Lille 1-0 Liverpool Europa League Highlights (Video)

Aquaman - March 11th, 2010 at 9:51 pm

Well we lost. Again. It’s funny how you’d think that would have begun to hurt less over time, but it’s still just as raw. In fairness, anyone who knows Rafa will have known that this match was most likely to end 1-0 one way or the other. That’s Rafa away in Europe. In truth it’s not a disaster but it’s precisely what we didn’t need right now.

Starters

Reina – For all their shots, I don’t think he had a meaningful save to make all night. Could do nothing about the goal. Perfect free-kick. Somone touchses it and he can do nothing, no one touches it and he can do nothing. Solid as always.

Johnson – It’s amazing the impact that he has. I’m so glad that he’s back. Was pretty good defensively and made a couple of great runs offensively. Good performance.

Carra – One of his better games this season. Made a real nuisance of himself. Sent the French flying with little more than a breath in their direction.

Agger – Also solid. Had to cope with a lot more pressure than he should have. Our midfield is just not working and our back two are the ones who are suffering for that.

Insua – Struggled to contain their nameless number 10 (or at least I can’t remember it right now), but at the same time he put in some great challenges and blocked of a lot of their important passes. More good than bad. Offensively good as always. He’s really consistent in that respect. His yellow card was actually a brilliant tackle that shouldn;t have even been a foul.

Masch – Did what he does best. Tackled everything that moved. Good solid Masch performance.

Lucas – I’m afraid this is where it all boils down. His passing was pretty woeful again today. Masch and Lucas pass to one another a lot, but most of the mforward balls come from the back four. That is just wrong. We don;t need him for his tackling, we need passing prowess. Where the hell was Aquilani!?

Kuyt – Much better than Wigan, but still nothing special. He’s faded on the right. Whatever he had has gone. Wish we could have played Maxi. Glad he went off, but his replacement left me stupified.

Gerrard – Had some great moments but they were intersperced with long periods of anonimity. Gerrard and Torres are supposed to work off one another, and it’s just not happening at the moment.

Babel – Our most threatening player by miles! That 1-2-3-4-5 with Torres was fantastic and deserved a goal (I’m still not convinced about Babel’s composure). His second shot was better and also deserved a goal. Sadly both found the keeper with surgical precision. Don’t think anyone understands why he went off. The whole team became flat immediately after he left. My man of the match by miles.

Torres – Still not sharp, but was left isolated for long stretches of the game. Showed his obvious quality when he did get the ball though. Funny how Torres clearly lacks match fitness yet he’s out there every game, while Aquilani sits on the bench because he doesn;t have any either. Come on, Rafa! Grow up and play the man!

Subs

Riera – Not terrible but definitely not as good as Babel was. Therefore it was a bad sub. The only plausible reason for him to come off is that he was tired, but he didn;t look it to me.

El Zhar – Can’t remember him touching the ball. So El Zhar in the dying minutes is less of a risk than, say, Aquilani or Pachecco? Come off it.

I must say that Rafa got this one wrong. We went in with the typical Rafa-away-in-Europe strategy of “make sure that we don’t do badly away so that we can win the tie at home”. Worked for some of the big guns (ie Real Madrid) but Lille did not deserve that much respect. This is a game that we should have blown them away.

Now I know that confidence was probably low after the Wigan debacle, but the best way to remedy that would have been to show the world that it was a one off and destroy our next opponents. Instead, we stuck to the old plan and ended up with nothing except more questions to answer, more bad headlines, and less confidence.

Aquaman - March 11th, 2010 at 10:13 pm

anonymous – March 11th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Wow. That’s familiar. I could swear that I’ve read it before. Phear the copipasta!

dr.Barnard - March 11th, 2010 at 10:30 pm

I’m reposting it into the right thread, sorry boys.

