The Soccer Blog: Steaua

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Friday, 3 December 2010

Liverpool 1, Steaua 1: Wake Up and Read This

By: Ed | December 2nd, 2010
Par3637226

Milan Jovanovic’s first-half header seals progression for Liverpool.

And outside of that nice interplay between he and Ryan Babel, you’re lying to yourself if you thought this was enjoyable.

Boring and passive for much of the 94-odd minutes played, this was the Liverpool we’ve come to despise. Passive, hoofing, then passive and hoofing, followed by more passivity and more hoofing, it was an exercise in not trying to win for nearly the entire match. Up 1-0? Chrissakes, get back and defend! A brief period of possession and pressure directly followed Steaua’s equalizer, but that fell by the wayside as Liverpool sat deeper and deeper, more and more content to hoof and sink. Predictable, frustrating, but ultimately, another performance that will be explained away as a means to and end and a deserved and quality result.

It was a bit of a mish-mash both collectively and individually, and I’ll be curious to see what Roy Hodgson has to say in the post-match comments. Yesterday he was more than happy to pre-emptively absolve any and all non-regulars of guilt, but I can’t imagine that he was impressed with anyone’s performance outside of maybe Jonjo Shelvey, Milan Jovanovic, Danny Wilson, and Pepe Reina, even if the latter’s moment of madness was to blame for the Steaua equalizer.

But it wasn’t anything near overwhelming or encouraging from anyone, really. The tactical approach mostly neutered any accountability from the forward men, and Christian Poulsen and Shelvey were largely invisible for most of the match. Most of Shelvey’s influence came while tracking back, as Steaua completely dominated possession and could basically wait for a hoof to arrive at their feet. And as bad as he’s been, I found myself almost desiring possession for Poulsen, whose name was barely uttered during the first half. Tactically they were there to serve a different function (read: watch the ball sail over their head), but this pairing was worlds apart from Lucas and Raul Meireles.

The defense was just stable enough for most of the match—the lone quality chance in the first half came on Sotirios Kyrgiakos’ bobble, but outside of that they were largely resolute for the first 45. Nice to see Fabio Aurelio return, even if he was slightly off the pace at times, but Martin Kelly had his first real struggles of the season, as Cristian Tanase got forward at will and nearly created a handful of chances for the hosts. Encouraging stuff from Danny Wilson, though, and it’s hard to be upset with a defensive unit that spent nearly the entire match in action. Eder Bonfim’s equalizer was an absolute collapse from Reina, but with so many other chances allowed for Steaua, you have to say Liverpool are fortunate it was the only one.

Joe Cole’s performance will probably get plenty of press, as will his parting thoughts, and I think it’s justified. It was clear he was anything but ready to go today, bottling a clear chance and looking like a man who wouldn’t have featured even if he was fit over the past month. Unfair to condemn him on today’s performance alone, but it’s clear that he needs to get up to speed relatively quickly if he’s going to break through. Didn’t do anything to answer my pre-match wonders about how he would fit—right now, he wouldn’t.

The same goes for the rest of the front six, maybe excluding Jovanovic. Again, there can’t be any sort of conviction in blaming them for basically trying to operate in a system that has little use for them, but they were a disorganized and confused-looking unit when getting forward. There was little urgency in possession, and when they did move forward, it rarely created any sort of quality chance. Jovanovic’s goal and Kyrgiakos’ header off the bar were, to my recollection, the only times Liverpool threatened.

As I said, I don’t think we can come to any definitive conclusions about today’s performance other than to say that the personnel weren’t put in a position to succeed. Nearly to a man, the tactical approach negated any sort of consistency outside of defense. We can attribute it to inexperience or youth or a tough European venue, but I think that would be ignoring the frighteningly familiar nature of today’s display.

