Marseille v Liverpool Match Thread

Sadly I did not see the gamebut I am still pleased with the result,its a good start to the champions league and our good start to the season continues.It will be good if we can win the first 4 games in the champions league it will enable us to concentrate on the league.Well done RAFA and the MIGHTY REDS,long may this unbeaten run continue.

How's my form? I set the alarm for 4.30PM for a 4.45 AM kick off...what a dickhead 

It wasn't on down here but would have watched it on the net but missed eveything as I slept right through 

Thanks to Remad for posting all those clips.

I've read all the posts to get a feel for the game...then DLS just blew it all apart.

All I can say without seeing the game is that we went away...we picked up 3 points....we haven't been beaten this season yet....happy days. 

DLS we won who cares our shape went , who cares our energy level dropped in the second half , after Saturday is it any wonder that some players were knackered late on, the one I was most disappointed with was Lucas, he had a chance last night to knock on the door but playing like he did he has more chance of going out of the door, his passing was bad along with his positioning, he looked like he was chasing after the ball rather than making himself available and the game passed him by, I don't know whether the clubs to big for him or he's forgotten the basics but whatever it is it needs sorting and quick. 

Marseille are not push overs this is the champions league now, the games are tough no matter who you play that was proved with the liege game and i think Roma last night also caught a fat slap whilst napping. Away from home and we managed to come back from being a goal down and win taking home with us the points, i cant be any happier with the result. Stevie G said he was happy with the back 5 but that our passing let us down.

A good resut away from home !!
Marseille were much better side last night than they were last november. Pace upfront, good movement. I thought we could possibly be in trouble after they scored, but we rallied as we do so well and the rest is history.
I think there were some good performances and some shocking performances.
Highlight was Babel - he showed us what he can do when he puts his mind to it.
Lowlight was Lucas - not fit to wear the jersey.
This is how I thought we got on:

Reina         8 - Good commanding performance, great saves and excellent distribution.
Arebloa      6 - Still has to prove why he is better than Finnan !!
Carragher   8- After shakey start marshalled defence quite well, dealt with all aerial threats.
Skrtel        6 - Too eager in the challenge, siily freekicks in and around the box. Can do better.
Dossena     5 - Poor first half, did better late on, needs to remember he's a defender !!
Lucas        3 - No help to Mascha at all. bad tackles, conceded far to many freekicks, s**t distribution
Masch        6 - Struggled on his own in midfield. Tired after Sat's heroics
Kuyt          6 - Boundless energy, no end product, same old story !
Gerrard      7 - Great penalties ? Excellent solo effort.needed to help Mascha out more.
Babel         8 - Excellent. Good skill and touch,pace and deserved a goal. What a save to deny him !!
Torres        7 - Good 1st half,endless running of channels. Tired after 70. He'll be back !!
Benayoun   1 - Worse that Lucas, light weight,didn't offer a thing. January Sales !!!!
Reira          4 - Showed again why Rafa pursued him.Excellent close control.
                                               Could track back more.
Keane        3 - Deserved more than 4 mins after Sat, needs a goal. Yossi should have played
                                               him in, instead of running the corners.

Not a bad way to start the campaign. Better than last year ! 

Keep it up you Redman !!!

Lucas is getting some stick on here, although i didnt see him, i dont think he is suited to what we want him to do. Meaning, he is surplus to requirements...(abit of evil's advocate here).

Lucas is getting some stick on here, although i didnt see him, i dont think he is suited to what we want him to do. Meaning, he is surplus to requirements...(abit of evil's advocate here).

I'm never one to slate our players Crouchinho, normally I can find a way to defend them! But last night Lucas was extremely poor. I've given him plenty of time - after all, he's young, he was inexperienced in the EPL last season, he has a great history prior to joining us...

But it's getting to the point now where the excuses are running dry. If he was showing progress I'd still be defending him, but he's got the same faults (slow tempo, easily pushed off the ball, can go missing during a match...) that he had at first!

I don't think whether or not Rafa plays him out of position is a reason to keep him either. What we have seen is that he can't successfully fill the role Rafa is going to give him, and that's the important point! For me, if there was a chance to sell him in the future then we should jump at it... let's hope he turns things around and proves me wrong before that!

good win for the redmen and was happy with the performance of babel. riera pulled off a few tricks during the few mins he had on the pitch, stevie and torres are now closer to full fitness after the 60-70 mins they each had and reina proved what a top class keeper he is by keeping us in it late on. not the best performance but one to look at the positives on

Once we found our feet last night I thought we performed very well in parts of the game, what worried me was the switching off with twenty minutes to go and the ease with which the Marseilles attack breached the centre of defence on a number of occasions.
The positives where obviously Stevie G’s impact after being out injured and Torres getting a decent competitive run out, also I thought Arbeloa bar a couple of loose passes improved a bit from some of his recent performances.
I think when you get a good away win in Europe it's easy to overlook the negatives but in this case I'm not going to, what was wrong with Lucas? I know He's young and in and out the team but surely he has had enough games now to actually look like he deserves a start, his passing was wayward and his tackling was non existent I even found myself washing my mouth out with soap after remarking “that Jim Beglin is right you know”

I know the result is all that matters come the end of the day but should we really be scrambling about in injury time in order to protect a win in a game we have otherwise mostly controlled? We still need to be more ruthless when in on goal if we could just up our success rate for shots on target games would be secured with ten minutes to go and we wouldn't have to go through the mill in the last seconds of games hoping Pepe saves the day again.

