Following our rout of Burnley last Sunday we now host Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Europa League Semi-Final.
We are now at a one goal deficit going into the game and we need an early goal to settle the nerves and not give Atletico the opportunity to dig-in and get comfortable. A goal by Atletico would mean that we would have to score three goals so it could make it very tricky.
Rafa Benitez has injury headaches to deal with David Ngog and Dirk Kuyt are both doubtful while Fernando Torres, Martin Skrtel, Martin Kelly, Emiliano Insua and Fabio Aurelio are all injured, Maxi Rodriguez is cup-tied.
For Atletico, Sergio Aguero returns after he was suspended in the first leg.
Predicted Line-up:
Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Sotiris Kyrgiakos, Daniel Agger, Javier Mascherano, Lucas Leiva, Alberto Aquilani, Yossi Benayoun, Steve Gerrard, Ryan Babel
Kick off is at 8:05PM
this is going to be tense…..
What formation are you thinking of with this lineup, Antoine? I know Babel is supposed to play up front, but with that lineup there is 4 CM’s (Masch, Lucas, Aqua, Stevie) unless Stevie plays out wide like he has for England. Are you thinking a 4-2-3-1?
Johnson-Carra-Soto-Agger
Masch-Lucas
Gerrard – Aqua – Yossi
Babel
We desperately need a winger (and a striker… and a left-back…)! It would be fantastic if Maxi could play… he’ll definitely come in handy in European play next season.
Sod it let’s just play 4-6 and just have the midfield pussing forward at every chance
=========== Reina ============
GJ === Carra == Giant == Agger
====== Masch == Lucas ========
============ Aqua ============
===== Gerrad ==== Yossi ======
============ Babel ===========
We need to score… c’mon Reds……
No width Freeze? We’ll need wide players to get it and pull them apart really in my opinion they aren’t the most organised team about so hopefully yossi will stick to the flanks instead of cutting inside and Gerrard will play out wide as well
It’s a bit 4-3-3 :D we need to attack. Gerrard and Yossi still can go wide but the same time supporting Babel in attack. We’ll get width from wingback, though DAgger is not a wingback but I believe he can still do a decent job there, we have two DMs to cover our wingbacks when they go attack. We need to play compact in the middle, don’t give them any ball and keep attacking.
We cannot let them score. 2-0 for The Reds.