Liverpool Preview II: Expect squad rotations 4 April, 2008
Posted by lasagnechef in Premiership.15 comments
Right, after the Scoucers sneaked a draw on Wednesday we need to beat them this time. This game is more important for us than it is for them; they’ve got 4th pretty much secured whereas we’re still trying to put the pressure on Man United. That said, it doesn’t mean Liverpool and going to bend over and let us spank them.
Out of the three games, this would probably be the one that either team would’ve picked to lose, if they have to in one of the three games; and with the Champions League tie still in the balance, you might expect someone to take the foot off the pedal.
I was quite certain from the beginning that Liverpool would rest players for this middle game. The Champions League means everything to them and I’m sure the Scoucers would forgive Benitez if he lost this one. Wenger’s also hinted at resting, he says he’ll make a decision on his team selection based on fitness and how the players came out of Wednesday’s game.
He did say that Adebayor is fit though, van Persie is out…obviously. I don’t know what this means though, what Arsene is saying. It’s hard for me to guess a team because I don’t have access to the training ground and I don’t know what condition our players are in. Toure could be tired? Clichy could be tired? Fabregas could be tired? Hleb could be tired, I don’t know. So here’s my basically random guess at tomorrow’s team:
Hoyte – Senderos – Gallas (c) – Clichy
Walcott – Flamini – Fabregas – Diaby
Adebayor – Bendtner
I’m guessing Wenger will use this opportunity to try Hoyte out at right back and maybe give Hleb a little rest. I’m almost certain that Bendtner will start though. It’d be nice to see Theo start but I don’t want that to make him fatigued for Tuesday night’s game.
It’s rare that we talk about resting players for a Liverpool game, but I don’t want you to take that thinking I’m underestimating Liverpool. I have confidence in our back up players that they wont spoil our performance. We’ll still need to be at the top of our game. You can’t really tell what sort of Liverpool side might play tomorrow lunch time but whoever it is we have to play the same.
Liverpool have a big squad and if Benitez does decide to rest one or two then it’s still going to be a good side. In his press conference today he gave pretty much the same answer as Wenger: it depends on fitness.
I think we’re going to win, I’m confident. We played much better than them the other night and had the more chances but we’re also angry that they held us to a draw; we deserved AT LEAST a goal more on Wednesday. Also, we need the three points more than they do, if we don’t win then it’ll be a massive blow to our title challenge.
Right I’m off now, enjoy the game people. Don’t forget to wake up; it’s an early 12:45pm kick off (UK time!). I’ll write the match report as soon as possible; I’m quite busy this weekend, until then.
Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool – 02/03/08 – (Champions League) 4 April, 2008
Posted by lasagnechef in Champions League.4 comments
Oh dear…what a shit goal to concede. So many defenders around the box but Gerrard still manages to slot a pass to Dirk Kuyt. For me, we only really had target in the game and that was to not concede and we did with a sloppy goal.
Other than that I thought we were very good. We played the team I expected and they started the game well, after 2 minutes Adebayor had caught out the Liverpool defence and Reina had to come out of him box. Ade rounded the ‘keeper but he recovered well and the danger was cleared.
Both sides were getting decent amounts of possession and were getting forward too. I think we were producing more attacks though, no dead certain chances but some decent opportunities.
About midway through the first half we started piling the pressure on and there a sense that we might score. In the 25th minute we won a corner when van Persie’s shot was saved. Fabregas and van Persie played a little one-two from the corner flag and a great ball was whipped in. Adebayor leapt above everyone else and connected with the ball 6 yards out to head it home with ease.
A perfect corner and a vital goal. 2 goals in 2 Champions League games for Adebayor who previously had never scored in the competition for us. Ashburton Grove was a happy place, but not for long. 3 minutes later Gerrard picked up the ball on the right and despite there being about 6 players back (2 of which stopping Gerrard from crossing and about 4 of them in the box to intercept) he managed to skip into some space and put a low ball in for Kuyt who was coming in at the far post.
I couldn’t believe it. Watching the replays back the next day it looks even worse, we should’ve cut that out, no way should they have been allowed to score there. Did they catch us out? Were will still not focused after scoring so shortly before? One thing is for sure though, what Gerrard did took some skill and accuracy so I suppose you have to give some credit to him.
The place was a bit less so happy now. Liverpool had got that vital away goal making Adebayor’s goal meaningless. We now needed to score at least two more to make this a successful night’s work. Parts of the crowd were understandably down but we had to just accept it and move on, fine they scored, now lets try get a goal back.
The away side had a couple more chances before the break. The best was probably Babel’s long-range effort, which was heading right into the bottom corner, but Almunia managed to get down to it. I think Manuel had a decent game and he’s just signed a new contract for us which is good news. He’s done well this season and I’m sure that next term, he’ll be considered the out and out no.1 ‘keeper.
At half time, I was just coming down the stairs to my seat when I heard, “And replacing no.11 Robin Persie is no.32 Theo Walcott.” What? Oh for fucks sake he’s injured again isn’t he. I thought that he was at least going to make it until the end of the season after being out so long but it seems he’s just as injury prone as Rosicky. He’s only going to be out for a week or so though. He has a 20% chance of playing this Saturday but I guess his target will be Tuesday night at Anfield.
So Walcott went out wide on the left and Hleb came more central. I thought it’d be nice to see Walcott with Adebayor but Arsene didn’t want to experiment in this game. Theo made the impact once again and about 10 minutes into the second half he let out a shot from range that caused Reina some concern. I said to my mate, “It’s so weird to see someone just pick up the ball and have a shot.” Quite untypical of Theo but it as a decent shot and would’ve been a brilliant goal.
We were stepping up a gear now and were really looking for a goal. Walcott looked dangerous again and was vital in so many of our attacks. We really went for it, and for the third European match in a row Eboue was gifted a chance in the box and for the third time in a row he was fucking useless. It was Walcott’s good work down the left that started it, he forced Reina to the near post and then squared it into the box. Eboue was there but he completely scuffed it and that attack was over.
A few moments later we were attacking again. Hleb was in space in the box and was just about to have a shot pass it when Kuyt dragged him over. At the time you couldn’t really tell for certain where I was sitting but it looked a decent shout for a penalty. The referee game nothing but from what I saw after the game it looks like a clear penalty, he’s definitely dragging him down. Wenger was not happy with the decision after the game, how things might’ve changed if we won that penalty.
The worst was yet to come though in, in the 70th minute Adebayor had the ball down the right and put in a dangerous cross the ball dropped to the back post where Fabregas managed to slide in to direct it into the corner. However Bendtner was on the line and couldn’t get his lanky legs out of the way and Fabregas’ shot was fumbled away. I couldn’t believe it! I just sank to the floor. Bendtner just cleared our goal off the line!
The replays are worse though, at the game it’s always hard to keep up with goalmouth scrambles but this is awful. It looked like Bendtner was trying to get the final touch on it and claim the goal but you can tell he’s trying really hard to get out of the way in the split second he had but it was agonisingly stopped on the line. So unlucky.
We played out the rest of the game giving it everything we had but it just wasn’t enough, it didn’t look like it was going to be our night. The whistle finally blew and it finished 1-1. Liverpool will be the favourites to go through now but we’re by no means out of it. We’re going to need to score at Anfield but that’s perfectly possible. We’ll need another great performance though and it’s sure to be a great game.
Build up to the second leg to come next week. Thanks for reading.
