Superb stuff Gerry glad you enjoyed your hangover.

As for our squad,yes,there is work to be done there.Kenny has done reasonably well with what he has to work with.I think we could do with strengthening the squad.
Carra is on the decline.Stevie hasn`t put any kind of run of good performances together for about two years.Sad that,he`s the greatest player i`ve seen wear the red shirt but maybe he`s stareing to burn out.
Agger is our best centre back but the man just can`t stay fit,same goes for Aurelio,he was flying on sunday until he broke down again.We can`t seem to get everybody together fit and flying,there`s always someone who`s out.
Other than that there are some i`d like to see moved on.Jova,poulsen for a start.Maybe N`gog needs to be loaned out to regain some confidence.The lad could have a furure yet.If not we`d have got our moneys worth out of the signing,he did only cost 1 million if i`m not mistaken.

On the plus side Gerry we have a few knocking on the door from the reserves and youth teams.The future looks bright form the academy side of things.

Hopefully FSG can give Kenny reasonable backing in the summer so we can challenge for the CL again.

I`m also buzzing about the final in dublin too Gerry,imagine the session up there!

Reina,johnson,carra,greek,skrtel

lucas,pousen
spearing,meireles,cole
Kuyt.

Come on reds

Not the most exciting of team selections but hopefully good enough to do the job.

Well written blog Gerry,
apparently The tramp went to Sainbury’s on monday night after the game at Anfield and bought 2 bottles of whiskey to deaden the pain, he went to the check-out to pay and the young girl said, “are you donating to comic relief this year Mr Ferguson”, he said “will i fuck”, she said “well put the red nose back you tight bastard”.

this is the squad:

Reina, Carragher, Johnson, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Lucas, Poulsen, Spearing, Cole, Meireles, Kuyt.

Subs: Gulacsi, Pacheco, Carroll, Wilson, Ngog, Maxi, Flanagan.

i’m struggling to find a coherent 1st eleven from those guys.

one thing i’m sure about. kuyt should play the dirk lineker role.

reina

Carragher, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Johnson

lucas poulsen

maxi meiereles cole

kuyt

and i need to see Pacheo get a decent run out, perhaps as second half swap for cole.

andy caroll as a second half swap for Kuyt.

That made me chuckle Redman,i threw it out in facebook and all

I don’t agree with these weakened line-ups in the Europa. Especially as we’ve no league game this weekend.

Then again I’m struggling to think of who I’d pick from what we have available tonight!

We are back to Defensive game… Hoof hoof hoof….

Oh dear….Penalty… 1-0 to Braga…. Clumsy challenge

Braga is really playing well (or is it because we are playing poorly? too faraway too deep in our own side of the field.

It is generous of the team to dedicate their Europa League performances to Hodgson by playing as he intended…sigh

What the fuck are Larry,curly and Mo doing on that pitch Cole,Spearing and Poulsen, i think your right Skeat they must have sneaked in Old Itchy to give them their instructions “play like you’ve never kicked a ball in your life, and it will confuse them to fuck”, i know it’s confused me.
How the hell we can play like that against the scum and then put in a first half like that against, let’s be honest they’re not all that are they (Braga), i think even KD will struggle to explain that load of shite.
By the way it’s not only Cole,Spearing and Poulsen that are bad but to me they are the worse for LFC.

Carroll on, with instant impact..

Hmm , how about Spearing Off…and Pacheco on?

Carroll on… and its a license to hoof once again… balls after balls won by Carroll but no one to gather the second bounce…

Thats it…. Boring match and we lost… unsurprisingly. Cole, Spearing and Poulsen did themselves no favor with their performances tonight..

I dont know what was more painful, the pain i had in my gut’s or watching that display tonight, come back morphine all is forgiven.

By the sounds of it I’m glad I missed the match.

The penalty could have ealily been avoided.A lunge like that is not what i expect form a man with the experience of Kyriagos.

Improved performance once poulsen came off and Carroll came on.We were much better last 25 mins or so.I`ve no fears we can do these at Anfield next thursday.

Only thing is if we don`t start picking uo our away form later in the competition we could pay the price.

I don’t understand how we only used 1 sub when the bastards don’t play until next week. That was fucking awful Kenny, what about the supporters world wide getting up at ridiculous hours to watch absolute dross.
.
I don’t know what anyone sees in Spearing, he is lower Championship at best. Carroll looked lively but it allows our back 4 cart horses to forget we ever had a midfield.
.
Kyriakos and Skrtl were very ordinary, terrible tackle by the Greek. Poulson sorry mate but you’re league 1 journey man and thats it.
.
How can we go from the Man U game to that. Breaks my heart, all LFC fans at the game should get all their cost paid by the club.
.
I stand by what I said in the transfer window, we need to spend 100 million at least to get up and running on all fronts.
.
We need a new Stevie, Agger, Aurelio, thats just to cover the fragile ones. Agger and Aurelio must be a concern always injured, cut our losses on both.
.
We need to improve dramatically if we are to go any further.

Ps they have a name for players like Agger and Aurelio here, tampon 1 week in three weeks out.

we will smash them at anfield. simple
have faith

Oh Dear,

Gaz,do you realise there`s a second leg of this tie to be played?

I`m not having anyone come in here and have a go at Kenny when we have a bad performance.
Isn`t it rich coming form you that Kenny short-changed the fans by only using one substitue.

There`s nothing wrong with constructive critisism Gaz but to suggest Kenny didn`t give the fans a second thought,makes my skin crawl after all he`s done for us nefore and since he`s come back.

You come in here everytime we lose or drop points to profess your “100 million strategy” to all of us.I didn`t see you complaining the last couple of days when we tonked the mancs 3-1 at Anfield.

Didn`t you stop to think(obviously not) that Kenny and steve were looking at the game in the last twenty minutes plus,we were in control,didn`t you think they thought a 1-0 loss wasn`t such a bad result?

Don`t you think we could have maybe knicked one in the closing stages?

This is a two legged European tie.Kenny has done it all as a player.Steve clarke has done it recently with chelsea.

Listen carefully Gaz..

You don`t HAVE to win the 1st leg,you must win over the two legs.So please consider that before you come out and stick the boot in on Kenny.

It`s only half-time Gaz,half-time.

We all know the squad we have is wafer thin, so when Kelly/Agger/Fabio/Gerrard/Suarez/Carroll (over 50% of first choice) are missing, we are going to struggle.
Having said that, we should be well capable to turning things around at anfield, dome people have very short memories.

Great stuff Gerry. Let’s hope we make it to Dublin and you can watch that match. And hopefully win the trophy too.
But I had a birthday party to attend till midnight in Malaysia and despite the alarm am glad I did not wake up at 2am to watch the Braga match after reading your disappointed comments and match reports.
Would have loved to see Pacheco play as he was on the bench but that did not happen. Looks like we missed Suarez’s skills and trickery. Do be reminded he supplied all the three assists for Kuyt’s goals.

No one commented on Joe Cole’s Braga performance. In the games he has played, he has not had a good let alone great impact at LFC.Cost us too much money in wages. He seems to be past it. Best we also offload him together with Konchesky, Jovanovic and Ngog.
Gerry is right that it is nice to see us winning against Chelsea and Man United but we just seem to lose our way against weaker teams.
Definitely need to beef up with at least another 4 talented players: a striker, midfielder, CB and a fast and wily winger.
Hopefully we can win at Anfield for the second leg and give some of our youngsters like Pacheco a run out this time.

Dublin might sounds like a far off dream after tonights lacklustre performance but i dont see any problems for the 2nd leg.
However the game today was testament to the fact our squad is thin to say the least. When i see Poulsen my heart sinks but i look for alternatives and i see Spearing whose far better but limited himself.( my mind wanders off to Juve for some reason )then its back to reality and i see Cole who just hasnt clicked so maybe a transfer back to W.Ham in which he’s willing to take a BIG pay cut as part of a “give something back” transfer.
Other than that we’re f*cked because i dont think anyone will pay him 90K a week for him,and he doesnt have to go anywhere because he’s got a nice long contract / retirement at Liverpool.
I could go on but the fact those 3 can get in the first team means we wont be singing
“we’ve got the best midfield in the world” any time soon.

PS Gerry what happens if Rangers get to the final ?

YNWA

Timmy I know its half time but it was a shit performance, no ifs and but about it. Get off your high horse about Kenny I never said he was shit.
.
You hold onto your dream of this team will win the league next year, I’ll keep my we need to spend cash and seriously large amounts.
.
Braga were a very ordinary team, so was Sparta, who we only just managed to beat at home.
.
Yes I hope we smack them at home, but I still think the fans should get their money back, really they didn’t look more interested than back at West Ham.

Also Timmy since you noted I come in here with my 100 millions statergy every time we drop points or lose, which is just not true, but must be if you state it. We have just spent around 50 million on two players and still need, left backs, wide winger type midfielders with pace, a centre back and maybe another striker. So how are you going to get all that lot for say 20 million.
.
It’s no use having a lump like Carrol if you can’t get players behind the opposition defence. Today we didn’t get anyone behind the ops defence, so no chance of Carrol having a go at one in the box, nearly all his headers were trying to pull the ball down upfield.
.
Anyway as I said, you have your opinion I have mine.

Little Red shoots of recovery… nice pick of a title Gerry.
The team was awful, KK summed it up best, disappointment but Carroll’s performance was a positive sign.
Frankly, I do not know how the formation was supppose to play out with Poulsen, Lucas, Spearing, Meireles and Joe Cole, all of which looks a lot central to me. So even when AC came on for Poulsen, the game was still very much central … hoofing up to AC, no width… with maybe Cole offering some of it … most came from Glen and … well.. at one moment Carra.
Now this is all good if our midfield actually showed some muscle… and like Gaz mentioned, if we actually had bodies around AC to pick up the knock downs, getting behind defenders… what we witnesed was basically a slow moving midfield, too far away from AC with mostly one body around him going the wrong direction.
The performance was poor. Weird formation, Meireles was played a little out wide, so was Spearing in the first half. Our Central pairing of Lucas and Poulsen was supposed to contain the midfield threats… Lucas is not Masherano and cannot do it alone. Against MU, Stevie G was disciplined alongside Lucas and this showed. Lucas had Poulsen and this showed in this game. In the 2nd half when Spearing was moved more central, the performance improved a little.
Well, what’s done is done. KK will ensure we learn from this performance and come up with the winning game plan in the 2nd half.

Glad that i missed the game. Look, Kenny cant do anything about it if we get pathetic performance from players. During Roy’s time too, i mentioned that its the players who are equally responsible.

We are playing like a mid-table side who usually like to play great and prove their credential whenever a fixture against a big team comes and then switches off playing against lesser sides.

Is Pacheco worse than Poulsen and Spearing? Is he really that bad? No need to scout for foreign wonderkid anymore next season. They won’t get their chances here.

Gerry we don’t play Sunderland until the 20th of March, the lads have a week off between Braga games.

Good blog Gerry!
I happen to agree with you on the squad & Stevie G. He cannot be an autmoatic pick anymore, purely because we never know if he will be fit or not. My opinion is that the following should be sold at the end of the season:
Fabio, Spearing, Jovanovic, Poulsen, Konch, Cole (mmm, 4 of those incl. Fabio, are Roy signings) and maybe Soto the Greek – IF we sign a top CB, because Carra is past it as well.
Loaned out:
Eggnog – I believe there is promise there, but he needs to get game time plus get a bit stronger physically.

Regarding the game last night – I fell asleep after 1/2 time, sorry to say.
I saw about 4 decent touched from Cole, but on those wages, I couldn’t justify him staying at the Reds.
Poulsen & Spearing were woeful, the rest not too much better. But like Timmy, I have faith for the 2nd leg. I’d love to see Pacheco get a run as well.

Icluded in the sales I mentioned above, I suppose one would have to include Aquaman, although I would rather see a player of his quality & skill at the club. Maxi to stay, as he is a good squad player…but defo need a quality CB, LB, central midfielder with composure, skill & passing ability, plus 2 wingers or a winger & (a 4th) striker. We should get enough from the abpve sales plus FSG’s war chest to get some star quality in.

Just read from a source that If Stoke City stays up in the premiership, they will replace Pullis with…err… Rafa….

Oh dear…OMG

Braga are 31 points behind Porto ! No width or creativity, garbage Hodgson like performance.

Gerrard has had a op on his groin, out for 4 weeks so he wont be doing a Napoli type rescue when Braga come to Anfield ¦(

Gaz,i`ll reply to you now,i wasn`t around last night or this morning.

First of all ,i`m not on a high horse about Kenny i just rather defend the man when one of “our ow” slag him off.

“gazmaninaus
Posted on March 10, 2011 @ 9:21 pm
I don’t understand how we only used 1 sub when the bastards don’t play until next week. That was fucking awful Kenny, what about the supporters world wide getting up at ridiculous hours to watch absolute dross”

That to me was a dig at Kenny Gaz,dress it up what way you want.We went out there with a few absentee`s so the team put out looked to me,a team that was there to grab a draw.It was never going to be pretty with spearing on the right and poulsen in the middle.
They pinned us back in the first half,not only that our passing was abismal.
It`s ok to tlak footy Gaz,constructively instead of coming in throwing tantrums like “we`re up all hours to watch this dross” and “the supporters hould get their money back”.
I don`t think the players didn`t give a shit,they just didn`t perform.Believe me Gaz,nobody was pissed off with that first half display more than Kenny.

On your other point Gaz,the summer spend.I`d be very surprised if we went out and spent the 100 million.

I never said this squad would win the league next season so don`t be putting words in my mouth.

I understand the squad needs an overhaul.Absolutely.We need to knock down the wage bill first.Our wage bill is too high and we have too many overpaid players at the club.

In an ideal world we would go out and spend in the positions you mentioned but nobody knows whats available.The fifty odd spent in january was what came in from transfers out so we`re still not sure how deep their pockets will be.

We`re not City we won`t go out and splash with out thinking.I`m sure comolli has identified targets and presented them to Kenny.So we have to wait and see on that front.

Rome,

I think its better Gerrard will get it sorted now.No point doing it during the summer,it could cost him a proper pre-season.It`s good that all the players,but especially Gerrard have no summer distractions.They can get a good rest and a good pre-season.Agger too,dunno whats up with that lad.He`s a class player but made glass.
I think we can all see now why Rafa only offered Fabio a pay by play contract.

Always a pleasure, Gerry.

Dreadful performance first half last night. Things improved when The Big Lad came on, but never really clicked. We’ll probably beat them rather easily at Anfield though.

John McMahon was sacked on Wednesday judging from certain, usually reliable, sources, and today he was replaced by José Segura as a temporary reserve team manager. I wonder what went on there. Strange time of the year to make that kind of change.

Gerrard will miss 3 games i think which could be worse but the prospect of Poulsen/Spearing taking his place is not a good one.
It a shame Torres can play in the CL but Suarez cant play in Europa.
Aquillani would of been a nice option to have last night

It would have been useful to have Shelvey available. Poulson is muck and I hate to say it but Spearing just doesn’t have what it takes. In the circumstances I think we should move Cole into the middle where he used to play when he was younger. I’m certainly not convinced by Cole but I’d rather have him in there then Poulsen or Spearing, if we’ve no other options. And to think some people questioned why we wanted to sign Charlie Adam!

Alright chaps. gonna catch up on the comments later. Just Just wanted to let you all know that went to my first ever liverpool v united game last sunday and had the time of my life. It was also my first time in the kop. I know anfield isnt the same as the anfield from yester year but I’m sure sunday wasnt far off. I sang from start to finish,hugged strangers and and lapped it all up.
Not to disappointed about last night, we had a fairly patched up side, i agree the squad is extremely thin but ive got kinda use to it, and think in the mean time kenny will get the best outta them. Once he signs the new contract we’re back in business……… its that simple!! YNWA

Roarin, I hope your right but they seem to be dragging the chain on the Kenny issue. Also Van Gal is available, I wonder whether they may be running an eye over him as well. He’s reletively progressive and stil reasonable young in management terms, has had success with other clubs.
.
I still would like to see kenny get the job so he can concentrate on who he needs and where. I think waiting until the last games of the season would be a bit disrespectful.

In regard to us buying players, is there a new rule regarding purchasing only to the value of your profit. Can someone enlighten me on this, does this mean Chelsea and Man U who announced losses can’t buy anyone, or can they just sell to buy, anyone know.

Gaz,

I`m not 100% percent certain on this but i think clubs can spend what they earn form there income,not sure if the debt has anything to do with it.

For instance the mancs would benifit because their gross income would be huge.

We`d do ok too.The likes of City and chelsea who wouldn`t come near LFC,Arsenal or mancs,in gross income,in other words money in without the sugar daddys.

Essentially UEFA/FIFA are trying to put a stop to the chelsea/city type takeovers which would ultimately ruin football.

Clubs have to be self efficiant.We build up our status as a club over fifty years of success and hard work,so did the mancs and arsenal.

Then an average club like chelsea gets a windfall and jumps straight to the top.

Its something along those lines anyway,dunno if it helps.

Just found this,should help more.Since we`re as good as debt free now,we certainly wouldn`t be effected.The article was written before our takeover.

How will the rules work?

What are the new regulations?
From the 2012-13 season, clubs will have to consistently break even – spending only what they earn – if they want to compete in European competition.

Does that mean they can’t have debts?
No, but the debt has to be affordable. If the interest on the debt means that the club or its holding company make a loss, they would fall foul of the rules. Clubs will still be able to borrow to fund new stadiums and youth academies.

What about wealthy owners?
It will be harder for them to subsidise transfer spending and player wages from their own pocket.

Which English clubs will be affected?
Chelsea and Manchester City, as they both need their owners to pay the players. Manchester United will be hit if their debts stay high. In fact, the whole Premier League could be hit: 14 of the 20 clubs made a loss in 2008

14 out of 20 is a lot of un-financial clubs, no wonder debts are massive in the PL. Does this mean the likes of Barca and Real will have to abide by these rules, thanks for the info Timmy.

Hey Sachem, you were right – John McMahon has been replaced by Segura.

Here’s the statement from the official site (If I may)…

————————
Liverpool FC confirmed today that Academy Technical Director Pep Segura will take charge of the Reserve Team for the remainder of the season and will be assisted by Under-16′s Coach Steve Cooper.

John McMahon has passed his responsibilities as Reserve Team Manager to Pep with immediate effect.

A Liverpool FC spokesman said: “The Club have conducted a thorough review of all operations based at our Academy as part of our overall strategy to constantly improve our youth and professional player performance.

“We have a clear vision of the way ahead and a number of changes will now be put in place to help us to build on the considerable progress already made. Pep Segura will step in as Reserve team manager on a temporary basis for the remainder of this term only, before a revised structure is put in place this summer. He will be assisted over the next few months by Steve Cooper.”
————————

Hmn… I wonder if this has anything to do with the likes of Pacheco et al whose progress seems to have stalled in the last year.

Guys,

I read a rumor somewhere that Rafa will become the manager of Stoke City next season….

Timmy, next season Cita and the Chavs will be in the CL.Their gross income will be about 25 % higher than the Reds.EL is best we can hope for next year, hpefully 2 teams already qualified for europe will play in the cup final, giving 6th in the prem a EL spot.Carroll was/is worth £ 15 mill.Should of got a wide player in Jan.

BM Money has a lot to do with it but its not the be all and end all of it.

As unfortunate as it may be we are (once again) in a rebuilding faze and it will take some time to be able to compete for CL places or titles.

The trick, I think is to invest wisely. The team isn’t in as bad shape as people think and adding a couple of good players would dramatically improve our ability to challenge.

Remember back in 2005 when Rafa joined he bought Alonso and Garcia (along with Josemi and Nunez) but it was the former 2 players (along with the great form of the rejuvenated Carra, Sami and Steg) that allowed us to win the CL.

Of course it all depends on KK & Co’s ability to gel the players and get the best out of them.

I think we are in a good position for the future with the work that Rafa started in the Academy and now with new supportive and motivated owners and a manager that knows his stuff, it appears that everyone is at last pulling in the same direction.
Thats a very important factor in achieving success and should stand us in good stead.

In the meantime I prepare myself for a topsy turvy season until the summer when things should begin to look a little brighter.

I also wanted to add that my thoughts are still with the Japanese people who have been decimated by natures unforgiving fury.

I wish you all the best of luck in these trying circumstances and hope you and your families are safe and well.

Why do i bother?

Anyway,Burgerman,Chelsea (the club) and Man City (the club) are dwarfed by Liverpool and Man united.Sugasr daddys money dosen`t count.Read the rules above.

Chelsea have been making a substantial loss for quite some time now.The club itself wouldn`t be able to afford the wage bill they have.Same goes for man city.They have Mansur?abramovic linind the clubs pockets.

Even now with Anfield still to be re-developed,we have a bigger stadium than chelsea.We must have what?, 30 times the fan base of chelsea,so we destroy them in the commercial market.So how can they have a bigger income than us without roman Burgerman?

Anybody miss Babel ?

I do Rome77,
the fucker didn’t even visit me in hospital LOL.

I miss Igor Biscan.

Wouldn`t mind signing that Wilshere lad,he can play.

Sad to see Torres’ latest press piece, I’m still struggling to come to terms with the moving to Chelsea. I don’t understand why he continues to talk to the press. In his latest one he actually puts his former team Athletico down, very sad, I guess the days of he won’t go to Real are well and truely over.
.
He has become dispicable. Long may his goal drought continue, and may all his injuries get worse, afterall his injury prone.

Hi Gerry -

Great to see you back in action again.

One point I’d take up with you is the defensive situation.
For me it is the biggest problem we have. It’s (Agger apart) a lack of pace, footballing options, a settled effective partnership. A surfeit of non-footballing centre-halves who slow us down, drag us deep and cripple our attacking options. If you have 3 players in your team who cannot pass, move, dribble and offer nothing beyond the half-way line as well constantly lose the ball when forced to play long then you play into the hands of any intelligent opposing team. It’s no wonder we look (and are) slow and laboured.

Our priority, for me, is to sort that out before anything else.

You could make an argument for getting rid of all of them for different reasons. Certainly they, as a quartet, won’t do beyond this season.

Question is who do you keep? Is Agger worth it? Can we base our defense around a crock?

[Gem of this week] “…everyone played like a Dirk Kuyt except for Dirk Kuyt who played like a Gary Lineker and Suarez zig zagged through the manc defence as if he was trapped in the crosshairs of Carlos the Jackal!”

Arsenal conceded two to Braga in the same game we conceded one. That’s a positive already. Kenny played an XI that doesn’t start together regularly and we still showed enough defensive resilience and LUCK to hold on for that result. Will we finish the job at Anfield? Hell, yeah. Such heart-in-the-mouth results have got to stop to be honest.

We’re still plodding on with a team that’s both provisional and transitional. Not once am I excusing mediocrity here, but looking at Arsenal yesterday, we are NOWHERE near their lack of mental strength situation.

Ultimately we’ll overcome Braga. They’re said to have improved from the squad that vanquished Arsenal (plus Celtic and Sevilla) in northern Europe. I also believe we’ll keep over achieving till May. We will find out in the course of this week anyway.

so the papers are rife with speculation that rooney & slur whiskey face have fallen out again & that he could be sold in the summer, so here’s two questions for ya lad’s,
(1) do you think kenny & commoli would put a bid in for him?
(2)would the liverpool supporters accept him in a liverpool shirt?

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/234251/Liverpool-give-Kenny-Dalglish-two-year-deal

Kopcolly.

Q1…No

Q2…No.

As for the article,although i think its inevitable Kenny will get a deal,i`m going to take that article which has no quotes,with the proverbial pinch of salt.

Things are been kept under wraps at the club i`m sure if stories were to be linked,the Express wouldn`t be one of the first on their list.

Seen the youth cup game ended 3-2 to the mancs.I lsef at 2-1 where we seemed to be on top,i had to go to my kids game,came back and we`d lost.

haha timmy loved the answers , no bullshit just a simple no, very cork style of you, i seen the result, pity, i totally forgot to watch it, howz the little one gettin on ?

timmy U & i seem like the few in here that think 4th spot is beyond us this season , with stevie out for possibly 5 games i think there will be a few more on board, there are 9 games left ,
(1) sunderland (away)
(2) west brom (away)
(3) man city (home)
(3) arsenal (away)
(5) birmingham (home)
(6) newcastle (home)
(7) fulham (away)
(8) spurs (home)
(9) villa (away)
how do you see the results in these last games?
surely if we have had any chance of that distant 4th spot we would have to go the remainder of the season unbeaten & rely on the likes of shity , spuds or the chavs to loose 3/4 games, unrealistic chance as far as im concerned

oh dear

so fernando has decided to stick the knife in the back of the club that made him an international superstar. and to think i once called him a model professional.

what a plonker

£50 million is starting to look like the deal of the century for a striker in decline with an extremely big mouth.

Why does anyone care what Chelsea’s 3rd best striker has to say?

I find that quite curious.

Kopcolly,the small one is doing great thanks for asking pal.

As for fourth,ya i do think its a pipe dream now.Also with the FA cup draw,only the top 5 in the league now qualify for Europe so its quite possible we won`t qualify for Europe at all.

(1) sunderland (away) 1-2 w
(2) west brom (away) 0-3 w
(3) man city (home) 3-1 w (better be cos i`m going )
(3) arsenal (away) 1-2 l
(5) birmingham (home) 2-0 w
(6) newcastle (home) 3-1 w
(7) fulham (away) 1-1 d
(8) spurs (home) 2-1 w
(9) villa (away) 2-2 d

There you go Kopcolly,as unbiased as i can be

Oustanding blog Gerry. Always look forward it mate.

”It`s all alleged of course,but read between the lines Ar53fluff and you`ll come to a conclusion.Then you like others may have wanted Rafa out anyway so choose to ignore it.”

Timmy, havent has a chance to get in here this week but if you dont mind i’d like to respond to your comment in the last blog.

I may not sit and stick my nose in the papers all day and worry whether Talkshite said this or that, and I dont read the notw. But ive also never met Carra, and Ive never been privy to his personal relationship with Rafa, so therefore Im judging the guy on what he actually does for us as a club. I dont give a shit if he didnt like Rafa ,and if I had proof that he helped Rafa out the door, then id be sickened by the guy. Like I said before, I dont read too much into allegations or ‘read between the lines’. And youre dead wrong, I loved Rafa. I can see that he was a fantastic manager and seems to be a nice bloke. But really, why does it always come down to who liked Rafa and who didnt?? Rafas gone. Its done. Weve well moved on. In a way the positive of it all is Kenny is back.

I was just sticking up for Carra cos hes a legend of a player and thats all that matters. Hes not my mate, I dont know him. And therefore I wont comment on what he thought of Rafa until he SAYS what he thought of Rafa.

I do remember he said how much respect he had for Rafa in post match comments at the start of season.

Anyway, its old news. Just dont try and paint me as antiRafa cos I like Carra. Its just not true.

By the way, if we cant qualify with 6th next year, does that make it imperative now we go all the way and left the UEFA cup? (I cant say Europa league, as it sounds a bit..crap. I live in Belfast and I dont fancy a cup named after the Europa hotel..lol)

WOW… totally didn’t see that one coming….
“Nani and Michael Carrick trained on Sunday and Monday and both will be involved tomorrow,” said Ferguson.

5-6 weeks my possibly infected, pole-axed, broken leg, crying like a schoolgirl, ARSE!!!!!!

9 days… that’s how long he was out… 9 days… which is less than how long it takes for the scab to disappear if you cut yourself shaving!

PUSSY!

Actually I’m worng… if the pansy cunt trained Sunday, then that was 7 days out.

I hope one of the French players brea… err… tackles him somewhat strongly

aitch,

i don’t want to say it
i really don’t want to say it

but i told you so.

listen lads

can someone here reassure me about the game against braga cos i’m ever so slightly worried.

i’m thinking of writing a letter to kenny to let me play left side of midfield. i’ve got one good half left in me. if he brings me on at half time i reckon i could do better than joe cole. my boots are a bit muddy and circa 1997 but i’m up for it if you lot will chip in for my train fare to liverpool.

and steve gerrard out for a bloody month. why did we get rid of igor. where’s neil mellor when you need him. no disrespect to any of the players but we need a better squad….ah well. see what happens.

