Preview & Matchday: Liverpool v. Valencia

By: Ed | August 5th, 2011

Kickoff from Anfield at 5:30PM BST/12:30PM EST

Ways to Watch:

Live in the U.S. on Fox Soccer Channel, in the U.K. on ESPN, and online on LFCtv for e-Season subscribers.

MyP2P.eu
StopStream.tv
ATDHEnet.tv
FromSport.com

Liverpool:

Reina
Johnson Carragher Agger Aurelio
Spearing Adam
Henderson Aquilani Downing
Carroll

Bench: Jones, Doni, Cole, Maxi, Kyrgiakos, Kuyt, Lucas, Ngog, Kelly, Flanagan, Robinson

Valencia:

Alves
Saltor Piatta Rami Albelda
Jonas Mata Topal Piatta
Alba Hernandez

Bench: Maduro, Feghouli, Soldado, Dealbert, Ricardo Costa, Banega, Mathieu, Montero, Costa, Pereira, Alcacer, Bernat

The final friendly, and, at least on paper, Liverpool’s most difficult opponent. It’s no doubt been a challenging preseason for Kenny Dalglish and company, and if earlier results in the preseason are any indication, tomorrow’s match poses a hefty challenge of its own. Valencia have won four of their five friendlies thus far, getting past opponents like PSV Eindhoven, Sporting CP, and Hamburg SV, dropping only an away match to perennial Austrian powers Rapid Vienna. They’ve only conceded once outside of the match in Vienna (in which they shipped four in a hotly-contested match), and will enter tomorrow’s match with a talented squad.

By the end of the month that squad will be bolstered by the arrival of Real Madrid midfielder Sergio Canales on loan; the twenty year-old will join a midfield already stacked with names like Ever Banega, David Albelda, Tino Costa, ~~Joaquin~~ (edit: Joaquin moved to Malaga earlier in the summer—thanks to Severed for the catch), and Mehmet Topal. Up front things will, of course, be focused on perennial lust object Juan Mata—after a sparkling summer to help the U21s to Euro glory in Denmark, he was heavily linked with a move to the Premier League and, if you were tweeting about it enough, Liverpool. That link has died down significantly, with Arsenal nudging ahead to take most of the headlines recently. Valencia’s position has waffled a bit, first acknowledging that the player might leave, then stating that no offers would be considered. With a few weeks left there’s still a chance something might happen, but the chances of that something having anything to do with Liverpool are slim.

With two weeks left to go before their own league opener and some nice sentimental links with Liverpool—Fabio Aurelio won two titles there with Rafa Benitez—tomorrow’s likely something to look forward to for Valencia.

Stop if you’ve heard this before—now’s the time for Liverpool to kick things into gear, to really start to get ready for the season proper. Give the provisional first team an extended look, and we’ll finally come away feeling satisfied with a Liverpool match this preseason. In many ways that was supposed to be the trip to Norway, but again the club stuttered, and again we’re left hoping for signs of encouragement with little time remaining.

The biggest concerns are obviously in defense, where they’ve conceded an alarming number of goals against average opposition, and looked remarkably amateur no matter the personnel. Conceding three goals in five consecutive matches, preseason or otherwise, is a good indicator that vast improvements are needed. And as noted above, tomorrow presents the biggest challenge in terms of talent that Liverpool will have faced thus far, meaning that, short of a 180-degree turnaround, Liverpool could be up against it at the back.

It’ll likely be a similar look in terms of personnel despite the struggles—Martin Skrtel suffered another injury towards the end of last week, and while Fabio Aurelio has apparently returned to training, there’s nothing new about any of the others that have spent most of the preseason on the sidelines or slowly returning from international duty.

So despite the fact that it’s the final match of the preseason, the name of the opposition and that it’s at Anfield, Liverpool still have plenty of questions left to answer. The summer additions are still getting comfortable, the midfield is clearly lacking the influence of its most talented names, the best performer is a wantaway, and the defense has looked like a disaster waiting to happen.

