Off Topic European Football

[Lee-Roy]

Course he was, and he's been cramping most matches I've seen him play. But what I saw of him at Porto makes me think he cold have been so much better in a different competition.

[Franco]

Think Inter have had a good start to the season, 20 goals scored and 1 conceded in 7 games (including Europa League) is pretty decent, even though 16 of them were scored in 3 games :lol:

[PainfulBiscuits]

Erm, how the hell did we concede from such a poor free-kick?

[Lee-Roy]

I wonder if Ancelotti will use this opportunity to ask BR for a way to stop Suarez in their next mAtch.

[Ashez]

No Lucas and Gerrard's at DMC, I've just got a lot more scared . Coutinho has done a job in the past and does work for the team but I expected Lucas in and I hoped Gerrard would move forward. Allen and Hendo was a given so we just have to hope Coutinho can find Sterling and that Balo turns up!

[Lee-Roy]

Allen and Hendo playing B2B sounds fine to me. Gerrard's only going to be of any use if he isn't getting pressured, otherwise we'll be carrying 2 passengers this match. No offense meant to Gerrard but he can't run, and with other teams getting him man marked for pressure he can't pass either.

[Ashez]

At least it's not on ITV so we don't have to put up with Townsend

[Lee-Roy]

Anfield is buzzing! 12th man and all

[Lee-Roy]

I might need to stop watching before I see something I don't want to.

[Ashez]

Unbelievable finishing, pure class.

What is Mignolet doing

[catalin070697]

CR7 is set to make his 700th appearance today against Granada

[dirtboy]

He is an amazing player, we're extremely lucky to have him and Messi on our TVs every weekend.

[Ashez]

A Switzerland-based amateur footballer has been banned for 50 years after kicking a ball in the referee's face and spraying him with water.

Portugal Futebol Clube defender Ricardo Ferreira has already served a 45-game ban for assaulting opposition players.

"I had expected one or two years maximum. But 50 years? Football's my life," Ferreira, 28, said.

The fourth-tier league's lawyer Robert Breiter said: "We do not want such a player in our league."

Speaking to Swiss newspaper Blick (in German), Breiter continued: "Unfortunately we encounter such cases about once a year."

That last bit cracks me up!

[Lee-Roy]

This joke of a team BR sent out are playing fairly well so far.

No stopping a goal like that though!

[Ashez]

That cross was class, tbh i'm proud of the team so far. Granted the team is weaker than normal but it's still fairly strong. The midfield has Lucas who is solid, Allen who is first team and Can who we have high hopes for. The attack has two massive signings who we expect good things from and the hard working Borini who imo is the only "odd" selection, if that was Sturridge the team would only be Sterling short of our strongest team.

Can over Hendo is surprising but i'm delighted Gerrard isn't playing in the DMC role, he struggled at home and he's not good enough in that role vs Madrid's midfield. Tbh i think Rodgers has been smart, try and contain the game and not getting embarrassed (as yet) then we'll have a strong squad for the weekend.

[Lee-Roy]

I'm looking at it like a midfield 3 who never play together, two fullbacks who are younger and more inexperienced than other options we have,, Koko Toure ffs and Borini?? Not that they're not playing well cos they are, but the whole team is odd. BR isn't getting slated for his selection by fans and pundits for no reason.

[Ashez]

Johnson, Enrique and Lovren have been bloody awful though. If Kolo was Carragher noone would blink an eye at us going for experience.

For us to contain the game we need a hard working striker who will get about the pitch and Borini does that better than anyone in our squad, especially Balo. Tbh if it was Sterling over Marko these claims could be explained and justified.

[UKFootballScore]

I can see Liverpool getting an equaliser here!

[Lee-Roy]

I wouldn't say johnson and Enrique have been any better/worse than the spanish lads. I wouldn't have played them both tho, they've proved too inexperienced together and an older head on one of the sides would have been much appreciated. I'm not getting at Kolo's age, I'm getting at the fact he always look like he's wet himself when he gets given the ball. He's been impressive tonight, but I can see why people questioned the decision to play him.

