I wrote an article on Wednesday stating how we needed to use Andy Carroll in the right way and going by last night’s performance; it was a call that was not heeded. No matter how good Andy Carroll is in the air (and he won the majority of the long balls last night), the one dimensional hoof ball style we saw from Liverpool against Braga yesterday will only be to the detriment to the team’s performances in the long run. In some ways I felt sorry for Andy as he was forced to retrieve aimless long balls all night, heading on many with nobody present for the knockdown, or having to hold up the ball and wait for support to arrive.
For many, such as Jamie Carragher and others, the long ball was seemingly the easy option to take as they bypassed the midfield to go directly to Carroll’s head. The style of play really played into the hands of Braga. Aware of Carroll’s aerial threat they played an extremely high line so they wouldn’t be under pressure in their own penalty box from an aerial bombardment. The lack of pace and width in the Liverpool team meant that this high line could be used as nobody managed to beat the offside trap last night. One of the biggest culprits was Dirk Kuyt who was constantly caught offside.
Another problem that Liverpool had was that they were outnumbered in midfield. This caused the Reds a number of problems. With the lack of options in midfield as Meireles and Lucas were well marked, players such as Carragher and Skrtel had few chances to pass to a midfielders in space and generally looked for the easier hit and hope long ball option. With the lack of pace or width too, the Reds could never stretch the Braga backline with both Maxi and Joe Cole cutting inside into central midfield where the pitch was already crowded.
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Couldn’t agree more….. More Stoke than Liverpool, we started to look awesome with a fast passing, keep the ball mentality. We of course need some more class at the back and out wide to penetrate better,,, plus we are missing Suarez and Stevie who both would have driven forward…. For me it may be a blessing as we are not under any false illusions about where we are and more will leave and arrive in the summer as the owners will see we are far from being the finished article.. What I do hope to see if Comolli earning his wages and nailing some quality at great prices early doors not in the last hours of teh transfer window.
could’nt agree with you more…but a question should be asked,why did we go out and buy a player who cost 35mil that we can’t even provide decent service to or get the best out of !?! I hope that wont be the way we are going to handle our transfers in the summer.
Kenny reverted to the old 1980s British long ball game to beat Braga and it was terrible. He could and should have been shouting at Carra to stop hitting it long, but he didn’t.
I believe Kenny will be better in the Premier League than Rafa Benitez because he understands British football much better – but he won’t ever do as well in Europe as Benitez did.
Kenny should know that there’s no way we will see the best of Carroll without decent wingers who can provide crosses for him. Hoofing the ball from the back directly to Carroll is not the Liverpool way and the fact that Carroll won all those headers means nothing itself as there was no one supporting him. The tactics used against Braga were not impressive at all and though they were not good in dealing with balls in the box, we created nothing. Kenny seems lost when it comes to Europe as seen by both performances and results (one goal and one win in 4 matches). I know that the team we had out yesterday was pretty much the best we had available with players like Aurelio, Gerrard and Suarez unavailable but he should not just tell the players to hoof the ball up to Carroll. The fact that he put on Spearing instead of Pacheco was very confusing. When we were in desperate need of some creativity and flair and and most importantly a goal, he decides to put on a rubbish Spearing, leaving Pacheco on the bench. He also should have played Jovanovic on the left who at least has a fair bit of pace and has the ability to whip in crosses from the left.
One goal and one win in 4 matches against rubbish like Prague and Braga is not impressive at all and I honestly think Roy Hodgson would have been able to do a better job considering he led a mediocre Fulham to the final last season, knocking out big teams like Juventus, Shaktar and Hamburg on the way. The guy can be a bit negative but he knows what to do in Europe and I’m sure he would have had no problem dealing with rubbish opponents like Prague and Braga. His Konchesky would have done no worse than the incompetent and clearly not ready Wilson.
