The OFFICIAL Liverpool Supporters thread

[Gabriel_Hurl]

He's like Hamann - only he can't pass

[brokencrossbar1]

Pass and move is the only way to do it and from reading about the teams under Shanks and "Sir" Bob   I think the only way to achieve this is by plaing endless 1 touch 5 a side games.  Liverpool have become too much of a Charlton-esque 'put um under pressure' team and players like Alonso are suffering as a result.  These players have the ability to play the game the way it should be and should be encouraged to do so.  Maybe,as AZ says, it is being neglected at Melwood.  Any successful team in any sport is made up of a group of good players, with a clear strategy which they constantly practise.  To my mind Liverpool have all this, it is just that the strategy is not what we all would like.

[AZOffaly]

That's it Slim, and if they even made a (c)rap song out of it, it shows what they were built on. If they were to release a single now it'd be something like 'Tackle and Punt, Garcia's a cnut'

[Mayo4Sam]

That's it Slim, and if they even made a (c)rap song out of it, it shows what they were built on. If they were to release a single now it'd be something like 'Tackle and Punt, Garcia's a cnut'

[heganboy]

A couple of points, if barca were kerry 2002 liverpool are Armagh. Finnan and Carra made a lot of wonder tackles, agger is fitting in well. Midfield can only do as well as the movement of the fwds will allow. Keegan, rush, fowler (mark 1) aldridge all had brilliant positional sense and the midfielders knew where the runs were being made and the passing was great to watch. Dalglish and to an extent Litmannen were pivots that could score and tore defences apart. Fowler mark 2 has the positional sense but isn't fit enough to play week in week out so the midfield don't get the familiarity required for a natural finisher. Crouch and kuyt work hard admittedly, but I really don't care and don't want to watch a hard working 12 goal a year striker. Liverpool are not sheffield wednesday. Bellamy is another mickey owen except not as good, and I didn't really have that much time for the first one. Maschareno I feel will be a good cog in the wheel. Sissoko as a poor mans keane, and we need that snarl in the middle. The key to a premiership win is a world class forward line, a pivot and a natural finisher. Bellamy, crouch and kuyt should go. Fowler mark 2 has another year as a back up, but the other three should be worth enough in the transfer market plus the dollars available in the summer should be able to bring in 2 class acts up front. The platform is there to be built on
</brain dump>

[The Real Laoislad]

Chelsea
PSV
AC Milan
Valencia
Bayern Munich
Roma
Man United


Well lads who'd ye like?

Wouldn't be afraid of any of them myself i think we are more than capable of beating any of those over two legs
It's wide open now with Inter,Real and Barcelona gone

[Syd The Sailor]

Chelsea
PSV
AC Milan
Valencia
Bayern Munich
Roma
Man United


Well lads who'd ye like?

Wouldn't be afraid of any of them myself i think we are more than capable of beating any of those over two legs
It's wide open now with Inter,Real and Barcelona gone

I wouldnt give a shit about any of them, PSV or Milan will do. Milan were rubbish and if you watch Kaka they can be dealt with....

[ONeill]

Liverpool will beat PSV. A poor side.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Think we can beat anyone left over 2 legs. Benitez knows how to set his teams up for two legged affairs. Hopefully Chelsea and United draw each other although I'm sure United will get PSV knowing their luck in the draws.

Everyone will want PSV but Bayern and Milan don't have great sides at present by their own high standards.

I'm sure Rafa would know Valencia inside out.

It really is wide open now.

[The Real Laoislad]

Out of them all i think Valencia are the biggest threats

[charlie linkbox]

but Bayern and Milan don't have great sides at present by their own high standards.

Kahn, Sagnol, Lucio, Lahm, Hargreaves, van Bommell (although he did get sent off tonight so will miss the next game), Schweinsteiger (sp?), Makaay, Pizarro, Podolski.....

I reckon Bayern won't be too far away.

I will agree that it's wide open though.

[J70]

Chelsea
PSV
AC Milan
Valencia
Bayern Munich
Roma
Man United


Well lads who'd ye like?

