when journos don't watch matches. . .

[Stevie H]

ian whittell in today's observer has gerrard as man of the match, along with a few other basic factual errors. crap journalism does my head in.

[Maldini]

The Sunday World had his as MOTM too, bizarre.

[Earl Hafler]

Both journos could be posters on here then.

 

" Gerrard never has a bad game for us "

 

Okey dokey.

[Andy-oh-six]

Everyone knows that Gerrard is always our MOTM irrespective of how he plays or how much better other players play than him. It's a fact of journalistic life.

[CarraLegend]

Most journo's are scum.

[Guest Sabre]

Quelle surprise...

[Gunga Din]

some people on here have Garcia as their MOM, which i find even more baffling than the journo's saying it was Gerrard

Edited October 15, 2006 by big wayne

[Stevie H]

  big wayne said:

some people on here have Garcia as their MOM, which i find even more baffling than the journo's saying it was Gerrard

true. although the journo is supposed to pick MOTM from both teams, in which case i'd say that kizanashvili (or however the f*** it's spelled), neill and savage were all better than anything on show from us.

[Gomez]

  Stevie H said:

true. although the journo is supposed to pick MOTM from both teams, in which case i'd say that kizanashvili (or however the f*** it's spelled), neill and savage were all better than anything on show from us.

Friedel. Kept them in it in the first half. Always has a great game against us. As opposed to for us, when he made basic errors.

[Internationinteroperability]

  Gomez said:

Friedel. Kept them in it in the first half. Always has a great game against us. As opposed to for us, when he made basic errors.

 

Yesterday he made some basic errors too. A couple of crosses he didn't manage to punch away or even reach, but he had a good game though. Unfortunately

[downunder]

  big wayne said:

some people on here have Garcia as their MOM, which i find even more baffling than the journo's saying it was Gerrard

 

I am pleased you said this, I watched the second half again after seeing that, and still couldn't see wht Garcia was voted by a few!!!

 

 

Gerrard = the new Bryan Robson he always got the vote in years gone by.

[Gunga Din]

  downunder said:

I am pleased you said this, I watched the second half again after seeing that, and still couldn't see wht Garcia was voted by a few!!!

Gerrard = the new Bryan Robson he always got the vote in years gone by.

 

i genuinely thought people where taking the piss voting for Garcia. i thought he was ordinary, and pretty wasteful when he came on yesterday. i thought Riise was far and away our best player, but its all opinions.

[timbos goals]

  big wayne said:

i thought Riise was far and away our best player, but its all opinions.

 

I can go with that. I think when Garcia came on his wonderful little trick down the right woke up the crowd from its lethargy. All of a sudden a Liverpool player had shown some class. The crowd picked up on it. So did JAR and Aurelio and before you knew it we were suddenly a football team driving forward as good footy teams do. All this lasted for about 20 minutes either side of Bellamy's goal before we'd all lapsed back into our collective coma. JAR was the only one who seemed to stay awake. Including the crowd.

 

Edited October 16, 2006 by timbos goals

[jimmylibel]

  big wayne said:

i genuinely thought people where taking the piss voting for Garcia. i thought he was ordinary, and pretty wasteful when he came on yesterday. i thought Riise was far and away our best player, but its all opinions.

Was at fault for the goal though - went to pick up a man in midfield, leaving his man unmarked in behind him. Stopped half way to closing down the player and was left in no man's land. Ball played through to the man he was marking who put in an excellent cross from which they scored.

[timbos goals]

  jimmylibel said:

Was at fault for the goal though - went to pick up a man in midfield, leaving his man unmarked in behind him. Stopped half way to closing down the player and was left in no man's land. Ball played through to the man he was marking who put in an excellent cross from which they scored.

 

I can go with that too. There'd also been 2 or 3 similar situations just before. You could say the goal had actually been coming from Blackburn exploiting that very weakness. What happened afterwards though was why Riise probably deserves the MOM. Aurelio dropped back. Riise's head lifted up and he kept on battling until he was the outstanding attacking player, certainly in our lot. His partnership with aurelio down the left also showed a lot of promise. In fact it's the only thing I was clutching onto after the game.

 

[owenthomas]

Jan Molby was pretty critical of Gerrard on Magic 1548.. in fact, he kept hammering it home about how badly he'd played..

[timbos goals]

  owenthomas said:

Jan Molby was pretty critical of Gerrard on Magic 1548.. in fact, he kept hammering it home about how badly he'd played..

 

For me the problem with Stevie in that position is clear. His entire footballing instinct with the ball at his feet beyond halfway line (or with any of his team-mates in a similar position) is to drive forward either looking for a killer long ball or an incisive give and go. He's got no interest at all for retaining possession, being patient, waiting for/sizing up the opportunity. He's simply not happy to pass it round to get a rhythm going. With Stevie he's forcing the issue all the time.

 

It means he's not really what you'd class as a central midfielder. He can never 'boss' a game like a Souness or a Molby as he's not got the slightest intention or instinct for doing so.

 

Of course when his give and go's come off, it looks fantastic.

 

The problem is I don't think it's come off hardly at all this season. All's it's succeeded in doing is to squander possession. Time and again. And when we play with him as one of two central mids as he surges forward and his target receiver loses the ball or it's simply intercepted it means not only do we lose possession but we're left exposed as they pour into the gap left by Stevie's surge forward.

