I read that idiots comment on the main site and the article itself wasn’t much
better, Now the Tabloids have Rafa 2nd favourite to get sacked .
Its not much of a leap of the imagination to think where the tabloids draw their inspirations for such crap,which then goes to feed the so-called fans more crap
As for Bolton i think if we get the early goal it will be another Stoke. Bolton will
set out to stop Torres with a few “bodychecks” and try for some free kicks so
be prepared for some dives.
YNWA

Very well said, Ger. I had forgotten about aurelio. I think that makes sense, at least until aquilani is fit and ready to go.

Of course, I also think that the other option that you and others have mentioned of dropping stevie back in central midfield and putting benny in the hole should work. However, this is under the condition that Riera plays on the left. For some strange reason, he has not been used that often as of yet this season; is it because he is still unfit or is it because he might be sold?? I certainly do not want to see Babel being played there, because for me, he can’t do anything in the mifield postion. One alternative is maybe to put either Insua or Dossena in the left hand spot.

Against bolton, it all depends on whether we can get that first goal quickly. I am confident that we can take a win here, but I envisage a frustrating and tight game. Wish it was as simple as our last outing where kuyty and aurelio wrapped up the game so simply but beautifully…

A very good Blog as usual, I am not used to comment here but I enjoy very much this area of the site, Why? Because, in here we have some people who have abundant knowledge of football and in here we have at least some sports Men and Women. A sports person is the one who will accept a defeat if necessary, You will not win every single match otherwise there will be no need of competition, As you said in your blog, We played realy well to win this game in another day we would have won it confortably but then Villa had lady luck in their pocket so a sports person should accept it and prepare for the next battle, it is not that the Boys didnt put in more effort they did the same way they did against stoke and even more, but it was not to be.

Our team is very good and I am sure we are a match to any one, When I watch the team in action I am realy filled with hope, when you see how Insua or Johnson support the attack something we had never had in recent seasons you cant fail to see the future, it is just some small details of finishing otherwise I tell you we have a very strong team, and considering we still have AQ,DA and FA to come. I dont have any worry at all, last season we had a record of scoring many goals, this year it will be the same mark word in May 2010

About the system, I would stick with the same line up as Villa, cause even though we lost, I cant fault our game that day, If it does not work on our side (which I doubt) I will then consider changing it, but in case we have FA available from injury, I could play him for Lucas.

My Prediction, I am the Third person to post, and I found Two People Arleady, these number (2) and (3)One or both will have a significant on the score, and whatever the case it will be positive to LFC

Great Post Gerry.
I completely agree with you there are shitload of kneejerkers who I refuse to recognise as Reds fans.
I seriously shake my head at those articles such as that in the main site and the comments at RAWK which make us seem as bad as the Manckers.
Anyway I hope We pick ourselves up, and win. I’ll go for a 2-1 win for Liverpool.

Well said Gerry.

Thank you so much fer stating that the line up needs changing, in particular the Lucas situation.

In the last blog, way too many people seem to think fans have got it in fer Lucas. Sad fact of the matter, at this point in time, he just ain’t good enough fer the role he has been asked to play.

Our midfield play, to use one yer many gems, was flat as a witches tit during the villa game.

You have come out & said that either Stevie G or Aurelio needs to replace Lucas doesn’t detract from the fact – he needs to be REPLACED.

While the defeats have not been entirely his fault, he has been asked to fill some pretty big boots. And he has fallen woefully short.

As fer the champion’s league draw, makes no real difference. If we continue to play like we did v villa, we run the real risk of getting turned over.

The stats you posted only indicate how wasteful we were & how we currently lack the clinical touch.

Early days yet but the margin of error is now next to nothing.

Bolton will be a real test seeing that they tend to specialise in our achilles heel.

ps: Oh yeah, any news on when Aurelio, Agger, Aquilani will be fit? Will Aurelio at least make the bench this sat?

Great post as usual and while the line up you suggest would do a job against most teams and would be as strong as most of our other line ups I don’t think it would have been anymore successful against Villa then the one we started with. Alonso sat deeper than Lucas who gets forward a lot more, not too sure where you get that he sits deep with Masch from? It was our Achilles heel last year as well with teams sitting deep and us dominating, creating chance after chance but failing to score, hence all the draws and the odd loss with Alonso in the midfield. With Johnson and Insua we have a better chance of breaking down teams that sit deep we, even though we played some decent football, just are not firing from a goal scoring point of view at the moment. I honestly don’t think it has anything to do with our midfield, the same midfield that trounced the Mancs 4-1. When Gerrard dropped back into midfield for the last 30 odd minutes we did not look any more threatening then when we started the second half. In fact the way we started I thought we might even go on to win it we where so dominant and where creating chance after chance. We could have had Clark Kent in the midfield and still the ball would not have run for us, it was one of those days.

It really pisses me off this moronic search for a scape goat. The team as a whole need to sharpen up in the final third and this is not the fault of any one person but mopre as a collective. The missed placed final pass from any number of players from Torres, Gerrard, Benny, Kuyt, Masch and yes even Lucas is our collective problem and not the sole responsibility of any one person. What ever team Rafa puts out it will be strong enough to beat every team in the Prem on any given day as we proved when we beat Chelsea and the Mancs with out the full services of Gerrard, Torres and Alonso at certain times. However we need to be sharper and more clinical when the opportunities arise or else we will find our selves with the same problem as last year no matter who we play in the midfield. For my money Alonso could have played and the result would have still been the same.

Great post Gerry. Entertaining and keeping the morale up…you’re our very own Vera Lynn.
You do contradict yourself a little though. You quite rightly suggest that Villa fluked the result (or at least we fluked the loss) so why a need to change anything?
I think the team is suffering from a dose of nerves from the very physical (read walking wounded) start to the campaign and Torres in particular isn’t getting protection from the game officials (though sometimes that’s when he’s at his most dangerous, when he gets his mad up – remember his response to Reading a couple of seasons ago)?
So for the moment changes aren’t necessary…so you can bet Rafa will make some!!
Agree with KeithSA about Gerrard dropping back to midfield.
Didn’t get to see the Colossus last night. Will he be good for the team against Bolton?
Hate the results. Love the Team. YNWA

Gerry I hope your right about last minute transfers but I’m about to give up hope. In fact I can’t wait for the window to close so we can just concentrate on the lads we have.
.
Personally I still think something is going on behind closed doors, Rafa has walked straight down the tunnel two home games in a row. No standing there clapping the lads, no salute to the crowd, quick handshake and gone.
.
Some of the more senior players appear to be going through the motions, almost with dis-interest. While Johnson on the other hand appears to be a one man gang. Jamie’s playing like he’s in a street gang that’s about to loose it’s turf, while SG just looked sad the whole game.
.
I understand the owners may have pulled the purse strings but well as sportsmen you just have to pull up your sleeves and do the job. (I understand how difficult it must be, but that’s their job).
.
Anyway on to Bolton, we are going to need a strong big pack with sneaky hooker and half back. Oh sorry there not a Rugby League Team anymore!
.
I think it will be 3-0, with the hope some spark comes back into the eyes of Mr B and the players at large. Our motto has to be the harder it get the harder we become.
.
The reds go marching on.

Super stuff Gerry as usual,

Good shout about Aurelio being an option in the middle.I`d forgotton about that to be honest.

I would like to see Stevie drop back to midfield for tomorrows game.He would give us more penetration from the middle than Lucas would also bringing in Riera would give us much needed with.

Even though we had the lions share of posession and shots on monday night i still feel we ran out of ideas against a hard working Villa side who defended in numbers.We had no width because insua and johnson were restricted getting forward most of the time.When insua finally got in behind we scored.

Riera can give us that width at the reebok.

Saying that if Rafa stiks with Lucas we should still take the points.

Gaz,

Christian purslo was yesterday asked if we`d be doing anymore business in this window and he answered “I wouldn`t bank on it”.

Another thing Gerry.

People panic too much altogether these days.It must be the internet age or more precisely the Sly Sports generation where success is needed yesterday.

Watching that game on telly i didn`t hear any atmosphere.A guy i work with was at it and he goes a fair bit.He said it was pretty bad and i think he was being generous saying that.

We slad the mancs,arse and chavs for their dim atmosphere but sadly Anfield is turning that way now too.

Keith SA: I disagree with your comment about a “moronic search for a scapegoat” – I think fans in here and elsewhere have a right to question why things have gone badly wrong at the start of this season. As I mentioned in previous posts – this year was always going to be tougher than last season with City, Chelsea and a resurgent Arsenal a lot stronger than before. So it was always going to be imperative that we get off to a strong, solid start. The fact that we haven’t, after having such a strong finish to last season, means that fans in my view have every right to say “what the fuck has gone wrong”. But I do agree, there are a few too many doom-sayers and Raf-outers for my liking. But I tell ya, lose tomorrow, and my view will turn quite dark – not saying by any means Rafa out – but I will go as far as saying that our title hopes will be in tatters

How much has Wenger spent building this seasons Arsenal’s side?.Against Celtic they were always 2 steps ahead.G and M should play in the centre tomorrow with Benny and Torres up front.Kuyt and Riera on the wings will help deliver max points.

Celtic are more like a Championship side – not a good barometer at all – but I have a sneaky feeling about Arsenal this year. Wenger has groomed this bunch for last two seasons – Diaby, Song and Denilson all look much better players than season before. If they can avoid serious injuries to key players like Fabregas, Van Persie and Arshavin – I think they’ll run Chelsea and Utd very close

Arthur G, do yopu think 4th is the best Liverpool can hope for?.Guillembalague.com thinks that the Reds will still challenge for the title.2-0 to the Reds with Torres 17 and Benny 56 scoring.

At long last gerry, you’ve addressed the midfield issue officially. My preferred line-up would have been the same, even the alternative line-ups! Bang on right about voronin too. But I thought you would address the issue of weighing up unnecessary ‘lethal burden’ of title talk. Why talk about the title chance, title race bla bla bla so early in the season ? Even the players won’t stop. Take one game at a time.For god’s sake : ” The SELF-DESTRUCT button is the PANIC button. “

Burgerman: I was being a bit cheeky – I deffo expect us to be in the Top 4 shakeup – my worry though is can we win it? With our current midfield setup the answer is No. But a change of system and hang until Aquaman is fit – yeah, we could still be in the hunt

So Arthur G. Posis it is alright it vilify, spew hatred, boo a youngster and blame him for our two losses entirely, we magically change Lucas and we would have won those two games? Well as you said everyone is entitled to an opinion and mine is it is a moronic response with no basis to reality. The team as a whole should take the blame not just one person, especially if that person was not, by a long stretch the most of underperforming player on the field. We had a good win against Stoke and looked good as a team. If we had scored those early goals we could have beaten Villa by 5 by all accounts. Moronic search for a scape goat fits it perfectly, again in my opinion.

Arthur of course we can win it. Thats why we’re in this thing in the first place. Maybe it’s about belief but at the end of a storm, and lets face it LFC is a storm and always has been, anything can happen.
.
If you’re not in it to win, then why bother. We’re there don’t worry.

Keith, sorry I missed your post, Here Here. Win as a team lose well we all no the rest.

Nice blog Gerry.

It has to be said that we get to read the most balanced comments in this forum. It is very important for us as Liverpool Fans(Particularly young fans like me)to grow along with time,to make sensible comments towards each development happening with Liverpool FC. I think this is the best place to achieve that.

Nice Champions League draw for us. Its not tough but its not easy either. Probably it is good that Lyon and Fiorentina are in our group. Not hugely difficult fixtures but at the same time we will not be allowed to take anything lightly.

Regarding Aston Villa match, i need not say more. As i have mentioned in the last post, there is absolutely no need to panic.It was a poor day at office for us. Lets move on. 4-0 to us at Bolton.

We’ll agree to disagree Keith But I never believe in booing – unless its towards Gary Neville

I`m with Keith here lads Lucas has long been made the scapegoat.

Christ we could play tomorrow,not start Lucas and lose,you would still get morons who would blame lucas even though they didn`t see the game.Believe me,it happens i`ve seen it.

The only change I would make to the side for Bolton is to play Reira at LM and tell Yossi to take a seat on the bench and bring him on around the 60 minute mark wherever he’s needed. Hopefully it’s to spell Stevie once we’re 0-3 up?

