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OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS v LIVERPOOL

Will

By Will
in Liverpool FC

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stressederic

stressederic

Posted
Posted
Phil Neal at RB & John Wark up front have been drafted in

 

I've bad news Macca. Phil Neal is suffering from flu and John Wark accidentally cut his own head off whilst shaving.

Red Kent

Red Kent

Posted
Posted
Pepe

 

GJ Carra Agger Insua

 

Kuyt Masch LL Aurelio

 

Kuyt Torres.

 

a 1-0 win

 

Aquilani to be MOM.

 

Must be some player to get that when they dont even start :unsure:

Joxer

Joxer

Posted
Posted
Pepe

 

GJ Carra Agger Insua

 

Kuyt Masch LL Aurelio

 

Kuyt Torres.

 

a 1-0 win

 

Aquilani to be MOM.

 

Assuming you have Aquilani in there for one of the Kuyts , Id go with that lineup.

Stevie H

Stevie H

Posted
Posted

though there is a bit of hope.

 

Claude Puel has problems of his own as Lyon's showdown with Liverpool looms

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/...-lyon-liverpool

Rafael Benítez might just draw hope from the way Lyon's recent troubles have mounted up - on and off the pitch

 

Two days before Saturday's derby against St Etienne, the Lyon midfielder Sidney Govou was photographed falling around drunk in a nightclub. On Friday morning the manager, Claude Puel, stripped him of the captaincy. He decided against dropping the player and soon he was to be thankful, for it was Govou who restrained the midfielder Jérémy Toulalan at half-time just as it seemed his furious team-mate was about to attack the manager.

 

Toulalan, normally a most placid professional, had flown into a rage after Puel ordered him to "keep it simple, stop dribbling" as the players trooped towards the dressing room. "Just because you never knew how to dribble doesn't mean we shouldn't do it!" bawled Toulalan at the manager as Govou held him back. The scene is noteworthy for two reasons: firstly, it is amusing because Puel, a holding midfielder in the Monaco team that Arsène Wenger guided to the French title in 1988, was almost identical to Toulalan as a player. Secondly, it illustrated the pressure caused by the problems with which Lyon are having to cope as they prepare to complete their progress to the next round of the Champions League by pushing Liverpool closer to elimination on Wednesday.

 

Like Liverpool, Lyon have been bedevilled by injuries this season and will contest Wednesday's tomorrow's game without key players, all in central defence, where Toulalan is having to fill in because of the absence of Jean-Alain Boumsong, Mathieu Bodmer and Cléber Anderson.

 

It is true that those omissions did not prevent Lyon from winning 2-1 at Anfield two weeks ago, when Liverpool, without Fernando Torres, failed to exploit the improvised nature of Lyon's defence even after the visitors' one conventional centreback, Cris, had to be replaced by a 20-year-old midfielder, Maxime Gonalons. However, Rafael Benítez will draw hope from the fact that modest Ligue 1 sides have in recent weeks shown that Lyon's fragility is real. They have lost two of their last three league games, the most recent defeat a 4-1 humiliation at Nice. Even on Saturday against 17th place St Etienne, whom they ultimately beat 1-0, Lyon were ragged in the first period and could have been behind before substitute Bafétimbi Gomis' second-half winner. No wonder Benítez is so eager for Torres to be fit.

 

If the home team's travails give hope to Liverpool ahead of Wednesday, they also increase Lyon's motivation to beat Benítez's men. "Our result in the game at Anfield makes it more complicated for us in the sense that Liverpool have to come here and win," said Govou. "But we hope to qualify for the next round as early as possible so that we can manage our schedule more easily before the winter break."

 

Having to deploy Toulalan in defence is a double-blow for Lyon, since not only does it mean fielding a makeshift central defender who tends to get caught of position – and is not helped by the fact that 32-year-old Cris is clearly on the wane regardless of any injuries – but it also deprives Lyon of the France international's dynamism in midfield. Only intermittently has Jean II Makoun anchored the middle as well as Toulalan normally does. With the exception of the second halves at Liverpool and St Etienne Lyon have often been unable to secure and retain possession in recent weeks. This in turn has meant they have found it hard to harness the creativity and penetrative power of players such as Govou, who tormented Emiliano Insúa at Anfield, the 19-year-old Bosnian schemer Miralem Pjanic and the club's two main summer recruits, the Brazilian winger Michel Bastos and the barnstorming Argentinian striker Lisandro López.

