Galatasaray 3, Liverpool 0: Ugly Turns Slightly Depressing

By: Ed | July 28th, 2011

So much for the romantic return to Istanbul. A questionable starting eleven and even worse first-half performance, woeful defending, and non-existant attack conspired to make for one of the most insufferable forty-five minutes of Liverpool football I’ve witnessed. The curious selection and impotent display were worrying, and while it got better as the personnel and formation righted themselves a bit in the second half, we’re still left with another ineffective display and more time to wait for something that actually means something.

You’d have been wildly optimistic to be enthusiastic for the match after seeing the aforementioned starting eleven—depending on how you count, at least four fullbacks had a place in the lineup, with Phillipp Degen and Emiliano Insua pushing forward to flank Joe Cole in the midfield, John Flanagan and Jack Robinson at right and left back respectively, and Martin Kelly partnering Sotirios Kyrgiakos in central defense. That left Andy Carroll alone up front, Cole just behind him, and Christian Poulsen and Jonjo Shelvey in more reserved midfield roles. And poor, poor Doni on an island in goal, damned from nearly the opening whistle.

Milan Baros’ first-half brace very nearly could have been a hat-trick had he converted his chance inside a minute; typically lax defending through the midfield and at the back led to the former Liverpool man getting time and space on the left side, and had he not pulled it past the post, the hosts would have had a very early lead. They wouldn’t have to wait much longer, though, as Baros finished off a fine move by volleying home Thomas Ujfalusi’s well-placed cross.

What unfolded was nigh-on total Galatasaray dominance; Liverpool were clearly out of sorts and couldn’t link any sort of meaningful possession together. Andy Carroll was isolated and anonymous, with only a poorly-struck effort from distance and a mis-controlled ball over the top from Poulsen to speak of for involvement. No fault of his own, and it had to be a supremely disappointing run-out.

The pre-determined water break gave the visitors a brief but welcomed respite, and less than ten minutes later they had their best chance of the half. Kyrgiakos headed back across the box from a free kick, which found an unmarked Martin Kelly in front of goal. As with everything else in the first half, his effort went terribly wrong, and was whistled offside to boot.

Within three minutes Baros had his second, this time from a corner in which the striker beat Poulsen to the back post all ends up. His firm header left Doni with no chance, and once again Liverpool’s back line made a complete hash of it. Liverpool saw out the half with no further damage but, with a depleted bench, there wasn’t any promise of wholesale changes to come.

As it turned out, the few changes made at the half (Dirk Kuyt and Alberto Aquilani for Phillipp Degen and Jack Robinson) markedly improved the visitors’ performance—in the opening minutes Joe Cole worked himself free and had an effort saved only to be whistled offside, and Carroll headed tamely on goal from a Cole corner minutes later.

The move of the match for Liverpool came on 64 minutes, when Cole switched play to the right for Kuyt, who skipped past a defender and crossed sharply for the onrushing Aquilani. The Italian’s low effort arrowed straight off Ceylan and away from danger, and Liverpool had their best chance of the match go begging.

Late appearances for Conor Coady and Andre Wisdom came just before Johan Elmander capped off the match with a sweetly-struck volley for the host’s third, and while the second half performance was far more encouraging than anything we’ve much of what we’ve seen in the last 180 or so minutes of preseason football, it was another 0-3 result and another chance to try to cherry-pick the positives from a largely negative performance.

I’m stuck firmly in some sort of preseason purgatory—I know the matches and results don’t matter much, and that it’s all about fitness and unity and whatever, but I’m also not particularly fond of watching Liverpool get embarrassed for the sake of fitness or putting up players in the shop window. We typically talk about how there’s few conclusions to draw from these matches, and while there’s a debate to be had about the correlation of results now to the actual season (excellently laid out by nate earlier in the week), there’s no arguing that Liverpool have some bad, bad footballers playing some bad, bad football right now.

You can’t imagine anybody’s improved their stock if we are shop-windowing; Poulsen again displayed a poor first touch and terrifically bad defensive positioning (which doesn’t work so well for a defensive midfielder), Degen was…Degen, and Joe Cole, even with a few flashes of competence, continued to show the selfishness and sloppiness that Liverpool supporters have come to loathe. It wasn’t any better at the back, as Sotirios Kyrgiakos looked lost and Martin Kelly struggled in a new(ish) role alongside him. Defensive lapses were again to blame for all three goals, something that, regardless of the time of year, is inexcusable.

