The OFFICIAL Liverpool Supporters thread

[EC Unique]

thought the ref had a good game

Well if you discount missing a stone wall penalty which would have had a huge impact on the tie then yeah - I suppose he did!

Are you Andy Gray in disguise? Not even close to a penalty, only thing the ref got wrong was not booking him for diving, after he gave the corner.

I would have thought you would know the rules of football?  As clear a penalty as I have seen.. Good enough he did not give it though because I am praying for a UTD v Liverpool final  

[full back]

I see Dirk & the referee are from the same hometown or pretty close.
Maybe this is the reason there was no penalty

After the ref gave the corner Dirk gave him the thumbs up

[Chrisowc]

More or less spot on AZ

A couple of points that came to mind.

Sounness and Strachan on Sky were blaming Sami for the goal.  Am I alone in thinking they would have liked to see the goal keeper come for that?

Babbel was brought off with half an hour remaining.  I would have liked to have seen him come on at that stage.  I think Arsenal would have been much more wary of him on the counter attack.

About Torres and his 'diving'.  I noticed this in the Utd game after he got a yellow card for complaining about being kicked.  He got Ferdinand a yellow for diving.  I think he tends to do it more if he thinks he isn't getting any protection from the ref.

[stevo-08]

happy enough with that result but still all to play for. i expect arsenal to score in anfield and wouldnt be surprised to see it go to penos.

good report there AZ, and i totally agree, it was a stonewall penalty. only caught the 2nd half and was very disappointed to see 'pool constantly giving the ball away so easily. carragher might have done well defensively but his passing out of defence was shocking, just lumping it forward aimlessly. unfortunately thats an all to common trait of his this season. also reina's kickouts were just missiles sent in the general direction of torres, just handing the ball back to gallas/toure to start another attack. we needed another option just to retain possession. particularly around the period during the walcott shot, we needed to take control of the game and keep possession but it didnt happen. and only for a poor decision by the ref, we could be licking our wounds now.

also, couldnt believe rafa brought voronin on, thought we had seen the last of him. crouch would have been a far better option for the last 10mins, at least he can hold the ball up.

i expect rafa to rest some of the big guns this weekend. have a bit of a cushion in 4th place and even a defeat wouldnt be a complete disaster. the gunners dont have that luxury and its another must win game so i cant see wenger resting too many of his stars.

oh and by the way..

Torres missing in action again against a top side, anonymous against the likes of United and Arsenal.

When will he get to play Derby/West Ham again?

Didn't Torres score against Chelsea this season already? Sling your hook and find another bait

well said AZ. he scored v chelsea. and a whisker away from scoring v man u at anfield. very convenient that nrico only included united & arsenal as "top sides". i wonder how many goals rooney scored against the top teams in PL this year???

[Maximus Marillius]

happy enough with that result but still all to play for. i expect arsenal to score in anfield and wouldnt be surprised to see it go to penos.

good report there AZ, and i totally agree, it was a stonewall penalty. only caught the 2nd half and was very disappointed to see 'pool constantly giving the ball away so easily. carragher might have done well defensively but his passing out of defence was shocking, just lumping it forward aimlessly. unfortunately thats an all to common trait of his this season. also reina's kickouts were just missiles sent in the general direction of torres, just handing the ball back to gallas/toure to start another attack. we needed another option just to retain possession. particularly around the period during the walcott shot, we needed to take control of the game and keep possession but it didnt happen. and only for a poor decision by the ref, we could be licking our wounds now.

also, couldnt believe rafa brought voronin on, thought we had seen the last of him. crouch would have been a far better option for the last 10mins, at least he can hold the ball up.

i expect rafa to rest some of the big guns this weekend. have a bit of a cushion in 4th place and even a defeat wouldnt be a complete disaster. the gunners dont have that luxury and its another must win game so i cant see wenger resting too many of his stars.

oh and by the way..

Torres missing in action again against a top side, anonymous against the likes of United and Arsenal.

When will he get to play Derby/West Ham again?

Didn't Torres score against Chelsea this season already? Sling your hook and find another bait

well said AZ. he scored v chelsea. and a whisker away from scoring v man u at anfield. very convenient that nrico only included united & arsenal as "top sides". i wonder how many goals rooney scored against the top teams in PL this year???

he is english and thats what english players do when they come under pressure, they cannot keep the ball.

[nrico2006]

Didn't Torres score against Chelsea this season already? Sling your hook and find another bait

I didn't mention Chelsea.  1 goal against the big sides is hardly a great return for the money invested in Torres.

[AZOffaly]

It's not bad for his first season. Ronaldo or van Nistlerooy weren't exactly prolific against the top teams for a while. Ian Rush only scored his first against Man United after about 10 years of playing them. If Torres has the same success as Rush, I won't mind too much

[Minder]

For the first year of a five year contract in a new league, different language, lifestyle etc i think its a pretty handsome return.....

