Liverpool have played four games so far. We played two games in Asia against a Chinese team who has never been in the latter stages of the Asian CL. In fact no Chinese team ever reached a semi final of the CL. China are ranked 9th in Asia. The national side has never won any major competition in Asia. We only beat them 4-3. We then beat Malaysians all star team 6-3. Malaysia are ranked 24th in Asia. Not even a single local team ever entered the CL group stages.
Even with our second or third team we should have been able to easily beat them. Japan, South Korea, Australia (they play in Asia) from East Asia and then Iran, Uzbekistan and the Arab teams from West are the good Asian teams. Those games we played were just useless.
In Europe we looked embarrassingly very poor playing Hull and Gala who finished mid table for the 1st time in their history last season.
I apologise for this long introduction but if we need to know our level then we need to know our opponents.
Doni – Is going to be another player who will be harder to sell than buy. Our previous Brazilian keeper Cavelieri was miles better than him. I’m not just judging him on these games but I know how a poor keeper he is from his days at Roma. Verdict: never let him play a single match. Sell him at any opportunity.
Jones – made an excellent save against Gala and had no chance with the 3rd goal but all our reserves keepers are better than him. Verdict: sell him.
Kelly – looked lost in CB pairing with Soto. Any one will be anyway. Verdict: Right back is his better position.
Ayala – Will get better when plays with a decent CB. Verdict: give him a chance this season.
Kyrgiakos – was more interested in talking to Elmander than doing his job. Poor in every game. Verdict: sell him.
Falanagan – was at fault for 3rd Gala goal. Verdict: Good future as proved last season.
Insua – he tried hard but doesn’t know his actual position. Needs to lose weight to start with. Verdict: sell him.
Shelvey – playing with average midfielders made him look average. Verdict: good prospect. He needs a good instructor to turn him into another Gerrard.
Degen – my grandfather who never played football could play better than him. Verdict: what the hill he is doing playing football let alone playing for Liverpool
Robinson – We have better young players than him. Verdict: not ready yet.
Poulsen – I could do a better job than him. Verdict: We should sue Hodgson.
Cole – finished. Verdict: He is English so sell him for 15m.
Aquilani – was not interested and had no desire. Verdict: Cut the loses and sell him.
Spearing – made many mistakes. He was not ready for the tour. Verdict: he can play much better. We probably still need him.
Coady – scored a goal in his debut. Verdict: I think he’s got a bright future. Let him play some cup games.
Kuyt – our best player in every game he played. The only player with desire, right attitude and brain! Verdict: make him our captain.
Agger - played little. Verdict: our best CB. Hope to be injury free.
Carra - little football again. Verdict: we still need him.
Downing – did well when on in 2nd half at Hull. Verdict: could be vital.
Adam – was fine. Verdict: will give us some goals.
Carroll. I’m not blaming him unlike most of you. I blame the players who didn’t provide him service. Verdict: He will give the goals if we get better delivery in the box.
Ngog: scored against the Chinese and Malaysians as he usually does scoring in the reserves only. Verdict: He will never make it.
Overall Verdict: We looked poor in every game. The keepers looked bad. Defence looked shaky. Midfield didn’t do the job. They were not protecting the defence. Couldn’t keep possession. Apart from Kuyt, didn’t deliver the right ball to our forward who indeed didn’t look a threat.
People say these are only pres-season games and we played without many of our first team players just like the managers when they lose these games trying to make excuses why they lost. The last two seasons we had terrible preseason. Every one was saying there were only preseason games, but you know what happened to us during those two seasons. I think Dalglish will try his best team in the next two games. If we don’t see any improvement then we could be facing another difficult season. Johnson, Gerrard, Downing, Lucas and Suarez will improve the team but they could be all unavailable during some part of the season for different reasons. So we still need a good squad to compete with the likes of MU and this is my worry. We have a good team but our squad is not as good as even Spurs squad.
