Liverpool 07/08 Season Thread

Has Babel started any games yet? I wasn't impressed with him when I saw him play before he moved to Liverpool. What little I've seen of him in the EPL, I've been impressed.

I want to see him take a shot with his left foot. He blasts the ball with his right and I'm sure he could thump it harder with his stronger left.
 
Babel's mostly been used as a substitute, though I think he started a CL game.

I too wasn't that high on him before he came to Liverpool, though I knew he had tons of potential. But what I've seen from him, he will be a world-class striker/winger in a couple seasons. He's got a great first touch, speed, power, and an absolute cannon of a shot.

FWIW, he's actually right-footed, despite playing mostly on the left side of the pitch. I thought the comparison van Basten made to Thierry Henry was typical football hyperbole from his national team coach, but his game really reminds me of Henry's. I don't think he'll ever reach Henry's legendary status, but their style and attributes as a player are very similar.
 
*******SPOILER**********


Uggghh. That has to be one of the worst games I've seen us play in a LONG time. Kuyt was probably the only one who had a decent match.

Utterly miraculous that we got a point. Given that this was the hardest fixture of the 6, you'd have to like our position.

Oh and BTW, QUARESMA - you can keep him. Fancy ball skills, does nothing in the box.
 
Well damn it. Both Xabi and Agger broke metatarsals over the international break (hence their exclusion Tuesday). They could be out up to 6 weeks.

Obviously, we can live without Xabi, but having Agger out for any amount of time really hurts. Hyypia's flaw (pace) was obvious against Porto. We can not run him out against some of the pacier teams. I wouldn't be surprised to see Arbeloa playing center-half Saturday.

We have to get some cover at CH in January (possibly more wing help as well).
 
Just move Heinze over there.
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These metatarsals are a *****. Hopefully for you guys these are minor ones that will only require 6 weeks out, which seems to be the minimum recovery time. Younger players have recovered faster from these injuries that the experienced guys so Agger should be be back fairly soon.
 
The only silver lining is that Carra is back and we're at the softest part of our schedule.

I love Sami, but he's beaten very easily on the ground. I too would guess Arbs gets some time there, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see Jack Hobbs or Mikel San Jose (though he might be on loan...?) get a few starts, in the Carling Cup at the very least.

So if Arbs slides in at CB, we've got Aurelio and Insua to cover LB (Riise is still hurt and will probably be out a couple more weeks I think).

Hopefully Lucas gets some time at CM during this stretch of the schedule. I can't wait to see what he can do.
 
Mikel signed a 3-year contract in August - he's ours.

I've heard JAR will be available Saturday. I think he could also play CB in a pinch.
 
Riise has a tough time defending the flanks. His best attributes are his workrate and his cannon of a left foot. He gets turned pretty easily by tricky wingers and I do not want to see him at the center of the defense.

One other possibility is sliding Masch back there. Obviously it would only be in an emergency situation, but the guy's as sure a tackler as you're going to find on the planet. I'm guessing he'll log a ton of minutes while Xabi and Swagger are gone, anchoring the midfield defense and providing some man-marking to cover up Sami's deficiencies.

Birmingham coming up...

-------------Reina-----------------
Finnan------Carra---Hyypia------Aurelio
----------Lucas-----Masch-----------
------Gerrard------------Benayoun----
----------Torres-----Voronin---------
 
Utterly depressing. I'm usually very supportive of Rafa and his rotation policy, but there was no reason not to start Torres, especially given that Birmingham had all 11 behind the ball at times (need the creativity). What was he being rested for? You know he won't play in the League Cup tie this week. I also would have had Yossi in there very quickly.

We'd better beat Wigan the weekend or things could get ugly.

BTW, the Reading match is on Setanta at 6pm tomorrow (per their website). I'm excited to see Lucas, Leto, Insua, Itanje, et. al. get a good run out.
 
this may sound like hyperbole, but not playing Torres against Birmingham may have been the worst managerial decision of Rafa’s career.

It is almost as bad as starting Killebrew over Muckleroy.

You don’t tinker with your stars in the league. If Torres is fit, he should play. Period.
 
Carling Cup action today against Reading. Normally I couldn't give a **** about this tournament, as it's just another set of games that result in fatigue, injury, and the other problems with fixture congestion. But with our squad depth and the youth ranks I'm actually really excited to see what we have to offer.

Reading's no slouch and I'm sure they'll roll out their A team, but here's my lineup:

---------------Itandje--------------------
Finnan-------Carra-------Hobbs--------Aurelio
Pennant-------Lucas------Mascher-------Leto--
-----------Torres-------El Zhar-------------
 
As if almost to say "I told you so", Torres bags a magnificent hat trick against a lively Reading squad.

I was skeptical when we bought him but damn has he proven to be a great buy. Rarely do strikers from abroad come in and adapt so quickly, but he's quickly become one of the best strikers in the EPL.

I'd mostly seen him play for the trainwreck that is the Spanish national team and had no idea what a hard-working player he is. Great first touch, pace, strength, football IQ, and his finishing has proven to be top-notch. All at the age of 23.

