Liverpool 1 - 2 Fiorentina: Post-match musings

The main complaints about the Lucas/Masch partnership has been that it is fine against the big teams to take some of defensive pressure, but not needed for lesser teams where we should be attacking more, so not playing Aquilani at Arsenal might not be a bad choice. Not because Aquilani personally isn't suited to the game but because the defensive mid is?

 Unfortunately I did not see the match or the goals so suffice to say I cannot comment.I am however disappointed in the result as I was hoping we would of gone out with a bang.

What little we saw of  Torres was breathtaking, if he can't be a inspiration to you all, no one can. I love watching him play.

What little we saw of  Torres was breathtaking, if he can't be a inspiration to you all, no one can. I love watching him play.

very true, reminded me of what we were missing up front. Even though we lost in the end, seeing Masch, Gerrard, Aquilani and Torres all on the pitch together gave me a lift and some hope for the future months.

The main complaints about the Lucas/Masch partnership has been that it is fine against the big teams to take some of defensive pressure, but not needed for lesser teams where we should be attacking more, so not playing Aquilani at Arsenal might not be a bad choice. Not because Aquilani personally isn't suited to the game but because the defensive mid is?

Sure this game is at Anfield, otherwise ive just wasted a whole week organising a weekend on the ale!

Agree with all the positives from last night, you could see Aquilani is a player with loads of ability cant wait til hes fully fit.
Thought Dossena played surprisingly well, maybe when he doesnt need to defend it might suit him remember Real Madrid and Man Utd matches last season.
Great to see Darby and Pacheco playing there part and Darby will def learn from that mistake.
Torres was a class above everyone when he came on and we are totally differant team with him on the pitch.

However im getting more concerned about Insua at left back, he is all over the place at times and people are getting past him with total ease, why does Rafa not play Aurelio at full back anymore?
Think Dirks having a rough time at the momoent just not happening for him.

Bring on the Arse!!

Bring on the Arse!!

Marlon King agrees with you

Had to get onto that one before RedLFCBlood did

Torres looked amazing when he was on. They couldn't contain him, and that defence is the best in Serie A apparently.

Marlon King agrees with you

Ooooh! Chase me..............

Was great to see Aquilani finally start I really thought he played well, he is much more positive going forward and bossed the midfield.
Pity about the result, but I'm sure Rafa gave the boys more freedom, certainly looked that way they didn't look so rigid like they have been looking.
 

Kuyt is not playing well simply because unlike other players, he doesn't feel the heat, he doesn't care for fighting for his position. It's like he used to play for first team whatever his form is.
Shame!

The only plusses I took from yesterdays game was:

Aqualani started and stayed on for 75 minutes

Torres and Gerrard were back playing in the same game

Danny Pachoco got his chance

I'll say on last nights performance we still were not productive enough with ball in terms of our creativity, but it was a vast improvement to what I've seen in recent games. I can not remember being frustrated at all last night watching continuous backwards/sidewards passes which is a step in the right direction.

Yes our defensive frailties were exposed once again but one you can credit to a youngster in Darby who has not got much game experience at all and he will learn from that mistake, then the other you accredit to Insua who's been out of sorts for the biggest part of the season.

Yes our inability to kill teams off was also exposed we had several chances to kill the game off, most notably coming from Gerrards crosses and just not making a connection on them.

One thing that really highlighted our lack of productiveness with the ball over the whole of our Champions League campaign is that in Terms of Possession we had the highest possession rate of any team playing in the group stages at close of play last night, yet over 6 games we managed 5 goals. The likes of Fiorentina and Lyon had 14 & 12 respectively.

No good having that all possession if you do not do something productive/creative with it.

Over the 6 games we spent 59% of the time in possession with only Arsenal coming close at 57%

I think the only thing I have been made aware of during the Champions League campaign is that our defending is sloppy, and that Torres and Gerrard are our best players and we sorely miss them when they are not there.

We fully deserved to go out.

You simply can't defend how we did and expect to progress in that competition.  Roll on Arsenal.

Unlike you RLB and most of you, I just thought we weren't good enough yesterday.

For the first half, our only chance was from the set piece that Yossi converted, we didn't threaten the keeper at all in open play and for 45 minutes, that is not good enough if we want to win the game. Yes, our possession rate is among one of the highest in the competition, at half time yesterday we were at a rate of 61% but in truth Fiorentina were more threatening going forward.

In the second it was an improvement, the game was more open and we had a few chances from Gerrard's crossing, our players failing to get their heads to the ball - and for me that's a chance lost. As long as we fail to get that ball and threaten Frey's goal we ain't going to do ourselves any good. And besides the sidenettings from Gerrard, and Pacheco's shot, I thought that was what summed up our chances - we didn't create enough to try and kill the game off.

What is more worrying for me is our inability to up the tempo. We look rather slow, taking our own time to try and probe them - which most of the time, came to nothing. We had no penetration in our attack, didn't held the upper hand over the game and that's why we lost. The only spark was when Pacheco and Torres came on, and for me Anfield was rather subdued as well, the Fiorentina fans making themselves heard more.

Onto the positives I was glad to see Aquilani getting 75 minutes on the pitch, Pacheco and Darby getting their chances as well. Darby's still got a long way to go though, I hope he has learnt a very valuable lesson not to dwell on the ball too long especially at top-level like the CL.