I agree with Gerry in that we need a midfield player to compete for Gerrards place in the side. We need do some good shopping in the summer. I can’t wait to see how we go about building the squad.

asr53fluff,

Fair enough,you have your opinion on it i`ve mine,so with htat said we`ll leave it at that,its been done to death by now anyway.

I think we can get the better of Braga on thursday night.We had no game at the weekend so the players should be fresh and up for it.

The one nil deficit isn`t too much to claw back and i hope Braga will have a similar out come to their last trip to England when they got battered for six at the Emirates.

exactly Timmy. Just opinions. If we all didnt have them these blogs would be very mundane indeed. I just wanted to put forward that I was never for Rafa being slung the way he was. Like you say though, its been done to death.

Im really hoping we go out of the blocks fast and on the front foot tomorrow night. 3 goals are needed to be safe, because if do our usual of sittin off them after 20 minutes we could be in for a shock. Hope Agger comes back and doesnt bring his tea china legs with him. He a good extra option when he plays the ball out of defence.
Wonder if Big Andy Carroll will start? He keeps the whole opposition defence busy.
Im not questioning Kenny or anything, but Im wondering, like the rest of us, when wee Pachecos going to get a run out. I would defo play him before Joe Cole. I really was hoping Joe Cole was going to do it for us, and every time hes on the pitch Im really rootin for him to show some of his undoubted talent,but it looks like hes lost the spark.

Just watched chv’s v Copenhagen,
what a cure for insomnia, anyway our hero from yesteryear failed to score again (mind you no one gives him the fuckin ball, now i dont know if it’s me just looking for faults cos he shit on LFC and it’s fan’s good style but has anyone noticed when he run’s he hold’s his arm’s like he has got 6 roll’s of wallpaper under each one, fuckin weird.

Wonder what the fuck his next statement is going to be,

“i really do have to move on and see if the world is round or flat”.

http://www.thesportreview.com/tsr/2011/03/fernando-torres-chelsea-liverpool-loyalty/

notice the last paragraph guy’s.

redman

i mentioned the way torres runs in here about six months ago. at the time i thought he’d been eating too much scouse and not enough paella. he sort of runs like a tubby kid and not the sprinter he’s supposed to be. wierd… i wonder if this is a consequence of injuries?

thats why i’m glad we sold him when we did. and why i can put up with the drivel he comes out with in the papers. and it really is drivel.

i know the lad wants to be honest. i know he thinks he is being nouveau when speaking to the press so candidly, but someone should put a gag on him, because the british press are bastards that will twist his every statement and make him look a proper villain, and when he fails to score, they will be waiting pen in hand to crucify him. hero one day, zero the next.

nani has an extended moan at jamie carragher. oh diddums

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/16/nani-jamie-carragher-tackle

the more i read it the more i like jamie carragher

The mancs reek of hypocrisy!! Carra should have been shown a red card no bones about it but then so should ape boy against the Wigan player for his forearm smash, I don’t see Nani moaning about that. I didn’t hear him moan that Raphael should have gone for his tackle on Lucas. I’m glad Nani got it good style off Carra, he’ll defo be wary the next game. The mancs are brash, arrogant, hypocritical gits and I would love them to miss out on the title and to go on a rapid downward spiral of relegation. Bitter? Moi? yep you bet it.

Happy St patricks day lads, come on the redmen, 2-0 me thinks,YNWA!

I haven’t seen Torres sprint in a long time. Chelski just signed another shevchenko. He’s there third best striker on current form yet is first choice. I’m glad we don’t have the owner picking our team.

What’s the likely line up tonight? No poulsen or spearing Please!

Word on the street is its Reina, Johnson, Soto, Skertl, Carra, Spearing, Lucas, Meireles, Maxi, Dirk, Ngog. I’m concerned about tonight. Stevie vs Napoli aside, we just havent played well in this competion. If thats the line-up its difficult to see where the spark will come from for the 2 necessary to win. If they score…….
When was the last time we scored 3 without Stevie? I think it was Wolves away when he was suspended, am I right? When was the last time before that? I dunno. Maybe I’m panicking over nothing and we’ll run out comfortable 4-0 winners. Doubt it though. Methinks this will be tiiiiight. Hopefully the crowd can pull us through.

If we play like we did in the ist game I fear the worst in this game,the lineup Diggers suggested doesn’t fill me with confidence,who’s going to provide the spark?.

Fingers crossed that enough players are on form and hopefully we can get a early goal.

Digger I think Huggy Bear gave you the wrong info it looks like Carroll and Cole will be starting the game.

Thank fuck! Much more confident with this line-up. Ok here we go…..

I don’t know who will provide the spark but I know who is providing the long ball. Carra to Carroll all night long.

We look a very ordinary side. It’s difficult viewing this.

We won’t get the best out of Carroll until we get some genuine wingers.

I think someones told Carragher he’s Ronald Koeman.

Well that was a pile of manure. P R E D I C T A B L E. Grow a brain fast. Christ.

We need to hook Maxi he’s not in the game.Pacheco

Absolute rubbish.

Our last four Europa games have summed up how far we have fallen,we struggle badly to beat ordinary teams,our midfield is very weak and does not create chances hence the hoofing upfield.

We just are not good enough,we need to rid ourselves of the huffers and puffers in midfield and buy some players with pace and skill who can actually beat a full back and whip in a cross.

I am impressed by Suarez and Carroll 2 excellent buys but our midfield is average at best and we need to get in some quality in the summer.

I would keep hold of Lucas but he cannot be our 1st choice he’s backup at best.Looking around the team quite a lot of our players would be decent backup players but are not 1st team material.

The players to build our team around are Reina,Johnson,Agger,Gerrard,Meireles,Suarez and Carroll.
We are gonna have to splash some serious cash to get back up there but at least we have Kenny to guide.

No, it wasn’t rubbish. It was a great performance. By Braga. They put up one hell of a fight.

Liverpool will need to be rebuilt by the looks of it. We can still overpower top sides like Chelsea and Man Utd on inspiration, but that won’t help us in the long run. Players like Joe Cole and Maxi shouldn’t be starting games for us. They are not poor players, but I think Joe Cole should have ended up back at West Ham, not Liverpool this season (maybe we should ask Stevie whether he still considers Joe to be better than Messi).

To be honest, Kenny’s tactics weren’t up to scratch today. Even with the players at his disposal, we should have created more chances. It was a disappointing performance by Liverpool, but rather than finding scapegoats among our players, I would rather conclude once more that this is the result of previous owners and Cecil.

No guile out there. Braga deserved the win. Neither on the pitch nor off of it did we show much wit.
Either we are playing Maxi in the wrong place or else maybe we are not playing the right system because he looked completely out of sync there.
Joe tried very hard (too hard ?) particularly first half but then he just petered out to being a passenger by the time he was subbed off.
Miereles looked like he was on tranquilisers for much of the game tho’ he did perk up a bit towards the end. Lucas was Lucas. Solid.
Carroll was made to look clumsy by the utter crap ball he got all night.
Kuyt huffed and puffed to no great effect.
Sum total of creativity was pretty much zero from top 6.
Glenda was our best player for me.
The other back 3 well they did what they do. We won’t win football matches with 3 hackers and hoofers playing on the team.
Pepe was really good too but I wonder are we seeing the last of his days here now ? I mean he was watching that sub-standard brainless tripe as he has been all season in Europe. Boy oh boy.
Just a word for Ngog he did ok mixed the pretty good with occassionaly awful.
Spearing did ok.
No other sub used = no plan B.
Not good enough ‘Pool.

Can’t splash serious cash, London Red. The financial fair play rules won’t allow that. I think we’re going for the Arsenal approach by signing highly talented younger player and getting rid of overpaid elders. This will cost us as well of course, but it will be cheaper and better in the long-term.

I have to add, it was sickening to watch Carra’s hoofing tonight again. Just because we have big Andy up front doesn’t mean all problems are solves by hoofing the ball towards him every chance you get. But of course Carra shouldn’t be the only one to blame for this. The rest of the team didn’t give him a lot of choices.

With that draw, our European fate is sealed atleast for two seasons(Present & Next). I dont see us finishing ahead of Spurs/Chelsea.

As mentioned here, this team is far from complete. There are gaps,lack of quality in crucial areas and most importantly lack of young,dynamic players.

Talking of ambition, lets see what the manager & the owners plan things. To begin with reliance on Carra,Gerrard needs to be brought down to zero. Carra for all his brilliant defending just does not fit into the strategy of building from the back. His long balls are disgusting to watch.

Kenny & his support staff must decide the philosophy & bring in players accordingly. Carrol & Squarez will be no good to us if we cant rebuild the midfield and defense. Oh & we might have to find a goalkeeping replacement too.

Well the second half kicked off well, glad I waited for that. The game didn’t even rate over here so pay TV only had the Man City and Rangers game. I had to sit by my computer watching BBC written updates.
.
Someone mentioned serious cash, thats what its going to take but I think the fair play rules are going to come crushing down on us.
.
Spending 20-30 million might be alright for a strong squad like, City, Man U, Chelsea etc, but its our base the fucked. We need so many of just the basis squad players before we even get to money grubbing world class give me CL football types.
.
Big job for whoever gets the managers job, be it Kenny or someone else, lets face it who would want a total rebuilding job and only a 2 year contract.
.
Well I notice we’ve been tipped to lose at Sunderland in the tipping comp at the BBC, lets hope thats not the case, but it appears to me this team has run out of pace since the Man U game, its like we used all our energy in that one game.
.
Hopefully things will get better in the league but it looks like European nights at Anfield are over for the short term future.

LB @ 91: You called it…Carra hoofing it to Big Andy all night! Not just blaming Carra, we were shite around the park, excpet for the first 8 mins or so.
Ngog looked ‘ok’ when he came on, Joe Cole had some nice (a couple of) touches, and that was about it.
They never let us settle on the ball (like Wet Spam) & our midfield was overun (like Wet Spam).

I’ve noticed a few things recently. We seem to be able to raise our game against the likes of Chelsea and the mancs. Big grudge matches if you will. In other games we’re an average side. 6th position reflects our true position in my opinion. Ordinary.

Individually: Raul plays well when he is further up the field. He is too light weight in a Proper midfield role next to Lucas. The amount of times we’ve been outfought in midfield is frightening.
Joe Cole is finished. It’s over. I don’t want to see him in a Liverpool shirt again. Kuyt needs to have skillfull players around him. In a side with maxi, Carroll and cole he just adds to the frustration. Spearing, Poulsen just not good enough. Apart from sicknote Agger and Johnson our defenders are useless at playing the ball out of defence. It means our midfield have to come very deep to receive the ball or it’s a launch up front. The first touch of most of the players at times is just unacceptable.
There is no pace in the side whatsoever. Very little flair or imagination apart from Suarez.

Quite frankly we didn’t deserve to win anything this season. At least it’s now obvious to the ownership, comolli and coaching staff that we need to rebuild significantly.

What were Rafa’s Portugese scouts doing for the past 6 years ? They are 6th in their domestic league!Cole, Maxi etc were hapless, return to the dying days of Houllier in 2004.Carroll looks slow and overweight.Who was playing on the flanks ?

Burgerman – What are you babbling on about? Rafa’s fault still?

LB – I agree but here’s the rub, Carra is still our best defender, so until we can get another Daniel Agger in but one who’s not made of glass we’ll be throwing out the baby with the bath water. I think we are alright with Kelly and Johnson on the flanks with Carra n Agger in the centre. I would play Stevie n Lucas in Midfield with Raul then obviously Suarez(fabulous little player) and Carroll up front.

Formation would be

Pepe

Kelly Carra Agger Johnson

Gerrard Lucas Raul

Kuyt Suarez

Carroll

Lord help us if we get any injuries though!!!

Chavs V Mancs, Spurs V Real.

After the first leg when Carrol was introduced I watched Carra have orgasm after orgasm pumping the long ball up to him and thought to myself is this what we will become, having bought Carrol.

Last night was as dire. I am afraid it is obvious that Kenny has a lot to learn about playing in Europe because we looked clueless over the two legs against a good organized side but one that is hardly going to pull up trees.

Without Saurez to create it was obvious we lacked that bit of imagination and flair. So what does he do, he brings on Spearing. What Pachecco has done to not even get a look in when it was screaming for his type of flair I don’t know.

Agree LB Mierless needs to play in the attacking role because he cannot control the midfield, he is too light weight to battle it out and that left Lucas alone, rushed and overrun, especially with Cole and Maxi being ineffective, but that was more to do with a lack of control. Though I also think Coles best days are way behind him. That 5 year deal is a very expensive mistake by that football genius Cecil the knowledgeable.

We need to bring back Aquilani next season, I still rate him highly and spend our money on a left back, Wilson was out of his depth, bring back Insua as back up, then pace for the wide midfield areas. Adams of Blackpool could be a useful buy as well, as a midfield of Adams, Lucas, Aquillani and Mierless would not feel the loss of Gerrard that much and we can slowly plan for life without him while we still get a couple of good years out of him.

Great blogs as usual Gerry and sorry I don’t get as much time to comment, I do however still read the blog and comments from time to time.

I know this is sacrilege, but I’m not sure Kenny should continue as manager beyond this season. I think Kenny should be the Godfather of LFC, a bit like Cruyff has been for Barcelona. He’ll make sure things are done the Liverpool Way.

And just before anyone says this is a knee-jerk reaction, I’d like to point out I was never in favor of Kenny being more than a caretaker. I love him like everyone else, but we can’t build our future on sentimentality. I’m sure John Henry has come to the same conclusion.

As manager I think we should try and lure some younger talent to Liverpool, someone who wants to start a new rebuilding of club long-term. Who that person is I don’t know, but there are many talents out there. The most exciting one at the moment has to be André Villas Boas. A lot of clubs will try and get their hands on him, however.

What type of flair exactly would Pacheco have brought to the game last night? The same type he brought against Northampton? Rabotnicki? The type he’s obviously bringing in training so as Kenny is virtually forced into starting him? Somebody humour this curious observer please. I mean was he gonna leap 30 feet into the air intercepting one of our 2 centre backs hoofs, trap it on his chest, descend matrix like, nail the landing, turn, sprint up the field leaving bodies flailing in his wake before dispatching a Barnes-esque 25yard worldie curler towards the top corner? Am I close? Anybody? Somebody help me out here, cos I wasnt aware winning in Europe was as easy as throwing on a vitually untested lightweight kid who stank the place up vs a fourth division outfit on his last senior start. But he’s gonna tear up Europe apparently. Silly Kenny……

And the sarky award goes to…..

There’s no point saying we need this we need that etc. We know what we need and won’t start to get what we need until pre season.

So we have to or rather KK has to make do with what we have.

Heh heh, Digger…Blow me but I actually agree with you.

Thought Wilson stank UNTIL the last 10 minutes or so then I thought he’s going to be a class player for us…just needs time and expereience that’s all. I say LB slot’s his to lose now until the end of the season.
We’re going to get fuck all from this campaign anyway.

We might as well test and prepare for next season…

Let’s stop the knee-jerking eh lads?

If Pacheco can’t shine consistently in the reserves chances are he just ain’t good enough.

And there was me thinking Woy f*cked up at Northampton but all this time it was Pacheco “stinking the place out”.
Strange how the strongest criticism as fallen on a player who didnt play.
Maybe he’d of played one touch football like Cole just wont/can’t do.
I cant believe how many times he delayed a pass resulting in a offside flag been waved when the pass finally came (after a second unnecessary touch).
Messi said Pacheco was the next Messi, Gerrard said Cole is better than Messi.
I know which one i believe to be more likely.

YNWA

I have seen what Pacheco can do in some of his reserve team performances, and there is no doubt the lad is a great talent. As to why Kenny doesn’t throw him on in the hope he’ll turn games around we can only speculate, but he’s said before he doesn’t like to put too much pressure on the youngsters when things aren’t going well. It could potentially ruin their confidences and future careers.

Judging from reports it does seem like Dani Pacheco has stagnated somewhat in his development this season. If he doesn’t impress enough in training, then it would be foolish to gamble on him in the Europa League.

Digger aims a cowardly, dishonest and disgraceful attack at one of our own, just as usual. Nothing new there. There’s another on of the reasons we find ourselves where we are at the moment, “supporters” like Digger and burgerman stinking up the place.

When I saw Spearing and Ngog ready to come on I must admit to saying “oh dear!”

We were lacking ideas, subtelty and a bit of pace. Suarez n Stevie G gives us a lot of the above and Carroll and Mireiles add to that as well.

Digger: You go missing for ages – could it be you actually talk to people how you comment on the blog and end up in hospital for periods of time?

LB I’ve seen Pacheco playing in the reserves and tbh he’s on another level to the rest of them. However one of the biggest differences is the defenders at reserve level dont have the experience he will come across at senior level and untill he gets more first team experience he will stagnate, end up leaving and go and win medals elsewhere.
YNWA

Exactly LB. If he was good enough he’d be playing. It aint as if Kenny is hesitant to give the kids their shot. Shelvey, Kelly, Wilson, Spearing, Ngog etc have all featured under Kennys leadership. Some prominently. As I said, he cant impress against Northampton but he’s gonna tear up Europe? Please. We’re missing our left back, our star centre back, our captain and talisman, and our most creative player is ineligble. Add to this our striker is making his first start after a what? 8 week layoff? But its Kennys fault for not playing a kid? Gimme a break. Is it any wonder I get sarcastic. How else are you supposed to address the illogical? Embrace it? Yeah, I claim my sarky award LB! Speaking of illogical, yeah I’m a disgrace Sachem. Your the one calling for an unheard of to take over from the king in May, claiming he can build for the future. What?! As if the king isnt/wont build for the future?? You were awake for January right? This man you want replaced won the league with 2 different clubs as a manager, 3 with us, has taken over during the most tumultous period in our history and restored our pride and hope while unifying a divided club. But shur fuck it lets toss him after 5mths and place all our chips on a cub untested in the prem. I point out the absurdity of a posters point regarding the game last night, you want Kenny out, but I’m the disgrace?? Aye, sure I am. Tell ya what, if that makes me a disgrace then I’ll take my disgrace award and put it on my mantle beside my sarky. A brace for Digger at the Kopblog awards!

Digger – calm down son.

We’ve got the basis of a good side. We need I think
1. Left back
2. Left midfield
3. Centre back
4. Centre midfield

These are the four areas I would like to strengthen.

I think we have players from the youth/reserve team who could fill these slots but they’re not ready yet.

Wilson, Suso, Connor Coady(our new Steven Gerrard) Sterling, Shelvey etc.

The future is bright.

Regarding Dalglish – I know what Sachem is saying and he’s not saying Dalglish out!!! but unless you can get someone like Rafa(I said someone like) in the sense that that person wants a project, somewhere to stay and do a job for 5-10 years then Dalglish is the man for me. 2-5 years out KK is just what LFC needs. He can spot a player, his philosphy is what LFC is all about, his idea on how football should be played and his ability with youth will stand us in good stead when it is time to look for someone to take over the reins.

Whatever happens I like FSG’s approach and I think they will make the right decisions.

Kenny I took a week off because the same old shite about Carra was getting another go around. Figured it was for the best. So no, no hospital visits thank fuck. Speakin of which hope your well on the mend by now Redman.
Anyway, its friday so this disgraceful sarcastic thirsty hoor is away for a pint!

Left back x2 (first choice and back up)
Centre half (ball playing one)
Centre mid
Left mid
Right mid
Back up striker

Saw this comment on rawk and very much agree with it! Thought I’d share it.

Its like groundhog day here except the “day” lasts a week. One week, we need only one quality player in the team and the likes of Kuyt and Maxi are lauded and the next week, they are crap and need to be booted out.

To me, its fairly obvious and I’ve been saying it for a while now. The team needs a lot of fresh faces. We don’t aim high enough and too often we’ve gone with graft instead of craft when what we should have been looking at was both. We’ve also gone for players who can do a job on the left instead of going for someone who could be outstanding on the left. We’ve gone for the relatively low risk approach of incrementing the squad instead of overhauling it and unfortunately our rate of incrementation has been lower than our rate of regression. Babel was perhaps the only one we took a punt on and that was an atrocious buy in hindsight. In the past we were handicapped by lack of funds and dreadful management and now that we’ve got rid of that quite massive headache, It would be great if NESV and Kenny and our scouts decided to loosen the reigns a bit and went for it.

Kenny was spot on when he said the step up gets more difficult as you go towards the top. And to make a big step up, you need big players and we’ve been reticent to do that for whatever reason or when we have made an attempt we’ve simply signed the wrong players for whatever reason. What I thought Kenny didn’t mention that day was that it is much easier for a team to slide once they get to a certain position than it is to improve. As it is we are faced with a massive challenge in getting to the top. Nows the time we actually did an honest reassessment of our playing squad before we decided on what to do in the future. One off games don’t prove a thing. Look at a season though and you’ll see where our problems are. Too many average players who may have been good a couple of seasons back and now aren’t good enough. Papering over the cracks has led to a crumbling foundation in the team and we now need a proper repair job. No room for sentimentality here. A proper appraisal is needed and only then can the team progress.

And can I say it now, I fucking hate that every time Dirk has a good game, there is a new thread lauding him as a legend as a show of opposition to the criticism he cops otherwise. So, lets taking the average of the two opinions and what we end up with is this, he is average. If half the people are saying he’s piss poor and the other half are saying he’s a legend, then the truth is somewhere in the middle. And sorry boys but average isn’t acceptable. Especially when its not the exception to the rule but the rule itself.

Excellent summing up of our current position in post #123 I have criticized Dirk quite a few times in here,and as I have said before he could/would be a decent squad player but he’s not good enough to be a 1st choice player for Liverpool,I can recognize how his type of player is useful in certain games but when we are trying to break down the bus parkers he does not bring anything to the table,great servant for us over the years but we have reached a point where we can no longer put up with mediocre players in our 1st team

thhttp://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/News-and-Interviews/10-11/Pepe-We-must-r-25204.php3 this man is not a happy camper!

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/News-and-Interviews/10-11/Pepe-We-must-r-25204.php3

Digger,
thank’s for the kind word’s i’ve got a scar going about 2ins above my navel and it stops halfway through my pubes, come to think of it the more i look at it the more it look’s like Rio Ferdinand’s mouth.
Tell you what though guy’s what has KD got to do to please some of you, a couple of month’s ago we were an absolute shambles as a team and a club, so we get what most of us (the one’s who have the simplest knowledge of football to the aficionado’s of the game)wanted was to get Old Itchy Arse the fuck out of Anfield, but now with a few dodgy results as well as a few fuckin good results, let,s get rid of KD.
No fuckin wonder FS and his kind dont come in here anymore, i only come in to read burgerbrain’s comments, he’s funnier than John Bishop.

Jaysus Redman, insult to injury eh? A daily reminder of that dozy hoor lol! Glad to hear yer on the mend. Agree with your sentiments completely btw. The mans barely in the seat 5mins. After inheriting chaos mind you. Just unbelievable.

Digger you are an absolute twat and as usual twist things to suit your childish out look. I know understand my lack of enthusiasm to post more regularly. Nobody said that Pachecco was going to tear Braga a new arsehole or should even start. However being one down and not looking like scoring over 160 minutes of football I know who I would rather see come on between him and Spearing.

Nobody is getting on Kenny’s back, especially when I remember all your pathetic rants against Rafa as comparison, glass houses stones springs to mind. However what we are expressing is that the one last chance for a bit of glory and a lift and we went out with a bit of a wet limp. I would have rather gone down at home but really go for it by throwing caution to the wind.

How stupid of me to think you could express an opinion that differs from the most knowledgeable fan ever and expect not to receive a sarcastic childish response.

As for the absolute shambles redman it was down to the Diggers of this world that gave Cecel the ammo to forced out the man holding the club together or it would not have been a shambles in the first place. It’s a joke the way people make their judgment calls and what they use as their basis for comparison. Kenny has united the team put belief back into it, got them playing as a unit. Is he best suited for the long haul? Time will tell, is he a better Manager than Rafa? In my opinion not quite, but he is a fuck lot better than Woy and I will take that for know. That however does not make him infallible. He after all, in my opinion, was the reason for our down fall in the first place when he left an ageing side when he quit.

He inherited Sir Bobs team from Joe when he was forced to step down, bought some really quality players and made them the best Liverpool side ever. We, however, started to slide before he quit and that was down to him. He went to Blackburn and used the Walker million to build a championship winning side. Can he do it on a budget with other teams out spending him on a constant basis? Rafa could and did. Time will tell if Kenny can and he will have all my support unlike some of you gave to Rafa. Saying that I will comment and debate when I think it warrants it. Spearing instead of Pachecco warrants a comment. Lucas for Gerard in the Derby would have kicked up a shit storm if it did not work especially form the likes of Digger. However in this case it did not work and as fans we are entitled to question in a sensible way and yes it also does not mean we are right but we are still entitled to ask without the pathetic response from the peanut gallery.

I think I will take a break now.

I definitely agree with some of the things you say, Kenny, but I just don’t think Dalglish is a manager of the future. If we want to be challenging for titles sooner rather than later, I think we need someone in with Rafa’s approach, that is an enormous attention to detail and tactical permutations. If not Rafa (I fear it would be very difficult to bring him back) then we need someone like André Villas Boas, an improved Mourinho, without the arrogance and overly defensive style of play.

LB, no disrespect mate, but that comment from RAWK is so full of fallacies, reading feels almost like reading a Digger or BM comment.

Just want to point out one example: “If half the people are saying he’s piss poor and the other half are saying he’s a legend, then the truth is somewhere in the middle.”

A conclusion that might seem plausible, but in fact, it’s based on a number of very questionable assumptions. What if the detractors are simply idiots? An equally plausible conclusion.

Deary me the old Rafa debate rages on. Seriously lads, hes gone. Onwards and upwards eh?I loved Rafa but I acknowledge that people had their opinions on him, whether they were right or not. Gets a bit borin comin on here and every blog has ‘if you didn’t like rafa, youre a twat’ type of argument going on. Each to their own.

Im totally behind Kenny being made permanent manager.Hes had to come in at a very turbulent time and has done really well obviously. Hes earned it. He was our last great manager and was written off by a lot of people who said he was out of the game too long. Well, hes blew that out of the water. Pickin out things like he caused our downfall by leaving and he used millions to win a league with Bburn. Well, to me, that’s pretty thin argument to hold up to question Kennys managerial pedigree. And after whats hes done for this club over the years, he deserves a contract.

I have NO question that’s hes the right man we need for the near future. Hes proved it since January, and over his whole career.

This again? Really Keith?? Yawn. My point had nothing whatsoever to do with Rafa. The premise of my point was what has Pacheco done to justify your call for him to be brought on? Answer: sweet fuck all. This has nothing to do with Rafa. You brought up Rafa not me. Then again, everything is to do with Rafa and Rafa is everything for you, so no surprise. Whatever man, your obsession is no concern of mine. Ya wanna a bad guy? Fine, insert Diggers name here. Whatever gets ya to sleep at night. Enjoy your break. And I mean that. You need to take a break. In a Rafa-free zone preferably. Believe me, it’ll aid in your recovery.

This used to be the best place on the net to go to talk and read viewpoints on Liverpool FC but no more, I am genuinely sorry about that.

Digger just fuck off, tired of your sarcasm, tired of your inability to ever be wrong, tired off your crusades against sensible and straight forward posters and your constant agendas, in short tired off you.

I have tried not to resort to personal insult but Digger you are a twat of the worst kind, constantly moving goal posts to suit your agenda, contradicting yourself in the space of weeks, anything not to lose an argument, I look forward to you arguing black is white and getting run over on a zebra crossing.

Yeah, and I’m the twat? Okay then.