.Rafa, I respect you, too bad you have to go. It’s not that I don’t believe in your managerial skills, your strength of character, for fairness towards players. I acknowledge we have some great players on the way, and a core of a potentially great team. And I believe you can remake the team faster than most of the candidates likely to replace you.
Well, live is not fair. You have reawakened as the fans, from many years of slumber and reduced expectations. You brought us back to the elite group of the Champions League; you almost sneaked us in to top of the league last year. But you have to go! As long as you stay, “the rags”, the pundits, some of the fans will continue to use you as the shooting target and the American owners can continue quietly to devalue our club and take us step by step down towards mediocrity. You will be appreciated forever by most, but we first have to get rid of the real problem, accidental, short term, non-committed owners trying hard to score the greatest deal of their lives. Good luck Rafa at Real Madrid, Juventus or wherever else the future will take you. We need a new broom to clean the fat and happy, indulgent former “legends”, someone with a fresh eye to breathe the life back into Liverpool FC. The team which, at the moment, has too many chiefs and not enough Indians. And yes, you will never walk alone.

Aquaman - March 11th, 2010 at 10:40 pm

anonymous – March 11th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Here’s the thing. I don’t think that our defense did anything really wrong tonight. They had a few chances but any decent team always will. The goal that they scored was just the perfect free kick, and they deserve credit for it more than our defense deserve blame.

The reason we lost this game is because we didn’t score a goal of our own. Freak goals will happen and unless you have at least one of your own, then a freak goal equals defeat. You’ll notice that my ratings for our offensive players are a lot less positive than for our defense.

It wasn’t a good game though. Better than Wigan, but not good enough for Liverpool.

Aquaman - March 11th, 2010 at 11:03 pm

anonymous – March 11th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Wigan was a case of the players just not turning up on the day. Wigan, in all honesty and no offense intended, are crap and even if we’d stuck out a weakened side we should still have at least scraped a draw. Any decision that Rafa made should have just made the victory either more decisive or less so depending on whether he got it right or not.

Lille are a better team than that. They’ve made it to the final 16 of the Europa League (which is more than can be said of Man City and Everton, who are 6 and 10 places above Wigan on the table), and they do deserve a bit more respect than Wigan do. Rafa gave them too much respect though. He set out his team with (what I call) the Rafa-away-in-Europe tactic, which essentially follows this logic: “If we don’t lose the first leg away, then all we have to do is win the game at Anfield”.

This is an good plan. It’s worked brilliantly in the past (Real Madrid being case in point) and, had it worked, I would have said well done Rafa. But it didn’t and therefore it is, similarly, him that I attribute the blame. I don’t think we’re out of this though. 1-0 is a very small deficit and I expect us to beat them comfortably at Anfield.

Aquaman - March 11th, 2010 at 11:06 pm

Missed you last question. Would I have been happy with 0-0? Well, no. As I said in an earlier post, if you don’t score at least 1 then all it takes is a freak goal for you to lose. I would have taken 1-1 happily (although I’m sure that makes no sense).

Aquaman - March 11th, 2010 at 11:39 pm

anonymous – March 11th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Am I changing my stance? Maybe I am. Wigan hurt me. A lot. Only one other game has hurt me that badly this season and interestingly enough it was a game we won. That other game was the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park. It was a derby which should automatically mean that the players will put their all out there. But they didn’t.

It was the most lackluster derby that I can remember in years. Gerrard was the worst of them. I honestly thought that he didn’t care if we won or lost. What followed that was a time where I gave Gerrard a lot of criticism (a few of the regulars will attest to that), and perhaps some of it wasn’t fair. But the belief and never-say-die attitude is why I support Liverpool, and it comes from the players. The manager is not on the field kicking the ball.

Granted he can be blamed for not motivating the players, but I believe that there is no greater motivation than a Liverbird upon your chest. Nothing the manager can say should ever be greater than that.

Anyway, enough rambling.

The way I look at things is this. The manager does not play the football. He does the managing. The players on the field are the ones who play and if they have a shocker, then there is very little that the manager can do to turn that around. He has 10 minutes at half time to rant and rave and that’s it. If the players aren’t up for it then the manager really can’t be blamed.