And yet I’m not that fired up, as it’s still all tempered by the knowledge that there’s got to be something much better on the horizon. Almost half the squad missed out on today’s match, nearly all of them starters, and you’ve got to believe that the ineffectual performances over the last two matches aren’t lost on those in charge. Things need to be cleaned up relatively quickly—from the personnel at the club to the football they’re playing, we can hope for change in the next two weeks. And as disappointing as the past two displays have been (or, depending on your opinion of the preseason, haven’t been), there’s still plenty of reason for optimism in the new season.

Monday’s been promised as the start of those changes, with plenty of the missing faces from today (Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing among them) expected to return. And regardless of the result, you can probably expect to feel ambivalence about how things play out. Unless Liverpool score five and keep a clean sheet—then we can safely say that the season’s started for real.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Team News

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oh god

Imagine if Muslera were there.
Samuel anderton

Daglish has sent plenty of money for unnecessery player like Adam, Henderson. He could buy Neymar with money of Adam plus Henderson!! What a awful season we will be able to see and Liver can't be in the Top 4!!!!
etipok

Over the years I have defended LFC stoutly. Zonal marking? Got us second place in the league. Rafa's rant? The fact we didn't win the league has probably got more to do with Torres spending more time on the treatment table than the pitch. Rafa bought average players? Alonso, Torres, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson etc etc. Couple with that the reality that he didn't have the spending power available to rival managers. So what is the point of this post? Well it isn't to defend Rafa, though I firmly believe he was a fantastic manager.

After watching the game against Galatasaray I'm sure I wasn't the only 'Pool fan that was despairing. Sure the performance was awful particularly in the first half but it was a friendly in a hostile environment and our team consisted of relatively inexperienced players and others that are very much past their best. What really dismayed me is that in the last couple of friendlies our best player has been Aquilani - the player we are trying to sell. He clearly has vision and ability. He is able to spray passes around from the centre of midfield but can also play clever short passes. He can play deep yet burst forward to add attacking thrust to the team. So why are we trying to sell him? Quite simply because we are very well-stocked in the central midfield area. Makes sense I suppose. What, to my mind, doesn't make sense is the business we've done this summer. Downing is a great signing and I think he'll bring a lot to the team. Charlie Adam is a top class player and at the price we paid for him, he's a bargain. What confuses me is why we bought Jordan Henderson. I'm sure he has great potential and he played well in the first half of last season but one swallow doesn't make a summer! I watched him play for the under 21s earlier this summer and to say he was poor would be a massive understatement. Each game completely passed him by. Still we've bought him so I hope he comes good. The point is why did we feel we needed him when we already have a far more accomplished midfielder in Aquilani, especially when the noise coming from Juventus suggested they weren't going to buy him thus suggesting we would have to keep him whether we liked it or not. The fee we spent on Henderson, I think, would've been better spent on strengthening our defence or adding another winger to our ranks.

With Carroll up front we'll have the option to hoof the ball long but that isn't the Liverpool way. We need to be able to pass the ball around and be able to play through teams. Anyone who watched the last friendly will have smiled at least once, when in the second half, we put together a move that created our best chance of the game. Guess what? Aquilani was a key part of the move. I'm not for one moment suggesting Aquilani is the best thing since sliced bread but surely he has shown enough (over the two friendlies but more significantly over the course of last season at Juve) to suggest he can be an important player for us given the opportunity. We've recently handed out new contracts to Lucas and Spearing. Lucas played very well last season but lets be honest he was the best of a bad bunch. He stood out because we spent so much time defending and that was his role. Aquilani also spent his time playing in a defensive midfield position but what he demonstrated that Lucas couldn't was the ability to turn defence into attack with one pass. If we want to be considered amongst the teams in the upper echelons of European football we cant be a team that simply sits back and defends. We need to be able to press teams, attack and when we come up against teams that park the proverbial bus, we need to have players that can pick out a pass and open teams up. Lucas or Aquilani? No doubt in my mind who is more suited to that role. As for Spearing, what can I say? Would he still be at the club if he wasn't a Scouser? I doubt it. Yes he plays with his heart on his sleeve but when our rivals have the likes of David Silva, Fabregas, Yaya Toure, Wilshere, Ramsey etc and still continue to strengthen with potential bids for Pastore, Modric and Sneijder, is Spearing really the answer? I don't think so.