LB That rawk comment is one which as been said many times since 2009 but as always it just comes down to money or more importantly the lack of it.
But one thing that stands out for me is the obvious dislike for Kuyt and the “i hate it when Kuyt has a good game” seems more like a “i hate it when i’m wrong” hiding behind some valid points.
I love it when Kuyt has a good game but i dont lose sight of the fact in the perfect world he would just be a squad player.

Digger If Pacheco has done sweet fa like you say then the same can be said of any of the youth players.
They like Cole need at least a chance to do sweet fa.
Im not saying he should be starting every game mainly
because hes too young and too much pressure can ruin a good thing.
However if your judging him from one or two of Woys tactical masterclasses, then yes your been a tw*t.

YNWA

For me, the hostility towards Kuyt is mere ignorance. If I would pick the team, Kuyt would always be second one I pick (Pepe would always be the first). The reasons? Well, you could always ask Bert van Marwijk, the head coach of Netherlands, who said the same thing during the World Cup last summer. Kuyt is simply the kind of player every team needs. Not a as a squad player, no. As a regular starter.

His work ethic and ability to create spaces for other players is invaluable – something his detractors among our supporters will until he’s not around anymore, we haven’t replaced him with a similar player, and they’re wondering why we aren’t creating more goalscoring opportunities. This will probably cause them to find a new innocent victim, a scapegoat to blame because they’re too stupid to see the quality he brings to the team.

No Rome the same cannot be said of the other youth players. Not at all. Shelvey having proved himself at Charlton, earned and retained his place as a regular starter and done so much in fact he earned a move to Liverpool. Liverpool football club. Kelly, in an injury crisis, was presented with an opportunity and took it with both hands. And then came back for more. The man has been nothing short of a beast and one of the few bright spots in the season. Ngog, whilst never gonna set the prem alight nevermind the world, has at least proven he can score intermittently at this level and for a while was our joint top scorer this season. These are all lads that are of a similar age to Pacheco. And these things they have achieved are the reasons they get picked or get minutes in Liverpools senior team. Again I ask, what has Pacheco done or achieved to earn similar game time or accolades? In my opinion nothing close. If that makes me a twat, so be it. If it makes me a poster whose point a couple of other posters disagree with, well I’m cool with that too.

The problem is Liverpool will not progress as a force in England or in Europe with players like Kuyt in attacking positions,his never say die duracell bunny attributes are to be admired in players in defensive positions,but I think if we want to break down defences we need quick technically skilful players.

It’s not fucking rocket science the top teams have more skilful players than the mid table and bottom teams.

I hope we prioritize our summer spending on two wide midfield players with pace and guile and a very good quick left back who is a capable defender.

we need other players in central defence/centre midfield and a backup striker to create competition for places upfront but I think 2 wide men and a left back are a more pressing concern.

To quote Captain Blackadder: We’re in the stickiest situation since Sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun.

YNWA

Well overnight results have gone our way so this game is now a must win situation, if we have any thoughts of Europe, etc, we need the points.
.
Well the debate about who should go and who should stay will rage for years to come.
.
But the sad truth is our base is the one crumbling, its the point that needs repair before we ever get to buying some serious talent.
.
If you look at our midfield for example, currently Kuyt is top scorer with 9, followed by SG and Ngog on 8, then M man on 5, then its grim reading.
.
So just looking at our midfield, Maxi, Cole and Lucas haven’t cast many blows in anger. There is about 3 goals between them, two of them are being utilised as wide attacking men.
.
Lucas has a mile of wonderful attributes but the one that brings him down is his in-ability to score goals. Being a Brasilian midfielder almost puts an expectation of goals on his shoulder. I know he’s currently in the Brasilian team but their a shadow of the former self.
.
If 3 out of your 5 starting midfielders never hit the target, then thats a problem, so just to fix that portion up is going to cost big money.
.
We may bash Kuyt from time to time but at present he’s our leading light, so he’s the benchmark our others can’t reach, take Kuyts goals and effort away and we really are a piss poor team. Ngog who has hardly played recently is still way out in front of most of our midfield, so a major overhaul of the fabric of the team is required. Its like having all the ingrediants for a supreme pizza with no base.
.
Good luck to the person re-building this pizza.

Agree with Keith – bringing on Spearing instead of Pacheco, indeed!
Can’t quite work out Digger’s argument, but who can? Pacheco has dome enough in the Ressies over the past 2 seasons to warrant a game or 2. Can’t say the same for Spearing – he looks (below) average at best, does nothing for the side IMO.
I like KD’s side at 106. Pity Gerrard is out for a month, so we might see Poulsen starting
And the Joe Cole deal done by Cecil is indeed looking like one of the worst transactions of the century – together with Poulsen’s.
Did anyone see Charlie Adam’s free kick yesterday? Hope he joins us next season.

Digger you do know kelly,Spearing Ngogg and Shelvey played against Northampton as well, but it wasnt the players stinking the place out.

Hi all, haven’t written in a while. Annoyed to have to read all the squabling.

Personally I feel Dirk is not a great player however he is a great team player and also tries his arse which gets him into goal scoring position which the scum would testify to. I hope we keep him.
I think we can only hope Stevie can play like scholes does for manure for the next 5 years.
With Huge Andy, Suarez and Kuyt chipping in as a front 3 it is as good as any. I don’t mind Ngog he is only 21 and could develop into a strong bid upfront player.
Rb – IMO Johnson is a top draw right back.
Keeper – Hopefully we keep Pepe as he is/was a great team-mate, but if he goes for 22mil I’d be happy with that too as someone like Lloris/stekelenberg will be great keepers.
So I’m happy with RB (kelly/johnson), our keeper, and our forwards.

Starting with CB’s. I’m a huge fan of Agger but his propensity for injuries (myositis ossificans/fucked back, knee injuries etc) makes me think we shouldn’t rely on him and therefore we need two centre backs that are above him in the pecking order (either we sell him or keep him as a backup). You want CBs who are solid at the back, healthy and can occaionally come up and score goals like Gary Cahill, Vermalen, Vidic, Pique. When was the last time Skrtel scored? If he was a superstar at the back then no worries, but he’s not. Carra – is a legend however not our future. He is too slow, doesn’t score any goals, his booting up top makes me want to vomit. I think we need to upgrade. I hope Danny Wilson progresses as I could see him as a CB for the future – definitely not a LB though…

Obvious too even Chav fans that we need a LB or two. There are quite a few out there, and I’m from a scout so I don’t know who is best but if we got someone like Kolarov I’d be very happy. Solid at the back. Can score goals. Maybe Suarez could help persuade a team-mate like Jorge Fucile to join us. Even Leighton Baines would do.

Midfield – I touched on Gerrard I hope we can keep him playing for the next 7 years. I think Lucas has improved more than any other in the last couple of years and I don’t mind him now but I don’t think he is world class (just my opinion. You obviously can’t have the best at every position in your team but I would prefer him to be in a rotation at that defensive midfield spot – not an automatic starter.
I’m a big fan of Raul. Not sure about Shelvey, hope he comes along but only time will tell. I also think Conor Coady could be a star in the years to come. So in summary I think we need one more Midfielder and maybe Charlie Adam would suit after all (initially I thought he was surplus to requirement). Another defensive midfielder would be great too if possible.

Our most glaring need, along with LB, are on the wings. I hope Raheem keep developing because he is an N’zogbia lookalike with a good attitude. It would be a dream if he bulks up and turns into the nexk JBarnes. In the mean time we need both Wingers on both sides. Alexis Snachez looks good but does he cost 36mil because he can do ten stepovers in a row?
I really like Jarvis and hope we could get him on the cheap if wolves go down. Gervinho is another option. I’m still fuming that Dubai City got Adam Johnson as he is exactly what we need for 6 mil as well, bargain of the century. He apparently wants out but no way are dubai going to sell him to us.

I think these upgrades would cost in the realm of 100mil. I don’t think that is out of the question for FSG.

I think Joe Cole on 90,000 a week to sit on the bench is a bit much. I think Jovanovic is likely to go. I also hope we can sell Maxi.

I agree with Digger about Pacheco but I don’t really agree on Shelvey. I just don’t see what why the lad has such a good reputation. He looks very ordinary to me. He has experience but that is at championship level and I’m sure had Pacheco been at a championship club he’d have got more first team starts as well. As for Spearing – I just don’t rate the lad at all.

Going to the comment from RAWK that I posted. The bit on Kuyt might sound harsh but I agree to a certain extent. I think Kuyt is probably between good an average. In games against the likes of the mancs and chavs where we need players to really put in the effort he is priceless. Against teams where we need more imagination and creativity he doesn’t really cut the mustard. The fact he is our most effective wide player just reflects how poor we are in this area. He is better served in a team like Holland that has many flair players surrounding him. The team then has a nice balance. I’m not slagging Kuyt, just giving my opinion on him. I wouldn’t want to get rid of him as I think he is a valuable member of the squad even if we were to bring in a top class right winger. His type of attitude is good for the dressing room.

We need a midfield that can dominate matches again -especially away from home. A lot of times the likes of Lucas, Raul and even Gerrard (in recent times) get overrun – sometimes against teams/players you’d think shouldn’t be giving as many problems. That might be why we were in for Charlie Adam. I just don’t think our midfield is good enough to challenge for major trophies. As much as Lucas gets credit for being our best performing midfield player in the last 12 months I don’t think he is amongst the best in his position in the league. It says a lot that our best midfield player (recent performance wise) is not amongst the best in the league. That tells me we need to strengthen in this area.

Obviously we need to sort out left back and we’re crying out for pace, skill and creativity in wide and attacking areas.

I read in the Mirror that Ashley Young will be number one target in the summer and we’ll also be in for Jose Enrique from Newcastle.

Thoughts?

I haven’t watched Jose Enrique close enough to be an expert but we need a left back, so if Kenny thinks he is the best player for the position then so be it.
I would like to get Ashley Young but I don’t want to win a ridiculous bidding war for him. 15 mil sounds reasonable. I just read that Villa are keen on Jarvis. I hope we get Jarvis and Young…

I agree with Digger on Pacheco. Although, if KK had brought on Pacheco instead of Spearing, I would agree with KeithSA.;)
The tactics change was to bring off Maxi and Cole and put on another striker and a midfielder who can pass the ball.
If Pacheco were to come on instead of Spearing that would mean we would be playing with 4 strikers, backed by a midfield of Lucas and Meireles(being played a little up front)… well I view Deadly Kuyt and Pacheco as strikers, that being their strongest position. Hence, I would say that bringing on Spearing made tactical sense in that there would be 3 outlets upfront, with Meireles providing the link up and Kuyt and Ngog taking turns to pick up the knock downs while the other drags the defenders wide.
I find it hard to agree if Pacheco came on instead of Spearing in this case but can still see what KeithSA had mentioned in Pacheco in that this lad has got some skills. Though I would prefer a 3 man defence and a 3 man midfield to cater for the 4 man strikers instead of 4-2-4.
KK had little option looking at the bench and he could have thrown Pacheco in but that would be putting a lot on the lad’s shoulders.
All in all, it was a performance the whole team can look back upon and it shows we lack speed and incision passing.
Tonight will be a game to watch though, having Suarez back and with AC up front. Lovely.

We playing against Barcelona or Sunderland?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nE14YqFwvY

YNWA

I’ve always said Spearing was a cracker, AHEM.

Dont know who it is co-commenting on the game, sound’s like Jamie Pissflap.
He is going on and on about how fortunate Liverpool are, you would think we had the luck the manc’s have week in week out, was it or was’nt it a pen well why does’nt he compare it with the one the manc’s got against us earlier in the season or can his fuckin brain reach that far back.

Redman, Kevin Phillips was the co commentator. He of course was a Sunderland player not long ago so can be excused his bias.

It was a better 2nd half performance from us. Suarez looks a special talent. Is it me or do we seem to get better results when Agger plays?

Harrrumh, errr, cough cough…here I am saying how shite Spearing is, and he goes & puts on a MOTM performance?
I’ll put up my hand & say that he was very good tonight – I AM eating a slice of humble pie right now – but it would be nice to see this type of display from him on a regular basis?
In Suarez, we have got ourselves the next Liverpool superstar! Not only his goal, but his movement, his touch, workrate!
I just hope he can keep his head on his shoulders – no more biting, pulling hair etc.
Huge Andy is not match fit yet, but he showed what he could add to the side – he had better add something for 35 bar!
A good 3 points, happy that Ray Wilkins ate humble pie as well (he didnt give us a chance) & Torres didn’t score (again!) for the Chav fucks.
Oh, and if only we had 2 Aggers as CB’s (if they could stay fit the whole season).

Thank’s LB,
and you are right about Suarez, a very special talent indeed.
And Rafalution,
i was one of (and hopefully no longer) Spearing’s biggest detractor’s hence my sarcasm in 148, but you are right he had a pretty decent game and hopefully we have put that sunderland ghost to bed for a while.
Anyone hear the lad’s singing “Where’s your beach ball, where’s your beach ball, where’s your fuckin beach now” and so on, Great.

Spearing was good especially in 2nd half. Credit where its due!

Didn’t see enough of the game to make a big comment here about it. I saw the last 30 mins tho’ and we should have had another 2 goals. Much better performance than Braga. It would be interesting to analyse why. Anyone give it a shot ?

One reason I would advance. Agger. He makes Skyrtl a better player and he passes the ball intelligently. He involves midfield etc etc (read my last 2 /3 posts – all on this subject).
So LB (and Reds in Aussie – nice post) thanks for the thoughts on possible future targets and team set-up. Once again I would point out one thing. It’s Centre Half we need to sort out.
A fit Agger / someone of his ilk is a priority. It sets the tone for everything else.
When he plays we look a completely different outfit. That for me has go to be the priority.

#139 Firstly I agree and would like to ADD a little mention on Kuyt’s goals. I remember 2 were from the penalty spot, Everton and I think West Ham right? If one takes away the goal Suarez practically sent onto the line for Kuyt, even Kuyt, I would say isn’t much of a “leading light” given the amount of minutes he has spent on the field and the position he has been played at(striker) on many occasions.

It was a decent result with a good performance yesterday and I will embark on three things that made our victory possible last day :
1.Daniel Agger – if someone has realized the moment Agger got injured was the last match we had a clean sheet in the Prem – against the Chavs . I don’t count those in Europa League because I don’t think they could be a factor for our performance . Agger is one of the best central backs in the world and he loves LFC , he is special !
2.Luis Suarez – now if Agger is special , I don’t have the words to describe this fella . He’s just incredible and has brought a very interesting side to our attack . A growing Liverpool star
3.Kenny Dalglish – did u see the lad’s faces ? Especially on the ‘rock the baby’ dance/pic , they were extremely happy , something that has gone for a very , very long time in our side .

At the moment we are witnessing the birth of a great team that will rock England and Europe soon

Holiday over here so have some more time.

First half was very ordinary but we looked a better side in the second half. Spearing had his best game for us and it was a great strike with his left. He is too similar to Lucas to have both playing in an ideal world.

Saurez is special I can only imagine what a partnership with Torres would have produced. For the moment 35 bar is looking a hefty price for Carol, but he has had a long lay off, in a new unsettled team so let’s see how he settles down over the long term before we make any judgments. He does give us an aerial threat that we never used to have.

Agger is world class and the combination with Skertal works like a dream; he makes Skertal a better player. Skertal and Carra are too similar and slow for it too work well. Agger the ballplayer with Skertal the dominant aerial presence and enforcer is our future and best combination. Let’s not forget center back is Kelly’s preferred position as well. So along with Wilson and Ayala there is still a lot to come. Left back is a major weakness and number one priority in the next window. Loaning out Insua was another intelligent decision by Cecil and Woy.

My biggest concern for know is formation and how to fit in Mierles with Saurez in Kenny’s preferred 4 4 2. He does not work well out wide as Woy found out. Sitting deep does not play to his strengths and he is not an enforcer and we loose his goal threat. I would like to see us revert to a Barca type set-up or Rafa’s set-up with Carol up front and Saurez and Kuyt (or Gerrard) in the Messi / Villa role. Mierless can then slot in, in his best position just behind the striker, then two holding midfielders would work, Lucas and Gerrard or Aquilani (I can dream that he will come back) They can all rotate with just Lucas sitting in front of the back four and Carol upfront staying more or less put. Adams if we get him would fit into that set-up as well. The youngsters could then be slotted in from time to time in a very strong and flexible midfield.

The overlapping wing backs ( when we get a left one) would give us the width we need and the midfield switching of positions would pull teams way out of shape for them to create space and burst through.

Not sure about the MOTM performance comments about Spearing. Yes it was his best performance to date but did he do more than the much maligned Lucas? Not dissing the lad, but just stating what I saw thru my internet armchair.

Moreover, if Saurez was not the MOTM, then I must have been watching a match in a parrallel universe. He is special, no doubt. However, with some of his antics he will see a few red cards in his time with us. He could also cut down on his rants with fellow team-mates but I am nitpicking here. He will get goals and that is what he was bought for.

One other guy who should get some credit is a certain A. Carroll. I think that this lad is going to be a mega player for us. His runs off the ball are intelligent and he brings other players into the game. Once we get a player who can deliver a decent ball (i.e. not the cross-field hoofs from our CBs), the goals should start be flooding in for him – although he was a tad unlucky yesterday not to get off the mark. All in all, I don’t see a problem with him, footballing wise.

What must be said is that Kenny still has an eye for a decent player, which should not be discounted. Also, he has brought stability to the club and should be rewarded with an extended contract. Not a 5 year one, but something around the 2-3 year mark, which then can be extended further, depending on how things go.

A bit random I know but I’ve been out of action for a while. Will catch-up on the other comments now.

I got some stats for you lads…

Dalglish 20 points from 10 games
Hodgson 25 points from 20 games

Average points per game:

Dalglish 2
Hodgson 1.25

Projected points tally over a 38 game season:

Dalglish 76 points
Hodgson 48 points

LFC projected predicted position in premier league 2010/11

Dalglish 3rd (level on points with 2nd place Arsenal but inferior goal difference)
Hodgson 10th

Solid win, pushing Spurs into sixth and out of europe next season is doable.Should of got Warnock in January, lack of balance on the left.

It does seem like the same people having the same arguments in here and I think a lot of the reason for this is the lack of new posts from Gerry. In the old days we used to get one a week – now we’re lucky to get one per month

A new post gives the forum direction and changes the flow of conversation

I don’t really come on here as much any more as the petty arguments resemble school children bickering in the school playground.

Such a shame as it was one of the best LFC forums around

Yes AGP, I want more from this free website/blog, where Gerry spends a lot of his own personal time to entertain us.

In fact I am considering charging him for anything that I read on here!!!

Digger, not sure what you are trying to say. Any chance putting it into a single post?

Hi gang,
lads (and non-existent lassies) F*ck the begrudgers and the bitches. Don’t come on here to moan about how bad it is and that’s the reason you don’t come on. Say something. The reason it “was so good here” is not just Gerry but all the serious, funny, opinionated, innocent, worldwide viewpoints. That means you buddy !!
So rock on the regulars and stick your oar in everyone else.

Speaking of which, just in case you do pop in here. My best wishes go to “Yokohama Red” a Japanese guy who posted here a bit in the past. Hope all’s ok with you and your family out there.

I get what you are saying Keith about Agger, Skyrtl, Kelly, Wilson being the future at centre half but … Agger is the key here and do you hang it all on him with his injury record? Without the medics giving me the ok I for one wouldn’t. Sorry to say. I really like Agger I’d love him to remain and play at the top of his game but if it came to it (and we had too) I’d sell him to get “a better guy”. (Look at the Mancs with Ferdinland). Preferably I’d keep him but I have a feeling that we’re gonna see a few eye-brow raising transfers a comin’ up this summer.

For the record I wouldn’t adopt the same policy with Gerrard. For me he is no longer the man you “build a team around”. He’s too injury prone apart from anything else. Great, for sure, if we have him to play, fit and well but I would not depend on it.

Take your point on Miereles Keith. At the moment he does not seem to have the cojones for a centre-mid He has the technique and the movement but not the steel. However he may well toughen up in the next 12 months. For mow he is a good option behind the front man in in the centre or as part of a rotating positional 3 or 4 in front of Lucas.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/suarez-song-in-full-swing

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/Premiership/10-11/Sunderland-Liverpool-20-03-2011/Suarez-wondergo-25235.php3

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/Premiership/10-11/Sunderland-Liverpool-20-03-2011/Rock-the-baby-25255.php3?ncid=est_weblinks_rightnav

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/Features/A-song-for-Suar-24458.php3?plcl_autoplay=true

Spearing may be lacking in certain area’s but he’s good at harassing the opposition.
Against Everton he stopped Arteta from doing what he does ( like Alonso) and yesterday he was doing the same thing but further up field causing chaos and he put in his best first team performance to date. You also get the feeling he’d run through a wall for Kenny.
Suarez was MOM for me his enthusiasm for the game is infectious and his goal was outstanding (like the one he made for Kuyt against the Mancs ) unfortunately that yellow was a sign of things to come.
Carrol let the crowd get to him 30 odd thousand Mackems V1 Geordie,
so its understandable ¦ )
Theredman I heard the “wheres your fuck*ing beach ball now” do you know what they were singing about Steve Bruce ? whatever it was he didn’t like it ¦ )

YNWA

Kopcolly You posh dude,with the LFCTV e-season ticket ¦)

Arthur “school children bickering in the school playground.” If you think its bad here you should see some of the “forums” i’ve seen.
Then you’ll find out how polite this Blog really is,despite the “handbags at dawn”.
Which is all Diggers fault… ¦)

And another ¦) just in case.

YNWA

Cheers. If we want the club to do things The Liverpool Way, which I believe and hope JH and KD are trying to do, we as fans should go in the same direction.

Let’s support, support and support. Not moan, moan and moan. Not criticize, criticize and criticize.

Support KD, like we always support our manager (unless of course, if it happened to be someone who still relied on one old tactic after 35 yrs).

Trust him to work hard and intelligently to bring us forward to a better and brighter future.

The world is not perfect and KD is not super natural being. It takes time to make things happen.

YNWA.

Who is the most unsung (supporters not debating) player in the squad right now?
Any guesses….the guy who is not occupying any of the blog spaces or comments or forums

….I was surprised that almost everyone else is mentioned in terms of good, bad or average but one name is missing…

Our right back turned left back Glen Johnson. Isn’t is surprising that our most expensive english buy before carroll hardly gets a mention nowadays?

Strange isn’t it..Either he doesn’t commit too many mistakes nowadays, perhaps he is not pushing forward too often.

Just seen these stats on the Telegraph’s site:
OptaJoe 125 – @LucasLeiva87 has made more tackles for Liverpool than any other player in the Premier League this season. Combative.

Says it all, really. He really is indispensable for us right now.
Regarding Agger…superb player, when he brings the ball out of defense, it creates overlaps & more space for our strikers & attacking midfielders. I can recall a couple of occassions when he hasd the ball at his feet, and we had so many options going forward i.e. Suarez running down the inside-left channel, Kuyt making a run down the right etc. It’s not just his defense that is superb (i.e. LFC not losing games when he starts?) but he adds that extra attacking dimension.
Stating the obvious, I know, but when he has the ball at his feet, running out of defense, reminds me of those wonderful days when Hansen was our CB.

Your welcome Rome

164 – that should read “would apply the same to Stevis Gerrard”

Rafa It’s true, Agger fit and on form is invaluable to us. Trouble is he is constantly getting injured. I reckon the physios are going to have a big say in his future career, in every sense of the meaning, this summer.

LB#179 Good Analysis there. Very interesting.

And the King has has done it all without the services of Gerrard (largely) and Torres. So much for the 2 man team eh! Also much of that time has been spent without Carroll and Suarez hadn’t played for some time as he he had a long suspension for biting someone so he wasn’t up to speed when he arrived.

Carra was out for a long while too and so was Dagger, Kelly, Shelvey and Aurelio (AKA Airfix) at one time or another.

Like I said in a previous post I don’t think the team is in such a dire position. Yes to achieve perfection (Barcelona are the closest at the moment) we may need upgrades in the various positions that people here are suggesting but to actually compete for a top 4 I don’t think we need that many players. Maybe one or two to fix the problem positions at left-back and a winger to supply AC from the byline would lift us back up to the next level.

Also, am I the only one that thinks that Glen Johnson is a better defender on the left than the right? He doesn’t get forward as much but his defending is far better off for it.

@pshenava I just read your post and it kind of answered my own question re Johnson. Keep him at left back I say and let Carra/Kelly fight for right back.

ah Lurgan, more snipping! excellent!

Anyway as per post #172 Pshevana:

I agree that Johnson has been much improved but I actually put that down to Dalglish more so than the positional change. In my view, his best role is as a right back..I think Kelly is an excellent prospect but he actually may be better suited as a centre half ..only time will tell

Anyway, all that aside we DESPERATELY NEED a left back, with some pace to burn if possible

I don’t think we should be kidding ourselves in terms of the strength of the squad, the teams we fielded against braga prove that.
LB’s list of squad requirments look about right to me.

Having said that, with SG/Kelly looking like being available after the internationals and with Carroll and Suarez in toe, there is a realistic chance of 5th.
Chite look to be comming of the rails a bit and Spurs have the distraction of the Real tie ahead.
I reckon one of them will def slip-up, and we have both of them at home also.
But I say this on the basis of not loosing any key players to injury, because anytime 2 or 3 key players are missing we are very ordinary

Arthur it may be down to Dalglish that GJ has shown some good defensive form but I cant help thinking that while he’s on the right he plays more off the cuff as his natural instinct is to go forward and therefore gets caught out of position a bit more but at left back he’s out of his comfort zone and therefore has to think about it a bit more and inevitably gets his positioning right.

Our squad in some of those europa league games has looked shite. Corky is right, we shouldn’t kid ourselves. Our squad needs quality and depth.

Has there been any news on Suarez injury?

I thinK GJ should stay on the left. The entire side needs to do a better job at keeping Possession and controlling games. That reduces the amount of times our players get caught out. Every top side has fullbacks that love to attack. GJ needs to improve his one on one defending tho. Gets beaten too easily at times.

I think things are looking great in the league so maybe not securing a ropey league place next year would do us a favour if we really want to compete in four competitions we would have to go and spend upwards of 50mil I think we will spend on good players but not quiet enough to fight for fourth and play in Europe lets focus on finishing as high in the league as we can.

For me LB Glenda’s problems are between his ears. His concentration goes wandering as much as he does and he does something daft.
Whatever it takes to keep his mind on the job.
I think he has really improved since he cut his hair off and is getting a number 4 at the local. Hell he might even have bought a machine himself and gets the wife to do it. Save’s him a few bob in these tough times.
I don’t mind where he plays as long as he keeps his hair short. So there.

Guinness my man. Do you want us to qualify for Your Ropa League or not ?
For me I do. Even if it’s just a minor competition it’s still Europe and it also gives Kenny the chance to give the ressies a taste of a semi-big time european night.

I am delighted things are going “so well” in the league. We were in the mix for a relegation scrap so to be clear 6th is a great relief.
However S’land were pretty crap and how many of their stating team would we want in our team ? Don’t get me wrong a win was very welcome and I’ll take as many as we can get. If nothing else it lays down a marker for next year. I’m looking forward to the Arsenal trip as well as Spurs and Citeh down the line.

However I think the real story here is how many of he squad are going to be here next year and how many have 9 games left to make a career at Anfield?

