Lyon 1-1 Liverpool Champions League Highlights (Video)

dave - November 4th, 2009 at 10:38 pm

deserved the win

dave - November 4th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

sorry deserved to win

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

i Hate lyon and there late goals

dave - November 4th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

lucas played well,did not put a foot wrong,voronin is utter shite

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

lucas no voronin bloody f*****g hellif he scored that ono-on-one Arhhhh

Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

We really didn’t deserve that! We deserved to win and yeah what game were you watching? Lucas didn’t put a foot wrong and was unlucky not to score

ROB FROM KENT - November 4th, 2009 at 10:51 pm

for me the team played well enough to win voronin was a shower tonight though we need to get rid of that ukrainian pikey he is simply not good enough i dont know if lyon will do us a favour in florence but it shouldnt have come to this babel can take heart for the goal he scored tonight and he looked direct when he came on but were a team lacking ideas at the moment not helped by the injury list whens our luck gonna change

Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

It wasn’t this game or performance that has got us in trouble was the previous games.

Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

It wasn’t this result or performance that has got us in trouble was the previous games.

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

so thats the man u winner,the finisher goal v arsenal 4-2,torres assist v west ham,today and the goals in his 1st season shows that he can be great but the way Rafa treats him he is ruining babel.

ROB FROM KENT - November 4th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

you cant blame lucas he played his game well i agree that we could have done with aquaman out there tonight i think we need to be more positive lucas and masch are the same kind of player rafa will soon play either masch or lucas with aquilani not both but we need to do it soon as the lack of invention is painfull and i feel for torres who is simply not getting enough ball up there

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

get voronin out,get voronin out,get voronin out,get voronin out

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 11:00 pm

soooooo wish we just had a bit more money last yr so we could of got turner or shawcross
get voronin out,get voronin out,get voronin out,get voronin out

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 11:01 pm

get voronin out,get voronin out,get voronin out,get voronin out please,please

dave - November 4th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

my only criticism of rafa is why he plays voronin,although if he had put that chance away in the first half it might be a different story,had enough chances to bury the game,mascherano is back to his best,once our players are all fit i think we will be back up there in the league and rafa wont have europe as a distraction.if chelsea and man utd draw this weekend we will be only 7 points behind,the exact same amount man utd were in march and look what happened then.

ROB FROM KENT - November 4th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

retry boy good comment mate your so right its the previous games that counted tonight i think before the first game in the group stages we would have deemed a draw at lyon a good result but we have put ourselves in a position where the draw wasnt good enough

Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

Did anyone else think that was torres clean through in the first half? I was already celebrating then i saw it was voronin.

Aquaman - November 4th, 2009 at 11:07 pm

Back Four were great. Midfield were largely absent. Strikers missed chances.

Torres really should have scored the early chance. Any other striker I’d have a bit more sympathy, but Nando eats those for breakfast (Even when he’s unfit). Voronin tried hard (as usual) but lacks the attributes he needs to play in the Gerrard hole. He needs to watch N’Gog’s goal and take some notes as well. Lucas was unlucky. His shot would have been a goal against 95% of the keepers we play against. Lloris was having a blinder and just couldn;t do anything wrong. Great Save. Kuyt’s follow-up was a 50/50 chance at best, but still well kept out by Lloris (again!).

Don’t know what happened to our midfield. Mascherano was only evident when he fouled someone and Lucas went backwards more than forward. We spent most of our possession passing between the back four and Lucas with no-one taking up the connecting role. This is where either Voronin should have dropped back (instead of playing winger), or the wingers should have come narrower to provide options.

On the plus side: The back four looked solid. Insua had another lackadaisical ball-watching moment which nearly cost us a goal, and the Barbarian fell a bit to easily for the equiliser, but other than that they were immense.

Babel’s goal was a scorcher. If he does that again (soon) then he may just convert me. However he descended into arrogance a bit afterwards, which was disappointing.

A note to all those who crucified Rafa for taking Torres off in previous games. Rafa left him on far longer than was wise in this game. He still hasn’t had the break he needs to recover and this game may well push him out of the Birmingham game.

