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 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.
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its only a run around for de lads no need to worry,but shows how bad the 2nd team are..
NEED MORE PLAYERS:LIKE MATA,ENRIQUE,G.CAHILL AND LUKAKU
Dalglish has such a difficult job, with millions of liverpool fans wanting to be arm chair managers. If you punters think you are so good, why don’t you just apply for the liverpool job next time its vacant?
I could see the frustrations when Hodgson and Boring Benitez were the managers. But doubting King Kenny? You punters are kidding. This man has a plan and i have commented in this forum before why we had bought Adam and Henderson when we “seemed” to already have all these central midfielders…. i have suspected Gerrard is crocked. The release of that info that he is out till Sept was probably delayed so that the prices we paid for Adam and Henderson could not be even more expensive. From what i’ve seen, Henderson did well against Hull. He is a typical liverpool player. The lad is 20-21, looks much better when Lucas was that age.
Trust Dalglish punters. He knows what he’s doing. We don’t have Champs league this season, so we couldn’t attract more quality players. I’ve seen Spanish players and before that French players and though they seem to play well (most times) against the big four or five teams in the EPL, they seem to lack fire in the belly for games against Stoke, West Ham, Sunderland etc. Signing English players and mix it up with the guile of foreign players like Suarez and Mireles is the way to go.
Mata? He seemed good, but he is the type of player someone like Shawcross will just tackle through him.
The concern shown by fans is legitimate because teams we are competing with for the top 4 are already ahead in in their preparations. Chelsea hasnt even conceded a goal yet while the supposedly vulnerable Arsenal are showing they are quite ok if not improving even without Fabregas.
We also have to remember this is supposed to be getting to grips with the team that will play a role for us with possibly the exception of Suarez and some injured players. What Liverpool gains from featuring Degen and and Poulsen, only the manager knows. Its been a pre season that insults fans turning out to watch the team when teams fielded are so disrespectful by not even bothering to play.
some very good points made here, second string players who needed to show they are quite capable of stepping up to the plate when needed.
when the manager plays two teams in one match, it surely must tell us something, he is trying different permatations, looking at the fitness levels, and most of all who can? who can’t? who’s going? and who’s staying?
and as already pointed out the biggest part of the first team haven’t been involved yet, are the remaining friendlies going to be the same, I don’t think so there were players in the last game that got the full game to prove them selves, so the starting line up and bench warmers could be playing monday.
already its been said the second team is not good enough, what second team are we on about,as far as I’m aware theres the first team and the reserves.
get your facts right, second choice players, players filling in for injuries.
good on you Benny, some good points put forward.
but however I don’t agree with boring Rafa, I enjoyed the Rafa era personnaly, his mind games with media were second to none, even the special one couldn’t work him out.
He also brought alot more class players in and improved the structure of the club. admittingly he did dig his own grave in the end, but still loves the club, boring not for me.
anyway enjoyed your read and alot of constructive points put forward, cheers mate.
Lets be realistic the guy is talking sense,its very easy to guess when k.k wasn’t bodered to use or merge our first eleven to play together 4 D first time,but he must have his genuine reasons why he is fielding same full squad of dead legs nd ends to see whether he can still xtract any useful materials 4rm it,Rafa was a good nd talented tactician but,we all knew he can never manage a less xperience squad dt is short of talent,i.e jay spearing,Flanagan,Robinson etc,he doesn’t believe n any other players than the ones signed by himself even including those flops he signed,i.e @ Inter-Milan he wishes 2 change the entire squad which suppse nt 2 be so,Mourinho would only replace those who are nt performed,like wise k.k he believed dt pre-season is nt all about winning but to discovered our loop holes,weakness nd other areas needed to be taking seriously,I want us to be relaxed nd xpect wonders.In King kenny we surely trust.y.n.w.a.
Good article and a good post from “Ben”.I thought we were putting the “usual suspects” in the shop window to attract buyers.If that’s the case it backfired.
I totally get that it is a second string side that played… But does this mean that it is acceptable by those who represented the club! I think this is why KK has gone out to buy a new midfield bc the current is not up to the standard it needs to be!
Next I would like to see the defense get an overhaul! 2 CB and a LB would be ideal! I think then we could begin to have a stronger 11 and squad to fight for top four!
I really hope it’s a good season for us but afraid we are still 3-4 seasons away!
As a fan I bother about the results of our friendlies because of the psychological effects on the team. when a team irrespective of active players comes from series of losses, it usually impacts on the performance of subsequently games just as a history of series of wins impacts on subsequent games.
Personally I think we didn’t need to buy Hendo it was a lot of money to spend and it would have been better spent on our defense which was always suspect. Our midfield was a little weak but we were not thar desperate, we coped well last season without SG and Raul and with both coming back soon I feel we should have started with wingers, defenders an an extra forward if Ngog was sold. We now have a massive midfield and are weak at the back with no money left to spend, unless KD’s tactic is he hopes we can score a lot more than we let in. Personally I think we are up shit creek without a paddle. Although I do hope I am wrong but I cannot see how we can cope defensively