Alright lads been a while
Kept up to date with all the comments
Kopblog is my daily staple reading regardless of how quickly gerry gets the blogs out
In fairness they are always of the highest quality so we shouldn’t be afraid to chip in in the comments section (says he who rarely comments!) but shur if you have nothing to say that hasn’t already been said?
Our team has been playing cracking stuff at the moment and seem to have a bit of Consistency in the league
Little lusi

Little Luis has been inspirational and is a leading by example when it comes to future creativity we will expect in the team

Anyway not much to say just thought I’d show me face again

Yokohama red and our old friend Hyde my thoughts go out to youand your famalies

Over and out

little luis is the player joe cole should be and the player joe cole is not.

daniel agger is a valuable asset to the club and encourages the team to play football on the floor. he is our best centre back but is as reliable as rio ferdinand.

jay spearings best position is holding midfield, anywhere else and he looks lost.

martin kelly is one of the most exciting right backs in the country and such is his success in that position i no longer consider him a centre back.

that pushes glenda onto the left. but i play left and right back myself so that should not be a problem. he’s got two feet and he’s good with both. yes, like a lot of the lads i agree his recent hair cut has had a massive impact on his recent games.

does this mean andy carroll will soon follow suit and score his first goal for liverpool if he goes for a number 1? someone please tell him the nineties are over.

what can i say about dirk kuyt. the shiner he sported after match of the day against sunderland was a beauty. if his name was nani he’d be out for a week, tweeting about how everyone picks on him. dirk kuyt has flourished under the recent system, instead of falling by the wayside he has improved. the mark of a true professional.

ian ayre has been promoted to managing director. damien comolli to director of football instead of strategy. this is a reshuffling of roles to allow for the imminent announcement that KK will be offered a contract will steve clarke as his permanent no.2. it strikes me that FSG are solidifying the management because they are about to make great strides in the transfer market in summer. you can’t bring in new players without a solid managerial structure and this is what they are implementing (mark moi words!!!)

i reckon they will spend big this summer and they’ll have to in order to bring in the calibre of players they need to. the push is on for the title next year lads. they have a settled club, some talented players and a good backroom vibe. anfield’s rocking!!

Hey Blud so nothing will change really as Ayre has been performing the MD role under the new owners and Steve Clarke has been assisting KK since his arrival. Only their titles will change and perhaps their remuneration.

Which leads me to the next question; what about Sammy Lee?

Why is he being replaced by SC as assistant?

Do you think that SL has been a success this time round?

What was his role in the Rafa sacking? (If he had one)

He had none. Purslow and Broughton sacked Rafa with the blessing of Hicks and Gillette.
Has he been a success? Define success. Trophies right? So nobody round Anfields been successful lately then ya could say. (with the obvious exception being Reinas world cup medal)
Has he been doing a good job might be a better question. An educated guess would be yes. Men like Rafael Benitez and Kenny Dalglish do not retain the services of people who do a bad job.

Digger…

Sammy and everybody at a football club are parts of a team.

If the team isn’t successful it don’t mean that Sammy Lee wasn’t successful.

The question still stands. Was he a success at what he did? Did he train the team successfully? Did he fulfill his role successfully? Did he assist Rafa, RH and KK successfully?

The question about success was relative to his own job function and not the teams’ overall success or medal count.

But I think your a little confused as you stated “An educated guess would be yes. Men like Rafael Benitez and Kenny Dalglish do not retain the services of people who do a bad job.”

The thing is, if he’s been doing such a great job then why is he being pushed aside by KK. And cast your mind back to Rafas last season when Rafa used to always turn to Pelegrino for advice during games.

I suppose the answer to those questions Elbmw is; nobody has any way of knowing. Not you and certainly not me. But based on the information we do have – the guys still in a job, the people who have retained him – its possible to make an educated guess. Mine would be yes, yes he’s doing a good job. Or to put it another way (read yours) he’s been successful at his job.
As for Kenny pushing him aside, I wasnt aware of this. Can you elaborate? Also, tell me more of your knowledge of whose council Rafa solicited on the sidelines and how you know whose he solicited most frequently. I am, afterall, confused!

Digger as you correctly alluded to, I don’t know the ins and outs of it and I’m speculating purely based on what I see and hear or read – if its to be believed!

I’m inquisitive (some may say cynical) by nature so when I watch games especially on the TV I cant help but notice and to a certain extent scrutinize what the manager is doing.

Review any footage from the last two seasons (except for maybe RH) and you will see the manager in the dugout, either Rafa or Dalglish, talking to Pellegrino or Clarke, respectively.

Add that to the rumor (which has credence) that Steve Clark will be made Dalglish’s assistant from next season and draw your own conclusions from there.

sammy lee is one of those blokes who has so much footballing knowledge its embarassing to ordinary mortals like us. he was the kind of player who made a point of getting his coaching badges and studying languages just so he could stay in football after he retired as a player. he was the bloke who took over from sam allardyce and tried to get bolton to play footy on the ground instead of in the air. i don’t think you could call him unsuccessful really. i think sammy lee has attributes that might make him aide de camp rather than chief of staff, his presence is a reminder of the the history of the club.

does he develop strategy? i think he certainly adds his penny worth. sammy plays football on the deck, so does steve clarke, so does kk, so they’re all in agreement there. i also think he brings a lot of energy to the club, just like he did on the pitch.

sammy is great pro, a credit to the club. will anyone disagree with me when i say he should be at the club for life? like baldy bobby charlton. i reckon so.

Yep – Let’s kick ass and cut hair.

Blud bud I don’t always agree with you but you’d be a great man to have in a battle I’d say.

As for Sammy it would seem to be that he’s both Kenny’s and Steve Clarke’s right hand man. A kind of benign, cool, buzzy, little terrier keeping everyone in step.
I did too notice that Rafa never consulted with Sammy and I can’t say I’ve ever seen Kenny do it either, for what that’s worth.

Blud, he may have more football knowledge than us and he may be a great man, a great pro, a great servant to the club but does he offer anything to his bosses on the touchline during games? Do they trust his judgement? If so, why ask someone else? Thats all I’m asking!

As for his presence serving as a reminder of the history of the club; that may be true for you and me but does that help the team during games?

Just to make myself clear, I’m not having a pop at Sammy. It’s just an observation I’ve made and wondered why neither Rafa nor KK consult with him.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/comolli-on-kenny-suarez-carroll

Good interview with commoli

Over

Elbmw, do you not answer your own questions in the opening paragraph of post #197? More football knowledge than your average bear, a great man, great pro, and a great servant to the club. Could any of these qualities be the reasons he was retained by the likes of Dalglish and Benitez?
Or we can go with the educated guess scenario again. ‘Does he offer anything to his bosses on the touchline during games?’ An educated guess dictates, yes. Why else would they have him there if he dident? Do Dalglish and Benitez strike you as enablers? Men who’d entertain incompetence? Or do they strike you, as they do me, as top football men who would tolerate nothing less than 100% and excellence to boot from their staff?
‘Do they trust his judgement?’ Again, an educated guess dictates, yes. Sammy takes most training sessions right? So he’s probably got an encyclopedic knowledge of who’s carrying a niggle or a knock, whose fitness levels are where, who trained well that week etc. Hypothetical scenario; Dagger takes a knock on his first game back, hits the deck. Kenny: ‘whaddya think sammy, just a dig or a re-occurrence? Sammy: probably just a dig Ken, he was moving fine all week, trained fine, got the all clear’. Kenny: ‘good. we’ll give him 5 and see how he looks. Hypothetical No.2; Mereiles hits the deck in the 65th min, he’s grimacing. Kenny: ‘Wee mon…’ Sammy: ‘Hes bollocksed Ken, done for today. Been carrying that knock on his shin all week and hes just taken a kick to the knee. Kenny: ‘Jay!….sit down Christian ffs, JAY!! Le’s go son.
My point? Of course his judgement is trusted. He wouldent be leading training sessions or sitting at Kennys right hand if it wasnt.
‘If so why ask someone else?’ Why NOT ask someone else? Is it not smart to get second opinions? Is a triumverate of brilliant minds not superior to 2 brilliant minds? Dont all leaders consult advisors and assistants and use the combined information they disseminate to make the best informed decision they can? How do you know Clarkes opinion carries more weight with Kenny than Sammys? You dont. Just as I dont know if Sammys carries more weight than Clarkes. You seem to think Kenny consults more with Clarke. Maybe its just that Clarke has more to say and so the odds are when the camera pans to the bench Clarke is invariably talking?! Perhaps Sammy is simply more economic with his dialogue. Or perhaps they both have equally important roles in the camp and when Kenny needs to know something, he asks the relevant party.
(for the record, having played with, worked with, and spent the majority of his adult life in close contact with Sammy, if push came to shove,Imo I think Kenny would lean towards Sammys opinion if it came down to it. Obviously I know neither man and have no way of knowing this for certain, but given their shared experience and Anfield football culture, I feel that would be the deciding factor.)
You question does his presence, serving as a reminder of the great history of the club, help during games. I would say unquestionably, yes. Just look at the difference a fellow legend has made since his re-appointment. When these millionaire brats they coach are taking orders and instructions, simply put, there are those they respect and those they dont. Its only logical that club legends command more respect than others. Probably shouldent be that way but lets face it, it just is. How do you motivate a room full of rich, lazy, over-indulged twats? Well ya have a game of who’s won the most medals and ya put yours on the table and see what they’ve got. Sammy and Kenny win everytime. Sammy: ‘any questions lads?’ Suitably sheepish looks SHOULD come over their faces. Sammy:’ok then. And anyone who dosent have the hunger or desire to match that haul there should probably head for that door over there. Now.’
I saw a documentary recently that Michael Robinson made for Spanish t.v a few years back. It was basically old meets the new for dinner and to reminisce about Liverpool past and prognosticate on Liverpool future. On the new side of the table sat Reina, Torres, Arbeloa and I think Alonso. It was for Spanish t.v afterall. On the old side sat Souness, Dalglish, Robinson, and Lee. The entire conversation, save for Dalglish and Souness’ contribution, was conducted in Spanish. The Spanish lads, cos they’re Spanish, Robinson, because he’s a Spanish soccer pundit and Sammy because, well, because he can! He spoke fluent Spanish throughout and it was amazing to watch Torres and Reina listen intently to and converse with Sammy, whilst nodding approvingly. Its a fascinating doc and well worth a look. I only bring it up as another, largely unknown, example of how his presence DOES help at the club and certainly during games. The players respect him.
Another example of the positive influence Sammy has from the touchline is his constant encouraging and cajoling for the lads. Several times during the Hodgson era, while Roy sat bereft of ideas or cogent thought, Sammy was up at the touchline shouting instructions, giving direction and at the very least, imploring the lads on. I for one was glad of him then. He was also very professional when Roy was dismissed. No back-stabbing, no greivances aired, no dirty laundry. Just in-house, classy Liverpool, professionalism. Nothing to do with your questions I know, just thought I’d throw it in there.
Anyway, in summation , I suppose what I’m saying Elbmw is that this uneducated guesser is going with yes, Sammy Lee has an important role and is valued by Kenny and indeed, his predecessors. He wouldent be here if he wasnt. In fact, come to think of it, 3 managers and Sammys still here. Says it all really, no?

I feel really positive after reading the Commoli
interview.

Great post there Dig,

What is Sammy’s actual title by the way?

See now… this is precisely why I don’t comment in here much anymore.

Weeks of pople talking a big load of bollocks…
… then Digger pops in with a long one… and actually talks SENSE???????

…well exccpt maybe for the part where you said…
“Do Dalglish and Benitez strike you as enablers? Men who’d entertain incompetence? Or do they strike you, as they do me, as top football men who would tolerate nothing less than 100% and excellence to boot from their staff?”

… which seems in stark contrast to your previously stated opinions on Benitez???
But an otherwise good post.

…oh and just to be clear…I was just kidding about staying away on content grounds… I’ve actually been too busy to comment more than a few lines and you all know I can’t say what needs to be said in less than a few lines!

Top drawer Digger. Only for Aitch getting in there I would have called you the “New Aitch”.

Aurthur i think its, MR Samuel Lee.

rome 77,
love the repartee, on to Sammy Lee well i had the good fortune of seeing Sammy play for LFC most of the time he was there (home games)and if FS was here i think he may agree with me, in my opinion Sammy was an average player not great, certainly not world class, but an integral and important part of the machine that was LFC at the time, just like Kuyt is now.
Honestly i dont know how he managed to get an England cap sometimes he was so mediocre it wasn’t true.
But the debate on who is best SC or SL, well if Sammy is the best why have we brought in Clarke ??.

digger , great post lad, more of these please!

Theredman
I remember Sammy in his playing days and the nearest thing to him today is probably Spearing,( Little local lad in midfield ) and was really a small cog in a well oiled machine.
However he got his hands on “Big Ears” twice and three League titles, so there’s hope for Spearing yet.
YNWA

PS Sammy has also worked as a coach under 6 Managers at Liverpool. He trully is part of the furniture and one of the under-rated legends, who probably knows more stuff about what goes on behind closed doors at Anfield, than anybody in the world
(probably)

Digger lad I don’t think were going to agree on this. Much like other debates we’ve had but here goes anyway.

I have never seen SC walk up to KK and offer his advice. Its the other way round. KK walks up to SC and holds a conversation with him seemingly discussing tactics or personnel changes during matches.

If you’re the manager of a football club and your team is 1-0 down, who do you turn to? Your assistant manager or the assistant managers deputy?

And I’m not even questioning why he’s there or what he does or what he was like as a player or if he still wets his bed.

My question is…Why does Kenny always turn to Steve Clarke for dugout consultations and not his assistant Sammy Lee?
- Is there something in that?
- If yes then what is it?
- If no then why does he not consult with Sammy?

Digger, it’s OK to say “I don’t know the answer to your question” or “I never noticed who KK consults with on the touchline” rather than go on a merry dance comprising of 990 words of which none answered the question.

As far as I know, Sammy Lee was hand picked by Rafa to be his assistant manager. I rarely understand all of Rafa’s reasons (probably because he is a master chess player able to think at least ten moves ahead, while I’m a mediocre one struggling to think three or four ahead), but I assume Sammy – aside from being LFC through and through – knows an awful lot about football.

I’m asking myself (I wish FS were around so I could ask him instead) did Bill consult a lot with Reuben and Joe during games, or was he mostly talking to Bob?

A couple of points.

1. Suggesting that Sammy Lee was no more than a “mediocre” player is faily uckin outrageous.
Its fair enough to suggest that he wasn’t “world class” …but mostly because more than half the players who we’re told are “world class” aren’t either. Its an overused and grossly misused description of most footballers.

2. Sammy Lee was not actually Rafa’s first choice… Phil Thompson was. PT felt he needed to leave for Rafa’s sake so he could have a “fresh start” with the players, post-Houllier (and judging by some of Carra’s statements, he was fuckin right too.)

3. Once things get sorted out in the summer, I think you’ll fnd that Sammy Lee will either move on, or move into the “team coach” role, with Clarke assuming the “assistant manager” role… and that does seem to be the roles they’ve assumed since Kenny taking the reigns and Clarke arriving… so its entirely appropriate that Kenny talks to Clarke over Sammy.

keyboard dyslexia strikes again!

That first sentence should read “fairly fuckin outrageous”

Not outrageous Aitch,
just my perception of him at the time, but like i also said which you never commented on was, he was an important and integral part of LFC at the time.
Ask Real Madrid if a team of Galactico’s is successful you probably know the answer.

LondonBarnes 182: it seems our Luis Suarez will be fit to face WBA on the 2nd:
Luis Suarez confirmed on Thursday that he would be fit to face West Bromwich Albion on April 2 despite picking up a groin injury in last Sunday’s 2-0 win over Sunderland.
“I’ve been lucky , the injury is not that bad and I should be fine,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

good post digger

sammy lee’s official title is assistant to kenny dalglish.
steve clarke is first team coach.

i think we’re all agreed, little sammy is a legend. whether KK consults with him on the touchline is immaterial. his contribution is valued.

great news that suarez is fit to play west brom.

and if my information is correct, aurelio, kelly, gerrard and shelvey are all due to return to training this week. good news for the reds. bad news for uncle woy. ah, the mouth salivates

reina

glenda
carra
dagger
kelly

gerra
miereles
lucas
kuyt

suarez
andy carroll

subs joe cole, aurelio, ninja, pacheo,

thats a neat line up. if FSG added four or five decent players to the mix, plus looked to promote sterling and suso and conor coady to the first team, well, we could start to look like a team properly challenging for the title.

Aitch, how old were you when Sammy Lee was playing for us? I only ask because I think you’re around my age and I never saw any of Sammy’s playing career. I’m assuming Redman watched him live every week as Red is a bit of an old git.

Digger made some excellent points in his long post. I must say though that the majority of the very top managers/coaches did not have distinguished playing careers. Reading a few autobiographies and having spoken to players that played at a high level. (A few guys I went to school with played in the PL and of course there is my mates little brother). Players seem to value an assistant coach by the training sessions and the personal relationships they build with the players. Not sure if the ‘show us your medals’ rings true when it comes to an assistant coach. If the players do not get anything out of training and do not believe in the tactics or teaching methods it’s not going to work. Today’s youth don’t really care about what you did 20-30 years ago, if your ideas seem outdated to them they will soon lose belief in what you are telling them.

Speaking to Zav Hines – he said training under Zola and Steve Clarke at West Ham was brilliant. He loved it and learnt a lot. Clarke would give him personal advice on a daily basis. The players loved him. Seems to me he is very well respected in the game and Kenny certainly didn’t hesitate in bringing him in as soon as he got the job. My reading of the situation is that Clarke is the actual number 2 forget what the job titles say. As Sammy is a great servant of the club there probably is a role for him. Having said that I could see him moving on if he feels he has been in effect demoted.

Blud red, it will be difficult to put Pacheco on the bench seeing as he just went to Norwich on loan

By the way I think Steve Nicol is the most underrated footballer of all time.

Haha, I see young shelvey is in a spot of bother after putting a pic of his jonjo on Twitter ! Feckin egit!

Ha ha,
nice one LB i owe you one.
But all i’m trying to point out is you dont have to be world class to fit, i mean look at Messi, sure he is world class but dont forget he has some very good player’s around him to make his job easier but their are workhorses at Barca as well.
Let’s face it, like i mentioned Kuyt in my outrageous comment he is not great or world class but at the moment he is priceless for LFC at the work-rate and HEART he put’s into 99.9% of his games is immeasurable.

Thanks for the nice words lads.

LB – Steve Nicol would fight Ronnie Whelan for that title in my opinion.

ELBMW – you could start a row in an empty house mate!

Fuckin hate these international breaks but I suppose in a funny way it might let us get Gerrard, Fabio and Suarez all fit to face Woy…

Oh please God let us give them a right spanking – imagine Hodgson’s smug face if they beat us….

Just read on Suarez’ Facebook page he dedicated the win over Sunderland to new dad Lucas Leiva. Class.

I’m one year younger than Sammy Lee, LB.
So yes, I did get to see him play… though I was in America for a lot of his career, so I certainly didn’t watch him every week.

But come on… If Sammy Lee was average, what was Emlyn Hughes?
…or Houghton, Whelan, or even Molby?
… or what about Jimmy Case, or Steve McMahon?

Maybe we just have a different definition of what average is… coz not one of those players (and there’s a fair few other similar names have played for LFC over the years) was a fuckin “average” player!
Galacticos they’re not… for sure… but I’d argue from now till doomsday that not one name there is an “average player”.

Average players play in the Championship. Above average players play in the Prem …even if you’re Fulham’s former left back.

I’d also argue happily with you, that what we need this summer, is not the next Nando or Stevie G… but two or three Jan Molbys, McMahons, Beardsleys (well we may have just gotten him in the shape of Suarez) or Houghtons.

As the farmer said… “that’ll do pig, that’ll do.”

Look nobody is suggesting a team of “galacticos” won’t get the job done, but modern media, marketing and PR quite literally seems to have everyone brainwashed into forgetting that this is a TEAM sport.

Take our best teams of the 70s and 80s and they weren’t teams of galacticos. Yes we had some for sure, but we had a whole lot of hard working “average Sammy Lees” propping those galacticos up.
For every Keegan, there is a Lawler, for every Rush there is a Whelan, for every Barnes there is a Houghton, for every Fowler there is …err… 10 dodgy buys like Hysen, Kvarme, and Ince… so never mind that one, but you get my drift.

There’s been a lot of banter lately about “what we need” in the summer.
A lot of people seem to be expecting some sort of 100 million shopping spree, where we sign 4 o 6 “world class” players and challenge for the Prem next year.

Challenge we might… since we all start from zero and the other top teams have problems of their own, but… while it would be great if we could get a few top names, I’d be happy with a few signings that can just do their job, and get us challenging back in the “top 4” (which I’d suggest is now very much a top 6.)

What I’m getting at is this… the argument for getting rid of Insua at left back, was never that he was no good, simply that he was not “good enough”, not a “world class left back”
… but while there’s no question the lad had the limitations of his youth and inexperience exposed occasionally, the lad did a more than competent job most weeks…
…unlike those that have served as his replacement (until Johnson slotted in over there, but I’d hate to see that become a permanent move.)
… and that was entirely likely to be the case, given the financial situation and the ownership situation and the board/director/management siuation.
Be careful what you wish for? (and see the bigger picture?)

Tony Barrett has a terrific piece over on the official site that speaks to this (the blog about not being in Europe is worht a look too as it relates to the big picture)
http://thekop.liverpoolfc.tv/_Have-Liverpool-Rediscovered-One-of-the-Secrets-of-their-Past-Success/blog/3409635/173471.html

I made a point of suggesting people temper their excitement over our new ownership, and then later over Kenny’s appointment.
The legacy of G&H’s ownership is far from over.
And the errors of Purslow’s horrendous year at the helm, have yet to be completely repaired.
…the “official announcement” of Comolli and Ayre’s “new” positions prove that.

FIVE years of ruinous financial mismanagement, and 12 months of incompetence takes more than 6 months to fix.

The legacy of Rafa’s termination is not yet over. Torres’ departure and the Pepe rumors prove that.

And the legacy of appointing Hodgson to replace him, even if it was only for 6 months, will continue too take a “wee bit of fixing”…

Moves over the winter period, to terminate Roy, hire Kenny, hire Clarke, sell Babel and Nando, buy Suarez and Carrol… are all moves in the right direction. As are the official announcement of Ayres and Comolli which speaks to the “stabilizing” of the company.

The fact that these were all done in a measured way (the frantic last minute fire sale notwithstanding) indicates to me that we’re in for a very interesting summer.

I suspect we’ll see at least 4 players depart, but it could easily be as many as 8 or 9,
…with perhaps 2 “top names” coming in… accompanied by 4-6 more “average players” … you know, “solid workhorse-like” players.
And that’d be fine by me.

If you want to support a team of Galacticos, go buy a fuckin Madrid shirt, or a Barca shirt.
If you want “stars” they’ve got Chiciarito, Rooney, Berbatov and Owen down the East Lancs Road, and a fair few names at the other Manc club.
Or you could grab a Virgin train down to London and attend the “galacticos at the Bridge”.

Galacticos like Torres leave you. Even Scum couldn’t keep Winker happy.

Me???
I’d sooner see a well-organized, hard-working LFC team, supporting a handful of top quality players whose heads haven’t grown larger than their fuckin obscene salaries.

Such a team more represents the values I grew up on… more represents what the city stands for… and has proved in the past, is “good enough” with the right approach, to win everything on offer.

That’s my size 12 anyway. Suit yourselves.

And here’s the thing.
When I was a kid, my Dad used to buy me a Liverpool shirt and the question was always,
“what number do you want on the back?”
not
“whose name do you want on the back?”

The dream was that someday I’d play for Liverpool Football Club. (okay granted, biggest fantasy ont heplanet, but you get my drift)
NOT to someday be Steven Gerrard.

I’ll have “Aitch” on the back of the shirt please…
…not some fuckin bloke from Estonia or Zimbabwe!

Was going to answer you Aitch,
but half way down the dead sea scroll’s and the gettysburg address i forgot what i was going to say.

Aquilani playing for Italy on ITV 4 against Slovania

Aitch mate, who stole the jam from your doughnut? After a couple years of asset stripping and 20 years of no title some people want to see world class players added to the squad. Some of us are tired of the mediocrity. I sure as fuck am.

Now players such as Whelan, Houghton, McMahon were amongst the best in their position in the league. Can’t call them average if that is the case. I don’t think Molby fulfilled his full potential. If we are to challenge we will need players who have the potential to be amongst the best in their position in the league. That point of view is not the same thing as demanding galacticos.

For some reason I thought you were around 34. I’m 33 so didn’t get to see the likes of Lee, Case and Hughes so can’t comment on them.

I think the the time when I realised Liverpool were on a downward slide and our expectations subconsciously had declined was when I first read posts in here waxing lyrical about Lucas and Kuyt.

These players playing regularly in our 1st team is the reason we are where we are,When did we get to the stage where we started accepting mediocre players in our team just because they work hard.

We will never get back to the top with these type of players as ist choice in our team,squad players maybe but not first 11 material for a club that is serious about competing at a top level.

The acid test is if we didn’t have them would we want them,I believe if we are all honest the answer would be a resounding NO.

Who took the jam out my donut?! You did Tommy! You did!!

I think average for the Liverpool team (as it was then) would be a way of describing a few of the players mentioned, but in another team they would be BIG cogs.
Case dragged Brighton to a FA cup final in 83 and would of got Southampton to another in 86 but Ian Rush had other plans ¦ )
I once met him when i was a steward at Halifax Town sometime around the early 90s and bumped into one of the bigger cog’s, Emlyn”crazy horse”Hughes himself, around the same time.
On a industrial estate of all places ?

YNWA

LB, I understand your sentiment regarding mediocrity, but who decides what that is?

Scum have won more than a handful of Prem titles with plenty of mediocre players in their ranks.
Nicky Butt? Phil Neville and Captain Mediocre himself Gary Neville.
Even the almighty undefeated Arsenal side of a few years back had a fair few “workers” in the side, like Ray Parlour for one.
And Chelsea might have a lot of good players, but they’ve got a lot of mediocre ones too.
Scum are gonna take the league this year with their most mediocre side in decades!

The last 18 months aside, LFC have played some pretty good football in the last few years… yes there were oor displays in that time, but the better outweighed the worse … winning the CL and the FA Cup and beating the Mancs and Real Madrid 4-1 and beating the likes of Juve and Inter.
But because that didn’t amount to the much-desired Holy Grail… now it was all mediocre?

I’m as frustrated by what we’ve endured as anyone else in here… but I disagree we’ve been mediocre for 20 years… on the contrary, we’ve played some great footy in that time and even come close to silverware on more than a few occasions.

I just think we need to temper that frustration we all feel with some critical thinking…
…coz…Frustration at not having won things, leads to poor decision making:
The decision to sell to G&H
The decision to hire Christian Purslow (and pretty much EVERY decision he then made)
The decision to hire Roy Hodgson
And an epic history of spending money on overpriced “stars” in the hopes they’d be that elusive “final piece of the jigsaw”.

No one in here wants the Prem title more than anyone else in here.
It is what we all want.
How we handle not getting what we want… well that’s where the differences show.

For the record, I don’t think any of the players mentioned were mediocre.
I was naming names, because someone suggested that Sammy Lee was “nothing more than a mediocre player” or words to that effect.
Nonsense.

Sammy, and all the others were important cogs in an efficient machine.
The LFC teams of 86 and 89 were about as close as you get to “galacticos” and even those teams had some less than spectacular players who were just simply good at doing their jobs…. getting in the way, just keeping things ticking over, holding the ball up, whatever.

That’s the point I’m trying to make… players who do their job and do it well, provide the platform for the spectacular players to shine.

But we are not the Chavs who can simply go out and buy that with a Billionaire owners spare change…
…or Scum who can do the same by virtue of their nauseatingly repetitive success.

Players like Insua may not have been setting the world alight… but a few years to continue developing in that position and we’d have had a more than competent left back on our hands.
But the panic mongers were screaming for Insua to go, and we got Konchesky to replace him… at a cost of 4 million that could have been used elsewhere.

Ngog, isn’t a spectacular player, but he’s not crap, and given more time to develop, could be a very useful player.
… who is going to come to LFC and be 4th choice striker?
… coz that’s what Ngog is, in spite of how many games he’s played lately… that was out of bizarre necessity not choice.
A “world class” striker won’t come and be 3rd choice behind Andy and Luis, or possibly 4th behind Dirk.