But, you know, now’s the time for Liverpool to kick things into gear and really get ready for the season, right?

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Match Previews, Matchday Posts, Miscellaneous, Team News

« New Signings Speak, Kenny Talks Owners, and Other Thursday Notes | Home | Liverpool 2, Valencia 0: Closing Out the Preseason »

Justin

Joe Cole: Dead ball specialist.
Russell

Why is Joe Cole humping their goalie?
Mike

Soooo i guess no Pacheco ever again?
Mr Clueless

Pacheco is at the U-20 competition, he has been ever since the Asia tour
bidimus

looks like it - he's itching for games and looks like he's not gonna get em

juan no-mata?
ChrisLFC

Lucas!!
DJ-Chutfield

Halftime now, this is really keeping in step with Liverpool's league form last season. Falter against the tiny clubs from Norway (or in the case of West Ham, London) and turn into world-beaters when battling a fine side from Spain (or in the case of Chelsea, City and United, London, Manchester and Manchesters, respectively). It's fine to see a clean sheet at halftime, but this has really got to be sorted by the management. We can continue to be complacent against the lesser teams and only turn up for the bigger games. That's too reminiscent of pre-Sheikh Manchester City; they only mattered for 180 minutes every season, when they faced ManU. That cannot be Liverpool's future.
bidimus

cheer up - we've got width on one side at least for the first time in 10- 15 years - aurelio and downing will do damage (if aurelio can stay fit for a game or two) - no goals / chances conceded - as for the smaller teams - downing and carroll will get some dirty goals and saurez will add some guile, so you never know
DJ-Chutfield

Yeah, I'll try to stay as optimistic as possible until I'm given reason not to. I'd still like a couple of signings in defence, but I'm generally happy with the squad we have now. Mostly happy that the arrival Adam hasn't triggered the departure of Meireles. And with Suarez, literally ANYTHING is possible.

Slight typo in my original comment, I obviously meant "we CAN'T continue to be complacent against the lesser teams."
Ed

As others have said, much better first half than last time out, only one or two shaky moments at the back. Not too many ideas after the first 15 minutes or so, though; Aquilani having his least effective outing and Adam largely anonymous.
CheekyFellow

I really would like to see how he plays with Meireles. I think we would see better play between those two.
Gryffin

The first half of this game is a 1000 times better then Oslo. The Carroll goal was good, yet wasn't the fruit of a positive possession I would like to see a Clean sheet and a goal from build-up in the second half, couldn't ask from more tho.
Faa

Aquilani is no Suarez
Guest

He doesn't need to be, Suarez most likely would play in hendos stop on the right and aqui can still play CAM
ChrisLFC

I still think an Aqua/Raul/Suarez partnership would be fantastic.
Guest

spot*
bidimus

actually that goes without saying but aquilani playing in that position makes you realise how good suarez is

loving downing and spearing
Ed

And Daniel Agger takes up his required spot on the front line of any altercation. Stupid tackle from Carroll.
ChrisLFC

Really poor challenge. Isn't that a red in anything other than a friendly?

Also, Raul's sense of style is unmatched.
Ed

Raul Meireles, Hipster Jesus, spotted in the stands.
ChrisLFC

Looks like a precautionary sub for Glen.
Nice work from Andrew.
Russell

Holy shit, Holy shit. Carroll has a mini-ponytail. I can't decide what to think, so here's my whole train of thought:
1. It can't possibly be worse than the large ponytail, can it?
2. Maybe he's working up to just cutting the whole thing.
2a. Maybe he's working up to just cutting the whole thing, but then he'll do something worse.
I leave you with this, an article about all of Andy Carroll's haircut's. It's gotten so bad I would take the alice over the ponytail. Maybe he cut his ponytail to work up to the alice.
http://www.kopsource.com/poll-...
Galen

