Liverpool FC - "You'll never walk alone...!!!

[TIA09]

Ein sehr interessanter artikel: http://www.thisisanfield.com/2012/04/from-hodgson-and-poulsen-through-torres-to-dalglish-putting-lfc-plight-into-context/

Ich halte es da eher mit dem Herr, der diesen comment verfasst hat:

This is trully what frightens me about my fellow fans. In

our worst run since the 50's, there are Liverpool

fans out there who can look at the worst team we have had since before

Houllier, and still find something to praise! We are so far from the top 5 at

the moment it makes me physically sick. You do not judge a team by when they

raise their game to play in big games; the key is what happens against mid and

lower table opposition. Good management may not win everything, but it is about

progress. Last season we finished with a team that looked like it needed a few

tweaks, but was going in the right

direction. This season, one injury (Lucas – P.S., any student of football will

know he was 2006 Bola de Ouro/Brazilian Footballer of the year), and it looks

like the whole team has collapsed. If anyone else was in charge at

Anfield right now, well they wouldn’t would they? Rafa moved on because we

could not stomach a drop from second to seventh. I guess down to 12th is okay?

(Sunderland, Swansea and Norwich are all in-form teams). I do

not believe that n the context of what a team needs, there has ever been a

premiership team to buy in so much mediocrity in one off season, EVER! Coupled

with that, somehow we managed to get rid of Meireles, one of our best from last

season, and loan out Aquilani, who has twice as much potential as Henderson +

Adam! I was certainly a fan of King Kenny's while he played, and indeed way

back then, but time does not stand still. The game has moved on, and he has not

come along with it. Make no mistake the players are mediocre, but how do you

score goals when no one gets in the box? Every team hits the woodwork, but

guess what - someone is always there for the rebound. Has that ever been

apparent this season?

So our buys have been good squad players, our player releases have been

good players, and we are in the worst position we have been in a long time.

Sometimes folks, how it looks is exactly how it is! To a man, precisely the

same squad, Rafa has us in 4th, absolutely no doubt in my mind. Not to knock anyone’s

opinions Nathan, but Birmingham

won the Carling cup last season - look where that got them.

I also find it laughable that some of us still see the FA

cup as within reach in our current form. At our best we have struggled with

Spurs and Everton. I honestly would take anything we get a massive bonus, and

not the foregone conclusion we all seem to be making it. I am not oblivious of

the time it take to build a unit, and indeed that sometimes things don’t work

out (Morientes), but if you genuinely think that we just need a few

tweaks to this team, then perhaps Liverpool aims to be mid table for a LONG

time. Not for nothing, but when Harry got to Spurs, it was a shambles - did it

take more than a season and a half to see genuine progress? Van Der Vaart vs

Adam anyone? Do you see that squad as the backbone in a European charge anytime

soon? Would you believe the spending left us with that after if you hadn’t seen

it happen? Please, let Kenny take on a senior position in the club (Director of Football

perhaps), but we need a manager to come in now to plan for the new year before

its too late. Not for nothing, but when you are supporting Liverpool, you do not complain

if every game is played as when Arsenal or City came to Anfield, but that is not what is happening is it?

[LFC]

Nach dem die derzeitigen Leistungen des first teams nur zu Frust & Enttäuschung führen, darf/muß man sich als LFC-Fan derzeit über andere Dinge freuen. Platz 3 in diesem Bewerb ist ein schöner Erfolg für unsere Jungs bzw. deren Coaches. Well done, lads !!!

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/reds-finish-third-in-nextgen

http://www.nextgenseries.com/en/FixturesResultsTables/Results/Sat-24-03-12/Liverpool---Marseille/Liverpool---Marseille

Der Sprint von McLaughlin vor dem 3:0 ist nicht schlecht...

bearbeitet 6. April 2012 von LFC

[goleador2000]

Der schmerzlich vermisste Abwehrchef Danny Agger könnte in Kürze ins Team zurückkehren. Er wird wohl für die nächsten Partien gegen Villa & Blackburn noch geschont und dann hoffentlich im FA Cup fix spielen können. Die beiden RV Johnson und Kelly hingegen sind noch etwas länger außer Gefecht, d.h. es wird weiterhin der junge Flanagan Einsatzzeit bekommen.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/kenny-agger-close-to-return