So yeah, it was a point, and it means progress in Europe. But beyond that, it felt pretty damn empty.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:Matchday: Liverpool v. SteauaMatch Preview: Liverpool v. Steaua Bucharest, 09.16.10Squad Announced; Fernando Torres Has Been Paying AttentionLiverpool 4, Steaua 1: Better When I’m Not AroundLiverpool 2 (3), Trabzonspor 1 (1): Moving On

Category: Europa League, Match Recaps, Miscellaneous, Team News

Tags: Christian Poulsen, Dani Pacheco, Danny Wilson, David Ngog, Europa League, Fabio Aurelio, Jonjo Shelvey, Martin Kelly, Match Recaps, Milan Jovanovic, Miscellaneous, Pepe Reina, Ryan Babel, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Team News
« Matchday: Liverpool v. Steaua | Home | The Return of Robbie Keane »Jay WrightThat was the first time that Hodgson has gone with the EXACT lineup that I wanted to see! (although I did want to see the personnel used slightly differently; with us having a look at Jovanovich upfront, Pacheco behind him, Cole having a free role on the left and Babel hugging the touchline on the right)

I hoped that we'd go out on the front foot and try to attack again, but I guess that that was too much to ask for - especially once we held a 1-0 lead which automatically means all out defence under Hodgson.

Anyway, we saw that Cole does not deserve a swift return to the first team, Babel can do damage in the wide areas (right wing/wideforward please?), Jovanovich can finish (get Maxi out?), Poulsen is a serviceable defensive midfielder (how was his performance any worse than that for which Lucas is getting so much applause for??) and that either Kelly or Wilson can be trusted to fill in at centre-back with no great drop-off in qualityGoing DownHaha.justinPacheco's completely wasted on the right where he has to run back and forth and ends up doing just that all the time because this team plays hoof and there is no possession at all for passing or moving.

Thought Babel had a decent game, direct most of the times but still rather predictable when on the left; ball on his right, shuttles down the left, cuts back inside. The only surprise today was when he crossed with his *left* foot.

The team hardly knew one another. Funny how we're playing hoofmania when we're a team of shorties, maybe we should just sell all the flair players and get some giants in to play hoofball, we're wasting their time anyway.RedLiverBirdFCFuck this.EdToday's performance? Or my dimwitted musings?

Either way, I'm with you.RedLiverBirdFCOh no, your musings are nice! I was generally dissatisfied with Liverpool's overall performance this year. But who isn't eh?

Keep up the good work ed!

I will go conjure up masturbatory fantasies in which Liverpool spank 6 goals through manchester united's hapless defensive line.NoelI'm gonna go with Option C: Channeling Joe Cole.EdThat Hodgson has further underlined this as a "very good" display is about all that needs saying.eddieyep, totally agree with you ed. Cole did struggle, maybe its down to match fitness and playing in hostile ground, and ofcourse his confidence is a bit low at the moment with all that everyone is expecting of him.
I thought pacheco was also average tonight, he roamed around and didnt really do all that much to be honest. Again agreed with the others, that he does look uncomfortable on the right, and should be playing a more central position.

On a positive, i though babel did really well, considering he hardly had any help from others trying to assist him. He held the ball up well, good passing, good movement and touches etc. i really thought he was the stand out player tonight for us. Hopefuly roy will start playing him more now. I just hope that we go 442 against aston villa with torres and babel up front. Babel playing just behind torres. We all know that potentially that could be an excellent partnership! anyone else agree?NoelThe return of nap time matches. An argument in favour of rotation so that you don't end up occasionally sending out an entirely unfamiliar and rusty "b team." Another suggestion that giving Joe Cole more than seven million dollars a year to alternate between injury and rusty may have been a bad idea. A reason to wonder how it is that a 19-year old kid who came in with a reputation as a more attacking midfielder has more positional sense than a supposed defensive specialist who chases the ball without fail.

What a soporific match.redtrev73What a waste of life that was...and we learned?? Nada. Cheers woyston. We finally see pacheco and it's alongside 9 lads who won't feature in the first team. Magic. That's how to bring on the brighest prospects isn't it?! Best we can hope for from this latest spiritless and cagey display is that fabio gets in ahead of konchesky for the villa game. Felt sorry for the lads tonight. Hard to see cole starting on monday after that display. What a classic piece of werthers buffoonery to haul off a guy trying to play himself into form after telling the world at a presser his confidence was very low...i swear to god, the man makes my blood boil...watched on irish tv tonite and had to endure yet more benign appraisals of the old codger. 'Poor roy', ventured the dollybird reading viewers texts after one guy ventured that it might be time for hodgson to go. Then mark wright opined that he deserved 'tremendous credit' for his euro mastery...jesus wept...Justin BonebrakeI totally napped.JoelIt's sad that I started watching the game on a stream because class was getting very very boring, but by the end, I was paying more attention to class because the game got very very very boring.

