Inter - Liverpool (11 Mar 08)

[Edlaut]

we need Ibra finally wake up in the big cl games

Ibra is sleeping in Serie A games too, don't understand what's going with him

 

[Handoyo]

If you ask me, Ibra's simply worn out, although you can't blame the fella because the service from midfield was horrendous.

It'd be really nice to go through this time, and it'd be the perfect belated centenary present (We'll celebrate it 2 days prior to this match).

 

[Ajesh]

although you can't blame the fella because the service from midfield was horrendous.

There was no damn service at all.
I still cant believe likes of Babel,Finnan,Lucas,Masch got the better of Cambiasso,Dejan,Maicon,Zanetti.
Its incredibly sad sad disastrous result.

 

[Jonnie_Venom89]

We have the strenght and unity to go through ...i have no doubt about it. Figo and Vieira will be at optimum fitness. The only thing that bothers me is the central defending duo....Chivu and Burdisso(rivas). We will have a better morale ( if not the best ever) following our centenary celebrations where Moratii will encourge our boys and make them give their all in the Liverpool match + the Meazza will be full....Cmon guys we have seen so many great comebacks recently ...just think depor and almost PSV vs Milan , Milan vs Manchester . IT CAN BE DONE....hope Mancio is smart enough to find a solution

 

[Luka]

It's funny, how I said that we need Figo bad since his injury, and many said naaah, Stankovic is better, or he is to old to play, or he is not good enough etc. Now almost everybody wants him for the return leg :>

All I'm gonna say is that we can have the best team in the world(not that we don't have now), and it will all will be for nothing if Mancio will say that shit he said yesterday, to them again on 11'th.

I'm really sick of it, that all we can do every year when it comes to the knockout stage is play for 90 minutes from the 180 that we're given. It's as simple as that. Mancini every time sets us so deffensively away from home, that it's just imposible to get a decent result. We lost to Fenerbahce after a shamefull performance again, we almost lost it in CSKA, and we won in PSV only because it didn't matter if we win or not. If it would, I'm sure it would be the same story and 4-4-2 again.

I'm sick of this. Why we can't play like the best team in Italy should? I still think this is some kind of a sick joke, the way we played yesterday. I mean, our team is masterfull, we are not a team to beat, and yet we had 36% of possesion in the first half(that includes the 15 minutes with 10 men, but it was only a little better before that).

36. That's just unbelievable for a team like inter, with so many champions to go out on a game like that and god pined to the wall like some sissy girl. And it's the same story over and over again.

 

[brehme1989]

No Cordoba
No Materazzi
No Samuel

I ain't playing center back, who is?

I only hope our midfield is ready and fit and we can destroy them. All we need is the right mentality and a Zlatan that has the team's support. He can take them by himself

 

[Interista nr.1]

Cesar
Maicon Burdisso Chivu Maxwell J.Z. Viera Cambiasso Jimenez Ibra Cruz
Second half. ca. 50 min. Jimenez out - Figo In. 60 min. Viera out, Stankovic in. 70 min. Cruz out, Suazo in.

 

[Interista nr.1]

Viera, Stankovic, Maicon, Figo will all be in much better form, thaey will have some match fitness. With some luck and support Inter can score 2-3 goals. I belive if we score first goal, than we gonna score at least 1 more.

 

[Luka]

I'm telling you now, and you can quote me later, that we will play 4-4-2 again. Either it is with Figo on the wing, or some other stupid solution it will be 4-4-2, because Mancini will be afraid again.

The defense is less important in that game. Look at the Hyypia. What a defender he is these days? Anybody knows he is as slow as Materazzi? And you didn,t see it why? Because we were sitting on our asses with Ibra and Cruz wondering who left him out there alone. They have far worse defense than we have, but we didn't give them any chance of showing that.

