Lyon vs. Liverpool 04/11/09

[Ted]

Over the duration of his contract, but thats of no relevance as you would also have to factor in the wages of any other proposed signings.

 

How long is his contract?

[Xherdan]

How long is his contract?

 

 

I am assuming it was a two year deal, averaging at 33k per week.

[Creator Supreme]

Olympique Lyonnais 3 (Lopez 16, 19, 56)

L 1 (N'Gog 78)

[navbasi]

Olympique Lyonnais 3 (Lopez 16, 19, 56)

L 1 (N'Gog 78)

 

Fuck off with that shite please. Putting way too much thought into this.

[Guest LFD]

RAFA'S UPDATE ON 10 INJURED PLAYERS

 

Rafa Benitez is hopeful of having summer signing Alberto Aquilani available for selection in Wednesday's crunch Champions League clash with Lyon.

The Italy international is recovering well from a virus which kept him out of Saturday's 3-1 defeat to Fulham.

 

His return to the squad would be a boost for Benitez, who will definitely be without Steven Gerrard (groin), Albert Riera (hamstring), Martin Kelly (ankle) and Martin Skrtel (muscle) for the Group E encounter.

 

"Aquilani had a virus. He trained today but was a little bit weak. Hopefully in two days' time he will be better," said Benitez.

 

"Gerrard won't travel to Lyon. He has no chance. He is improving but we have to wait. He has had an injection but we have to wait two or three days and see how he reacts.

 

"Skrtel has no chance. He has a small muscle problem. It's not too big but he is feeling something."

 

Meanwhile, the Liverpool manager will make late fitness calls on the recovering Daniel Agger (back), Glen Johnson (calf), Fabio Aurelio (calf) and David Ngog (ankle), none of whom travelled to Craven Cottage.

 

Benitez said: "Agger is improving - he will travel and we will then decide. He felt something in his back but it's much better now. We have to wait and see how he reacts.

 

"Fabio is improving but he still has a small problem in his calf, so we will have to wait.

 

"Ngog is much better, so he could be available.

 

"Johnson is training and working with the physios but he is a doubt at this moment. He will travel to Lyon and we will see."

 

Elsewhere, much was made of Benitez's decision to substitute Fernando Torres after 63 minutes of the Fulham loss with the score 1-1.

 

However, the boss feared his star striker could sustain a more serious injury had he stayed on the field.

 

Torres has yet to reach full fitness following an adductor injury suffered on international duty last month.

 

"I was surprised with the critics after the game because Fernando has had problems in the last month after the international games," said Benitez.

 

"We are trying to manage because he was close to having an operation. Still this morning, two days after the game, he is feeling something.

 

"He is not comfortable. He has not got the power he had before, so we have to manage and try to protect him. He cannot play well if you keep pushing him. Maybe if you push him he will be injured for a long time.

 

"So, I am really surprised with the critics. When you talk about big names, people just analyse the names and not how the player is when he is on the pitch. He was not 100 per cent fit.

 

"We have to take Fernando to Lyon because we don't have too many options. We have to keep working with him and the rest of the players."

 

RAFA'S UPDATE ON 10 INJURED PLAYERS

[Mathewbet1]

Looks better than I thought a few 50/50's in there , would be good if GJ FT & Agger make it.

[Torvald Utne]

fucking depressing reading, we'll be awesome when everyone's fit but I'm beginning to suspect that's never going to happen.

[rebel23]

come on Rafa risk Aquilani for an hour, we need it now otherwise we're out

[Funkasy]

 

 

 

 

 

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[Hooch]

I reckon we will win.

[Monster Masch]

Funkasy, did all of those players travel?

 

Positive if so.

[llego]

Funkasy, did all of those players travel?

 

Positive if so.

 

Yes I believe they did, that is a realistic if slightly optimistic team

[ratcatcher]

Yes I believe they did, that is a realistic if slightly optimistic team

 

Have agger and johnson? I thought those two were deffo out?

[RobbieOR]

Going to be another tough test.

 

Still the plain and simple answer has to be why has the manager, after 5 years in charge, only got one recognised out and out striker? The answer is, because he pushed the likes of crouch, bellamy and keane through the exit door.

 

Just hope we somehow manage to spawn a win or this talk of injuries and illness is a bit of a smoke screen.

 

To be fair Bellamy signed his own transfer forms in Barcelona. The loveable feisty bastard.

[king]

Anyone else fancy Eccleston to start? At least he'll have the hunger unlike Voronin and Bable

[Hooch]

Have agger and johnson? I thought those two were deffo out?

 

We will make late fitness calls on Agger, Ngog, Johnson and Aurelio according to the offal. So I guess we won't know till tommorrow, but I imagine this at least means they have travelled.

[Herp McDerp]

Something to cheer up the depressos.

Claude Puel has problems of his own as Lyon's showdown with Liverpool looms

 

Rafael Benítez might just draw hope from the way Lyon's recent troubles have mounted up - on and off the pitch

 

Claude Puel looks on during his side's 4-1 defeat to Nice. Photograph: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images

 

Two days before Saturday's derby against St Etienne, the Lyon midfielder Sidney Govou was photographed falling around drunk in a nightclub. On Friday morning the manager, Claude Puel, stripped him of the captaincy. He decided against dropping the player and soon he was to be thankful, for it was Govou who restrained the midfielder Jérémy Toulalan at half-time just as it seemed his furious team-mate was about to attack the manager.