Anyway. Enough criticising. Despite what the media will scream tomorrow, I don’t think Rafa did anything wrong today. We lacked the confidence to grab the game by the throat, and failed to take our numerous chances. Neither of these things are Rafa’s fault.

Warren Bloggs - November 4th, 2009 at 11:07 pm

Lucas was outstanding tonight along with Mascherano in the centre of midfield. And as for Mr.Comfort’s claim that Liverpool were ‘un-inspired’ is ridiculous every single player, (excluding Voronin who cost us win) was much improved. Reina, Carra, Kyrg, Agger and Insua all had a good game and for 90 mins looked relatively comfortable. We were incredibly unfortunate with the equaliser, the defence lost their concentration and Reina could not really do anything about it. For me, our Ukranian heap of shite is what cost us all 3 points after he missed a complete sitter and a book load of poor touches. Babel came on and gave us that edge with a fantastic goal and coming close to a second. All red fans and players should take great heart in the performance tonight, yes we may struggle now to qualify for the next round but more performances like this in the Prem would be much appreciated.

Well done again Lucas and Masch you were outstanding. YNWA

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

best striker in the league= Torres
Worst striker in england=Voronin

dave - November 4th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

yeah i thought that too retryboy

ROB FROM KENT - November 4th, 2009 at 11:15 pm

lol mate your intitled to your opinion but lucas is a defensive midfielder and if you know or understand anything about football you cant knock his performance tonight i agree voronin is shocking and i dont think that lucas will play when aquillani is fit it will be masch and aquillani or lucas and aquillani masch and lucas are too similar there protective sideways midfielders who dont have a killa ball dont mean he is to blame i think people like too jump on the bandwagon lucas bashing but i think the lad did well tonight and to be honest who would you have played cm who was fully matchfit ?????? but i agree about voronin

Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 11:20 pm

Lets get it right though lyon were terrible tonight as well never put any player under any pressure, so much so that agger felt comfortable enough to go and play striker for a bit and as the minutes went past was crying out for aquilani for some creativity in the middle which everyone knows voronin is incapable of providing we should have sacrificed lucas and pushed it more. Kyrgiakos had reina to thank for saving him earlier when his header put their striker clean through and he was at fault for the goal too. Lets hope lyon play a lot better against fiorentina.

dave - November 4th, 2009 at 11:22 pm

warren and rob your spot on!

Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 11:29 pm

Anon@ 11.22 Only one out of that list that didn’t perform i felt was kuyt who does look like he is treading water when running mascherano not good enough for liverpool? Best at what he does in the world!

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 11:30 pm

just think if all our players are fit then out team is:
——-Riena
Johnson–Carragher–Agger–Aurelio
Kuyt–Mascherano–Aquilani–Benayoun
————-Gerrard
————————Torres
Bench:
Cavlieri,Insua,Skrtel,Lucas,Riera,Ngog,Babel
Now that is a great 18 man squad but after that is just Shit,Shit and more shit oh and youth.

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 11:32 pm

yh kuyt who is just like ji sunk park and hes on the bench and kuyt starts. we should only use kuyt in the big matches when we need anergy like the man u match.

dave - November 4th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

mascherano not good enough,that made me chuckle,i agree with retryboy

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 11:36 pm

anonymous – November 4th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
are u an idiot mascherano is one of the best cdm.
when ever rafas had money to spend hes spent it well eg torres,aquilani,johnson,mascherano,alonso but he always has to buy bargain buys and do wealing and dealing to get players if he had lots of money he wouldnt have bought Degen,Voronin,krygiakos and he prob woulnt of sold crouch and could have bought Mata,turner,silva ect

Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 11:37 pm

Quality youth though ryan spot on with the team don’t think kuyt deserves to be an automatic choice any more though. Rate babel higher than him going forward and a right midfielder shouldn’t be picked on his defensive abilities

Donavan Ried - November 4th, 2009 at 11:38 pm

I think that this is it for Liverpool in the CL this season…… Again I find myself questioning Rafa team choice …. While Voronin had a decent first half chance he was the wrong choice in the first place to partner Torres, it should have been Dirk Kuyt, or maybe Ryan Babel ……
There were choices a plenty for Rafa …..Again he chose the wrong ones ……

