...However there are a lot of aspect of the game to worry about. Liverpool seem to have difficulty in keeping possesion of the ball, and the passing sometimes go haywire, even though there were some fantastic passes...
aiyaa taken down liao. Keke
[vid]SIPVNtVno8w[/vid]
World Class Strike.
WooHoo.... Won the 1st game :lovegrin:
No SCV for me too. Read the match report, seems like a game we could have easily drawn in the past season.
Hope is a good start to the season :thumbsup: Bring on Chel$ki!!! ;p
Thanks for the clips.![]()
Wonderful win by Liverpool. It's great to start the season on a winning note.
However there are a lot of aspect of the game to worry about. Liverpool seem to have difficulty in keeping possesion of the ball, and the passing sometimes go haywire, even though there were some fantastic passes. Torres 1st competitive match is good, he showed some very good touches. Just need to settle down quickly, and he should be able to deliver the goods very soon. Babel also showed a lot of promise with his limited time on the pitch.
I feel that Riise and Penannt had a rather poor game, and Alonso was pretty quiet. Luckily Gerrard came out with that OMG freekick and won the game for us.
Now the boys have to raise their game and prepare to meet Chel$ki next weekend. It wouldn't be as easy as last night match.
One side note. I was pretty disappointed with the quality of the live match shown on the new EPL channel by Starhub. It looks like watching low resolution video on the computer, and the feed was not stable. Even the other 2 channel, 21 & 22, was quite lousy as well, and the GoalTV, CH 107 & 108, was simply terrible. Also the match preview and review was rather lousy. ESPN was much better. It looks like we are paying extra $10 for extra channels, but lousier quality:thumbsd:
One good thing is that now ESPN and StarSports can show more of other sports like WRC!
Couldn't agree with you more. I was cursing them through half the match. We just gave the ball away easily either by sloppy passing or by punting it to nowhere the moment we managed to get the ball off the opposing players. We simply ended up putting ourselves under pressure again. If we could have held on to possesion better, move the ball around, not only would we be depriving the opponent of the ball but since they would be desperately chasing it down, we could tire out the opposition and hit them by quicky turning up the rythm.
The team still lacked the maturity to control the pace of the game to our advantage. Too single paced and predictable in rythm. And I always felt we do ourselves a disfavour by immediately settling into a defensive shell the moment we score. Sometimes we should use the momentum to press for a second. Opponents know that we would slacken after the goal and they tend to attack us more. I know rafa wants to defend deep and counter for a second goal but to always do this is predictable. Sitting back allows the opposition to recover their composure and also their players to get more involved in the play, giving the control of the game to them. And if the opposition scored, the momentum switches to them. Especially when our defence looks edgy like they did today. We can't always depend on a Stevie G special.
But complaints aside, it was a good showing. We had some good chances to score and looked better than last season. Loved torres. His movement and awareness is top-class and it was something we lacked till now. And for the first time, we have a player who can get past defences and also create openings for himself. Hope he would get even better with time. Babel looked good when he came on too, though it was helped by the space available by Villa pushing forward. Kuyt was great too. Sissoko, however, was a disaster. He looked more assured in the pre-season but seemed to be trying too hard in this game. Giving away the ball again and again could have cost us. He really should keep it simple and play to his strenght, not do too much alone.
One suggestion, Rafa should really train the players to take some shots hard and low to the corners. Too many of our shots are well struck but often at a good height for the keeper to save. Low shots to the corners are always the hardest as the keepers would have to get down for it quickly.
Now for Toulouse. They are a good team and just defeated Lyon so I hope we can put up a good performance.
YNWA :cheers:
seems like the boys haf a lot to work on!!! thankfully we won the first game of the season, DESERVINGLY.
the ref is a rubbish in disguise as a human!:thumbsd:
its always great to get a 1st win under our belt more so on the first game of the new season!risse didn't get enough support from arbeloa. i still don't have faith in arbeloa whether he plays right or left side, mid or full back.
pennant was booed everytime he has the ball. i think the crowd and in part, the villa players were out to play him.
our first 'og' goal came as a result of our ascendancy with the two strikers, torres and kuyt combining well especially kuyt not giving up the chase.
villa's penalty was a soft goal. carra didn't even complain though it looked more ball to hand than anything else.
reina was booked by the ref because he told the ref the ball wasn't on the spot. goes to show the ref's performance.
the foul on gerrard was debatable but the free kick was sweet.
at the end of the match you could see gerrard going around to congratulate each of our player. i think the team morale has taken a different turn this season.
we didn't play as well as all of us wanted to see from the team but it's only the first game and at the end of the day its the result we needed to start the season with since 2002.
In disguise? I didn't even notice any disguise........
Not that bad. Just me being anal. Definitely better than last season though still work in progress. But I think we'd have drawn or lost this game last season. We could have been a lot more comfy if were took our chances. Just need some maturity in play. In terms of tactical astuteness, we have plenty to learn. The new players look good!
But I think we need a better leftback than arbeloa or riise in the long term. And a more dominant centreback. Agger is a great ball playing centreback and Cara is a great tenacious defender, but neither of them are an "Alpha" defender; ie someone who dominates the box and takes control (eg, Hyypia, Terry). In particular, someone who is really strong challenging for the aerial ball as strong players like Carew and Drogba always trouble us.
I thknk pennant was booed cos he played for Birminham City before.
arbeloa ? Seem a bit lost
Carra, really suay
Reina, lagi suay to get that yellow
Sissoko, he like still holiday mood
Alonso, very quiet game
Kuyt, very hardworking, first goal thanks to his never give up run
Babbel, hope to see more of him, showing quality
Torres, trying hard to justify his fees, showing good quality and a lot of patternz
Stevie G - enuff said
Starhub, need to improve transmission quality
manu as of yet, still kosong-kosong.
song boh?!?!?!
think they give chance to old boy Steve Coppell
hahaha
steady lah, just maintain the scoreline, i happy liao