 

All four of those players were instrumental in the swashbuckling start that Lyon made to the season, notably in the Champions League, where they crushed Anderlecht 8-2 on aggregate in the qualifiers and won 4-0 at Debrecen (though Bastos missed that), the heaviest home defeat in the Hungarian champions' history. Lyon's erratic form of recent weeks, however, has prompted Puel, as his instruction to Toulalan on Saturday showed, to preach a return to pragmatism over panache.

 

Toulalan himself is not even fully fit – he is still carrying a slight adductor strain. He is one of seven Lyon players to suffer with that complaint already in this campaign, prompting suggestions that Puel's pre-season training regime, which involved cross-country skiing and mountain-bike climbs, may have been too gruelling. Benítez is not the only manager whose methods are coming under scrutiny.

floyd

floyd

Posted
Posted (edited)

It just does not get any fvckin better. And wonder what those experts will say now

 

Liverpool rocked by news that Fernando Torres is facing hernia surgery

Rafael Benítez learns the full extent of Liverpool striker’s injury before crucial Champions League match against Lyons

 

Tony Barrett

 

 

Fernando Torres has a hernia that could require surgery if he is overplayed, Rafael Benítez has been warned.

 

Liverpool’s medical staff delivered the worrying prognosis during the build-up to the club’s crucial Champions League match against Lyons tomorrow night.

 

Steven Gerrard is definitely out of the group E tie at the Stade Gerland because of a groin problem. The Liverpool captain is joined on Benítez’s lengthy casualty list by Fábio Aurélio, Albert Riera, Martin Skrtel and Martin Kelly.

 

Torres has been included in the squad that travels to France today and is likely to start tomorrow’s game — when anything other than victory will leave their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages hanging by a thread — and play through the pain.

Related Links

 

The inguinal hernia has been affecting the striker for most of the past month since the problem developed while on international duty with Spain in early October.

 

Liverpool have attempted to mask the severity of Torres’s condition by nursing him through matches and allowing him to train only immediately before games, when his physical condition is deemed good enough. Since the 25-year-old suffered his latest setback, though, there have been real fears that he could need an operation.

 

It is hoped that the combination of rationing the striker’s appearances and occasionally allowing him to miss training will allow Torres the rest time he needs for surgery to be averted.

 

Benítez is aware, however, that even these precautions may not be enough to spare his £22 million record signing from having to have an operation.

 

Torres was substituted after an hour of Liverpool’s 3-1 Barclays Premier League defeat away to Fulham on Saturday, a decision that puzzled many fans and caused Ronnie Whelan, the former Anfield captain, to call for the manager’s head.

 

But it now seems clear that it was simply the latest example of Benítez’s desire to protect the forward from exacerbating the seriousness of his condition.

 

“I was surprised with the critics after the game because Fernando has had problems in the last month after the international games,” Benítez said. “We are trying to manage because he was close to having an operation.

 

“He is not comfortable. He has not got the power he had before, so we have to manage and try to protect him. He cannot play well if you keep pushing him. Maybe if you push him he will be injured for a long time.

 

“So, I am really surprised with the critics. When you talk about big names, people just analyse the names and not how the player is when he is on the pitch. He was not 100 per cent fit. We have to take Fernando to Lyons because we don’t have too many options.”

 

Benítez already faces the prospect of Gerrard having to undergo groin surgery to correct a problem he suffered while on duty with England.

 

“Gerrard won’t travel to Lyons,” Benítez confirmed. “He has no chance. He is improving but we have to wait. He has had an injection but we have to wait two or three days and see how he reacts.

 

“Skrtel also has no chance. He has a small muscle problem. It’s not too big but he is feeling something.”

 

At a time when Benítez’s position as Liverpool manager is being questioned like never before after six defeats in their past past seven games, his injury concerns are mounting.

 

The situation is so dire that Alberto Aquilani, the Italy midfield player, has been added to the squad despite not having fully recovered from illness, while Benítez has also been forced to call on David Ngog and Daniel Agger even though the pair are nursing slight knocks.

 

“Agger is improving — he will travel and we will then decide,” Benítez said. “He felt something in his back but it’s much better now. We have to wait and see how he reacts. Ngog is much better, so he could be available.”

 

Benítez has taken the unusual step of naming a 20-man squad, with Stephen Darby, the 21-year-old right back who has never started a game for the club, included in case Glen Johnson fails to recover from the calf strain that has kept the England defender out of action since Liverpool’s victory over Manchester United nine days ago.

 

Uefa has also given the club special dispensation to promote Danny Ayala, the 18-year-old centre back, into the squad from their B-list.

Edited by floyd

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