The scoreline flattered us, Spurs should have beaten us by far more than 4-2. Our performance was devoid of any decent passes, movement, defending, and our strikers were left isolated throughout.
I can't help but feel sorry for the fans who actually paid money to go and watch the match, they must feel robbed. The Carling Cup was never going to be an important competition for us, but you'd think the lads would've put more effort in, rather than the lazy and inept performance we were 'treated' to.
With Arbeloa suspended this weekend, the thought of Degen being on the pitch is very scary. Hopefully Rafa will go with Carra or Darby at right back. The one positive from the game is that Torres made it through without sustaining any injuries, which should help build up his fitness.
17 comments:
I've watched the spurs game, extremely dissapointed.. In my point of view, all of the players were good except PHILLIP DEGEN!!!!! He was extremely poor in his positioning!!! especially from d 1st three goals!! It all came from the right side of our defence and even u see the recorded video, where the hell was Degen?! His positioning was very very POOR!!! No wonder he was released by Dortmund!!! Hypia was the one covering the right side because of DEGEN misPositioning!!! I bet our youth players are better than him!!!! will glad if Degen leaves the club even for free!!!!
That was the worst defending i have ever seen from liverpool. Just look at the few changes to the backline and it becomes obvious why. Degen is pure rubbish. Cant even spell the goalkeepers name but he is not much better. Dossena is long way from settling - if ever.
'All of the players were good'?
What game were u watching!
I agree Degen was shocking (although in fairness he was released from Dortmund due to being injury prone, not crap)but how can you claim the others were anygood.
Dossena is quite simply a liability, Hyypia is to old and slow (sorry Sami but its time to hang up ur boots and coach the kids in our academy)and Lucas needs to be sold as soon as.
We have made real progress this year, and have a 1st team to challenge anyone. But cut below the surface and the quality aint there. Why can't Rafa play the kids in games like this and simply compliment them with a few of our stars? (and by stars I mean Alonso, Stevie G and Riera not mean Lucas, Dossena, Deggen)
Degen's defensive qualities need a lot to be desired - and he seems to lack both pace and technical ability (and, yes, his positioning is poor).
I like Darby much better, he is a strong tackler, has pace - and shows a lot of commitment.
On the right side, Aurelio is clearly our best fullback - and, in his absence, I would use Insua more than Dossena. Insua shows more promise and needs to gain confidence. Dossena seems totally harassed and unsteady on the pitch against the Tottenham boys - although I do not doubt his motivation and commitment. Who knows, perhaps he will come good - but Insua shows by far the more potential of the two in the few matches I have watched him.
Cavalieri needs to work on his positioning and game intelligence. He seems to have good reflexes, but appears rather raw. I think he can come good if the coaching staff work hard with him to improve - and if he can take a leaf from Pepe Reina's book.
I was there last night and paid £33 to be... publicly humiliated as a supporter and ridiculed as a fan!
To hear the Spurs supporters singing "can we play you every week" or "are you Arsenal in disguise " --- which in many ways, would not be a bad thing, since they certainly do not have players like Dossena, who clearly doesn't deserve the wear the red shirt of Liverpool.
Dossena is awful. I am going to cut Deggen some slack (and only some)becuase he has not played too much. The big worry I have is that the players didn't want to know, Spurs players fought for every ball and then played their game when in possession, I think Spurs players attitude was spot on and our lads was not, that is what is not acceptable not the defeat as such.
It was left far too late in the game to put Insua on the pitch (wasted opportunity to give him some experience), and with Degen being so rubbish, Darby should have been on the pitch by the second half. The Carling cup might not be that important, but it is the perfect opportunity to give the youth players a decent run out. This really feels like such a wasted match. Very disappointed.
crap, crap, crap and crap, oh wait, more crap. hope we never see another performance like that ever again.
As everyone has said, Degen is awful, and Dossena still needs much improvement. I think it's clear there was no chemistry in that back 4, which made Dossena play worse than he does with the first team.
I don't understand Rafa's strategy in that game. If you're not going to play your best side, play your youth. What's the point in playing Degen? He's never going to break the 1st team starting lineup, so give the promising Darby the full 90. Same with Insua.
These guys are the future, NOT Degen. And I'm all for Torres getting a run out there, but sub him for someone like Pacheco.
@dummy - yup, definitely a wasted opportunity
@roberto - i'm sure we all hope for that too
@brink - it made sense to give Dossena a chance, cos he does have some class, but i think Rafa left it a little late to sub him. As for Degen, well i think enough has been said about that lad...
Degan - more than enough said about his terrible positional sense.
Dossena - nearly as bad.
Lucas - absolute muck who should be moved on pronto!
Torres - good to see him running around again (even if he was obviously rusty)
Overall - the worst performance I've seen in a long time. Wrong team, wrong tactics from Rafa and wrong attitude from too many of the players. At least if we'd played the kids they'd get experience and we'd have got a better performance.
Bruce SA RED - I can understand why Red supporters are upset with the performance of some of the players but should we be blaming them ? It was Rafa after all who signed them up & it was Rafa who selected the team, he has spent millions on mostly mediocre players, how many of the players in LFC would be good enough to play for manure? Perish the thought! Its my opinion that he needs to be a lot more fussy when it coms to signing new players. LFC & its supporters are proud of their club, Rafa & players alike should remember that before making us the laughing stock.
I am personally disappointed with Rafa Benitez, Spurs are an attacking outfit but poor at the back, what you usually do when playing an attacking team is play solid steady fullbacks and not wingbacks, Dossena and Degen in my opinion are attacking wingbacks, they try to get forward alot, I think Insua and Darby would have definitely been a better option, I don't think Plessis or Lucas were that good in the middle either, the only player I liked watching was Nabil El Shar
It was a terrible display.
The defensive line-up clearly lacked the leadership of Reina and Carragher.
I always find it frustrating watching Torres when he is struggling. During this match he did not succeed with a single attempt. He ran into the Tottenham players and lost the ball all too easy. The same can be said about Babel. He kept the ball too long, and ended up in crowded places he could not get out of.
One positive though, I think that Alonso changed the stability in the midfield. He filled the empty space left open by Plessis and Lucas, and managed to turn Liverpools possesion into some decent attacking minutes, until Gomes was injured and the momentum was lost.
@bruce sa red - i think it's fair to blame players when they barely even try to put in any effort.
Even if Rafa had a limitless warchest to sign 'world class players', I doubt all the signings would turn out to be good enough for LFC. Even Chelsea & ManU sign the occassional dud despite their transfer budgets.
With Rafa he has been relatively quick to ship out the poorer players in an effort to identify who is suitable for LFC. As I understand it he also does quite a bit of research when spending money on players but no one can predict the outcome in advance each time.
When he gets free signings like Voronin or Degen who both had reasonable Bundesliga pedigrees, he's just looking for experienced squad fillers, so is likely to be a little less discerning with them.
If only all the players were as proud of LFC as the fans are, then we'd be laughing our way to the title every season.
@trond - i'm still trying to forget that display ;-)
Hopefully we'll get a better performance from the team tomorrow :-)
Just one bad game and people start pointing fingers at all directions.
The reason made Benitez to sign wingbacks was because our wingers were not good enough (before Riera's arrival). He tried to use wingbacks to add more teeth to our attack.
Degen is now injured again..
@speirs - having wingbacks could be a good thing for Liverpool but it also requires that they try and put some effort in, otherwise they become a liability.
Dossena had an excellent season last year in Serie A, he has class and hopefully just needs a little time to adapt to the Premiership. But it's very doubtful that Degen will ever be good enough for LFC (I really hope that doesn't turn out to be the case).
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