Marseille v Liverpool Match Thread

Wow that was a tight second half but as andy townsend has just said, we were very very tired from that manc game.

Credit to marseille they did well tonight, them vs atletico will be interesting.

Reina i actually love you, incredible yet again, i dont think he would have got to it if he came out when the ball came over for their goal.

Gerrard, he's back people. Sensational equaliser absolutely sensational. So intellegent and that is goal of the season so far. No idea how he bent that in there but thats gerrard for you he does the unthinkable.

Carragher fantastic. At fault for the goal he played him onside but he did extremely well for the rest of the game so many stops and made the area his own.

I was happy with babel again tonight, did well to win the penalty and put the marseille players under alot of pressure. Missed a golden opoprtunity but that was due to some amazing goalkeeping, crazy save from mandanda and did what he needed, closed down the space and made himself big.

Riera did well when he came on, i do think Xabi should have atleast come on though Lucas looked off the pace a bit in there tonight. Torres just coming back from injury played his part, created space and put some good passes about, glad he didnt play the whole 90 he needs some rest. mascherano looked extremely tired from the weekend but thats to be expected.

The main problem tonight was the passing being sloppy but im not too worried about that. I think it was largely down to us being too narrow and having lack of width. As soon as riera came on and provided some left sided width we looked alot sharper and his cross that set up the bable chance was very good. We need to keep width and use it to our advantage.

kuyt was very very poor today...

reira looks a bit specital....and a lot better than  g barry..... think we got a bargain

gerrard...is simply the same as me a huyton superman

peppe was man of the match maybe....... i sometimes slate him but ive changed my mind...he is now one of the best in world

very poor by benioun....should really have passed to keane and the game was over no more pressure

babbel had a good game ...looks quality

our midfield and passing second half was poor

our back two were immense

played bad second half But as long as we have 3 points in the bag ,I'm happy
  Carragher (apart from the marseile goal )together with Pepe  were outstanding tonight
 
 its good we have A madrid last from the 3 and first in the second round of the group ,saw highlights of their game and they crashed PSV in Holland  3-0  ,its the toughest game in our group ,they played very well tonight

Gerron Fat Franks jarg Babel celebration after Chelski's first goal!!   Fat Twet!!

Atletico and us should go through from this group.

All going to be down to the results between us where.

Marseille are good going forward but equally as poor at the back.  If we had carried on second half like we played first half we would have scored four again.

Second half was shocking, as was Lucas' play throughout the match, constantly giving up turnovers and not chasing it down at all. Not impressed.

Stevie was excellent, although it didn't seem Torres was up to speed, yet.

Pepe Reina..........Man of the Match tonight.

Cracker of a goal by Stevie.

Well played lads tonight, not an easy place to go to and get three points.

All roads lead to Rome 

That Gerrard strike reminds me somewhat of the Olympiakos strike. I know they're not identical ... but still. Here's hoping to another sucessful CL campaign, and perhaps an even more successful EPL campaign!

I thought it was a great result and a decent performance, especially first half.  Marseille were very good going forward and we coped well enough with their attacks.  Full back is a bit of a dodgy position for us though.  As for Lucas, well I've never rated him at all and he didn't do much tonight to change my opinion of him.  Gave the ball away and conceded silly fouls which is not unusual for him.

Anyway a great start to our European campaign making for a great start to the season.  And amazing goals from Stevie..  The first one was just out of this world and great composure to score two penalties

As for Pepe, well man of the match for me and man of our season so far.  We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him.  What a guy 

Good result! Clearly man of the match is Reina!

I'll have to catch it on LFC tv as I didn't get in from work until late on in the second half.

Made up though! Cracking start to the Champions League campaign!

The Gerrard goal reminds me of the one he got against Luton in 05/06 FA Cup.

Good result! Clearly man of the match is Reina!

I'll have to catch it on LFC tv as I didn't get in from work until late on in the second half.

Made up though! Cracking start to the Champions League campaign!

Highlights are on ITV later as well.

Good result.
Babel was fantastic toonight

I want Dan Agger in next match , Škrtel is good , but I want Agger

Man of the match for me is Stevie

Highlights are on ITV later as well.

