Liverpool v Hull City - Match Thread

well it wont change until rafa  put 2 strikers up front not 1

4 4 2 not 4 5 1

not going to work
how many times does he have to draw to see it ffs
he got to remember its the prem  not spain he playing in

Keane needs to play behind Forward in my opinion because he played there for most of his career and was very successful in that position.

Keane and babbel up front whilst torres is out,drop yossi and put kuyt back out on right,hows keane supposed to get his goal scoring touch back when hes sat on the bench for 90mins,could belive lucas got on and keane didnt.

TEAMSHEET
   
Pepe Reina             Boaz Myhill 
Andrea Dossena      Paul McShane 
Jamie Carragher       Michael Turner 
Sami Hyypia            Kamil Zayette 
Alvaro Arbeloa        Samuel Ricketts 
Albert Riera             Nick Barmby 
Xabi Alonso             Ian Ashbee 
Javier Mascherano    George Boateng 
Yossi Benayoun        Bernard Mendy 
Steven Gerrard        Marlon King 
Dirk Kuyt                 Geovanni 

SUBS :                 SUBS :
Daniel Agger         Daniel Cousin 
Ryan Babel            Richard Garcia 
Diego Cavalieri       Peter Halmosi 
Nabil El Zhar          Dean Marney 
Robbie Keane        Tony Warner 
Lucas Leiva            Dean Windass 
David Ngog            Stelios 


How can Keane not get in that 11?!

El Zhar (Benayoun, 75) Babel (Riera, 82) Lucas (Mascherano, 87)

It's taken Rafa 3 full seasons to realise mass rotation does not work. Is it going to take him another 3 seasons to realise 4-5-1 at home doesn't work now ? Well dissapointed with the starting 11, the tactics and the subs. Also the subs available not being used. Every one now comes to Anfield to get a point or more, and most are successfull as well, not because we haven't the players, but because they are not being used in a positive enough manner. Title? not like this.

Started the season playing pretty much the same 11 why now start to change it,thought Aggers been playing well but now dropped,Keane played well midweek spends next game on bench and same goes for Babel.Benayoun for me isnt that great but he starts.Back in the glory days when we were in every tournament and top of the league it was the same 11 players,only changed when there were injuries.Thought today would have been an easy 3 points.

The Keane saga really puzzles me.

If Rafa isn't playing him because of his form, maybe he should remember back to the days of his can-do-no-wrong pet Morientes where he played him every game saying playing games will give him confidence.

Keane doesn't seem happy at being subbed after 60mins every game. I have a feeling hes had a go at Rafa, who's punishing him by sitting on the bench. Either that, or Rafa is doing his whole ego-trip thing where he tries to prove he can win a game late with tactics instead of brute attacking force. Whatever's happened, its failed.

With the squad we have, we should never have any excuse for going defensive.

I've watched the game on MOTD and I have come to terms with the result.

It wasn't good enough. The tactics were a joke and Gerrard saved us. We needed two strikers but it didn't happen. Keane should have been introduced and Babel a hell of a lot earlier.

Hopefully Rafa can make up for it by masterminding a victory at the Emirates.

http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/11158/Benitez_knows_Liverpool_blew_big_chance.aspx

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was frustrated after his side could only manage a 2-2 draw at home to Hull City. Liverpool had to battle back and escaped with a point after Phil Brown's men took a surprise 2-0 lead. And Benitez knows his side blew a chance to open up a gap at the top. He told Sky Sports: "For me it is a pity but you can say the same things, you have to score and you have to win. If you want to stay at the top of the table you have to win these games.

"We are really disappointed because these are the sort of games we have to win. We conceded two goals and made two big mistakes."

Benitez left under-fire striker Robbie Keane on the bench and didn't bring him on as Liverpool searched for the elusive winner.

He added: "We were thinking about the wingers. Some times more people in the box is not the answer."
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ _____

What an explanation for leaving Keane out of the squad. At times Rafa's decisions tend to cost us Wins!

Don't understand why everyone's having a go at the formation. It' s  the same formation that worked wonders after xmas last season. Our previous draws at home have come playing a 4-4-2.

What happened today confirms beyond doubt that winning the Premiership title will be a battle.

You're much more intelligent than that fella.  I don't think anyone on hear thought we were going to skip to the title.

How Carragher manage to put the ball in his own net still beats me.

And Reina.

You're right I agree.  He should have cleared it.  Happening too often.

Concerning Keane - to be fair he has been sh*t.  We scored three away from home last week with him out.  He's been on in a lot of our 0-0 ers when we have looked totally ineffective up front.  Our problem today was not just scoring goals but Dossena gifting them two goals.

If Insua had been on I'm convinced we wouldn't have been losing 2-0.

Don't understand why everyone's having a go at the formation. It' s  the same formation that worked wonders after xmas last season. Our previous draws at home have come playing a 4-4-2.

Don't recall us winning the league last season.

Also I don't recall us getting more points than any of the other top four in the second half of last season either.

4-2-3-1 is fine when you have someone like Torres.  When you haven't got a world class striker up front you need two of them.

You're much more intelligent than that fella.  I don't think anyone on hear thought we were going to skip to the title.

And Reina.

You're right I agree.  He should have cleared it.  Happening too often.

Concerning Keane - to be fair he has been sh*t.  We scored three away from home last week with him out.  He's been on in a lot of our 0-0 ers when we have looked totally ineffective up front.  Our problem today was not just scoring goals but Dossena gifting them two goals.

If Insua had been on I'm convinced we wouldn't have been losing 2-0.

Battle more because we're coughing up points at Anfield. For how long do you think the other three will continue to slip up when we do?We are making the race more difficult for ourselves with these slip ups. 8 points dropped at Anfield alreay

Keane will deliver. This bench-warming period is unnecessary.