And before anyone jumps on my case and says he was limited by the options he had on the bench, it was true in one respect, but I would like to point out to you that whiles he was limited by the players he was not limited in how he chose to play them ….
He could after seeing the way the defenders were getting tight on Torres, and how ineffective Voronin was have brought on Ryan Babel earlier in the second half ( and not the 65th min as usual) and pushed him up front in the Torres role and dropped Torres back in to the Gerrard role…… We all know that Torres can play that role. He as done so for Spain quite often with David Villia taking his role as front man…. He as also done this in Liverpool games feeding his strike partner Gerrard ….

This would have also allowed Torres more space to run at defenders, and at the same time drawing those defenders a way to cover Babel ….

Or he could have brought on Babel and put him on the right allowing Kuyt into the middle ……

He didn’t and Babel scored a freak goal (By this I mean unexpected, But wonderfully taken, and his technique was faultless) but it was still a bit of a shock considering were the ball usually ends up …..

Even after that the substation Torres for N’gog was a bad choice …. It should have been Torres for Aquilani, Pushing Babel up front, Benayoun to the left and Kuyt right with Aquilani in that Gerrard role ….. I felt that this would have given us the best chance of scoring a second goal …..

N’gog is like watching a younger Ryan Babel on the field, only slightly less clumpy

It is not always about whom you play, but more where you play them, yet another lesson Rafa should have learnt

Aquilani4goals - November 4th, 2009 at 11:39 pm

why bench aquilani ,we do not need a draw at this stage of champions league competition.why repeating the same mistake over and over again.this is madness or should i say insanity. we all know that voronin is no good enough and lacks confidence why play him behind torres this is what happened against fulham and rafa did the same again today.look guys this is no about injuries this is common sense.since rafa is too stubborn to learn from mistake we wil keep going down the drain .why didnt he play vorronin again man u?if he had we would have lost that march.I am not happy with the draw at all….I am not here to crucify rafa but guys think about it for a moment

dave - November 4th, 2009 at 11:42 pm

we didnt lose

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 11:44 pm

any ideas on when Riera,elzhar,Gerrard,joghnson will be fit again?
i think its getting to the point where screw match fitness we need to start with aquilani v birmingham on mon then when we are winning bring him off if hes tired not waiting to out him on at 75 mins. or give him 45 in the reserves. cause nasri came back from a broken leg and played 80 mins v us.

ROB FROM KENT - November 4th, 2009 at 11:47 pm

mascherano is one of the worlds best holding midfielders if not the best kuyts a good right midfielder nothing wrong with him always gives 110% steven gerrard is nandos strike partner i think we could do with a top striker as back up to those two but its a bit pie in the sky to say rafa is dragging us down we have an injury list that reads like man citys shopping list skrtel top class cb gerrard the best alround attacking midfielder in the world albert riera spains left winger glen johnson englands best rightback aquillani not match fit yet top class italian midfield playmaker thats just 5 of those who would all be starters in our first 11 you take the equilivent out of the utd team or the chelsea team they would look rather lightwieght dont you think ? you cant make rafa a scape goat all the time mark my words liverpools first team fully fit matches anyones in the premiership and would be one of the strongest in the champions league

Aquilani4goals - November 4th, 2009 at 11:48 pm

i will say again and again rafa tactic is to blame.Rafa think too much and the end of the day he will just miss it.

Ryan Babel - November 4th, 2009 at 11:50 pm

any ideas on when Riera,elzhar,Gerrard,joghnson will be fit again?

yh kuyts ok when we have gerrard and torres but without one of those he seems to be lacking creativity and speed we need for a RM.

Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 11:53 pm

Benitez is far too cautious in all aspects thats what 90% of our arguments about him boil down to with youth, substitutions, formations, tactics he is lucky that babel pulled something out of nothing because otherwise people would be crucifying him for leaving aquilani sat on the bench. He should have had at the very least a half hour. I am not crucifying him for tonight though because we were the better team, deserved to win and this wouldn’t have been a bad result had it not been for the previous games.

