First game of the season: Sunderland @ Home

[Pidge]

Numero's nailed the strongest line up. Johnson giving us width as Suarez moves inside and drifts about as he would. Lucas providing cover so Suarez' defensive duties are reduced.

[TheHowieLama]

Numero's nailed the strongest line up. Johnson giving us width as Suarez moves inside and drifts about as he would. Lucas providing cover so Suarez' defensive duties are reduced.

 

IMO that lineup asks alot from Adam and Lucas - yes that would be a way to get Carroll and Gerrard into the same team but I could see us getting stretched

pretty quickly. We did not really have control in the middle third yesterday and both Adam and Lucas like to sit deep. Adam may be "Alonso-like" as everyone has taken to saying but unless he can excel in the defensive role by himself (the way Alonso grew into it) that will always flatter Charlie and leave us needing a bit more discipline from the two wide players.

[BenR_]

4-4-2 will never work for this squad, it's as simple as that. We've seen that yesterday as well.

It won't work for a couple of reasons -

 

A. We don't have the central midfielders for it. Adam and Lucas can't play in a midfield 2, both like to sit deep, both are slow, both barely close down players. We'll be easily dominated by any decent midfield outfit. And it goes without saying that Gerrard doesn't fit in that formation at all. Anyone thinking he's got the legs to play out wide, or that we'll get the best out of him there is kidding themselves.

 

B. We don't have a half-decent right winger. Kuyt out wide in a 4-2-3-1 is horrible enough, in a 4-4-2 he'll be even worse. And as we've seen yesterday, Henderson isn't all that out wide either, his future is in CM.

 

Right now i see our strongest XI as this -

 

Reina

Johnson Carra Agger Enrique

Gerrard Lucas Adam

Downing Carroll\Kuyt Suarez

 

I think we'll continue to struggle in a 4-4-2 and be easily overriden in midfield. 51% possession in a home game against Sunderland is not good at all and that's because we're asking too much of Lucas and Adam.

[The Acolyte]

We definitely need another striker and Henderson looked a bit overwhelmed, hopefully with some guidance and Maxi having more than one good performance in four he'll get better.

[Strontium]

Fair play to Sunderland, they sold us Henderson for £16m and replaced him with Larsson on a free. On the basis of yesterday, it's clear who got the best end of that deal.

[The Economist]

If we'd have bought Larsson everyone would have gone mental.

[Guest SpiderLucas]

4-1-2-3

 

Reina

Glen, Skrtel, Agger, Enrique

Lucas

Meireles, Henderson/Adam

Downing, Carroll, Suarez

 

Until Gerrard is back of course, I don't see many better 11s in the league.

[dalglish2rush]

-------------------------Reina-------------------------

 

Johnson--------Carra---------Agger---------Enrique

 

-----------------Adam---------Lucas-----------------

 

----Suarez------------Gerrard-----------Downing---

 

------------------------Carroll

 

Nice!

 

 

 

Quality!

[drewy]

Fair play to Sunderland, they sold us Henderson for £16m and replaced him with Larsson on a free. On the basis of yesterday, it's clear who got the best end of that deal.

 

You absolute fucking tool. Stick to fucking politics because you know shit about football.

[nedved11]

was henderson that bad?!!!! i thought it was a good debut for him. Full of running, closed down well and was part of the lovely passes early on of the game.

 

Flanno had a very bad game obviously, but he is only 18, defensively am not worried about him, but does he have enough talent to go forward?

 

And please back off caroll, if the ref didnt dis-allow his goal, he'd be a hero in your eyes. He is not the suarez or cash-nando type. He doesnt make something out of nothing, thats just not his game. but he can be a real asset and a true nuisance for opposition defenders when we r having a proper game

[Pidge]

I've watched the first half now and to be honest Henderson and Carroll were far more involved than you'd have thought from some of this hysteria.

[George Costanza]

-------------------------Reina-------------------------

 

Johnson--------Carra---------Agger---------Enrique

 

-----------------Adam---------Lucas-----------------

 

----Suarez------------Gerrard-----------Downing---

 

------------------------Carroll

 

Nice!

 

 

Would prefer Gerrard right & Suarez central where he can do most damage

[Paco]

Would prefer Gerrard right & Suarez central where he can do most damage

 

the 3 behind carroll when stevie returns will be very fluid. downing, suarez and sg taking up each position throughout the game

[Strontium]

You absolute fucking tool. Stick to fucking politics because you know shit about football.

 

 

Are you telling me Henderson had a better game than Larsson yesterday? If so, I think you went to a different match from me.

 

And nice to be told I know nothing about football because I have - gasp! - a different opinion to you. Talk about over-reacting.

[GRADY]

I thought first 35 minutes was very very good and to be honest the game should have been over but i suppose thats the problem with one nil.

