Recapping Hull City and previewing Fiorentina in the Champions League
Posted by russell | Posted in Discussion, Liverpool FC | Posted on 29-09-2009
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My how a 6 goal drubbing changes a man. That’s not to say Rafa wasn’t a manager full of happiness and teddy bears prior to the weekend; but I can assure you he’s in a much better place right now.
We all saw the Hull City thrashing over the weekend. The goals from hat-trick from Torres and the added insurance from Gerrard and Babel made it a fun affair on Saturday afternoon. I’ll be honest: I haven’t had so much fun watching a match in a long, long time.
Sure, winning big game matches against Manchester United and Chelsea last year were fun; but this was something I’d been looking for: an absolute beating of a lower-table club at Anfield. Why is it that we’ve had so much trouble over the years taking care of clubs like Hull City in front of the home fans? It’s sickening to watch us play so well away from home, only to see us squander points to the likes of Hull or Stoke City, as we have in the past.
I’m hoping what we saw on Saturday was a preview of what’s to come this year. I’d love to make Anfield a house of horrors for any club that sets foot on the pitch. But most importantly, I hope this means we’ll be taking care of business when the mid-table clubs appear on the fixture list.
With Hull in the rear-view, we turn our heads to a mid-week clash with Fiorentina that should be a great measuring stick on where we are at the moment. Whilst I don’t like to put a whole lot of stock in the Champions League when it comes to our League aspirations, the fact is that we haven’t played a great club in some time.
Bolton, West Ham, Debrecen, Leeds, and Burnley make up the five opponents since we last felt the sour taste of defeat against Aston Villa. And we all know Villa is a far better team than any of the previous five. With that in mind, I think this is the perfect match for doubters who still contend that the club is missing something.
That something was consistency and a strong scoring presence early on, but both of those issues have been rectified. For me, the big question mark looming is the defence, a group that has looked rather ragged for the last couple of weeks.
Getting Agger back in the fold, as well as a healthy Skrtel should allow Rafa to rotate and give Carragher a rest. Whilst I love Jamie to death, I think we can all agree that he’s looked rather tired recently.
I’m hoping the rest he got over the weekend (he and the rest of the backline didn’t have to do much against Hull) will bring about a refreshed Carra. Either that, or I hope Rafa considers bringing Agger back to the bench (assuming he’s ready) and rotating the four (including Kyrgiakos). We’ll need the fresh legs this year if we want to contend on both fronts.
Regardless of what we all think, I’d imagine we could all agree the club is playing with a lot of confidence at the moment.
“I think we can take this mentality into the Champions League, because the team is playing with confidence and scoring goals and playing good football,” Benitez said prior to tonight’s match.
“It is easy for the players and the staff to have the same mentality. I am sure it will be different because Fiorentina are a very organised team so it will be more difficult to play good football but we will try.
“Our form has a lot to do with [Fernando] Torres, obviously. In the last three games he has been outstanding. Torres can still improve, because he likes to learn. He is on fire at the moment and is a key player for us, but the Champions League is more difficult and he is aware of that.
Here’s hoping we leave Italy tonight with the three points. Also, make sure you check out our live blog starting at 19.45 tonight (7.45 pm)!
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The game at Fiorentina will be no joy ride. This is a highly organised team guided by one of Italy’s best tacticians. Cesare Prandelli is one of Italy’s most respected managers. They have Gilardino out suspended, Santana out injured, and fiesty full-back Comotto doubtful. From our initial base squad we seem to have Mascherano out of contention. It could be we are saving him for Stamford Bridge.
Tactically, Fiorentina are well organised and disciplined. Jovetic and Mutu being their danger men, but they have other attacking midfielders that take a crack at goal now and again. We have to be very careful with this lot.
The Artemio Franchi stadium is a cauldron of fanatical tuscan passion. The support is….obsessive. The only thing is that they can turn on their team if they are not performing, and they DO make their feelings known to both players and manager.
A victory here will be fundamental. Ultimately it will put us in a right frame of mind for the clash with Chelsea next sunday.
Fiorentina 2-0 up all over us we aint got a clue cant get out of our own half why has rafa changed the side from sat when he should of stuck with riera why change a winning side! you just dont do it apart from having injuries! the ususal suspects has been utter crap as usual we all know who it is no point naming them we just aint good enough why the fuck is aurelio playing in midfield!!! why doesnt rafa just play him in goal!!! rafa is running out of time! we have been utter useless in this first half!!!!
As I had written earlier, Fiorentina are a solid, organised and disciplined side. Jovetic was there main threat as I had suspected, but we did show the usual weaknesses in defence. I understand Mascherano being injured, I did not quite understand Aurelio as holding midfielder, he is a one legged player and still not 100% match fit. Fiorentina followed their plan, strike in the first half and control the game in the second. Let’s us not be fooled by the 61% possession and 10 corners more than them. We could have changed the game in the first 5 minutes of second half with two clear cut chances within 2 minutes of each other. As usual we were not sharp and did not capitalize. Not a tragic result given the standard of our adversaries, but this is Liverpool now. Forget Hull City, that’s another world. The bad news is that Lyon won at Debreceni 4-0, so they are on 6 points and we are on three with Fiorentina. Not all is lost, it’s just a little bit harder now!
Babel was ineffective when he came on, Voronin effected a few good moves but we were tired by that stage.
I’d say this game….Prandelli 2 – Rafa 0!
thats why we lost, he picked the wrong team. also the way we played. my god were liverpool, we should have been going at pace at fioretina, all that passing back shite. there not a great team, we made them look good or rafa did. yes iwant the prem most, but why did rafa show them that much respect? we are better and like shankly would have said go play lads, and beat them. as much as i like rafa, sometimes he lets himself down we are better than fiorentina tell the players if you don.t think you are then play else were. rafa you cost us this game, rafa 0 fiorentina 2…
Yes friend I agree. They outplayed us tactically. We know the italians are masters of tactics and we fell for them. Whatever we achieve this season, if we do achieve anything, it will be an uphill struggle. Rafa must understand that possession does not bring you the result. It’s outplaying your opponents physically and tactically that wins you games. Next up Lyon…God help us!
its only if Rafa gets a win(not a draw i prefer losses to draws this season) at the bridge that i can forgive him for last night’s loss. it seems he clearly played for a loss. the back passing was insulting and its in yesterdays game that i saw every lfc player loose the ball and stand waiting for the neighbor to chase to win possession back, what about players waiting for the passes to find them standing! seems Rafa told them rather loose the game but don’t over work! but there is still chance to undo the results but at the bridge its a must win!!
YNWA
What a load of crap, squandering posession and trying make passes that were not on, could not bear to watch the end of the game analysis, but have seen rafa was angry with the team, should be angry with himself too, fiorentina are a good team, but we made them look even better, our best chance right at the beginning of the 2nd half fell to the one player we did not want it too, may or may not have changed the outcome, but f*** it lets see how they respond on sunday, we were playing with a dead midfield last night.