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look i support united in english football but thats a joke to say that.... he was liverpools best player...look at the crap around him..pennant,zenden etc... and he's won games for them on his own....Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Lord
this is exactly the critisism ronaldo gets if he has a bad game...''he's crap..this proves it'' cant play well in EVERY game.... thats not even the case with gerrard its if liverpool lose he'll be called that.....
He was playing almost as a striker which was a bit of a waste.
He worked very hard but i was shocked at his lack of stamina.
The legs were gonw after 60 minutes and he should have been taken off for a striker rather than moved back to the middle.
What exactly did Gerrard do? Even more to the point, was he effective? Nil points on both counts. Compared to Riise (for Liverpool) and Inzahgi (Milan) - who both put in splendid mental and physical performances - Liverpool's golden boy was rubbish. In a game that really mattered. And don't get me going about Ronaldo! Beckham with bobs on. Bull****. Give me Paul Scholes any day because he's a consistently intelligent footballer who performs far more effectively. If you're a United fan you should know this as fact.Quote:
Originally Posted by gilberto_eire
Risteard: it's all about positional sense. Inzahgi was the only player who moved purposefully from the free kick (look at the replay!) and his deflection created the goal that changed the tone of the game. If he wasn't alert it wouldn't have gone in. QED. He's class. Watch him playing live rather than on TV and you'll see his true worth; I've rarely seen a striker work so hard and with such conviction - and it's all off the shoulder of the last defender. What a pain in the arse! He's no Marco Van Basten but his work rate and consistency is chilling. Football is all in the mind.
The only players who were decent for Liverpool (I thought) were Mascherano, who shackled Kaka reasonably well all night. No surprise that after he went off, nobody closed down Kaka to send Inzaghi through for the second goal, Riise, who was dependable as ever, and Finnan, who was just decent.
Others, like Zenden, Gerrard, Pennant, Kuyt worked hard but produced very little throughout. Gerrard needed to be deeper (which I would say is Benitez's fault), Zenden needed to stop whinging, and Pennant, having gotten past the fullback, needed to actually put a decent cross in.
Liverpool had lots of possesion, but showed little cunning up front. Milan contained them relatively - most of Liverpool's chances came from silly Milan errors, which were plentiful (Time for Maldini to retire I think). In fact the whole game was full of under-hit, over-hit, mis-hit passes, poor control, lack of communiction.
Not a great game, but I would say the better team won
Gerrard, like every other footballer is not effective when played out of position.Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Lord
Jayz, that's really stretching it imo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Lord
I think the ball was on its way into the net before he even realised it hit him.
Agree that he's top class alright though.
HAHAHA I'm so happy they got beat. I don't think I could hear about Liverpool's special crowd being the difference for another 18 months. I don't think one player had a stand out game last night, very poor all round. Gattuso was useless. Cannot believe this is the same Milan side that tore apart Man Utd. Ok it didn't help that Man Utd were playing their second string defence but still....
Both teams where under par.
I have to say i'm delighted with the result, but the game was dross. I think I'll stick with Linfield vs Armagh City next season. I was half contemplating going over to watch a few games. But the last load of matches I have seen on tv have sickened me. Absolute rubbish.
Was better than the FA Cup final, but only because both teams looked to get forward. If Liverpool had any attacking edge they'd have slaughtered a very off form Milan. Zendan, Pennant and Gerrard are not world class attackers and Kuyt can't do it all himself.
Is there any other forwards in Italy in the same mould as Inzaghi BL? Or is his style unique. I cant think of any like him in Ireland or England. Irish and British coaches seem obsessed with forwards getting involved in the build up play rather than just score goals. Just scoring goals doesnt seem to make you a good forward over here. Maybe the way Italians see their forwards is differentQuote:
Originally Posted by Billy Lord
Quote:
Originally Posted by hoops1
I can only think of two other modern day footballers who play like this - Pauletta and Crespo, they don't care about contributing to the game or holding the ball up. Their games are based on making off the ball runs and hoping that a team mate will pass the perfect ball. Watching Pauletta in Paris vs Derry was an experience. I always thought he was useless, but seeing the runs he made showed why he scores so many goals at his level. I would love Mark Farren at Derry to watch these guys in action, take note and do nothing but make these type of runs, but alas you need the midfielders to supply the passes!.
Van Nistlerooy never contributed to the build up, but he could score you plenty of goals.
I would rather have Van Nistlerooy who scores plenty of goals, than Saha who adds to the build up and doesn't score enough....when he decides to play.
I think the Italians have the right idea and that's why they are World Champions and they also have the European champions in their league.
See it as a positive thing - how many times could you go to Anfield with that money ;) or better still how many Shels games could you go to. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by onenilgameover
Do you know what I enjoyed about last night's game? The trainer was only on the pitch once (late in the 2nd half and he got shooed off with the player) and there was very little diving and feigning injury compared to some games I have seen. Credit to both sides.
Oh, and by the way, is Kaka now c*ap because he failed to perform at the highest level ;) ?
i dont think so!!! one forward, end the game with two on....whats that all about.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandro
and man what was zenden doing on the pitch,
who so late to introduce crouch,
what the hell was kewell on for,
and who is that guy that came on in the end
go ahead liverpool give benitiez 5o million , and he will blow it all away
craig bellamy?
happy to see liverpool lose, rubbish team, end of.
Here here.Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
Match was well refereed especially seeing through Kewell falling over.