I’m not sure what’s going on with Albert, but if he’s able to play, he’ll provide us with some additional width. I can really see him and Insua getting on pretty well together. I thought the two of them linked up well last season when Insua was in the lineup.

Our goals this season have come from the flanks, and Albert is the only actual outside midfielder on our squad who doesn’t seem to mind getting a little bit of chalk in his boots.

Chins up lads, I’m not going to push the panic button just yet. Dropped points at Bolton would be another story, but I think we’ll find a way to grind out the three points.

I don’t think it will be pretty, but I’ll take three points over attractive football any day. 0-1, 1-2, whatever it takes, just hoping to see all 3 of those precious points.

The Lucas issue is ONE of the problems (and a big one in my eyes). The others being bad luck, Alonso’s departure and poor defending from set plays. I think we’ll beat Bolton though – don’t care if we score in the last minute off the ref’s arse to be honest!

Lads we need to put the “missing alonso” thing to bed.Of course we miss him,what team wouldn`t miss a layer of his class.Thing is he`s gone,he`s history,yesterdays news.

The fact is his replacement Aquaman hasn`t got a chance to play so at the mo Lucas is his replacement like it or not,he is.

So if we drop points please don`t go back and state the obvious time and time again.

Stoke have signed Tuncay.He IMO would have been a decent signing as back up for the forward line for a cheap price.

Shows how bad a financial situation we`re in.

Apparently we don’t even have 5 million to spend on Tuncay. Bummer, I agree with you Timmy he would have been a nice addition to the squad.

It will be nice once this transfer window closes. We may appear a little thin right now, because we are due to injuries, but we do have some top notch players coming back into the squad in a couple of weeks.

Adding Reira, Agger, Aqualini and Aurelio will make our bench seem a lot stronger on matchday’s then it has been.

Gerry,

I did think of Aurelio for the Xabi role recently.

If fit I woudl try him there because the minimum number of changes we make to positions the better. If we switch Gerrard back and Benny and …we are making quite a few changes to the starting 11 and their regular positions.

A good team don’t become bad overnight so let’s get 3 points tomorrow and go on a long winning run.

Timmy mate, can’t be arsed going into it all again, but I said what happened with Tuncay and our transfers in general. I hope Gerry’s bit of info turns out to be true, but I can’t see it and I think it more unlikely with each passing day. I hope I’m wrong though.

But here’s what I wanted to really say…
The problem is the more succesful anything becomes, the more and more people it attracts. The bad effect of this is double fold…. the more people that attach themselves, the more knobheads there is amongst them, and then the people who’ve always been there, the very people woh made it good in the first place, are either puched aside or walk away.

Take 3 things mentioned in this blog…
1: The blog itself
2: RAWK
3: Anfield.

1: THE BLOG: Think of the knobheads that have breezed through here in the past. Thankfully, they don’t last too long because it’s too small for them to get away with any sort of shite and they are run off pretty much as soon as they sussed out. But they have become more frequent as the blog has become more succesful and if the blog itself was in a different form, they would have probably hung in there and started to destroy the place. But think of the good posters that we have lost from here, and some of the shite that replaced them. But as I said, thankfully the blog is in a format that can’t, or at least shouldn’t, be able to withstand that.

2: RAWK: Well, the above pretty much explains the problems over there. It’s massive and so amongst it’s huge user base their is a large amount of knobheads. Law of averages. Sods Law. Whatever you want to call it. But RAWK used to be great until the dickheads started to take over. That’s why they have moderators and ban people. But it still can’t hold back the tidal wave of shite that’s out there. It’s also lost great contributors but for the most part once there gone, they’re gone for good.

Shame that, but that shows what’s happening at Anfield…

3: Anfield/The atmosphere: I started warning you all seasons ago what was happening, and I’ve gone about it many times so I won’t bother going on now. But it breaks my heart, and here’s the worse of it…
If you think it’s going bad now, wait until we actually win the league.

Karoake anybody?

Oh and it’s right to think of how to get the season back on track asap, but at the end of the day…
None of it’s down to Lucas. Except for a really bad 15 minutes or so against Villa, when all about him was also falling apart, the lad hasn’t really done anything wrong.

Cue the you’ve changed your tune posts. But the fact is, I haven’t. All I’ve stated from start to finish of all this is… Lucas isn’t ready to take on that role in a title winning team.

Will he ever be?

I don’t know, but the bad start to the season isn’t the lad’s fault. And yes, along with the other problems I have stated, Keith is entirely right… This generation of Sky raised footy fans are mostly tits and have this ridiculous need for a scapegoat.

A total disgrace but just another of the many of modern day football.

Here’s another depressing fact of modern day football….
After closing down World Soccer Daily a week ago with a Churchillian style speech of how hatred and terrorism had won, Steve Cohen is now going back on air tomorrow with a totally different show… World Football Daily.

Yes, closing down the show, close to tears, with the Stars and Stripes playing in the background, Mr Steven Cohen, the defender of free speech in The U S of A, claimed the anti-semite, racist, terrorist fans of LFC, had so scarred him by their threats to his families safety, that he had no choice to close the show.

According to Mr Cohen, hatred had won. Anti-semitism had won. Racism had won. Terrorism had won.

And a few days later apparently it hasn’t.

The mind truly boggles.

I hope Gerrys right to FS.As i said earlier Christian Purslo was yesterday asked would we buy any more and he looked at Nick Collins as if he asked him for his shirt and said”I wouldn`t bank on it” so i ain`t going to.

As for Cohen,i`ll think he`ll need a lot of good luck and a few silly sponsors if he thinks he`ll ever disrespect the people of Liverpool or any other city or race for that matter and get away with it.

Who`s against who in Head to head tomorrow?

I`m top of that table on points makes a change from me being bottom of the main league.

Gerry i see your name sake is top of the leaugue whislt your keeping yourself warm under the pack like meself!

Great blog Gerry.

I see that United have banned the Liverpool physio Dave Galley from joining England for the upcoming England games in case he gets inside information on United players injuries.

He wouldn’t find anything new.
Ferdinand…prick
Rooney…prick
Carrick…prick.

What annoys me mostly about the scapegoating, is not so much that the people making the statement ar nobheads of the highest order (they are out there) but that some people who know footy are making these statements.

Its why I took the time to argue with Digger. Digs not a nob’ead (even if I happen to call him one form time to time ) and while we don’t have the same opinion about a lot of things, he at least can support his opinion with 8 hours of research, culminating in War & Peace.

People are calling for SG to be dropped back into midfield. I get it. I even suggested it as an option months ago when people were scrambling for 3rd rate Croatian names they’d seen on youtube as a “possible replacement for Xabi”.

But here’s the rub.
First … when we did that against Villa, Stevie G not only gave away a needless penalty at a CRUCIAL time in the game (but was largely not slated for it) he provided very little in the way of “more ideas going forward” or “more ideas about how to break down a stubborn defense” or for that matter, found teammates with his passes, with more regularity than Lucas had been.

Now hold you knickers a minute and please understand my point… I’m not saying that SG can’t do those things… but that against Villa he didn’t.

I don’t have the stats, (coz I can’t be arsed with them) but a number of articles (Barrett int he Times among them) have pointed out that Lucas’ pass completion percentage vs Villa was far greater in his 65/70 minutes than SG’s was over the 90… and by quite a margin.

Also… this idea that Lucas can’t “carry the midfield” would have been a great philosophical point to make last season, when there was little evidence to the contrary… but simply put… watch the 3 games so far played… he has done just that.

Of the 3 games so far, the consistent performers… those who have NOT had a bad game, are Reina, Insua, Johnson… and Lucas.
Now I’m not talking world beater, man-of-the-match performances, I’m talking consistantly rate a 6/7 or better for all 3 games.
The rest have played well in some and aweful in others.

As I pointed out in an earlier comment, I watched Spuirs twice, Stoke three times (not coz we won, but coz I happened on a 3rd broadcast on a sleepless night) and Villa twice.

During those viewings, I suspended my opinion on Lucas and actually watched what he was doing and how he was doing it. (and the rest ofthe players, how we lined up, etc.)

I call on all of you to do the same… with an objective, unbiased eye… and see if it doesn’t at least give you pause for thought.

Timmy mate, I got this from a very reliable source, and then some things happened which made it look like it was going to happen… The plan was to just buy Johnson, a kid from Galatasary, Arda Turan and Tugay.

Of course Johnson went through immeadiately, and it looked like the Turan deal was going to happen, and then the Alonso thing started. This fucked up all the plans, but in the meantime something must have happened on the money front because we all know what happened then.

And Rafa even had to loan out Nemeth to ensure we got some cover at the back. Yep. That’s the only reason we got the big hairy arsed Greek for just 2 million quid.

So, I wouldn’t hold my breath on anything happening on the transfer front. I can’t speak for Gerry, but he probably got a bit info before all the shit hit the fan. And I hope that remains the case, but can you honestly see Rafa being given any dough?

It’s only a few days since he stormed out of Anfield after speaking with Hicks and Gillette. And though the rumours of him leaving proved to be wrong, there is no denying he was refused money by the owners for Kyriagos and stormed off. That’s fact. It’s common knowledge and it came from John Aldridge. So, I don’t think you can knock the source.

As for that lovely man Cohen. He hasn’t got a sponsor. He’s gone onto a subscription based internet webcast. So if you want it, you have to pay for it. But he’ll have to pay all the expenses for that, and draw a wage himself. And judging by the amount of support I have seen for the man, I don’t think he’ll be around to poison the internet for long.

Well, I hope not. What a truly disgusting piece of work that fella is.

PS MTMMC… that made me laugh

Expectation being what it was, and results being what they’ve been….

1. How many games does the Greek get, before he’s marked as “yet another shite Benitez purchase” if he doesn’t perform like some cloned Terminator/ bastard love-child of J.C./J.T./Stam at his best and Beckenbaeur?

(coz remember he has to perform better than JC, Skrtel, Agger, and even Ayala)

2. How many games does the Aquilani get, without scoring an overhead bicycle kick and 2 40yard screamers, before he’s marked as “yet another shite Benitez purchase” who “brings nothing to our midfield” and is “worse than Lucas”?

(coz again, he’s gonna have to be better than SG, better than Masch, beter than Lucas [cue Dig’s “that won’t be hard” and still… even… better than Alonso)

MTMMC…
“He wouldn’t find anything new.
Ferdinand…prick
Rooney…prick
Carrick…prick.”

The reason Scum sought the ban is that they didn’t want Galley doing a closer inspection, and discovering that in actual fact

Ferdinand… has no prick
Rooney… has no prick
Carrick… has no prick

Aitch, Stevie G is indeed not playing to the best of his capabilities right now. But that’s the capabilities of a top world class footballer who can stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the all time greats of the game.

There’s where I think you are missing the point…
You say people are saying that Lucas can’t carry the midfield.

I agree – that’s not true. He can indeed do that role.

But people aren’t just saying that. Some are saying he’s downright shite. Which is obviously ignorant.

What I can’t understand though is, why can’t people understand what I am saying?

I haven’t said any of the above, and I’ve argued the point for about 5 days now. I’ve even shown what we should be aiming for – our own glorious past of the 70′s and 80′s, instead of moaning about the Mancs, Chavs or Arse of today. I’ve even put in video’s of the type of player we need in there. I even tried to start a little voting process on here for people’s ideal central midfielder to play that position for us, with the other players we have… in the hope that it would show the sort of quality needed in central midfield to win the league.

Still it didn’t get understood.

I feel like pulling my last few hairs out, but hopefully this will clear it up…
If we want to win the title, Lucas is not the sort of player that will bring us it. In fact, he’s not good enough to play such an important role – week in week out – in any team that wants to win the league.

That’s it. I know all about Aqualani. I know why Lucas is there. I know he hasn’t been to blame for the defeats. I know he has played better than lots of the others. I know this that and the other.

But the bottom line is… At this stage in his career/development, he’s not up to being the main creative force in a title winning team.

Will he ever be?

How long is a piece of string?

Aitch… Stevie G and Torres are even getting ragged by people – not for being off form for a couple of games, but for…
Gerrard: past his best
Torres: Sussed out by defenders and now showing his proper level.

There’s 75% of the world population. Most of them have the internet. Most of them adn their dog have an opinion. And the vast majority of them are complete and utter knobheads

PS… That should say 75% of the world’s population now say they support a football team.