The reason I blame Rafa for this is because the players were up for it. There was determination in their movements, if not confidence. They played to the plan and the plan did not succeed. Actually, perhaps the plan has not failed. Obviously we didn’t intend to lose, but the deficit is so small that we can easily overcome it at Anfield.

But that’s the thing. Rafa was more intent on making the second leg easier than on winning this game. Good long term strategy, but in the short term it means we lost. Therefore, he takes the rap. But it is a very little rap, as it may well turn out to be inconsequential if we win at Anfield.

Aquaman - March 11th, 2010 at 11:51 pm

Even if away goals didn’t count, I would have been happier at the end of the game with 1-1 than I would have been with 0-0. I know that it makes very little sense and it’s difficult to explain why I feel that way. It’s mostly down to the fact that I want the team to score every game. I would prefer to lose 2-1 than 1-0.

If you score, then it means that you got the best of your opposition at some stage in the game. It’s a little achievement that you can take out of a game, even if you lose.

Donavan Ried - March 12th, 2010 at 12:14 am

Aquaman – March 11th, 2010 at 9:51 pm…. What you said about Lucas was stop on

For the very first time ever when I saw the team sheet and saw Lucas’s name I cringed….. I knew there would be nothing created from mid field…

This is what I do not understand with Rafa…. Do you know what?

I can tell you what was wrong … No Aquilani, Lucas played = No creative
We were often out done for pace over most of the pitch, but I am getting tied of repeating myself

Gerrard should not be playing there is something not right there (Groin)

Babel played well, but I would have sooner seen him just playing a head of Torres tonight with Riera on the wing… though at times we where to narrow

The other thing is….. Why does Gerrard take the corners? He is pretty naff at them, plus he is a decent header of the ball, so why is he not in the box

1-0 may not be a bad score to take to Anfield, but the way that we are playing I think it could well be a goal to many

Aquaman - March 12th, 2010 at 12:17 am

Hehe. Maybe I am. I don’t actually want him out though. I will reserve judgement until the end of the season. He promised 4th and I’m holding him to that.

Look, I never said that this game was as important as the Wigan game. All I said was we lost this game and it’s Rafa’s plan which caused that. The fact that this game could mean absolutely nothing isn’t the issue. If it was the issue then I would say, that it’s half time and therefore far too early to decide whether we’ve even won or lost yet.

Perhaps I should have said that at the start. I like taking each game on it’s own merits and I believe that we should be looking to win every game. Even the tough away games. Even the inconsequential last group stage game.

I’ve really enjoyed this discussion. Wish that I had them more often on this site.

Aquaman - March 12th, 2010 at 12:21 am

Donavan
Your point about Gerrard and corners is one that has baffled me for years. It seems like such an incredible waste. He’d be far more useful in the box or lurking outside. Plus, as you say, he’s crap at taking them. I wonder if he’s just a little too arrogant to allow anyone else to take them for him. But then sometimes they do….

I don;t know, but it makes no sense to me. Riera did quite well when he took them. Which was for about two games.

Reds Lewis - March 12th, 2010 at 1:46 am

Shocking game really. Tonight would have actually been a good time to shake things up a bit.

Pacheco, Aquilani, and Riera all should have started. As well as Babel…
at least there would have been some desire there.

At the moment there is no cohesion, the team looks tired and weary, and they look basically like they cant be arsed. Its a real shame…but I also think its the teams way of expressing that they don’t want to play under Rafa anymore.

It was nice to see Babel on the RIGHT wing for a change. He played well, I wonder if his good performance will see him warrant a start or even an appearance in our next game though…?

colden - March 12th, 2010 at 1:55 am

Donavan 12.14am
Agree with you on the point that something’s not right with Gerrard.

Don’t know whether it’s just our high expectations. He generally plays well in 80-90% of games, but this season it seems to be the reverse – good performances in only 10-20% of his games.

