Liverpool v Marseille (CL) - Match Thread

What annoys me is that in the last 6 minutes they played like they wanted to win the game, we actually had some urgency about us and could have scored right near the end, so why the hell didn't we play like we wanted to win right from the start.

Exactly my feelings MsG.

We didn't even look arsed, the players attitudes towards the game were totally wrong.

Sissoko probably had the worst game of his life, Crouch couldn't of played flick ons any worse,  Leto was too lightweight, Gerrard trying all those slick passes just never really happened.  But the goal from Marseille was top class.  We made them look like a brilliant team because we approached it all wrong.

Sitting in the Kop right at the end, we got booed off.  I never joined in though, I was too busy looking for Richobaz!! 

LINK

BOSS LABELS DEFEAT 'WORST PERFORMANCE'




Rafa Benitez admitted the 1-0 defeat to Marseille could have been Liverpool's worst home performance since he took over.

The result leaves the Reds third in Group A of the Champions League with one point, though four games remain.
 
Benitez said: "That could be the worst performance since I came here, especially at home. We didn't create much from the beginning.
 
"It was a poor game, we were not playing well from the beginning. We were giving the ball away and not creating chances.
 
"Only at the end we produced some pressure and created a little bit.
 
"We knew Marseille were playing better in the Champions League. They're a good team and we knew the quality was there.
 
"The only comfort I can take from this game is that it's finished."
 
Despite his disappointment, Benitez knows qualification is still well within his side's grasp.
 
He added: "We know in football if you want to progress you need to win. We need to win the next game.
 
"At this moment in time the best thing is to think about the next game. We've got Spurs here at the weekend and we'll try and get three points and then see what happens in our next game against Besiktas."

Where's the fans gratitude Rafa?  Or did you forget about that when you heard the booers!

Game was painful, and not just because of the headache I had watching it...

Disgraceful.

Okay, my Leto prediction was WAY off, but I stand by what I said in preseason about Sissoko, he's too much of a liability in the passing department. Mascherano has a constant stream of energy, can tackle just as well, is technichly better in the tackle (Sissoko seems to have more luck with his long legs) and his passing is above and beyond that of Momo. There's no way in hell should the two of them be at the same fitness level, Sissoko gets in the First 11.

The fans had all the right to boo the players; there's no point applauding them off, they didn't deserve it. We'll applaud, sing and back them against Tottenham on Saturday all we can, but there's no excusing that performance.

Last night was painful I agree - my view of last nights DISASTER. God did we miss Arbeloa...

REINA - Not at fault for the goal - decent saves 7/10.

LETO - Not mentally right last night. Very dissapointing 3/10.

AURELIO - Crossing and touch pathetic. Very dissapointing 3/10.

FINNAN - Only player to come of game with credit. Good display 7/10.

HYPPIA - Decent at back but heading rubbish - 6/10.

CARRA - Worse game I have seen him have. Found wanting every time. 4/10.

SISSOKO - Disaster. No midfield class. 2/10.

GERRARD - May the real SG stand-up. No touch, no class, could have been sent off. 3/10.

YOSSI - Tried all night. Could have scored 6/10.

CROUCH - Missed great chance to volley/score. No impact. 4/10.

TORRES - First touch last night was of Ryman League standard. Terrible. 4/10.

SUBS:
RIISE - Came on but didn't impact - could have done more 5/10.

VORO - Came on to leave 3 at back and they scored. No impact 5/10.

KUYT - No impact - but at least would run through brick walls. 6/10.


Rafa's dithering about Torres going off and then Aurelio going cost us their goal.

Must have been getting stick when the no.9 went up... Torres was having a mare so he should have stuck to his guns.

cant recall the last time we were so awful over 90 minutes. One thing that got me annoyed and I dont think its been mentioned in any other posts is that we seem to be afraid to get numbers up in attack. For example in the 1st half leto picked the ball up just inside the marseille half and carried it towards the box before losing it. As I was about to roar at the telly I realised that the only option he had was Torres. Nobody got forward from midfield and our 2 full backs didnt give him a wide option. Then in the second half when were 1 down with a couple of minutes to go I think it was Gerrard got on the ball moved forward with only Kuyt ahead of him! We have to lose that defensive mentality to progress.

Im feeling very low at the minute about that effort we got last night and am praying we turn it on against Spurs on Sunday

We were poor in just about every position last night, they strolled through our midfield and seemed to have so much space and time on the ball...we got caught out last night, there are no positives to take out of this one unfortunately, we played badly and rightfully lost. We need to improve...you can only get results playing badly so many times...sooner or later the jig is up.