Good blog Gerry as always.

I will be a bit off topic here but am looking forward to the match at Old Trafford this weekend. Although this is a tough one to predict, I’ll go for a Manure bashing. That is of course looking at Arse’s form at the start of the season. Manure are looking a bit sloppy and will possibly face a defeat this weekend.

Would prefer not to comment on the blog.

FS… I never attacked your position. I understand (or think I do) exactly what you are saying…. to some extent I think I’ve even agreed with you.

The only difference I see is that I at least require at least one poor performance from the lad THIS SEASON before I’ll completely acquiesce to the idea that Lucas cannot carry the midfield for the entire season.

For 3 games he has done… that’s all I’m saying. Can he for the rest of the season… maybe not, but we can’t say that for certain till the lad has a shite game and doesn’t.

I understand your call for him to be dropped in lieu of SG vs Bolton (and yes, know you’ve said if Rafa sticks with the same team, you wouldn’t be bothered) but here’s the way I see it.

I think we’ll beat Bolton…

If we drop him and win. Que the “I told you so” brigade. AND mroe importantly what does that do for the lad’s confidence?

If we stick with him, he continues his 3 game run of good performances and other step up and we win… big confidence booster all around.

The cons of that, of course, are…

If we stick with him and lose another…. and the naysayers will unleash the unholy dogs of hell upon his arse! (no matter how well he performs)

Of course, we could drop him and still lose.

It’s all ifs and buts… I’m not interested in the “evidence” of previous seasons… it don’t mean dick to me… I just think he’s done enough to warrant his position thus far this season.

Great blog Gerry

Auerilo crossed my mind also but he aint fit so I said nothing

Timmy I’m playing Lurgan in the head to head this week

Looks like a tough one for the yellow bellied man from the gap

over and out

Don’t be shy KK… your last couple of comments have been good efforts.
Just make sure you’ve thought out what yopu have to say and can back it up.
Agree or disagree… its the thought and reasoning behind an opinion that counts.

That can be debated. Hit-n-runs are no use to anyone.
For what its worth, I agree. I’m thinking the Arse could seriously humiliate Scum this weekend…. and wouldn’t that be lovely?

Off to work now.

Excellent Blog Gerry
I think you might be on to something about Aurelio. He is able to feed the ball quite well and the position might lead to him being injured a bit less.
I may be biased, but I think the press are getting worse. It seems as if they are determined to get under our manager and players skin. I see headings like “Rafa slams Gerrard” and other vastly exaggerated bullshit. I wouldn’t mind if this was Jamie Kanwar but this is from the “real” press.
Next we will read “Rafa kicks Torres in the bollox”

Aitch, KopKing-I’m not sure what to make of the Mancs-Arse game on Saturday.

The Mancs have been less than impressive thus far and everything Arsenal touches turns to gold. With the way football goes, we’ll probably see the Mancs pummel them 5-0.

The thing sticking in the back of my mind is that this is the same Arsenal group that got done 4-1 by the Mancs over two legs in the CL last April/May (including a 1-3 at the Emirates) and also got dusted 1-4 by the Chavs in the Emirates. Yes, I know Arshavin was unable to play in the CL games.

I’ll do what I always do and root for a draw with a couple of red cards for each side. Dropped points everywhere.

Aitch (#38) pointed out: Reina, Insua, Johnson… and Lucas have been our best/most consistent performers over the first three games.

I’m thinking you won’t win many matches when your keeper and two fullbacks are your best performers.

Ivcjmac,

That may be the same Arse team but i think Vermalen has been a good signing for them.Early days i know but the seem to be playing with a completely different mentality.Injury permitting i think they`ll be closer than people think.

Sorry Aitch lad, I didn’t mean that post to look like I was taking a pop. It’s not.

In fact, the frustration on my behalf is not being able to explain meself properly. I’m a bit thick really. But it does me head in that no one seems to grasp this simple concept…
Lucas isn’t shite. He’s a tidy little footballer. He’s even good enough to relie on to run things when we are in trouble through injuries etc. But to exspect the lad to run/boss the central midfield of a team that is going to win the league is not only ridiculous but also savegely unfair upon Lucas himself.

For fucks sake… look back at the fellas who have played that position in title winning teams in recent, nevermind other, times.

And that in no way equates to the likes of… He’s shite. He couldn’t get into any of our rivals teams. Or any other such cack.

It’s a very simple statement that should be simple enough for anyone to grasp… Lucas is not ready to boss a title winning team’s midfield.

Will he ever be?
Only time will tell.

In fact, there’s a bit too much own back slapping going on here…
Everyone agreeing with Gerry’s statement about the place being a little oasis of sanity but already getting ready to go suicidal if we don’t win at Bolton…. “Oh it’s over. We’re fucked. Blah, blah, blah”

No We’re Fucking Not!

FFS… grasp onto to the parts of the blog that don’t buff up your ego!

Gerry is entirely right… there is 3 stages of the season. This is the first one. If you want to start moaning and whingeing at least wait until Christmas when the first stage is over.

If you want to start glowing lyrically about Arsenal, at least wait until the cold and muddy wet pitches, starts to affect them and their glorious football.

If you want to start going on about Chelsea’s consistent grinding out of results, please at least wait until they’ve ground out a few more than the 3 they have.

If you want to write off LFC and….

Oh fuck it. Can’t be arsed.

What about this then FS, put SG back into midfield at the expense of LL and let little Pacheco play in the hole, just behind Torres.

I know that it’s a long-shot, and will probably never happen, but I watched him last night for the ressies and he was the best man on the pitch by a country mile. The boy Ecclestone done well but Pacheco was everywhere and on another level. Great first touch, awareness of the space around and the KILLER pass. How they lost that match last night I will never know. Sound familiar?

Gerry I was thinking about Aurelio as well but, unfortunately, I don’t think that he will be fit enough, for the next few weeks at least. Especially since Riera cannot make the first XI after missing a bit of pre-season.

I`m certainly not going to write the redmen off.I spent the whole week in fecking work trying to knock some sense into so called LFC fans that our season isn`t over and i`m knocking my head against the wall at this stage.I spent the week defending Lucas,not that i think he`s the second coming or anything but i was defending the fact that he`s not as bad as people try to make him out to be.I`m not going to bother any longer FS.

I said the Arse were impressive so far and seem to be playing with a good attitude.That was just in reply to Ivjmac who thought they were the samer thing the mancs done over in the semi last season.

I for one don`t think they`ll finish above us,once the red machine gets running we`ll be on our way!!!

“samer thing” (Same team) DOH!

Great Blog as always, someplace up there together with Paul Tomkins’. It is very disheartening to read all the rest of the nonsense and I hope at the end of the season, all of them would be serving themselves huge humble pies! But I doubt as they will go on finding other excuses to slate Rafa and LFC.

Chin up no matter what and may we win by a big margin tomorrow to at least close some the copy-and-paste so-called journalism yakking traps.

No need to worry Timmy, some ‘expert fan’ will be around to correct those spelling/grammatical errors and tell you how it should be written!

I haven’t said too much on the subject but for me it’s all a fuss about nothing. Let’s give it another few games to see how it pans out. Last year the ‘fans’ were complaining that we were winning ugly and were lucky to get 3 points. Now, I think, that we are playing much better football than at the same point last season, but now we need to be resilient and grind out the wins. What?

Heads-up for everyone. Shit happens and LFC will lose matches, whether they play well or not and it has nothing to do with Alonso!

Nough said and look forward to taking on the muck savages, win or lose.

YNWA

‘If we want to win the title, Lucas is not the sort of player that will bring us it. In fact, he’s not good enough to play such an important role -week in week out- in any team that wants to win the title.’
Thank. Fucken. God. (exhales deeply……realises he is not going insane…..) Finally, someone else is on the same page as me. Fatty I dont think I could have made my point any more concisely or perfectly than that. Kudos to you and your literary skills for saying what I have been trying and apparently failing to say for months but you nailed in 2 sentences. And believe me I’m not taking those 2 sentences out of context. I read the rest of your post and agree with all of it. But that paragraph just stood out like a beacon of truth that cannot be avoided (can the truth ever really be avoided?).
Anyway, great post, and great blog Ger. Heres to a 2-0 win tomorrow lads. Dont care how we get it it or how it happens but my God do we need one right now so everything on Red dealer!

P.S, where you at LB?

Lurgan, it makes me look I’m trying to be a smartarse. But fuck it, time to speak plain… for the last 2 season’s, I was in here constantly saying there is a boy called Insua in the ressies who is going to be the bollacks.

So, fuck sounding like a smart arse, I think I can claim point proved.

And for the last 2 season’s or so, I have been in here saying there is a kid called Pacheco on his way.

So, I’m made up you have now seen what I have been saying…. believe me, the kid Pacheco is very special indeed. As I’ve said many times, he’s Dalglish like in his skills. And that’s not going OTT. He really could go on to be that good. But people refuse to listen or understand…. he’s just not ready yet, and Rafa is bringing him through at the right rate.

PATIENTCE BROTHERS PATIENTCE!

And Digger I sometimes wonder… is it my illiteracy or others? Glad you have stopped pulling your hair out. But don’t think that’s you’re point proven….
I’ve been knocking me head against the wall saying since the Villa game – Lucas isn’t shite. He’s a cracking, little player. He’s just not good enough – or ready yet – to be bossing the midfield for a title winning team.

Thank fuck the penny has dropped. But it still doesn’t solve the real problems. Which aren’t Lucas or, well, here’s a clue… It begins with a H and a G.

Right I’m off for the night though, but…
Does anybody in here remember Bonieck?

He was a Polish lad who played for Juventus. He partnered Platinni in midfield for them. After rooting through my head for days, he is the nearest great player I can think of who had a style something similair to Lucas.

If Lucas develops into that, we are onto a real winner. But – and I know it’s a case of necessecity right now – he is not that yet. And if he does become it, Masch is not the sort of player who will bring the best out of him.

But like I always say… that’s why Rafa gets the big bucks.

Night. Night.

Rome – e-mail me at [email protected]

Apologies for not getting back, been out of computer contact this last few days.

I dont think its about proving a point per se Fatty, I think its just that you made it so clearly. Broke it down to brass tacks so to speak. You simplified and crystalized my broader point in 2 lines. Sometimes I too felt like I was banging my head against a wall and reading that was like ‘finally, someone else feels the same, I’m not fucken crazy!’ Ya know what I mean?

I didn’t take it as a pop FS. I don’t think we’re miles apart on this issue, aside from the decision on whether to stick with Lucas for now, or rest him.

Someone please explain this to me… in a reasonable fashion.

Lucas has played well for 3 games… and aside from 1 foul and subsequent misplaced header, he’s hardly put a foot wrong…. but somehow… this equals… he is not ready to boss the midfield of a title winning team.

Our forward players on the other hand, have collectively failed to score more than 1 goal in 2 of those games…. (and worse yet, Keystone Cop’ed some gilt-edged chances) yet barely a murmer to suggest that any… ANY … of our forward line are not good enough to count on for goals in a title winning side.

I find that interesting.

I know “form is temporary – class is permanent” blah, blah, blah, but how about a little consistency in evaluations here people? SG and Torres should not be untouchable for criticism because of their name or what they did 2 seasons ago, if their current performances aren’t up to par… for whatever reason.

FS, you mentioned SG wasn’t up to his usual standards (not a direct quote, but that’s more or less what you said) but lets be honest here… against Villa SG wasn’t up to Lucas standards, let alone his own!

We didn’t lose to Villa because Lucas was horrible in midfield. We lost to Villa because Torres could only score 1 and SG, Benny, Kuyt, etc. couldn’t score any, despite a hat-load of opportunities being created to do so, while we conceded 3.

… someohow, that all became Lucas Leiva’s fault???

…oh… and our Defense has conceded 5 in 3 games yet not a single suggestion questioning the title winning credentials of our defense.
Hmmmm?

