like Owen used to”) but there is a time. Torres is another one, in the Euro he looked out of place in the Spanish team as his touch was so poor, loses the ball very often, but as they are our 2 most dynamic players, so very important, just saying the balance is sometimes better without them.

The best teams can adapt to whatever is needed, that is why the most expensive squads (United/Chelsea and even Villa now) are better prepared for any style they come up against, Chelski problem is not Scolari, they have to look back at why Mourinho left to see their problems come from the manager not having total control over their budget (what ever that be) That’s why Good managers with total control are doing best, Man U & Villa.
I hope Liverpool directors/Ceo’s take note. (I mean Rafa was told he need to sell Alonso for 14-15 mill in order to buy Barry for 18mill, fair enough, but then up to 20million appears for Keane witout having to sell Alonso, does not make sense,”backhanders?” I don’t know, but maybe Keane was not Rafa’s decision at that price or if he was why didn’t he have to sell 14-16 mill worth b4hand as with Barry, someone else is pulling the strings!!)

onehundredshots - February 8th, 2009 at 10:34 pm

following from previous e-mail, sorry for length of the e-mail, if it is of interest please feel free to get my latest book “How kill a fantical Red and still be a true Red”;

Even though I think Rafa is quite head strong I think he bowed down to pressure over the years regaring Gerards best position, very dangerous just behind Torres and this is probably his best position, but his best position is definately not centre mid for the reasonz metioned in earlier paragraph. As I think we need to be a bit more attacking to get closer to prem I would like to see him on the right more often this season, with Babel accompanying Torres, especially against the so called weaker teams, Kuyt will never get us 20 goals from the right. but we would probably hear all the ex-Liverpool players on about how Gerard has to be in the middle again, blah,blah and nothing about how his most succesful season in terms of goals was in 2005/06 (23 goals, last seson was 21) playing mostly from the right.

By the way I do not thnk Liverool are good enougho win the prem this year, we do not have the strength in the squad to adapt and nor should we, considering our net spend is way below the big two an also below some of the other so called “lesser” clubs, but anything is possible, at least we have done better than ever since Dalglish, but as Calvo (a Man United fan) has rightly pointed out, what we really need @ Liverpool is UNITY to move ahead, of the dirctors/Ceo were really with Rafa and therefore vice versa we could realistically dream of pushing for the title on a consistent basis over the next few years with Rafa @ the helm!

In God I trust, not Rafa. But he (Rafa) is doing a good job!

onehundredshots - February 8th, 2009 at 11:41 pm

Sorry for the duplication, either keyboard or site is playin up

kermit - February 8th, 2009 at 11:48 pm

west didnt roll over and die today i think they were really unlucky and what has happened to carton cole he is playing like a man possessed
well done the hammers

DOWNUNDER - February 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

Man…like i said before, I wish i have a crystal ball. So Rafa was serious about leaving Torres out. Well, at least I got half right. His winning goal and overall play though brief proves Liverpool do need him.

It’s a worry that Ngog doesn’t seem at this stage to be ready. As for Bable, how on earth did he miss that one? Even my granny who is about to lose all her vision can score that one.

Coggin - February 9th, 2009 at 2:08 pm

DOWNUNDER – February 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

how on earth did he miss that one? Even my granny who is about to lose all her vision can score that one.

Seems to be an ongoing problem with our strikers at the moment, at least we won, shame about the Man U score I thought west ham looked ok and worth a draw but Giggs goal was very good