Topic: PRE MATCH THREAD: Sparta Prague vs Liverpool Thursday 7th March, 17.45 ko

[jillcwhomever]

We never play great on a back of resting players. All first team players need some game time, it’ll just depend on when to use them.

I still think this is a more realistic chance for us of winning than the league. We’re riding our luck.

As a club we exist to win trophies. I am not sure how many more times it needs to be said.

[Air Jota]

I wouldn't say riding our luck but we were fortunate to have Burnley and Luton at home when we did. Any away game, or a stronger team at home and it would have been a real struggle, but so it should be with all the players missing. Forest was always going to be tough away.

Even with a strong team out tomorrow will be a grind though. The 3 aways were in the group. Sparta will be well up for it.

If we're going down that route then Arsenal are ridding their luck having 7 piss poor sides they've played consecutively, while having all their players fit.

It doesnt matter, we found a way and got through it, we've dropped points with a full side against worse teams, the game still has to be won, 4 games in 11 days. That should be praised.

[kop306]

i am starting bradley on the bench as he deserves extra rest as we will need him against city
i would take gomez off after about 70 mins


kelleher

gomez quansah virg robbo

sobo endo mac

elliot cody diaz

subs
mo on for 30 mins

[Kloppage Time]

Klopp will want this to complete his trophy cabinet

[Air Jota]

Macca first up in presser before Jurgen

[jillcwhomever]

Klopp doesn't half love Macca. 😄

[PaulF]

Great op nick. I have a theory that boys (sorry, it's predominantly boys that like football) suffer in their exams in world cup and euros years. Luckily England are mostly shite so it's not too distracting.

If any of our travelling support can get me a dukla away kit whilst you are there, I'd be happy to reimburse.

[Crosby Nick]

Great op nick. I have a theory that boys (sorry, it's predominantly boys that like football) suffer in their exams in world cup and euros years. Luckily England are mostly shite so it's not too distracting.

If any of our travelling support can get me a dukla away kit whilst you are there, I'd be happy to reimburse.

Ha, it’s possible! I did better in my GCSEs. USA 94 didn’t have England (when I’d have given more of a shit), and really late kick off times so I didn’t watch too much and so it didn’t interfere. Euro 96, especially with it being in England was a nightmare!

[markedasred]

Prague is a beautiful city, and it tends to be warmer than here from now on, so the travelling Kop will have a fine time if the police are alright. There may be a few more first teamers in this than predicted, some need to get themselves in to playing shape.

[TepidT2O]

That's what 'doctor's appointments' are for - just say you have a problem with your scrotum, nobody will ask any more questions. Might look at you funny in future, but at least you get to watch the match.

Sadly a member of the team already uses this excuse!

[RedG13]

Great OP Nick. Excited for this
I expect a pretty strong lineup depending on who available. Klopp going to try and the game

[Too early for flapjacks?]

Just watched the press conference and it's great to see the old playful Klopp returning. You can see a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders since he announced he's leaving. A joy listening to him speak.

[damomad]

Ha, it’s possible! I did better in my GCSEs. USA 94 didn’t have England (when I’d have given more of a shit), and really late kick off times so I didn’t watch too much and so it didn’t interfere. Euro 96, especially with it being in England was a nightmare!

I'm not so sure, I had an A Level the morning after Istanbul, neither a Euros or World Cup year.

I put in a Shevchenko of a performance on that one!

[Fromola]

Just watched the press conference and it's great to see the old playful Klopp returning. You can see a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders since he announced he's leaving. A joy listening to him speak.

Didn't see it but he usually visibly prefers the European press conferences as he generally is asked better questions, rather than narrative driven bullshit of English media

[MonsLibpool]

I'd like to see us go strong and kill the tie. Making the return leg a formality will allow us to rest players.

[thegoodfella]

Score 3 or 4 here, and kill the tie. It is doable.

[HeartAndSoul]

They finished second behind rangers in their group. Rangers got a draw away from home and won at home against them. We should really be coming out on top even with a slightly rotated team.

[G Richards]

They will be fighting for their lives to either get something at home, or stay in it by staying in touch. I see a rotated side, and a win by one goal. Then we will finish the job at Anfield.

It’s a juggling act to manage playing resources. Man City is by far the bigger game. I expect we will do a couple of 2x45 min performances to see some top players through to the weekend, and I expect a rotated side, similar to what we have been seeing due to injuries. But as more senior players are coming back it will move in that direction as we go.

Peak Liverpool blows Slavia Prague away. But I suspect it will be just about good enough Liverpool, to take a slender lead back to Anfield to finish the job.

One eye is definitely on the Man City game.

[Dave McCoy]

Can’t help but watch the CL games this week and wonder if the PL hasn’t already morphed into the Super League.  So it’s hard in that of course we want to win everything but if we can win the PL then it feels like everything should be subsumed by that. With that said the squad list clearly shows that this will be a strong team and my only hope then is we do the job to make the next leg a formality.