Talking about crazy did anyone see Carra’s face when he was given offside
for the Babel Goal, what with that bandage he reminded me of James Coburn
when he’s in the hospital in Cross of iron.
PS Message sent Dougle.
YNWA

Nice suggestion Gerry, Fabio Aurelio is capable of filling in Xabi Alonso’s void and also scoring goals from set pieces. However, what I observed in the Villa game is that all the player let themselves down after conceding the first goal. Remember, a game last 90mins plus add on time, it’s an unfortunate goal, there are still time to come back, why give up? The second mistake is not playing according to the referee’s decision/whistle, no point arguing and getting booked to upset the whole team spirit. The second goal is avoidable, Villa took advantage of the dispirited team to claim the second goal. If all the players are not affected by the disputed decision and defend the corner as they used to, they will not concede that goal. Rafa is also guilty, why argue and transfer the mode to the players. Everyone can see that Luca was playing too deep and many times when the front players lost procession, there is no one to pick up. This is something that needs to be rectify quickly. I cannot argue about the penalty conceded by Stevie, it may be due to tiredness but at that stage of the game, there should be someone to calm the team and control the tempo rather then panicking and keep pumping long ball. Last season, Liverpool was able to come from behind to either draw or win the game, it was because the players were composed and play to the final whistle, at the moment, this is not the case. What they need now is to find the same spirit and Rafa is right that he need the senior players to stand up and give more encouragement to built up that never give up spirit. Whatever that had happened, it’s gone, no point blaming or what if, bring back the team spirit and play to what was practiced in training.
YNWA

I seriously don’t know what to make out of the Lucas situation. He is a good talent and probably a good player who can play when we have injuries. He is one of the dependable sorts. It is not that he is playing bad at the moment but obviously he’s not running the opposition’s midfield like FS said. He’s playing well as an individual but not providing goal opportunities for other players. He needs to do that. Yes, we have scored 7 goals in three games. Like I said before Lucas has his days and his colours of brightness. He always needs someone to take off the pressure off his back. SG can do that.

I think its time we stop talking about Lucas. It is clear Rafa has the trust in him, he wants Lucas to play a major role. So you got to trust the manager.

Gerrard can be dropped back but then you are willing to take the risk of breaking one of the deadliest partnership in the league and replace it with Benny who actually is playing great in his present position. Also, in terms of finding the net Gerrard is more successfull compared to Yossi.

So lets give this team some time to settle. We have lost Xabi who was a regular member of the playing 11. So you got to give the team sometime to settle.

Yep, I think that the Lucas thing is done to death, so let´s see what lineup Rafa chooses.

Boniek FS, now you are showing your age! I just about remember him in the 82 world cup, but I remember the first goal in this clip as if it was yesterday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ww6IcbBru8&feature=related

and I was only a hand higher than a duck at the time to boot!

Funnily enough I heard last week that Didier Six (who remembers him then?) has just moved in around the corner from where I live. Hope to get him out for a pint and get some stories out of him!

He looks like a legend Lurgan

http://footnostalgie.free.fr/version2/images/stories/fondsecran/fondecran-sixvfb1024.jpg

Maybe he can give you tips on how to beat the muck savages

over and out

Steve Cohen will be appearing on newstalk.ie/offtheball next Monday probably between 9 and 10 pm.He has been getting lots of anti- Jewish e mails etc.

OH MY DEAR GOD….

Steve Cohen will be appearing on newstalk.ie/offtheball next Monday probably between 9 and 10 pm.He has been getting lots of anti- Jewish e mails etc.

Sir, if that is what you really believe, I won’t even bother answering you again.

I couldn’t care less what anyone says about him.Interesting to see how he tries defending himself.

Anyway…
Six moved in by you Lurgan, fuckinell eh. Wow you’ll have to get to know that lad. He was brilliant in his day.
Didn’t he fuck off with Platini’s missus?

And as for Boniek, people would laugh at the suggestion, but that’s exactly the type of player I see Lucas eventually maturing into to because I can see the exact things in his game as Boniek had.

But he will never fit in with Mascherano, far too often they both take up each others space, effectively turning 2 players into 1 and so, very easy to by pass.

PS… Can’t get at me fantasy team. Think I might have won this season’s sack race

PPS: You’ll kill me, but I’ve made me mind up… Rafa should not drop Lucas, or drop Gerrard back into midfield today.

We should show solidarity and go with an unchanged team. If it’s not working, then shake it up, but we shouldn’t show weakness or doubt from the start.

burgerman
Posted on August 29, 2009 @ 11:46 am
I couldn’t care less what anyone says about him.

That’s very apparent

Carling Cup draw…
ARSENAL V WEST BROM
CHELSEA V QPR
BOLTON V WEST HAM
BARNSLEY V BURNLEY
HULL CITY V EVERTON
LEEDS UTD V LIVERPOOL
MAN UTD V WOLVES
MAN CITY V FULHAM
SUNDERLAND V BIRMINGHAM CITY
PETERBOROUGH V NEWCASTLE
CARLISLE UTD V PORTSMOUTH
NOTTS FOREST V BLACKBURN ROVERS
STOKE V BLACKPOOL
SCUNTHORPE V PORT VALE
PRESTON N E V SPURS
ASTON VILLA V CARDIFF CITY

Time to give the kids and ressies a run out

No one has discussed the second goal although Gerry did cover that. I think the second goal did us in when Reina bitched about the corner and got a yellow card for it. When the shot came, he was still seething and not ready. If Reina was cool-headed, he might (80-90% chance) have saved it.

Team news for today:

Reina
Insua
Carra
Kyrgiakos
Johnson
Masch
Lucas
Riera
Kuyt
Gerrard
Torres

Sigh…

Bolton is playing very roughly today… lots of tackle…. only 1 card

Lots of possessions… but very little shots on target

pretty drab performance till now

Kyrgiakos = nervous display….

nd we are down by a goal — again undone by set piece

OMG

Bolton 1-0

Hmm….

again… Set piece

Something is horribly wrong

Johnsonnnnnnn 1 – 1

Glenda!!!!!

Joint top scorer…our right back..

4 games….2 goals 2 assists…

17 million pound, worth every penny

nervous nervous free kick! Riena is going to get booked if he keeps on shouting like that

But…
Our players are get bodily bullied all over the field…. and yet, ref did nothing but just 2 yellows

down again by a goal.. here we chase again….

2-1

WTF

Set piece again….

This is relegation form….

Is gerrard even playing at all…..

Gerrard is totally neutralised

Red Card,,,,,

TOrresssssssssssssssssssssssss

2-2

Torres!!!

3 goals in 4 games

benny Onion on…

If they score again… I will eat my… will eat my…. ahh forget it…

…and Spurs scored… Crouchagol

…and Birmingham equalized

Voronin for monster

Glenda has more shots on target than gerrard

Gerrardddddddddddd

3-2 – 7 mins to go

Gerrard????

extra time nervousness!!

3 points at last – job well done

Aaron lennnon scored..
Spurs 2-1

This is to be honest..undeserved 3 points… but why the fuck I even care?

So…Lucas MOM? haha because Davis got the red card because of the foul on him

Good result. Nervous effort

Undeserved 3 points? Lets get a grip, 24 goal attempts to 8. Our problem is not that we are playing badly we are not very sharp in front of goal. Torres could have had a hat trick and I just hope that he clicks into some type of form because he did start to look sharper the longer the game went on. Ditto the same with Gerrard. At one point I thought we where trying to emulate Arsenal by trying to walk the ball into the net.

I hope this kick starts our campaign, we are playing better than we did this time last year but not getting the rub of the green, or better still taking the chances that we are creating. I cannot remember seeing Torres miss hit so many shots The defense is very shaky at the moment at it just seems we lack the composure and seem panicky at the back. Yes the injuries to the CB has not helped and yes it will improve because overall, the area where everybody is saying we are struggling is very good. Once we find our shooting boots we are going to give somebody a hiding. Is it just me or is Masch struggling at the moment? The comments that Lucas plays to deep is just ludicrous, the runs and position he gets into are great, again the lack of composure is letting him down at the vital moment, that however is the whole teams problem. I do agree with FS but not with Digger (that’s because it is against my religion to agree with Digger) that to rely solely on Lucas to power us to the title would be asking too much of the lad and hopefully we wont have to but he is playing some decent football at the moment and should be getting our support not ridicule and blame.

Still the signs are there that when we get rolling and on a run we are going to be difficult to stop. Write of the season at your peril, I see good things ahead and if Aquilani is half as good as they are saying this could be a special year once everything clicks. If only we could have brought in a better option than Vorinon up front because that I think is our Achilles heel when we need to change things up. I hope Babel can step up.

God for fuck’s sake, Skeat, must you really have to report on every minor detail of the match? This is a blog comments section, not a live text football coverage, and most definitely not Twitter. We got all sorts of footy websites to do that job for us.

So for 20-odd posts you’re just basically “spamming”, for lack of a better word.

No disrespect intended, I know you’re nervous and concerned, so was I, but really you should be paying attention to the team on TV then coming over to type over every incident.

Anyway, I for one am glad that we wrap up a win just before the international break.

This break serves as a double edge sword.

On the negative side, there’s always the danger of our boys getting hurt while with their national teams (touch wood and pray to Fowler it doesn’t).

On the positive side, Aquilani will be closer to recovery when the season resumes, Rafa will have more time to go through the fine details concerning our recently leaky defense during set pieces (6 out of 7 conceded via that).

I for one do not believe zonal defense is at fault, when done well, the system itself can and should be impeccable. Rather, it is the players who are not doing their job properly that the zonal system breaks down.

I’ve seen a lot of bad refereeing at old trafford over the years, but mike dean is shocking today. Doesn’t give a stone cold penalty, then ignores the probably 10 tackles from the nance that deserved bookings. Wenger should be pissed.

More importantly, a great result for us. A much needed win. Defense is a bit worrying, especially from set pieces, but it’s hard to manage when the center halves are always rotating around due to injuries/fitness. We need some stability and confidence back there.

Still, a good result. Well done lads.

YNWA

Good post Keith mate. The thing is this doom gloom, and panic malarkey is contagious. One starts it and it starts to slowly get into others then suddenly takes off like wild fire. I admit, I even get affected, and I should know better. But fuck me, some of it… aye, aye, aye, is all I can say.

Did we learn nothing from last season? And the season before it got that bad, I even disappeared for a few months, I just couldn’t take it. But anyway…

We are now 4 games in. We’ve been struggling in all departments. But thank fuck Rafa held his nerve and went with Lucas.

No. I’m not changing me tune. Look at what I said a few posts back before the game… Hold the nerves. Show no weakness or worries.

Well, we done that and thank fuck for that. It wasn’t great football or easy. But when is that ever the case at Bolton. It’s traditionally a hard place for us. But if you watch the game properly, Keith’s got it spot on. We struggled at times in all departments, but we did pretty much dominate it and show what’s in the locker for another occasion. So for sake stop panicking.

Every pundit and his dog is going on about us giving up goals from set pieces and our defence turning to shite. Well, stop believing the fucking hyperbole and use your own fucking brains and logic… Does the defence, the goalie and the system they play suddenly turn shite after being the meanest in the league for how many seasons?

Of course it fucking doesn’t. We’ve still got a kid learning his trade, Insua. We’ve got a new player settling in at right back. We’ve had to use 3 different centre half pairings already. So, of course they are adjusting to all this – after all coming back off summer holidays. So for fucks sake – hold your nerve.

Midfield – we lost our player of the season. We are forced into relying on a kid that isn’t quite ready to bear that responsibility and expectation. But we’ve got a Kaka waiting in the wings.

Up front, we’ve got the best in the business. Do you think they have just turned shite overnight. Of course they fucking haven’t. They are struggling for form. But when world class players/forwards are struggling for form, they can still do what Torres and Gerrard done today – near burst the fucking net with wonderful strikes.

So for god’s sake stop with the panic.

Arsenal 1 up so of course Sir Tramp’s arse kisser in chief at the referee’s association gives them a penalty to get back into it.

We are LFC. This is the sort of shite we have to contend with. As supporters, we can criticise, we can question, we can discuss and get pissed off, but against the others we should stand firm and support our own.

Mancs back 1 up…

Abou Diaby did a Lucas on their keeper

Skeat, please stop with your sniping of Lucas. For once, Lucas played well against Bolton.

First, our win at the Reebok was vital if not critical. Thanks boys!

Guys, let’s support our team if we’re supporting our team. You don’t do a Jekyll and Hyde, one moment praising the gaffer’s genius, then spewing hate the next. Not all that our Reds do will please us – and they don’t have to – but we’re Kopites regardless, aren’t we?