On the whole, I agree that any one player can really be singled out as playing bad after the game, as the tactics were really what made it a horror show to watch. Thought Babel had quite a good game up top, showed some excellent movement and did well in going up against 2-3 players. Had some nice play into the channels as well. Think we might have seen a very different game had Cole been on the right with Pacheco playing centrally.Justin BonebrakeI was passively barking this same comment. Kudos to you for sharing a small piece of my mind. I couldn't help but feel that Babel really could have done something in this match with any sort of quality service going forward. It takes me back to our early season matchup against . . . shit, what was their name? Anyway, we still had Aquiliani and it was some tiki-taka masterclass. Babel is excellent when allowed to drift around the entire attacking third, and even does quite a decent job on the flanks, I enjoyed (masochistically) seeing Bucharesti triple team him after that excellent cross to Jova for the opener. Clearly, Roy just wanted to not lose this match. It's a fate I've come to accept with him as boss, pragmatism at its worse. More fodder for the cannon I suppose. A result nonetheless.Justin BonebrakeBabel for first team! Left wing, me thinks.blog comments powered by Disqus

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Search The Offside

Reina blooper gives Steaua Bucharest the equaliser..

By Anish on December 2, 2010 6:10 PM | Comments | TrackBacksShare|

Liverpool took the lead with a goal from a Milan Jovanovic and Ryan Babel combination. Reina gave Steaua Bucharest an early christmas present by letting the ball between his legs into the goal.But the draw was enough see Liverpool through to the top of Group K.

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Steaua Bucharest 1-1 Liverpool Europa League highlights

Dec 3, 2010

Steaua Bucharest 1-1 Liverpool ( Eder Bonfim/ Milan Jovanovic)

A goalkeeping error from Pepe Reina gave Steaua Bucharest a point in their Europa League game against Liverpool on December 2, 2010.

Liverpool had taken the lead through Milan Jovanic before Reina’s blunder allowed Bonfim to equalise for Steaua.

Steaua vs Liverpool 0-1 ( Jovanovic goal)
Steaua 1-1 Liverpool ( Bonfim)

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Matchday: Liverpool v. Steaua

By: Ed | December 2nd, 2010
steaua

Kickoff from Steaua Stadium at 18:00 GMT, 1:00 EST.

Ways to Watch:

Match shown live on ESPN (HD) in the UK and GolTV (HD) in the US.

MyP2P.eu
Atdhe.net
ChannelSurfing.net

Liverpool:

Reina
Kelly Kyrgiakos Wilson Aurelio
Pacheco Shelvey Poulsen Jovanovic
Cole
Babel

Bench: Jones, Lucas, Ngog, Skrtel, Eccleston, Flanagan, Robinson

Steaua:

Tatarusanu
Bonfim Gerardo Gardos Latovlevici
R.Gomes Bicfalvi
Nicolita Surdu Tanase
Stancu

Bench:

In the run-up:

Your time is now, Joe Cole. Or something. As usual, interesting take on the topic from the manager:

“He isn’t a naturally confident character. He suffers when things are not going his way.

“Everyone at the club has worked hard to make sure he doesn’t take it too hard and take too much on himself, because he’s quite happy to take responsibility.

“Sometimes those players can take too much on themselves and push themselves even further down. Everyone at the club, but in particular the senior players and his England colleagues here, has done a great job.

“I don’t know how frustrated he has been. But he is a long time with us, a long contract and we know what he’s capable of doing. The sooner he produces it of course the better for me, but there is no pressure on him in that respect.”

Probably not anything worth getting fired up over, but I’d doubt Cole is too thrilled about his lack of self-confidence being splashed about the morning pages ahead of his return. Hopefully his therapist has signed a release of information for Roy—he’ll teach that quack a thing or two about psychology.

Related to Cole, though, I’m curious to see how his return goes today (assuming that he’s in the eleven) and beyond—with Roy stating that the first team is fairly settled, and something resembling cohesive, positive play taking place on a few recent occasions, it’s hard to tell where Cole fits in. The absence of Steven Gerrard over the short term might open things up, but Raul Meireles and Maxi Rodriguez are both playing well right now, and Dirk Kuyt isn’t likely to miss out. Cole’s versatility will obviously aid him, but I don’t know that he’ll walk straight into a starting spot.