So I guess what I'm saying is, we paid a massive fee for Aquilani and have paid huge wages but for one reason or another he's not been able to shine for us thus far but now that he could come good, give the boy a chance. Imagine if he does, imagine the pass and move football Liverpool could play if Gerrard, Meireles, Aquilani and Suarez reach an understanding on the pitch. The good ol' days would be back, and the titles would surely follow!
Jake_LFC

There really is no sense to worry about this result. It's been well documented, and I don't need to repeat. What concerns me is the lack of opportunities for our first team players to play/gel together. There are now only 2 friendlies left (one against a real opponent) and we have yet to see our full back line, or any semblance of a first XI playing together. If Kenny had wanted to parade out the shopping window XI, which I agree with, why only schedule 6 friendlies? Why not jam the schedule, play the crap against other crap, and give the first team at least a few chances to get a run out?
PDubz18

Well the good news is this friendly was probably Galatasaray wanting to get big names to come and play them; what comes with big names is huge amounts of money to get them to come.

Gala probably dumped a truckload of money on LFC to come to Turkey for this game, and what they got was the 2nd string team. So do not fret, it is only a lot of money.
Geza

Well, I am simply hoping that slightly depressing will not turn into embarassing next Monday... But again, got to keep the fait, when we'll beat Sunderland in two weeks nobody will mention these past couple of results again.
Having said that and to Ed's point, seeing Degen on the teamsheet made me want to turn off my computer.
brother jon

for those who suffered thru what sounds like pointless misery, i'd like to offer this tonic.
Santos v. Flamengo highlights. 9 goals (at least, 2 classic), ronaldinho v. neymar, a Poulsen-freen zone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?=...
in return, i'd appreciate any encouraging thoughts on Insua's performance today. (did he really play as a winger?) i think/hope that the better he plays, the better cb & striker (dm?) we can afford.
brother jon

apologies on the bum-link (but i think it's on the FFT main page).
Khaine

This works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
bitterfan

Aquilani was again our best player and we are trying to sell him?

Kuyt came on and together with the Italian stabilized the team.

Carroll has the touch of a rapist and no understanding with any of the other players.

Joe Cole again ran around as hard as he could but produced little to no quality when he got the ball at his feet.

I feel for Doni because he is playing behind a woeful defense but showed with two smart saves he's a good keeper.

Bar Kelly, Shelvey, Wisdom, Insua and Robinson, sell the rest of the deadwood. Not good enough for Liverpool FC and never will be.

Worse than any of Roy Hodgson's performances.

Seriously questioning some of the decisions coming out from the Anfield management.
KC

Losing isn't really the thing that's bothering me now with pre-season its the fact that crappy players are still dressed in Liverpool colours and it scares me to see how hard it might be to sell them and how weak our backline is. We seem so well-stocked in other areas where we can say we have even 3rd string players to play but it feels like if any one of the centrebacks are injured or ill, we're screwed. We even have an influx of fullbacks now. But I know Kenny has his game plan so still looking forward to the season starting :D Only two weeks left to go!
Simon

And now you know why Kelly is better served as a fullback than centreback! Some folks are too obsessed with supposedly correct positions that they fail to take into account what a player does best! Soto needed Skrtel. If your aerial man is slow, you'll need a quick last man. Unfortunately the mancs have both Jones and Vidic.

Indeed, this was largely a 3rd string team that Kenny could potentially get fined for fielding in any official competition. Apart from Kelly being deployed as a centreback, Degen as a winger definitely made a point that having a football brain trumps pace any day. Degen is very speedy, like a certain Mark Gonzalez, but his decisions are equally dense. In Downing, Henderson and Adam, Kenny has prioritised the signing of proven smart players who can make the right passes - the kind of which were absent against Gala till Kuyt and Aquilani came on.

Another point I think the match highlighted was that you can never have enough central midfielders. Shelvey was the best example of why it was so difficult for Rafa to leave Stevie in the engine room. Dynamic and forward thinking players claiming they prefer to play central midfield tend to leave gaping spaces in their play, especially with a creaking holding player. Spearing and Lucas were sorely missed - Spearing for the steel and fire, Lucas for his efficiency, both for their tireless work rates. This is without considering the creativity that Meireles, Henderson or Adam might bring in, or Stevie, for a combination of the best of Shelvey and Spearing.
Mike

If Kenny gets this worked up during preseason just imagine him in 2 months. I'm not worried about today. Third string and please come buy cole we beg you type stuff. Degen? really? This game meant squat other than a jogging session for Andy. YNWA
DoubleDip

Hello, first post.

One question...