The allegiance of some is indeed questionable, an irony considering that the true test of a friend (or fan for this matter) is where they stand in adversity. At the first sign of trouble at Anfield we hear venom spewed from “supporter’s” mouths. Come on!

We have a long season ahead, and many parts of our team CLEARLY haven’t gelled. We still lack creativity through our middle with Lucas and Masche indeed looking too similar. That’s not a prob. If we can only play the opposition in front of us, then we can only play with the personnel we have.

A solution I’ve suggested is to drop Benayoun to partner one of Lucas or Mascherano and thus leave Gerrard in the hole. Alternatively, we can drop Gerrard in central midfield (as of old) and allow Benayoun to play slightly on the left of Torres in a trequartista’s role.

I clearly had forgotten Fabulous Aurelio who can play like Alonso as the creative half of a midfield fulcrum. Thanks for that.

If our beloved 4-2-3-1 cannot work at present, then it doesn’t do us any harm to try out a new formation altogether. Do we have the personnel? Of course, a relatively lean squad notwithstanding. It’s indeed, as Rafa pointed out, too early to bring out the knives. We can only live a game at a time.

Let’s consciously hang in there as Kopites. We don’t have to win them all – Man U lost four last season (might lose even more this one) and went on to win the league. Let’s support, not cut down. We owe our Reds that as fans.

One thing I’ve noticed in our four games so far. We’re either winning or losing, NOT drawing. Is that an omen we can take for the immediate future? Last season draws messed up this team. We seem to be going for broke. Proof? Villa hit us on the break, while today Rafa subbed Masche with Voronin, an offensive player. This might serve us well despite the bigger risk it poses. With bigger risks, one tends to get bigger returns.

Let’s keep the faith and refuse to walk alone.

YN(Ever)WA(Ever)!

hey

Kinny
Check my previous postings. I have said nothing about Lucas.
The meaning of “did a Lucas” is an own goal.

I always like Lucas as a player. I even named him as one of my top 10 players last year.

Fair enough Skeat, I take that back then.

WTF is with the Scum and their luck with refs!? Arsenal get a legit penalty ignored, while they win one from thin air.

See the arse have found the self-destruct button. It didn’t take them long. They should have won that match by several goals.

Anyway, they are a ‘young-squad’ who are maturing and will win everything in the next 3-5 years. Where have I heard that before?

BTW, is it me or are the arse now using zonal marking from corner-kicks and free-kicks?

3 points well-deserved (skeat) for us today. Kudos to Lucas, he had another great game!

Away for a walk with the kids now to see if I can see Monsieur Six.

KeithSA,

I felt that the 3 points are undeserved as we are constantly pegged back before Lucas was fouled by Davis (Lucas was doing an Alonso) and Davis got the red card.

Lucas was playing alright, just like he always do.

But before the red card, I hardly seen gerrard playing at all. his threat are basically neutralized. Torres has got very little supports up front. Kyrgiakos was “responsible” directly and indirectly for both the Bolton goals and made many schoolboys errors.

which is why, 3 points was “undeserved”. I would be happy with a 1-point….(before the red card was given to Davis.

I think (if i m not wrong) the numbers of shots on targets came after the red card was given. we have got lots of possessions for sure, but not enough shots on targets while Bolton has been threatening from the start of the match until the red card moment.

My opinion, of course.

ps:
I felt that the yellow card on Davis was harsh.

Anyway, happy that we had our first away win… and Glenda scored again. Fully justified his fees.

Arbeloa and Xabi start in Real’s game.
Good luck for them. BTW, Real’s first eleven…..

Check out now.
Skeat
30-August China time 2:30AM.

When will there be an investigation into match fixing at Manchester united? Disgustingly biased refereeing

Back to winning ways. Surely we are not playing at our best and thats the reason for a 3-2 scoreline. Nevertheless we won.

Just saw the Arsenal game. They were the better team without a doubt. 10 minutes and the match got changed.

This was one match which i expected ManU to drop points

I give up.
Night. Night

Uhm, just a suggestion to those of you doing the live comments in here. Could you please do it somewhere else? Maybe I’m just being grumpy, but I would rather not have to read through loads of comments describing everything going on in our game and other’s. It just makes it a whole lot more difficult to find all the intelligent and interesting comments posted in here.

Regarding the game itself I thought we were a bit lucky to grab the 3 points if you sum everything up. On the other hand, we were unlucky not to get points in two previous games this season, and that’s not bringing the aspect of deserved or undeserved into the matter. I don’t care whether a win is deserved or not.

Even though we controlled the game today for most of the time, we still managed to let some more cheap goals in and it made me feel nervous every time Bolton got close to the penalty area for the rest of the game. Secondly, Gerrard was completely invisible in the first half. What was the lad doing? But as so many times before he was there to score the winning goal, fortunately. I thought Lucas had a good game again. I think would still have to agree with FS that he isn’t ready to carry a title-winning side, but who knows, if Rafa keeps showing he has faith in Lucas, perhaps he’ll be better during the course of the season, making those good performances turn into more influential ones, which is the key for a box-to-box midfielder. Perhaps. At this point in time though I don’t think he is creative enough to run that midfield week in and week out getting us the kind of results we need. Perhaps I’m wrong about that. I’m glad I don’t have to make the decisions Rafa has to.

Kyrgiakos seemed to having some trouble communicating with his team mates in the first half today. He made some mistakes, but he also looked a lot more comfortable in the second half. Strong as an ox. When he settles in a little better I’m sure he’ll be tough as hell to deal with for many strikers in the Premier League. I don’t think he will get many games though if only Skrtel and Agger can stay fit for the rest of the season.

sachem, why were we lucky to get the three points?

So guys, a hard fought but deserved win nonetheless. Deserved b’coz of the misfortunes we suffered in the previous two defeats. Few key thoughts: 1. Although kyrgiacos was caught napping couple of times, did u guyz notice he won every friggin’ header & aerial duel ? Kudos rafa ! 2. How we became so crap in defending set pieces, someone explain to me 4 chrissake ! 3. When a loose ball is bouncing around in our 6 yard box, our defence goes completely numb – it was pathetically hilarious ! 4. Didn’t u want to pull out ur hair when searching for the 4th goal benny,nino, voro all laid off the ball 4 each other ( Just shoot, man – what were they expecting ? Pepe to arrive & shoot !! ? ) 5. Did the performance of diaby @ old toilet 2day remind anyone of lucas? 6. Has wenger lost the last bit of self-respect that was left ? …. YNWA – Keep the faith.

Lads anyone who thought we were lucky today needs their head seen to. We were by far and away the better team. Some of the defending was off but seeing as were teething a few players it’s to be expected. I’m not the best for googling stats but if you took our first four games and added the shots we’ve had against us they’d probably come to the total we have per game. That’s why when we get a run of teams that are getting 5-6 shots they’ll not all be going in.
Another thing i saw today which was really good to see, our lads were really getting behind each other. they know how important this season is and its good to see them pulling together when people are putting the heat on them. When torres dived for that penalty he didnt try an claim it as soon as the defenders went to pull him riera was straight over pushing them away, and even better was when davis went to have a go at lucas after being sent off kyut near ate the face off him. Really good positive signs if ya ask me. Only them filthy manc fucks put a bit of a downer on it but the’re gonna get found out soon.
P.s fat scouser i was in liverpool today watching the game in a bar called one four,i’m pretty sure its not your type of watering hole an i think i got my pockets done. only went in coz the game had started an i was desperate to see it. left at half-time an went to bar red,its so much fun watching the game with 98% bias scousers, the roof came off when stevie banged home the winner!!!!!

Well done lads.

Only seen MOtD highlights so cant really comment on the game apart from
the sending off which was a yellow as was his first for kicking the ball away.
For Megson to moan about Lucas slowing down thus leading to the second
is beyond the pale. Kuyt was clearly brought down for a pen as was Arshavin
against the mancs, Apeboy was on his way down before contact was made
so could have been booked for diving but instead got the pen just when they
needed it. Is it a new rule that yellow card’s are getting given for diving.
Or is it the fact that Scum have lost the best diver in the game so now its
a priority for Mr Gill and the FA ?
And whats with UEFA investigating Eduardo for diving something seems to be
going on,which may lead to a action replay referee’
Maximus I thought Wenger handled himself well considering he knew he’d been
f*cked out of 3 points.
YNWA

Lots of debate about our backline, one of which is in around his 10th game while another is nearly leading goal scorer. Several others in out continually with injuries.
.
Well here is my take on the whole saga, anyone who has ever played or coached football will know that certain aspects of football cause problems in defence.
.
The number 1 problems caused to defences is your own team constantly blowing goalscoring opportunities. If Keiths stats are right we out shot them 3-1, so thats where the pressure comes from. Every miss is one more time your defence has to A. push forward and B. defend like demons.
.
When your under the pump as a team like Bolton and the opposition keeps missing chances, or your goalkeeper has a day to dream about, then you’ll know it’s your day if you can nick 1 goal.
.
However as the defence of the team doing the pumelling job, your belief will start to wane and the job will become more and more about desperation rather than football.
.
Possession is a wonderful tool until about 70 minutes when it becomes your enemy, thats because that’s about when desperations starts to take effect.
.
Every team we play will get chances that’s football, our defence is there to stop that, however their not there to stop our chances as well.
.
We are slow starters and things will turn around. Our defence is under more pressure from itself than the oppositions we’ve played.

Hey lay off Skeat

His match commentary is great

Over and out

P.S. fuckin cracker of a game lets hope its a springboard

Lurgan…………you felt the wrath of the muck savages this week!

I want to know how the pints go with Didier

Over and out

BTW what a great goal from Glenda Fowler

Over

had written a diatribe there and lost the fuckin’ lot. Can’t be arsed doing it again.

Basically well done to the lads for keeping their heads-up and finding a way to win. Kudos to the away support for singing their hearts out.

Need some work on the defence but hopefully a settled backline should help solve the problems.

Finally, I’ll take back that arse self-destruct comment. Fucking robbed out of 3 points, plain and simple!

donal, what can I say but well done. A score and a half that is mate. I changed captain from Torres to Stevie G. Not the best move.

No update on the ‘Six’ situation. Well keep you posted.

Fat Scouser @ #62
Lucas similar to Zbigniew?!!!? Just can’t see Lucas developing a blond fro & 70s tache, mate . . . (lest ye forget, we’ve already got one porn star in the squad, don’t need another).

But whatever respect me had fer Boniek as a player went out the window after he did an “Eduardo” on us in 85 Cup final.

While me disagrees with yer comparison, me wholeheartedly agrees Lucas is NOT ready to be the fulcrum of our team.

However, having said that, me is quite curious to see how he plays (if he is selected) against Argentina in the crucial world cup qualifier next weekend.

Lurgan @ #71 – Shit, Didier Sixt is yer neighbour. He was the first French player in English footie. How the times have changed eh? Bet he’s got some nasty stories bout that fooking buearacrat running uefa these days. So do share what ye hear with the rest of us here at the blog.

As fer the Bolton game, thank fook we won. We really needed that. Will take it any which way though Rafa’s got to get the defence organised pronto.

New Greek Hercules looks good in the air though had a few nervy moments. But looks like a good solid addition to the back line.

Was completely gutted we couldn’t even afford Tuncay. Shame really. Would have been cool to see Tuncay-Torres-Yossi in a 4-3-3 of our own (with aurelio-masch-gerrard in midfield).

ps: Oh, one more thing, regarding the rising star Pacheco. FS, ye & quite few others have been raving about this lad but say he still has got a wee bit of growing up to do (physically that is).

Why don’t ye take him out on the piss?

10 pints of the good black stuff should put some meat on the lad . . .