The other worry is that I’m coming to the opinion that he might not be the right captain. His poor body language seems to spread throughout the team, and he never appears to encourage others. Thought it was telling tonight when Torres was having one of usual arguments with the ref & Lille players – who was it pulling him away? Carra. Gerrard was nowhere to be seen.

It always appears to be Carra encouraging the others, with Gerrard particularly quiet. It would never happen, but I feel Carra should replace him as captain. Even when Carra’s form dipped, he still gave 100% commitment, and never stopped organising & encouraging. Maybe taking the captaincy off Gerrard would take the pressure off, so he can relax & play his usual impressive game.

A few people (including myself) have been asking where is Pacheco, after his excellent cameo performances, especially when we’re crying out for creativity. I’ve been told that he’s been with the Spanish under 21s squad for the last 2 weeks. Those who’ve watched him play for the past couple of seasons know how good he is, and hope he will continue his progress towards being a first team regular.

andy - March 12th, 2010 at 3:42 am

We will never win anything and as always makes our opponent look like the Brazilian national team if this man (only i know who is he) is still our manager. The top players being mixed with the lousy ones, and they themselves looks like they came from the Palestinian national team, not from Spain, Argentina etc…..

Retryboy - March 12th, 2010 at 8:27 am

Didn’t see the match so can’t really comment on it. With Mascherano and lucas together and Kuyt in the team we know what we will get though. Good to here Babel played well again. He has played well every opportunity he has had this season his lack of games has been criminal.

Retryboy - March 12th, 2010 at 11:05 am

Bpl-i think we only need one serious change soon as rafa is gone we have the basis for an amazing squad, top quality youth players get him out and it will all fall into place.

Scouse Magic - March 12th, 2010 at 11:53 am

I still think we need to play two up front, Torres is so badly isolated all the time. If we were to stick another forward up there with him, it would give the defence something to think about and quite possibly give Torres the space he needs to be his usual self.
For me I’d drop Gerrard (Replace with Pacheco), Kuyt (Replace with Babel), Lucas (Replace with Aqualani).
We need creativity and passion something that these 3 players at the moment are just not giving.

isaac hunt - March 12th, 2010 at 12:28 pm

it was the same old shit. although we probably didnt deserve to lose and might have won if babel had stuck away that easy chance. i thought babel was his usual self (something good, alot of things poor). i really dont understand why benitez took babel off before kuyt. kuyt was absolutely useless and was no threat whatsoever. its obvious why kuyt is preffered on the right to babel as he can help johnson with his defending but i cant stand seeing torres all alone up front. he had to play against 3 defenders for gods sake. benitez will never ever have an attack minded team. i really do think that lucas is benitezs love child or something. what did he offer us last night? he let players run past him and take him on with ease. the only thing he can do is foul people. how is it that average teams like lille and wigan can have better players than us? insua was awful again but we all know before the match how he is going to play. we are so predictable its laughable. we are so narrow at times that all teams have to do is mark torres and they know they will have a good chance to win the game. there is no passion there whatsoever. how gerrard can be captain is beyond me. he never encourages and always has a little sulk when the game is going on. ok the players around him are useless and he knows that but surely he could still give his all for liverpool couldnt he?when hes fucking playing for england he does. even if it is for the fans who have supported him all his career. he aint bothered about this season and he is keeping himself for the world cup. not good enough stevie. when will we play well again? who knows?
hopefully madrid or juventus take benitez off our hands for nothing. the club is in a mess from top to bottom.

Donavan Ried - March 12th, 2010 at 12:40 pm

Aquaman – March 12th, 2010 at 12:21 am ….sorry to get back to you so late, had an early nite….

Yeah it baffles me too……. Because of his high, and altough he has sroced some decent headers I would have thought that Benayoun would be taking the corners,Riera being quite tall and good in the air…..

