Preview & Matchday: Liverpool v. Vålerenga

By: Noel | July 31st, 2011

Kickoff from Ullevaal Stadium at 18:00 GMT/1:00PM EST

Ways to Watch:

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

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

Liverpool:

Reina
Johnson-Carragher-Agger-Robinson
Spearing-Adam
Kuyt-Henderson-Downing
Carroll

Bench: Doni, Ngog, Sama, Sterling, Flanagan, Aquilani, Shelvey, Kelly.

Vålerenga:

Team sheet when it’s available.

Bench:

After a tumultuous few weeks in the capital and beyond, Norwegian football has resumed some sort of normal service—matches in the 17th round of the Tippeligaen, scheduled just two days after the attacks in Oslo and Utoya, were postponed, leaving this past weekend’s fixtures as the first matches in nearly two weeks. And while tomorrow’s match is a friendly, it’s sure to be an emotional affair, with a minute’s silence scheduled to go along with renditions of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “My Little Country,” an Ole Paus song that’s understandably grown in significance over the past few weeks.

Vålerenga were among the four teams in action as play resumed yesterday, dropping a 2-1 decision to current league leaders Molde FK. That leaves tomorrow’s hosts alone in the tenth spot in league, eleven points from the top and only seven from bottom. They finished last season in second behind champions (and perennial European qualifiers) Rosenborg, which gave them a spot in Europa League qualifiers starting in mid-July. They got past Armenian outfit Mika FC by way of two 1-0 wins in the first round, but stuttered in the first leg of their tie with Greek side PAOK, falling 2-0 at home. They’ll resume the tie in Greece this coming Thursday, and league play three days later when they host Sogndal.

It’d be surprising to see many of their regular first-teamers just two days after an important league match; from what I can gather, all their familiar faces turned in a full ninety against Molde on Saturday, and with plenty left to do after a long trip midweek, I’d guess we see something resembling a reserve outfit against Liverpool tomorrow.

Edit: Their official site has confirmed as much, reporting that they’ll be filling the squad for tomorrow with youth players, reserves, and four members of Follo FK.

It’s a different story for Liverpool, who have publicized their traveling party as a constellation of stars after sending a decidedly weakened squad to Turkey four days ago. The Liverpool official site lists Glen Johnson, Pepe Reina, and Daniel Agger as the old boys set to return, in addition to summer signings Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson, and Stewart Downing. Vålerenga’s official site took it a bit further, publishing the full squad list, which includes the above names along with youngsters Raheem Sterling (who confirmed his place in the squad earlier on Twitter) and Stephen Sama. Andy Carroll, who played the entire match in Turkey, will travel as well, but with David Ngog included, you’d imagine that there’s little chance for Carroll to see a large number of minutes.

If accurate it’s the same size squad that traveled to Istanbul and missing a number of the names that featured in the loss to Galatasaray—Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen, Emiliano Insua, and Phillipp Degen are among those absent, as are Maxi and Raul Meireles, both of whom missed Thursday’s match as well. It’s essentially a split squad, with only a few names making both trips; Carroll, Kuyt, Kelly, Shelvey, Spearing, Aquilani, and Flanagan all played at least a half earlier in the week but made tomorrow’s squad, meaning that outside of those names we’ll get an almost entirely new-look side.

And, if you struggled through Thursday’s match like most of us, that’s a welcomed prospect. After a successful Asian Tour, Kenny Dalglish’s squad has stumbled in two matches running, and that’s created some anxiety about how well Liverpool are prepared for the rapidly approaching Premier League season. It’s no coincidence that the recent stumbles have coincided with experimental elevens that featured more reserves than regulars, though, as well as players that nearly everyone’s looking forward to seeing the back of.