Agger ist einer jener Spieler die wir einfach nicht adäquat ersetzen können. Nach seinem Ausfall wurde die Abwehr ein Torso, zeigte auch der in dieser Saison bislang so starke, konstante Skrtel einige Schwächen. Ich hoffe er bleibt im Saisonfinish unverletzt und die Abwehr bekommt durch seine Rückkehr wieder mehr Stabilität und Sicherheit.

bearbeitet 6. April 2012 von goleador2000

[LFC]

Der schmerzlich vermisste Abwehrchef Danny Agger könnte in Kürze ins Team zurückkehren. Er wird wohl für die nächsten Partien gegen Villa & Blackburn noch geschont und dann hoffentlich im FA Cup fix spielen können. Die beiden RV Johnson und Kelly hingegen sind noch etwas länger außer Gefecht, d.h. es wird weiterhin der junge Flanagan Einsatzzeit bekommen.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/kenny-agger-close-to-return

Das Kelly bereits jetzt am Anfang seiner Profi-Laufbahn immer wieder lange Verletzungspausen hinnehmen muss, lässt für den weiteren Verlauf seiner Karriere in dieser Hinsicht nichts Gutes erwarten....

[goleador2000]

Liverpool v Aston Villa preview

Friday 6th April 2012 9:53

Team news ahead of the Premier League clash between Liverpool and Aston Villa at Anfield on Saturday.

Liverpool Goalkeeper Doni is set to make his debut against Aston Villa as he stands in for the suspended Jose Reina.

The Brazilian, who joined from Roma in the summer, made a 57-minute appearance in a 1-0 friendly defeat against Rangers in October before dislocating his finger but has spent the whole season on the bench.

Centre-back Daniel Agger (rib) is edging closer to full fitness but fellow defenders Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly are slightly further away in terms of a return.

Aston Villa right-back Alan Hutton is expected to be fit for for the crucial clash. He missed the 4-2 home defeat by Chelsea last weekend with a calf injury but has made good progress with his recovery this week.

Rookie striker Andreas Weimann, who made his first league start against the Blues, is doubtful with an ankle injury suffered during that game.

Winger Charles NZogbia (knee), skipper Stiliyan Petrov (leukaemia), striker Darren Bent (ankle), defenders Richard Dunne (shoulder) and Carlos Cuellar (thigh) plus midfielder Fabian Delph (ankle) are all unavailable.

Teams:

(Liverpool from): Doni, Flanagan, Carragher, Skrtel, Enrique, Gerrard, Spearing, Downing, Bellamy, Carroll, Suarez, Jones, Coates, Aurelio, Shelvey, Rodriguez, Henderson, Kuyt.

(Aston Villa from): Given, Guzan, Hutton, Lichaj, Herd, Collins, Warnock, Baker, Bannan, Petrov, Gardner, Ireland, Albrighton, Agbonlahor, Heskey, Weimann, Marshall, Johnson, Stevens, Delfouneso.

www.teamtalk.com

Da es sowohl heute daheim gegen Villa als auch am Di. in Blackburn um die StartingXI-Plätze für das samstägige FACup-Semifinale geht, erwarte ich eine motivierte Mannschaft die Einsatz, Kampf- und Laufbereitschaft zeigt und sich mit einem Sieg etwas Selbstvertrauen holt. Ich hoffe ich liege mit dieser Theorie richtig...

C' MON YOU REDS !!!

bearbeitet 7. April 2012 von goleador2000

[YNWA19]

http://www.lifesapitch.co.uk/opinions/dalglishs-muddled-tactics-have-confused-liverpool/

[LFC]

Dalglish hails 1-1 draw performance as “excellent”

http://www.thisisanfield.com/2012/04/dalglish-hails-1-1-draw-performance-as-excellent/

[goleador2000]

Im German Reds-Forum liesst sich eine kurze Matchzusammenfassung so:

1:1, der Gegner hat eine Chance und trifft, wir in der Nachspielzeit doppelt so viel, aber .... trotz Powerplay in Halbzeit zwei nicht mehr als ein Punkt. Schade, aber bis auf die Chancenverwertung hatte ich heute nicht viel auszusetzen. Gegen 11 Gäste im eigenen Strafraum muss man erst mal die Lücke finden und dann auch noch den Ball so treffen, dass das Netz an der richtigen Stelle zappelt. Gute Nachricht - Agger is back!!!