Expecting a solid win here. Up the reds!

[Red_Mist]

Thanks for the OP Nick. I’d be happy with a similar selection as you’ve gone for there to be honest, try and get some sort of result with minimal risk to key players. It’s a balancing act at the moment as you say.

I absolutely love the UEFA Cup (Dortmund ‘01 was one of my favourite ever footy memories), and would obviously love us to progress in the comp and eventually go on to lift it (completing the set would be a ridiculously good achievement), but I can’t stop my eyes from wandering to Sunday. One game at a time is the correct mantra, always. But…

[ValiantInstance]

Reckon the trio who have just returned from injury come on after 60 minutes. Maybe not Nunez if we're winning as he doesn't need gametime.

[ValiantInstance]

Prague is a beautiful city, and it tends to be warmer than here from now on, so the travelling Kop will have a fine time if the police are alright. There may be a few more first teamers in this than predicted, some need to get themselves in to playing shape.

Not a nightmare to travel to either. The stereotypically annoying things about the Europa League are a Round of 32 away leg in Azerbaijan or Russia on a Thursday night. Both have been avoided.

Whoever decided that the group winner skips the 32 needs a raise.

[Redshadow]

Play a strong side and kill the tie. We're playing at Anfield on Sunday. There will an abundance of energy then for our players to rely on. If we're able to have a big advantage from the first leg, the second leg is when we rest players for FA Cup tie
 

[Red_Mist]

All these different opinions on how strong we go are great but just go to emphasise that the big man has some tricky decisions to make today. Whatever he comes up will be the right team. But I suspect he might err on the cautious side. The worst of all scenarios would be going strong, picking up a few key knocks ruling players out of Sunday whilst not killing off the tie. The flip side is obviously playing the youngsters and getting a result. The latter of those scenarios feels more Kloppish to me, but we’ll see.

[Raid]

I think it will be similar to how we approach Cup games. Blend of youth and experience, the big guns getting some game time in the second half to keep themselves ticking over ahead of Sunday.

Dom and Darwin haven't had too many minutes recently so would be no surprise to see them on the pitch at some point to prepare them for Abu Dhabi.

[Red_Mist]

I think it will be similar to how we approach Cup games. Blend of youth and experience, the big guns getting some game time in the second half to keep themselves ticking over ahead of Sunday.

Dom and Darwin haven't had too many minutes recently so would be no surprise to see them on the pitch at some point to prepare them for Abu Dhabi.

Yeah, good shout.

[jepovic]

All these different opinions on how strong we go are great but just go to emphasise that the big man has some tricky decisions to make today. Whatever he comes up will be the right team. But I suspect he might err on the cautious side. The worst of all scenarios would be going strong, picking up a few key knocks ruling players out of Sunday whilst not killing off the tie. The flip side is obviously playing the youngsters and getting a result. The latter of those scenarios feels more Kloppish to me, but we’ll see.

My experience is that Klopp goes stronger, with less resting, than most people on Rawk want or expect.

[Red_Mist]

My experience is that Klopp goes stronger, with less resting, than most people on Rawk want or expect.

Maybe, but the current circumstances might sway him. What I meant was he tends to trust inexperienced players, and probably does so even more now they’ve proved themselves completely unfazed by the step up.

[Too early for flapjacks?]

Looking at the travelling squad, I'd go for this. Make a quadruple sub at half time with Elliott going into the attack and Szoboszlai in midfield. That would leave us one more sub to make later in the game which would most likely be Salah who I can't see starting against City.

                              Kelleher



Gomez          Van Dijk          Quansah          Tsimikas
                 (45-Konate)


               Elliott          Endo          Clark
                         (45-Mac Allister)


             Gordon          Gakpo          Koumas
     (45-Szoboszlai)  (45-Nunez)


Subs: Adrian, Mrozek, Konate, Robertson, Bradley, Mac Allister, McConnell, Szoboszlai, Salah, Nunez, Diaz, Musialowski

[amir87]

Considering how key Mac Allister is to our midfield, I’d prefer if we didn’t use him at all today.

He’s played quite a few minutes since coming back and we’ll be very reliant on him against City’s midfield so I’d like to keep him as fresh as possible.

[Boston Bosox]

The Last Time We Met
SPARTA PRAGUE   0   -   0   LIVERPOOL
EUROPA LEAGUE OF 32
GENERALI ARENA | THU 17 FEB 2011 AT 20:05 UK LOCAL TIME

Sparta Prague
Jaromir Blazek, Ondrej Kusnir, Manuel Pamic, Erich Brabec, Tomas Repka, Andrej Keric (Libor Sionko, 73), Vaclav Kadlec (Martin Zeman, 89), Kamil Vacek, Marek Matejovsky (Tomas Pekhart, 90), Martin Achille Abena, Leony Kweuke

Liverpool
 Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Danny Wilson, Jamie Carragher, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Dirk Kuyt, Maximiliano Maxi Rodriguez, Leiva Lucas, Fabio Aurelio (Joe Cole, 37), Jose Raul Meireles, David N'Gog (Martin Skrtel, 83)

 Kenny Dalglish's first-ever European game in charge of Liverpool.