 

[rockball]

I can bet my house that we will go out by winning 3-1. :wallbang:

Although a couple of controversial decisions like in last game and Curva will surely create a scene here. I am afraid Inter would get suspended for a year from CL if that happens.

In case we do go through to the next round, I will go kill any Pool fan that I find.

 

[Adam]

It's funny, how I said that we need Figo bad since his injury, and many said naaah, Stankovic is better, or he is to old to play, or he is not good enough etc. Now almost everybody wants him for the return leg :>

Well, I said Jimenez, with Stankovic being the better option if it was a choice between Figo and him. I think that is true as I doubt Figo would of done half the defensive work Stankovic did and we probably would of conceded much earlier. And I don't think Figo would of effected the game one bit last night, other then maybe getting a few more freekicks in our own half.

And while I'm at it. IMO you put way too much emphasis on Mancini playing 442 like playing the 4312 is the answer to all of our problems. When our midfilders can't string five consecutive passes together it's not a formation problem. Either it's a mental problem and they can't handle the pressure, or it's a technical problem and they can't control and pass at a high enough pace. Personally I think it's a little bit of both. I think many of our players are so indoctrinated into Italian football that they don't have the confidence to play one touch passes, especially not when there is 50 thousand fans taunting them. I saw the same exact performance vs Liverpool I did vs Fener.

The only difference being that in the Liverpool game there was a good chance of things looking up after the initial 25-30 minutes had Matrix not gotten sent off. Whether those first 25 minutes was part of the domination that home teams usually get in these competitions or part of a night where we would simply be outplayed we will never know.

Also someone mentioned the Curva Nord and how they would scare the Liverpool players. Oh, how I wish that would be true. But we said the same thing about Fener and up intill the 60th minute their fans were making a hell of a lot more noise then ours. Our fans are too impatient and they don't support the team for very long when things aren't going our way, like most top club fans. If we score early we will have their support otherwise it might even be an advantage to Liverpool.

 

[nutcracker]

http://www.footyhighlights.com/?p=251#more-251

On the 5:00 You can see that Materazzi didn't even TOUCH Torres. Where is the justice on this world?

2nd faul existed, but I wouldn't be so sure if it had been yellow card even. But even if, he would be still on the pitch. And we still would be playing in 11.

Few days ago EVERYONE LOVED Cruz. Now you all blame him that he sucks and hes just reserve player. Thats really pathetic.

Few days ago you all or atleast most of you liked Mancini and trusted him in his abilities. I do trust him still and after this match I trust him even more.

Seriously guys, was it MANCINIS faul that Materazzi got sent off? It was not even Materazzi FAULT, so how can you even blame Materazzi for this and the more Mancini for that?

Mancini have done very well. After Materazzi dismissing only what we could do was to try to draw. And we almost did it. He removed Cruz becouse attackers wouldn't even get any passes when we lack 1 player on our backs. So thats why he put vieira to increase our possesion of ball and well, it worked a bit. Vieira made us like 2-3 actions for us, but we couldn't do much with whole team in defense and only Stankovic, Vieira and Ibra on front.

Ofcourse, Referee mistakes are part of football but... Sending off player at 30th minute by mistake is not a part of football. I don't really care what UEFA will do with it, they won't change the result of the match, but nowadays more and more teams are being affected by referee mistakes, including parma and other teams with which we won that unfair penalties.

Also, our defense was really good... till Cordoba got injured. As people say, he won't play in 2nd match what really sucks, becouse we just lost 2 middle defenders.

Some people say that we even played badly before the Materazzi sent off. I answer you, Whats the matter? Does it allow Referee to sent off ANY PLAYER WITHOUT REASON? No it doesn't.

And as I said before, I still belive we can win this. We couldn't play our football. Materazzi was sent off and Maicon couldn't make any offensive actions, thats why he all the time stayed at defense... He never ran with ball, he was doing long passes always.
Eventho we had 10 players in, Liverpool didn't have many occasions to shoot goal. They had like 3-4 actions that could end with goal. Ofcourse, they had EXTREMALY higher possesion of ball, but that was their plan, what can you expect? do you expect Benitez telling their footballers to defend? But with their possesion of ball and having 1 more player in, should end with 5:0.