Aquilani4goals - March 12th, 2010 at 1:07 pm

this season is done and dusted,forget top 4 and cl is not going to happen with rafa in charge no never.We cannot play good football any more because of the master tactician useless tactic ,Rafa is taking us the land of obscurity.How can we win games with the likes of kuyt,insua and lucas,we should look for a right back in the reserves.finally rafa need to go far from liverpool

kutex - March 12th, 2010 at 1:13 pm

Do you guys notice something? LFC section on COF has more comments on any article than other club section. Could it be becos of our fan base or is it RAFA, is it that other club fans like those of manure, arsenal and chelsea dnt have much to comment abt?

is it…………….?someone pls help me.

isaac hunt - March 12th, 2010 at 1:30 pm

-Bob from Finland-

gerrard and him had a scuffle about 3 or 4 years ago. left back is our no 1 priority this summer. i have only seen drenthe play a couple of games and i know it is unfair to judge a player on 4 or 5 games but he was shocking.

we need players who will show passion and commitment. the player should know what it means to play for liverpool football club. i really dont know who could we get for left back. i do know that we cant missout on kjaer and turan. when players say they want to play for us even when we are having a bad season then you know it will mean something to them walking out to youll never walk alone.

kutex - March 12th, 2010 at 1:32 pm

anonymous – March 12th, 2010 at 1:18 pm

Pls lets stop this “look at the players around him” thing. These same players where around him last season and we went close. remember united game at old traford, we were without Alonso and Lucas filled in for him. The lad and the team are not having a good season, plain and simple. Ask evra what he saw in the hand of this same shit kuyt last season, this same shit kuyt helped us to a premier league record point last season. his work rate has earned him a place in Rafa’s team and the same goes for the dutch team.

No one is disputing Gerard’s quality, but suggesting other players around are absolute shit ain’t fair to the rest of the squad. Individual efforts can make the difference some times but it is team work that win games. Take a look at the galacticos at madrid, where u have 80 mil ronaldo, there is a 3mil arbeloa playing with him. stop singling out players for another players poor form.

isaac hunt - March 12th, 2010 at 1:32 pm

kutex – March 12th, 2010 at 1:13 pm

its probably because liverpool have more fans.

Donavan Ried - March 12th, 2010 at 1:40 pm

Retryboy – March 12th, 2010 at 8:12 am….. Excellent post Retryboy I agree totally….
You didn’t see the match??? Hope that things were ok…… You missed the match???
That’s like the sun refusing to rise
Welcome to the site Jdog Australia….. What surprised me with Babel was he had two long balls played at him, one was a clearance from Reina and he controlled them instantly. Something he was not doing a month ago… he is either getting the extra coaching he should or as we suspect it is a confidence thing …
The Lucas/Gerrard thing I totally agree with you on….

BPL_BE_PAINTED_RED- March 12th, 2010 at 10:00 am ……. Classic …. Thank you for that. After all the events of this past week this is what I needed and massive belly laugh…. (Tears in my eyes)
Thank you

isaac hunt – March 12th, 2010 at 12:28 pm…. You can hardly call Lille an average team… But I understand were you are coming from with that statement…. What was worrying was we had really no answer to there pace which they had in all areas of the pitch

Donavan Ried - March 12th, 2010 at 1:59 pm

Insua is worth keeping at the club…. This young lad will become better and better. But I understand the concern about his apparent lack of pace. I do believe that he is quite fast, it’s just his build and the way he runs makes it look that he is not that fast.