3 of the back 4 are new, yes Insua is still new in relative terms. Add all the head injuries, stitches for Torres and Carra, Skertal has a cracked jaw and people are wondering why we are leaking goals from set pieces when defending with the head is the priority? I think this result will do the lads a world of good we where starting to look really panicky and desperate. This happens when you get of to the kind of start we have had, especially when everyone is touting it to be our year. The injuries to the heart of our defense have not helped as well and have created uncertainty at the back. Everybody needs to take one step back, we are still the same team that destroyed Madrid, the Mancs and most other teams last year. Sooner rather than later we will click into gear and get back into a groove. I really cannot understand the comments that we lack creativity when we are creating the number of chances, Villa and yesterday, we are creating at the moment. We need to get over Alonso leaving and everything that happens to us is not because he has left it’s because the team as a whole is not firing just yet. We drew 11 games last year and lost two with him in the side so lets put things into perspective, as good as he was he did not carry us by any stretch of the imagination and we are as good, especially with Johnson and Insua, in the attacking sense creating chances, we are just not sharp enough yet and a bit unsettled at the back because of the above mentioned situation, so we are missing chances and leaking soft goals.

Good 3 points and to be honest, i think we were a bit fortunate though deserved. The sending off was the turning point. However, I am deeply concerned with our midfields.
Credit to Bolton for having Muamba sticking to SG like a leech. SG was almost invisble until the sending off. Yes, Lucas was having a decent game but nowhere near “good” as some of you suggested here. That was the time where we needed creativity but to no avail. Besides the normal passes (which is fundamental and expected for all footballers particularly midfielders), I didn’t see anything creative from Lucas since he has been given the role to do that. Gave away a freekick needlessly (again) outside the box and luckily we had reina for a fantastic save. Also, the incident in the 2nd half where he robbed the ball away from Benny with his back facing goal. What was he thinking? Benny was advancing and any footballer would have left it an advancing teammate.

After the sending off, the “leech” was off SG and only then we see some creativity. SG was the one that lobbed into the box for Deadly Kirk to chest it for Torres. 3rd was a beauty from SG after a nod down by Torres from a Glenda cross. Where was Lucas?

All I’m saying is that Lucas is not up for this and totally agree with with Gerry that we need to move SG to middle of the park and Benny to play in the hole behind Torres. Looking forward for Aquaman’s debut and hope he brings a liitle extra to us.

I just watched the game again, I’ll now pose this question, who actually had a bad game. I can’t really remember anyone. Maybe Kyriagos has a nervous game, but who wouldn’t when your playing for one of the worlds greatest teams.
.
Good three points I think. Rafa looked a bit happier I thought.

Well, trying to put it all into some sort of perspective I agree it’s far too early to start panicking. It just doesen’t help anyone at all.

Supporters attending LFC matches need to remain positive, otherwise the nerves or defeaning silence will eventually get to the players, it’s human nature.

I personally do not think it’s all doom and gloom either. Yes we are 6 points off the pace with only 4 games played, but FFS, we have 34 games to go!

There is an International break coming now and we resume on 12th September at home V Burnley followed by a trip West Ham and then Hull City come to Anfield before we visit Chelsea on 4th October. 12 points from that lot and things will look alot better.

The Defence? By the end of September Agger should be fit to return and Skrtel should have recovered from his injury during the International break, same with Carra. It will be a case of starting again after the break, and I am happy that the trip to Chelsea is on the horizon as we can build up the momentum in the 3 games before that.

So far 7 correct results and 3 correct scores out of 8.

And to think all my bets went down the shoot

8 correct results and 4 correct scores. Donal, this is all your fault

Hi lads, I’ve recently moved house and not yet got online access at home. Been off work too

Thankfully I’ve been too busy to take in the games properly so not feeling as depressed with our start to the season as I might have under normal circumstances.
I watched highlights of the Bolton game. We looked good when we upped the urgency. Hopefully we’ll take that into our next games.

Hopefully i’ll be online early next week and can catch up on the comments then.

reads #152…
…takes 4 very deep breaths…
…puts the keyboard down…
…and slowly backs away….

… chanting “I will not post today, I will not post today…”

Well I think that this man put it better then I ever could.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTYg2Q-vDJ0&feature=related

BTW, it’s not a piss take, listen to the words!!!

A demain!

Played well yesterday apart from the 2 set pieces,noticed Gerrard dropped back
and Lucas played in the hole probably because of the man marking Megson
always plays with SG. Noticed the back pass straight after their goal which
should have been a free kick inside their area Rafa noticed it but ref didn’t.
Loved Gerrards celebration in front of the Bolton fan’s in response to that
famous song they sing, how does it go “Boo Boo Boo” lovely words.
And finaly a big round of applause for Mr Johnson who is definitely living
up to that price we paid for him.
Didnt realise Tamir Cohen was son of Avi .
YNWA

Well I said it was going to be a frustrating game; bolton are just one of those teams that we will always struggle against, ditto, villa, ditto tottenham and boro (although they’re gone now). Not surprising that our results haven’t been up to scratch.

FS, yes I know boneick (but only from dvds), wonderful player that. But I was thinking lucas as more of a Toninho Cerezo or falcao type. Simple pass and move forward, pass and go, pass and go. The former even used to make similar blunders aka lucas that reminds me of him!

Ahh you see Rome lad, there’s the problem…. You haven’t been reading the papers, or watching Sly or listening to Talk Shite enough. Don’t you realise Johnson is hugely overpriced because he can’t defend!

You’re slipping. You really have to get with the programe mate.

Hyde mate, Boniek was the player that just came into my head. But you’re right. There’s been quite a few footballer’s with that type of ability and type of game that went onto become really great players. Whether Lucas will develope into one of them is open to debate, but the lad is definetely not the shit on a stick some like to make out.

I went to work at 5am yesterday and didn’t get back until 9pm. I was absolutely knackered, freezing cold, starving hungry and soaked right through. Quick bath, something to eat and I wrote a big long post about the game, all the hysteria, the media bollacks and explained why I compared Lucas to Boniek. Something happened to the bloody system again, and I lost the whole thing. So, I thought fuck it and lied down on the couch, fell asleep before me head hit the cushion and that’s why I’m sat here at 5am, wide awake with bugger all to do. But I’m not going to write all that post out again.

We all should know what happened in the game. The hysteria and negativity from both our own fans and the media is hardly anything new, and not really worth commenting on. And yes, that’s exactly the type of player Lucas can become, simple, effective, pass and go – which sounds very limited, even a bit rubbish, but it’s bloody devestating when it’s done right by a master of it.

It’s actually a shame that his run in the side has coincided with some shitty form from the team. He was bound to get all the flak. Had we won all 4 games, except for the OG, he’d have hardly been noticed – and so would have still gotten any flak but there wouldn’t have been as much flying about.

In fact, I seen him do something extremely silly at Bolton, near wrestling one of their players to the ground as a corner was coming in. Thankfully though, Bolton players are trained to be like attack dogs, and single mindedly just launch themselves at the ball from set pieces. Because if the player had been a bit more cute, he would have hit the deck screaming and won a penalty. Then all our own attack dogs would have been after Lucas again.

So, that just goes to show the player isn’t ready for the job he’s got, but that’s also the type of thing that can be ironed out of his game and then who know’s… he will either step up to the job or eventually be moved on. And it would be nice if everyone stayed off his back until it happens either way.

RR: glad you had a good time in the Pool. Do you reckon you could have just got drunk and dropped your money? Not much dipping goes on Liverpool anymore as the local scallywags have graduated onto bigger things, drug dealing, hijacking, extortion and that. It’s been an upwardly mobile place for some time now.

Oh and I had Modric in my fantasy team. He’s injured for 6 weeks. Are my hands tied like Rafa’s… can I bring in a replacement or can I only replace him with the cack I have on the bench because I was skint when it came to bringing in cover for the spine?

Aww come on FS.
I get what you were saying there, (in 163) but this is what does my head in about so many others in here.
The number of our lads that “wrestled players to the ground” and got away with it…. or didn’t given the number of free kicks the likes of Davies pulled… was crazy… how about pointing those out too.

Lucas made quite a few little give-n-go darting runs into the box, almost got on the end of a few nifty moves and even set some attacks going… just like you and I and a few others think he’s capable of, but he doesn’t get credited for it, instead what gets commented on in here?

“He does no more than he is required to do for his position”
or bollocks about other games like,
“Diaby (or insert player who made a mistake here) put in a Lucas-like performance?”

Does me fuckin ‘ead in, mate!

(oh and 164 is exactly why we have to deal with this shite. People who do well in fantasy leagues having never played organized league footy and certainly never coached it, but think they know summat.)
(Its like people who think they can fly coz they’ve landed an Airbus or a 747 at Heathrow, or JFK, or Hong Kong Airport on their Flight Simulator game…. yeah okay… take a real Cessna 152 to 5000 feet and do a stall and recovery without killing yourself, or at the very least shitting yourself, or hurling your lunch, then we’ll talk… nob’eads!)

and yes I know you’ve played and coached all over… probably more than me… that wasn’t directed at you.

Obviously it does do your head in Aitch mate. But don’t be letting it do that to the point where it blinkers you…
Read the post again. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. And far from being an attack on Lucas, it’s an explanation of a few things that have been getting discussed and a call for some sort of reason and logic when talking about the lad.

Of course, there’s plenty of other to talk about and their mistakes and fouls. But we haven’t been discussing them we’ve been analyzing Lucas (too much to my reckoning).

Here’s something for you to consider…
Watch Fletcher against Le Arse the other night. He was obviously sent out by the Tramp to do a job on Arsenal’s midfield. He got away with everything. Even the worst of it, when he upended Arshavin for an obvious penalty. But we all know they just don’t get given at Old Trafford, especially by the likes of that jelyfish referee – and there’s plenty of them about.

Well, we all know weak refs won’t give much against them, especially in their own back yard. We all know the press won’t criticise much. And we all know Wenger will point it all out, but, even when fairly doing so, will only be called a whinger for it. And there’s more to add to that, but here’s the thing…

The Tramp was entirely right to do what he done. In fact, it’s the last time I can remember him getting his “Tictacs” right. I’m not saying it was good, or even right, but it was the right thing for him to do.

With the personel the Tramp has at his disposal and the difference in the form of the both teams, it was probably the only chance they had of getting a result. If they’d have stood off and let the Arse play they’d have got murdered. So, the Tramp done the best thing he could, with the players he had to hand.

And here’s the point…
Fletcher isn’t a great footballer. I wouldn’t swap Lucas for 10 of him. But he’s not completely crap and he can do a job when needed. He’s also about 28, I think. So, he’s mature enough to stick to the plan, and cute enough to execute it with out drawing too much attention to himself or what he’s doing. In a nutshell, he’s a reliable, fully mature, professional.

Whereas Lucas is a kid still learning his trade. And we all know the circumstances that led to him being thrown in the deep end, but in the deep end he is and he has to iron this nonsense out of his game sharpish or he will probably sink.

Now, surely you know my thoughts on the lad by now so please don’t get that wrong. I’m not saying the lad is going to fail. I’m saying exactly what I said in my last post…
The lad’s a good player, who is, through no fault of his own, doing a job that is beyond his capabilities at this time in his career/development. But the mistakes in his game are the sort that can be ironed out, and only time will tell whether he will make it or not. And when that time comes he will either step up to the job or be shipped out, but until then we should stay off his back.

In fact, we really should move on now. But I’m not telling anyone what to talk about. I just think it’s been done to death.

Lads,

Seems Lucas discussion is starting up again.
Personally i think he played well. There were a few defence splitting passes thrown in, one of which Torres got on the end of it but then didnt manage to score.

FS, totally understand yout argument, that the lad shouldnt be playing week-in week-out if we are to win the EPL. In all honesty, he wont be (Aquaman?). But at the moment, i dont mind if he does with his current performance (and hopeful inmprovements).

At the moment, I think our defence and final balls going forward need addressing. ie when we fucked around in the box making baby passes etc(after leading 3-2). Had Lucas done anything like that we would have slated him. Give the lad a break.

As for the “wrestling” moves. I’ve seen JC do more moves than the WWE blokes on cable over the years and yet Lucas does it once or twice and its his “maturity”.

Fuckinell, will I ever get understood on here… How many times have I said, that we all know why Lucas is playing in that position. And even in my last post I went on about others making the same mistakes.

So, while knowing I’m not the most literate of men, I can’t understand why is it so hard for others to understand what I am saying.

Akka lad, I’m honestly not having a go, but it’s driving me mad. If anyone knows what I think of Lucas, Aitch should. But pulls me up on something I didn’t even say about the lad.

In fact, others brought up this discussion about after the Villa game and I got caught up in it by 2 things…
1: Defending Lucas.
2: But saying his detractors had their point.