And LR
There are many, many reasons we are where we are… Kuyt and Lucas playing regularly are least among them.

You might find that it has more to do with a stable ownership selling to corporate raiders
… who then forced a sell to buy mandate on the manager,
…who was increasingly forced to do his job with one hand tied behind his back, then both hands, then one leg (he was like the Black Knight in Holy Grail by the end of his tenure for fucks sake)
… the replacement of one moderately inept Managing Director, by a complete retard of a Managing Director who was given free reign by absentee landlords to play Fantasy Football …for real.
… then of course the appointment of Uncle Woy (dear god!)

broken promise, after broken promise,
made at every level of the club,
enclaves of cliques… among the players… and backroom staff
the animosity of which still lingers today (though I think this summer will see the last elements blown clear)

… I think you’ll find ALL that is the reason we are where we are…
…not because some people don’t rate Kuyt or Lucas … while some praise their contributions.

…in case you’re wondering… I found the jam

Welcome back Aitch. I was starting to go cold turkey in here. Agree with everything you said in #234. Don’t post much because I can’t put thoughts down as clearly and detailed as you do. Shanks himself nailed it on the head with his speech on building a bastion of invincibility. If everyone plays their part to the best of their ability, no matter how big or small, then the whole machine works optimally. So to hear players like Kuyt and Lucas constantly being maligned in here when they are in the minority of players living up to that philosophy, I can honestly say that a lot of posters in here are so out of touch with the Liverpool way that it’s frightening. By the way, Shankly was also referring to the fans in that speech so can we please get behind our players especially the one putting in the most effort. We are all frustrated with the goings on of the recent past but it’s time to start playing our part in the LFC machine and move this club onwards and upwards to title number 19. Anyway, enough of my rant, I’m going to have breakfast. Wish Fat Scouser was still here. YNWA.

Aitch,
part of your comment in 234 “Sammy and all the others where important cogs in a efficient machine”,
now didn’t i virtually say the same thing in 205 “Sammy was an integral and important part of a machine that was LFC at the time”.
So really we are saying the same thing apart from Sammy’s status as a player, ok you thought he was great i thought he was average, but i’m not trying to pick an argument with you.
I watched Sammy have very good games for the Pool (like Spearing last sunday) especially the 30-35yrd thunderbolt he scored against Man city (i think Corrigan was in goal), but i also saw him more often than not have mediocre or mundane games for the Reds.
Long time ago now, but Sammy didn’t brighten my eye’s like Rush,Barnes, Beardsly Molby, McMahon,Gerrard and probably a host of other’s this old fart has forgotten to mention.
That’s it for me on the subject, sorry if i ruffled anyone’s feather’s ( the only pleasure i have left lately).

I was enjoying these novels from Aitch & thye guys, then LondonRed comes along & basically says that Lucas & Kuyt are shite (“…I realised Liverpool were on a downward slide and our expectations subconsciously had declined was when I first read posts in here waxing lyrical about Lucas and Kuyt.”).
Oh dear oh dear. So that means that the Brazil National side and Netherlands are shite as well, seeing that these 2 are regulars for their respective countries (Lucas only recently mind)?
I’m not turning this into (another) Lucas debate, it’s just that we should get off the kid’s back, as he has been our best & most consistent performer the past 2 seasons. He continuosly outplays the likes of Scholes, Carrick, (recently) Essien etc etc – so they must be shite players as well?

No feathers ruffled redman, but this Sammy Lee discussion is indicative of many others, Dirk Kuyt, Lucas, Ngog, Spearing, Insua.

You are correct in suggesting that Sammy only rarely shined out as a “star” in few games here and there.
Where I would argue with you is the idea that he was simply “mediocre or mundane” in the rest.

Yes… the likes of Kenny and Rushie, and a host of others, “brighten the eye” as you put it…
… but they get to do so only when lads like Sammy Lee simply do their jobs efficiently.

Olympiakos… 2005…
Steven Gerrard scores the 3rd and vital goal that takes us through… and in typical fashion it was a 30yard headline grabbing thunderbolt.
History has us believing that SG won that game for us single handed… “dragged us across the finish line all by himself” is the general mantra.

But its well worth remembering that two substitutes put him in that position.
Firstly when they combined to score the 2nd goal only moments after coming on.
And secondly when they combined to create that 3rd and glorious winner.

Now neither Pongolle nor Mellor pulled up any stumps…
… and neither would ever have gone on to grow into the over used “world class” category…
… but their value was stamped all over the team that day… and its worth remembering that this single game was not their only contribution to wins…
(and I’d argue we got rid of both too soon.)

Ngog might not be Nando, but we wouldn’t have even had the Braga game to bitch about if not for his goals in all the early rounds.
Likewise, people love to have a go at Dirk kuyt, but when he does score, they are almost always crucial goals (i.e. the winner, the goal that grabs 1 point, the goal that takes us into the next round)

Yet conversely, because he could do a step over (usually just before running into a fuckin defender and losing the ball) Ryan Babel was consistently lauded for his goalscoring ability…
… Even though it was a far rarer occurance than a Dirk Kuyt goal, and more than 50% of the time, when he did score it was an “icing on the cake goal” in a 3-0 or 4-1 victory

look I’m not against flair players…
…but what both playing and coaching through 3 decades has taught me is this…
… if you have 11 of them on the pitch, you’d best be scoring 4 every game, coz you’ll fuckin concede 3.

Maybe I just have a fundamentally different approach to the game?

Its sooo easy to watch that Luis Suarez goal last weekend and call him brilliant and amazing and all that…
…and I’m not taking anything away from what he did…
… but it was a winning goal as much because the carthorses kept a clean sheet at the other end… as it was because he dribbled past a few fellas and caught out the keeper on his near post.

I’m blanking on the exact team and scorer now, (Beardsley or Aldridge I think?) but most of you who witnessed the 80s will remember it (and its on the Team of the Decade DVD for the rest)
…But one of our attacks had failed…
…The ball had been cleared and was rolling out for a throw-in.
Steve McMahon sprinted 30yards to trap it on the line, turned round after bundling into the hoardings, and dinked the ball off the line, past a sliding tackle,
…he kept control to take it past one more player, then dinked the ball into the box.
A few touches later it was in the back of the net.

The applause lit up the ground, but it wasn’t for the goalscorer, it was for McMahon’s effort in simply not settling for a throw in.

…one of the great things about the Kop is that it isn’t just the Nandos and SGs of this world that get a song…
“He’s fat, he’s round, he bounces on the ground, Sammy Lee, Sammy Lee”

…The moment we stop appreciating what players like Sammy Lee, Steve McMahon, Lucas Leiva and Dirk Kuyt bring to the team…
…is the moment players like SG and Nando become less effective…

…because these players might be able to change a game…
…but they do not win them all by themselves… in spite of the headlines!

Aitch at his best. Welcome back!!!
A pleasure to read your posts. Wish FS also comes back

And just to be clear… I’m not arguing that the current squad is perfect.
Far from it.
But some would have us making wholesale changes and getting rid of players deemed “not good enough for LFC”

I’d have much rather us kept Insua, than go get Konchesky.
I’d have much rather we kept Aqualani, than get Poulsen.
And if we do get Charlie Adam, it won’t be to replace Lucas, it will be to replace Poulsen.

But when we talk about “getting shut of” players like Ngog and Spearing…
… its worth taking a breath and realizing that you are talking about offloading 4th choice players in their position.
… players who know the squad, have bedded in, have experience in both the Premier League and Europe.

Finding a “better” player, with PL and Euro experience, who is going to be happy taking those 4th choice spots, in the hope that they can “fight for” a higher place is …
a) not going to be easy
b) not going to be cheap
c) unnecessary
d) all of the above

As many have suggested… a far more pressing need is: a left back, a left “winger” and a right “winger”

Just like we alll congragate here round the sage and witty words of Gerry…but remember for every Gerry, creator, lighting up the place with insightful discourse and banter, there’s an Aitch, a workhorse who covers the ground for ya and gets stuck in the tackle. Welcome back Aitch

Instead of a right winger we could always buy someone who tells the captain to go there and provide assists for Carroll and Suarez?

Anyway, it hit me the other day, like a diamond bullet in the brain:
we’d gone out to Braga, Kenny had us beating Sunderland and Rafa (yes, him again) was plastered all over sky who were trying to make up for no news by stoking up the fires about him coming back some day…
Then I realised, FSG are innovative, yeah? They’re up for new thinking, right?
What about Kenny for the league and Rafa for the Champions’ league?

Come on…it’s a dream team. It has to happen! Both managers are at the top of their profession. Both are winners. Both love Liverpool and Liverpool FC. Rafa has won the Champions’ League; and Kenny has won the Premiership. Each struggles with the other’s strength.

Come on what’s not to like?

I think we should leave it a couple of years until Kenny’s won the League a couple of times but what a team that would make. Who’s with me?

Mcred
I see where your coming from but i dont think it would work “there can be only one” and right now its the “Highlander” but i’m sure the “Spanish peacock”has taught him well.
Besides one of them might end up losing his head. ¦ )

YNWA

McrRed can i get your contacts num??:-) cause man i’ll take an ounce of whatever you’ve been smoking:-)
all joke aside it would never happen & never work,
welcome back aitch,
i thought this place would be dead with the international break ( pain in the balls)
but theres been some good posts
WALK ON!

What am I on?

Just a puff of King Kenny and occasionally some real good Blog…

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6837637,00.html

http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,12606_6837698,00.html see what ya think of this lads

Thanks Kopcolly for the link.
They didn’t tell anything which we didn’t know already i.e. their support for Hodgson and ignoring the utter crap that Hodgson was responsible for.

They are testing the intelligence levels of us fans

Or they could be saying one thing in public and telling each other something else in private . I would rather assume this to be the case so that I am not too worried.

Aitch, you should have added Craig Johnston to that list of players…

KDLL – Sorry mate – I was just getting frustrated as I came on here and pointed out something I’ve noticed recently and asked if anyone else saw it and got got slaughtered for it.

Moreover it got up my nose when certain posters twisted it into a debate about how valuable SL is to LFC and what a great servant he is to the club etc etc. As if my intention was to rubbish the lad. But by their responses I got painted as some anti-Sammy merchant who does not know the value of a good man in the dugout.

Frustrating! Its like were talking in a different language and I can’t seem to make myself understood. Really frustrating!

Kopcolly
I watched that interview you posted and i had to laugh at Carra when Roy’s name got mentioned.
His left eye in particular looking out the corner towards the camera ¦ )

YNWA

Now that I got that off my chest…I just read Aitch’s post #238 and wanted to to congratulate him on a thoroughly good and insightful post.

Just to give credence to your post Aitch, I remember a few years ago when an old pro was talking about how they used to play against the other teams, particularly in europe during the 70s-80s when they just used to go out and play their own game and let the other team worry about them and he went on to say that there was only one exception (I cant remember the team or opponent) when they changed their normal tactics and put Sammy Lee on on an opponent and that it won them the game as the other sides best player ended up been totally marked out of the game by Sammy Lee.

It proves the point that in a great team you need players who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the team by going out and doing the dirty work and the grafting.

It offers balance to a side. The really great players are highly skilled AND willing to work hard. We were lucky enough to have quite a few of them during the 70s and 80s. Even John Barnes worked his socks off and he was the most naturally gifted player I’d ever seen play in the flesh.

Cheers for the kind words lads.
And yeah Rafalution… that was sorta my point… Craig Johnson isn’t the only one missing from that list.

Liverpool’s success was always built on the backs of such players, acting as a platform for the “stars” to shine.
Scum’s success has too. Like us in the 80s, they got lucky in developing a group of young talented lads, some who became stars and some who just did competent jobs.

People forget that Dalglish and Beardley and Rush were the big money “record” signings of the day… and Collymore (while largely a failure) blew the roof off our spending.

And just as we added to that with big money signings in the 70s and 80s, Scum added to that with big money signings… the only difference being… just as with anything else in the world those big money signings were exponentially more expensive, and they could cope coz of the “vastly bigger money” rolling in through Prem and CL TV rights.

Scum generated that same “air of invincibility” that we used to have.
We can argue its been with the help of refs and the FA, but simply put, unfortunately Castle Grayskull has the old “fortress Anfield” air about it and always gives them the edge.
But just as ours faded, there is too… to some extent… but somehow they do manage to hold onto some of it…. Many Teams more often than not, fair well against Scum now…. But if they get a goal… watch the shoulders drop and the belief disappear like a fart in the wind.
In my opinion, they’ve been getting weaker and weaker every season… but unlike us, they’ve yet to fold… partly because of financial stability (until recently) and partly due to success keeping Fungus in his job, providing leadership stability.

That might sound like I’ve gone off on a tangent, but I haven’t… its all related.
I have to laugh to myself when people start talking about some of our players and suggesting that they wouldn’t get a game at the likes of Scum…
… as though we’d be clamoring for the likes of Johnny Evans and John O’Shea, Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves???
Please????

If we want to return to a dominance of the Prem… then no doubt we’ll need far better players than occupy certain positions… but we won’t be buying that this summer… and nor would I want to.

Yes… I want the Prem… and preferably sooner than later… but courtesy of some Utterly Questionably Obtained Wanker’s Billions and a sack of millionaire Mercenaries of Questionably morals?
No… no thanks. That is NOT what I want.
Coz it might be the name Liverpool FC on the title….
…but under such a scenario, it wouldn’t be “Liverpool FC” that won that title.

Success at any cost? No thanks, you can keep it.

But I hope that FSG have a different outlook. It would seem (the winter spending aside) that they do?
Comolli seems to share this view (again, winter spending aside,) and if Kenny is given the helm, then that is another sign that we have a manager that will be looking to do things the “right” way.

…and elbmw… that pretty much always happens when you post something like that in here.
Remember LB asked a few months back if it was time to consider letting SG.
He wasn’t saying “SG is crap get shut” he was just asking a simple question regarding whether or not people felt SG’s worth to the team was diminishing.
But coz its SG… you can’t even get a decent discussion of the merits or not of such an idea.

And to be honest… you did get a decent discussion going, even if that was not your intent.

I think everyone knows that you need a balance of graft and skill in a successful team.

What we don’t need is players in wide attacking positions who have no pace a poor touch and a inability to beat a fullback and supply crosses.

Also what we don’t need in the 1st team on a regular basis is defensive midfielders who have very poor distribution and cannot contribute offensively occasionally.

Our centre midfield distibution has been crap since Alonso left we have never replaced him,this is obviously the reason why we were in for Adams who I wasn’t sure about in January because he lacks athleticism but after watching us limp out of the Europa league against a ordinary team who we could not break down over 180 minutes I think we are crying out for a playmaker who can pick a pass and keep the ball moving forward.

I see Aquilani is back in the Italian team,I did have my doubts about him due to his injury woes and I thought the fast paced Premier League with tackles flying around may have been too much for him,but seeing him in the playmaker role for Italy he looked ok and if Juventus cannot come up with the £10-13 million I would be happy for us to give him another go but I shouldn’t imagine he’ll want to come back since his career is in the ascendancy now.

I think our 1st team needs major surgery the only players who imho are the players to build the team around are Reina,G Johnson,Agger,Gerrard,Carroll,Suarez

Squad players : Kelly,Skrtel,Wilson,Carragher,Meireles,Lucas,J Cole,Ngog

Sell/Move on :Aurélio,Kyrgiakos,Konchesky,Kuyt,Jovanovi?,Maxi Rodríguez,Poulsen,Degen,El Zhar,

Bring back (if possible): Aquilani,Insua

Buy in : centre half/left back/left wing/right wing /defensive midfielder/ball playing midfielder/Striker

We should focus obviously on 2 wide players and a left back then if theres no money left or we can’t get the players we want we should put the gifted youngsters into the squad and not buy second choice player who can’t take us forward.

Also in case Reina decides to go we probably should be looking at viable alternatives.

Just a quick hi.

Good to see you back Aitch.

I see a of people have been saying we need 2 wingers come the end of the season. What exactly are people looking for ? Who are these wingers ? Personally I’d prefer 2, technically and intelligence-wise, proficient team players. Ok give us a burst of pace too.
You remember Rafa played Riera, Kuyt and Benny Onion. Well none eres what you’d call a winger but all (well benny and Dirk had) had game sense and balanced the team.

I’d prefer players who fitted in and played for the team.

We don’t play with out and out wingers, certainly not 2 of them.

Don’t think that’s gonna happen.

I think we’re gonna see width coming from Glenda, Kelly/New fullback.
I think we’ll see another Suarez type wideman- maybe Ashley Young ? Who can play anywhere up top and who has guile and crossing ability.
I also think, ideally, we’d get a new DM and and attacking mid-fielder.

I see kenny’s ideal team being a competent, fluid, footballing team who value possession and consequently defend by having the ball and keeping it. I think we’ll press a bit higher and use the 2 centre halves plus Lucas as our defensive fulcrum with movement and technically gifted players flooding the middle and between the lines.

Against lesser teams it will be a 4-1-3-2 morphing into a 2-3-3-2.
Against stronger perhaps 4-2-3-1.
This would free up Lucas to operate either exclusively as the holder when were against lesser teams and as second holder when we are in defensive/protective mode.

Jeez London Red,
I don’t know where to start with that little list…
Suffice to say that I don’t agree.

Now I just have to work out WHY I don’t agree (and try not to base it on which players I have an instinctive like or dislike for).

At the moment Lucas is probably third name on the teamsheet behind Suarez and Reina – so I wouldn’t get rid of him. What he brings to the team, as well as the-best-stats-in-the-business (TM) would be VERY difficult to replace. (& I know EVERY PLAYER IS REPLACEABLE – even Alonso).

You’re going to get rid of Kuyt? REALLY? [scratches head] That’s another case of be careful what you wish for…like all the clowns who use the phrase “Just not Liverpool Quality” like there’s a British code of standards or something.

Some players grow in to their role. Some have a better role shifted in underneath them. And some bloody good players never manage to gel with their teammates and have to move on for everyone to remember their quality. And some players are called Poulsen

Now he’s an interesting character, because for the life of me I can’t see what good he does for the team. But unlike a player like Lucas who you can look up the stats for and realise he has the best-stats-in-the-business (TM), Poulsen, well he’s just there…picking up a wage. He doesn’t have the best-stats-in-the-business (TM). So on that basis, I’ll occasionally slag him off (or at least have a moan when he plays) which is something I try hard never to do to our players.

Back in the day, players would get sold and replaced and it was never like for like. I remember being gutted when Keegan left and thinking we could never replace a player of that quality….We never did. We got Dalglish instead.

Aitch and the others talk about how squad strength needs to be built up carefully far more eloquently than I could. But squad strength needs to be built up carefully. We’re not going to go on a shopping spree with FSG this summer and buy six positions. If we’re lucky, we’ll get good strength in three.

The choices we make about keeping “squad” players is the crucial one. As others have said to have Ngog as fourth choice striker makes the squad really strong – because he’s good….just not first, or second choice good which is how we’ve had to play him up until January.

Time and again we’ve shown how our crap squad (with just two good players – and one of those has left!) can beat the likes of utd and chelsea. And each time if you really look at who was in those games you see that overall our squad isn’t bad (unlike Jamie Rednapp’s famous quote about Alonso spraying passes in the 4-1 against utd!). It’s just not quite deep enough when injuries start to bite like a certain Uruguyan.

So I’m waffling, but I just wanted to say that we don’t need a firesale. It’s the last thing we need. We just need a little prudence (and if John W has a few million to invest then bring it on!).

Then let’s build towards a side that can dominate in this league once again.

Lets not fool ourselves lads, we need width and pace and have done for countless years. Reira may not have had any pace but he gave us width and that allowed the game to open up for others.
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We need to spend on those positions otherwise we’re going backwards. Carroll needs us to spend on those positions, we need players who get behind defences and turn the game around.
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It would be nice to bring some younger lads in but we needed to do that 5 years ago, now we need a full re-build. Unfortunately for the younger lads, due to the Europa Cup looking less likely, there chances are getting more and more limited.
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They may get used in the early rounds of the League Cup or FA Cup, but it these are our only competitions then the club will want all hands on deck.
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You cant win the league with young lads, just like you struggle to keep pace with a bucket load of old lads. So we need a mix of talent and experience. So we need to buy some serious talent with experience to mix, pluss blood some serious talent.
.
I’m looking forward to the transfer window, as it will no doubt be a look at FSG planning and outlook.
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lets face it for all the who ha of the winter window they only really had a net spend of a couple of million. So there must be some serious cash there to spend.
.
if I was spending money on some talented young guys, besides of course the ones we have, Suso, Pecheco, Sterling, etc, I would invest in Mcarthey, Victor Moses from Wigan, and the young forward on loan at Bolton.(the name escapes me at this point)
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Then of course some serious talented experienced players, maybe 3-4. Give Kenny something to work with on several fronts.

A couple of points to add…

1. “Our centre midfield distibution has been crap since Alonso left we have never replaced him”
Well that is certainly a true statement on the face of it.
But how do you explain the 2 seasons where our distribution was crap WITH Alonso IN the team?
Look I rated Alonso very highly. But there are more than a few fans who seem to have completely, selectively forgotten that prior to his excellent swan song season, his contribution was pretty average in the two seasons preceding that.
So while its all well and good suggesting “we never replaced Alonso” … its not an entirely accurate statement/sentiment.

2. Gaz, you may want to consult a certain Alan Hansen prior to making a sweeping statement like “You can’t win the league with young lads”
You’re probably right like… but it has been done.

3. “I’m looking forward to the transfer window, as it will no doubt be a look at FSG planning and outlook.”
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say…
I don’t think they’ll spend more than 20 million
(and frankly I’m guessing it’ll probably be quite a bit less than that.)

Expect what happened this winter to repeat play in the summer.

I started reading LRs post in 253 and was fully prepared to disagree with it…
I don’t agree with how you came to the conclusion LR…
… but I reckon you’re actually pretty close to what we’ll see…
I think you got the list of sales pretty close.
“Sell/Move on : Aurélio, Kyrgiakos, Konchesky, Kuyt, Jovanovi?, Maxi Rodríguez, Poulsen, Degen, El Zhar,

We’ll likely keep Soto and Kuyt… but you got the rest right.
We might keep Ngog if he’s willing to play 4th choice, but after playing so much first team footy, I can’t see him doing it, so I reckon a return to France is on the cards for him… at a tidy profit.

So more likely Aurélio (not coz he’s not good enough, but coz he’s simply not reliable enough), Konchesky, Jovanovic, Maxi Rodríguez (decent but just hasn’t made the step up), Poulsen, Degen, El Zhar (hasn’t he already gone? I think we did a deal to release him didn’t we?)

Anyway, I’d add possibly Ngog also, and Joe Cole could also be added to that list, if only to release his exorbitant salary.

Anyway, we’d see close to 20-30 million for that lot…
… and if Pepe goes, it’ll reportedly be for somewhere between 12 and 20 million.

Which gives Comolli between 30 and 50 million to spend.
He won;t do another “Carrol” I don’t think… (we ovrpaid by at least 10 mill for a number of reasons)
… So 2 “name” players (possibly 3 depending on the amount of money coming in)
…with possibly 2-3 squad players coming in to make up the numbers,
(and it’ll be important that at least 2 of that lot are Brits for quota reasons.)

…Spearing, Shelvey and a few other young lads will mak the step up to full squad member as 3rd/4th choice selections.
…and a net spend of Zero-to-12 million at the most, I’d guess.

That’s gonna disappoint some people… but to me that sounds like good, ensible, solid business practice!

Good post McRed.
Aitch, I’m sure that FSG have stated (a couple of times) that they have about 20 mill per transfer window to spend on building the team/squad? Or maybe this figure came from the journos?
So we have to figure out if this money is above & beyond what we get for any sales? I would hope so, otherwise we would be outspent by the likes of Stoke & Sunderland.
Let’s say we get 25 million for the players you (& LR) listed – plus Cole, by the way). And FGS add another 15 mill. I for one, reckon we would need at least 40 mill to add to the squad. Agreed, no Carroll, but there will be 10 million players with quality that we can bring in. Wouldn’t mind seeing Ashley Young at Anfield (we only need 1 winger/wide man imo), but how much would Villa want? 15 million?
That doesn’t leave us with much, especially as FSG are keen to develop the Academy further, which means there will be money spent on youngsters.
And saying that, if we sold off all of those on the list (8-10 players), wouldn’t our squad be a bit thin if we didn’t bring in 5-7 replacements? Unless of course, there are 3-4 youngsters that could fit right into the 1st team?
Who would want to be Commolli, Henry etc with all these financial/football decisions to make, huh?

Comolli said we’d be very busy in the transfer window, so we will see! He and Kenny have always said the owners will commit to investing in the squad. That the assets will be on the pitch.

A lot of talk about the need for grafters because they allow the more talented players to perform. That is right, a successful squad needs to have balance. I don’t think our squad has that balance though. It lacks pace and creativity. It is top heavy with grafters. At the moment I’d only put Johnson, Agger, Meireles, Suarez and Gerrard in the creative category. I can’t think of anyone with blistering pace.

A closer look at our current midfield listed in our PL squad.

Meireles
Gerrard
Cole
Jovanovic
Maxi
Kuyt
Lucas
Spearing
Poulsen

9 players of which I’d say only 2 I’d call a creative player. I don’t count Joe Cole as I think he’s done. Hasn’t played well consistently in 3 years. None of them have any pace. So forgive me if I’m in no mood to big up the grafters in the current team and in previous generations. We need some fucking creativity, pace, invention, imagination in our midfield.

Compare it to Spurs midfield.

Huddlestone
Lennon
Jenas
Bale
Van der Vaart
Palacios
Modric
Krancjar
Sandro
Pienaar

10 players of which arguably 7 (if you include Huddlestone) if not 6 is a creative player. 2 of which have blistering pace.

Well exactly. We can play with Lucas in the midfield with Gerrard, Suarez & Carroll up front. Add Agger, Johnson & Kelly plus a big, solid CB to partner Agger. That leaves space for 2 creative (and/or) speedy midfielders/winger, which I think is essential. Meireles has got skill & class, but no real pace or solidness (i.e. ball winning abilities). I like him, don’t get me wrong, but I would have him playing off the bench – Deadly Dirk as well. I’m not slagging off Kuyt, he has been terrific for us, but I see him more in the Craig Johnstone/David Farclough role. He could start when (say) AC or Suarez is given a break. Dito for Meireles – When Gerrard or our new winger (he says with hope & optimism) is injured or needs a break, Raul can start. Thats what a good sqquad is all about.
I think Agger & our full backs (Johnson and Kelly/Insua?) will be essential to the side next season. But in order for them to push forward, we need a big, strong, quick, dependable CB alongside Dagger – sorry Carra!
Looking at the spuds list of midfielders, you wonder how Dodgy Arry keeps them all happy? There is some real class & skill in that lot, sorry to say.

Good finish by Carroll for Ingurland

rafalution

there are also a few munters in there too. if they are so talented, why are they only a few points above liverpool? our excuse is that we have only just got rid of some desirables in management. what’s their excuse?

if anyone has been watching that shower in white shirts tonight, cahil stood out in defence. ghana only got the equaliser because of lescots inept defending. but cahil looked good on the ball and strong in defence. he won’t be at bolton for much longer. i think we should buy him. anyone agree?

A good night for Kuyt also,

2 goals and one assist to Van Nostrilhair, Kuyt’s first was a classic, his second was described as a spectacular lob but i’m not sure.
I’ll try and find the link.

I think we should try and get Cahill he probably will cost about 10 million but it would be worth it to finally be rid of Carragher and his hoofing I saw his interview where he said he was happy because he was playing every week,if and when he gets left out something tells me he will become a disruptive influence in the squad.

Maybe he’ll be willing to go the other way in a player plus cash deal.But I doubt it,I definitely can’t see him agreeing to park it on the bench.

A big decision needs to be made about Carra because I think he believes he’s undroppable.