Still someone is needed with a bit more pace, so I again put forward Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs, Pacey, skilful, young,(21) a great defender, and gets forward almost as good now as Ashley Cole….. When Gael Clichy was injured Kieran Gibbs slotted in seamlessly to the arsenal Defence …. Offer him regular first team football and we should get him…

Babel for now we should also keep, but we have to start him regular or at least start him every game till the end of the season….We need his pace up front

isaac hunt - March 12th, 2010 at 3:59 pm

donavan

arsenal would never sell to us.

just because insua is young we shouldnt keep him. hes overweight, slow, easy to get past and his attacking play has gone to bits this season.

lille arent an average team but you could easily name 50 teams better than them. they do have a good home record but we should easily be putting teams like that away considering weve been to barcelona and milan and won there. the second leg is so hard for us now. we probably will have to keep a clean sheet to win. is anyone confident of doing that?

isaac hunt - March 12th, 2010 at 4:03 pm

kutex – March 12th, 2010 at 1:32 pm

youve backed up every person who has said that “gerrard is playing shit because the players around him are shit”. why? you said “These same players where around him last season”. yes they were but they were good last year. riera looked good for many a game and kuyt was very consistant and was good for most of the season. this year kuyt has been non existant and riera hasnt had a kick.

kutex - March 12th, 2010 at 4:41 pm

isaac hunt – March 12th, 2010 at 4:03 pm

kutex – March 12th, 2010 at 1:32 pm

youve backed up every person who has said that “gerrard is playing shit because the players around him are shit”. why? you said “These same players where around him last season”. yes they were but they were good last year. riera looked good for many a game and kuyt was very consistant and was good for most of the season. this year kuyt has been non existant and riera hasnt had a kick.” and if i may add, so is Gerard.

Dnt really get wat u r trying to say Isaac, are you saying those players were good last and are now bad this yr? whereas Gerard is as good as he was last yr and will forever will be? sorry mate i beg to disagree. these guys, Gerard included are having a bad season period. And if you thinkl gerard is as good and is not affected by bad form, then shld carry the team like is used to. he should make these so called shit players around him look good by turning in good performances week in week out.

Mickeyfinn1983 - March 12th, 2010 at 5:34 pm

Ok, from what i have read here…

Insua isn’t good enough? will somebody then please explain to me, how Insua has the highest amount of Assists from a full back in the premier league?

Babel had an OK game last night, fantastic 1-2 across half of the field with Torres, bad finish though… Missing those chances is not the issue for me… When he received the final through ball from Torres his head positioned downwards is! Head down, blast the shit out of it, isn’t what strikers do!
Which brings me to the second point… Ryan Babel is not and i repeat not a striker in a million years, he is like a kid in the playground….”What position do you play” answer from a young boy “Striker, honest!”…..YEAH RIGHT!

Steven Gerrard should step down as captain… People know me to be on my constant rants about Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, well today is no different… Leaders should be leaders in good and bad times… Gerrard only leads when things are going good.

Jamie Carragher… Too old, and this season too bothered with what he is going to do after Liverpool… He knows himself that he has lost the edge… Sami Hyypia style of defenders can keep on going into their mid-late 30’s because they do not rely on pace so much, defenders like Carragher do.

Rafael Benitez out? Like i posted on a different topic, can’t find it anymore…. Ok sack him and then what? The replacement we get we never be of the same caliber as Rafael Benitez, FACT! You can go on about O’Neil, Van Basten(damn, still makes me chuckle), Hiddink, Mancini(saw this one late, fucking hilarious)… The only low profile manager i would give a chance is Alex Mcleish and even then i would blindly choose for Benitez

andy - March 12th, 2010 at 5:40 pm

Mickey oh Mickey………..oh god please forgive me…………….

Retryboy - March 12th, 2010 at 6:00 pm

Afternoon Donovan-assumed it was 8.00 kick off. Had a bad influence scotsman on my course decided to get us beered up on the train back. Went for a few at the pub and then went to watch the game only to find out it had finished lol doh!! the match reports softened the blow of missing it a bit.

dr.Barnard - March 12th, 2010 at 6:29 pm

Mickeyfinn1983 – March 12th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
You have to lookat the whole game of Insua, yes he produces assists, but his side also leaks most goals. I did not suggest to sell him, however he is not fit to be our first choice LB. He is young and may still get better.
Agree with your criticism of Stevie G, and Carra. However I don’t believe Rafa would dare to sit any of them down in the present “political climate”.
If you love the club, while respecting Rafa for his achievements, it would serve the objective of rebuilding LFC quickly, to replace Rafa for two reasons.
First: by becoming a target of constant criticism he obfuscates and protects the real culprits – the owners.
Secondly: he lost a lot of his authority through this season from hell. I don’t believe he would dare to make and execute the decisions needed to quickly bounce back from current quagmire.

