With Braga playing 4-1-4-1 and Maxi and Cole giving little support, it forced Lucas and Meireles further back, and they hardly had a touch of the ball all night as they were either bypassed because of the long balls to Carroll or crowded out of space with Braga’s five man midfield. With Braga’s highline, it would have been the ideal opportunity for Raul Meireles to make his late runs into the box but due to the nature of the line ups, he was forced to defend and hold the fort in midfield.
For these reasons, it would have probably have been better to start with a 4-5-1 formation with Carroll the lone striker with Kuyt out wide right and Cole in the hole behind Carroll. Some of you may say that we were 1-0 down on aggregate from the first leg and needed two strikers, but the biggest problem for us last night was the lack of control of possession. If you don’t have the ball, you can’t apply pressure and score goals. A five man midfield would have given us the majority of possession and allowed us to play through midfield more.
In my mind though, there was still no excuse for the amount of long balls that we delivered. We now have a fantastic header of the ball in Carroll but let’s not overuse him. The lack of real wingers was certainly crucial as to how inept we were in the final third last night. If we are to play 4-4-2 with Carroll and Suarez, you have to have players with pace to break down stubborn defences such as Bragas. Even with their 5 man midfield, their high line could have been caught out through a bit of incisive passing and speed. It wasn’t present last night and co-owner John Henry, who was present at the match last night, should be aware that there are still some fundamental flaws in Liverpool’s squad that need to be addressed.
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INTRODUCING THE WINDOWS PHONE 7!
This week it is former LFC WAG Jennifer Metcalfe!
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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.