Why didn't we play more first team players?
Presumably its because we have a game in only four days which with a return flight to Turkey after a hot humid tough game and then a flight to Norway is all a bit much in preseason? Thats the only reason I can think of.

So why did we arrange the game? It confuses me.

I dont want this to sound cruel or player bashing but degen, really?? May I suggest pacheco, Sterling, Suso perhapes as a club we might have got some benefit.

Thanks for reading.
Ed

Think the best answer is the one you gave, beyond that it's hard to say.
McrRed

Wow. Baros is the new David Villa. He looks good. Can we buy him?
Doni made some good saves, I guess.

My favourite moment was where Poulsen tried to mark Milan, failed miserably and went crashing into the post and broke his back...with pictures of Kenny, like a Lottery winner, presenting him with an oversized player-with-broken-back-insurance-cheque...

...oh, wait...that didn't happen?

Damn, life sucks...
Smitty_w

Where the hell is Johnson no talk of him at all. Think every one around here all agreed we needed to improve our back line. If we don't bring in a left back (and get rid of some more shit )
i would regard the transfer season as a fail .
Malcolmsoler

Squad players who DIDNT play today..... Reina, carra, agger, skirtel, johnson, lucas, stevie, luis, adam, henderson, downing, maxi, Raul.... theres definitely a decent first XI.... THEN theres Dirk, Carroll, aquilani (if he stays) .....i make that 16 international quality players...plus great potential with players such as jonjo, flanno, kelly ,robinson,insua and spearing all players who can fill in at any point.. Dunno what Kenny's plan was for tonight but im assuming this was a "money" friendly... the Gala players and fans played like it was a cup semi final as the turks usually do so no point in risking injuries at this stage when playing overzealous opponents. Any team which includes poulsen and degen is doomed for disaster... its ike playing 9 v 13.
Malcolmsoler

that being said we do need a cb (cahill), lb and a striker (i would take rodallega over shane long anyday) to make us break into the top four..... and if mata is going to the ARSE for 15 mill we shd try get him at all costs , downing or not!
A fan from HB

I'm fairly new to this site (maybe a year now since first starting to visit) but what drew me here was there was a great community atmosphere with fantastic posts that are honest but positive in nature. Most other sites will have 200+ comments all irrelevant to the subject of the article and just making fun of other commenters. This place was different. Truthful, humorous, and constructive.

So why all of the bashing? Bashers only bash to:

a) sound intelligent and
b) so that they can say, "I told you so!" later on, if, what they said came to reality, even though they had nothing to do with the outcome or had anyway of knowing becuz NOBODY CAN. Dalglish can't, Fergie can't, Black Eyed Peas can't.

Why do some people desperately want to be prophets?
In sports, one can only judge and analyze afterwards. Beforehand, it's all guesswork. The whole team could fall down the stairs and break their noses and forfeit a game for all I know! There are random things that happen (ie. Beach ball incident). What's the point in arguing about speculations, predictions, the unknown!It's fun to guess what the formation will be, the scoreline, what players are in-form, which are not. But haters and their depressing posts get old. Real fast.Comment something constructive to the point in hand.
Don't ruin this site.
Avinash Joshi

I too am similar to you in many ways. Though I started commenting a while back. And the same things attracted me to this site which have for you. The community feeling, Everyone on first nick basis (atleast). Intelligent debates. Two people (Ed and Noel) who take so much time out of their lives to maintain this site( I am assuming you guys have some other jobs). You might not agree with their opinions but you can always raise different views and not get irritated by their replies. And the trolls are very few, sometimes when we loose to a rival club some fans might come or some idiot old fan drops some fevicol under his CAPS LOCK. But yeah if you want a sane environment with excellent articles and good comments this is as good as it gets.

PS - I don't know why I am advertising it to you, you have been reading it for an year anyway. This is more like a tribute to ed and noel I guess. Don't know what I started with and what I finished with. This is the reason I will never take up blogging. *Sigh*
Ed

Appreciate you commenting and visiting secret-squirrel style over the last year. Always glad to have new folks joining the discussion. Hopefully you know that the types of comments you're referring to are both relatively new and the exception rather than the rule. Nothing's changing on our end, and if it gets to the point that people feel like it's damaging the feel of things, we'll do whatever we have to in order to maintain the integrity of the site.

Cheers.
Blagf

ppl like dat kenny dude
Suarez from the car park...