Sort yourselves out you lot. The sad thing about the last 3 years is that it created a tide of knee jerk uninformed grumbling idiots I.e the likes of you lot. We were without suarez and gerrard, two players essential to our rediscovered pass and move style. It was carrols first start. He is not match fit nor integrated in to our way of playing. Braga were the better team over two legs. But they were never the under dogs given that they, and not us, were the team dropping out at the cl group stages. We are at the start of a major rebuilding job and I a for one am happy to not be in the Mickey mouse Europa cup.
Neil,,, try and read the all the comments before being offensive, you may find you are actually repeating what others have already said. Not knee jerk,,, people who care enough about the club to comment and make what they feel are possible reasons or ways to improve.
The absence of Suarez and Gerrard and Carroll’s lack of match fitness is just a pathetic excuse for failing to overcome a rubbish Braga. The reason Braga were the better team over the two legs is because of Kenny’s failed tactics and decisions. In the first leg he played with 4 central midfielders with just 3 attacking players. In the second leg he decided to go long ball to Carroll from the back every time we got the ball. Like you said, Braga were the underdogs and we were the favourites to progress so there are no excuses for failing to do so. To further my point, Kenny has no idea in Europe, one goal and one win in 4 matches against rubbish opponents and will never be as good as Rafa in Europe.
Nope, definitely read all the comments and stick by my response. Are you sure you wouldn’t be better following chealski? Maybe we could change our manager again?
Clearly, uniting the club, re-establishing our credibility and more importantly our dignity, renewing our love of pass and move, 3d football, sticking 3 past the scum and stuffing chealsea away from home and generally taking us from the precipice of relegation to the verge of cl football is not good enough for you.
And for those Rafa lovers among you (and I was a huge advocate of his too), have you conveniently forgotten our sorry exit from the cl last year? We have been a team, and club, in decline for the last 2 to 3 years, but signs of recovery both on and off the field are there. See the bigger picture. Keep the faith. Ynwa.
Neil,,,, Think your missing the point, everyone talking here hopes we get back to where we belong asap,,, its not enough to beat chelsea and utd we want to win every game and play beautiful football. I think we all agree Kenny is superb and the right guy to take us forward,,, but dont you may be wearing rose coloured spectacles if you feel we did the best we could in two legs against braga and against prague,,, not sure why Pacheco didn’t come on to give us something else,,, we looked like we had a chance when we upped the pace and kept it on the floor.
Neil,
We have every right to be critical of Liverpool and the manager. This is not a dictatorship where free speech is a crime. I love Kenny and he is doing a great job but the 2 legs against Braga were abysmal and he needs to take some responsibility. There was no identifiable change in strategy the entire game even though we were ineffectual. We need Kenny to show some balls and tell Carragher that we are not a 3rd division team that needs to hoof all the time.
Personnel dictated tactics, no Gerrard, no (decent) wingers, only 1 attacking full back, no 2nd striker(Suarez)& as for “NO WAY TO FOR LIVERPOOL TO PLAY FOOTBALL” I take it you are too young to remember Tosh & Keegan. It’s not the system it’s the quality!
Bring back Hodge and Benny as a joint partnership!
For all remaining matches, we should play Suuarez,Carrol,Kuyt upfront,supported by Meriles,Maxi,Lucas in midfield,with Agger,Skrtel in CB and Johnson and Carra in left and right back.
Win in all remaining matches is what we want,I know thats not easy,but we have no choice.
Liverpool are definately doing beter in the epl under kenny but if we check our last 3 matches using meireles on the wings has not done us any good as it has removed that midfield flair of meireles from the game and that has left the team with fewer chances upfront. Another thing i will like to tell kenny is that if we want Andy to play the way he was playing at Newcastle he has to stop using Meireles from the wings he is a fantastic ball passer he cant play from the wings he’s not fast he’s not strong so please kenny play meireles where he’s use to. If we look back at what happened at sunderland and braga he was completely out of the match so we have to play the way we were playing when he came if we realy want to be succesful in the league and in europe.