 

 

Toulalan, normally a most placid professional, had flown into a rage after Puel ordered him to "keep it simple, stop dribbling" as the players trooped towards the dressing room. "Just because you never knew how to dribble doesn't mean we shouldn't do it!" bawled Toulalan at the manager as Govou held him back. The scene is noteworthy for two reasons: firstly, it is amusing because Puel, a holding midfielder in the Monaco team that Arsène Wenger guided to the French title in 1988, was almost identical to Toulalan as a player. Secondly, it illustrated the pressure caused by the problems with which Lyon are having to cope as they prepare to complete their progress to the next round of the Champions League by pushing Liverpool closer to elimination on Wednesday.

 

 

Like Liverpool, Lyon have been bedevilled by injuries this season and will contest Wednesday's tomorrow's game without key players, all in central defence, where Toulalan is having to fill in because of the absence of Jean-Alain Boumsong, Mathieu Bodmer and Cléber Anderson.

It is true that those omissions did not prevent Lyon from winning 2-1 at Anfield two weeks ago, when Liverpool, without Fernando Torres, failed to exploit the improvised nature of Lyon's defence even after the visitors' one conventional centreback, Cris, had to be replaced by a 20-year-old midfielder, Maxime Gonalons. However, Rafael Benítez will draw hope from the fact that modest Ligue 1 sides have in recent weeks shown that Lyon's fragility is real. They have lost two of their last three league games, the most recent defeat a 4-1 humiliation at Nice. Even on Saturday against 17th place St Etienne, whom they ultimately beat 1-0, Lyon were ragged in the first period and could have been behind before substitute Bafétimbi Gomis' second-half winner. No wonder Benítez is so eager for Torres to be fit.

 

 

If the home team's travails give hope to Liverpool ahead of Wednesday, they also increase Lyon's motivation to beat Benítez's men. "Our result in the game at Anfield makes it more complicated for us in the sense that Liverpool have to come here and win," said Govou. "But we hope to qualify for the next round as early as possible so that we can manage our schedule more easily before the winter break."

 

 

Having to deploy Toulalan in defence is a double-blow for Lyon, since not only does it mean fielding a makeshift central defender who tends to get caught of position – and is not helped by the fact that 32-year-old Cris is clearly on the wane regardless of any injuries – but it also deprives Lyon of the France international's dynamism in midfield. Only intermittently has Jean II Makoun anchored the middle as well as Toulalan normally does. With the exception of the second halves at Liverpool and St Etienne Lyon have often been unable to secure and retain possession in recent weeks. This in turn has meant they have found it hard to harness the creativity and penetrative power of players such as Govou, who tormented Emiliano Insúa at Anfield, the 19-year-old Bosnian schemer Miralem Pjanic and the club's two main summer recruits, the Brazilian winger Michel Bastos and the barnstorming Argentinian striker Lisandro López.

 

 

All four of those players were instrumental in the swashbuckling start that Lyon made to the season, notably in the Champions League, where they crushed Anderlecht 8-2 on aggregate in the qualifiers and won 4-0 at Debrecen (though Bastos missed that), the heaviest home defeat in the Hungarian champions' history. Lyon's erratic form of recent weeks, however, has prompted Puel, as his instruction to Toulalan on Saturday showed, to preach a return to pragmatism over panache.

 

 

Toulalan himself is not even fully fit – he is still carrying a slight adductor strain. He is one of seven Lyon players to suffer with that complaint already in this campaign, prompting suggestions that Puel's pre-season training regime, which involved cross-country skiing and mountain-bike climbs, may have been too gruelling. Benítez is not the only manager whose methods are coming under scrutiny.

[Herp McDerp]

Although another way of seeing it is that we're so shit we can't even beat a team that crappy. Now I'm depressed again.

[Red Nick]

If Rafa fails to get out of this group then its on a par with the fuck up of Houllier getting knocked out by the swiss

[ratcatcher]

We will make late fitness calls on Agger, Ngog, Johnson and Aurelio according to the offal. So I guess we won't know till tommorrow, but I imagine this at least means they have travelled.

 

Fingers crossed then.

[Carra_is_legend]

Although another way of seeing it is that we're so shit we can't even beat a team that crappy. Now I'm depressed again.

 

They had 3 key defenders missing at Anfield. The 4th one took a knock and went off. We still lost.

 

Them being shit or not, I'm dreading this game. Absolutely dreading it.

[Funkasy]

if we field the team i posted before, im sure we will give them a beating, 4 or maybe 5-0 im sure of it... believe.

[Unrighteous]

I'm not confident when we take the pitch anymore...

[Herp McDerp]

I'm not confident when we take the pitch anymore...

VoymN5uzMX0&autoplay=1

 

No shit.

[Maldini]

isn't he costing more like £5m with wages?

 

Good point, we should have signed one of the many £5m players who would play for free.