He's put out very much a second team, and I wanted Balo on as a sign that he's not a first team player. He doesn't deserve to be considered a first team player when others are putting the effort in. Markovic played striker plenty of times, he can be just as energetic as Borini. I'd want to have seen him upfront with Sterling playing the wings.

The teams playing well, and it's got some strong names in it, but there's no denying that BR has put out a second string team against the European champions in a must win match. Where is the logic?

[Ashez]

I think Johnson has been poor, Enrique is an interesting one as Moreno has been iffy but he's better at breaking. Kolo has been solid imo and i think he could cause Lovren a problem, at the start of last season Kolo was a machine but his form did drop, tbh if it was up to me Agger would be at LCB.

I think Borini has been excellent tonight and that in itself sends a message to Balo.

Every LFC fan has moaned for years that we dont have a squad, we go to the Champions of Europe with a rotated starting 11 and play an excellent game and atm we're only behind due to a touch of Madrid class.

This game isn't must win as such as we can quality winning the next two, the problem was the Basel result. Wheras imo Chelsea is more of a must win as we need CL football next season if not all this was for nothing.

[Lee-Roy]

In the end the team did well and his decisions have been justified, but before the match the line up looked like he'd given up already and was giving the second team a run out. It paid off but have the fans a feeling of low expectations. Look at the result the second string managed - what would the first team have achieved. I can't agree with you about Toure, but then you see something you like in Sakho as well so we clearly look at center halves very differently :lol: he played well tonight, but that's one performance against his most recent 10 for example. Oh, the game was must win because we got embarassed by them at Anfield, the only way we could have kept face is by winning this. It was definitely must win in those terms

[Ashez]

I think that was a great performance, remember we played our strongest side two weeks back and we got blown away, granted it was somewhat negative but I see tones of positives from this game. If we got smashed tonight we'd need to smash Basil and Ludo but now we don't, tbh this could been seen as good as a draw as it's kept us in the mix, if we went for it I think we'd have conceded a lot more tonight. 

 

Toure, Lucas and Borini were amazing tonight and I'm sure they put in a better shift than Lovren, Balo and possibly even Gerrard would have.

[Lee-Roy]

Toure Lucas and Borini playe different roles than Lovern Balo and Gerrard to be fair. You can't compare Gerrards passing game to Lucas's pressing, tackling game. Even Toure and Lovren play different styles. Unfair judgement to make.

[Ashez]

Those three would have left us more open and less effective though. Gerrard's passing was lacked but it's not like Balo would have offered much. Lucas showed the importance of a real DMC imo.

My step dad had a 10 quid bet with a return of 2 grand, he needed an Arsenal win! He's having a head turn!

[Lee-Roy]

I've been Lucas's biggest fan (after he settled in, his first few years under rafa were severely poor) and I'd like to see him sat behind Stevie and Hendo every week. Im not saying Balo and Stevie should've started (where can Stevie even play best these days I'm not so sure)

[anfieldsquirrel]

Mitrovic :wub:

[Ashez]

As you know from our PM i didn't want Gerrard to play in the DMC position two weeks back, i wanted him dropped or pushed forward. I'd have liked Hendo in tonight but where would he fit? Lucas and Can were solid and Allen is needed for his composure, possibly in Marko's place as a inside RW like he played last year? With that though we have no pace, to me our performance dropped when Gerrard, Coutinho and Sterling came on.

The fact of the matter is we're needing Sturridge and fast, if we qualify and get something at the weekend this will be seen as a master stroke! If you offered me a good performance and a 1-0 defeat at kick off i'd have took it.

[samhardy]

Liverpool played well bearing in mind the team selection- Marcelo was outstanding.

[Ashez]

Have Sunderland ever played Madrid? (I'm not being sarcy, i'm generally interested )

[Lee-Roy]

That's all goo and well to say now, but before the match, when the team sheet came out it was like wtf. Forget how they performed in the match, to see the sheet and see Hendo and Sterling out and Toure (basing him on recent appearances not tonight's) that is laying out your second team. Gerrard meds some time off while we figure out where and how he's gonna play. Balo, I dunno. Drop him tO tell him he's not good enough? Keep playing him until it clicks together? I think we'll only know when he's either gone or scoring for fun.