Liverpool v Middlesborough - Match Thread.

True. He put his hands on Aliadierre first. Lucky Mascherano

To show we are not biased  and are fair minded we will let him off.

Mascherano will never be in my bad books no matter what he does after that game. Torres too.

I think some people will be contradicting themselves when they say well done to Rafa for persistingwith Kuyt.

Mascherano will never be in my bad books no matter what he does after that game. Torres too.

I think some people will be contradicting themselves when they say well done to Rafa for persistingwith Kuyt.

Me being one of them! But thats why I'm not the manager! It was a odd game, we gave the ball away from what I've seen (couldn't watch the full match, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) made a few defensive mistakes, but that was with a full back playing center back. But we still scored three! I know it was because of a few mistakes, but Torres was waiting for them. Eventfull game but I'd take 1-0's over that every time!

but I'd take 1-0's over that every time!

Not me, we had the 2 goal buffer, 1 goal leads are too much to handle as a Liverpool supporter.

I think some people will be contradicting themselves when they say well done to Rafa for persistingwith Kuyt.

I think Rafa's continued belief in Kuyt has little to do with kuyt's goal scoring abilities but more to do with his work rates and efforts upfront.

I think Rafa's continued belief in Kuyt has little to do with kuyt's goal scoring abilities but more to do with his work rates and efforts upfront.

Still I'd have to disagree with that method shaq. We need strikers to score the goals, the midfielders suppose to do all the hard work!

Good match yesterday and I was a bit surprised that the only change in the team was Carra by suspension and I doubt Boro would have got any goals if Carra was on the pitch.  Is this THE team? (with Carra in place of Arbeloa of course) ok so I know it's not ideal and probably won't remain unchanged for long, but if we can go forward, pass and win a game with this formula then we should be looking to keep it as every game is important now for forth place. (I hate saying that)

Still I'd have to disagree with that method shaq. We need strikers to score the goals, the midfielders suppose to do all the hard work!

I'd have to agree on the goal scoring needs of our strikers, but until we can afford another striker, the quality of Nando, Rafa's options are limited.

I'd have to agree on the goal scoring needs of our strikers, but until we can afford another striker, the quality of Nando, Rafa's options are limited.

True, I think all our other strikers can offer is hardwork to the team. You can see they don't have the raw talent that Torres has so maybe when we get another world class striker then we should push that posistion up. It doesn't matter what formation we play, we only ever play with one upfront and thats Torres. Crouch, Kuyt & Voronin come too deep far too often but thats probably the best they can offer us.
If we get David Villa then I hope he'd be as far up the pitch as Torres would be.

I haven't seen the game or the highlights cos I had to watch rugby at the stadium. Anyway - i'm happy with the result. I know a lot of people say we didn't play so well but this is compensation for all those times we played well and didn't win the game.

go Fernando!

I watched the game i thought we were average at best, our defence was all out at see but that can be justified we have not partnered Hyppia and Arbelo in the centre before. Reina was very poor also especially in conceding the second goal i though he could have cut Downing's angle better and closed his legs. And the last of the negative Lucas, ffs Rafa i think we have seen enough he can just not cut it in this league. Please stick to Alonso.

On the positive Torres everything has been said allready i though Kuyt tried hard even though he played right wing for a long time.

And the last of the negative Lucas, ffs Rafa I think we have seen enough he can just not cut it in this league. Please stick to Alonso.

Hold on a sec Lucas has hardly had many games and this is probably the first instance in where he has played under par slightly, so all of a sudden he can't cut it in the league? I don't hear people say that when Gerrard or Carragher have an off day! give the lad a break ffs.

Three points was the object of the exercise so well done for that.

But let's not fool ourselves.  If Boro hadn't gifted us two golden opportunities to score, well done Nando as they still had to be capitalised on, we would, all other things being equal,  have lost the game. 

There are clearly problems at right back and left back with and teams have started realising this and capitalising on it.  Finnan is now too slow and Aurillio isn't doing it for me. 

Does anyone else think that Pepe had a less than convincing game?  At the free kick the gap between the defence and the goal line was his and I think he should have come out to claim/punch it rather than staying on his line.  Should Downing have been able to shoot through him?

What was Kuyt doing on the wing and Lucas looked lost in midfield.  Why wasn't Xabi played?  Again Rafa's selection and tactics baffles me.

Anyway three points is three points but it could have been very different.

 

Good win for us as Boro are a bit of a bogey side to us when they got the 1st i thought here we go,nice to see Torres get a hat trick althought he was gifted 2,lets hope we can continue this with wins in our next 3 league games before we go to Milan.