Next up? Whacky Spurs...who are likely to score as much as they'll conceded this season.

I don't think these Chaps are going to travel too well, and I'm going for 2-0. Torres and Hyppia!

How wrong could I be! That has to be one of the worst performances I have ever seen. Marsielle were by far the better side, they were first to every ball, ran the midfield and I could do nothing but stand and applaud the goal, it was special! That wasn't how I predicted I would be spending my evening! To many changes for me, I don't like the rotation policy. You can change one or two to freshen thing up but we seem to change half a team every game. The crowd were getting on Croucheys back but it cant help the Lad only playing once in a while and expecting him to come in and produce his best. Leto was being slated, but this is an exciting young prospect, he's just not ready to be thown into Europes premier competition. It baffles me when the crowd blame players in this situation when this is down to the manager. Its his rotation policy, his choice of team. We are wondering why Gerrard is having a dip in form, he shouldn't of played for Liverpool or England until he was 100% fit. The thing what totally wrecks my head is we have one enforced change in defence with the injury to Agger, a class defender ans a big miss for the team, so why change the defence further? The defence looks solid with Finnan and Arbelloa at full back and Carra in the middle. Hyppia for the injured Agger should be the only change, surely we should be looking for little disruption as possible? I have always been a fan of Rafa and its early days but I don't thing we can win the league by rotating as much as we do. I fear for Rafa's future as we now have a great squad and we will have no excuses for failure. Thats not a knee jerk reaction I just don't think we can carry on changing as much as we do and win top honours.

When I got to the Pub last night to drown my sorrows!! I couldn't believe what Dida done. The cheating tw*t. We all know the fan shouldn't of run on the pitch, but Dida thought if he went down he may get the result thrown out. You were beaten fair and square Lad and you deserve a ban for your actions.

That was a F***ing awful performance, but it's been coming if you ask me, we haven't played well all season so far, and don't mention derby, spurs knocked 5 past them, reina was the only player to have any credit, without him the scoreline would have been worse.
      Hopefully thats the kick up the backside for both the players and rafa, there is no doubt spurs will fancy getting a result now.

But hey come on everyone, think back to 2005 when we had to win 3 -1 at Anfield in the last game, and we did it then, we can do it again, I'm trying to be positive here......I know it's difficult cos everyone is very disappointed at the moment, but we must look to the next game, cos we can't do anything now about tonights result.

Agreed.It's fair too say we didn't play well last night but we still have four games to turn that around.Lets not forget where we were and where we are today.They were some people booing after the game which wasn't nice to hear and then there's you guys that  are (lucky enough to go to Anfield every week and support the team tremendously through thick and thin) the reason why Gillete and Hicks came here.

Reality check here now,Liverpool are : four points behind Arsenal in the league (Unbeaten)
                                                     in the last sixteen of the carling cup
                                                      three points off  the qualifying places  in the champs league

I concede that the perfomances aren't great recently but Form is tempary ,CLASS is permanent.

Here's the bottom line: Are (some) fans prepared to boo everytime there's not a great performance ?
                                 Are (some) fans going to get on Rafa's back if this does improve straight away leading to a worse case scenario of a Chelski type situation?
                                  Are (some) fans going to tar LIVERPOOLS REPUTATION  AND WHAT LIVERPOOL STANDS FOR ?

So If yes stay away
or If no support the team like you always do singing harder and louder than ever before !!!

Absolutely Pathetic that game.
No Excuses, we now have to beat Porto at Home, Beat Besiktas Home and Away and get at least a draw at Marseille.
Going out at the Group Stage is unthinkable.  Not one player played well last night

Next round of fixtures, we definitely need a win, and we'd be praying for Marseille to win IMO, or a draw.

Agreed.It's fair too say we didn't play well last night but we still have four games to turn that around.Lets not forget where we were and where we are today.They were some people booing after the game which wasn't nice to hear and then there's you guys that  are (lucky enough to go to Anfield every week and support the team tremendously through thick and thin) the reason why Gillete and Hicks came here.

Reality check here now,Liverpool are : four points behind Arsenal in the league (Unbeaten)
                                                     in the last sixteen of the carling cup
                                                      three points off  the qualifying places  in the champs league

I concede that the perfomances aren't great recently but Form is tempary ,CLASS is permanent.