Alte bzw. neue Erkenntnis: Wenn wir im kommenden Transfer-Sommer nicht mindestens 2 winger oder einen 10er und einen Mittelstürmer - Prädikat: Weltklasse - holen um Menschenmauern vor dem gegnerischen Stafraum spielerisch zu durchbrechen, dann steht uns wohl eine ähnliche Saison wie heuer ins Haus müssen wir uns abfinden auch in Zukunft nur noch Mittelmaß in dieser Liga zu sein... x/

bearbeitet 8. April 2012 von goleador2000

[YNWA19]

Dalglish hails 1-1 draw performance as "excellent"

http://www.thisisanf...e-as-excellent/

Excellent? Deary me...

[Source]

Köma auf die restlichen Saisonspiele nicht einfach verzichten?

[flootschi]

„Zuerst hatten wir kein Glück und dann kam auch noch Pech dazu.“

so könnte man die ganze saison in einem satz zusammenfassen.

edit. immerhin sieht man bei coates eine steigerung.

edith. Najo immerhin Carroll n1 header. aber jetzt mal ehrlich wie geil ist eigentlich Jonjo :love: :love: ??

bearbeitet 10. April 2012 von flootschi

[Maulinho]

Comolli anscheinend sacked!

[LFC]

Comolli anscheinend sacked!

Bin mir nicht sicher, was ich davon halten soll.

Trennung angeblich 'for family reasons'. Wenn man sich die Erfolgsquote der bisherigen Verpflichtungen ansieht, hab ich da so meine Zweifel, dass das der wirkliche Grund ist. Wobei mir allerdings immer noch nicht klar ist, wer für diese Geldverschwendung verantwortlich ist. Denke das müsste eher Dalglish sein, der sich für diese Spieler entschieden hat.

[Jordi]

Comolli gone. That's Stewart Downing's first assist of the season

Kann der KK wenigstens noch ein paar britische Superkicker verpflichten, davon habts eh zuwenig tbh

[Kante]

Bin mir nicht sicher, was ich davon halten soll.

Trennung angeblich 'for family reasons'. Wenn man sich die Erfolgsquote der bisherigen Verpflichtungen ansieht, hab ich da so meine Zweifel, dass das der wirkliche Grund ist. Wobei mir allerdings immer noch nicht klar ist, wer für diese Geldverschwendung verantwortlich ist. Denke das müsste eher Dalglish sein, der sich für diese Spieler entschieden hat.

teils so, teils so.

adam, carroll, downing sind angeblich u.a. KK; henderson, coates zb comolli verpflichtungen.

aja, ein super Artikel von Jonathan Wilson im Guardian:

The Question: is Steven Gerrard good for Liverpool?

It seems almost heretical to say it, but could it be that Liverpool's captain Steven Gerrard is not the solution but the problem?

When Steven Gerrard came off the bench against Newcastle United on 30 December and transformed a 1-1 draw into a 3-1 win, the assumption was that, with their talisman back after an ankle injury, Liverpool would kick on. That win took them to fifth and with Chelsea and Arsenal faltering, Newcastle seemingly beginning to feel the effects of their comparatively slender squad and Tottenham being Tottenham, a challenge for Champions League qualification, perhaps even third place, seemed probable.

Liverpool have won only two of their 13 league games since then. Going into Tuesday's game against Blackburn Rovers they lie eighth, level on points with Fulham and Norwich City, the two sides below them, and risk finishing outside the top eight for the first time since they returned to the top flight in 1962. They need 15 points from the six games that remain to avoid their worst points tally in a 20-team Premier League (in 2005, a failure that was mitigated by their European Cup win that year).

A Carling Cup and possible FA Cup, of course, provide some mitigation – and it is actually slightly depressing that league position apparently means so much more than trophies – but it is still reasonable to ask what on earth has gone wrong since the turn of the year. Take a cohesive team, add Gerrard, and the result has been a shambles.