Liverpool Manager: Kenny Dalglish
Sparta Prague  manager: Jozef Chovanec
Referee: Meyer F (II) (Germany)
Attendance: 17,564
Half-time score: 0 - 0
Game number: 5246
Europe game number: 325

[Boston Bosox]

LIVERPOOL   1   -   0   SPARTA PRAGUE
EUROPA LEAGUE OF 32
ANFIELD | THU 24 FEB 2011 AT 18:00 UK LOCAL TIME

Liverpool 4-2-3-1
Reina; Kelly * (Carragher *, h-t), Kyrgiakos, Agger (Skrtel, 85), Wilson; Lucas *,
Poulsen * (Spearing, 65); Kuyt, Meireles, Cole; Ngog.
Subs not used
Gulacsi, Rodriguez, Jovanovic, Pacheco.

Sparta Prague 4-1-4-1
Blazek; Kusnir, Brabec, Repka, Pamic * (Keric, 90); Vacek; Sionko (Podany, 73),
Matejovsky *, Abena (Pekhart, 78), Kadlec; Kweuke *.
Subs not used Zitka, Kladrubsky, Zeman, Husek.

GOAL
Dirk Kuyt 86' (Raul Meireles)

Liverpool Manager: Kenny Dalglish
Sparta Prague manager: Jozef Chovanec
Referee: Mažic M (Serbia)
Attendance: 42,949
Half-time score: 0 - 0
Game number: 5247
Europe game number: 326
LFC played towards Kop: Second half

[Paul JH]

We’re riding our luck.

How long have we been riding it then? Because we are still top and have won a trophy too so ... must be VERY 'lucky'.

[Crosby Nick]

Crikey that was a weak team the last time we played them! Was about to ask if Torres was rested but he’d been sold! Gerrard injured or rested. Kenny did really well in the League in that half a season but Europe was a slog. One goal here late on in the second leg and then fairly sure we failed to score home or away against Braga.

[redtel]

Crikey that was a weak team the last time we played them! Was about to ask if Torres was rested but he’d been sold! Gerrard injured or rested. Kenny did really well in the League in that half a season but Europe was a slog. One goal here late on in the second leg and then fairly sure we failed to score home or away against Braga.

You’re right Nick although I’d completely wiped that tie from my head.

We lost 1-0 in Braga and then drew another blank with a 0-0 at home. Didn’t realise the final was to be in Dublin that year as well.

Report;
Liverpool 0 Braga 0
(Braga win 1-0 on agg)

On St Patrick's Day of all days, Liverpool's road to Dublin turned into the road to nowhere last night. Ireland's first European final will boast no English team as Kenny Dalglish's hopes of guiding his side to silverware were thwarted by Braga who reached their first ever European quarter final.

Thanks for the preview. Wouldn’t fancy choosing who starts tonight with so many players coming back from injury and a massive game on Sunday. However in Jurgen I trust. 😎

[12C]

Great op nick. I have a theory that boys (sorry, it's predominantly boys that like football) suffer in their exams in world cup and euros years. Luckily England are mostly shite so it's not too distracting.

If any of our travelling support can get me a dukla away kit whilst you are there, I'd be happy to reimburse.

I had a ticket promised for Rome 77. I had a weekend job and had saved the fare.
The A level timetable was published and on the day of the game I had an exam, and an exam the day after. I was gutted. I couldn’t even go for a pint with my dad after the game. I spent some of my money saved on getting us a big reconditioned colour tele from the rental firm, to watch both the finals on.
There was one lad in our year who sacked off his A levels to go to Rome though. He was already resitting his final year, and so we heard later had to do a 4th year of 6th form. He would have been 20 when he left.

[stjohns]

Considering how key Mac Allister is to our midfield, I’d prefer if we didn’t use him at all today.

He’s played quite a few minutes since coming back and we’ll be very reliant on him against City’s midfield so I’d like to keep him as fresh as possible.

Didn’t Mac just do the press conference with Jurgen?

[amir87]

Didn’t Mac just do the press conference with Jurgen?

Yes, he did so I'm assuming he's playing. I'd just prefer it if we didn't risk him.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

As a club we exist to win trophies. I am not sure how many more times it needs to be said.

If it was a toss up between winning this and a 'Champions' League place then I'd take this every time.

You win fuck all for being fourth or third or whatever.

[exiledintheUSA]

If it was a toss up between winning this and a 'Champions' League place then I'd take this every time.

You win fuck all for being fourth or third or whatever.

Yep, every day of the week.

There is a group of very talented Arsenal players who may only have google searches to show their grandkids.