Stillontheperch - November 4th, 2009 at 11:54 pm

Can’t agree that the defence look solid. Carragher looked desperate, seems to have lost his composure.They are reminding me of the bad old Roy Evans “Any decent opponent attack will create havoc at the back” days. Only Agger is trying to put his foot on the ball.

Aquilani4goals - November 4th, 2009 at 11:55 pm

there no need to cry when the head is off..this is the time when the manager coachin skills is need and yet when are down in cl and pl any hope of silver ware this season?

Donavan Ried - November 4th, 2009 at 11:57 pm

Aquaman – November 4th, 2009 at 11:07 pm …. I think the olny thing we lack was that creative spark from midfield, but we were never going to get it from Mascherano who’s job is to break up the play and cover the back for, or Lucas who is a denfensive midfielder, both of whom played well ….. Yes I said Lucas played well ….. not great but well. lol

Aquilani4goals - November 5th, 2009 at 12:01 am

this result is simply not good enuff

Ryan Babel - November 5th, 2009 at 12:03 am

ny ideas on when Riera,elzhar,Gerrard,joghnson will be fit again?

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 12:05 am

Agree the defence only looked solid because lyon were so terrible wouldn’t blame carragher though he isn’t a right back and only played there because rafa won’t trust stephen darby.

ROB FROM KENT - November 5th, 2009 at 12:05 am

mate do you honestly think when aquilani is ready rafa will play lucas and mascherano together have a think mate ! as for mascherano tonight he was man of the match and against utd he was class kuyt gives us a bit of balance or though i see your point with babel on the right he has looked good there but if you watch babel in his ajax days he was a formidable cf who looked a real prospect id like to see him in the hole behind torres when gerrard is out where the ukrainian twat played tonight 2009 is turning in to a nightmare for us id put it down to the injuries i hope in jan we will get a couple new faces in but our hands are tied at the moment

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 12:08 am

Gonna still put a tenner on us to win the champions league tomorrow will get mental odds and lyon getting something against fiorentina is totally plausible.

Aquaman - November 5th, 2009 at 12:10 am

I can understand the arguments about Rafa not using the players he had at his disposal perfectly, however in my view the tactics he did use were enough to win us the game.

Excluding Babel’s goal we had three chances and it is pathetic that we didn’t score at least one. If we create 4 golden opportunities in one game, then that should be enough to win it. In my view, Nando’s was the worst of the 3. Followed by Voronin and then Lucas’ (which was only kept out by a spectacular piece of goalkeeping).

Yes, our midfield lacked any sense of purpose going forward (I touched on this in my post above). Yes, Voronin probably shouldn’t have started. Yes, Aquilani should have come on. But despite all of this we set up 3 glorious chances and only scored an outside wonder goal. This was worse than anything that Rafa did wrong tonight.

Aquaman - November 5th, 2009 at 12:12 am

Good point Retryboy. On another note: We’ve had exactly this many points once before at this stage. Guess how that story ended? That’s right. Big ears in the cabinet! We’re not out yet.

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 12:19 am

Was strange that insua stopped going forward in the second half like he was in the first. His crossing is terrible by the way although the worst daisy cutters seemed to create the most havoc another example of how poor lyon were.

Mark G. - November 5th, 2009 at 12:23 am

1. Great effort, we got it from all the boys. Some are better, than others, you can’t expect Voronin to magically turn into Torres’ brother. At least he was trying hard from start to finish.

2. The absolute key moments were three scoring chances, in the first half, not converted by Torres, Kuyt, Voronin. Had we scored at least one, we would have been well on the way towards 2:0.

3. Considering Rafa lack of choices, he put a team out, that was outplaying the hosts by fair margin. Why didn’t he put Skrtel out to protect the lead after we scored? He was pushing for the second goal, and Skrtel was not 100%.

4. Seems Babel is ready to tease us, whenever even his greatest supporters are ready to write him off. Ryan “Inconsistency” Babel, after scoring his great goal, missed the goal by a mile on a free kick and then screwed up a great set up by Yossi.

5. Why can’t some lay off the ever improving Lucas, it only betrays their ignorance, and defeatist attitude (looking for scapegoats).