[AZOffaly]

It's actually 1 goal in 5 games. They still have Chelsea and Arsenal away in the league, Arsenal at home and maybe even Chelsea and United in Europe. If he only scores 1 goal from those possible 11 games total, then it wouldn't be great, but it would still be understandable for his first season. If he notches 1 or 2 in those remaining possible games, then it will be a great start for him.

nrico is only winding.

[Declan]

we needed another option just to retain possession. particularly around the period during the walcott shot, we needed to take control of the game and keep possession but it didnt happen.

But that's the whole issue with how Liverpool play and how Benitez has them set up. They never do this and in my mind aren't encouraged to. As a nuetral thought it was pretty poor stuff last night 

[Mentalman]

Decent result for Liverpool, but still all to play for in the second leg. For all of Arsenal's possession clear cut chances weren't exactly plentiful. Tied on penalty not given, not sure what happened there - Hleb did make the most of it but it still should have been given. Maybe the Goonie and the ref are related? Who knows. All in all I thought Liverpool put in a more consistent performance, they actually passed the ball to each other at times, but I suppose improvement is all relative. Reina really didn't have much to do, but was found wanting a little for the couple of decent opportunities Arsenal had. Carra is a fish out of water at right back, and I think his unhappiness playing there is obvious. Also I think he looks fatigued, the number of time Kuyt and Skrtel came over to cover him was very noticeable. Also the passing is terrible. Skrtel looks solid so far, don't really want to say too much about him until he hasa full season, but let's just say I'm hopeful. Sammi's contract extension is not on the strength of his distribution, but then again that never was his stength. Aurelio was quietly efficent, I prefer him to Riise, as I think he is a better defender in general. I was wondering was Xabi Alonso playing, then when he was substituted it showed he had covered more ground than Gerrard or Mascher. Just goes to show it's not all about working hard, it's also about working smart. This season has been a write off for him, and he doesn't look the player he was, like he has a cloud over him. Like AZ I think Arsenal's passing didn't allow Mascher to make his presence felt, but he persisted, got through some amount of work and towards the end lifted the siege a number of times. Unlike AZ I'm beginning to think Babel will not cut it long term. I can't credit that Arsenal were also interested in him. People slag off Walcott as a speed merchant, but at least he shows that speed. I think the stats showed Babel tried to pass3 timnes and miss placed 2 of those - in 60 minutes of football. Kuyt is as game as fcuk - but as dumb as a rail. Great effort last night though. Gerrard produced when it was needed but also worked his socks off. Nando looked very leggy and wasn't reading Gerrard at all. Also Gallas owned him all game. There was one point where Kuyt picked a lovely pass, curving it in behind Sendaros and into the path of Torres, where he should have been favourite, but Gallas dispossessed him so easily it was untrue. As for Saturday, rest as many as possible but put out a well organised side, and try to draw the sting from Arsenal befroe Tuesday - they need to win to stay in the hunt, whereas the Chumps is all Liverpool have left to play for, and they have a little breathing room from Everton.

[stevo-08]

It's actually 1 goal in 5 games. They still have Chelsea and Arsenal away in the league, Arsenal at home and maybe even Chelsea and United in Europe. If he only scores 1 goal from those possible 11 games total, then it wouldn't be great, but it would still be understandable for his first season. If he notches 1 or 2 in those remaining possible games, then it will be a great start for him.

nrico is only winding.

and actually he was just back from injury for the arsenal game in the league. and went off injured early in the first half, if memory serves me. so you could argue that at the moment it's 1 goal in 4 games. bottom line is he's closing in on RVN's record of 23 lge goals for a foreign player in debut season. If our next signing does as well, i'd be very happy. 

[Minder]

.....and unlike Red Rum he does not take penalties which would pad the figures nicely

[stevo-08]

he is english and thats what english players do when they come under pressure, they cannot keep the ball.

thats probably true. but i just think that this season in particular, carragher's distribution & composure has been extermely bad. I think if we had finnan/arbeloa at rb, you wouldnt have seen the careless distribution on display last light. Also, Agger is a massive loss for liverpool - the one centre back we have who will bring the ball out of defence with a purpose. with him in the team, you could get away with the odd missile launched by carragher.

It'll be interesting to see how rafa sets his team up for the return leg. I hope he doesnt persist with carragher at rb.

[nrico2006]

For the first year of a five year contract in a new league, different language, lifestyle etc i think its a pretty handsome return.....

I thought that the leagues in England and Spain both played with one football, 2 sets of goal-posts and 11 starting players on each side?  Lifestyle?  Is there a nightclub or something in the corner of some Spanish pitches?