With only Valencia separating Liverpool from tomorrow and Sunderland on the 13th, it’s about time for Liverpool to transition from gaining fitness and putting on a good show (which hasn’t really happened anyhow) to getting themselves prepared for serious competition. Yes, it’s still preseason, and the result isn’t really that important against a weakened opposition, but with the bigger names involved, you’d hope for things to look markedly different than the last two times out.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Match Previews, Miscellaneous, Team News

« Gerrard Out Until September and Other Saturday Notes | Home | Vålerenga 3, Liverpool 3: It’s Only Preseason »

mardia

Don't want to be all Chicken Little, but the only consistent things in preseason so far have been--our defense is leakier than a sieve, and the player who's impressed the most is (reportedly) the one most eager to be sold/loaned to Italy.

Needless to say, I think we should keep Aquilani, and we need a solid CB. Also a LB.
ejbauer11

Do people really still believe Aquilani is surplus? He's brightest spot since arrival. AGGER! That was a pleasant interruption to this post.
ejbauer11

Some decent build-up down the middle-left, and Carroll's touch has looked less-leaden.
Guest

Charlie Adam likes to take irrational, off-target, long-range shots.
Thomas Hoppe

It reminds me of Riise
Guest

HOW DARE YOU SPEAK ILL OF... dammit you're right
CheekyFellow

I take it back, that hot blonde is the only positive so far
Dan Agger

keen to see sterling in the second half
Dan Agger

and we'll keep alberto thanks
Mr Clueless

Without Lucas our defense is absolutely fucked, and that was putting it mildly. I never want to hear another sentence about how Lucas is average, or English press's favourite phrase " best of a bad bunch", ever again
AustinRed

It is certainly beginning to seem as if Lucas was single-handedly responsible for diffusing every opponents' attack last season... or at least that's how my memory is beginning to revise it.
CheekyFellow

Well, only positive so far is that when Downing/Henderson do decide to cross the ball, they do a decent job of it
ejbauer11

Just turned on the game. Can someone please explain how we are down 2-0 to their reserves? The announcer on the stream I found just said the scoreline was "deservedly so"...and "there is very little to be excited about so far" from pool's end. F'in a; not sure I want to risk my job by watching the rest of this game at the desk.
Nick

We basically haven't played a minute of defense. Glen Johnson looks like he's never played football before.
Jake_LFC

He looks injured, to be fair..
Red2death

Oh come on people. It's not easy playing your reserves against Barcelona!

Wait... wrong match... it's not Barca? And the other team is the one using reserves?
Hmm.
Jerod

So, clearly, we have some defensive issues.
bitterfan

What the fuck is this shit?
Guest

So I'm officially concerned about our defense...
bitterfan

offense equally as bad
Nick

agreed, this is pathetic
Suarez from the car park...

Is it just me or is this game a really badly organised waste of time. With their Europa league trip to Greece, and a league game 3 days layer, they were never going to play a strong side, and as it turns out they've got 3 games in 8 days plus this friendly.

So this should have been reversed with the Gala game. Play the flops vs Norway, allow the 1st team more fitness time to play Gala tonight. Sure you give the flops a chance to show what they can do against serious opposition but you can't claim the Norway game is anything useful for the 1st team. I'm a bit annoyed about this even though it is about fitness and some of our boys were late back from hols/surgery. Is it of any value if its a total walkover for us?
Red2death

Morale I guess? Not that beating Valerenga reserves with your first team is anything to be proud of. Conversely, failing to beat them convincingly would suck.

So, everything to gain and no downside! Or was it the other way round?
alcatrazzledazzle

Your points are all good on things like "player fitness" and "quality scheduling," but since I've requested to their main office that Liverpool play a match every day of the year to sate my "debilitating football addiction," I probably can't claim that I'm unhappy if they schedule too many friendlies.
Antonio

I have keep low for Liverpool's transfer, but I am not optimistic for the new season, looking at the squad we have. Adam & Carroll are bought in while they only shine for 1 season in BPL. Other names in the squad are rather, at most above average player. At the pre-season, Liverpool only beat Asian opponents so far, which is nothing to be excited for. Assemble the best squad we have, include Suraez and Lucas, are we able to be secure a CL spot or even talking about being a serious title contender, it is question mark. We did not even win convincingly or rather we were actually beaten by Hull City comfortably. So I look forward to have more football to watch, but not having high hope with my beloved Liverpool, on the coming season. I want to be realistic though my heart fight against me.
Suarez from the car park...