Michael Owen.Quote:
Originally Posted by hoops1
I think Owen can beat players aswell though.Quote:
Originally Posted by DmanDmythDledge
Nah, he just runs very fast around them and tries to keep up with that ball after another horrendous first touchQuote:
Originally Posted by hoops1
James Richardson wrote a great piece about Inzaghi in the Guardian recently. No obvious special ability other than always being in the right place. The way he peeled off the defenders to say onside was quality but Inzaghi doesn't always play offside so well.
Here's the article, I thought it was brilliant & in hindsight, a bit prophetic.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/champ...070424,00.html
Throughout his career I've thought he was overrated, but you simply can't argue with his record.
I think Liverpool were right to use width to attack Milan, the problem was that their wide players were ordinary at best, and in Zenden's case way below the standard required.
Something had to give in Benitez' selection. He clearly wanted a ball winner and ball user in midfield he wanted 2 wide players and he needed to accomodate Gerrard. The part that gave was the second striker and it didn't pay off. Maybe Alonso should have made way for Gerrard and he could have played two orthodox forwards.
It astounds me that many of the best players in the modern game are so one footed. Gerrard, a player with superb ball striking technique, should have been more comfortable taking that chance with his left.
Didn't he win the free kick for the first goal and set up the second goal??Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
So they're both crap?? Who, pray tell, would you have played on the left??Quote:
and man what was zenden doing on the pitch,
who so late to introduce crouch,
what the hell was kewell on for,
Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
Benitez deserves some credit, somehow he managed to fill the huge quality gap and prevented Milan to play his football, nobody else had been able to stop Kaka like he did and that's a fact. I don't think he could do much more with those average players, it's a little miracle they reached the final despite meeting Barca and Chelsea. Then everybody makes mistakes, I don't think Ancelotti's choice of fileding Jankulowski ahead of Kaladze was a good one.
I was at the game and it was brilliant. It was a pity it was 10 men against 12 men though(obviously AC Milan benefiting. Zenden was a waste of space and Benitez will have to take the blame for playing him. While the Referee. It was diabolical. All the fef decisions went for Milan.
I got chatting to some Milan fans after and they came up to me and said it was a pity about the ref and that most decision went to their side. "but thats football" they said.
I can't not say something about the trouble before the game. It was absolutly appalling and was totally all caused by the Greek Police. No organisation what so ever.
The police where trying to start trouble. One police man was taking the mickey, rising some Liverpool fans. And as i walked past him he shouldered me for no reason to the ground. (I later seen a picture in the English Star of that same Policeman with a baton raised in his hand about to hit a fan).
Fake tickets were absolutely everywhere!! And i mean everywhere. I am sure you seen on TV that people were cramed in and people left standing on the steps. Sure the man beside me got in through waving a blue leaflet(which where been given out before hand with directions for around athens) Only problem was they looked like tickets on the outside, and as there was no turnstiles being used all one did was flash their so called ticket(fake or not) and you got through the police barrier.
:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Midgit
It took 58 minutes before he showed a yellow card to a Liverpool player (and Xavi Alonso was not among these!). I think the ref did a good job in the end, after all it wasn't a tough match last night
Isn't it amazing the way all these Johnny Foreigner types always pick on those plucky innocent Brits :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Midgit
You're right though if I was a policeman I can't think of a more fun way to spend my evening than following ****ed up football fans around taunting them
In fairness, a brit team was involved in the final. Trouble has to be expected!
The ref was easily the best I've seen in abig game in years. Got pretty much every decision spot on
Yes, after the Milan players made him do it. It was a joke. Other than that though he did ok.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandro
Agree with Dodge.
Credit sould be given when the refs are on the ball.
Can't remember anything wrong.
Maybe an offside but he was never by the rare dive or two towards the end.
Top ref.
End of.
Nice in-joke:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Risteard
To be honest I thought he was a bit whistle-happy, but did a decent job. Any Pool fans claiming he was the reason for the loss whiil have a hard job.
I suppose Cruyff is British as well: ''He can’t actually play football,” Johan Cruyff once said of Inzaghi.Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Lord
"A superb sniffer": An interesting description and the mind boggles :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lim till i die
yeah :rolleyes:
if zenden is good enough for a CL final then why is he not good enough for liverpool, why is he been sold?????????
my granny thats who!
A good striker needs positional sense and Inzaghi has it. Look at the replay of the first goal; he was on a mission. The fact that the ball hit him rather than he hit the ball is irrelevant. He was there, the ball went in because he was there. It's a different skill to Ronaldo fluting around with no purpose other than to get girls screaming, and while Sky-watching barstoolers love facile tricks and flicks, Inzaghi scores goals. And goals win games.
To be honest, I never rated the guy until I saw him play. His workrate and dedication is quite impressive.
Cruyff can sneer at everyone bar Garrincha, Pele, Franco Baresi, Ferenc Puskas, Bobby Moore, Alberto Di Stefano and Diego Maradona. Pippo Inzaghi isn't a great footballer in the true sense, but he's a superb striker.Quote:
Originally Posted by OwlsFan
No arguement on Inzaghi, who is proof you dont have to be a great player to be a great goalscorer, but that is a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it? The fact that is a deflection is hardly irrelevant. He didnt mean to do it - that is very different from meaning to do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Lord
But Inzaghe's thinking is correct. He's thinking if he gets in that area something might happen. It might be a deflection, it might be a scuffed shot falling to him or the keeper may fumble. A huge amount of being a good striker is being in the right place or making the right runQuote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
No arguement with any of that. I just think that this -Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
is stretching Inzaghi's genius a bit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Lord
This is true -
but my point is that he didnt mean it. He was looking to be in with a chance of a rebound, I dont think he was planning to get a deflection. I'd say it was 99% luck, but luck because he is a good striker.Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Lord