Here we go again…

By: Magnusson | September 16th, 2008

The first thing that came to mind when the information came down that we would be facing Liverpool was disappointment at first since we already drew them last year. Then fear took its place since noone forgot how humiliating our last confrontation at the Vélodrome went down. Liverpool blew past us as if we were Barnsley (Actually, no, Barnsley would have performed much better than we did).

And that’s where my optimism comes from. Last season, not to look for any excuses, we played Liverpool at the worst moment of our season. We were coming back rather strong in the Ligue but Samir Nasri was just coming back from meningitis-like flu and we somehow thought that we should be installing some kind of physical game and the English side just ate us alive. There were no game last year.

Tonight will have to be much different. Tonight we’ll have to play like we did in Anfield (I watched the game again last night for memeories), which will consist of short passes and fluidity based plays. At any given moment of that game, out players brought generosity without trying to outdo their opponents physically. And that threw them way off.

I don’t believe that Liverpool can put the same type of punishment on us the way they did last season. But the truth will come from the pitch and tonight, we’ll have to play our best game this season yet. Reassuringly, we were great against Bordeaux on saturday and should have won that game. But our defense was solid (Hilton was noticeably better than he has been in his last few outings), Mandanda will have to forget the critics and focus back on Marseille but I don’t really worry about the kid. In the midfield, if the pairing of Cheyrou and Mbami was good, we’ll have to see who Lorik Cana will be playing with (i’m thinking Cana-Cheyrou for the moment). Up there, If Koné , Ben Arfa and Niang are sure to play, who will be playing between Ziani or Valbuena is the main question.

All in all, we’ll have the Vélodrome with us but that won’t matter much unless it’s 1-1 at the 89th minute and we have the ball. Our team is much better than it was last season but so is theirs.
I believe we can win. I believe in us. We can make them walk alone once more.