He’s been a very excellent servant over the years but its time for youth not hoof.

http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,12606_6841583,00.html

Good Guillem Ballsack interview with Rafa
Nothing new, but some stuff rephrased a bit better.
Part 2 sounds like it might be a bit juicier (though I suspect he is still bound somewhat by cofidentiality agreements.)

LB… I think you just might be giving the Spurs midfield a bit more credit than they deserve there lad?
… but Comolli is making noises in the press about a “busy summer” so you might just get your creative midfield after all.

And let me see if I’ve got this straight…
Meireles should be a sub???

… the guy whose goals have us challenging for 5th rather than battling to avoid relegation… and you wanna make him a sub???
Oh DEAR! -{ //////

(Thats supposedto be a sad face with dooping shoulders and an exasperated shuffling walk away)

Aitch, I knew the Meireles comment (re Sub) would elicit a comment from you.
I’m not saying he is not good enough. He is a cracking player – when played in the right position. When thinking about what I posted, I realised that he could start, behind the front 2? With a winger & Stevie G & Lucas as ‘holding’ midfielders (read: deeper midfielders). That leaves us with 4 defenders & the keeper. What I was trying to say is that if we buy someone like Juan Mata (dream on) from Valencia, or Charlie Adam – they would fit into this Meireles role as well? I’m not sure about Meireles in any other position, unless he works on his defending & bulks up a bit? What do you think Aitch?
Blud Red: It’s probably coz they have a shit manager, and that there are a few new faces in there that aren’t gelling yet. Coupled with a shit defense, makes them only a few points above us. Again, what I meant was that I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple of those players at LFC.
Regarding Cahill: he is what I had in mind when I mentioned a big, solid CB to partner Agger. I have read a couple of rumours (albeit on shite sites – not the broadsheets) that we have been linked to him. I sincerely hope that we are targeting him. Plus he is Ingurlish.

What a despicable TWAT hairy keys is,

http://www2.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/183698/Richard-Keys-insults-Scousers/

if anyone is looking for revenge it’s you keys you fuckin arsole, as LFC fans up and down the country celebrated when you and aunty where fucked off by sky, so you thought that you would have a go at us.
You fuckin hairy simian cunt.

Spurs have a brilliant midfield. Half of them have been injured for large chunks of the season yet they are in the CL quarter finals and still in with a realistic shot of a CL place. They didn’t get a lucky draw in the CL either. Had Inter and Werder Bremen in their group and got AC Milan in the last 16. I have always treated Spurs as a bit of a joke club but now I have to give credit where it due.

We on the other hand have struggled against mediocre sides in the Europa and languish 8 points behind a CL spot. I know we’ve improved a great deal under Kenny but the first half of the season also counts. I don’t think the league table is telling any lies at the moment.

Good goal from Carroll, hopefully he will be doing that in a red shirt at the weekend

LB – I would have out of Spurs midfield
Lennon, Modric and Van de Vaart. The others in my opinion aren’t better than what we’ve got. Spurs should be higher than where they are, they’ve spent a shed load of money over the last few years and they’ve had good stability for a while. You’re right the table doesn’t lie. We were crap in the first half of the season. Quarter finals of the champion’s league? We went out at the quarter final stages and it was a disaster!

AC Milan? Living off reputation and their slow old legs were made for Spurs. I fancy we’ll see a different result against Real.

Richard Keys can go fuck himself. No one should be wasting their time listening to what he has to say.

Happy for Lucas, the old scapegoat, who signed a new long-term contract today. I wonder how many will admit they were wrong about him, or admit they ever doubted him.

‘Director of Football Damien Comolli said: “I am very, very pleased. We have been talking for a few months now, ever since I arrived at the club.

“One of the first things I did after I arrived was to look at the contract situation and to see where Lucas was at. I knew we had to do something quickly because we couldn’t afford to lose him and didn’t want to lose him.

“If you look at his playing record he started 46 games last year in all competitions and this year it will be between 45 and 50. He is exactly what we want. He has the right mentality, quality and attitude. He understands what this club is all about and even though the discussions went on for quite a long time he always said to me ‘I want to stay and we need to find a solution’.

“Considering his performances on the pitch with us and with Brazil, and his attitude around the place – off the pitch he’s a great professional, totally committed and dedicated and it’s always team first when you speak to Lucas – that’s why we wanted him to stay. The celebration at Sunderland with the players after he’d had his baby shows that the other players were very happy for him and shows he is a team player.

“He could have gone to many clubs because he is highly rated around Europe, but he always said he wanted to play for Liverpool.”

Manager Kenny Dalglish was equally as pleased that his Brazilian midfielder had agreed a new deal.

“We are delighted,” said the boss.”He is a smashing lad to have around the football club but he hasn’t been signed for that, he has been signed because of what he does on the pitch. Certainly since I came in he has been a great asset to the team and has done tremendously well.

“He’s got wee Pedro to look after and now a new contract as well, and we’re delighted for him because he’s a really honest, genuine fella and that’s reflected in the way he plays.

“He’s happy to be here and play for the club and he’s getting everything that he deserves at the moment – including being a fixture in the Brazilian team – because of what he’s done on the pitch.”‘

Yeah, really chuffed about the Lucas contract extension. There are still some who don’t rate him, but if King Kenny, Brazil & Commolli do, everyone else can go fuck themselves….they wouldn’t know their arse from their elbow, imo (that’s just my opinion, mind!).
As per Comolli:
” The celebration at Sunderland with the players after he’d had his baby shows that the other players were very happy for him and shows he is a team player.”.
There is an article on the main site – 5 players that Jack Wells (author) would like to see at Liverpool.
Nice list, BUT…glaring omission is a Centre Back. Does the author (& fan) believe Carra will/should be 1st choice next season? Blimey…

Rafalution, I think judging anyone in this squad on the first 6 months of this season is a fools errand.
… but right now… Raul Meireles should be on the team sheet before SG… (He’d be 2nd choice right between Pepe Reina and Lucas, on my team sheet…) … simply coz those 3 have been the most consistent….
…in the absence of this much lauded flair, they do their job efficiently every week, without letting their heads drop.
The team should be selected on form not reputation.
Stevie G might well have carried us for a few years… but I’m sorry the fact is, we’ve carried him a bit too lately… and if he was Spanish instead of scouse, he’d be at Chelsea or Citeh and we’d be laughing at him and lauding his two replacements as better players!
(for the record, I think SG will bounce back… but he needs to do so before he’s an automatic selection and others are slotted in around him, as opposed to picked as just another part of an underperforming team.)

Some people seem to be under the impression that the storm is over and it’s a brand new day. As we’ve just seen… tsunamis leave a lot of damage in their wake and there’s a lot of clean up to be done before any rebuilding can take place.
Well G&H was an earthquake, a hurricane, a tornado, and a tsunami… all rolled into one.

The Hodgson era… not just because it was Roy and his tactics, but also because of the way in which Roy got the job, the actions of those holding the reigns of the club, the financial situation of the previous 18 months/5years and the fractions/cliques that caused within the squad… simply can’t be discarded, when judging things on-field.

And a certain section of our fan base does seem rather eager to forget all that and think everything is now hunky-dory coz FSG bought us a few months ago and Kenny has had the reigns fro 3 months.
There’s light at the end of the tunnel for sure… and while it’s no longer a small sliver of light, and is an increasingly growing orb, getting closer and closer to us… we are very much still in that tunnel.

There is a litany of things that need to be dealt with by FSG before we can mount serious challenge for silverware….
… many of these things need to be considered when judging Rafa’s tenure
… these things need to be considered when judging Roy’s tenure
… these things need to be considered when judging Kenny’s tenure so far
… and these things need to be considered when judging where we are and how best to move forward.

From what we publicly know …
FSG have gone about stabilizing the club in what I consider to be a very efficient way…
Sorting out the backroom nonsense and getting a handle on the finances (not sorted, but very much en-route to being sorted)
Benching Purslow to gardening leave
Bringing in Comolli
Firing Roy
Eventually relieving Purslow of his disastrous association with us.
Hiring Kenny
The 50 million Torres+Babel for Suarez and Carrol deal.
… they’re saying the right things and doing the right things…
… but these are all mostly correcting past mistakes, more than making large strides forward.

We’ve seen some disappointing performances this season and we’ve dropped some silly points.
Yet we are still within touching distance of these teams that have supposedly supplanted us.
If Spurs have such a great midfield… why have they not mounted a greater challenge?
Surely they should be at least 12 pionts better off with such an impressive list of flair in their midfield.
Sorry if that comes off as sarky … I’m not belittling the Spurs team… they’ve got some talent for sure… but they are hardly leaps and bounds above us, as the table which supposedly doesn’t lie (yet does all the time) shows.
Its not much different than the old “he wouldn’t get into the Scum side” chestnut… like we’d want Hargreaves, Fletcher, O’Shea, Evans, Smalling, Gibson, or Carrick in ours?

No one is suggesting the squad doesn’t need some serious work… but it needs fine-tuning approach, not jacking up on blocks and having the engine and transmission yanked at the same time and both completely replaced. (as much form a sensible financing point of view as anything else.)

Simply put…
G&H spent 5 years systematically dismantling everything that was good about LFC…
Its gonna take more than one winter and one summer, spending like a drunken sailor.

We’ll get back where “we belong” but it won’t happen overnight.
We are being rumored with some interesting players this summer… but what I find interesting about the rumors is the implication that we were in for many of them in the winter break.
We all knew about Charlie Adam… the late bid for Ashley Young we knew about…
… but it is being suggested we made inquiries for at least 5 other very interesting young players… not star names, but interesting looking prospects.
As replacements for those we “know” will leave… that sounds like a decent approach to me?

Securing Lucas, while some will see that as a lack of ambition, is absolutely what we needed to do. He is exactly the type of player we need… right now!

Rafalution, that’s a very important element of the equation that needs to be dealt with by Kenny, Comolli and FSG.

SG and JC are a problem to sort out at the moment.
They both achieved far too much player power in recent years.
As local lads, local heroes, they have acquired an air of being “untouchable”

That was fine 2 seasons ago, when SG was barnstorming all over the place and we were all dreaming of a Team of Carraghers…
… and I don’t want this to be an anti-SG or JC post, or a “fine… but what have you done for me lately” post…
… but to some extent we can’t live off sentiment.

If both can knuckle down, leave their egos at the door, and work on solidifying their legacies, then great.
I think both can. I hope both will.
An LFC with a strong SG and JC is far better off than an LFC without either/or…
… but an LFC with neither at their best, is a problem…
…coz seemingly… they have to be played…
…even if not fit, even if not in-form… they can’t be dropped.

That’s a problem!

Kenny, when we were getting to CL quarter finals we had mascherano, alonso, benayoun, riera and a peak Gerrard. Bit different to what we have now. Anyway my original point is being lost here. CREATIVITY was my main point. We lack it. Big time.

That is indeed a problem Aitch. The fact that a lot of fans (& a manager like Hodgson) deem Stevie G & Carra as ‘undroppable’. I’m always reluctnat to critisize either, as I’m not Scouse, I’m not even English – but I’ve been in love with Liverpool Football Club for 36 years, so I should be able to voice my opinions without fear of retribution, so to speak.
FSG have done all the right things so far re recognising Purslow as a snake & a crap businessman, firing Hodge & appointing Kenny, the January transfer dealings. So I have no fear that they will – together with Kenny, Ian Ayre, Comolli etc – take us to where we belong again. And no, it won’t take 1 season, maybe 2 but more likely 3.
Aitch, I don’t expect a City-esq spending, but there is every indication that FSG are prepared to spend 20mill this next transfer window. I’m sute they will add to that, from the profit we generate from sales. FSG want to get back up there as soon as possible, at the same time strengthening the youth setup. They will definetly be looking at a couple of start/marquee signings, but I would be happy (right now) with Ashley Young, Charlie Adam & Cahill. It’s more that we got under the other 2 owners, and it would show (further) intent from Henry & his henchmen.
I, for one, remain positive.
On another note, Here is a link on an article linking us with Cahill. It’s not from the Daily Star, Goal.com etc, but from The Telegraph…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8404961/Liverpool-keen-to-sign-Roma-defender-Philippe-Mexes-if-Gary-Cahill-snubs-Anfield-for-Manchester-United.html

I just want to add…
I’ve seen Carra play, when he first broke into the 1st team as an average right-back. Slow, average skill, liked to hoof it – but he gave/gives 110%, tackles hard, and bleeds for Liverpool Football Club.
Now, he has/had been converted into a solid CB (thanks Rafa!), still has limited skill, is still pretty solid, still bleeds Red – but, has lost any pace he had, and is pretty obsolete as far as the current centre back’s role is defined. I’m sorry, but ‘we all dream of a team of Carraghers’ is also pretty obsolete. Give Carra a role as a scout, Youth Team coach, whatever…but he should NOT be starting for us next season.

Aitch, in what way are Stevie and Jamie a problem? The only slight issue I can see is that Stevies injured at the minute so cant play, and is heading to the twilight of his career so his fitness and game output will have to be carefully managed by Kenny next season. Hardly a major problem to a manager of Kennys calibre right? Carragher? Already in his twilight. Will need to be coaxed into the Sami role next season. Again, I foresee no problems for Kenny Dalglish. I’m curious as to what this problem is you discern.
And I’m reaaally curious as to whether you thought it was a problem when Dirk or Lucas were incessantly played irregardless of form or fitness?!. Because by Jaysus if one thing was proven, it was they HAD to be played!

Fucking hell Aitch, you really do take an extreme point of view when analysing other people’s posts these days. You’re going on like I said Spurs were the best team of all time or have a midfield rivalling Barcelona’s. I mentioned Spurs because they took our CL spot last season and are our direct competition. I believe they have a very good mix in their midfield. I believe they have a better balanced midfield than we do. You all can dissect that in any way you want.

We are all well aware of the damage done to the club in recent years. When exactly are we allowed to move on from the gloom and express a reasonable desire for some entertaining football and more consistent results? Note I said DESIRE, not DEMAND.

I get the impression a lot of you guys have come to accept mediocrity. Either that or there are some seriously deluded people in here. Anyone that expresses a desire (no, not demand, I said desire) for the signing of better players gets told to fuck off and support Chelsea? Anyone that dares to suggest either Lucas or Kuyt are not the second coming of Christ has their opinion instantly dismissed. Even if the other 4 paragraphs made generally excellent points.

I will go out on a limb here. Next season if Kuyt and Lucas are our best performers we will win fuck all. If the balance of our midfield remains as it is now. We will win fuck all. I will be frustrated but will however remain a staunch LFC fan. I’ll not be fucking off to support City or the Chavs. I’ll be watching a lot of La Liga though.

The funny thing is our own director of football said we needed more speed and creativity in the team, yet I get sarky remarks for calling a spade a spade. Fucking joke.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/1-new-deal-4-exclusive-videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QNy3Fj4a1s When we were kings season 1987/88 this is my favourite ever season and it has nothing to do with the fact we won the title it’s all about the football we played to win it.

This is what Kenny means when he talks about pass and move.

Digger, when SG is injured is exactly when it isn’t a problem… since obviously in that instance, we have to play someone else…
…but the minute he’s fit… not match-fit mind you, but walking around again… he walks right into the team… even if it means he strolls about for 89 minutes making little or no contribution while we “play with 10 men” (and yes that has happened)… simply because he can pop up with a 25yarder in that one other minute.
Obviously that goal contribution has value… I’m not discounting it… but it does blind to the possibility that had we played a fully fit player in that position, we might not have struggled to be so reliant on that one goal… (and yes that has also happened.)

You seem to be suggesting that JC and SG will be happy to ride the bench coz its Kenny Dalglish that put them there?
I seriously doubt that.
Of course the situation is manageable… but to suggest two such powerful players can be benched and it won’t cause problems, is naive to say the least…
… not the least because of the instant clamour it would cause among the fanbase for them to be reinstated.

Like I said… I wasn’t posting that as an anti-SG/JC post, but neither should be automatic choices when not fit.
No one should, not Kuyt as you suggest has happened….though I would argue that he at least harries the fuck out of defenders when he’s out-of-form, so you get your 90 minutes out of him, even if it isn’t “creative”…
… and a similar argument can be made for Lucas, at least in the last 2 seasons… admittedly maybe not so much before that, though, which clouds some people’s judgment of now.

And LB, I’m sorry if you took it as a personal attack. It wasn’t meant that way.
You suggested you rate that list of Spurs players as considerably more creative than our midfield.
And yes Spurs are certainly “riding high” at the moment, but in my opinion, of the 10 players you listed, I’d only take Bale, Van Der Vart, Palacios and Modric off the bat, and have to have a hard think about Krancjar. I don’t much rate either of Lennon or Jenas, and you can keep the rest.
…so, not exactly “that much” better than our midfield.
Disagreeing about those ratings is all well and good, but looking at it objectively, has the Spurs midfield dominated our midfield in our last 4-6 meetings?
I’d say no.

That’s not to suggest (and I don’t think I did) that our midfield is the be-all, end-all… far from it.
I think we’ll keep Raul, SG, Kuyt, Lucas, and Spearing of the players you listed… and I’d rate all those in different ways.
And take the money for Cole, Jovanovic, Maxi and Poulsen (somewhere around the 20 million mark maybe?) replacing them with Adam, Ashley Cole, either or both of the kids from Real Madrid and Barca if we can get a decent price, and depending on how much is left (or what we get if Pep leaves) we might bring in one more.

As for when we can move on… well like I said… in my opinion…not just yet.
I had this same discussion in the summer, with a good friend of mine who thought the appointment of Roy and the signing of Cole and Jovanovic and 2 kids, and later, the sale to NESV, was a sign that all was now rosy and we were “on our way back”
When I argued it wasn’t, he kept suggesting I was just a glass-half-empty guy… I kept insisting I was being pragmatic.

I fully understand why people wanna forget what we’ve just been through and think “let’s just move on.”
But nuclear radiation is toxic for 50 years… and we spilled a bunch of it all over Anfield and Mellwood. The clean-up has been excellent so far… but just that…. So far…
… and there’s much left to do.

Do we need more creativity?
Yes… but I don’t want it at the expense of graft.
Barca are amazing and a joy to watch, but how many Stokes and Sunderlands, Birminghams and Blackburns are there in the La Liga?
…and if they had to go up against them every week, how many points would they drop in a season?

Suggesting that “nobody wins the league with a bunch of kids” was a safe thing to say… until Scum did it and provided everyone with something to throw in Alan Hansen’s face.
But it’s still a largely safe statement to make, coz really only Scum have done it.

So likewise its easy/safe to say Kuyt and Lucas won’t be our best players next season, and that we won’t win anything if they are…
… but then again… add one or two skillful players to those grafters and we just might!
It’s a premise that is not without logic… look at the results since Suarez arrived and added to their graft…

…oh and one last thing… can we please stop talking about Albert Riera as though he was Lionel Messi.
He did fuck all in his time at Liverpool.
This fuckin mythical “width” he supposedly provided in rose-tinted retrospect was in actual fact an annoying propensity of cutting inside onto a right foot he didn’t have.

The last thing we need at Liverpool is not another Kuyt or Lucas, it’s another Albert Riera.

First rule when picking a team, who’s fit and who’s available ?
Before this season i cant remember Lucas or Kuyt ever been injured, so maybe thats why they “HAD to be played” Digger. Whereas Gerrard, Riera, Benayoun,Torres and even Aquillani always seemed to be injured or carrying a injury or getting over a injury.
Another thing about team selection is the need for some consistency, when you have the creative side of your team injured as often as it was at the time, Kuyt & Lucas offered that consistency. If Gerrard/Torres etc was as healthy as those two 4th place would of happened and we’d of still been in the CL this year instead of Spurs.
( And the year before won the Prem )

We would also be up to our neck in debt with Tom and George and looking at the threat of administration and asset stripping once again this summer. But thats all irrelevant.

Basically you cant build a team around players who wont be available for a third of the season otherwise you end up finishing 7th (and getting f*cked out the door by some snake playing Football Manager 2010 for real) So if there is a problem with Gerrard its that he’s too big to be dropped, well he was under Gerard, Rafa & Roy but Kenny carries more clout than the last three managers, so i think its a problem solved and same for goes for Carra.
YNWA

PS Just realised picking a team is bit like pulling a bird…
You go for who’s fit and who’s available ¦ )

PPS Aitch meant Ashley Young, well i hope so

well yeah, but there’s the oter side to that.
Go for who’s fit and available and you get knocked back.
Go for the ugly birds, packing half a stone they could do with losing, and you’re in with a better chance of copping off.
(err… so I’m told)

DOH
Holy SHIT!
Thanks for pointing that out before I got ripped a new arsehole, rome.
I did indeed mean Ashley Young.
… can’t believe I typed Ashley Cole… what the fuck was I thinking… hate that little cunt!

I think both he and Cahill if we are to go for either/both will cost us a pretty penny!

Personally not totally convinced about Cahill… not saying I don’t rate him, just not sure he’s right for us… though I wouldn’t be bothered if we got him…
… but I quite fancy seeing AY in a red shirt.

Second rule when picking a team: dont pick players who are so out of form they couldent trap a bag of cement!! Lol! I was just poking some fun at a wee inconsistency in your post is all Aitch, I kid, I kid. Fair play, at least you concede whats good for the goose is good for the gander, though, as always with you, not without caveats! Anyway, ya might never hear me praising their technical skills(!) but they’re 2 indomitable hoors and I’m glad they both got new deals, nobody deserves them more. If the Summer goes well, I look forward to them being important squad members next year. If it dosent, then I look forward to them being important team members but as LB correctly points out, our hopes and expectations for the season will have to be tempered with a major dose of reality.

Lucas is a first choice because he has more experience that Spearing and there is no one else in our team. If Lucas is so called magnificent, cos of his selcetion by Kenny, RH, Brazil etc etc. it wouldn’t be too hard to sell him off for a profit. Last I heard, we were offered 3Million, that’s 2Million lesser than what we paid for him, no? Carra? Has he had any major offers?
As for Stevie G being the first choice when fit or ahead of Raul; yes, when fit, he should be first choice. Reason is he is a more complete player than Raul, defends better, tackles better. As such, Stevie G can play the HOLDING midfield role much better than Raul who’s best position seems to be Attacking Midfield slightly higher up the pitch. So, yes, depending on tactics as well, Stevie G’s name can go ahead of Raul because of the position he is capable of playing. Kuyt however, can sit on the bench when we have AC and Suarez. Jovanovic wasn;t given much chances in a striker role, and he has a better averaging scoring record that Kuyt, I am guessing.
Lucas, well… congrats to him on the new contract. Hope we get Charlie Adams!

Saty your logic is flawed when commenting about Lucas. Nobody is saying he’s a magnificent footballer but I would say based on the players we have now at Liverpool FC there is no doubt he deserves his place in the team. His attitude is magnificent and so is his effort & work rate and he’s a good footballer same goes for Kuyt although as Digger said sometimes he can’t trap a bag of sand.

I have no problem whatsoever in going out and getting better quality. Let’s face if we had gone out bought Xabi & Iniesta last year I don’t think we’d be moaning about Lucas not getting a game. No point saying he’s not good enough for Liverpool he is at the moment until we find better.

Ref: Stevie G & Carra

They are both in the twighlight of their careers and both in my opinion would still get in the first team with the players we have at LFC at the moment.
Rafa – We all dream of a team of Carraghers was in reference to his commitment to the cause not his silky skills. He is still our best defender but I would pair him with Agger(a nice balanced centre back pairing in my opinion. They still have a lot of value to the squad look at Giggs, Scholes etc. It’s not a problem if the manager is the one who picks the team and I think Kenny is the one who will be picking the team.

I also don’t get the hostility towards players who have been magnificent loyal servants to LFC but who are on the wane due to age/injuries. These players are not deliberately getting old or injured it’s what happens.

I also realise their is no room for sentimentality but there is a right way to be ruthless while giving soemone who has dedicated their careers to LFC their dignity.

Bob Paisley used to say ” A player isn’t finished when he leaves Liverpool, he’s just finished at Liverpool.” Uncle Bob as he was afectionately known was not a sentimental man but he was a gentleman.

carra must have missed four games in the last one hundred and fifteen years. rio ferdinand has played four games in the last four hundred and fifteen years.
dagger, what a talent, plays one game, takes three games to recover, but lets get rid of carra anyway because he’s not a cultured enough footballer to dribble the ball out of defence, all he’s done for his club is stick his scouse body in the way of certain goals since day one. lets get rid of him because a mate told me his mate was talking to another mate who said his mate had heard him criticising rafa benitez. yeah lets get rid, because i also suspect him of being roy hodgsens love child and a personal friend of colonel gadaffi.

you don’t get rid of carlos puyol, gary neville, gennaro gattuso and jamie carragher. they might frustrate you, but you know they are worth more than some sun-tanned nambi-pamby over-priced tippy-toey badge kissing snood wearing wanker that steals the limelight for a few months and then fucks off when some russian billionaire waves a few notes in his spotty face. and what are we left with, when all the dust settles, we’re left with the jamie carraghers.

see that goal by cyan against the white shirted wankers. pure fluke. that lad had been useless all that game, side-netting from two yards, piss-poor free kick, got zero change from gary cahill all day, goes up against that ponce lescott and turns him inside out. scores goal.

had that have been carragher he would not have come near. take my word for it. cyan would have walked home empty handed.

if i was in charge of LFC a fit carra is a first choice central defender. no argument.

torres, in a blue shirt for chelsea, had finally found the space that had been lacking in the first half, made a decent angular run, got on the ball heading across the 18 yard box. Reina shapes to defend his goal. the chelseacrowd are on their feet, they know what is going to happen, torres knows what is going to happen. he waits a split second till he has the perfect angle to negate anything reina can do and …pulls the trigger.

suddenly a scrawny white leg thrusts out and intercepts a ball that is heading for the back of the net knocking it harmlessly away for a corner. jamie carragher to the rescue….again.

had torres of scored, how different would things have turned out. the spaniard could have gone on a roll. dalglish not so settled, liverpool humiliated.

instead, jamie carragher saves the day and liverpool football club…again.

and for what, so that people in here can seriously doubt his credentials?

not on my watch.

Hell yeah!! Great posts there Kenny and Blud, Amen brotha! A-fucken-men.

Yes Carra has been a loyal servant of this club but the words has-been are also important.
Right now he’s in the first team but like LB says about Kuyt if he’s our first choice next season then i wont be holding my breath on winning the prem.
This year is about building for the future and while its important to remember the past (as Kennys presence as shown) i see the future as a little bit more important.

On the subject of Carra’s “allledged” rebellions against (his boss)Houlier and more recently Rafa.
If proven true one things for sure, Bill,Bob and Joe would of bounced his arse into the reserves,and out of the door no problem.
In fact Blud Reds “not on my watch” would of been the order of the day,and now Kenny is back i hope it will be again.
YNWA

Okay, since these comments have come immediately after my post about JC and SG, let me just clear up my position so there’s no misunderstanding.

Anyone saying we should absolutely get rid of Jamie Carragher this summer is a Twat.
But anyone saying he should be automatically on the teamsheet coz of what he’s done in the past is on the other extreme of the issue too.

I’m not advocating selling him. And I’m not suggesting we drop him like a hot rock into the reserves.
All I’m saying is he (nor should anyone else) be an automatic choice… unless BOTH fit and more importantly, in-form.

I agree with everything said about what Jamie Carragher has done for this club… on the pitch… but some of the “rumored” stuff he’s supposedly done… off the pitch… has some credibility too.

All those great, last ditch, body on the line, interceptions were made when he was in form, but he’s been turned inside out on as many or more occasions both this and last season, and there were few times when he was barging around like a bull in a China shop, knocking his fuckin teammates out, and bollocking the wrong player for mistakes he thought they’d made.

We don’t have all the information at our disposal.
Let’s be clear about that.
We as fans, on the outside looking in, can watch games and make a judgment on what we saw for 90 minutes… and on what we’ve read on countless internet forums and online “news” sources.
But it is largely on us, to give what we see a true, solid analysis,
…and what we read, an even more thorough, and objective analysis.