5. Are the owners, more likely to sell LFC now, I definitely believe, they are going to be more reasonable, when negotiating with prospective buyers.

5. Get ready for Europe Cup, or whatever that thing is called. Time to regroup, concentrate on Premiership, FA Cup, getting Aquilani into the team and testing the youth for readiness. Can we recall Nemeth in January, most likely not? Hope we can at least stay healthy from now on.

Mark G. - November 5th, 2009 at 12:27 am

Insua countered Insua runs up the wing by introducing Govou in the second half. Remember, what happened at Anfield!

Mark G. - November 5th, 2009 at 12:28 am

I meant of course: Lyon countered Insua runs up the wing by introducing Govou in the second half. Remember, what happened at Anfield!

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 12:36 am

Anon at 12.12 agree with your points except kelly is injured. Darby is equally as good rafa always goes for experience over quality though and he didn’t sign him which is probably another reason rafa would rather move carragher out of position to accomodate kyrgiakos.

Mark G. - November 5th, 2009 at 12:39 am

Anonymous, at 12:12 a.m, watch you language, before you start slagging one of the best contributors here, at least know the facts:
1. Kelly is injured.
2. Putting Aquilani on after playing twice 15 minutes each time, after 6 months of rehab would be somewhat risky. Also he had virus infection after Arsenal’s game.
3. Carragher worked like a dog, all game, less risky to play him there than in the middle, where faster forwards slip by him with disconcerting ease. The ref did not care for him, whistled him for 4 consecutive fouls when the game was just under way.

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 12:43 am

Good point about govou mark again though we can’t be reliant on full backs to provide width. Unfortunately their best players also were their defenders especially that chris.

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 12:55 am

Spot on kermit all through the prediction thread said the same moving carragher over will show up his lack of pace and putting him out of position is bound to affect his game thought kyrgiakos was having a good game and i had been proved wrong until his headed back pass should have cost us a goal if it wasn’t for reina’s brilliance then it would have done and then he was at fault for the goal. Thought the ref was on carraghers case to start with but he was actually consistent any little pushes either side he gave.

Stillontheperch - November 5th, 2009 at 12:56 am

At least Reina has been Flawless this season!
Best keeper in the world at the moment on current form.

colden - November 5th, 2009 at 12:58 am

Babel tonight proved why he is the most frustrating player at the club. He scored an absolute wonder goal, but then reverted to type – hit a free kick out for a throw-in, shot well wide when put through in the penalty box, then mis-judged the flight of the ball in the lead up to their goal.

I’d really love the guy to succeed at LFC, but one wonder strike doesn’t suddenly make him a star. We want to see more of that (and don’t say it’s because he’s played out of position. His goal tonight was scored coming in from the left !).

Tonight’s match showed what a fine line there is between success & failure. A last minute goal turns a great result into a near disaster. Considering the players we had missing, the performance tonight was good.

For all those complaining about a lack of creativity, remember that most of our more creative players were out – Gerrard, Johnson, Aurelio, Aquilani, Riera, and we still had more than enough chances to win the game.

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 1:13 am

Colden the epl defenders cottoned on to the fact that when babel plays on the left he wants to come inside and unleash a shot like that during his first season when he did exactly the same thing many a time. They now just show him down the channel where he has no choice but to use his weak foot. This just shows lyon defenders didn’t do their homework. On the four occasions he has played on the right he 2 as sub he has looked so much better using his pace to get to the line put in good crosses and still be able to be part of quick breaks utilising his shooting skills. This was the one time i actually advocated playing him on the left only because i felt we needed yossi’s creativity in the middle. Also to try and name two defenders being missing as something to do with the lack of creativity is ridiculous

Mark G. - November 5th, 2009 at 1:21 am

Kermit, the beauty of this exchange, is that we will never know, what could have happened, had Rafa used any of our suggestions. And somehow, we like suckers come back for the next game with hopes for better luck for our beloved club.
Going back to Carra at RB, Kuyt, Lucas and everybody else were trying to cover up for his slower pace.
I am in Toronto, it’s 7 p.m., so I write full of spite and vinegar, and then my posts often go to moderation.
Frustrating, at this time I have one post waiting for editor over there to get up and release my post. One of the points is about how frustrating it is to follow Ryan Babel, should we hope his game will become more like his shot tonight, or he will take his inconsistency elsewhere.
And a question, what is the limit beyond which a post goes to moderation?