Very concerned regarding Rafa's post match interview. He said that putting Keane on was no guarantee to score a goal but then again says we lacked that edge in the final third.

My first complaint is, he said it would be no guarantee so he puts on a midfielder, not  very good one at that, which means less of a chance to score. How does that work? Especially when the lack of quality in the final third was because of the striker that was on the field.

Keane, he will come good. I have no doubt in my mind he would have scored or created would he had come on. Of course i cant prove it but the way the game was played, we needed someone who has a good touch, can pass and (although we havent seen it too often) shoot.

Dossena is piss poor, he has to go in January. I'm not a fan of selling people after just a few months but its clear he just cant defend and has been the source of opposition goals way too often for anyone's liking. As JD said, we wouldnt have been 2-0 down should Insua have been on the pitch.

We are lucky, yet again, but we cant keep going on like this. We have to start winning these games and comfortably. Of course Hull arent as bad as you would think, they played good footy at times and have beaten Arsenal and have an exceptional away record, but when we totally control the second half and fail to make chances pay 3 home games in a row it starts to click in our head that this could be why we win the league or not.

Very concerned regarding Rafa's post match interview. He said that putting Keane on was no guarantee to score a goal but then again says we lacked that edge in the final third.

I agree with him.  Putting Keane on wasn't a guarantee we would score at all.  The way he is playing I'd fancy the chances of most of our other players to put in the net before Keane.

No disagreement with you on the Doss thing though. 

I agree with him.  Putting Keane on wasn't a guarantee we would score at all.  The way he is playing I'd fancy the chances of most of our other players to put in the net before Keane.

But Lucas? Thats what i dont get, we had N'gog if we needed and tbh, we did, much more than Lucas. Lucas has scored one goal in his career for us against Havant and Waterlooville, why would he come on and steal the game now?

As i've learnt this season, whats done is done.

on match of the day...........shearer is a c**t...wot u on about...u biasd blert...why oh why are they all against us.
and phil brown in nit picking about fouls on his players. wot more do you want brown, I used to like u but now I think your a dick head, .... talking proper sh*t.

nobody wants us to win the league.... if benitez gets his head out of his arse, and rethinks his egotistical selections I think we can just do it, especially with the mancs, arsenal and chelsea being off form this year, if this carrys on we will end up worrying about the villa, it really is this open this year, and probably quite refreshing and good for the PL

also we had 58 mins to win this match as CROUCHINO said we had dossena, who played like he had a bag of spanner in his kecks, we need to sell dossena, and keane in the jan window, and it looks quite likely now..... maybe we will get 15 mill for them both and buy a good stiker with the money....also give insula his chance now over the christmas perios....use your head rafa, get rid of sh*t and lets get a quality player in a fast, assured and confident striker (or give pacheco or nemeth a go), and for gods sake leave kuyt on the wing for now

I understand the frustration, i needed to have an hour long shower to calm me down at 4 in the morning today, but lets not get too hard on Rafa and the boys in the aftermath of the game. Yes it was largely Rafa's fault we didnt win and Dossena is piss poor but Doss wont be here for that long after today and the gaff will screw his head on soon enough.

This may seem beyond reason for some but look back a month and everyone was saying, one game at a time. Lets forget this game and the past month infact and just move on. We know we've played crap in some periods in every game but get some confidence back in the boys and finally take these teams to the sword. In the lead up to a game against the Arse, we need to be right behind everyone and ensure we kill them off in this competition and move forward ourselves.

Very concerned regarding Rafa's post match interview. He said that putting Keane on was no guarantee to score a goal but then again says we lacked that edge in the final third.

What concerns me about that, is that Rafa has brought in Keane to do a job and now he obviously point blank doesn't feel he can do it. If that's the case, don't even have him on the bench!! Have someone else on the bench who might have an effect in scoring a goal! Get Nemeth on the bench!

How often does Lucas guarantee a goal then? Yet he still brought Lucas on instead of a proven Premier League striker when we needed the three points.

The simple fact Keane wasn't brought on yesterday and we persisted with a loose performance from Kuyt on his own up front seems wrong to me. I don't deny Keane has been very poor so far. But what use is he on the bench? No use at all.

Guess it's a little true. No matter who plays, they should be more clinical in the final third.

I don't understand Rafa's thinking in playing 1 striker at home.  Why didn't he play Keane??  It's the same shyte he did with Crouch, just wouldn't play the guy.  Games = confidence= chances of scoring goals!!

AGAIN what a frustrating result.  Teams come to Anfield now and don't fear us at all. They think 'we'll pick up a point..or three here'.  We need to make it a fortress.  We've dropped, too many points at home...HOME !! We can't rely on Stevie and Nando each game.  Midfielders need to chip in with a few goals too.

Agreed.
We need to transform Anfield into a fortress. This season Anfield is becoming more like a parking lot for visitor bus. Stoke, West Ham and Fulham came, park their bus, grind out 1 point and went home happy. Boro and Hull nearly got 3 point from our poor display.

We have the best centre back in Europe and he is left on the bench but it also says Agger has decided to move on and I for one have a sick feeling that we cannot pay him a bit more to keep him.would hull have got the draw with Agger playing (We'll never know) but somehow I think not.

Here we go again more points dropped with another home draw seems to be a familiar theme to last season and it cost us dear in the end, I hope we are not top after this weekend as we seem to be more focused when chasing rather than looking down since we have taken top spot all the draws started.Nice easy one next week in which we will be second favourites so we may have a chance and its a place where a draw will be a good result

Keep the faith we will be in the mix at seasons end..... 

would hull have got the draw with Agger playing (We'll never know) but somehow I think not.

Not if we'd played him at left-back.