UEFA Champions League 2009/10 Thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

He's been dire but still more dangerous than a lot of the team.

[therockbox]

Not the case at all. He's been more of a liability than most this season, a large portion of our attacks break down when they get to him because he's not even doing simple things properly.

[Hobo]

He's been dire but still more dangerous than a lot of the team.

I would say Yossi Benayoun is more dangerous than Gerrard so far this season. I would much rather see him make runs and take on defenders either to have a shot or lay it off to someone rather than take it a couple of yards and blast it or just fail to make a pass which is really Gerrard on his worst days is all about. In fact I would say Glen Johnson has been equally as dangerous in that he's a full back who doesn't mind going past the byline and creating chances.

In the main, I think this poor run is kind of what I expected to see this season from Liverpool. It is a hang over from last year, coupled with the loss of Alonso and as rockbox has stated Mascherano seemingly 'having his head in Barcelona' as well as the defensive frailties that were there last season being even more evident this which is quite possibly due to a weakened midfield. The main improvement has been Johnson (with Aquilani waiting in the wings to prove his worth) although due to the financial issues the club is facing the depth of the squad which means Liverpool don't have the luxury of having a strong (in what appears to be this seasons buzz word) bench. Instead Liverpool have the likes of Kelly, Spearing, Ngog (all youths), Babel (inconsistent want away), Vornin (who is able to hold up the ball alright, but possess little attacking threat and seems too unselfish at times) and usually someone like Benayoun or Reira who can actually effect a game. If Liverpool could have a Spurs type bench of Crouch, Pav, et all (ie. if they could afford it) I'm sure they would. I doubt Rafa Benitez thinks is squad is perfect at the moment. I'd assume he wishes he could improve it but his hands are tied. If he is to improve he has to get rid of people, so strength and depth becomes an issue again.

Someone was ranting on about how crap Benitez was in the transfer market. They said he's bought over 60 players and the majority are mediocre or crap. >_>

I was going through a full list of Rafa Benitez's signings and as far as I can make out of the large amount he has made a lot are either in youth teams, reserves, out on loan and the amount of failed first team players is comparatively few. Which I'll put down below just for the sake of interest.

In bold you can see those who featured in first team squads. I'm not sure how accurate this list is, but there are more players who went into the reserves and youth squads than the first team.

Fernando Torres

Robbie Keane

Ryan Babel

Xabi Alonso

Dirk Kuyt

Albert Riera

Andrea Dossena

Peter Crouch

Lucas Leiva

Jermaine Pennant

Martin Skrtel

Craig Bellamy

Luis Garcia

Jose Reina

Dan Agger

Mohammed Sissoko

Fernando Morientes

Yossi Benayoun

Diego Cavalieri

Alvaro Arbeloa

Sebastian Leto

Jose Miguel Gonzalez

Gabriel Paletta

Mark Gonzalez

David Ngog

Scott Carson

Mikel San Jose

David Martin

Antonio Barragan

Besian Idrizaj

Jack Hobbs

Alex Cooper

Alexander Kacaniklic

Krisztian Nemeth

Andras Simon

Victor Palsson

Gary Mackay Steven

Vitor Flora

Andriy Voronin

Nikolay Mihaylov

Emmanuel Mendy

Marvin Pourie

Dani Pacheco

Nikola Saric

Lauri Dalla Valle

Gerardo Bruna

Hakan Duyan

Damien Plessis

Peter Gulacsi

Charles Itandje

Philipp Degen

Vincent Lucas

Ryan Crowther

Mihail Alexandrov

Robbie Fowler

Ryan Wilkie

Javier Mascherano

Miki Roque

Nabir El Zhar

Mark Smyth

Jay Smith

Stephen Darby

Craig Lindfield

Adam Hammill

Danny Guthrie

Paul Anderson

Lee Peltier

Fabio Aurelio

Jan Kromkamp

Boudewijn Zenden

Mauricio Pellegrino

Godwin Antwi

Robbie Threlfall

Ryan Flynn

Calum Woods

Paul Willis

Danny O'Donnell

Ramon Calliste

Steve Irwin

Martin Kelly

Ronald Huth

Jordy Brouwer

Francisco Manuel Duran

Emiliano Insua

Ray Putterill

Martin Hansen

Jay Spearing

Dave Roberts

David Mannix

Antonio Nunez

[IAceI]

Fabio in a DM role it appears tonight.

[stokeriño]

Chants of "Are you watching, Liverpool?" were fun last night.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Great win last night. Valencia is even more awesome than I expected. Important goal from him last night and I love how he's just like 'fuck celebrating', a no nonsense type of guy that has really been delivering so far.

Shocked that Madrid (Athletico) lost by such a large margin, because they were actually good for the majority of the game and should of had a goal or two themselves.

The official in the Milan/Madrid game was AWFUL. How the fuck did he miss the Benzema penalty? And then he disallows a goal for Milan because a Madrid defender knocks into his own keeper? Shocking. Certainly great to see Milan and Juve picking up wins last night though.

Edited October 22, 2009 by JohnnyPerfect

[stokeriño]

That qualifies as a "great win" these days?

Man, standards have slipped.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

That qualifies as a "great win" these days?

Man, standards have slipped.

Yes.

Going to Moscow is far from easy and overall we deserved the win and probably could of had a couple more on the night. Getting a goal at the end and keeping that is certainly a great win to me and leaves me happy (Y)

[Dynamite]

Has Valencia ever smiled in his life? That's his third goal now and he just looks like the most miserable man to be getting paid £50K a week in the world.

Pretty poor performance today but not neccessarily any worse than we've been this season. Nani needs to really work on improving the quality of every final ball. Valencia needs to work on getting the ball in the box quicker, when he does the quality is there but too often he stalls until the opportunity is lost. I've been impressed by Obertan so far. If he carries on like this, he should have replaced Nani in the first team before long. Defensively, we were pretty awful. The one big positive of the performance is that we've showed a bit of character to fight back from behind and get a result which is something we really missed in the Liverpool game.

[Adam]

Has Valencia ever smiled in his life? That's his third goal now and he just looks like the most miserable man to be getting paid £50K a week in the world.

Maybe he wasn't too chuffed tonight because he didn't score, Georgi Schennikov did.

[The Future]

If it counts he was smiling and celebrating after Owen's winner against City...I think!.

Poor defending last night, Drogba will rip us apart if we defend like that but the character showed and the momentum that came with getting a last minute result should help us..will be chuffed with a draw at the bridge

[Adam]

Big, big night tonight for Liverpool. Can Benitez pull it out of the bag again? We'll have to see...anyone know why both Lyon and Liverpool are playing without sponsors tonight?

[Captain Kirk]

Rangers game is awful

Only good thing is Danny Wilson.

[Hobo]

Ryan Babel! Something useful! HE DID SOMETHING USEFUL!

[Thrilla]

WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT COME FROM?!?!

[Hobo]

Then he fucked up a free kick! Normal service has been resumed

At least Voronin didn't score it. That would've caused reality to implode.

EDIT: Oh well done Kyriagos. Well done.

[TheArsenal]

Well Laugh My Ass Off.

Torres goes off, Liverpool conceed.

[IAceI]

7 whole minutes of thinking they were going to win the Champions League again... now it's back up to La Viola!

Edited November 4, 2009 by IAceI

[Thrilla]

I don't see how having Torres on the pitch would have prevented that goal.

[Adam]

Oh I'm gutted...they did not deserve that equaliser. Liverpool played so well without creating enough, and it's bit them on the arse. Kyrgiakos was the only player who didn't impress me tonight, Insua really stepped up after all the recent criticism.

Fuck it all, looking forward to the Europa League final