spota - March 12th, 2010 at 6:56 pm

dr barrnard tell mick to look at insua just before wigan score ! nuff said .
realy dont wana com on this just PURE SHIT
MASSC AND LUCAS BENITEZ NO NO NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mickeyfinn1983 - March 12th, 2010 at 7:15 pm

so its insua’s fault that Kuyt kicked it to wigan…. Damn, why do i bother sometimes

spota - March 12th, 2010 at 7:36 pm

no but insua had weeks to clear his lines instead ov passing back and side back and side back and side
get the picture
sorry i forgot insua is class
hahahahahahahahahahahaahaha
get real

spota - March 12th, 2010 at 7:41 pm

just watched it again quality clerance by insua . and thats what it was !
inless your claming he passed to kuyt on the turn .
i dont think insua has that vision . did pele?
watch the goal again insua is by the corner flag and has weeks
he gets hurried by er WIGAN
YNWA

spota - March 12th, 2010 at 7:43 pm

mind you read the sun what do i expect

Mickeyfinn1983 - March 12th, 2010 at 8:02 pm

damn some of you are pathetic…. Just because i read the sun… I only read it in Airports… Jesus christ!

I guess when we had 6 clean sheets out of 7 he wasn’t playing

Retryboy - March 13th, 2010 at 8:13 am

Anybody who watched the reserves regulary would know that insua was never the star of the defence. In fact to me he was the weak link Darby and san jose were the consistent rocks back then and then kelly came into it as well. He got opportunity because of long term injuries to Aurelio, Dossena and agger…include the dane because you can guarantee he would have been playing left back before insua if he was fit at the time. Insua has been destroyed regularly by anyone running at him all season. Mcanuff of reading made him look like an oap, nzogbia had him on toast. They aren’t exactly ronaldo are they? Even landon Donovan destroyed him with pace! We have conceded so many goals this season from wingers walking past our full backs and insua has been the main culprit. Some of that is down to the wing back thing but insua has to learn massively positionally to compensate for his lack of pace. Not sure if he will ever be able to make up for being that slow but i would keep him and get a quality first teamer in for insua to learn under.

Mickeyfinn1983 - March 13th, 2010 at 4:07 pm

Positional understanding comes with Age… That’s why defenders peak at a later age than other positions on the field. You slag the shit out of Insua for his positioning but Babel is your own personal god… HYPOCRITE!

Mickeyfinn1983 - March 13th, 2010 at 6:27 pm

anon 5:52

Exactly my point… He slags Benitez for letting Warnock go, but here he is telling everyone that Insua should be sold, why? Because Benitez has faith in the lad… I also do. Every fan i have had a chat with including Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea fans reckon he is a good prospect… Still raw talent but nevertheless A TALENT… I guess you represent Argentina cos you’re a shit player…yeah, try make sense out of that one.

I guess Alex Ferguson should be told that the brothers Fabio and Raphael at Man Utd should be sold because their positional play is embarrassing… They make Insua look like a world beater!

And also mister “Reserves” smarty pants, remember Craig Lindfield – Top scorer for our reserves a couple of years ago, where does he play now… Macclesfield! How many times do people have to tell you that First Team Football is completely different to Reserve team football?

