Liverpool vs Udinese | Thursday 20.05 BST | Europa League Group Stage Matchday 2 |

vs

Venue -


Liverpool look to continue fielding a second string side in the Europa league as the PL is main priority.
This will be the first ever meeting between the two teams.

Team expected-
Jones, Wisdom, Coates, Carragher, Enrique*, Shelvey, Hendo, Sahin, Assaidi, Downing, Borini**.
Players who could feature in the starting eleven - Robinson*, Pacheco**, Suso, Sterling.

Udinese is a decent team but have been shit this year, Lets see if BR gets any of his big guns in this match.

Opponent player to watch - Antonio Di Natale.

Team news-
Lucas and Kelly are the long term injuries.
Borini could be on the bench.
Shelvey is eligible as his ban is only in domestic competitions.

Hoping for some exciting football and possibly a win, Anfield could play a major part.

YNWA

I think BR will field a strong team. I'm expecting to see Suarez, Agger/Skrtel, Sahin, and Reina at least.

^ I don't think so Messiah.

Last time Suarez and Gerrard played in EL (Vs Heart) we had our worst league game of the season vs Arsenal following that because they were very tired and far from their best.

In addition to that, lads will have 2 international duty games after Stoke games, and then back again and it will be a very busy week. I do expect some of them on the bench though, but not starting. I reckon Joe Allen may start though.

I would put out the following team:

Jones
Wisdom
Carra
Coates
Robinson
Henderson
Allen
Shelvey
Assaidi
Pacheco
Borini

Bench:
Gulacsi
Skrtel
Sahin
Suarez
Downing
Sterling
Suso

Great preview as usual Nishy. Keep it up.

It'll be an interesting game to say the least as Brendan Rodgers is up and against a tactician very similar to him. Guidolin too is one who believes the elements of controlling clubs while revamping the youth utilization and believing in a possession based system (although more counter attacking). The tactical battle here should be one of Europes most interesting.

Fact is Udinese aren't even half of the team they were in the last 2 years. Is it because of their repeated need to sell their best players at the end of every season? Partly. The fact is Di Natale has grown exhausted of being such a vital figure up front for Udinese while Guidolin (who conflicted with Pozzo in the summer) also has seemed to lose his drive and motivation which kept Udinese going. He has built a team full of talented youngsters yet like his captain, cannot helped but be disappointed in the club's intelligent, but ultimately frustrating method of running the club. You will not see the swashbuckling counter attack team of yesteryear. You will see a team without its old identity and lustre. The downfall of Udinese was already predicted this summer given the internal conflict.

We should be able to win this comfortably as failing would be incredibly disappointing.


Jonesy
Wisdom-Coates-Carra-Robinson

Shelvey-Hendo-Suso

Sterling-Borini-Assaidi



Jones given that he has impressed mostly when we have needed him. Wisdom is to raw to be starting in the PL and needs EL time. Carra and Coates to act as quintessential replacements for Agger-Skrtel. Given Carra's slight resurgence in his recent games and ability to bring out the best in young Sebastian I trust this will be enough.

Shelvey to combine with Henderson as the latter has been one of our best players in the Europa League. Suso to play a free iniesta role down the left. Sterling in his usual position while Borini coming back from injury needs to start and get back into form. Assaidi simply because I don't see him starting in the PL anytime soon and needs to further adjust with us.

Attacking line-up which potentially can be prone to counters but it should be enough given the work rate of the midfield and dynamism up front.

Udinese some great #10s like Di Natale, young Fabbrini and a balanced but young mid and def. Yet given their complete slump in form and our resurgence I expect us to win.

Will Udinese play a strong side or will they rest players? Italian clubs have a habit of not taking the EL seriously... even more so than English sides (referring to Villa, Everton rather than Liverpool Fulham).

Pretty sure that Downing will get a start now that he's out of favor in the league games. I also wonder whether Rodgers will risk Borini after his ankle injury. Shelvey and Henderson will start, perhaps Allen to complete that midfield.

Anyway, what I'd personally start is:

Jones
Wisdom - Carragher - Coates - Robinson
Downing - Henderson - Shelvey
Suso - Pacheco - Assaidi

RedOranje wrote:Will Udinese play a strong side or will they rest players? Italian clubs have a habit of not taking the EL seriously... even more so than English sides (referring to Villa, Everton rather than Liverpool Fulham).

Red, you are correct as Italians indeed do not take the Europa League seriously at all.

Which is why I personally predict Guidolin fielding a weakened/youth side composed of raw but talented players like Faraoni, Neuton, Ranegie etc.

Guidolin rests his players for even against more provincial Serie A sides.

So rest assured we shouldn't panic all too much if we field a younger and more raw side.

I think it's obvious we will field an unexperienced side.

Confirmed Team and Bench:

Jones, Johnson, Carragher, Coates, Robinson, Allen, Henderson, Shelvey, Downing, Assaidi, Borini

Reina, Skrtel, Enrique, Sahin, Gerrard, Cole, Suarez

If that is the confirmed lineup then I have to say that's a pretty strong team. The bench is Hopefully Borini starts scoring.

Call me funny but I'd like to see Joe Cole play some decent minutes.

RedOranje wrote:Will Udinese play a strong side or will they rest players? Italian clubs have a habit of not taking the EL seriously... even more so than English sides (referring to Villa, Everton rather than Liverpool Fulham).

They did leave out Fabbrini, Di Natale, Basta and a few other of their starters vs Anzhi. I hope they play with their starters this time though.

Great match.