Wouldn't be afraid of any of them myself i think we are more than capable of beating any of those over two legs
It's wide open now with Inter,Real and Barcelona gone

It would be some crack if Liverpool and United got each other at some stage! It doesn't bear thinking about, getting knocked out of the Champions League by United, and, I'm sure, vice versa for them!

In terms of progressing, I would like to avoid United, Valencia and Chelsea, although not one of those sides is a walk over for any other.

Its going to be fun!

[GalwayBayBoy]

Benitez makes perfect pitch to new owners
By Sam Wallace
Published: 08 March 2007
Lucky old Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, because events like Tuesday night at Anfield are exactly why American billionaires of a pensionable age buy English football clubs. The chance to hear a load of songs you do not quite understand, to watch on both sides a lot of famous footballers you do not quite recognise. When you can have all that, why leave the money to the grandchildren?

The Glazers would love to do the same but they have not been accepted in the same way in Manchester, certainly not to the extent of Stars and Stripes being flown on the Stretford End, as they have been on the Kop of late (with a star for every European Cup triumph). Nights like Tuesday are when the Americans can appreciate the full eccentricity of their new sport - victory in defeat? - as well as a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

In short, a great Liverpool night and, in terms of the opposition eliminated, knocking out Barcelona compared with all the big ones in recent memory, Roma (2002), Olympiakos (2004) and Chelsea (2005). That is the simple version for the owners who arrived at Anfield talking the innocents' jargon of "goaltenders" and "defensemen"; the more complex interpretation requires a bit more explanation. Namely, is the way that Liverpool played - the hustling, the containment, the pressing - the long-term solution, enough to win another European Cup?

Just the debate itself is one that is likely to make Benitez despair. For 180 minutes we had heard barely a tinkle from the great orchestra of Barcelona's attacking talent. Whatever problems that club is experiencing it is an astounding achievement just to keep Ronaldinho in check, let alone Samuel Eto'o, Lionel Messi and Deco.

And yet on Irish television's RTE the pundits John Giles and Liam Brady whipped up something of a storm among the club's following there by saying that more should have been done against a Barcelona team there for the taking. And Rijkaard, who was gracious and philosophical in defeat, also talked about a Liverpool team "full of teamwork" - and a way of playing, he added pointedly, "they do quite well".

Unfortunately Benitez's style means that he can eliminate the European champions and still have people asking him for more. He might say that with the money promised by his American owners he will be able to assemble a more dominant team. For now he is busy taking apart English football's comfortable old approach of honest naïvety in European competition; the days when the English would throw the kitchen sink at the opposition and the opposition would throw them out of the competition.

Anfield was an education in a more sophisticated way. Some might squirm in their seats at the prospect of not trying to beat Ronaldinho and his team-mates at their own expansive game, but to Benitez that kind of talk is madness. The Liverpool manager, and to a lesser extent Jose Mourinho, have made their sides in Europe less lovable and a lot more successful.

There were also some performances which were beyond reproach. Jamie Carragher is a defender who seems to intervene in the very last frame of the action, in that brief moment of vulnerability when the attacker draws back his foot and takes one last glance at the goal. So, too, Steve Finnan and Daniel Agger, who never wavered in their concentration. This was a brilliantly conceived performance in which - other than in Eidur Gudjohnsen's goal - Benitez must have seen the drills and the patterns of the training ground played out to perfection.

Benitez has ignored the British game's obsession with declaring your best XI and your way of winning. He has a different team for every different game, he asks players to play different ways on different occasions, he is happy to win away and lose at home if that gets the team through. He wins European Cups before Premiership titles. It does not always work, but on Tuesday night even the novice Americans would have seen it was Europe's defending champions who looked the most naïve.

[SuperSub]

jamie carragher is the best centre back in the world
If ferdinand is worth 30mill then jamie is worth 90million

[Goats Do Shave]

Carragher is fully committed I'll give him that....but Ferdinand is that quick he doesn't need to make all those last ditch blocks Carra is reknown for.

The 2 of them together would be a decent partnership....though I wouldn't swap Rio & Vidic for any centre back pairing!