Retryboy - March 13th, 2010 at 7:30 pm

You have to learn to read mickey it really is sad that nobody could ever teach you. How do you translate ‘i would keep him but get a quality first teamer in for him to learn under.’ into ‘he is telling everyone insua should be sold’ how do you translate ‘he has to learn massively positionally to compensate for his lack of pace’ into ‘you slag the shit out of insua for his positioning’ what the fuck has Babel got to do with anything? Do people consistently get past Babel to cross? Is Babel’s lack of pace for his age worrying? Is Babel a defender now? Lol you really are a fuck up mickey and how you can possibly call someone who is as consistent in their views as me a hypocrite is laughable especially with your track record! You spent hours arguing with me and Donovan that Mascherano and lucas worked then said in the same thread you wanted Gerrard moved back into midfield lol there’s a picture of you under hypocrite in the dictionary look it up when you learn to read! Insua may make the grade but he isn’t good enough to be our first choice at the moment, as he grows and learns positionally to compensate for his lack of pace he may be a top player. Again i didn’t say to sell him! There is a difference between the reserves and the first team but if Darby and san jose out perform insua consistently at reserve level you would expect them to get the chance first as you would with Nemeth who was the real star of the show and the only one out of all the youngsters i have said all season would be undroppable if picked. If you notice despite the way twats like you make things out i have always said the way i see things is RB-johnson with Darby/kelly back ups, new LB with insua as back up, Carragher, agger and skrtel with san jose and kelly 4th and 5th choice, Benayoun off Torres with Nemeth and pacheco as his back ups. Spearing to be Mascherano’s back up. Never advocated any of the youngsters being first choice just don’t think they need ten players shifted into their positions before they get a chance.

Mickeyfinn1983 - March 13th, 2010 at 7:49 pm

Yes Babel always loses the ball when our Wing Backs are overlapping…Meaning they are now in the shit because he can’t play a simple ball… And sorry for not completely reading your post… my bad and i apologise for this misunderstanding. I have read alot of stuff on other posts about selling him and it was bad of me to assume it was you(human error).

My opinion on the matter is that you have 2 senior players to occupy each position and then youngsters… Being used as Back up is more damaging than good… Look at N’Gog.. When a first team player gets injured they now have to step up to the plate instead of being used in games which are planned for their appearance.

And i reckon Insua is ready to be our first choice Left back… I hate it when it’s always the issue about letting balls come into the box… I have these discussions with many others when they criticize Johnson… they shouldn’t stop every ball that comes into the box, central defenders should be able to get the ball away too.

For example look at Ashley Cole… Now 29 years old, up until 27 wasn’t particularly a good defender but his attacking ability has made him a first team regular for many years… Same should account for Insua, his attacking is top notch, his crossing is top notch and his overall defending isn’t that bad, sure he has made some mistakes, sure some wingers have gotten the better of him, but it hasn’t happened that often. Put Danny Agger next to him and he will be fine… Danny Agger is brilliant at covering for the full back if a winger gets past him

Retryboy - March 13th, 2010 at 9:18 pm

Fair enough mickey, i rate Darby, kelly, san jose, Nemeth and pacheco really highly, slightly higher than insua so thats why i have no qualms about them being the back ups. Would still have 6/7 experienced players outside the first 11 but these youngsters are ready to play a much bigger part than they are being allowed to and at some point they have to get chances, to me thats where we waste the carling cup, its the bridge to first team football. Don’t think ngog would have struggled as much with a partner- lone striker role is demanding for the worlds best let alone a young lad, would have played Babel&Benayoun or Babel&Kuyt in Torres absence personally but ngog with either would have worked too. The thing you were saying about crosses they will come in but when the winger can beat the full back and get to the byline makes it impossible for centre backs to deal with. They are facing their own goal with strikers flying in, thats been a major problem. you are totally right about defenders not peaking till at least mid twenties, said the exact same thing about ashley cole and johnson myself but i don’t feel we can afford to leave insua as first choice whilst he is learning. The reason why i’m not sure if he will make it is because when he gets beaten its always for pace and if you aren’t quick enough you can’t learn that. So i’m hoping its more that he gets too tight on the player he is marking rather than a genuine lack of pace because he has got other good qualities. You have to look at the coaching staff again for not addressing it. Either way Aurelio has to go he only manages 15 games a season so we have to get another left back to compete with him.