Our defense is shit. Robinson was great. Hearing that Allen had more than 100 passes today

Udinese were shit, Pulling players down if they got past them. The result doesn't affect me much. One defeat means nothing, Still see us qualifying from the group.

Bring on Stoke. PL >>>>

We saw glimpses of the old Udinese today. 1st half was all Liverpool bar Udinese early half dominance. The back line was confident in its overlap while Hendo and Allen has some neat interplay to dictate while Jonjo did well as the pressing force in the mid. Borini was unlucky as he did everything well with his movement, a few passes and dribbles yet needs to get on the scoresheet for his confidence. Assaidi was a tidy and tricky player but needed to show more directness to be more decisive for our threat, impressive nonetheless. Downing aside from the assist was highly highly predictable and shackled by the Udinese defence. All in all this was a game of individual errors. Carra and Coates who usually make a formidable partnership were horrid today as Di Natale tore them apart while Glen was responsible as well (surprise). Robinson was the shining star in the back as young jack provided some great width and fantastic reading of the game to deny Armero from the right.


The point is this game actually is a learning experience because hopefully BR can address my fears on how stealthy counter attack teams can cause our team serious damage. I mean its not even the poor back line tactics from our first team manager, its just the gap we leave open to pressing wing counters. Guidolin made a genius move in the 2nd half to switch the 3-4-3 to a 3-5-2 which gave them a midfield advantage and compressed the back line as this caused some serious havoc to our back line in our counters.
BR must address these pressing issues by analysing how we can be less prone to counters. I mean once teams start figuring out our game plans and I would like to see some flexibility from BR in this respect. We overall were the more dominant team but Udinese with their 3 shots and 3 goals deserved it in the end.

Strangely enough it doesn't feel like a loss given the impressive standard of our performance today. To sum it up it was more a game of individual errors than poor managerial performance.

Notes:

-Our team looks far better with Borini on in the centre as he provides a pressing option with his intelligent movement which opens spaces.

-Downing once again, does not bring anything to the table.

-Coates needs to erase Skrtel syndrome. Perfect all game aside from the ONE mistake he always makes which ends up costing us. No worries here though.

-Robinson needs to be our back-up LB in games as he continues to impress.

-Who said Allen doesn't make forward splitting passes?

-Reina was brilliant today.
-Hendo and Allen might not work given to won't compliment each other like Shelvey does. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

- Assaidi needs to start.

MOTM of the game: Di Natale by far. His #10 role completely destroyed our back line. No surprise here as he turns it up for big games when rested

Our MOTM? Robinson and Allen. Job well done.

Not worried at all. Stoke will be a big test given how we always struggle against them.

Nish, your threads are working nonetheless. Keep it up. Seriously.

YNWA

18 shots to 4.
2 goals to 3.

Dissapointing, but we did play better. Robbo MOTM for me. Hendo a close second.

Disaagree with you arq. I feel Coates was one of our better players, but that OG dropped his confidence. Not sure why, just felt his head dropped after that. He was a lot better than Jamie and did well coming up against Di Natale.

Shelvey dissapeared in the second half, and Gerrard shouldn't have came on. Regardless, it's in the past. We can only work to improve. And we must improve heaps with defending - we're conceding far too many.

We have 3 points from 2 games and still have to host Young Boys and Anzhi. We still have to travel to Italy where we'll be hosted by Udinese and travel to Russia to battle it out against Anzhi. There is still hope.

We scored 2 goals...

Typo...

Nevertheless, it was still a win for Udinese... so sad!

i just hope they play better in their away matches.

Has anyone else noticed that every time Gerrard loses the ball the other team gets a fast counterattack, we get scored on or concede a penalty. Give me a couple of hours, I will dig up on how many of our goals this season that's been the case.

3 or 4.

Arsenal.
Udinese.
City.

Harsh though. It's not just him that loses the ball, teams just seem to score when he loses it.

yoonie wrote:Nevertheless, it was still a win for Udinese... so sad!

i just hope they play better in their away matches.

You're either young or a troll...

ynwa wrote:3 or 4.

Arsenal.
Udinese.
City.

Harsh though. It's not just him that loses the ball, teams just seem to score when he loses it.

He also lost the ball during WBA match which resulted in a pk, and another one in a Lukaku goal. I'll dig up the statistics after I'm done watching this episode of 24.

1. West Brom (3-0) : Gerrard misplaces pass, West Brom counterattack with a trough ball. Long wins a penalty, Agger sent off.

2. Man City (2-2) : Gerrard misplaces pass, Tevez gets it on the wing and crosses, defense panics and Yaya scores.

3. Arsenal (0-2) : Gerrard misplaces pass, Arsenal counterattack with Podolski and Cazorla. Podolski scores.

4. Udinese (2-3) : Gerrard misplaced pass, Udinese counterattack, Di Natale holds the ball up and Pasquale scores.

I was wrong about the Lukaku goal, it wasn't Stevie's fault at all. But 4 direct misplaced passes that led to goals or pks. Seriously Stevie needs to stop losing possession, 4 is already too much for one season.

Seems a bit absurd to blame those goals on him alone... the other midfielders and defenders are also at fault. It's not as though a player is solely responsible for regaining possession if he's the one that loses it.

I don't like oversimplifying things, it hides real issues and places unnecessary and undeserved criticism and blame on lone figures.

I wasn't really trying to blame Gerrard for those goals, I was just pointing out how it has become some kind of a jinx that whenever he misplaces a pass, something inevitably bad happens on the defensive end.