Well, congrats on a brave article. Nightmare subject to write about no doubt. Galatasary are a great test, they had a strong team out but me thinks it was too soon in training for the 1st 11 to play, especially as some of them are only back a week/not back at all (ominous silence re Gerrard), and Raul may still have a tricky dicky ankle or missed some training due to it.

The format has now changed for pre-season to give most of a game to players for fitness reasons (SAF said he regretted not doing that last summer, meant players were not sharp enough for start of the season and they drew the first 2 games). I think this was a final opportunity to give the dross and juniors a full game. KK and SC need to see how/if they can be used.

And yes, we all know there's serious dross in the squad. Insua is worse at defending than I remember him with his poor positioning. Was Degen Rafa's worse signing? Cole gets selfish when he should lay it off and then snatches at it. The midfield were as weak as could be. I can't believe Poulsen was ever a good player. Mentally he retired a year ago.

Shelvey may as well be loaned out to get playing time, there's little point in using games to build his experience at this stage given our MF numbers.
Aqualani's good but wish to christ he would make up his mind about staying or going on loan. Getting really sick of the rumours.

The annoying part of it is we seem to be wasting playing time with quite a few dead heads that we can't possibly be wanting to keep hold of. Guess they have to be reasonably fit even if we want to sell them.

So Norway is the platform for the first 15 in the squad which I guess is a reasonably easy game for them to start seriously and Valencia will be the real test.

And this will be telling. While we have all got carried away with KKs success last season, he is assembling a new team really who have to learn / define the playing style and link together. we should have faith, KK\SC are not beginners and he hasn't added duffers to the good players in the team. the 1st team will perform a lot better.

but surely we have to sell Poulsen and Cole [Jova looks like he's gone] if there is interest in them. Not sure the others are very saleable and the youth are good within a good team.

Keep the faith.
bitterfan

Aquilani wants to play for us. It's Liverpool who want to sell him. He's not fucking us around. The club are fucking him around and are willing to let him go out on loan again.

He is better than any other midfielder we have bar Gerrard.
yowie11

Maybe the poor performance can be attributed to the players realising the game is a shop window ad, and therefore they purposely go out to try and repulse potential suitors. E.g. Cole, Poulsen, Spearing have all come out and said how much they want another chance to fight for places. Who would fault them, if they leave, that would mean less pay, a step down in club.

Judging by his performances, Aquilani on the other hand (as much as it pains me to admit) seems like he wants to leave Liverpool and is taking these opportunities to sell himself, whilst also looking a lot better than the fools in line-up he's surrounded by.
redtrev73

Fun? No. Worthwhile? Hard to see how. This game was an obligation and with the exception of superman dirky and carroll almost none of those who played would start a competitive match. Losing is a bad habit and you would like to think that our strength in depth would mean such resounding defeats wouldn't happen...but then we already knew we couldnt rely on these players. However.....

Pepe, Jonno, Carra, Skrtel, Agger, Lucas, Gerrard, Adam, Henderson, Downing, Meireiles and Suarez. 12 reasons (supplemented by Kuyt, Andy, Kelly, Flanno and Robinson) to not lose your shit and malign everyone from the boss down IN CAPS!!! Pathetic, knee-jerk tabloid sensationalism. Makes me queasy to think this kind of guy standing under the same banner as me. Get a grip or go 'comment' somewhere your kind are better served.
kenny

12 goals conceded in 4 games is farcical.We have players like cole,poulsen,ngog who have achieved levels of uselessness never before seen in the sport.BUT MUCH AS I LIKE KENNY DALGLISH I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT HE IS THE PROBLEM.THIS IS A MAN SO TRAUMATISED BY HILLSBOROUGH THAT HE CANNOT HANDLE ANY SORT OF CONFLICT.Poulsens agent told SKY SPORTS tonight that his player would abide by any decision that the club made but amazingly after 4 horrendous pre season performances the club still have not made any decision.Cole continues to stink out every game and again no reaction.Ngog ignores any hint of a move and pleases himself.Dalglish foolishly thinks just because of who he is that he can turn these wasters into worldbeaters.SINCE DALGLISH GOT HIS CONTRACT WE HAVE conceded 15 goals in 6 games.STEVE CLARKE IS TAKING MONEY UNDER FALSE PRETENCES FOR ORGANISING OUR DEFENCE.KEVIN KEEN (Who the fuck is this clown?)PETER BRUCKNER (DR MENGELE)has achieved the impossible-Johnson,Skrtel,Agger have all managed to get injured during the close season.Injured while not even playing.ONLY LIVERPOOL COULD MANAGE THIS.DALGLISH WILL NOW BE DEFENDED BY HIS DRUG ADDLED TEENAGE GROUPIES.STANDBY..........
Thomas Hoppe

So you think the change from Sammy lee on the bench to Kevin Keen has anything to do with yesterday's performance? Sober up pal
kenny

Clarke along with Zola almost got West Ham relegated the season before last. Keen along with Avram Grant actually managed it last season.
Peter

Kenny - Your post is a joke... Kenny is the problem, yeh righto.

