Greetings from LFC

[lachesis 0]

As you no doubt know, we have drawn Steaua Bucharest in our Europa League group. Being honest, I don't know too much about them and hope to swap a bit of information about the two teams so us fans have a little more appreication of the current state of the squad, any key players and what management style to possibly expect.

 

If anyone could reply in a similar format I'd be really grateful.

 

 

 

Manager: Obviously we have lost Rafael Benitez to Inter Milan. We employed Roy Hodgson, an English manager (who ironically manager Inter years ago). He has a good pedigree but lacks any real top class experience since Inter, and this could be his last shot at the big time. Last season he took Fulham to the Europa League Final in Hamburg, beating Juventus on the way as well in an exciting tie. There are question marks around him at the moment as to whether he has the right ideas and priorities to take us forward. However, in our win against Trabzonspor (3-1 aggregate), he became the first manager to win his first four European games since the lgeendary Bill Shankly. He got a very credible draw against Arsenal at Anfield in his first league game, but then fell to a 3-0 capitulation at Manchester City in his second.

 

 

 

 

Tactics: We are undergoing a period of transition as Roy attempts to stamp his own brand of football on the team. We have set out with a similar formation as Rafael Benitez employed in most of our games (4-2-3-1), but have tried a 4-4-2 (against City where we were unlucky but still deserved to be beaten). We seem to be playing a bit narrower across the -3- as well. It's too early to get a proper grasp, but whereas Rafas team dominated possession in the final third but struggled to have the creative spark to take us up a level, Roy seems to favour the quick release of the ball, direct. Front to back as fast as possible to catch the other team napping (mostly played on the floor as well - apart from Carragher who has a tendency to hoof the ball up top). A few of the players appear to still be adjusting to this.

 

 

 

 

Squad: Our financial problems are well documented. We have lost Aquilani to Juventus (I think we would prefer this to become permanent), Insua has been linked with Italy (a very promising left back who was in the top performers of Actim and Castrol last season), Lucas (Young player of the year last season) linked with Palermo although a lot of fans don't rate him. Mascherano is on the brink of joining Barcelona and we have been linked with Raul Meireles from Porto if it goes through as a replacement. We have been playing Daniel Agger as left back for some reason and all three of Citys goals came from that side. We purchased Joe Cole to be our player in the hole in 4-2-3-1. He has got a couple of assists already but question marks remain about him. Because of this we have had to push Gerrard back into central midfield where he has struggled to have the same influence on games. David N'Gog has started well in the absence of Torres (who is gingerly feeling his way back into action). Jovanovic has been all heart but again, we need to see mroe from him in an attacking sense to make a decision or not. Many people would like to see Maxi Rodriguez play more in the first team but his chances have been limited.

 

 

 

 

Key players: I'd say Gerrard just because he can change the game in a blink of an eye. Torres needs no mentioning. Kuyt is capable of having an influence. Joe Cole has got his chance to play centrally and will be eager to show what he can do.

 

 

 

 

Summary: We have started well in Europe in ties that have been potential banana skins. We have played weakened teams and managed to come away with 4/4 wins. Our league starts was a couple of minutes away from being excellent until Arsenal equalised against our ten. It was very heartening, but the City game was a bit of a wake up call, especially as they looked so poor at Tottenham the week before. We look to be shaky at set pieces as we change from zonal to man-for-man.

 

 

 

 

Strongest team: I think if we were to play you with all our strongest personnel available at the moment, Roys team would resemble this (Reina | Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Aurelio | Gerrard, Lucas | Kuyt, Cole, Jovanovic | Torres).

 

 

 

 

So, hope this gives you a bit of information of what to expect from us, would love it if someone could give us a bit of background on your team too!!

 

 

[ice_ball 0]

Mate,

 

FC Liverpool is a sort of FCSB in many aspects.

 

Back in late 80's we were a firehouse. When England was banned for the Juve/Liv events we were playing constantly in the semis of CL at least...

 

We want Gigi gone as much as you want the yank gone. Perhaps we can set up a march against the leaders. Right now we are in reconstruction so I'm just expecting decent results from this young lads that we have. Talking about the squad, our best player is said to be Cristi Tanase lol. Don't count on that one. We have a 4321 system with midfielders that should interchange a bit but they are uncapable of doing so.

 

I know in recent years we had some encounters and we did decent against you.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

PS How accurate is this article mate?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool

Edited August 28, 2010 by ice_ball

[ice_ball 0]

Ghence shall Be at full capacity with Liverpool. It's gonna vibrite of 26.7 k ppl

[*Alecs* 0]

Oi oi lachesis! Greetings from FCSB too!