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 1:21 am

I am still not lucas’s biggest fan at all think he is at best an able back up to mascherano but its not his fault the manager played 2 defensive midfielders and in this case he really didn’t have much option as we have an abundance of them and no fit attacking CM’s plus i think he had a good game many times he is as anonymous as yourself but not tonight.

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 1:27 am

Only thing is kermit rafa won’t leave out babel and won’t play 2 up top thats why he has been stuck getting half hours here and there on the left for ages. People write him off in the single striker role based on half hour performances he needs to learn the role because he has all the attributes pace, power and a lethal shot he is a confidence player though and do think rafa has treated him totally wrong.

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 1:32 am

*won’t leave out kuyt i mean

colden - November 5th, 2009 at 1:46 am

Retryboy. Totally agree with you that Babel looks better playing on the right, and I feel that the balance of the team is upset by playing him on the left, but a class player should be able to prove it wherever he plays. Having said that, Voronin should never have started ahead of him!!

The reason for mentioning defenders as creative players – compare the threat down the right with Carra at full back compared with Johnson. Also, Aurelio can be used left midfield – him and Insua played well together, but he is also a better attacking full back than Insua.

Creativity doesn’t just stem from midfield. You could even say that Reina is one of the most creative keepers – quick accurate clearances setting up chances.

Aquaman - November 5th, 2009 at 1:49 am

Wow, anon. I accept the points you make though I don’t think the bile was necessary. I’ll assume that my second post dealt with at least a few of your issues.

Also I clarified my point (which you quite elegantly avoided) that Rafa was not so much to blame as our finishing. Rafa’s tactics may not have been perfect (they were average, in my opinion), but we still created enough clear and blatant chances to easily walk away with the game. When this happens, then clearly something is working.

I will also say that not putting Aquilani on was a mistake. You got me there. I can only assume that Rafa feels he hasn’t got to grips with our style yet (there’s a similar situation at Stoke with Tuncay Sanli). Even so, he should have come on.

Retryboy - November 5th, 2009 at 1:58 am

Agreed reina has probably set up more liverpool goals than most and definitely a recognised full back offers a lot more going forward than carragher even though he did try just not his game. You need creativity in midfield though in a 4-4-2 1DCM 1ACM 2 of either just won’t work. In our system we can just about get away with 2 defensive CM’s if we are forced to by injury but the player at the front of the triangle becomes the most important its all on him to create. At united it was benayoun tonight it was voronin same defensive midfielders needed benayoun or aquilani in the hole.

Aquaman - November 5th, 2009 at 2:11 am

he he. Fair enough Kermit. Was seriously tempted to rant myself. Apology accepted.

That formation sounds good, and I’ll be very surprised if we don’t use exactly that once we get all our players back (I mean Rafa did fork out 20 mil for the lad and who’s going to leave out Gerrard?).

Also my agreement about Reina. I’ll admit to having been really nervous with him between the sticks a couple of seasons ago. But now I assume that every shot will be saved (unless the defense has completely failed him). He’s been our best player this season by miles.

Ryan Babel - November 5th, 2009 at 8:51 am

yh babel did much more he actually scored.wish he did play babel instead of voronin but its too lat now.
Aquilani and gerrard will be fit for birmingham.

Hoogleboogybugleboy - November 5th, 2009 at 10:14 am

anonymous – November 4th, 2009 at 10:47 pm

KALEB

wtf? I can only chalk this one down to rafa and his poor tactics yet again. why buy aqua if you wont play him. aqua on crutches would be better than the hobbit in midfield, we constructed nothing. We are so pathetic in midfield, we rely on half chances and “something out of nothing strikes”. Full credit to babs, but ffs benetiz will you please leave, and can someone please give the hobbit swine flu. Send lucas ti ukraine apparantly swine flu is deadly there. Knowing beneathus he would still play the hobbit even if he had gangerine. We are screwed. Lets hope the useles shite of a manager bloods some youth and then pisses off asap

The above is a disgusting post and whoever wrote it should be ashamed.