 

Dont wanna make excuses as we should still be beating sunderland but richardson shoud of gone and I think Carroll's goal should have stood.

 

Felt adam had a very good first 35 but tired considerably. Enrique had a solid debut in my opinion and looks very quick and I felt downing did well although maybe would have liked to see more of the ball second half.

 

Ive not seen henderson before other than against us an cannot remember him but first impressions he does not look a wide man to me. Looks tidy on the ball and was probably a bit nervous. I suppose we just all need to get behind him because his price tag is clearly making people expect a lot - rightly or wrongly - myself included too.

 

Had he come through the academy people probably would have been happy with his performance but 16 million is gonna increase expectation levels.

 

My main concern yesterday was carroll. Quite a few people around me were gettin pissed off with him. Whether he is lazy or not that fit yet i dont know but second half especially he was slow in making his runs and if had gambled a few times he may have been in a better position when the ball came in and coud have had a few chances.

 

was disapointed after the match but only one game in and there were positives from the game

[Skidfingers McGonical]

 

Are you telling me Henderson had a better game than Larsson yesterday? If so, I think you went to a different match from me.

 

And nice to be told I know nothing about football because I have - gasp! - a different opinion to you. Talk about over-reacting.

 

I think he's having a pop at you claiming that Sunderland got the better deal after one game.

 

It was a silly point to make in all fairness. And to be fair your not alone this weekend.

[lebron]

If we'd have bought Larsson everyone would have gone mental.

 

Tbf, if anyone else than Kenny had bought Henderson for the sums mentioned for him I suspect there would have been quite an uproar here as well...

 

Baffling signing for me, and one that I suspect will never quite come off. I see the point in it (trying to get a long term replacement for Gerrard), but I have seen little from Henderson to suggest he's anywhere near good enough for us. I'll be extremely happy if he proves me wrong though... For now, I'll gladly play both Kuyt, Meirelles and Aquilani ahead of him...

[chauncey]

Using pre-season as a 'shop window' might come back to bite us on the arse for the first few weeks. This is made worse by the fact a) it didn't work and we're still trying to get rid of them and b) our standout player in those matches hasn't a hope of any competitive action. All very strange.

[stevienando]

Using pre-season as a 'shop window' might come back to bite us on the arse for the first few weeks. This is made worse by the fact a) it didn't work and we're still trying to get rid of them and b) our standout player in those matches hasn't a hope of any competitive action. All very strange.

 

Where did you get then notion that our preseason's sole and express reason was to display our players?

[chauncey]

Where did you get then notion that our preseason's sole and express reason was to display our players?

 

I didn't intimate that the "sole and express reason" was for putting our shite on show. What I did say was that it was strange to give game time to players (Cole, Insua, Aquilani, Deggen etc.) who are surplus to requirements, when we have new players to integrate.

[GJM]

The fitness thing is a strange one. All the hours that go into fitness training in pre-season, actual match time is presumably quite a small percentage. Even if players are not playing too long in friendly games, there is the whole training regime around this that presumably contributes much more to their overall fitness levels. Fitness is something which is monitored intensively these days, so I am surprised if our players are below the level where they should be.

 

We did look a bit knackered in the 2nd half yesterday but to me it looked as much about concentration and confidence as anything else. We just seemed to lose focus and, after Suarez went off, our belief in our ability to play our way back into the game seemed to drain away.

[stevienando]

I didn't intimate that the "sole and express reason" was for putting our shite on show. What I did say was that it was strange to give game time to players (Cole, Insua, Aquilani, Deggen etc.) who are surplus to requirements, when we have new players to integrate.

 

I don't think that's the case either. Most of the time, Dalglish didn't make a deliberate and conscious effort not to play a more senior player, he merely excluded them for valid reasons such as fatigue or injuries.

[billypilgrimnz]

More pissed off now, considering both Arsenal and Chelsea drew, and the perennially "lucky" United got a last minute winner. Yet again we are resorting to "well, at least X and Y didn't win" arguments to defend what should have been a home banker. It really should of been. We should be two points better off than the Arse and Chelsea right now, and it sucks that we aren't.

 

I know we 37 more games and anything can happen, but it's the little things that add up.

[Whelan]

First game of the season lads, we have only won 4 of the last 12!

 

Played superb for the first 45 minutes so we know what we can do. The only criticism I would make, and hope that it is nipped in the bud, is putting Downing on the right! I think when Suarez went off we didn't know what who was playing where for 10 minutes which didn't help with momentum. Raul on the left and Downing on the right makes no sense, Raul could have played off Caroll and very little changes but we spent 10 minutes pissing about figuring out who played where.

[Red Banjo]

the 3 behind carroll when stevie returns will be very fluid. downing, suarez and sg taking up each position throughout the game

 

*sexwee*