I'll V+ it! Went to town earlier today then straight to work so I forgot to do the match!

Good match. Tired legs from the Man U match. Good result.

Benanyun could not put Keane through; I think the midfielder between them both would have put a good slide in to block the pass.

Lucas got the chance to play because Alonso needed rest from 90 minutes against Man U.

We have another "tough" game against Stokes who are 2nd from the bottom on the table. We will be well rested before the match.

Don't see why Alonso was dropped for Lucas - I'm still to be impressed by the lad. Honestly feel he'd be more suited to a slower game elsewhere. When we have Mascherano and Lucas in midfield it seems there is no one who can get hold of the ball in the midfield when we're under pressure. Maybe he'd do better if he didn't have so much defensive responsibility though.
Alonso wouldn't have been more tired than Kuyt was...

Torres looked a total different player. His first touch was off, his pace was off and his confidence looked off. To be honest I was quite glad to see him get a run out but I was glad to see him subbed. I think Stoke will be a better game for him. Top marks to him for creating the danger for Gerrards absolute gem of a goal though. And did anyone notice how fast he hit the deck when Gerrard shot for his first goal in case he got in the way?

Benayoun.

But there was certainly a lot of positives to take from tonight. We got the result when in all honesty, we didn't play well for the majority of the second half. We invited pressure on ourselves but weathered the storm of unnecessary pressure. Pepe proved again why he's Liverpool's best keeper for a long time. Gerrard looked like he could twist his legs properly again to pull out a two great shots - something I haven't seen him do since before he was troubled with that groin injury. Reira looked very calm and shown some nice vision when he came on - there was a great cross he put in the box tonight that nearly seen Babel score our third. Brilliant stuff. Babel looked very lively and was a clear danger for them. He's still a bit rough around the edges but he looked very confident tonight. And overall, the ability to grind that result out, when last season we could have very easily come away from that ground on the end of a defeat.

You could tell a couple of players were a bit tired after the graft that was put in at the weekend. But that needs to be looked at if we want to be the best. We weren't good enough in the second half where passing the ball was concerned. But it's only early days and we can learn from this performance.

Well done the reds! Let's see some annihilation against Stoke! We're well capable of it.

Forgot to say what about that left footed pass up the line to torres. Such a great pass.

Forgot to say what about that left footed pass up the line to torres. Such a great pass.

He even done the Marseille player that was going in for the challenge on him

Well it was back to good ole Liverpool. Game of the season against Man United following match five changes. What a surprise Gerrard and Torres weren't risked in a more important game like United but all of a sudden can start in Europe whe neither were fit enough and it showed by the lack of movement in the two. At least our priorities are in the right place.

Performance wasn't great by a long shot. Defence was at sixes and sevens throughout, Reina made one or two fumbles, width was non existant (again) Torres was completely useless (no doubt his injury will be the reason but every player suffers injuries) I forgot Masch was playing he had such little impact, Lucas can F**k off if he ever thinks he'll play for Liverpool again, Benayoun well we know what he is...sh*t, I don't recall Keane touching the ball and Reira did one nice run when he came on then went missing and they continued to bombard us down our left flank. We've been pulled out the sh*t (again) by a spark of magic. Gerrard's goal was top drawer, something only that fella is capable of. Without him we'd be a mid table side at best.

It's another good result with a shocking performance (espeically from a defensive point of view).

Reina - 6 - some key saves along with some fumbles.
Arebloa - 5 - tried to attack but was continously lost positionally
Carra - 6 - didn't have a good game but dealt with a lot that was in our box
Skrtel - 4 - reminded me a lot of his debut against Havant and Waterlooville, completely lost at sea
Dossena - 2 - sh*te throughout, the majority of their attacks came down the left
Lucas - 0 - useless
Masch - 2 - forgot he was playing
Kuyt - 5 - tried but was ineffective
Gerrard - 7 - only for his goals other than that I don't recall anything he did
Babel - 6 - won the penalty and did ok when he was shifted up top although he should of scored
Torres - 3 - wasn't fit enough to play so why he was risked I don't know
Benayoun - 2 - did nothing but give the ball away, as usual
Reira - 4 - one good bit of skill, then failed to help out down the left
Keane - 2 - don't remember him touching the ball, possibly not his own fault

As for the idiotic dickhead who gave me the negative
Hidden (+/-) dunlop_liddell_shankly (+85/-34) - 2-1 against marseille, pah, will be much more In topic September 11, 2008, 10:48:12 PM

own up and admit it was you. 1 because it's a pretty pathetic reason anyway and 2 because you've been clearly shown your lack of knowledge.