And on the world stage, there’s this: Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. Bad news for England and the US, of course, but great news for countries with serious oil money and shirtless horse-riding prime ministers. Silver lining in all of this is that there’s plenty of time for the U-12 organizations in various countries to start the climatizing for 2022—average summer temperature in Qatar is only 115 degrees.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:Liverpool 4, Steaua 1: Better When I’m Not AroundMatchday: Liverpool v. FK RabotničkiMatch Preview: Liverpool v. Steaua Bucharest, 12.02.10Match Preview: Liverpool v. Steaua Bucharest, 09.16.10

Category: Europa League, Matchday Posts, Miscellaneous, Team News

Tags: Europa League, Joe Cole, Matchday Posts, Miscellaneous, Roy Hodgson, Team News
« Match Preview: Liverpool v. Steaua Bucharest, 12.02.10 | Home | Liverpool 1, Steaua 1: Wake Up and Read This »ChrisLFCJust got out of a meeting in time to see the Gamecast go to FT. Sounds like an ugly outing...lucky to get a point were we?
How'd Pacheco do starting?Noeli: We were lucky
ii: He was anonymous
iii: But then again the whole side was
iv: And he was better than Cole at leastJustin Bonebrake1-1 we advance. Meh, I'll take it.NoelWow, Lucas on in the 89th minute... that's the best time to make game-changing substitutions. When the game is effectively over.Red2deathOh come on Noel. Just a few days ago we were on his back for giving up the game with 3 minutes to go. Now we criticize his optimism in the 89th. Real hypocrites all us Liverpool fans!JoelRoy is protecting the point, as this is a great, great performance away in Europe against a very very good team. Draw is the fair result, because both teams tried hard and we didn't create enough chances to justify us winning.ChrisLFCSounds like the genius we know and love...Red2deathWe're playing some simply breathtaking hoofball out there tonight. Roy must be so proud. The kids finally took to heart all those classic tapes of Wimbledon and Bolton he's been showing.NoelAt least those sorts of sides are fired up playing that way. This feels like watching MLS. Or what I imagine Serie B might be like.Justin BonebrakeAnother "killer" pass from Poulsen. Well, they are certainly killing me >.I believe that was, "Oh, for fuck's sake".NoelIf he hadn't likely been the worst Liverpool player on the pitch today, or if he'd done anything meaningful for the club in the past, I might be more sympathetic to his point.NoelSit back even more in second. Ride luck. Luck runs out. What a surprise.Justin BonebrakeDamn you moon!!Justin BonebrakeRay Hudsonism: On Bucharesti "You could turn to cheese before this team scores." lollerskates.Justin BonebrakeIs it just me or does Joe Cole look like a blind mole in the middle of the pitch? Swap him and Pacheco Roy, please.Red2deathFrom the intermittent patches that I can watch, we're riding our luck. I don't see this one ending up 1-0.NoelYep, lots of passive defending. You'd think with an entirely swapped out side energy wouldn't be an issue and they could press a bit, but even Babel and Cole are dropping back half way into the Liverpool half when Steaua gets possession.

...and no Poulsen off for Lucas to start the half. And I'd been crossing my fingers so very hard.Justin BonebrakeI'm loving it so far. Did you see Jova after that goal, "I AIN'T GOIN' NOWHERE, BITCHES!"EdGood point, that badge kiss was more like a savage bite.Noel...trying to figure out if this Tanase is really ambitious or just really, really shit at delivering crosses.EdRegardless, he's getting enough chances to be proficient by the end of the match.NoelOh Joe-JoeNoelPaint drying. Paint drying. More paint drying.

Where the hell did that come from?EdLots of defending, lots of hoofing. 15 minutes in.EdAnd Jovanovic puts Liverpool ahead. THE TIDE IS TURNING.NoelOh Ray Hudson, I do love your lunatic ramblings, but I wish you never attempted serious commentary. I wonder which three matches exactly it was he thinks Poulsen had "crackers" in.Red2deathWow. Pacheco starts. Hodgson 1, Red2death 0.NoelHoly shit they just panned across Pacheco in the starting 11... here's hoping he stretches the Steaua defense tighter than spandex on Venice beach.blog comments powered by Disqus