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Liverpool v Arsenal, Sunday 4pm

famous no 10

Established Member
Quite honestly, very good team on their day 'pool but if it's entertainment you want, forget it, they just don't have it in them anymore...some of the matches they've played against, say, chelski in the past couple of seasons have been a cure for insomnia, and apart from a very good start to the season they look just as dull as ever.

...but who cares? We've got our Arsenal.
 

kamikaze80

Established Member
good point, mbaki. i thought the same, couldnt believe rafa was gonna play 4-3-3 against us. but it ended up being allardyce-style 4-5-1. then again, i was a little surprised we were playing 4-5-1 as well.

i think pool will look better with a healthy mascherano (who i really rate) and alonso, but as long as gerrard plays centrally and is the focus of their attack, they will be long ball merchants. gerrard doesnt have the patience or the ability to play a short passing game.
 

celestis

Arsenal-Mania Veteran
Moderator

Country: Australia
Liverpool play the way they play and have the basis for a good team . I don't see how what Benitez sets his team out is any of our business. We are playing great football don't take it for granted and lets not get all arrogant and look down on other teams styles. Winning is winning.
 

RandomHero84

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saka
I actually thought they drove forward well in patches.
I wouldnt set my team up to open up against an Arsenal side who are playing the way we are playing right now.
We were brilliant...and they nearly had us.Id say that says it all.I dont think they performed to the level they perhaps should, but tactics were unsurprising given the circumstances in games surrounding this one...if they opened up and we spanked them they may face a backlash.
 

tactica442

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
http://www.arsenalnewsreview.co.uk/inde ... eturnid=42

ANR said:
It's the biggest league on the planet. Arsenal is a £200 million operation and Arsène told us 12 days ago at the AGM that a billion people watch the biggest Premiership games worldwide. He is a polymath who can build a training ground and build a team and build a stadium but he can't build something as mundane as a wall to defend a free-kick. It's a shame. But nobody is good at everything, even a genius.
Thanks to Myles, now I realise it's time to bed. Zzzzzz...
 

banduan

Established Member
Defensive strategies are as valid as valid as offensive ones. I don't get this angst against them.

Liverpool turned up to play football. Rafa's tactics were to play a pressing game, a 4-3-3 converting to 4-5-1 on defense. Put the ball in the box and make sure it never gets out. Early on it worked.

His problems were:
1) Voronin hadn't a clue how to play to that tactic.
2) Torres was re-crocked.
3) Arsenal swamped the midfield and they couldn't regain possession to start pressing again.

In the 2nd half, Torres was gone and they had Crouch instead. So they played defensive counterattack.
What else could they do? They needed to absorb our attacks, and they knew we were very vulnerable to a counter from keeping such a high line.

Liverpool has quite possibly one of the best counterattacks in the premiership- as long as Torres is playing or Kuyt is in good form. None of that happened.

But everytime Liverpool countered, we were in trouble. It was obvious.

We played the prettier football even though some of our players were half-asleep, but you can't say 'Pool didn't even attempt.

I'd still say we wasted a chance to win though. 'Pool was there for the taking.
 

MDGoonah41

Established Member
If defense isn't a valid tactic, than I guess all of Serie A should be wiped off the map, and with it, the 11 European Cups won by the likes of Milan, Inter and Juve.

The beauty of football is that, at the end of the day, it is a results oriented business, and there is more than one way, many in fact, to get the result. I much prefer open, attacking football, but not every team is capable of playing that type of game, and for them to try would be suicidal, and criminal of their respective managers.
 

phenn

Well-Known Member
MDGoonah41 said:
If defense isn't a valid tactic, than I guess all of Serie A should be wiped off the map, and with it, the 11 European Cups won by the likes of Milan, Inter and Juve.

The beauty of football is that, at the end of the day, it is a results oriented business, and there is more than one way, many in fact, to get the result. I much prefer open, attacking football, but not every team is capable of playing that type of game, and for them to try would be suicidal, and criminal of their respective managers.

Have you actually watched Serie A? There are some damn pretty teams in that league, Roma being an example.

I do agree with what you're saying, I was just surprised at the extent to which Liverpool did it, at home. Is a team that expensive not capable of even trying to play with us at home? By the way, for the record, not starting Crouch against us is just beyond words as far as I'm concerned. That guy ****ing terrified me the entire time he was out there.
 

MDGoonah41

Established Member
You know what I mean. Italian football has long had a reputation of being defense first. Roma do play with flair, I'll give them that, but they are by far the exception. Even Inter played a fair bit of defensive first football last year, at least in matches I saw, and AC Milan doesn't just open it up and attack, virtually every time plays counter attack football but focuses much more heavily on defense.
 