Three points was the object of the exercise so well done for that.

But let's not fool ourselves.  If Boro hadn't gifted us two golden opportunities to score, well done Nando as they still had to be capitalised on, we would, all other things being equal,  have lost the game. 

There are clearly problems at right back and left back with and teams have started realising this and capitalising on it.  Finnan is now too slow and Aurillio isn't doing it for me. 

Does anyone else think that Pepe had a less than convincing game?  At the free kick the gap between the defence and the goal line was his and I think he should have come out to claim/punch it rather than staying on his line.  Should Downing have been able to shoot through him?

What was Kuyt doing on the wing and Lucas looked lost in midfield.  Why wasn't Xabi played?  Again Rafa's selection and tactics baffles me.

Anyway three points is three points but it could have been very different.

 

Agree with all the points. I strongly believe that Aurello and Finnan is never one of the natural left and right backs. Finnan is clearly seen past his best and Rafa needs to realise soon and re-act quickly to that. Finnan has been a loyal servant all these years and that we can never take it away from him but we are beginning to see the cracks now. He's never one of the fastest right back around and somewhat suspect when up against pacey and robust wingerrs, Rafa will need to get someone in soon to plug that hole before it causes us further damages. As for Aurello, his pace is somewhat suspect and rather lighweight and is not a natural leftback, he's pretty average to me. As for Pepe, one against one he's a bit hopeless while his reflexe saves and positioning needs major improvement. The 2nd goal conceded against Boro' could have been save if his reflexes and coverage is better. Looks more of the defenders that make him looks better than we thought. All of a sudden Hyppia looks better than before when others are performing below average. Don't get me wrong whenever Hyppia plays he gave his 110% and I'm not doubting his commitment. I've been asking about Insua sometime back, what happened to him? I thought he is good and we need to expose him soon, next we got to know that Keegan wants him. He reminds me of Chris Lawler. Rafa needs to give his 2nd liners more opportunities and expose them soon, otherwise, they'l never be ready and waiting to be shipped out whilst we are no Chel#ki that can go into the open martket to buy whoever we want. Just my thoughts. As for Lucas, I'm not sure whether he's a a defensive or attacking midfield, if he's the former he should have been much much more aggresive and close down the opposition and not let them whizz past him and not got scolded by Finnan in the 52nd minute. He's not chasing and harassing the opposition enough and too slow and too lightweigh for my liking. If he plays as an attacking midfielder he certainly has not harassed the opposition defenders enough to make his presence felt. He's neither here nor there and just has the occassional brialliance to show.

Does anyone else think that Pepe had a less than convincing game?  At the free kick the gap between the defence and the goal line was his and I think he should have come out to claim/punch it rather than staying on his line.  Should Downing have been able to shoot through him?

Maybe Pepe should never have started the game...

Maybe Pepe should never have started the game...

We should've never let Padelli go back to Italy

We should've never let Padelli go back to Italy

Almost as devostating as the loss of Bernard Diomede :

I think it's a weakness of not having Carra at the back that Reina is not used to and why could we not have used Skrtel in instead of Arbeloa?

Almost as devostating as the loss of Bernard Diomede :

What :O he's never retired has he?

many things already said so far.. i'm agreeing. On that note, i tot this game is a good indication that the rotation policy is very much maligned. I think its the player's fighting mentality and their motivation that seemed lacklustrous in the match.

Great hat trick tho. I hope to see more. Another one from our remaining matches this season isn't too much to ask for??

What :O he's never retired has he?

No AJ not yet.....(dont tell him guys, will only make it harder on him)

The way some people are saying Torres got gifted 2 goals....what was so easy about the 2 gifted goals? One he was sandwiched between Schwarzer and Wheater (?) and popped it through from the edge of the box, not easy! And, he was hassled by a defender and had Schwarzer in front of him, rounds them both and slots it home. They werent easy, he just made it look easier than it was, IMO anyway.

After seeing highlights only and reading the blogs not a lot mention what a tough game we had midweek (hence the tiredness of our main players) and overall we have to be happy with 3 points as these games are our banana skins.We didn't play well and Midd gave us 2 goals and came close on scoring themselves on a few occasions other than the 2 they scored.I see the Toffee's won at city and they have a lot of momentum going right now so it's time to get our best team out for every game because we are in for some scrap with our neighbors and we must do better or we'll lose that coveted place to them over the park unless history repeats itself and wouldn't that be nice....