Good but not good enough

[NJ10]

Bad week for us. After the high of Marseille, we went into this week on a bit of a high having traversed a problematic Champions League group in some style. Win against United and we would hammer home our improvement this season and underline our title credentials, then go to Stamford Bridge with a decent chance of sealing a spot in the League Cup semi finals, with a realistic chance of winning the tournament.....

But it never happened....

It dawned on me during the second half of the United game, before it came crashing home watching Arsenal's second string/youth team make mugs of Blackburn on Tuesday night. How can a club that invests so much money year in year out (admittedly a lot less than some papers claim but still a substantial amount) create a side that produce such predicatable and inconsistent performances? From near perfection in Marseille to that pathetic submission last night at Stamford Bridge in less than 7 days? Watching Arsenal at Blackburn, they had a few first teamers playing of course (Gilberto, Hoyte, Diarra, Eduardo are all well experienced at first team level), but aside from that it was young untried players such as Traore, Song, Fabianski, Fran Merida. and they all had something in common.....they can trap the ball, find a team-mate and find space to receive the ball again.

compare that to what was happening at Stamford Bridge last night, Momo Sissoko has played over 50 games for Liverpool, yet still fails to master the basics of central midfield play- control the ball, look around, find a team mate and move on. instead we watch as he struggles to get the ball down from even the simplest pass, or attempts hilarious first time passes that nine times out of ten end up with an opposition player, or fan. yet we spent £6m on the boy....whilst Arsenal are snaring Lassana Diarra from Chelsea, and picking up the likes of Abou Diaby & Denilson from relative obscurity. How is this happening? Where are our young gems? Lucas Leiva is the exception to the rule of course, the more i see of him the more i am impressed, but this lad cost a lot of money. we have signed kids like Dani Pacheco, Jordy Brouwer, David Amoo, Nathan Ecclestone, Kristyan Nemeth & Godwin Antwi and been told "these kids have what it takes to make it"....well why arent they in the squad for Carling Cup games, or more importantly, why dont they impress when they are? Jack Hobbs & Nabil El Zhar appeared last night, and neither looked anything like the required standard, why is that? i think we need some answers, cos we are wasting money on these kids, and at the moment only Leiva is showing anything that even resembles quality.

Last night pissed me off. it pissed me off big time. Maybe i dont get football the way Rafa does, but the League Cup is a competition that gives us a chance of silverware, a chance to play some good football without the pressure of the Premiership or the Champions League. yet we trot out the same ridiculous inconsistent performances with the same inconsistent players year in year out. it annoys me. especially when i watch other sides and see the fantastic youngsters they are producing, and the attractive football they are playing. then i have to endure the toiling of Andriy Voronin, and the pinball play of Sissoko, whilst Jack Hobbs stands at the back and clubs the ball long and hard without being the least bit under pressure. and do you know what? we will probably beat Pompey on Saturday and i will get all confident again, until we come up to a game we really have to win, and we bottle it. how irritating is that!

[Werdna]

It's very frustrating!

Watching Liverpool at times reminds me of watching England! At times looking like they have improved and can play good football and win something then performances where you think wtf? What's up with the players?

The likes of Torres, Babel, Benayoun, Mascherano and Leiva have improved the play and look like real good buys. and just looking at goals scored this season shows that there has been an improvement. However the more you watch the big games against ManU, Chelsea or Arsenal the more you see that they seem to have an inferiority complex when it comes to the big boys. I don't know whether that is down to Benitez tactics but they rarely look like dominating one of them. It's always a scrappy win if any and if they go behind there's hardly a chance of coming back due to lack of creativity.

[NJ10]

Thats a pretty good comparison- England. Defensively there is no real worries, and with the players we have, there shouldnt be too many problems going forward, but they dont seem to find any consistency or rhythm and any good attacking play tends to be sporadic rather than sustained.

Jury is still out on Benayoun for me, he started pretty well and he is obviously a talented player, but what does he actually bring to the team week in week out? I never feel confident he will pop up with a crucial goal or a killer pass when we really need it. It seems he was brought in as a direct replacement for Luis Garcia, who infuriated at times but one thing you could say about Luis is that in the big games, he rose to the occasion regularly. I dont think Benayoun gives us much more than him when it comes down to it.

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Riise and Kuyt is not good enough for a perfect first team. To make Liverpool a better team then Rafa should work front of next season to find replacements in those two positions. Maybe also a new left winger... Liverpool ain't good enough to win Premiership yet bit they are more closer now...

[Werdna]

Originally Posted by NJ10

Thats a pretty good comparison- England. Defensively there is no real worries, and with the players we have, there shouldnt be too many problems going forward, but they dont seem to find any consistency or rhythm and any good attacking play tends to be sporadic rather than sustained.

Jury is still out on Benayoun for me, he started pretty well and he is obviously a talented player, but what does he actually bring to the team week in week out? I never feel confident he will pop up with a crucial goal or a killer pass when we really need it. It seems he was brought in as a direct replacement for Luis Garcia, who infuriated at times but one thing you could say about Luis is that in the big games, he rose to the occasion regularly. I dont think Benayoun gives us much more than him when it comes down to it.

Well he scored again yesterday! Tbh I rate Benayoun on consistancy higher than Garcia, true Garcia would often come up with important goals but when he didn't feel like playing he was very very poor. Benayoun might not be as good as Garcia's best but he also isn't as poor as Garcia's worst. When he plays he doesn't lose the ball much and he's a very down to earth player who would probably play anywhere Benitez asked him to because he looks like a player who is genuinely proud to play for Liverpool.

As for Kuyt and Risse, I unfortunately have to agree, not quite up to it.

But with a team
Torres/anybody

Babel or Kewel Alonso or Mascherano Gerrard Benayoun or Pennant

Aurelio Agger Carragher Finnan

Reina


We have a solid team that can beat anybody. Benitez needs to play his best side more often and these players will become even better as they will get more used to each other etc.


Oh, on another note. I heard the other day that Reina said he would be able to get a British passport in 6 months. Is that true? I thought I heard him say that he would be willing to play for England as he has never been picked for Spain. Anyone know if that's true? Would be pretty good news for England if he did!

[Podolski]

are you sure you're not confusing him for almunia? reina has already been capped for spain 7 times