Preseason Verdict
posted on 29/7/11
zaboore (U7249)
posted 23 minutes ago
Rajkovic, PVA, Bertrand, McEachran, Clifford, Chalobah, Hilario Turnbull, Zhirkov, Ferreira, Hilario, Anelka, Blackman, Bosingwa, Sturridge all in our 1st team are they?
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They probably played some parts but your first team players played the major parts. The scorer sheets proved it. We had the likes of Coady and Ngog scoring. You had Lampard, Drogba and only you first team players getting into the core sheet.
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We changed our entire first XI's at half time you clown
Please just stop digging, that hole can't get any deeper
posted on 29/7/11
One thing it has highlighted is the need for strength in depth for your defence. Not the guy who protects the back 4 but the backup CBs and fullbacks.
posted on 30/7/11
comment by honestlivpool_five_times (U1661)
posted 3 minutes ago
Just as an example, I've seen one LFC poster who was saying the other day that pre-seasons were about getting player fitness, focusing on tactics, getting the team to understand the manager's plans for the new seasons.
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Do you care about your club training?
Do you know how many times your players perform poorly in training and do you give a thing as long as they perform well in important matches?
This pre season shows we need defenders and it can only be a good thing since it didn't happen in a premier league match. Now Kenny can easily go and sign good defenders to fix the squad.
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First of all, you've completely missed the point of what I said that you've quoted. But then, as I already pointed out to Zab that is to be expected.
Secondly, why would Kenny need to put forward a pi55 poor performance over 4 games to show the owners he needs defenders? Don't they trust him? Couldn't he AND Commoli simply tell them something that everybody and their wife already know? This is the problem with you Honest, you're not honest at all. Not about your club, not to other posters and not to yourself. Which is quite ironic.
posted on 30/7/11
comment by N-N-N-Nineteen (U7514)
posted 2 minutes ago
One thing it has highlighted is the need for strength in depth for your defence. Not the guy who protects the back 4 but the backup CBs and fullbacks.
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Exactly
Pre season is to, in your own description, highlight your team's weaknesses. Try out your tactics and see what works well and what doesn't.
And we do NEEDr a first team LB.
posted on 30/7/11
n-n-n-nineteen
Your back 4 has always been very solid whereas ours not and we needed always to have two defensive mf players with Alonso and Mascheraso and now Lucas and others to protect our shaky defence.
posted on 30/7/11
comment by honestlivpool_five_times (U1661)
posted 44 seconds ago
comment by N-N-N-Nineteen (U7514)
posted 2 minutes ago
One thing it has highlighted is the need for strength in depth for your defence. Not the guy who protects the back 4 but the backup CBs and fullbacks.
======================================
Exactly
Pre season is to, in your own description, highlight your team's weaknesses. Try out your tactics and see what works well and what doesn't.
And we do NEEDr a first team LB.
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Except it hasn't highlighted what works well . And you've only taken ONE thing out of my own description - the negative thing - weaknesses. What about the rest?
BTW are you trying to convince me or yourself?
posted on 30/7/11
comment by zaboore (U7249)
posted 2 minutes ago
n-n-n-nineteen
Your back 4 has always been very solid whereas ours not and we needed always to have two defensive mf players with Alonso and Mascheraso and now Lucas and others to protect our shaky defence.
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I think with kelly you have a star in the making in all fairness. Also, don't get me wrong, sometimes a good pre-season can flatter to deceive, for example our midfield is not great whereas that's where you've excelled in recent seasons. The two protective mf you mentioned had slightly different roles but it worked very well and gave gerrard the freedom of the pitch. Our midfield is ok but still lacking. The pre-season can make it look fine and against the lesser teams it probably will be. It's when we come up against quality in each of the 4 competitions that concerns me.
posted on 30/7/11
Except it hasn't highlighted what works well
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Didn't we score like 10 goals in two games?
posted on 30/7/11
posted on 30/7/11
http://www.talksport.co.uk/magazine/features/2011-07-22/premier-league-big-boys-2010-pre-season-results-did-they-mean-anything