It seems almost heretical to say it, but could it be that Gerrard is not the solution but the problem; that, fine player though he is, he has destroyed the balance of the side? When Gerrard has not started this season, Liverpool have won 48% of games played; when he has started, that drops to 9%.

In the 11 games Gerrard has started, Liverpool have scored an average of 1.00 goal per game while conceding 1.36; without him it is goals for 1.24, goals against 0.90. They have taken 1.67 points per game without him, just 0.73 with. Project that over a season: without Gerrard, Liverpool would get 63 points, which last season would have seen them finish fifth; with Gerrard, they would get 28, certain relegation form.

Those figures include six games in which Gerrard has come off the bench. In two of those, against Everton away in October and against Newcastle, he helped turn draws into wins. In the other four, the result has remained unchanged, although Manchester City did increase a 2-0 lead to 3-0.

It was apparent even under Rafael Benítez that Gerrard was at his best when he could be let off the leash, when the situation was so desperate that he could be released from responsibility and told simply to swash buckles and storm barns all over the pitch – as he did against Olympiakos in December 2004, against Milan in the 2005 European Cup final and against West Ham in the FA Cup final the following year. In that regard, he fitted perfectly the Roy of the Rovers template and, as Scott Murray argued in The Blizzard (a piece reproduced here), there has been no figure so pernicious in English football history as Roy Race.

"While little schemers from Italy dreamt of becoming fantasistas, conducting their team-mates to victory from the centre of the park, while South American youths honed their skills and picked up a few street-smarts in the dusty favelas, hoping to put it all together in a gambeta," he wrote, "thanks to Roy Race, English children spent their formative years sat on their arses being taught a very strange lesson: it doesn't really matter what you do for 89 minutes because a superhero will turn up eventually, welt the ball into the net, and you can all go home with your cups and medals.

"Such was the sermon preached from the Melchester pulpit. In the big games, Rovers were perfectly happy to wing it, knowing Racey would amble along to the rescue at some point. As a result, nobody would bother preparing for anything. More often than not, Melchester would yawn on to the pitch, and end up a goal or two down not long after kick-off. A Race-inspired comeback was nearly always on the cards."

Nobody ever mentions it but in terms of control, Liverpool's best performance in their 2004-05 run in the Champions League was the 0-0 draw at Juventus, where Gerrard was absent and Liverpool's midfield comprised Xabi Alonso, Igor Biscan and Antonio Núñez.

Gerrard's penchant for Hollywood passes and his tactical indiscipline are well-known, but the Opta statistics present a more nuanced picture. Shots on target and shots to goal are virtually unchanged with and without Gerrard while possession (55.22% to 56.50%) and pass completion (80.79% to 81.06%) improve marginally with him in the side.

Cross completion drops from 21.21% to 15.19% when Gerrard comes into the side, while the number of tackles won falls from 75.49% to 71.90%. That latter figure perhaps hints at what he does in terms of disrupting the shape of the midfield. That said, the injury to Lucas Leiva who, remarkably, has still made more tackles than anybody else in the Liverpool squad this season despite having been injured since November, partly accounts for that fall-off and has clearly been a significant factor in Liverpool's stumble.

But what is really telling is the impact Gerrard has on other players. All six of Charlie Adam's assists and both his goals have come when Gerrard has not started. Jordan Henderson's tackle success rate drops from 92.59% when Gerrard does not start to only 63.64% when he does. Jay Spearing wins 60.71% of duels when Gerrard does not start; only 54.76% when he does. When Gerrard is there, they have to adjust to different roles and, so far, that seems to have had a detrimental effect.

The phenomenon of a big player dwarfing those around him, particularly when, as in the case of Henderson and Adam, they are low on confidence, is well-known. The tendency, understandably, is to give the ball to the star, to try to feed him at every opportunity: Cesc Fábregas described it happening at Arsenal in Thierry Henry's last full season, while an overreliance on Samuel Eto'o has clearly hampered Cameroon. Gerrard offers an excuse, an easy way for his team-mates to dodge responsibility.

It is not that he is a bad player, far from it – and Lucas's absence is almost certainly a bigger reason for Liverpool's slide than Gerrard's return – but it could be that his impact is detrimental. That is the problem with building up individuals in football: no matter how gifted he is, it is never just about one man.

bearbeitet 12. April 2012 von Kante