This is what I meant when I said he (and SG) were a problem.

Two seasons ago, JC is the first name on the team sheet.
Why?
Because he was performing well, contributed to his partnership (with Hyppia, Agger, or Skrtel or whoever he was next to) helped to keep that back line organized, marshaled his teammates well, and led by example on the pitch. (frankly, there’s a very strong case to be made that he should have been Captain over SG)

What we knew of him publicly, suggested that he also contributed these leadership qualities off the field.
So yes… first name on the sheet.

Last season however things fell apart.
Much of it attributable to the meddling in team affairs, by those who had no business doing so, but the end result was what we were left to deal with… an increasingly unhappy and split team.
JC was on one side of this split.

How far to one side, depends on how much of the rumors you opt to believe… (and to some extent to which side your own opinion leans)
…but enough is known, not rumored, but known, to say he was not straddling the line, he had taken a side. (I’ll return to this in a minute)

His performances dropped… and okay, he wasn’t the only one…
…but as things went from bad to worse last year… (starting with his unnecessary head-but of Skrtel, going for a ball he had no business going for, in the opening game of the season,) …JC was not the one stepping up week-in, week-out to try to organize and rectify them… certainly not on the field anyway.

That poor form continued into this season… as did JCs lack of leadership at times.

I believe, and this isn’t fact, but based on what he and others have said over the last 18 months, I believe he advocated for Roy Hodgson.
And based on the way the players were playing under Roy… I don’t think there is any doubt the squad was severely split over his appointment…
I’ve been in situations like this. I think it caused bad blood between certain players, and I think some of that still exists. (another element of the “fallout” that FSG have to deal with.)

But in fairness to Jamie, while the biggest complaint against him this season seems to be his hoofing upfield, I’d suggest he has at least returned to a little of his form since Kenny returned.
And in addition to his own form, while Skrtel still seems to be more comfortable next to either of Agger or Soto, than Jamie, at least its obvious that JC is making the effort (and in the right way) to try get back to marshalling the defense, rather than just bollocking people.

I’ll reiterate what I’ve always said.
LFC with a fit and in-form Jamie Carragher is a better LFC than without him.
(ditto x2 for SG)

Jamie Carragher is not past his sell by date.
Anyone who thinks that simply doesn’t know football.
And let me remind you that statement was made about Didi Hamman, and it didn’t take too long for some to wish we had him back.
And let me also remind you that statement was made about Sami Hyppia, and it took about 3 games for most to wish we had him back.

We do not need to be “getting shut” of Jamie Carragher at this point… just maybe give him a rest now and then, that’s all.

Aitch in Ingurland we now have a “Best Before” date and i think thats the more appropriate term to descibe a few of our players.
Then we have three who reached their “sell by date”before they even got here last summer.

YNWA

BludRed, Kenny and..I suppose, Digger!
Carra ‘supposedly’ was against Rafa? Too right he was. Can you remember his comments in the newspapers about ‘we needed Liverpool to be loved, like the other clubs in the EPL’. If you say that this is not a pop at Benitez, your heads are up where they don’t belong. Fuck the ‘my friend heard from a friend, who heard from a friend shit’…where there is (a lot of) smoke, there is fire. As my user name suggests, I am a huge admired of Benitez – the manager, the person. Kenny, I know the ‘we all dream of a team of Carraghers’ is a referenace to his commitment to the club, and not his skill levels – of that we have no doubt – but he must remember, do not sound off against a manager who (a) won more for the club than any other manager since Kenny, (b) turned HIM into a better player and (c) probably loves & gets the club just as much as he does.
As Aitch also says, I do not advocate getting rid of Carra. But I stand by what I said – he should not start every game. He is, like Lucas (who has been our best player since the start of last season) a SQUAD player. Dont compare him with that tonsil Lescott. Would Carra get into the scum side, the Shiteh side (Lescott cant get in), Spurs? Maybe the Arse, as they are short in that area. But for fuck sakes, I am 43 and could outrun him. Kuyt couldn’t trap a bag of cement? What about Carra? Amen, brutha, amen!
Again, I have nothing against Carra, but how old is he? How many years can he give us? No, he doesn’t have the legs anymore. BludRed, would you rather have Cahill or Carra starting for Liverpool? Coz as you state, Cahill had a pretty decent game against Ghana.
Oh, and shall we forget the Europa game when we drew at Anfield? Who was knocking the ball long EVERY time he touched it, just because Andy Carroll started for us? Do you want to watch that next season, and do you believe that is the way we should play next season?
Amen brutha!

rafalution

you’re 43 and you could outrun carra??
what a joke.
so that makes you quicker than torres does it, because he’s 27 and he couldn’t outrun carra. and please please don’t suggest thats because torres is past it.
when a player ages they use their head to beat you.
maldini scored a goal in the cup final in 2005 and he was about 95 years old.

in any circumstance i would start a fit JC. alongside cahill if we could buy him, yes, alongside dagger if the lad was ever fit, yes, because he has positional strength, simple.
in the 87/88 season we had gary gillespie playing centre half.the best team liverpool have ever fielded. i don’t remember him as a ball playing supremo.

NO.1 priority of a defender: stop the opposition scoring.
the priority is never to dribble the ball out of defence. as much as i like hansen and dagger, if they stop goals you will never lose. ball playing defenders are rare as hens teeth because as good as they are on the ball they can some times have lapses in concentration that negate the skill they have.

furthermore, to play the ball out of defence, you need a midfield capable of receiving it. and we were struggling with that against braga, that was a weak team all the way through. players like carra are not going to pass it short unless there are genuine alternatives.

i like ninja skyrtl as a player, but i’m not sure about hercules, and daggers always injured. you cannot build a team around uncertainty.

as for your idol benitez, lets say carra did speak out against him, so what, who wants a bunch of yes-men in the squad? not me. i want people to follow the manager because they thinks he’s the man, not because you think they should. its every human beings right to question.how many times have you questioned the decisions of those people you worked with? its natural. difference is, your questions don’t get pasted up on the blogosphere open to criticism.

rafa never improved JC either, not a jot of it. rafa is no arsene wenger, able to recruit an average 19 year old and make him shine. JC is the same player he was at nineteen, and if he has improved it is with experience.

rafa was a tactician certainly,and someone who can build a team by bringing in quality talent, but for me, he is no coach able to make players play better than they did before. he develops systems where they can be more successful and buys players to compliment that system, but he never improved JC or SG. their trajectory was the same since they left school, torres also.
rafalution, i played against jimmy case when i was 29 and he was 40 years old. he turned me inside out and left me for dead. i could not get near the man. i could not buy a tackle.

you couldn’t outrun JC if you tried. he’d have you for toast.

Blud red
When you say Torres cant outrun Carra are you serious ?
When you say Rafa never improves players are you serious ?

Too knackered to comment fully but well said Rafalution in commnet #297.

How many times has Carra played at full back this season? Oh I thought he couldn’t do that a few seasons ago, even though his legs were ‘gone’. There’s no smoke without fire. However with Rafa this doesn’t seem to be true. He was to blame for everything!

Sorry for boring everyone with my backdated views/comments, we should be getting on with things. So let’s look to the future with SG ‘controlling’ midfield, like he always did, with Carra ‘commanding’ CD, which he used to do. Lucas for the bench and Kuyt as well. We’ll never win anything with them.

I’ll guess I’ll leave it at that…

He probably is Rome.

Good to have you back commenting regularly again. Brings some sanity to my world – I said my world before the kopblog massive starts to …

Touchin

don’t know where the ‘touchin’ came from – must stop using porn sites at the same time

Hmmm, so pretty much every player at Liverpool talks a load of bollocks then apparently.

The list of players who have publicly stated (prior to all the backstage squabling of 2009) is ludicrously long.

Torres said it.
Alonso said it.
Arbeloa said it.
Pepe said it.
and yes even SG and JC BOTH said, on more than one occasion, that Rafa had made them better players.

There’s an awful lot of personal-held opinion being forced ito this discussion.
… and its muddying the waters.

If Fungus could have Jamie Carragher (right now, given their injuries) he’d bite our fuckin hands off for him.
I suspect Arsene would be very interested in addin a bit of grit to his defense if the chance was there to do it on the cheap.

And since when is the Spurs defense a yard stick to measure anythign by???
They’ve had a good season… but come on, they’ve leaked 2 and 3 gols in more than just a few games….

A few buys might see Spurs solidify their position in the top echelon… let’s see what they do next season… but as of right now, they are a “top 4 team” this season and this season only.

And yes, I reckon if Redknapp were offered him, he’d take Jamie in a heartbeat.

Let’s not be daft about this.
Jamie Carragher is a top defender.
When fit and in form… He Just IS.

The discussion is not… is he good or bad…?
its about his form over the past 18 months…
…which like SG’s has been patchy for the most part, occasionally poor, and occasionally Team-of-Carraghers-like

As far as the hoofing goes, its worth taking a breath, and realizing for a moment that not once (well actually I can remember one game where Lucas had a go at him, but that’s theonly instance I can think of) in all the games JC has played hoofball, has there been a siege of complaints from his teammates or more tellingly… the bench.
He’s hoofing it coz he hasn;t been told NOT to, and more likely has been instructed to use it as a tool ifhe feels its warranted.
It annoys me as much a the next flla, but let’s not lay all the blame for the hoofing at JC’s feet.
The unfortunate truth is that tactically, this seaosn was lost in the first 5 months… now we’re just trying to get to the end of the season…
… otherwise we’d have seen a more concerted effort in the Europa and other games.

The blame for the turmoil of the last 18 months can be largely layed at the feet of Hicks and Gillette (did anyone read the article about Hicks being sued for defaulting his American Sports enterprises? It was both interesting ad telling, but I digres…)
… some of the blame can also be laid at Moores and Parry’s feet…
…quite a bit of it at Purslow’s
… some at Rafa’s
…and yes… some of it rests quietly in the backyards of certain players.

For sure… there’s much to be written in years to come, when confidentiality agreements expire, and biographies get written…
… but in my opiion, questioning that is ignoring all that really went on.

Stanley Matthews played his final competitive match in Brazil in 1985 at the age of 70. He damaged his cartilage during the match. “A promising career cut tragically short,” he wrote in his autobiography.

And as opposed to everything “blud red” posts on here, that’s not an exaggeration or distortion of facts.

blud red has just let many past his extravagant defense

rome 77

has rafa improved JC as a player? my answer: marginally.

when rafa first came to LFC jamie carragher was a heart
on sleeve do or die defender who had good positional play, able to second guess when the attacker was about to shoot. his ball skills were secondary to his goal stopping attributes. his first option when in doubt was to hoof it out.
please please tell me what has changed. please tell me how jamie has improved because as much as i like JC i see no obvious improvement in his game play, which is why he comes under fierce stick, which is why he was always second fiddle for england. JC has improved with age, but not necessarily with coaching from rafa. so whats changed? tell me because i’m interested to know your opinion on this.

secondly, yes carra can outrun torres. yes torres would win hands down in a 60 metre sprint, but he failed to outrun him against chelsea. JC had torres in his pocket. because he used what he always had, positional acumen and 100% commitment to the tackle.

so rafa improved SG too did he?

SG was a fantastic player under houllier, the lad was talented before rafa came close. i think its the other way round. SG saved rafa’s bacon on countless occasions. under houllier SG was a marauding midfielder who scored goals and liked to hit hollywood passes. what exactly changed under Rafa? the player was the same, still is. i see no massive change in his game from one manager to the next, maybe a tad slower now but no less dynamic. rafa is undoubtedly a good manager but he is not a great coach. to be a great coach you need to be able to improve the way the player reads and plays the game. had rafa taken JC and turned him into a ball playing centre half as well as a demon tackler, you could call that improvement. anything else is just natural progression.

Blud Red,
Rafa not a great coach eh, i suppose to be a great coach you have to bring a virtually unknown team from Valencia to a bastion of football called Anfield, absolutely hammer the home side and hardly give them a kick and then after 90 mins get applauded off the pitch by myself and almost the rest of Anfield ?.

I know I shouldent because these ‘types’ of debates are generally circuitous and ultimately achieve nothing accept antagonize both sides and thats the last thing I want to do with this post, but I do see where Blud is coming from to a certain extent. My favourite Stevie season is not 05 or 06 or 09 but………04. For me the road to Istanbul began that season when Stevie basically dragged us to fourth spot by sheer force of will. There was no 20+ goals (he only got 8 or 9 if I remember correctly), no trophies, just unstoppable driving performances. He was just a force of nature. A coupla seasons before that as a young man he said he wanted to be as good as Keane and Viera, in 04 I remeber actually thinking to myself ‘steady on lad, mission accomplished already!’. The birmingham game was outstanding but I think it was against chelsea in defeat there was a moment that crystalized Stevie. Chelsea player has the ball on right hand side deep in our box (gronkjaers coming to mind for some reason) and is about to unleash a shot or square it. Out of the left hand side of the screen comes a blur of red motion. Next frame the balls in the stand, Gronkjaers in the air and Stevies getting to his feet. A few seconds before this Stevie was marauding up the pitch. Wasnt even in the picture when Gronkjaer got the ball. That to me encapsulated Stevie that season. And of course for much of his career. I think it was in the same game he got the road and trudged disconsolately toward the tunnel. Afterwards in the postgame interview Houllier growing visibly irritated at being questioned about the red card said’look, I wish I had 11 Steven Gerrards out there’. I was beaming. Was so proud of Houllier. ‘Right on Ged, Fuck them’ I thought. Anyway, got sidetracked there as its difficult not to do when reminiscing about Stevie, but to Bluds point I do agree to a certain extent, players like your Gerrards of this world would have been what they’ve been regardless of who the manager is or was. We’re talking once in a generation players here. Gerrard is the under 30′s sets Dalglish. I think its a bit unfair on Stevie to label his achievements as dependant on a manager. These types of players would be what they are anyway. Likewise Rafa, he dident need Stevie to become a Spanish champion, or a uefa cup champion. But they needed each other to become European champions. If anything I’d call it it a mutually beneficial relationship. 2 titans at the height of their powers combined together. Ones rampaging, pillaging, take no prisoners style of play counter balanced by the others cautiouslly brilliant tactics took each other to a higher level. When the chips were down, yes it was invariably Stevie who saved Rafas (read ours) bacon, but when we were 1 nil up or needed a clean sheet away from home to progress it was invariably Rafas tactics that saved Stevies (read ours) bacon. Did Rafa make Stevie a better player? It depends on how you look at it I guess. Ultimately imo, probably not. Steven Gerrard was always gonna be the Steven Gerrard we’ve known and supported. But he did give him the platform (Alonso) allowing and enabling him to better himself. So, indirectly then? Yeah, no doubt. But in the end as with any force of nature you can never truly harness it can you? Ya just watch in wonder, just watch in wonder.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/gerrard-rafa-has-improved-my-game

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jul/01/fernando-torres-rafael-benitez-liverpool

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=227984.0

“Rafa isn’t a coach. He doesn;t improve players.”

Had me going there for a minute Blud Red…
…then I saw the date, you wag, you!

Blud red
I didnt have the pleasure of reading your posts last season, (during the witchhunt, did you have a different username ?)
So i can only imagine what you thought of Rafa at the time, but im getting the feeling it involved:
Wasting millions, Playing players out of position,Crazy substitutions, Rotation and the old chesnut, Zonal Marking.
Oh and a hatred for all things Tomkins. ¦ )
And while i admire your support for Carra for what he’s done on the field and not forgetting his charitable work in the local community (which no one mentions), but in reference to “not on my watch” id say he’s a Timex watch in a digital age and his best before date has been and gone.
As for your questions i’ll refer you to Lurgans well researched posts.
YNWA

Digger
Whats all this stuff about 04 are you telling me LFC was playing football before 25/05/05 ?
Next you’ll be telling me football didnt start in 93 with the Premiership. ¦ )

Just had a bit of free time so was looking through the values paid for players from the top 5.
Bear in mind that this is me looking at the player list on wikipaedia and then noting reported transfer fees.
Price paid for the players in the squad i.e. Stevie G was 0. Torres 50mil.

1. Man City total = 370m
2. Chelsea total = 300m
3. Scum total = 238m
4. Spuds = 200m
5. Liverpool = 127m
6. Arsenal = 103m (although several players I couldn’t find a transfer fee on the internet Eboue, Clichy, Almunia, Bendtner)

Arsenal and us are in a different league to the others…

I think it is realistic to expect a net spend of approximately 50mil this summer. Our outgoing: Cole, Jova, Maxi, Poulsen, Konch will probably fetch us between 10-15mil total. so that leaves us 60-65 mil to spend hopefully:
10m will get us Charlie (if blackpool relegated)
5-10m will get us Jarvis (if wolves relegated) or 10-15m will get us adam johnson (although i think it is unlikely City will sell to us)
15mil will get us Cahill.
10mil for Jose Enrique.
then between 20-25mil for an attacking star such as Ashley Young, Gervinho or Alexis Sanchez.

I think we will either get back Aquilani or use the money from him to get someone like Gago.

Pretty solid side
Reina
defenders: Johnson, Kelly, Carra, Skrtel, Dagger, Cahill, Enrique (maybe bring Insua back from loan)
Midfield: Raul, Gerrard, Lucas, Spearing, Shelvey Aquilani (or Gago), Adam.
Wingers: Jarvis (or Adam Johnson, Young (or Alexis Sanchez) and Raheem Stirling for a few cup games??!
Strikers: Carroll, Kuyt, Suarez, Ngog.

I’d be very happy with that – and it would bring our spending up to about 170mil – well short of scum, spuds , dubai city or the chavs.

p.s. I’m excited about the game tomorrow – hoping for some suarez magic with stevie g back… 2-0 to the reds with carroll to get his first for us

Why Lucas deserves his new contract

http://thekop.liverpoolfc.tv/_Why-Lucas-deserves-his-new-contract/blog/3429566/173471.html

It’s amazing how the first few outings in a Liverpool shirt can set the tone for the subsequent years of an Anfield career.

Robbie Fowler scored a poacher’s effort against Fulham on his first appearance and then scored five in the return leg at home.

Steve McManaman opened his bag of tricks during his substitute role against Sheffield United and spent the remainder of the season revealing why Kenny Dalglish was so keen to sign him as an 18-year-old.

Pepe Reina, predictably, kept four clean sheets in his first four league games.

And so it proved again at Goodison Park on a sunny, blustery autumn afternoon in 2007.

As Dirk Kuyt bounded towards the away end with both the energy and appearance of an exhilarated Labrador, he was met by two distinctive sounds: 3,000 victorious yells emptying from lungs and throats as quickly as Goodison itself, and the clicks of the photographers’ cameras.

Liverpool supporters had their protagonist, journalists had their story and the football world had its eyes on one man: Dirk Kuyt, two goal hero of the Merseyside derby.

As Kuyt lapped up the adoration, a gangly, awkward-looking 20-year-old ambled back to the Liverpool half. He’d have been forgiven for casting a bitter, rueful glance towards the tunnel where Phil Neville walked down moments earlier – but jealousy and selfishness are two things Lucas Leiva doesn’t possess.

It was the youngster, making just his third appearance for the club, who burst into the box in a manner promised by Rafael Benitez when he signed him from Gremio that summer.

The run was timed to perfection, much like his shot when he strode on to the ball. A fingertip away from instantaneous hero status.

But the endeavour and ability of Lucas had gone unnoticed and unappreciated; even after his last-minute contribution, people questioned his mere presence on the pitch after replacing Steven Gerrard with 20 minutes remaining.

That disgruntlement, sometimes bordering on disdain, is an unfortunate microcosm of his first three years at the football club. A lot of his work couldn’t be quantified by goals or assists; a lot of the time, he wasn’t Steven Gerrard.

People refused to give him time to adapt to a new country and midfield position. They refused to consider his Bola de Ouro in 2006 which recognised him as top player in the Brazilian league. They even refused to acknowledge his impressive outings in a red shirt, especially against Internazionale at the San Siro.

Instead, people focused on parts of his game he hadn’t fully developed; his strength and his distribution being common complaints. These faults forced some to boo him during the goalless draw to Fulham. His crime differed depending on who was questioned.

He wasn’t good enough to replace Steven Gerrard, some argued, despite not being bought to do so; a similar argument was put forward about Xabi Alonso – Lucas wasn’t good enough to replace him, either – but the same retort would just be ignored.

Worst of all, he just wasn’t Brazlian enough. Brazilians were about tricks, flicks, joga bonito and playing with miniature footballs in airports. Lucas had done none of that – he couldn’t even get into the Brazil squad, went the cry.

How apt, then, that on the week he starred for the Brazilian national team against Scotland, he finally received the notice and appreciation he deserves at his club – a new, long-term contract.

A few grumbles may remain but it appears Lucas has won over many, including some of his most fervent detractors. His strength and passing have not only improved but become vital components of both his own personal style and the style of the side under Kenny Dalglish.

But most impressive of all is the determination he’s exhibited to succeed at the club.

Many other players would have taken the constant criticism to heart. Instead, he’s taken it on the chin; he’s taken it how he takes on the opposition – face to face with composure and poise.

Lucas was never meant, nor wished, to be Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso or Javier Mascherano. Instead, he’s carved out his own niche in the shape of a number 5 for Brazil and a number 21 for Liverpool; five more years at Anfield and a World Cup on home soil awaits.

The fact he has carved it in adversity is the greatest signifier of his development.

It’s not just his improved passing, dispatched with unerring accuracy and efficiency, that makes him suitable for the roles; nor is it his tackling which, although still erratic at times, has advanced tenfold to ensure the defence is given adequate protection.

Like most of his contributions, it’s what can’t be fully quantified that is most noticeable.

Under both Kenny Dalglish and Mano Menezes, Lucas’ mentality is his most valuable asset. Responsibility has been placed upon his broadening shoulders; he’s been chosen as a vital entity in the rebuilding process of two of the greatest sporting institutions in the world.

As the mild-mannered 20-year-old who fumbled with his shorts against Toulouse, it would have seemed impossible. Now, as a 24-year-old, he plays with a swagger and confidence befitting of his importance in both teams.

That swagger derives from his performances this season. No longer is he regarded as a replacement for Alonso or Mascherano, but rather as a Brazilian international capable of performing against some of the best midfields in the world.

His style and mentality fits in with that of Kenny Dalglish – young, progressive and a paragon of pass and move

As impressive as his statistics read, it’s the way he helps dictate the team’s tempo that is so vital for Dalglish’s side. Like a conductor waving his baton, Lucas orchestrates his teammates majestically; he knows how to find space to receive the ball, and he knows where to pass it, helping launch attacks relentlessly.

And people are starting to realise it. His performance against Chelsea – and their midfield of Mikel, Essien and Lampard – gave him prominence.

For most, it came as no surprise; he’d been doing it consistently throughout the season, and has been doing so ever since.

He was doing it at the Stadium of Light two weeks ago, too. His performance against Sunderland may not have been the most eye-catching of his Liverpool career, but it was significant for one reason.

As Dirk Kuyt peeled away in celebration of scoring a penalty, he ran towards the sideline. But unlike Goodison Park three-and-a-half years previous, Lucas didn’t trot back to position unnoticed and unappreciated. Kuyt, Lucas and others celebrated the birth of Lucas’ first son, Pedro.

For that moment, the football world had its eyes on one man. It wasn’t Dirk Kuyt; it was Lucas Leiva – Brazilian international, new father and a vital component in Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool side.

Now he’s been entrusted by the club for the future, expect the smiling face of Lucas to confront ecstatic crowds and photographers for years to come.

He’ll never please every supporter and he knows that; but after four years at Anfield, being appreciated is worth just as much as his new deal.

#318 Okay, so Lucas deserves his new contract because he is mentally strong after being played more than 160 club games. Good job for being mentally strong and so now he can majestically orchestrate his teammates. Well done.

To endure what Lucas has in his first 4 years is amazing. His character is second to none, at such a young age to be thrust into a mainstream position is difficult. None the less he gives every thing every week. Alas though what makes him a nuts and bolt player compared to an adored one is his goal scoring ability.
.
Sadly that figure in his stats box is wanting. His assists, tackles, passes, etc are top draw Brazilian, the shooting is sadly almost Scotland.
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Once we get some wide midfielders I think you’ll see a more Brazilian style from Lucas, as Brazil always utilies the attacking width, and need outlets for their central midfield players. They tend to have some attack minded midfielders but defensive shufflers like Lucas who get there back players pushing forward.
.
Glad the guy got a contract, he’s earned it.

rome 77

good questions. be glad to answer them. i think you’ll find my position a bit more ambiguous.

zonal marking: actually loved this. playing as a defender for a while, all that argy bargy when a corner is taken, i always regarded as pointless manoeuvring, so i could entirely see the point of zonal.

wasting millions: not really, he bought some good talent

playing players out of position: par for the course in football

hatred for all things tomkins: no way jose, that bloke can write.

rotation: hmmm, this might be some thing coined by the media rather than initiated by the managers, but i believe that a fit squad is a healthy squad, so i guess i’m for it.

a rafa hater, me?

how can i hate the fella who brought us torres, smashed united and real in one week, sat crossed legged on the touch-line so that fans could see. i’ve listened to alot of valid debates about the guy that have made me see a lot of sense about benitez.

but i am obviously not a big fan either, rome 77. you could have cited:
playing harry kewell in the 2005 final. MISTAKE
Trying to swap beautiful Xabi Alonso for workaday Garry Barry. MISHANDLED
Having a go at Fergie when top of the table. MISJUDGED
Top of the list is man management. as warm-hearted as he was to the fans, there seemed to be little camaraderie with his players. ok when you’re winning, devastating when you are losing.

good manager? yes definately. great coach. no.

i am always surprised when i look at ryan babel, how after four years at liverpool, how this talented player left the same player he started. there seemed to be no improvement in his game whatsoever. this is an indictment over the entire coaching staff. good coaching set ups iron out faults in talented players.

look at the difference with solomon kaloo. a talented player who made a lot of mistakes, looked quite foolish on some occasions. not the same player now, is he? he’s scoring regularly for chelsea. thats improvement through coaching.

a manager manages systems, processes, people, strategies, outcomes, whatever business speak you like.
example:
reporter: what do you think of rafa’s strategy?
player: which one? there are so many.

a coach?
a life coach…guides you to a new way of thinking.
a swimming coach….shows you how to improve your stroke and breathing
a tennis coach will improve your serve
example: steven gerrard once commented, if he scored a hat-trick, when he came off the pitch, rafa would be telling him where he went wrong.
that to me is the sign of a manager, not a a coach.

so i’m not a fan, rome 77. i guess it must come from personal experience, but i don’t think i would have enjoyed being a player under someone like rafa, and i take into account all the positives.

i tell you what really makes me smile though; the pictures of kenny dalglish in training, the smiles, the chats he has with his players, his attitude to the press, his relaxed dismissal of fergie, andy grey and richard keys, his handling of uncle roy, andy carroll, torres, not a hair out of place, not a syllable uttered that i don’t agree with.

i guess thats why i feel luckier than most rafa lovers in here, because they still feel hard done by, like there’s unfinished business, whereas i’m a King Kenny supporter through and through and i feel like justice has been done. ah well, i suppose i’m still wrong.

satyromaniaman, do you know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?
BludRed, nice post, your last one. Can’t say I agree with everything you say, but then the world would be a boring place if everyone agreed all the time.
Just getting back to our previous ‘dicsussion’ re Carra. You say that Gillespie was no ball-player as a CB, but who played alongside him? Alan Hansen, probably the best ball-playing CB I’ve had the priveledge of seeing. So what I’m saying is that I don’t think there is place for 2 ‘hoofers’ (for lack of a better description) playing alongside each other at CB. We might as well watch Blackburn or the old Wimbledon.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what Carra has done for the club, he is a legend – hell, the Kop don’t make up a song for just anyone. But as Aitch says, he doesn’t deserve a starting place merely based on form! He is, imo, the 3rd best CB at Liverpool, and he isn’t gettting any younger (or faster). We need a replacement for next season. I really don’t want Carra starting for us next season. On the bench, yes, but not starting.
Anyways, can’t wait for todays game, can’t wait to see AC & Suarez up front for us. And I can’t wait to see Lucas as well

Regarding Lucas’ goal strikes being like ‘Scotland’ (not having a go at you gaz, just sparked a thought), I decided to have a look at some other decent LFC midfielders from recent times and what they achieved.