It was a fabulous result against a supposed improved Marseilles team and we have three points on the board, but we need to sort out our offside trap when we play speed merchants and we have to concentrate for the full ninety and not encourage silly late goals. 

A much better analysis L23 REDMAN than D_L_S.  The only major disagreement I have is Kuyt's rating.

I know he works hard and gives 110% but he constantly loses the ball, breaking down promising situations or allowing the opposition to spring counter attacks from a dangerous position.

Time for Rafa to rotate him out of the first team.

 

Congratulations for you victory.

Our Team has not enough experience of the Champions league,
2 big mistakes it's like a gift cause you are enough stronger for not need this.
Like have I said, we have a problem in defense: Zubar is to weak for this competition.

See you soon for the revenge at Anfield and good luck for atletico and PSV.
(but have you need of luck?)

Congratulations for you victory.

Our Team has not enough experience of the Champions league,
2 big mistakes it's like a gift cause you are enough stronger for not need this.
Like have I said, we have a problem in defense: Zubar is to weak for this competition.

See you soon for the revenge at Anfield and good luck for atletico and PSV.
(but have you need of luck?)

Well done to marseille they played well but I dont think the equaliser can be put down as luck, no-one in the world could have stopped that goal

Gerrard is a great player, wonderful goal, very big game .


I support Marseille, i'm disappointed, so i think Liverpool is too strong for Marseille.

Great to get 3 points away from home. Poor performance tho and the keeper & back 4 possibly kept it from being a total different result.Gerrard was quality yet again, Babel done well but apart from that we rode our luck. Players need to gel and having Xabi sat on the bench after an outstanding performance at the wkend doesn't make sense IMO. We were over-run in the middle after Stevie went off, Lucas was shocking and thought this was a perfect game for Alonso to control and we prob could have went on to close the game out. Here's to 3 points at the wkend and lets hope we start playing well and Rafa sticks to a more settled side soon..... a draw with the cockneys and the mancs would be nice....

Whats going on with Torres? His performance was very poor ?! No 100% chances to score or his greate runs.
The other one is Babel greate game he had played but he must score one or two goals.

Not 100% fit i'd imagine....but as soon as he is that net will be bulging again fella!!

Do you like my Gerrard screen ?

Yeah lad, reckon if Stevie does his pad up in a similar fashion with that angry pic of his face those toerag robbin bastd's would think twice about even goin near his gaff....a guard dog in itself!!

Liverpool is much stronger than Marseille.
Marseille will become a very big club same Liverpool (Inter, Chelsea, M.U., Barcelone) in 2 years if we win the Ligue 1.
Now we can just limit the damage.
But we can qualify against Athlético and PSV
1 point against Liverpool =)
3-4 points against A.Madrid
4-6 points against PSV
It will be in the pocket =)

Please Liverpool win against Madrid and Eindhoven !!!

If you play like you did last night mate then yo'll get results against PSV and A. Madrid.
Marseille played some nice, quick attacking football. If id hadn't have been for Reina's alertness you may have got something against us !

Keep it up OnraMarseille.

Thanks oldred, your comments are appreciated. I will just clarify my Kuyt rating of 6. I totally agree with what you say about his attacking failings but I think his work rate is second to none, and with Lucas offering no support to Mascha last night, and Gerrard taking up more forward position just behind Torres, Kuyts defensive work was excellent.
I know he is not the solution on the right but who else have we got ?
Gerrard? No to valuable though middle or behind Torres.
Pennant? Again no, blows hot and cold too much.

Any candidates you can think of that could fill the void until January sales?

http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/7101/Niang_blasts_lucky_Liverpool.aspx

Niang blasts 'lucky' Liverpool
Author: Nigel Brown
Posted on: 17 September 2008 - 7:47 PM

Marseille's Mamdou Niang has blasted "lucky" Liverpool following the Reds' 2-1 Champions League win in the Stade Velodrome on Tuesday night. Liverpool needed another captain's performance from Steven Gerrard to help them come from a goal down to get their Group D campaign off to a winning start against the French side.Gerrard scored his 98th and 99th goals for Liverpool in another glorious European display but Senegalese striker Niang says he cannot believe Rafa Benitez's men won the game. 

He said: "Liverpool did not deserve to take three points. If you look at the game it should have been a draw. [(3 Points already in the kitty)

"It is true that Liverpool began with good rhythm and played well but they had many pieces of luck.

"We dominated the second half but their goalkeeper's performance stopped us scoring again."   (That is what he was there to do; stop you from scoring)

The loss means Marseille will be desperate to beat Atletico Madrid on October 1 to get their European adventure up and running and to stand any real chance of progressing from the group.

But regardless of what happens, the 28-year-old vows that Marseille will not be intimidated by Liverpool's reputation in the return fixture at Anfield.

He added: "We are slightly disappointed because this group is so even and it was important to start by winning and even more so with the first game at home.

"Liverpool have won and that is what it counts, but it has not left me with the feeling that they are so superior to us." 
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ___

Niang Yak Yak Yak!

We'll win against PSV at home and away, so Marseille have no reason to worry there.

Atlético on the other hand, is a different story. I'd imagine we will win at Anfield, but I can't see more than a draw at the Vicente Calderón.