Tell it how it is DLS.

I think you're being a little bit harsh overall, and I've posted my personal view of the 'rotation' for this game in another thread but

Lucas gets at least a 3 for getting himself a yellow card.

Torres didn't do a lot but I pointed out last year that he is far less effective playing away from home and pointed out some stats to prove my point.  He doesn't play well when the reds are 'counter-attacking', never has, never will, he is much more useful when we are dominating teams, they are packing the defence, and he has the skill to open these sides up.

We managed more than well enough without Gerrard having any real involvement against Manchester United. 

As for Riera he really didn't see any of the ball, to give him a 4 is especially harsh.

Let's see what side he sends out against Stoke before we stick the boot in.

This must be one of the best starts in terms of wins of any season for yonks, and we've played well for how long - about 120 minutes in total?  Happy days if you ask me.

some people are never happy, although we were under pressure most of the second half we never looked like losing or drawing this one, i think the lads done a great job "only the second time a english team has beaten at home=liverpool twice" and unbeaten in there own league for 7 games id say its a fcukin fantastic result especially after Saturday, i worry about lucas though dont know why rafa keeps picking him, he nearly got himself sent off tonight. as for babel is he turning into a johnny barnes?
and for stevies goal wow
well done lads fantastic.   

A good result and once again Reina was outstanding and Gerrard proved as always that he can win games single handedly.  In the second half we were not up to the pace, but then after the Utd game I have to forgive them for that.  The result was all important and Babel proved that he can play a full game, unlucky to not be on the score sheet.

We are not playing our best but lets have a look at our best attacking players all have genuine excuses, they can’t just gel when you consider the following:

Torres had four games and been injured since.
Gerrard has been injured and now coming back from surgery.
Keane a new signing and when he opens his account it should be different.
Babel – Has only been back from the Olympics for 2 games.
Riera -  Only played for about an hour.

Even Masch has only played 3 games add that to a new Dossena, surely we can understand that we are not playing our best football.  The results have been brilliant and Reina has been sensational, surely we will be giving him some rest on the pitch in the coming games. 

I think the performances will pick up and against especially the bitters and City, as all players should have had a lot of games and really be in tune. 

We are not playing our best but lets have a look at our best attacking players all have genuine excuses, they can’t just gel when you consider the following:

Torres had four games and been injured since.
Gerrard has been injured and now coming back from surgery.
Keane a new signing and when he opens his account it should be different.
Babel – Has only been back from the Olympics for 2 games.
Riera -  Only played for about an hour.

Even Masch has only played 3 games add that to a new Dossena, surely we can understand that we are not playing our best football.  The results have been brilliant and Reina has been sensational, surely we will be giving him some rest on the pitch in the coming games. 

I think the performances will pick up and against especially the bitters and City, as all players should have had a lot of games and really be in tune. 

Absolutely livid with myself that i fell asleep but i read throug hit all and picked up on how we played. Totally agree with this quote, from the extended highlights Nando looked as good as he could of considering the circumstances.

Stevie scored 2 after 20 minutes of gae time in the past 3 weeks so i'd say a brilliant night for him.

Also on Dossena, he will come good, give him a break. Some expect his price tag to just make up for itself in 5 weeks but its harder then that. Coming from Italy where its slower and building up your play in England and even against French sides who generally have alot of technique, skill and pace is very difficult. Some say look at Martin but Russia is already a quick league with split second decisions in defence. Give him Andreas time.

Still pissed i missed it though. Classy strike from Stevie on both occasions but we were just outclassed for their goal. Reina, pulled off some brilliant saves and that pass to Nando, wow. Mandanda for them in goals kept them in it, cant really complain when a goalie is just having one of those nights. Well done to him.

Time to smack Stoke now. Hopefully Xabi plays because we lacked his involvement with what i saw.