I’ve now spent nearly a full week, trying to explain that.
I’ve went through every inch of it with a fine tooth comb.
I know exactly why he’s playing there.
FFS, I only just riterated that in me last 2 posts.
I’ve even put in videos of the type of player we would ideally want in there, but explained that a player like Lucas can do that job.
And I’ve often said what he needs to iron out of his play so he can do the job to the best of his ability.

But no matter what I say, every single time someone comes back to counter it with something that I’ve already covered or haven’t even said.

So that’s it. I’m not going to comment on it anymore. Quite frankly, it’s not only been done to death. It’s become a circular bore that seems to never end.

So that’s me done. There’s more important and interesting things to talk about.

FFS FS (try work that one out), I know exactly what you mean lad, i understand your not having a go at Lucas and your merely saying he isnt ready to run the central midfield for a team like ours, and i agree.

All i am saying is that in the past 4 games he has done really well, better than i expected.
And seriously, what did i say that got up your arse?
I said on “his current performance i dont mind him playing” and that “i agree with you”.

Akka I didn’t mean to take a pop at you. That’s why I said, “I’m not having a go at you.” But can’t you see what I’m saying or why it would drive me mad?

It’s been done to death mate, and no matter what get’s said, it just keeps getting dragged back up and usually by someone stating something that’s already been spoken about at length, by all hands, not just me.

Enough to drive the Pope to drink mate.

But here we go, here’s something to completely change the subject…
Lauri Dalle Vale, is one of the most promiosing youngsters we have on our books. At the academy, they think he’s got every chance of going onto becoming a real superstar. And back home in Finland, he’s thought of as the next great Finnish player since Jarri Litmannen.

I hate to say the next this or that. We’re all sick of the Cheryou’s and Le Tallecs or the next Zidane’s and that. But Dalle Vale is highly rated and is a great hope for the future.

Well, apparently Fulham have came in with a bid of 3.5 million for the lad and we might be forced to sell…
Yep. You read that right. We may be forced into selling one of our major future prospects for 3.5 million – a pittance in footballing terms. And Rafa has already been forced into letting Nemeth go out on loan so we could get the Jolly Greek Giant in.

And you’ll start to get an idea of how desperate our situation is if you add that to the fact, that all pay rises have been taken out of the transfer kitty – or at least that’s the explanation given for all the disappearing money, even though I seen a report saying that’s at least 17 million disappeared in this window alone.

So, I think worrying about Lucas is the least of our problems when we’ve got owners who are determined to bleed us dry and are making the manager’s job increasingly difficult by the minute.

If that doesn’t give people something else to think about, I give up. But I’d still like to know how the fuck we are supposed to compete with the likes of Real Madrid, Chelsea, and even Man City on less money than Stoke?

That’s the importance of keeping rafa.

Personal FS I think you should stop slating Lucas you are not really being fair on the lad, your starting to sound like Digger. His football might be decent but he is defiantly responsible for Global warming and the sub prime fiasco. I also think he was responsible for the Mancs penalty as the guy was doing a Lucas according to our stellar fans of infinite knowledge and wisdom.

I hope you are wrong with regards top selling the family jewels FS I have not picked that up but it would not surprise me if it did happen. I think pelting the two Twats, when the come to Anfield again, with rotten tomatoes must be the order of the day so there can be no doubt as to how we feel about them. Let’s see if they can put a positive spin on that.

Keith, I read that on his day off, Lucas likes to sneak up behind old dogs and little cute puppies boot them up the arse.

And the Dalle Vale thing is completely true mate, just not in the papers yet. But don’t worry, it will be as soon as they have worked out a way to spin it into a Rafa bashing headline.

And that’s exactly why we might end up losing him Akka mate… would you put up with all the shit Rafa has to deal with from inside and outside the club when you could walk into most of the top jobs in Europe?

Couldnt agree more FS, id have walked out by now.
Well, actually not, considering I love the club.

But i am a supporter so that is different.
For Rafa, this is a job, like the job we hold. If i was treated in a similar fashion with comparable circumstances id have walked away by now.

I am slo desperately hoping he will never leave.

FS, if that is true about Dalle Vale then is a total and utter disgrace. What more can you say about these two fucking parasites that has not already been said.

Here’s a link to a bolton fans review of the match. Sometimes it nice to see what’s happening on the other side of the fence.

http://www.voiceofbolton.com/latest-news/match-reports-section/56-season-2009–2010-match-reports/747-wanderers-2-liverpool-3

Quick tip FS, write your stuff in a notepad first of all and then do a copy paste into the kopblog window. Will save you a bit of time in the future!

No sign of that Six fella either yet but supposedly he is playing in Luxembourg senior’s tour. Didn’t even know that one existed!

Well that’s the thing Akka lad… we all have our breaking point. And remember Rafa has reached his on a few occasions now, but there’s always been something – the missus, the kids, the fans, the one fan with the solidarity flag – that have kept Rafa here.

But if this carries on something will eventually make him crack. And if he is now going to be forced into selling non-essential players will that be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

I don’t think so, not yet anyway. And before I’m pulled for spreading panic and doom and gloom – don’t shoot the messenger.

I’m only letting you lads know what I’ve heard, and that is… that Rafa has been told to cull the non-essential players. But if this is true, where does it stop? Who is essential and who is not?

Is it an attempt to get the wage bill down, or is it a way to cull a squad (that is admittedly a little heavy compared to some other clubs)?

If it was just to clear out kids that probably won’t make it, then that would be acceptable. But the fact is, Rafa has already done an overhaul at both the reserves and the academy levels.

How many kids did he empty out this summer, and how much did he get for them? Can’t be arsed checking it right now. But without looking I know he never recieved any of the money to bring in other players.

And how many players are there, that Rafa is willing to let go. I can think of a few that probably won’t ever make it to first team level. But then does anybody want to even buy them?

Or does it mean we will be forced into selling the likes of Dalle Valle, and even the likes of Nemeth and Pacheco?

Well, the next 2 days will tell. Unless it gets moved again, to the best of my knowledge, the window closes at 5pm on the 1st of September.

So, while the others scramble round trying to bring in players at the last minute, like they usually do, will we get another addition or be forced into selling.

Well, if you look at the speed with which Rafa moved on Johnson and then Kyriagos, when he needed to, all I can say is…. I wouldn’t hold me breath.

HA! Lurgan, I know you meant well mate, but what next… marks out of 10? Detention for cack posts? Suspension for repeated offences?

Mind you, come to think of it, that’s not a bad idea.

Well the fact that we couldn’t even spend 5 million for Tuncay is enough to show the dire strait we are in.

Rafa took great lengths into signing these youngsters, and now he has to sell them!?!?

This is just so depressing.

Well, I’m off now, but I don’t want to be the spreader of panic so remember… nothing has happened yet. And it might not even happen. But from what I was told, Fulham put a bid of 3.5 million in and Rafa was told to sell as Dalle Valle is not considered essential.

If I hear anything more, I will post it.

Some cheery news for today, Charles Intandje is gone for good.

Off to some newly promoted team in the Greek league on loan for the season. He’s on the last year of his deal with us, so we’ll got nothing for him, but good riddance. That cunt’s behavior at the Hillsborough Commemoration was disgraceful.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N165627090831-1311.htm

Have a look at this expecting to see Gerrard and his little tussle,but this lot make him look like a saint. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/article-7104528-details/The+First+XI+of+Shame+United/article.do

With the slow start we made this season, I have’t read a single article or blog comment in the past 2 Weeks, but I can imagine the kind of stuff that has been written.

This is the first season under Rafa, we didn’t have qualifying games for the CL, last season we played S. Leige. We were shocking in those games remember, but they we an extra two competive games. Even the games we were winning, we kept saying we were in 2nd or 3rd gear.

What I am trying to say is we are slow starters, and apart from the first 75mins at Spurs we have played ok.
Torres and Gerrard have scored 5 goals already and even with Xabi gone, we know if T&G play alot more games this season than last we will be even better.
Defending dead-ball situtions is the real problem at the moment, but I know that will be put right also.
Lastly Gerrards goal on Sat is the exact reason why he should not be taking any corner kicks in future.

Agreed, Cork. It seems that with Alonso gone Gerrard has to take all the corners, taking one of the most opportune strikers of the loose ball away from the action. I thought some of our attacking play was really good at Bolton, even when it was 11 v 11.

And if you have 75-80 per cent of the possession and score three goals away from home then you deserve to win. The media say we were lkucky to win at Bolton. I say Bolton were lucky we didn’t score more!

Fatty, I’m going to assume you glossed over the first sentence of my post in 165, or it didn’t sink in coz you were reading it early in the morning and were shagged.

But in the interest of not hijacking the debate over other things, I’ll leave it there.

…er… steve…. have you been watching us for the last 3-4 years?

SG almost always takes our corners. Where did you get that he has taken over that duty from Alonso?

Xabi took a few in his time, but more often than not, was usually the one standing in the center circle allowing the backs to go up for them.

To be honest Aitch, I’m just sick of the whole debate. We all know the lad is no – insert your favourite central midfielder’s name here. But if we all know the circumstances why the lad is in this position – which we all should – well then, what’s the point in going on about him?

He’s what we’ve got. We have to support him. And hopefully this run in the side has done the lad good and will bode good for the future. Hopefully Aquilani will be in there before too long, and then we’ll be able to call on Lucas as and when he’s needed.

We can argue until we turn blue, but the fact is… It’s how it is right now, and, considering everything else that seems to be going on at the club, it’s the least of our problems right now.

In fact, just before the season started, the lad fancied a return to Brazil. And, if that had happened, we might have had something to really moan about.

Aitch, I think you’ll find that Xabi took alot of corners in his 5 years at LFC, perhaps alot more than your memory is allowing you to recall.

My main point on that subject, however, is that wuth Xabi gone, it’s pretty pathetic that no one else can step forward and take them so that Stevie can be in the penalty area to pounce on any loose balls, something he does extremely well. Yossi to take the corners soetimes perhaps?

Just one more thing Aitch. I didn’t say that SG had taken over corner taking duty from Alonso, I said that they both used to take them. Anyone else disagree with that, or was I seeing a number 14 on our corner takers shirt on numerous occasions, when it was actually always a number 8?. Fuck me, if that’s the case I’m off to the opticians tomorrow!

If Aurelio was fit and in the team he’d probably take all the set pieces. But there’s no denying we are pretty crap at them and I’m sure it’s a concern for everyone at the club.

But Corky’s right… Gerrard should be lurking round the edge of the box on corners, but then that’s nothing new to us mugs in here. We’ve discussed it a million times. So there must be some reason why it doesn’t happen more often.

In fact, we all know how meticulous Rafa is with the small details, so there must be something seriously shite about our alternatives.

Anyway, this is for the overseas lads…
If you think it’s been bad the way we’ve all been going on about Lucas in here, you should have heard the media over here since the Villa game.

It’s been proper disgusting, and, there’s been so much of it, I can’t be arsed going on about it all. One of the biggest things though was they’re insistence on saying that Rafa “Attacked” both Gerrard and Carragher.

You probably all know that anyway, but I’m sure you don’t know the extent it went to. It was quite shocking and it was constant. It went on and on and on, even though Rafa done no such thing.

In fact, what he done was defend Lucas, but of course they dug up the old “Man Management” stick to beat him with, even though Rafa never singled out any player for critiscism and Gerrard himself said he needed a boot up the arse – which led to him playing better against Bolton.

Of course, the media chooses to ignore all fact, all the problems at the club, anything Rafa actually says, and anything the players or anyone else says in his defence.

I find it sickening. It’s just constant peck, peck, pecking at the fella. And why let fact stand in the way of a good biased/predjudiced/shocking headline and story?

Believe me, there is an agenda against this man in this country that would be seen as disgusting if it was to be used against any other manager. And they are determined to bring him down.

And before anybody thinks it’s me just going off on some paranoid rant again. Think about this… how do they treat “Big Sam,” “‘Appy Arry,” “Sir Alex,” Davey Moyes,” and the rest?

In fact, the only manager who I can think of who got anything like this sort of treatment was Wenger, but it stopped far short of what Rafa has to endure.

As I say, it’s a fucking disgrace, and it’s pure Zenophobia at it’s worst. Hard to believe in this day and age of Political Correctness? Well, I suppose the best way to prove it is to just wait until Ingurland’s next fuck up and see how quickly “Iron Man Cappello” turns into “The Wop at Lancaster Gate,” or some such other awful thing.