Lucas made his first start and looked great in the midfield. He's definitely a box to box midfielder and played some great passes while getting stuck in and winning a lot of balls. He and Momo compliment each other well, especially with Yossi out there to provide some attacking spark.

Leto looked great as well. I liked what I saw from him in the first game and he looks like a legit, prototypical left-winger, something we don't have in the squad (the perpetually-injured Harry Kewell doesn't count). As much as I like Babel, Leto looks dangerous and provides necessary width, which means we probably won't see him when Pennant is playing on the right.

It's one game, against a somewhat watered-down Reading side, but it's reassuring to see a performance like this, particularly from our B squad.

I'm guessing Torres starts every league game when he's fit and healthy. I can't wait to see when we play Babel and Torres together up top.
 
The performance by Torres was awesome. It was almost embarrassing how much the commentators were gushing over him. He had Bikey on the rack all match.

When will the officiating breaks "even out"? Reading's 1st goal should have been disallowed. Leta, in an obvious offsides position, blocked off Itanje from being able to go for the shot. I have no idea how this goal stood. Great strike though. Also, how did Torres not draw that penalty in the 2nd half? The f'ing ref was 5 feet away from that obvious hack job in the box.

I thought Lucas and Leto were OK, not great. Lucas definitely looks to have all the skills, but at this point he looks a little tentative, as if he's just trying to not make mistakes. For the most part, whenever he got the ball, he would quickly make a safe pass to a teammate. Hopefully as he gets bedded in he'll look to be a little more creative / brave. Leto had a decent match as well, but I'm a little concerned that he may not have the pace to be the winger we need.

Itanje looked decent enough. As stated, the 1st goal shouldn't have counted. He probably could have done better on the second, but when the ball is pinballing in the box these things happen.

I wish Hobbs had gotten on earlier. Arbeloa is serviceable as a FB, but he looked sub-par as a CB. It would have been nice to see if Hobbs is ready to provide cover.

JAR, when he came on, played like a man whose place is under pressure. Very nice to see.
 
Somehow we've swiped a "wonderkid" from Madrid's youth team:

"Liverpool have signed yet another highly promising youngster by snapping up Real Madrid's Geardo Bruno.

Bruno is regarded by the Spanish giants as their hottest prospect and was rated in the same category as Cesc Fabregas.

The Mail on Sunday claim that it was former Real scout Paco de Gracia , now working for Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez, that managed to seal the deal for the 16 year old Argentinian, who has now signed a four year deal at Anfield."

BTW, the Champion's League tie on Wednesday is on ESPN2.
 
I know you don’t want to hear it from me but 6 points out of the last 15 on offer in the league and CL is interesting. You need to right that ship immediately as your upcoming fixtures are daunting to say the least.

Spurs @ Anfield
Everton @ Goodison
Besiktas @ Turkey
Arsenal @ Anfield
Blackburn @ Ewood
Besiktas @ Anfield
 
Definitely a tricky run of fixtures ahead. We just looked out of sorts today and Marseille was hungrier. The last 3 minutes we went all out and really were unlucky not to score. Not to mention the handball in the box before the go-ahead goal for Marseille.

Crouchy was probably the worst player on the pitch. His touch was awful. Yossi is not a 90-minute player; he's much more effective coming off the bench (and Crouch seems to be as well). Aurelio was poor too. Didn't have one good touch on the ball all day.

Great individual effort for the Marseille goal after Momo carelessly gives the ball away. Gerrard still doesn't look right and when paired with Momo, he needs to be seeing much more of the ball. I'd rather have seen Masch in there, as he and Stevie play better together. We are really missing Xabi.

I'm still not too worried about qualifying for the knockout round. We've played the toughest fixture of the group stage (@ Porto) and one of the easiest. Playing in Besiktas won't be easy, but one of my greatest memories as a fan came when we had our backs against the wall played a tough fixture in Greece. Neil Mellor had a nice goal and then Stevie scored one of the greatest goals I've ever seen. Then we went on to win the whole thing.

Disappointing result nonetheless.
 
What the F*** is going on?!?!? 5 of the last 6 matches we have looked apathetic (Reading in the Careless Cup the only exception). Arsenal is getting away from us in the league, and we are likely one more loss away from the UEFA Cup (do we have to play in it?)

Rafa better figure out something to get some fire in the boys' bellies and soon. Captain "Fantastic" is not getting off the hook either. He needs to start showing some leadership.

Couldn't disagree more with your assessment of Crouch last night. I actually thought he was quite useful and worked very hard (can't say that about many last night). I really like the Torres - Crouch partnership. They just had NO service last night. The MF was woeful.

I'm really starting to appreciate Xabi. He needs to get back soon.

When Rafa took Leto off (he's not ready for the CL, BTW), I would have really preferred to see Masch come on, move SG to the right, and move Yossi to the left. When you're having a hard time controlling the center of the park, Masch is the guy to go to. He just made 4-4-2's Top 100 players in the world, and he can't even get in the side.

Severely annoyed and depressed. If Spurs do us this weekend, this could get ugly. We need three from that and then at least a draw in our derby (away).
 
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