I always find it hard to understand fans who try to analyse pre-season friendlies as some sort of indication of what lies ahead in the coming season. Especially as the friendly against Galatasaray last night saw us basically playing a second string, I don’t really feel there can be a just cause for either criticising the team or making sweeping judgements on the poor performance.
Of course, there could be legitimate questions as to what benefits the friendly had in Istanbul, especially with the absence of so many first team players. Much of our starting line up has yet to play 90 minutes together so far in pre-season and that is a concern when we are only two weeks away from the start of the season. The Valerenga match on Monday night will go some way to addressing this but there was little that could be taken from our performance against Galatasaray, with many fringe players failing to impress once again.
Anyone who was concerned by the performance though should look at the players who didn’t start the game. Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel, Aurelio, Henderson, Adam, Lucas, Meireles, Gerrard, Downing, Kuyt and Suarez all were absent yesterday, which probably contains nine of our starting eleven who will expect to play on Saturday week against Sunderland.
For Kenny Dalglish and the coaching staff, the Galatasaray looked to be a fitness exercise for the likes of Andy Carroll and Dirk Kuyt, while it was also a chance for the likes of Philipp Degen, Christian Poulsen and Joe Cole to show King Kenny they have a future at the club. Needless to say, not many boosted their cause last night with their displays.
http://ohyoubeauty.blogspot.com/2011/07/infographic-preseason-as-precedent.html
Galen, utter rubbish!
Its not a direct link to be sure, but logically there would be some connection between confidence built up in the preseason, and the general feeling going into the season, as well as successful team play wouldnt there?
The team selection was shocking to say the least. Degen as RMF and Robinson as LMF?
In reply to David Tully you are seriously deluded if you think that 12 goals conceded so far in preseason is not alarming. There are clear indications that the likes of Andy Carroll is not serious about making a career at LFC and he should sold back to Newcastle now. Sunderland will definitely get at least a point at Anfield and maybe even three. The players have stopped playing for Dalglish ever since he got his 3-year contract. Any time LFC have had a bad preseason they have had a very bad league campaign. United,Arsenal,City and Chelsea all manage to win their friendlies even with fringe players playing.
i agree 100% with kenny,good one mate! & i fail to understand the logic of this write,i can only assume it’s dalglish him self writing this BS!
The writing is on the wall for the season ahead. The only really quality player we have – given that Gerrard is now just a crock – is Suarez ( and he is desperate to get to Barcelona ). I admit Adam is good – but not top of the range. Andy Carroll is, as I knew all along, a massive waste of money. I’m afraid Kenny will be judged on that waste of 35 mill. I have a small wager Sunderland will take three points. If we finish any higher than tenth I will be very surprised.
Lucky if we finish at 6th place.
Even if its to give fringe players a chance to prove themselves then play them in their natural position. Or how do u xplain that formation?
i agree, shocking pre season we need to play the next 2 games with the expected starting 11.
and i also (at the moment) think andy carroll could turn out to be the biggest waste of money football has ever seen, and if he is and we dont finish top 4, then the king is walking alone.
give andy carrol a chance of a full season, some of his finishes last seaon could be taken to any club. so on the other hand he could turn out brilliant.
and please guys, shut up about suarez going to barca, every player would join barca so wake up and stop moaning about it until the time comes and just be glad we have something special in the team for however long it lasts.