I'm sorry friends but based on yesterday's performance I don't buy your views, I'll stick to my thoughts and just feel we weren't good enough, honestly. We've got a high possession rate but we weren't sending them into the box as often as I've liked. That's not good for me and towards the end we were more interested to hoof the ball upfield to try and hold on for the draw, experienced players like Aurelio in particular hitting the ball to nowhere. Get the ball and control the game FFS.

Like I've said we weren't good enough yesterday, we didn't hold the upper hand and for me I thought we were slightly on the backfoot, Fiorentina looked more likely to score at times.

That's just my very honest opinion so I hope I don't get picked on too much.

Unlike you RLB and most of you, I just thought we weren't good enough yesterday.

I'm not saying we were good enough ROF what I am saying its a vast improvement on the football I have watched us play recently for all our possession like many other games this season we more positive rather than negative with the ball.

Going back to previous games what I do not like to see is when we have greater possession than the opposition is the ball being knocked about squarely/backwards at a leisurely pace with no positive forward play and no one willing to take up the mantle of orchestrating the midfield it frustrates the life out of me.

What I seen last night was a Liverpool side being positive with the ball, yes we had one or two backwards passes that put us under pressure but on the whole of it, the majority of our play was forward positive passing and to me thats a major step in the right direction.

Now when I have highlighted the stats over the whole competition showing we have had the greater possession of any team in the group stages of the champions league, that shows to me over the whole competition and last night to an extent that we have not been productive enough with the ball in terms of our goal return.

To be honest I had a feeling we were going to get beat last night as the game meant more to Fiorentina in a competitive sense than it did to our boys, so I set myself up for that defeat and all I wanted to see from the lads last night was positivity in possession and to be honest mate I think they achieved that. I'm not negative about the result as the lads for the vast majority of the game were not negative in possession and thats all I wanted to see a change in attitude/style of play.

We were not going to get anything from the game. We were playing for pride only.

The high points of this match are:

Torres and his movements WOW

Gerrard was awesome. His crosses were beautiful

Aquilani played. I still prefer is performance against Arsenal.

Cavalieri showed that he is good.

Pacheco played. Nice

D'arby's error was a gross one. He turned in the direction of the attacker.

Mascherano is boss of the defensive midfield.

I honestly think on the back of tonights performance Doss deserves some time out on the left wing, I think he offered more from there tonight than Riera and Babel have all season and deserves to keep his place on merit. Doss for the left drop Kuyt to the bench and play Yossi on the right against Arsenal.

I'll pick Doss anytime over Riera and Babel. He's tough, fast and doesn't over dribble like the two , not afraid to take on defenders and not afraid to get into the box. Put him inside the box more often and he might just give us some crucial goals when our midfielder don't even dare to get near to the edge of the opposition box. He's a raging bull but needs to use his brain a bit more at times, if he can do that he'll be truly handful to defenders.

My initial reaction to the game being there was no one could be arsed and it had to be one of the most half arsed YNWA before the game I think ive heard

The first half for me was terrible, although I did feel the midfield was a lot more creative, second half I actually thought we did very well. Enjoyed us making chances and that, hoping to see more of Aquilani. I wasn’t convinced with our possession at tmes we were a little sloppy and I thought the defence was pretty poor but good to see Darby have some first team action and he wasn’t bad at all. We are still lacking and all in all same old errors, we were more creative so that’s a start and thank god its over, hated being there knowing we couldn’t progress was becoming more and more gutted as the game went on

YNWA for ever

What little we saw of  Torres was breathtaking, if he can't be a inspiration to you all, no one can. I love watching him play.

very true, reminded me of what we were missing up front.

That's our problem though, isn't it.

Can't believe I'm finding something to moan about Torres, but the thing is he's so good that we'll struggle to buy a really excellent back up for him.

Everyone knows Torres will always be first choice as the best striker in the world, and Rafa loves his 4-2-3-1, so any back up striker we have would be looking at plenty of bench time.

I wonder if it's the reason we have (no offence intended) a washed up Ukranian and a (hopefully) young French starlet as our back ups. And after last night's performance, I won't include Kuyt in that list at all.

This is pretty much spot on, except with Darby. He's only young and I don't want to criticize him too much but the goal wasn't the first time he'd given the ball away, he'd done it at least twice before.

Also was that Dossena who I seen with mega fast pace down the left wing, someone suprised me with how fast they were but I'm not sure who it was!

Yes, we need not only a mega but a giga fast pace down the left and not do an Insua at the edge of the opposition box and played a backpass that cleared 1/2 the length of the pitch back to our defenders.  FRUSTRATING!!!! Give Doss time on the pitch and Kuyt needs to be benched, I'm sure he'll be too eager to do well when the world cup is coming up.

Thought he was excellent and almost seemed to have a telepathic connection with Torres! 

Telephatic hah I like that, we have been playing like starngers for a long long time, maybe we are begining to see the Liverpool of the old that plays telephatic football week in week out.

Watched the highlights.

What the heck was Gilardino doing after he scored? , looked really stupid.

hello liverpool fans.. im portuguese and a benfica & pool fan...

i want a Benfica x Liverpool in europa league

cardozo vs torres

Not a bad performance,not great either,several plus points-Dossena actually looked decent & slimmer! Torres looked sharp roll on sunday,Pacheco also looked at home in the first team-more chances have got to be given. Aquilani done ok too!,only real downer was the sloppy 2nd goal.