He's trying to sort out the mess from years of under investment in poor players... He is giving these guys a chance to sell themselves in the shop window before the established first teamers come back next week, and of course he wants to sell Poulsen and Cole - do you know any buyers....mmmmm

Your posts are always negative about Kenny - I doubt you are really a Liverpool fan at all as you have no patience and no understanding of the history of the club. Kenny deserves two to three years to turn our club around without idiots like you trying to stir the pot because we lost a few meaningless friendlies - GET REAL
kenny

Any time LFC have had a poor preseason they have a poor league campaign, for example under Benitez in the season after the summer Alonso left. 12 goals conceded is not acceptable. Sunderland will really fancy their chances at Anfield. Carroll should be sold now, he is a disgrace. Once more it is clear especially away from home this season that the club will struggle to win games. Peter Bruckner was bought in to improve the injury situation but it has clearly got worse. I know and understand the history of the club a lot more then you I can assure you. If the editor wants to bar me so be it, but fans need to stop the blinkered approach to Dalglish. He left the club with an ageing squad back in 1991 when he resigned. The players have stopped playing for Dalglish since he got his contract, this is a fact.
Ed

There's no interest in barring anyone so long as all are interested in having a dialogue about what's going on rather than repeating the same caps locked talking points in every thread (nevermind that they're copied and pasted from other sites you've visited), talking about how much more of a fan you are than everyone else, using offensive language and comparing club staff to Nazis, and spouting off about how stupid those that don't agree with you are.

Simple stuff.
kenny

Were you a fan when LFC last won the title in 1990?
Ed

No, but I was beginning to tie my own shoes with astonishing regularity.
Jerry

"The players have stopped playing for Dalglish since he got his contract, this is a fact."

No it isn't. It's your opinion, which, based on your other comments, should also be ignored.

BTW - we had a terrible pre season in 2006, losing 5-0 to FSV Mainz and 2 -0 to Grasshopper Zurich, then went on to reach the CL final and finish 3rd in the league, so even your opening premise here is bullcrap.

Do us all a favour and clear off.
kenny

That is only 7 goals you mention. I guarantee LFC will lose to Valerenga and Valencia. Since Dalglish got his contract all 6 games have been lost, so what I said is true. I will not clear off. Were you a fan when LFC last won the title? Even Bob Paisley had to lambast Dalglish's squad during one season of Dalglish's first reign.
Khaine

I'll just repeat this till it sticks. Don't feed the troll.
Ynwa31

How did we get so many shiite players into our team?
Khaine

Pepe, Agger, Carra, Johnno, Lucas, Meireles, Gerrard, Adam, Downing, Hendo, Suarez. A full XI of potential starters didn't even travel.

I'm not concerned.

Was Clarke at the game?
Ed

He was, I saw him giving someone directions during the first break for juice boxes. Can't have been impressed.
Masss

Aquilani one of the few people who has merited the red shirt in preseaon. Will be loaned out, not sold! So it doesn't even give us cash to buy someone else. While we hold onto too many to mention!

What the f"ck
Red2death

Yeah, this was essentially our second string. But because of that I kind of am concerned. Every season in recent memory we've suffered over the course of the season because of lack of depth. Based on games like this and Hull, that still seems to be the case.

I've no doubt that when Gerrard and Suarez and Lucas and Reina, Downing et al return, we'll be good enough to beat anyone. But no matter how good the starting XI is, unless you're supremely lucky with injuries (which evidently isn't the 'Liverpool way'), you're going to need a pretty decent second eleven to go far in tournaments. And decent certainly wouldn't be a word I'd use to describe our performance today.
Gryffin

Not to mention we are not in Europe this year so we only would need a little bit of depth for 2 game weeks for the League Cup and F.A. Cup. Its not like we have 8 games of Champions League qualifiers to grind through.
ReadLiverpoolFC

Not too much consolation, but I'd say this was very much a third string than second. I think as much as 10 players would need to be injured to ever end up with the wingers and central midfield that started this game.