Not a great result obviously but not a bad performance. Lucas and Mashcherano played well but as many have said, they are similar sort of players and we really need some creativity in midfield. I don’t normally slate Liverpool players but Voronin was absolutely dire last night. You can tell the guy has no confidence but I think that is because he is way out of his depth at Liverpool. Although Babel scored a great goal, for me he still does not look like he is good enough for Liverpool and his inconsistency is a major problem. Look at the freekick he took not long after his goal. It went out of touch on the opposite side of the ground. Shameful. The defence played well especially Agger although I thought he was partly at fault for their goal. The same could be said for Kyriagos. I can’t really fault Benitez as up until the 90th minute mistakes everything went to plan.

Hoogleboogybugleboy - November 5th, 2009 at 10:36 am

Oh, and Donavan. It is only YOUR opinion. Just because that is what you would have done from your armchair at home doesn’t make it right.

Hoogleboogybugleboy - November 5th, 2009 at 10:55 am

Mark G. I really like your posts mate. I think you are reading from the same page as me. I’m not 100% sure but I think the teams that don’t qualify for the CL knockout stages don’t go into the Europa league. If we go out of the CL that is it in Europe until next season.

Donavan Ried - November 5th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

Hope that Rafa is pay attention there are aone or two real good players that he could opt for in the summer from Rubin Kazan, Domínguez, Ryazantsev,Evgeny and Bukharov all lok really good players….

Donavan Ried - November 5th, 2009 at 1:12 pm

sorry typo ….. should read …all look really good players

Donavan Ried - November 5th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

Hoogleboogybugleboy – November 5th, 2009 at 10:36 am …… Nor does it make it wrong either does it ……. Rafa the great tactician is so predictable that it makes playing against us a lot easier than it should ….. You have to be flexable not inflexable in your team selection and style for play as well as fromation …. I suspect 9O% for the people on this site knew who he would field and how he would field them ( the other 10% was shocked by the inclucction of Voronin in the starting line up) …..

YOU just REFUSE to THINK that Rafa could do ANY WRONG …..

And as for the “armchair” jibe most 7 seven year olds would have never played Voronin, let alone an “Armchair Manager” ……

Agian “MY OPINION” But hey, what do i Know ……

Donavan Ried - November 5th, 2009 at 1:43 pm

People you can register on the right hand side of the home page,(takes two minutes tops) then recieve you password via E-mail about a minute later, then log in …. Please do this as it makes reading the post that much more enjoyalbe for all …..
Thank you

Hey Kermit….. that means you too, No mark LOL …..
How’s it been mate?…… Long time no hear from you ….. Glad to see that you are back….

Donavan Ried - November 6th, 2009 at 2:08 pm

anonymous – November 5th, 2009 at 11:01 pm ….. Drew, what are you on ???…… Did i say Torres was Fit??…..

“Aquliani not fit has had Flu (he would have come on if liverpool would have been 3-0 up but do you really want to add even more pressure on the lad before his career has EVEN kicked off inl fc shirt)” ………… Then why have him on the bench in the first place???? ……. Woudl it not have been better to have him back at home in bed with a hot water bottle, OR, is it just Rafa setting up his next excuse for losing (Rafa:-During the Lyon game Aquliani gave his swine Flu to some for the players thats why we could not beat Birmingham) That last remark was a joke by the way ………
Why not take someone that was fit and would if needs be,play???

“YOU I’M AFRAID give nothing but bad vibes about liverpool because you dont know what is going on.” ……..

I may not know the full story, but neither i bet do you, but then again you don’t need to, when if comes to spotting obvious mistakes do you?……

Mark G. - November 6th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

Hoogleboogybugleboy:
Thank you kindly for your correction. I am leaving on vacation right after Birmingham date tomorrow. Hope our team will get healthy soon, and we can start making up the lost ground.
Everytime, I’m in Cuba, I run into many football fans from all over continental Europe and the Isles. Looking forward to some passionate discussion over a few beers..