The one concern is that if they have to sell before they buy [defenders], then should we have delayed the Henderson purchase till later in the window and bought a LB at least?

But perhaps they feel they have cover with Johnson and the youth and Henderson was needed to cover the right MF with Kuyt probably not playing so many games this year (and going for cups).
Suarez from the car park...

Antonio, I think the work done is logical. Not for glory but to put the right base in at the club.
Last season, Kenny/SC showed that the team were competitive but not enough squad depth to deal with injuries, when we looked weak and couldn't change the team around. Now we can so consistency should not be a problem. That suggests a top 4 finish is definitely on the cards on last season's points differences.Wondering what would happen without Gerrard was our biggest problem before last season and that has proven to not be a concern so long as we don't have to rely on Hodgson's buys. We now have the depth for KK/\SC to do the business.Adam, Downing and Henderson mean we don't have to rely on Poulsen and Cole, and we now have wide players. - Adam, Lucas, Aqua, Gerrard, Raul can compete for the middle of midfield - Downing, Henderson, Maxi, Kuyt compete for the wings, - with Kuyt, Carroll, Suarez competing for 1 or 2 striker positions.

Many of these players can also play out of position moving wide or coming inside which shows their versatility. And remember Carroll vs Man City when he got some service. 3-nil!!

Displacing Chelski, Citeh, Arsenal and even spurs is tough but doable so long as KK has options - last season he had few useful options otherwise it would have made it a 11/10 showing rather than 8/10.
CheekyFellow

Anything better than last season means a possible top 4 finish, that will suffice.
Bgurakan

I think we'll beat a reserve Valerenga side followed by victory against Valencia
I just want to see the team gelling, a bit of unity and smiles on faces. Really believe we'll
Sunderland - 4 points would be a great start after two games - and if we don't, it's a long season as proven last year when we went from having the worst start in 50 years to touching distance of the CL. Praying every minute Suarez will be ready from the start.
Red 4 lyfe

Meireles still out injured or what? May be it's just me, but i've recently developed a feeling that Adam and Henderson were bought coz Stevie and Raul have serious injuries that the rest of us don't know about.
Tass

at last we will not see the likes of our famous crap Mr poulsen, cole, degen etc etc.. will look forward for Aquilani to shine tomorrow with the like of henderson and adam and the return of Agger, johnson and pepe.. will be a good squad..
Yuusocdaal

my name yussuf socdaal i leive itobia liverpoolfc 3 vs valerenga 0
Ryan

I'm glad someone is still hoping for that Joe Cole hattrick!
Justin

Hello Yuusocdaal, on behalf of the Offside community, welcome to Liverpool Offside. 3-0 is a pretty bold prediction considering we've let in an average of 3(!) goals every game so far this preseason, but I'd like very much if we kept a clean sheet. I think I'd be happy with something approaching 2-1/2-0 with some good performances throughout and a little more defensive organization.
Suarez from the car park...

I think Yuusocdaal has got it right - this is a non-match, a mid norway league side with 3 games in 8 days plus this silly friendly where they can only play odd/spare players - no first team at all.
I think it will be largely a waste of time and is poorly organised given their Europa league commitments. They should have reversed the Gala and Norway fixtures - play the 1st team tonight against a good Gala team. But they didn't want to send the 1st team on a 4hr flight.

It will allow our first team to play together in a very easy game, and prepare for Valencia.
They've had another week to get fit and must be coming along quite well now. One or two more 10K runs max.

But it is pre-season guys. I don't agree with this tie but this is all about fitness and a couple of games to get used to playing together.
The 2nd team have been used to try and get something useable from them - not a good sign though but you have to give games to the big name flops to get them fit.
But they won't get much opportunity when the season starts so this is it for them. Not pretty to watch however.