Henderson over kuyt? This better not be a trend. Boooo.
CheekyFellow

We know what Kuyt can do. We also know he can slip into the squad and integrate easily. Might as well see what the new guy can do.
bidimus

Anyone else way too pre-occupied this pre season game or is it just me? Couple of months football fast does strange things.
Mgbradshaw

Aqua has been our clear best player in preseason. I hop he gets his chance this season. Finally start getting some full 90 minutes under his belt. He could be that cutting edge flair we have been lacking, with SG becoming more injury prone.
kenny

Red rover red rover send Juan Mata right over!
Mike

Redemption, Thy name is Kenny...
kenny

Oh and by the way, I'm not the one who has been ranting lately about how horrible Dalglish is... he stole my name :\
Guest

So long as you continue to use proper punctuation, grammar, and capitalization I think most of us will be able to tell the difference between you and the other kenny.
Mike

I just assumed he was having a moment of clarity.
Guest

Certainly not the worst assumption, and your comment was amusing.

We'll all have to be vigilant around here on which kenny is saying what, I suppose.
austriker

what a sec, so is this match today (aug 5th) at 1230 PM Eastern time (US) ?? I searched FSC and p2p.eu for a stream but cant find it!! I hope its not tomorrow when I work.. Can anyone clarify this? I hate how espn's liverpool page doesnt do ANYTHING about preseason games..
Jake_LFC

liverpoolfc.tv is your friend
paul

FSC 12:30 (beer o'clock), and then again at 23:00 EST.
austriker

sweet, so I checked the official lfc site and apparently its tomorrow, saturday.. I will try and catch the replay on at 2300 EST. although I dont have FSC, so I hope its streamin then..
Ed

Yeah, we've just been lazy during the preseason and lumped the preview/matchday threads together. Normal service starting next week--sorry if that was confusing, I tried to use "tomorrow" as much as possible in the post.
CheekyFellow

We don't take too kindly to the idea of reading, sir.
alcatrazzledazzle

Yes, it's a friendly, and we're missing key people, and it's pretty clear some of our players are giving 70%-75% effort, but I'm still allowed to start depression drinking at 12:43 PM if we're down 2-0 at 13 minutes in again, right? Right??
Andy

I never stopped drinking from that 13 minute point
Mr Clueless

got a head start on you brother, started drinking yesterday.
Red2death

Why not just start now pre-emptively? If things turn out better you can always switch over to celebration drinking...
Red2death

Better feel about this one for some reason. Liverpool don't do well against minnows. The crappier the opponent, the more we try to match them in ineptitude.

So, Valencia would see us back on our feet. Take on Utd every week in the league and we'd be champions.

How's that for fan logic.
CheekyFellow

Works for me.
Bblola08

So during this game Mata will play the first half with Valencia and the second with LFC, right? Because he's our new signing and everything. Right? Then he'll be the icing on our league winning team. Right? Or maybe i'll go sit in a dark room and think about what awaits us this season.
Red2death

Exactly. Or someone will catch a picture of him singing our anthem wearing an armband with words that sort of look like You'll Never Walk Alone. Later on he'll be seen holding up a scarf in a pub while having a beer with Carroll and Downing before going off for his golf game with Gerrard and Adam and getting some tattoo advice from the pros Dan, Martin and Raul.
CheekyFellow

Don't forget, his favorite singer is Phil Collins.
paul

Anyone else settle for a clean sheet over a win in this one?
Ravenilli

I would take a nil nil draw no bother whatsoever. Would be a good kick start for a leaky defence for the start of the league campaign.
davie

No matter what game or when they should always be in gear when they represent this club.
Severed

Joaquin moved to Malaga a few weeks ago.
Ed

Thanks, changed. Apparently I missed that, as did the people responsible for the roster on their official website.
Severed

Wow, I got a mention in article and everything.
The Valencia website still has him listed? THE MINDGAMES HAVE COMMENCED!
Jake_LFC

Along with half of Europe.
Mike

The other half went to PSG. I bet Man City is like super jealous LOL