Date: 30th September 2009 at 8:08am
Written by:


I could not believe that was Liverpool I was watching last night in our Champions League match against Fiorentina! It was a totally opposite performance from that we put on on the weekend against Hull. I have just been reading what Rafa said after last nights game and he is saying that he has never seen Liverpool play as badly as they did in the first half. I agree 100% with Rafa. Our first half performance was shocking and the second half was not much better!

So what when wrong? What stood out for me was the poor displays from Johnson and Insua as the wing backs. Going forward they were slightly okay but their defending was a joke! People have questioned Johnson’s ability to defend and I have stood by him but last night he let me down as he was found wanting when it cam to defend.

Fiorentina could attack down either of our flanks at will. Insua had the worst game I have ever seen him play in a Red shirt as he was exposed terribly by Fiorentina. What also really worries me about Insua is his height. They say he is the shortest player in the whole of the Premiership, I do not know how true that is. All it takes is for a team with a tall right winger and they just have to launch high balls into the box in Insua’s direction and we will be screwed.

Rafa opted to start with Aurelio in the middle of the park with Lucas. This did not work at all. As much as I am a fan of Aurelio, I would much rather see him in the left back position where he can go forward in whip in some telling crosses. We do not see the best of him in the middle. I will not slate Lucas today as he had another bad game but the whole team just did not pitch up for the game so I can not lay all the blame on Lucas this time. Just that he missed a wide open header which a player of his calibre should have converted.

Where was Gerrard in the first half? I asked myself that question as I could not see Captain Fantastic. He seemed to drift out of the game and never really got a foot hold on the game. Torres had another off day as he was marked brilliantly by the Italians.

I guess this is a game we have to quickly forget about especially with Chelsea coming up on Sunday. I can not see us playing that badly on Sunday because if we do we could be on the receiving end of a humiliating scoreline.

But all is not lost in the Champions League. Yes we lost 2-0 to Fiorentina but we still have four more games to play and I am sure we will still qualify for the knock out rounds.

 

4 responses to “The game against Fiorentina was really bad!!”

  1. Kava says:

    I couldn’t believe I was watching Liverpool either. It was almost as if they thought they would be gifted a win after having won 6 straight matches. By the time the boys woke up it was too late.

    2 things that bugged me:

    – Why did we change to 4-3-3 with Aurelio in midfield? What was wrong with Riera and Babel? Gotta blame the gaffer here.

    – Where was the passion in the first half? They kept losing the ball to Viola’s pressing and when we did lose it they didn’t work hard enough to try gain it back. No midfield = no control of the game. We couldn’t get the ball up the field therefore leaving Torres completely isolated. Gotta blame our captains for not inspiring the lads.

    Liverpool is starting to look schizophrenic. Brilliant one day then atrocious the next.

    We’ll still qualify but we can’t take the Champions league for granted with performances like this.

  2. Sizar says:

    It’s very simple, as long as Rafa is our head manager then there wont be any trophy at all & remember that at the end of the season.

  3. gunther says:

    I was wondering what happened to our width? Babel and Riera would have offerered something but Rafa got it wrong. Midfield was bossed by the Italians. They deserved the win.

  4. MoKo says:

    I didn’t get to watch the game but from Ron’s report it sounds like Aurelio was deployed in a midfield position similar to that used against Leeds in the Carling Cup.

    It was hugely unsuccessful on that day and by the sounds of it it was the same last night.

    Rafa is in a tight spot. The key decision seems to be whether to move Gerrard back into mid or keep hium upfront. I think we all want to see the 50 goal a season combination at work every game. But with Mascherano out injured and Aquilani weeks from playing we are rather exposed in central midfield. Aurelio did a job there last season against Portsmouth but maybe shouldn’t be expected to do well there regularly.

    What does the boss do? Break up his top attacking combinantion and send Gerrard back into mid? Keep Gerrard up front and ask someone to do a job for the team?

    Though choices. lets hope he gets it right as he normally does. He’s got to look at it game by game, team by team.

    Who’d be a manager really!