 

[minterke]

I cant believe you guys still have hope for this tie.
If I was Mancini I would send out the primavera team to gain experience. Also because, they actually play better than the first team at the moment.

shahz wtf are you talking about? We lost 2-0 do you know anything about soccer?

There's still a HUGE chance that we can still advance, we have one of the best goal scoring ratios in the world.

 

[josipva]

well the point is that materazzi still seems that he hasnt got near his last year form, before last year he was just average baboon of defender, and i admit, he was class last year but, since injury he still hasnt performed well, he had maybe 2 very average games and 2 bad ones including yesterdays and if we look more closely on yesterdays incident then u need to stop and wonder why on earth that guy cant use some brain, ok, the first foul was non existant, but he fell for same trick just minutes later and infact he even made a foul that time, couldnt he learn something from first foul? ahh well atleast maxwell is playing great lately including last game

 

[josipva]

and there are also news of ibra blaming everything on materazzi and he is kinda right, bad positioning + lack of brains + crappy ref....
news on channel4:"It has been reported that a journalist shouted, “What happened?” to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, to which the Swede angrily responded, “Why don’t you ask Materazzi?”

 

[Ajesh]

I just dont want to discuss anymore about Last night.
Anyway its a good oppurtunity to blood in Rivas.And i think he has got better potential than Burdisso.
The Back 4 should be
Zanetti--------Rivas.........Burdisso........Chivu
Chivu and Zanetti should be in defense to counter the threat by pace of Torres.

And Mancini should realise in order to make Rivas play he has to let him play 90 minutes in most of the games before Liverpool again.
And Jiminez is not in great form after Winter break.Mancini should atleast resist playing his trusted people off-form in the match and hoping that somehow they will find their best during the game ALA Viera.That just doesnt happen.
Figo should definitely play.I would even suggest Balotelli should start the game even from the MidField atleast the young boy wouldnt show any fear.

 

[Luka]

Well, I said Jimenez, with Stankovic being the better option if it was a choice between Figo and him. I think that is true as I doubt Figo would of done half the defensive work Stankovic did and we probably would of conceded much earlier. And I don't think Figo would of effected the game one bit last night, other then maybe getting a few more freekicks in our own half.

I wasn't talking about Figo considering last night. I was talking about general, how people think Figo absence is not so serious. Yesterday, with the way we played there was not even a point of having 2 strikers on the field. Why have 2 strikers, if we can't use them in any way? Figo is a player for a possesion football, not counter attacks, the same goes with Cruz. But it doesn't matter who would play, it would be all for nothing if our attitude wouldn't be different.

And while I'm at it. IMO you put way too much emphasis on Mancini playing 442 like playing the 4312 is the answer to all of our problems. When our midfilders can't string five consecutive passes together it's not a formation problem.

Well, yes. I'm not saying change to 4-3-1-2 and eveything will be swell. We could play with 4-2-4, and still it wouldn't make much of a difference if we wouldn't change our attitude towards the game. For me though, it would be easier to accomplish that with a 4-3-1-2 tactic. It's more offensive than 4-4-2 by it's nature, because you have this floating player behind the strikers who can go on the break, on the counter, you name it.

For me the biggest mistake, as it was in Valencia, as it was in Villareal, and as it was yesterday also is attitude. The way we approache the important away games didn't change a bit. That's what worries me, and that's what I can't get over with.

I dare to say, no other top coach in the world, with a team like ours, would come to the game yesterday with a game plan like that. It's just ridiculous.