Here's the bottom line: Are (some) fans prepared to boo everytime there's not a great performance ?
                                 Are (some) fans going to get on Rafa's back if this does improve straight away leading to a worse case scenario of a Chelski type situation?
                                  Are (some) fans going to tar LIVERPOOLS REPUTATION  AND WHAT LIVERPOOL STANDS FOR ?

So If yes stay away
or If no support the team like you always do singing harder and louder than ever before !!!

Agreed! I was at the game lastnight, and tried my best geeing up fans around me (didn't get me regular spot in the Kop ) and no-one was arsed! In my opinion, I feel let down by fans around me who didn't have a clue what they were on about and about Liverpool as a whole! I was even told to be quiet by some codger behind me, which pissed me off further! I'm sure he would have been one of the let-downs booing at the end, but he didn't grace us with his presence for the last 15 minutes!

On the actual subject of the match, it was one of the worst performances I've witnessed from any side down the years! Leto and Sissoko should have both left the field at half time! They were a liability and this eventually gifted Marseille the opportunity to get that shot in! Leto is young and has much to learn, and I'm sure it will give him a kick up the arse to toughen up! But Sissoko needs to hold down some consistency and play well when he gets his shot!

I couldn't care less about all of this rotation bollocks! It will pay off at the end of the season, as it always has done! The only reason there's an issue with it all is that the media is bringing it up all the time with stats that go against us! They neglect to mention United's and Chelsea's stats, which are of a similar calibre!

Hopefully this will get some heads going in the squad about the safety of their starting places! No-one turned up lastnight, which is a crying shame! We had a good opportunity to get into a more comfortable position in the group and blew it!

one thing i noticed last night is when crouch is on we always play the long ball and i beleive it doesnt beneift torres, becasuse all torres goals have been scored by liverpool passing to his feet, also sissoko has terrible kept giving the balll away, should have had mascherno starting, gerrard didnt look right (didnt look like he was concentrating on what was going on around him) seemed to be sissoko playing more attacking than gerrard maybe becasue gerrard did'nt trust him, as the fact of him giving the ball away, leto didnt contribute at all couldnt get past anyone, why is a 12 million pound winger (babel) being put on the bench before a resevere player (leto) Crouch was pathetic couldnt do anythin with the ball cant even head the ball properly, Torres wasnt having the best game maybe because a lack off servive, benayoun did well, finnan was working hard as usuall, carragher was poor hyypia werent bad aurelio didnt do much, reina was good and not at fault fot the goal, so an all round poor performance.       

all torres goals have been scored by liverpool passing to his feet

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure all of Torres' goals have been scored by the ball being played into space for him to run on to, if not all then certainly most of them.

Crouch was pathetic couldnt do anythin with the ball cant even head the ball properly, Torres wasnt having the best game maybe because a lack off service

This I don't understand either. Both strikers have a crap game, one's pathetic the other didn't get the service. Yes, I would agree that Crouch was pathetic last night, but so was the whole team. There's no need to single him out, he hasn't warranted it, but small minded people will always do it because he looks different. Complete & utter ignorance.

the thing that got me last nite and our other home performance so far, the away teams are gettin a lot more time on the ball and shots on target than us. why? wot's gone wrong this season and how are we going to sort it out? at anfield the away side shouldn't have more than 3 or 4 shots in the whole game. it needs to be sorted sooner than later. 

there were 2 keys things missing, 1 there were no wingers (no crosses) and 2. One thing i noticed, no Alonso

Bit long winded but I have tried to post all the quotes from the players and the boss after the game, and from today's interviews.

Benitez is the most telling - I think he is really shocked about how poorly we did play.

Worth a perusal anyway.

http://www.anfield-online.co.uk/lfc-news/2007/10/04/marseille-post-match-reaction-part-2/

donrafael youve summed up what I wanted to say about this disaster perfectly so I wont say anything about the players except that stevie looked as if he was gona fall asleep when the camera shot past the line up, hopefully he gets in a better mood soon. rough match, rough week (car accident), injuries, yellow card. any ways why the hell did the marseille fans sing louder than the whole of anfeild through the whole bloody game?!! wtf?! all I heard was their fans singing and then anfeild popped its head up to say "yay" when riise came on and gave us a boost. correct me if you were at the game and the vibe was different but thats what it was like on tv, pathetic. I dont care how sh*t your team does crowd perfamance should be better than that.

Rafa please dont play that line up again in the league, I think if we had masch, agger, pennant, kewell and alonso it would have been a completely different game.