Thought I'd start a match thread now, get some discussion in and then update the thread when the match comes around at 18:00 on Thursday 10th March. Braga v Liverpool Liverpool travel to Braga for the away leg in the last 16 of the Europa league.
Nice! I see you got in there WELL before me this time! lol I'm out for a works leaving do (I don't want to go) so i'll be missing the match anyway... You can cover in my absence I'm dibs on the home leg though lol
Oh dear looks like I've been caught out! I hope this leg will be more eventful than I suspect it will be.
Hahah indeed Ze... We can share the thread duties together! I reckon Carroll will be well up for this! I can see him scoring at least in one of the legs!
Only 2 days to go now. And I'm supposed to show up at an exhibition with the Mayor! Fait chier! I know where I'd rather be. 18.00 is early. Have to wangle it somehow. Braga are going to rise to us, we're going to have to be fired up! <== Can we shorten these i.d. tag thingies? They make the page 10 ft long.
My prediction for tonight's game: Braga 0-2 Liverpool. Meireles and Carroll to get the goals. Will be a difficult game however. Can see both the goals coming late in the second half after a tight first half.
Team Reina; Carragher, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Johnson; Lucas, Poulsen; Spearing, Meireles, Cole; Kuyt. 0-0 written all over it
The team is likely to be this.Reina,Johnson,Carragher,Skrtel,Wilson,Lucas,Maxi,Mereiles,Cole,Kuyt,Ngog. With Andy Carroll arriving off the bench. I hope Poulsen doens't start,He was dreadful in the two games against Sparta Prague and definitely was our worst player,even worse than Ngog.
So Liverpool return to playing like they don't give a **** having played like their lives depended on it against Man Utd, there'a a shock. And you lot try and claim that playing Man Utd isn't your cup final
We had Cole, Poulson and Spearing in the midfield today. None of which were in the team against United, for a reason: They suck. We have a thin squad and it's games like the one tonight that really show that. A terrible performance really and I feel for the fans that travelled to see it. Beating Braga now by more than a goal at Anfield will be much harder than people think.
Nah I don't think so.Apart from the shot that hit the bar,Braga offered nothing.I reckon Andy Carroll will get a full game against them at home,and we saw from his 30 minute cameo they were scared stiff of him.They can't handle high tempo quick football,as soon as Liverpool upped the tempo they began to get nervous,and their goal in itself was fortuitous.It was after all a penalty,even though it was deserved.This is the side that lost 6-0 at the Emirates,If we can get that all important early goal,they will fold faster than a 99 Opel Corsa.And they were made from tin.
Add this one to the ****list. We used to be pretty good away from home in Europe, but the last couple of years have been awful. We don’t get hammered, but we’re so pedestrian and predictable in attack and the games are like watching two snails humping, not that I’ve ever done that like. Should we even be surprised by this? One look at the teamsheet before the game told us everything we needed to know about how this game was going to go. We picked a team to ensure the tie was still in the balance for next week, and despite the disappointing performance that’s what we’ve done. Kuyt up front on his own, a Lucas and Poulsen partnership in midfield, Carragher at full back, Spearing and Cole on the flanks….. The one player in the side with any kind of pace and ability to get forward and create problems was Johnson, but his threat was diluted through being on the left where he seems to be weaker in attack but, curiously, stronger in defence. I’m sure Kenny would have been more than happy to come away with a 0-0, and really we should have as they didn’t cause us too many problems and the goal we gave them was stupid. I like Big Soto, we all know he’s limited but generally speaking he’s rarely let us down and he’s a trier. I have no idea what was going through his mind when he hung out a leg to bring down that attacker though. Silly challenge, the guy was going nowhere. They made no mistake from the spot but aside from a fantastic long range volley that hit the bar, they didn’t really trouble us after that. It was a fairly dire game, but then I can’t remember a thursday night channel 5 game of ours that has been anything but. Throw in a 6pm kick off time, and this was never going to be good. The one plus is that Andy Carroll got some more game time and the side was transformed from the moment he arrived on the field. He won everything in the air, and gave us the focal point to our attack that Dirk simply can’t provide. Suddenly we were keeping the ball in their half and building attacks. Most of those attacks fizzled out into nothing, but at least we were able to keep the ball in their half for more than a few seconds. We didn’t make the most of the possession we had in wide areas though, and too often the cross didn’t come in. I’m not concerned with that though, as I’d expect us to correct that next week and I’m sure we’ll be putting balls into Carroll and then getting runners coming in for his knock downs. Braga didn’t look like they were capable of dealing with that, and their centre half resorted to a disgraceful elbow into Carroll’s face to try and stop him from winning everything. It didn’t stop him, he got back up after some brief treatment, and promptly won the very next ball played up to him. He’s going to be terrific, we just need to learn how to utilise him properly, and that means not simply launching it towards him whenever possible, which was happening a bit too often in this game I thought. In the absence of Suarez, I’m more than happy to have Kuyt as part of a front two with Carroll, but I don’t want to see him leading the line on his own again unless we have no choice. If Carroll stays fit then it shouldn’t be a problem, but we’re really walking a tightrope here as if we can keep everyone fit and available we can win this competition. A couple of injuries in attacking areas though and we’re done. The squad has no depth in striking and wide positions, which is a big part of why our Euro away performances have been so uninspiring. We’ve not been great at home either if I’m honest, but next week will see a fully fired up crowd and hopefully we’ll get right after them, because I didn’t see anything from them to make me think we should be worried. If we take care of our own game, we should still see them off without too much trouble. Get the right service to Carroll and he could destroy them. I’d also expect to see Maxi come back into the side and hopefully Gerrard, although we must wait and see what the news is on his groin injury. Fingers crossed on that. We didn’t really learn anything from this that we didn’t already know. We saw once again that Poulsen really shouldn’t be playing as he offers nothing. Spearing didn’t look comfortable on the right wing, but was vastly improved when he reverted back to the middle. Meireles was very disappointing I thought, he just seemed to be constantly giving the ball away cheaply. Joe Cole? A difficult game for him to shine, as once again he seemed to be on the ball in areas where he isn’t going to do any damage. He did some nice things and some poor things. I’m starting to think there’s no point picking him in away games, he can only be useful in games where we are pushed right up the field putting pressure on the opposition, and that doesn’t happen away in Europe. I could see Joe making a contribution next week at Anfield, but away from home there’s little point selecting him. Unfortunately the same can often be said of the man he replaced. It’s a pity as both Cole and Maxi are both technically very sound, but it just shows you how important pace is in the modern game. Neither of them have it, but if they did they’d be a completely different proposition. Finding players with the technique of a Cole or Maxi combined with the pace of a Ryan Babel is surely top of Comolli’s list of priorities this summer. In the meantime, we just have to try and make do with what we have, and that should still be enough to overcome this 1-0 deficit next week, but we’ll have to keep the back door shut or it could be a long night. It’s all set up for a typically electric evening at Anfield though.
we just need to learn how to utilise him properly, and that means not simply launching it towards him whenever possible, which was happening a bit too often in this game I thought This is my biggest problem with the big target striker. It really is an incredibly useful weapon if we use it right, but just launching it... for me, it's not the game and it rarely works. I think we had this problem with Crouch when he was here. Less technical players want to hoof it, instead of build a quality attack. Even Tottenham don't just send it straight from the back all the time to Crouch, a lot of time it comes from the wings or at least in the opposition half. I have not seen the game but plan on watching in whatever spare time I might have! Good stuff James, keep up these threads, ever check out Zonal Marking to see how your theories compare with that blogs thoughts?