 

[nutcracker]

Zanetti--------Rivas.........Burdisso........Chivu

Where is Maicon? Maicon is priceless. At san siro he will be pushed by our fans. Tho he couldn't play his football in match with Liverpool becouse he had to stay back all the time, we couldn't play with 2 defenders, could we? I like idea with Rivas, he played really nice in last matches, hes young and he wouldn't be that feared(maybe).

And Jiminez is not in great form after Winter break.Mancini should atleast resist playing his trusted people off-form in the match and hoping that somehow they will find their best during the game ALA Viera.

Imo, Jimenez should play at beginning with 4-3-1-2. Who knows, maybe Jimenez is like Gerrard? He might be playing good in big matches (remember him in last match against milan in serie a?).

I just don't know if Jimenez should play in first or 2nd half. I'd rather place Figo in first half with Ibrahimovic and Crespo.


And in 2nd half I'd put Suazo for Crespo and Jimenez for Figo. Depends how they will perform tho.

I would even suggest Balotelli should start the game even from the MidField atleast the young boy wouldnt show any fear.

He is not in our CL team.

 

[rockball]

Well, I said Jimenez, with Stankovic being the better option if it was a choice between Figo and him. I think that is true as I doubt Figo would of done half the defensive work Stankovic did and we probably would of conceded much earlier. And I don't think Figo would of effected the game one bit last night, other then maybe getting a few more freekicks in our own half.

And while I'm at it. IMO you put way too much emphasis on Mancini playing 442 like playing the 4312 is the answer to all of our problems. When our midfilders can't string five consecutive passes together it's not a formation problem. Either it's a mental problem and they can't handle the pressure, or it's a technical problem and they can't control and pass at a high enough pace. Personally I think it's a little bit of both. I think many of our players are so indoctrinated into Italian football that they don't have the confidence to play one touch passes, especially not when there is 50 thousand fans taunting them. I saw the same exact performance vs Liverpool I did vs Fener.

The only difference being that in the Liverpool game there was a good chance of things looking up after the initial 25-30 minutes had Matrix not gotten sent off. Whether those first 25 minutes was part of the domination that home teams usually get in these competitions or part of a night where we would simply be outplayed we will never know.

Also someone mentioned the Curva Nord and how they would scare the Liverpool players. Oh, how I wish that would be true. But we said the same thing about Fener and up intill the 60th minute their fans were making a hell of a lot more noise then ours. Our fans are too impatient and they don't support the team for very long when things aren't going our way, like most top club fans. If we score early we will have their support otherwise it might even be an advantage to Liverpool.

Well Figo would have made a difference. And you have mentioned the reason for that. He would have handled the pressure better than the others.
Not to say that our team gets another leader when he is on the pitch.

 

[Adam]

I wasn't talking about Figo considering last night. I was talking about general, how people think Figo absence is not so serious. Yesterday, with the way we played there was not even a point of having 2 strikers on the field. Why have 2 strikers, if we can't use them in any way? Figo is a player for a possesion football, not counter attacks.

Well, I don't think his absence is serious. It's never good to lose a backup player but when we have Jimenez or Stankovic it's not that big of a deal. It's not as if Figo dribbles players and provides our forwards with good balls consistently. If he ups his game, then yes: Figo is an incredible asset. But if he plays like he has for the past two years he's just good to have as an option, sometimes.

For me the biggest mistake, as it was in Valencia, as it was in Villareal, and as it was yesterday also is attitude. The way we approache the important away games didn't change a bit. That's what worries me, and that's what I can't get over with.
I dare to say, no other top coach in the world, with a team like ours, would come to the game yesterday with a game plan like that. It's just ridiculous.

If you mean atitude like in "why aren't we playing 4312 and thus play our own game". If that's what you mean by attitude then I completely agree.

But just to clarify something. Just because we played the 442 yesterday doesn't mean Mancini sent us to Liverpool to draw. Just that he was more cautious. When we have our own capain and players saying we are going there to win, it means they really did believe they were going to win. Whether they were actually good enough to do it we won't know becuase of Materazzi's red.