Anzac

Established Member
Didn't see the game live, but managed to catch the last 30 mins on reply & the highlights show...........

must admit I'm a bit disappointed we went out with a 4-4-1-1 with Rosicky behind Ade - as per my posts pre-game. Quite simply not enough fire power up front. IMO Liverpool were there for the taking & IMO we gave them too much respect from the start. Would have liked to have seen us change our shape earlier into the 2nd half even before the introduction of Walcott.

Thought that Cesc had given away the free kick & then rushed out of the wall & created the gap that Gerrard scored through, and that Gallas had put the block on Gerrard in the 2nd half.

Carragher is going to cost Liverpool points if he keeps putting his hands on players in the box - IMO the penalty we got v Derby was no worse than both recent incidents Carragher has got away with.

Although a draw keeps us unbeaten and does no real harm, IMO we've dropped 2 points that were ours for the taking.
 

air

Well-Known Member
alonso14 said:
air said:
Some people actually watch Liverpool every week. Long ball bonanza. Yippee. :roll:

Cesc's face is hilarious when he scores. That was the best moment of the game.

yes mate...its called supporting your team...i'd watch them if we were playing in the conference

Yes. I understand that and respect that.

I must have mentioned where I'm coming from before though, we have people in Finland drooling over Liverpool because Hyypiä plays for them.

Gotta love the half time analysis by the Finland studio host though:

"But to me it seems as though Arsenal's basic passing game is after all better than Liverpool's, don't you think?" Says it all really. Saying it like he just discovered America.
 

Lord Dula

Established Member
Who cares how Liverpool are playing really? It looks to me like they will not get through the group stages in the Champions League, and I think they'll struggle to get into the top four in the Premiership.

Us, Man Utd and Chelsea will certainly finish above them, and I think Man City and Blackburn are playing better stuff.
 

Anzac

Established Member
IMO the Chel$ki result v City should be discounted - the City defence just put on the most inept display of defending I have seen in a long time!!!!

No committment, no marking, no tracking of runners and no challenges. IMO half of the final passes should have been intercepted or diverted from their targets, and half of the scorers should have been closed down, let alone 4 goals going thru' the 'keeper's legs.

I doubt that Chel$ki would have been able to score any of those goals against a committed defence, let alone a Top 4 defence. Put it more simply they would not have done so v Liverpool this weekend as many of the moves would not have progressed to the area, and that considering that I don't think Liverpool are in very good shape!!!!!!
 

Zico

Established Member
Saw that mess, Anzac. Was telling a mate of mine this morning that Citeh put together the worst defensive performance of all time. A lot of the goals were just due to a dire failure to track a runner and close passing lanes as you say. I though some Chelsea players were excellent (particuarly Drogba and Essien) but even a defense of Cygan and Boumsong would've done a better job than Citeh.

That said, Chelsea are looking more aggressive and finally using their attacking gifts. The difference between Chelsea and Liverpool is that the former team actually has some movement, especially from Drogba, Malouda, Lampard and Cole. Liverpool are just static and unimaginative. To be honest, I was gutted when the final whistle blew on Sunday. I really don't rate this version of Liverpool.
 

Herbert Chapman

Well-Known Member
alonso14 said:
KingKolo said:
I have nothing against Carragher as a person, and to be honest, I can’t believe the negative reaction he’s getting on Arsenal Mania. Yes, he fouled Fabregas, and we all know he wasn’t man of the match, but he seems to be a nice, humble bloke, and wears his heart on his sleeve, nothing wrong with that.

Besides, he praised us after the game, very nice of him considering they dropped 2 points at home.

i know him a little..i am good freinds with one of his cousins

been out with him a couple of times, he also came to a maych with us when he had a broken leg (Middlesborough away) he is a really nice guy and a very genuine person.......he is also a football nut and talks about nothing else.....

I heard from a diehard Toffiee that he was an Everton.

He said he always wears long sleeve shirts because he's got the Everton crest tattoed on his arm :shock:
 

number_0

Established Member
actually that night when i saw the liverpool team and formation, injuries aside, i thought rafa got his tactics right, except for the veronin part, they aimed to score then defend, but (unfortuntly) the goal came really early, so they got themselves exguahsted trying to defend their lead, plus their counter attack outlet(torres) went out injured, and we were just too good.

they were also on a bad form, just like us vs fulham away last season, and still we couldnt get the 3 points.

bottom points rafa made the 3 points his to priority before a nice passing game, and ask any liverpool fan if he objects and i doubt you will find many
 

CrazyInLoveWithArsenal

Well-Known Member
This is interesting, I personally feel that Rafa is albsolutely screwing up that football club. Yes he has imppresive record in European competitions. What is that down to?It's really simple actually, rotation. I can't recall a European game where Rafa did not play the best eleven available to him. I feel that once they are eliminated from the Champs League we will begin to see the best of Rafa's men. In all honesthy they are championship material.
 
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