 

I will try to make a short analysis in a similar format as yours.

 

Manager: We've started the season with Victor Piturca on the bench, former Romania national football team manager, but because of chairman Gigi Becali (who is a lot worse than Hicks&Gillett) he resigned after 2 matches because he knew that he won't have the proper climate to manage the club this season. Now, the team is managed by former player Ilie Dumitrescu. He doesn't have experience and his CV doesn't recomend him at Steaua. I don't think he will make a good job and it's possible that when we will play with you we will have another manager. We qualified in the groups on penalties after one of the worst Steaua's matches in Europe that I have ever seen.

 

Tactics: We play 4-2-3-1

 

Squad: This summer we bought 15 players but few have experience and a lot of them are young. We are in reconstruction, but every season is like this. We make free transfers or buy players who don't have the value to play for Steaua.

 

Key players: Bogdan Stancu looks like he is in good form, he scored 6 goals in 7 matches.

 

Summary: We have 4 wins and 1 draw in the Romanian league and we qualified in the groups after 1-0 at Bucharest, 1-0 at Zurich, 4-3 at penalties. We play a little better than last season, but we don't have a constant game.

 

Standard team: Tatarusanu - Emeghara, Abrudan, Geraldo Alves, Latovlevici - D.Stoica, Bicfalvi - Radut, Surdu, Tanase - Stancu

 

Fans: Probably the stadium will be full but I don't think that there will be that fearless and noisy atmosphere like in the past because some of the fans are in protest against Becali

 

Cheers!

[MoWeed 0]

Manager: We started the season with Victor Piturca, the former national team coach, but he left after just two games because of the owner. He was replaced by Ilie Dumitrescu, a former player of Steaua and one of the best football players this team ever had. As a coach, he trained a lot of teams, but he has no notable results. His longest spell at any team as a manager was about 7 months long. The best known team he has coached so far(except Steaua) is AEK Athens.

But our bench was very instable in the past years, because of the moron that currently owns the club. A couple of years ago, we had four different managers in a single year. So, no one actually knows if Dumitrescu will still be coaching the team by the time we'll play against Liverpool.

 

Tactics:Dumitrescu plays 4-2-3-1, but Piturca, the coach that handdled the summer practice, played another style. Therefore, our team is not really used to this stile so far.

 

 

Squad: We bought about 15 players in this summer, but most of them are quite inexperienced, especially in international games. Our team is currently in negotiatons with Unirea Urziceni(you played against them this spring) concernig the transfer of another two players.

The team is a blend between young and tallented players and experienced players, with a lot of international games

Our team is in a continous reconstruction since the season we reached the UEFA Cup semifinals(we played against Boro), and this instability has long plagued our team.

 

 

Key Players: Bogdan Stancu is our top goalscorer in this moment and he is in a exceptionally form

Pantelis Kapetanos was our top goalscorer in the last season and he was in Greece's national team at the World Cup. If he regains last year's form, he will be a menace to your team

Cristian Tanase is our best midfielder, but he has little experience in international games

 

Summary: 4 wins and a draw in the championship, but we haven't played against any of the top teams in Romania

 

 

Standard team: Tatarusanu - Emeghara, Abrudan(Galamaz- we are currenty in negotiation with Unirea Urziceni for his transfer), Geraldo Alves, Latovlevici - D.Stoica, Bicfalvi - Radut, Surdu, Tanase - Stancu(Kapetanos)

 

 

 

 

As for the background:

Steaua is the most succesfull team in Romania. We have won 23 national titles, 20 national cups, 5 national supercups.

On the international plan, we won a Champions Cup in 1986 and the European Supercup in the same year. We also played another Campions Cup final in 1989, but we lost 4-0 to Milan.

Our home stadium is Ghencea Stadium, with a capacity of about 27.000. It is one of the most modern stadiums in Romania, although it can not even be compared to the english stadiums.

 

The team is currently owned by Gigi Becali, a former sheppard and a complete moron. Some of the fans(especially the most passionate) ar at war with him, because of the way he managed the club. He is even worse than Hicks and Gillet

Edited August 28, 2010 by MoWeed

[ice_ball 0]

I say fair and square we share point 3/3 and we advance hand in hand through. Or we can play it out end tie twice! Is not a good result for either team... Mates we are also able to win fair and square both ties.

 

Cheers

[lachesis 0]

Thank you very much for the information!!!!

 

Looking forward to our games!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ice_ball 0]

This week we obtained a few players from Unirea Urziceni. I know this is great but you lads don't worry, they won't be available for EL group stages.

 

Cheers