The only real reason I’m going on about this is to just say, I think we are all missing the point at this moment. Yes. It hasn’t been the greatest start, and yes, some of our players haven’t performed to the best of their ability. But isn’t it about time we started to look at the real problems at the club…
The reality of the situation. The pressure heaped on Rafa and the lads from both inside and outside the club. The weight of expectation from the fans. The scandalous media treatment. The demands to out perform Real Madrid on a lesser budget than Stoke, Spurs, Sunderland, etc.

I could go on, but it would only depress me. And I know this is a forum to discuss all things LFC, but I think we sometimes we take our eye off the ball and miss the real issues.

Wasn’t having a nark steve.

My apologies, I guess I mistook the implication from the “taking one of the most opportune strikers of the loose ball away from the action.” part of your statement.

I’ve been arguing this very point for a long time now. For all the tools he has in SG’s bag, corner taking is not high among his best skills (in my opinion) and I would have liked to see Xabi take more of them, for the very reason you suggest.
SG’s place is at the top of the D, coz stuffing clearances down their throat, IS one of his best tools!

My recollection would be that Xabi took no more than 20% of our corners over the last 3 or 4 years… hence my misinterpretation of your statement.

And FS… again, we’re on the same page here…. “we’ll be able to call on Lucas as and when he’s needed”
That is exactly my point. We have needed him in the last 4 games. He’s been called upon and he’s answered that call. He’s not Kaka, but he’s performed well, barr a few mistake…
..but lads like Digger will take anything you say to the contrary, no matter how small and take it out of context as “see I’m right, even FS agrees with me, I’m not crazy” …when we both know he’s a ravin loon (sorry Dig, just messin )

All I’m really saying in this whole debate is….
There are players that should be getting a boney finger of criticism pointed in their direction over the last 4 performnces, but blinders prevent it. Lucas certainly isn’t one of them.

Agree wholheartedly with 190 FS (he said removing his nose form the lardarse )

The main thing I’ve been concerned with over the last 4 games is the body language of the players. They don’t look like they are enjoying their footy and they don’t look relaxed. I see anxiety and a little desperation at times.

The bench also looks a bit off kilter to me. No banter. They all look to be in solemn study?

Compare that to the Chavs.
Fuck me if they don’t all look like they are just enjoying the fuck out of their footy. All smiles and back slapping, even when being subbed. ( of course they’ve got enough petulent dickheads that one or two dodgy results could see all that go tits up in a hurry!)

Having said that, I don’t see our midfield as the problem, or our defense.
Last season the final ball was always just a little too long or a little too short, but often quite aimless.

This season, it’s also been just a little off, but for my money, far more purposeful.
Someone suggested we’ve been trying to be too clever. Walk it in like Arsenal.
I kinda agree with part of that, and then again, not.

I feel once things click, someone is on for a good tonking!

Well, I stand by all I’ve said, but I don’t want to leave you with nothing but doom and gloom. So, here’s some good news…
Meanwhile, Liverpool are hoping to welcome Daniel Agger back into their first-team fold in the not too distant future.

The Danish centre-half is currently recovering from a back injury, which required an operation, and has only recently resumed full training.

He is making positive progress in his rehabilitation, though, with countryman and Reds team-mate Nikola Saric delighted to see the commanding 24-year-old back in action.

“Agger played with a lot of pain, but now that has gone and that’s the most important thing,” Saric told TV2.

“He has been working with the physio and he says that things already feel a lot better.”

The story comes from Sly News but it seems genuine. So, that’s something to smile about and hopefully by the time the lad’s get back from international duty Danny might be knocking on the door.

On top of that, it means Aurelio, Insua, Agger and Carragher will all be training at Melwood while the lads are away, and hopefully the mistakes from set pieces will ironed out in the defence.

Steve the Red, you’re right about the corner takers, and both were average takers, at best – which I could never understand. How many times were we all on about the ball not clearing the first man?

Someone new started to take them last season. I remember many in here were marveling at the accuracy, but for the life of me, I can’t remember who it was. Was it Aurelio?

Some strange rumours going around on the forums. I still find it hard to swallow that we haven’t improved the (net) squad.

I would like to see Glen Johnson given a go at taking corners. He has two very good feet so could take from either side and as he gets good elevation into his open play crossing, it’s a fair bet that he knows how to get the ball into the danger area from the corner quadrant.

He gets forward alot anyway, so we wouldn’t have to worry about him not being covered should the opposition intercept the ball as Rafa must already have thought of how to do that so that Johnson gets forward enough in open play anyway, if you see what I mean!

Cohens on newstalk.ie now lads

Just listened to that interview with that ignorant prick on newstalk.He says he stands by what he said about the ticketless fans and when questioned why he persisted with comments when the facts contradict them he said he was entitled to his opinion.He predictably went on about death threats to him and his kids and kept sidestepping questions and started blowin on about the holocost and 911 sayin g hillsborough was not on their scale of disaster…”NO SHIT SHERLOCK” try tellin that to the familys and friends of our 96 brothers and sisters.I had to turn it off his ignorance was true to form.Not one straight answer did he give.

Dickhead.

just caught the tail-end Timmy and he just confirmed that he is a first-class cock. Stumbling around there at the end just highlighted that the guy does not have a clue.

FS, do your 50 lines and keep your gob shut Reading it again it did sound wrong but your a thick-skinned bastard so hopefully no harm done.

Last season the International breaks came right at the wrong time every time, I think this first one suits us, it gives the injured players more time to recover and more work can be done on the training ground.

Oh well, off to bed. Sorry to be the breaker of all the doom and gloom again, but this is what’s going on. So, it’s best out, rather than rearing it’s head with us not knowing what’s gone on before and ending up as a stick for some to beat Rafa with in the future.

Still, we haven’t been forced into selling anyone just yet, so I don’t think it’s the right time to panic. In fact, with the news of Aurellio and Agger back in full training, things are looking up, at least on the playing side that is.

As for the Cohen fella, I’m not that bothered about him spouting off again. He’s a desperate, sad, little fucker, who just can’t realise, or won’t see, that he’s pressing the self destruct button and there’s no one to blame for that but himself.

He’s now down to having a subscription based webcast that costs about $12 a month. He attracted a huge audience to the first free instalment… 500 people, and they have to start paying for the “priveledge” to listen from now on. All the excies and wages have to also come out of that. So, I don’t see the all new show – World Football Daily – lasting much longer.

What a tit.

Got to agree with the international break helping rather than hindering this time round. And Lurgan mate, I think you have hit on something… Lines, detention and suspension for repeated cack posts could come in handy round here at times.

Oh well, night, night.

Is this the worlds longest transfer window or what, it seems to have been going on forever. Still going until 5pm in England.
.
Well it amazes me how an organisation such as LFC can have so much speculation without any real substance. I don’t think I’ve seen one credible rumour come to fruition.
.
All the so called ITK, on the blogs, ect, no fucking nothing. So far today the rumours are, Rafa leaving, Rafa being sacked, Rafa leaving again, Rafa at the airport, Silva at airport coming the other way. VDV at hotel for medical, Batista signed sealed and delivered, now someone called Rapheal Sobis or such. Where do they make this shit up.
.
Also forgot to mention the LFC in admistration by the 3rd. Parry heading up a UAE consortium with takeover aspirations. (Well at least we know this one will never get completed.)
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Masch , Torres and Gerrard off to Citeh. Ha this is only today’s bunch. So really all the so-called pundits and others really know jack shit. LFC must be better at keeping secrets than Mossat.

Well it’s pathetic really, we couldn’t buy any single one of our hopeful targets besides Johnson. We’re almost like everton, being only able to buy one target at a time whilst losing many of our personnel, but bloody hell, even everton were able to afford Heitinga and that is because Gollum was allowed to use a substantial portion of Lescott’s sale.

Tuncay– stoke, barry- city, shawcross– “laughed off”, turner- sunderland.
I mean, WTF??? All these players would have jumped on the opportunity to join liverpool if we had matched anywhere near the holding team’s valuation.
And don’t count Portsmouth out as well in the coming season.

I can only imagine the shit piled on rafa but I think it is down to the fact that it is liverpool. If rafa had been managing a different english club, I think the biased attack would have been slightly better, but the fact that he is non-English added to the fact that he is handling Liverpool “a bygone club of the past who everyone wants to see continue to fail” makes it even worse.

It would be so sweet the revenge that Rafa so deserves but really if you look at what manchester city can do we money and a non-pedigree manager like Mark Hughes (no disrespect to the fella), it is going to be one hell of a challenge.

No doom and gloom, but something really needs to be done with our current owners.

I re

If I was to come on here and say something along the lines of…
“We should never have sold Danny Murphy or Milan Baros”
… what I would hear in response would be…
“Yeah, well look who they are playing for now. They can’t get into another top 4 side”
(similar to some comments made about some of our current players… hmmm?)

Yet I’m led to believe we’d be stronger with players whose aspirations start, and end, with Stoke, City, Hull and Sunderland???

Bloody good riddence to ‘em I say.
If the squad we have rolls on to May then no one can say we bought it!
…er… except for the BBC… er… and Sky… er… and Setanta… er and pundits… er… and ex-players… er and basically all the papers in England…er… Never Mind!

Aitch it would be nice to have the option to buy them. 4 wins with Barry in the sqaud by now? I doubt it, but it would be nice if Rafa at least had the option. In fact, it would be nice if he just had the bloody money he should have.

Someone, Keith I think, said earlier about letting H&G know exactly how we feel by pelting them next time they come into Anfield. Well, they’re under no illusion how we feel, and so I doubt they’ll ever show their faces again.

There was a demo and a anti-owner’s leaflet distribution at the Stoke game. H&G wouldn’t give a fuck. But short of shooting them, I don’t know what we are supposed to do. In fact, even shooting them wouldn’t work as parasites of that type spawn their own kind and another would just step in.

With no one really credible waiting in the wings to buy, it looks like we are stuck with them. And I hate to get straight onto the doom and gloom, but there’s no point in doing an ostrich job. But having said that, there’s no point in wallowing in it and getting depressed either. So, I’ll leave it alone until there is something happening that needs to be commented on, but I think people should keep in mind what Rafa is up against when they start criticising.

That’s not to say, him or the players are beyond critiscism. Of course they’re not, but we’ve got the fantasy league for transfering Lucas out and bringing in Essien. Which is nice. Because nothing of the kind is happening at the club.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Thankfully Aurelio is back in full training and should be fit after the international break. It’s such a shame that lad’s so injury prone. I think he’s a cracking little player.

Agger is… well, I’ve seen 2 reports one I posted in here that says he’s back in full training. Which came from Sky but they got it from Denmark off a national team mate of his so I thought it was probably reliable. But I have seen another saying Agger is only walking at the moment, but all went well with the operation and he is expected to start training soon.

Aqualani is now working in the pool and the gym, but the earliest I think we will see him is October, and it will probably be November by the time he is fully fit. Which is a shame as I think he’ll be a great addition to the team/squad But that’s where he is and we’ve no choice but to be patient.

El Zhar is also near back to full training, and though I think he’s never going to set the Prem on fire, he’s not a bad little player to have in the squad or on the bench when we need a different option. He’ll also come in handy in the Carling Cup, which I can’t fucking bear but we have to compete in.

So, getting them 4 players fit should make a huge difference and give Rafa the options he loves to have. And Corkie’s right, for once the international break has worked in our favour – just hold your breath now hoping all the lads come back unscathed.

One bit of good news…
I haven’t read it all myself, but thought I’d post it for the American lads…
http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/Page&c=Channel&cid=1104779628701&s=prog

As far as I know it’s a free show that will be in direct competition with Cohen’s pay to listen internet thing. It’s hosted by an English and Irish fella that have lived in America for a long time, and used to work with Cohen but bailed on him over his vile views as one of them, Nick, is an LFC fan.

So, surely it’s going to be better than anything that disgraceful cretin can come up with. And I love to tell you so… So I told you so. It wouldn’t take long for someone to fill the void Cohen has left, and all the commercial opportunties it holds. And as I said, they’ve surely got to be an improvement on that sad bastard and the poisoin he loves to spread.