 

I think Rafa's got to be far more cautious when SG is in the centre. Against anything like decent opposition, especially with central defenders who can 'nick' the ball to prevent Stevie's give and goes, if he does put SG in midfield it's got to be as the front man of the triangle with Momo and Xabi behind to play back up if the surge comes to nothing. It means only one striker - probably Kuyt - but it's worth a try especially as him, Momo and Xabi are 3 of our 4 best players..

 

The thing is SG is a unique weapon if his surges are properly exploited but right now it's all falling flat and Rafa has got to sort it.

[Earl Hafler]

  timbos goals said:

For me the problem with Stevie in that position is clear. His entire footballing instinct with the ball at his feet beyond halfway line (or with any of his team-mates in a similar position) is to drive forward either looking for a killer long ball or an incisive give and go. He's got no interest at all for retaining possession, being patient, waiting for/sizing up the opportunity. He's simply not happy to pass it round to get a rhythm going. With Stevie he's forcing the issue all the time.

 

It means he's not really what you'd class as a central midfielder. He can never 'boss' a game like a Souness or a Molby as he's not got the slightest intention or instinct for doing so.

 

Of course when his give and go's come off, it looks fantastic.

 

The problem is I don't think it's come off hardly at all this season. All's it's succeeded in doing is to squander possession. Time and again. And when we play with him as one of two central mids as he surges forward and his target receiver loses the ball or it's simply intercepted it means not only do we lose possession but we're left exposed as they pour into the gap left by Stevie's surge forward.

 

I think Rafa's got to be far more cautious when SG is in the centre. Against anything like decent opposition, especially with central defenders who can 'nick' the ball to prevent Stevie's give and goes, if he does put SG in midfield it's got to be as the front man of the triangle with Momo and Xabi behind to play back up if the surge comes to nothing. It means only one striker - probably Kuyt - but it's worth a try especially as him, Momo and Xabi are 3 of our 4 best players..

 

The thing is SG is a unique weapon if his surges are properly exploited but right now it's all falling flat and Rafa has got to sort it.

 

One of my major criticism's of him aswell.

[Coyler]

Gerrard had a very poor game in his God-given position, Blackburn were annoyingly effective for much of the game, and we'll never win the league again.

 

On topic, one of the better laughs was from a report from a crack football journo genius describing how Bellamy somehow managed to squeeze a sliver of space for himself in the box for his goal.

[Rory Fitzgerald]

I thought Gerrard was too far away from Alonso for most parts of the game. He'd receive the ball in midfield, pass it back to Alonso and then dart 10 yards forward. Alonso would receive the ball and pass it back to Carra or Hyypia or play it square with the team retaining possession and I thought Gerrard would linger in his position a bit too far forward.

 

That was my observation of him from watching on television. Does anyone agree with that who actually went to the game and saw more ?

[Guest Sabre]

  Rory Fitzgerald said:

I thought Gerrard was too far away from Alonso for most parts of the game. He'd receive the ball in midfield, pass it back to Alonso and then dart 10 yards forward. Alonso would receive the ball and pass it back to Carra or Hyypia or play it square with the team retaining possession and I thought Gerrard would linger in his position a bit too far forward.

 

That was my observation of him from watching on television. Does anyone agree with that who actually went to the game and saw more ?

 

It used to happen all the time when we had Didi as first choice under GH, with Henchoz in place of Carra.

[fred milne]

  timbos goals said:

For me the problem with Stevie in that position is clear.

 

His entire footballing instinct with the ball at his feet beyond halfway line (or with any of his team-mates in a similar position) is to drive forward either looking for a killer long ball or an incisive give and go.

 

He's got no interest at all for retaining possession, being patient, waiting for/sizing up the opportunity. He's simply not happy to pass it round to get a rhythm going. With Stevie he's forcing the issue all the time.

 

It means he's not really what you'd class as a central midfielder. He can never 'boss' a game like a Souness or a Molby as he's not got the slightest intention or instinct for doing so.

Agree with that.

 

I know some on here (e.g. Rimbeaux) think in time he could be coached into playing a more measured game at CM but I have my doubts. I think those instincts of always going for the jugular are too far ingrained.

[Kopfaithful]

i think it's strange how many people go for riise as man of the match. if MOM is given on work rate alone, i could understand it, but it's not. he got into some good positions and worked hard. but generally fluffed everything from the good positions he got into. if pennant had been that wasted he'd have been slammed. if aurelio had made a gaff like that for the 1st goal it'd be "he's schit, typical brazilian who can't defend". riises work rate was good, on saturday especially after the poor start he had in defence, but MOM? I can't understand how he gets close.

 

timbo, some good comments on SG. also, has anyone noticed how he doesn't seem to want to tackle as much these days? i think gerrard is a wonderful tackler and it is a massive part of his game, i can't understand why he's choosing (or being instructed) not to get stuck in the way he can.

[timbos goals]

  js said:

also, has anyone noticed how he [sG] doesn't seem to want to tackle as much these days? i think gerrard is a wonderful tackler and it is a massive part of his game, i can't understand why he's choosing (or being instructed) not to get stuck in the way he can.

 

Great point. It would be very interesting to see the statistics on his midfield tackles/tussles for the ball. Personally I'd put SG at the very top of LFC's all time tackling league - and that is some list. For the sheer athleticism, timing, fine-tuned judgement and strength of tackle only Lawrenson and Tommy Smith come near IMHO - and yet how rare a sight they are from SG these days.

[Guest PaulMcC]

Gerrard rarely tracks back these days. It's been noticeable for a while.