To try and draw something of a decent comparison, I took each of their first four seasons that they played for the mighty reds.

P = No. of games played in the season (all comps)
G = No. of goals scored in the season (all comps)

Stats are taken from LFC History website (great site)

Stevie G
=========
P – G
13 – 0
31 – 1
50 – 10
45 – 4
Averaged a goal every 9.26 games

Xabi
=====
P – G
32 – 3
53 – 5
51 – 4
27 – 2

Averaged a goal every 11.64 games

Mascher
========
P – G
11 – 0
41 – 1
38 – 0
48 – 1
Averaged a goal every 69 games

Scapegoat
==========
P – G
18 – 1
25 – 3
35 – 1
25 – 1
Averaged a goal every 20.6 games

Considering that he is in pretty decent company and that he has been primarily played in a defensive/holding position for the majority of the games (a position that he had to learn btw), this is not a bad return, IMHO. Also, I think that he will add this more and more to his game in the future, again IMHO.

Would be interested to hear what the kopblog massive think.

blud red, surely your argument is that Rafa was a great coach but a bad manager. No?

Regarding the Alonso ‘mishandling’. Nearly everyone seems to forget that he was mediocre, at best, for his 3rd and 4th season with us. Maybe it was this kick up the ass that propelled him to his magnificent last season with us?

As for the pictures of the lads smiling with KD. FFS, we had the same stuff about 2 days before the unnamed one left to Chel$ki. It’s all propaganda, although from the recent displays you can see that the lads are a lot happier.

Let’s hope we hammer the brummies today. I think it will be a close one with our RH playing his usual negative style, pushing for a goalless draw and then telling everyone how good he is.

lurgan/rafalution

fair play

anyway, i reckon the baggies game will be a cup final for them and us. a very tricky game. we will do very very well to come away with a result because they won’t want to give us the satisfaction. good luck reds

Blud red
After reading your last post which had some fair points i stumbled at your view on what a coach does and you list a tennis coach improving a serve.
Which will involve telling them what they do wrong and telling them what to do right and the same for swimming. its what coaching is right…
So why is it different for football you mention Rafa telling them what they do wrong and i know he tells them what they should be doing instead so surely he,s a coach.
Man management/motivator you may be right about that but not all players want a arm around the shoulder i wouldnt, its gay .
As for all this motivation sh*t we’re not Chelsea who need a motivator because their fans are sh*t.
Our players should play for the shirt and the fans
(whose job it is to motivate).
So when it comes down to it i’d rather have a Tactician as coach,than some egotistical prick like the self proclaimed Special(needs)One “motivating” me .
And i cant believe you had a problem with what got said in “The Facts” interview or what he said about Ferguscum and MUFA.
So if Harry Kewell playing in a game we won is the biggest mistake he made, i can live with that.
But if the best or worst things about the coach is what they say or do in interviews then its a pretty sad state of affairs.

YNWA

Just watched Leeds beat Forest 4-1
Gradel hit two row z shots in a row the crowd cheered and clapped him all the same. Minutes later he scores 2 great goals… hows that for motivation no coach involved just the fans.
On another note the Mancs have just had another “favour” from their flexible friends at the MUFA.

Blud red,

playing harry kewell in the 2005 final. MISTAKE
***
Harry Kewell when fit… is a hell of a player.. But we won the final… so whats your point?

Trying to swap beautiful Xabi Alonso for workaday Garry Barry. MISHANDLED
****
First, Gareth Barry was not meant to replace Alonso, but to play in the left ALONG Alonso.. Plus Alonso was crap anyway during his second and 3rd season.

Having a go at Fergie when top of the table. MISJUDGED
***
You have forgotten the fact that this rant…. directed the media’s attention away from Stevie’s court case.

Top of the list is man management. as warm-hearted as he was to the fans, there seemed to be little camaraderie with his players. ok when you’re winning, devastating when you are losing.
***
How would you know? you are not in the bootroom. Plus, these are multi mega millionaires that you are talking about.

Time to ditch the near permanently crocked Agger and Jono.£ 30 mill for the pair.

Add Aurelio and Kyrgiakos to the list.

that has ruined my weekend

sick as a parrot

liverpool have some rebuilding to be done

good luck kenny

Worst weekend of results across the premier league

Did’nt see the game but was half expecting the result they are fighting for their lives and we are starting from scratch really, 2011 is year dot for us now and there is a big rebuilding job to be done from the squad to the new stadium to building the business and i hate saying this but getting as much as we can from the commercial possibilities of the club. I Think we also now have to accept the mancs surpassing our league record and it only took them 111 years to do it! 3 more European cups and we’ll be off our perch for sure. somehow I dont think it will take us a century to get back on it though if the rebuilding is done correctly we could be in great shape by next season on the paying side with hopefully the ground issue sorted within 2-4 years. YNWA

Dreadful dreadful performance, its no use lifting to beat the Man U’s only to continue to lose to relegation fodder. I struggled to tell which side was managed by Hodgson.
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I also struggle to see any reason Carrol is worth more than Saurez, there is really no comparison.
.
Anyway looking forward to next week.

Gaz – to be fair – we lost 2 players (2 important players) very early on…that must have screwed things up big time…

GD – Thats only about his 2nd start – and the poxy ref clearly doesnt know the rules…Carroll was afforded no protection at all – that big lump from WB was allowed to kick and punch the shite out of him all game and as soon as he retaliated he got booked…

Anyway – that performance clearly confirmed that we currently have only about 7 players worthy of being regular 1st teamers :
Reina,
Johnson, Agger
Gerrard, Meirieles,
Carrol, Suarez.

The rest are either squad players or not up to it…

Lucas, Ngog, and Kuyt can stay as squad players. Maybe Maxi as well…but the rest are complete rubbish…

Its a shame we will probably not get Insua (sqaud) and Aquilani (1st team) back…

Oops…forgot Carragher and Skrtel…clearly not rubbish…probably should only be squad players though…

Realistically thats about right kiwi with stevie and carra getting on in age and with aggers injury problems and the fact that pepe will leave if we have no european football we are looking very very weak but thats for kenny, commoili and fsg to sort out in the summer, given 50mil to spend id say the first 11 will be strong but after that we will struggle so missing out in europe may well help our league campaign.
Kennys transfer record so far has been great but it will be very interesting to see what players we go for when clearly so many are needed and we dont have unlimited funds, i expect he’ll go for adam, james mccarthy and shane long as homegrown players with 4-5 big european signings and AA back to stay plus unfortunately a new keeper if pep does go id like us to go for lyons keeper he’s top drawer.

Kiwi, I know we lost to influential players early but Liverpool should still beat WB, afterall they haven’t even scored a goal against us in about 25 years.
.
Anyway some players were not at the races yesterday, 1 being Kuyt, I don’t think I’ve seen him play worse. Before anyone jumps down my throat calling me a Kuyt basher, I love the guy. Thats why my cat, who formally was known as Alonso, then became Torres, is now just know as pussy kuyt. He has a place of pride in my home but yesterday he was awful.
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It seems to me that depending on the mood of Kuyt he’s more influential on how the team goes, when he plays well we stun teams, when he’s off we struggle.

I am disappointed with Kenny’s management. It is true that it is not the team he wants BUT with his humorous approach he is not consistently getting the best from players he has.
With the desire for Liverpool Football Club to get back to the pinnacle it deserves I believe that Rafa needs to come back with his authoritic approach and methods.
I know I will get booed and worse but that is how I feel now.
Kenny has been brilliant but,in the interests of the team he should be NOT be made permanent manager.

Yesterday was frustrating as fuck… especially since both the Chavs and Spurs dropped 2 points… us dropping 3 points was utterly tragic.

For sure it wasn’t a great performance… but I don’t think it was anywhere near as poor as we have seen.
…and remember they beat us with the assistance of 2 penalties… so there’s that.

For my money… the ref determined this result in the first 10 minutes when he denied us 2 clear cut penalties, then proceeded to let the West Brom defense kick the fuck out of Andy Carrol for 90 minutes.
To reword a faved Gerry/Kopblog phrase… He got molested more than an alter boy at a priests convention.
And to add insult to injury, he then got booked …and… warned twice before half-time.
I reckon Andy wouldn’t have finished the game… but Kenny wasn’t left with that option.

Then of course, there were the 2 forced defensive substitutions in the first 30 minutes.
Replacing Agger and Johnson with Soto and Wislon, completely changed our shape…
… forcing us to defend 10 yards further back…
… and our approach with neither replacement being as effective going forward as the players they replaced.

So its no wonder really that the first half ended up a bit all over the place and with West Brom exerting more control.
Having said all that, we took control of the game in the 2nd half, and when we scored, it was looking like we would kick on and beat them 3-0 or 3-1.

There was no way the first one was a pen… in my opinion the ref was itching to give that decision. I suppose you could then say, well the defenders should have been more savvy… but Soto got the ball.
Okay, he got the man, but he got the ball first… clearly.
It was a very poor decision.

And that put them back in the game.
It also marked wher I think our real problem is… not in a lack of flair or grafters or whatever… but in a lack of belief and/or mental discipline.
You could see the shoulder’s drop.
There is a definite “here we go again” and “What do we have to do to get a break” thing running through this team.
Maybe its understandable after all the bullshit we’ve been through in the last 2 seasons?
I said it when we were mired in the quicksand” last season and I think its still true to a smaller extent this season.
Self-belief seems sorely lacking in far too many games… but remarkalby usually against the lesser teams, rather than the better ones.
I don’t know how we arrest that… but to me… THAT is what needs sorting this summer, before we go spending a penny!

The second pen, I don’t think you can argue too much…
… dreadful defensive mistake, on what was nothing more than a hopeful punt over the top…
…I don’t know what Pepe was arguing about really, he definitely threw his leg out and caught the lad…

And that was that.
But on the whole, we didn’t do enough to win it… and they did.

That’s my size 12 anyway!

Digressing a little bit from Liverpool. Sorry Gerry.

Yesterday was one of the most memorable moments in our life for all of us Indians. The Indian cricket team won the world cup and they manage to live upto the expectations of 1.2 Billion people.

We are a passionate country and the one passion that runs in all of us is cricket. I am lucky to have witnessed this. I was too young when we won for the first time in 1983. It has taken 28 years and many world cups have passed since then.

We have come close before: Reached the finals in 2003 but froze under the might of Australians. Been to semifinals in 1996 but let ourselves and the whole country down by the events that followed in the aftermath of that loss. Identified as favorites in 2007 but to be thrown out in the group stages.

However this time was different we were odds on favorites in the eyes of many but the world cup was hosted in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and no country has ever won the finals when it was the host [Sri Lanka in 1996 won the world cup but the final was hosted in Lahore]. We had a tough draw leading upto the finals: Had to beat Australians in the qfinals (previous 3 time winners), Pakistanis in the semis (in my humble view the biggest rivalry in the history of any sport) and finally the might of Sri Lankans (finalists in the previous world cup and who won the world cup in 1996 when the world cup was hosted in the subcontinent).

I am not sure how many would know that we have a player called Sachin Tendulkar. No words can describe his art. He is in his 22nd year of playing international cricket. Started at the age of 16 in Nov 1989 against the might of the Pakistani bowling attack (Wasim, Waqar, Imran) in their homeland supposedly the most fearsome attack then and managed to win the hearts of everyone. In a friendly match he blasted their premier leg spinner Abdul Qadir for 4 sixes in one over. He hasn’t looked back since then.

Even at the age of 38 his skills or his fitness hasn’t dropped. He scored the first international double hundred in the history of one day cricket just a year back against the South Africans (No 1 team at that point). In this world cup he has been the highest run scorer (for us) and missed the highest run scorer for the world cup by only a few runs. He has 99 international hundreds and the closest anyone comes is Ponting with 66 or 67 hundreds. He plays and runs like a 16 year old even now . This world cup was dedicated to him by all his teammates for the joy he has brought us all over the years. And he isn’t hanging up his boots yet, why should he?
He has been the epitome of how sportsmen should be they don’t make them anymore maybe Nadal / Federer? Humble, Dedicated, Fit, Grafter , Flair , Non controversial, Non partying, Respects people, Handles adulation, Not blinded by money, always spoken to as the top player for almost 22 years.

We have steadily climbed to the top and no one can deny us our moment. We are now the No 1 team both in test and one day cricket and could be the dominant force for many more years. There were many other exceptional cricketers like Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman who missed out but their efforts in taking us to the top has not gone unnoticed. Our current captain Dhoni has acknowledged the efforts.

A word for Dhoni he is most composed cricketer / person that you could ever see. He is courageous and talks with so much honesty that is hard to argue. He takes on challenges and brought himself up the order in the final when the situation was tense. He wanted to prove a point to himself not to anyone else since he had a lean world cup by his standards. My word what an innings he played in the final. A truly remarkable captain and who has united the Indian team (a country as diverse that you can ever see) following on from the great leadership of Ganguly.

Believe it or not we are coached by a South African (the chokers of cricket). Gary Kirsten a man who thoroughly understood the Indian psyche and how to get the best of us. Likes to be away from the spotlight but he was carried on the shoulders of the players in a victory lap that only 2 people got Tendulkar and himself.

In sporting sense there isn’t any other moment that beats this one. But our champions league victory in 2005 comes a close second

Sorry for writing such a long post. Hopefully it lifts our spirits, unites us all to lift our team to further glories.

Gaz – you are 100% correct…

Thinking about it…theres a reason the Canterbury Crusaders win all the time…they DO NOT accept mediocrity…which is sort of what I was doing…even with those enforced changes we should still have beaten WB…they are crap…their manager is crap…if we had wanted it enough we should have slaughtered them…

Some people on this blog are right. The time to stop accepting below average performances is past. As soon as you do that…the best you can achieve is below average. If we really want to get back to the top it is going to require total and complete committment and ruthlessness…anything less will only lead to less…

#322 Well Rafaluation, you obviously would know what the lowest form of wit is, so I hope you’ll forgive me for my lack of knowledge on those parts of the world. Too down to comment anything further.

I just had the chance to watch the Norwich game on TV, wow what a player Pecheco is, after watching him play I can’t understand how he isn’t getting a run in a stuttering season. He has an amazing passing game which ran the other team ragged.
.
Well worth a look when we’re playing Spearing.

Outplayed, outfought, outfoxed by Hodgson.Defence, shite as usual.Another mediocre side made to look like Barca.

Attempting to understand the shopping list of reasons WHY we are mediocre, is not the same thing as accepting mediocrity.

Some of you are manic…
If we win you go off the deep end declaring LFC to “be back”
If we lose, we’re shit and need a complete rebuild.

We played 70 minutes with a 4th choice left back, a 4th choice center back, a center back starting at right back, a 4th choice central-midfielder and a new striker who is not yet fit and was allowed by the ref to get the shit kicked out of him by two defenders for 90 minutes.

That’s not accepting defeat, its called recognizing and understanding the circumstances, coz only then can you work on what to do with those same players when Man City come to Anfield… on the back of a 5-0 win..

West Brom did not dominate us, nor “outplay us like Barca”
They utilized the same tactics Roy tried to implement in his disasterous and ill-advised tenure at LFC…
They got physical, sent long balls to a fast forward
…and it wasn’t particularly effective in the first 20 minutes…
… but enforced defensive changes changed our shape, mistakes were made and they got 2 penalties for their trouble.

I’ll go out on a limb here and say…. Agger stays on the field and they get neither of those penalties!

We certainly have big issues to address…
…I haven’t read a single post in here that would suggest otherwise…
…but losing your rag coz “we lost to West Brom” won’t help us deal with any of them…

Well Burgerbrain,
that’s cricket for you.

Worst performance was Martin “Homer” Atkinson he’s a f*cking disgrace he reminds me of a Sunday league coach reff’ing his own team.

The injuries certainly changed the game but one baffling decision for me, was bringing on Soto instead of Wilson.
Wilson could of replaced Johnson which meant leaving Agger where he was strongest.
But given the physical nature of the game Kenny probably thought Soto would add a bit of muscle.
Agger had his knee heavily strapped up before the game so a injury was always on the cards there, especially when he moved to the “cursed” LB position.
But having said all that i’ve got to hand it to Roy the decision he made certainly led to us losing so, take a bow Roy you earned it.

If you hadn’t of had the foresight to loan out our most reliable LB, you wouldnt of won.
Oh and thanks for loaning out Aquillani and replacing him with Poulsen, certainly helped take that creative edge out of our midfield.

Gaz #344
Dont worry about it we’ve got Cole

YNWA

Can’t/won’t say too much about the performance, other than that was probably the worst bit of officiating I’ve seen for a while.
Not only Atkinson, but the the linesman not flaffing for a blatant foul on Suarez just outside their penalty area (near the end of the game), and then flagging him for offside when he was past the defender & running onto their keeper. Those 2 decisions even had Hodge’s mate Trevor Francis bemused.
Pshevana: I don’t think India could have won the WC without Kirsten as the coach

sorry, got Timmy-litis. Should be ‘flagging’, nit flaffing.

Porto, p 25, w 23, D 2 , A 9.Better than Mourinho.Won their league already.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/News-and-Interviews/10-11/Im-loving-Liv-25389.php3

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/News-and-Interviews/10-11/It-was-easy-to-25405.php3
this 1′s for you satyr

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/Features/The-real-Lucas-25083.php3?plcl_autoplay=true

Ok just to clarify my position On Carra & Stevie G

No one should get in the team on reputation or past glories, it should be on form and ability only.

So based on who we have at the moment in our squad there is no doubt in my mind that Carra should be alongside Agger in defence if fit. Same goes for Stevie G.

Those who say he’s past it etc he shouldn’t be in the team, what’s the point? We have no one at the moment who is better.

If we get players in next season who are better than what we have be it Lucas/Kuyt/Carragher/Gerrard then great I would not hesitate in replacing them.

However, they are players who have done their best for the red shirt and should not be criticized just because age and injuries have taken their toll!

Tonight a lot of Inter supporters must be wondering why on earth their president got rid of Rafa.

Tonight a lot of Spurs fans will be wondering how Rafa beat Real 4-0 at home ¦ )

Rafalution – Just so you’re clear on my views regarding Rafa(The real Rafa).

I love Rafa Benitez simply put. I loved his honesty, I loved his integrity, I loved his love of the club, the fans and the city. I loved his philosphy on football, I loved his long term project. I also love the way he refused to lie down for anyone. I would definately not have got rid of Rafa and I would have loved it if he could have led us to the title.

but he’s gone. Someday he might return, I hope not in one way because that means King Kenny would have failed in his quest to put us back on top of our perch.

Regarding King Kenny – He’s done it all as player and Manager, in fact it’s hard to believe someone with his record gets so little credit from the media/British public etc. I love King Kenny as well and if he is backed by FSG (and it looks like they will) then I feel that King Kenny will get the job done. I love his style of play, I love his dismisal of the media and Fergie and anything or anyone who criticizes LFC. I am happy that someone who knows the Liverpool way is in charge.

LB – I don’t want to gloat but I did say what would happen to Spurs at the Bernabeu.

Kenny, I love the fact that (the real) Kenny is in charge. If Rafa was still in charge – who also knows The Liverpool Way, by the way – I would also love it.
I hope the King can get us back to the top – with the help of FSG – and that he, too, can be knighted like Fungus. But hey, Liverpool are a Scouse club – Shankly should have been knighted – so the chance that the King will be, is slim. Even if he does win the league a dozen times for us.

roma 77

rafa beinitez beat real by not being so ridiculously cavalier as spurs were. ok, the real team we played were not so well drilled as the current side under jose but spurs committed several cardinal sins.

1) defended appallingly, assou akotto is an awful defender, gallas had a nightmare and turner was marking the wrong man.

2) harry allowed himself to be charmed by jose, who publicly stated what a lovely team spurs were,soft-soaping them like a cheap car salesman, so harry thought, thats nice, we’ll go out and play lovely football. they got spanked. the only time you will beat jose big head is when he’s moaning like a bitch, that you’re a bunch of cheats and how life is unfair. thats when you know you have him on the ropes.

3) who spiked aerron lennons drink/food? their most influential winger gets ill minutes before the game? how did that happen?

4) never try to play english football in the bernabeu. the ref will not be on your side. better to spoil the whole game with a defensive display, keep it to a dull 0-0 that silences the crowd, take them back to white hart lane and play english football there instead.

Good news about Marveux fits the mould of what we need. Quick, young and cheap as a bonus.
Interesting reading through a few potential targets, all say that Liverpool would be there top choice.
Arda Turan – “I want to play in major leagues and my dream team is Liverpool F.C..” He also included his dream of play for Liverpool FC “As I always mention, Liverpool attracts me because of their tradition. In Europe, I am a Liverpool supporter, so if I go to play in Europe, I would like to play for them.”

Alexis Sanchez – according to wikipaedia “He is also a boyhood Liverpool fan. ”

Willian – “Every time I get the chance I watch Liverpool. They are a very important club and a lot of players would jump at the chance to play for them.

“I have watched players such as Luis Suarez and I have a lot of respect for them.

“Despite all their problems they have a great chance to get back to the top of English football again. I remember watching their midfielder Lucas doing an interview for Sport TV in Brazil and he was showing a camera crew around.

“He spoke so highly about Anfield and we saw that the facilities behind the scenes are fantastic.”

If we can get two of those three players + marveux…

26 Days and counting since the last bog?

…………..

Well I’ve been verey much in the “I don’t think we need a massive clearout” camp.
But basedon what Henry is quoted as saying today in the Echo, it looks like that is what just might happen.

Not entirely sure how I feel about that.
While it could certainly re-energize the club, and that is why you do it…
… a massive personnel change in one summer has some very real risks.

I guess it will make for a more interesting summer though and give us much to debate/argue.

Pshenava 341 – great (non-footie) post. Congrats and I hope the glorious party continues. It’s good to see loyalty and quality recognized.
Good for you.

Haven’t been around for a while – so need to catch up on the news and the “henry interview” etc.
One thing I thought about last night was Crouch, what a wally. Came out with all the bullsh*t after AC Milan and then goes himself sent off needlessly. Played like a virgin in a whorehouse – mind frying stupidity. He has cost Spurs the tie (they would have lost the game anyway I’d say.) Could have consequences for Spuds as they won’t make the CL next year. Big clown.
Find myself agreeing with Blud in that Jose played Harry both on and off the pitch.
Anyway they played appallingly and were coached in a similar vein. Case closed harry.

Aitch,

i’ve never really advocated a big spending spree, but fuck, looking at our lightweight squad and our list of injuries…i think we’re in trouble .

we’ve got some talented players, sure, but once we pick up a couple of injuries in key areas, we look weak, too weak for any title challenging side.

players still want to play for liverpool, but we have to keep ourselves an attractive proposition.

gerrard is out for a while, add glenda to that. dagger is too unreliable, out for the rest of the season.

i think this squad need serious investment.

and of course, we need to recall our loan players and bring forward the talent from the academy

Aitch I understand your reservations about a huge turnover of players all at once I share your concern.

Man City are a good example of what can happen if you put too many new players in the team in one season no matter how good they are.

But at the moment our team and squad are not fit for purpose,we are struggling to beat ordinary teams with our current squad and you can’t cite our recent victories over Man Utd and Chelsea as these were one off wins and are no indication of our current plight.

Obviously Kenny/Commoli and the Americans have discussed the state of the squad and team before his recent comments and are in agreement that the team is not good enough and needs major surgery.

There’s no point kidding ourselves any more or putting our heads in the sand.

Henry himself said when talking about the fans loyalty “Liverpool finished seventh last year missing out on the Champions League and I wondered at first how long they would put up with what was mediocre play”

Enough said

Just a quick comment lads
With man ushited looking good especially Rooney
I’m fucking cheesed off because the little wanker shouldn’t even be on the pitch because he should be serving a three match ban for elbowing James mc carthy
They always get their way and have done so for 20 years now and it’s starting to depress me.
Rafa’s rant was 100% true
Over and out

What does a clearout or overhaul mean?

5 players, 10, 15 or 20.
Lets take 5 which all of us with minor disagreements will agree to LB, LM, RM, CB, DM (or whatever like Alonso). This wishlist has been there since many seasons.

Do we believe that Commoli or Henry are suggesting there will be more than this? Please enlighten me.

Someone (Reds in Aus) shared the squad value and our current position is perhaps a reflection of the same.

We had Rafa punching about our weight for a long time until last season. This season if not for Hodgson and old owners I have no doubt that Kenny or Rafa would have done the same.

Yes I agree we will need squad depth and perhaps our reserves or smart cheap young buys would help us.

Any other approach would FSG be willing to risk?

Thanks dougle. We are still enjoying:)

Aitch,
that is certainly and seriously what is needed at Anfield now, a RE-ENERGIZING of the whole club.(362).
I am sick to death of reading, “why didn’t Kenny do this” or “why didn’t he play him in that role” “why didn’t he play young what’s his name”, and the answer to all of these is our squad is very very thin and nowhere near good enough to qualify for Europe whether it be C/L or the Europa cup.
And i’m with the lad’s who’re say buy him, him and him and those other two but not to play them straight away (man city), we still have a few veterans who can help to bed any new signings we make in the summer.
So for me i hope the new ERA for LFC starts in the summer of 2011.

Aussie, this article backs up your claims that a lot of top players want to play for the Reds…which is a no brainer to us.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/apr/06/damien-comolli-liverpool-buy-top-players?CMP=twt_gu

I watched a bit of CL last night. 2 months into next season, our former Spanish striker will be thinking to himslef “why the fuck did I leave Liverpool? I’m not getting goals, I’m not getting the ball, I play in a stadium with a plastic atmosphere, and I have to keep a constant eye on John Terry”. Well, good riddance.
Turan’s agent is also talking a bit. He wants Liverpool to show interest in his guy again. C’mon Comolli, do your thing.

What a massive fucken relief that Henry interview is. Thank. Fuck. He sees it as we see it. Like us he wants to win ‘championships’ and like us, he knows what needs to happen this Summer for that to happen. Make it so John.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6856742,00.html
what ya make of this lads

The Lebron James thing is just a bit of (hopefully) savvy marketing on FSG’s part. What they’ve done is buy his name as a way to market LFC to an American audience.
I dunno if it’ll work, coz I don’t know that a basketball audience is a footy audience.
It’s not greatly different to the weird “partnership” thing Scum did with the NY Giants.
The lad makes millions for anyone to use his name, so a couple of millions bucks worth of shares, in exchange for the opportunity to “put our name on his back” is probably a decent risk to take.
It shows they’re thinking outside the box a bit when it comes to “maximizing the club’s marketing potential”.

These articles about the summer and the squad, to some extent could be nothing more or less than saying what they know we want to hear, so it could be a good idea to be a little cautiously optimistic about the ideas.
Its no great secret that the majority of fans have serious reservations about our squad. (to varying degrees obviously.)
Even those who’d consider themselves big supporters of Rafa have reservations about the squad, (though its more from recognizing the inevitable fallout of an enforced sell-to-buy policy rather than the resurfacing idea that Rafa was a numpty.)

I still maintain there’s a fair bit of fallout from Purslow’s time, that has affected this season.
There’s no saying for sure where we’d be “if” …
…but I feel safe saying that if we had not fired Rafa, we’d be in a better place…
… or if we’d fired Rafa and hired Kenny instead of Roy, we’d be in a better place.
Those decisions affect us to this day.

We finished 7th in 09/10 because of an unprecedented injury list that included starters, their 2nd string replacements and in some positions, their 3rd place replacements.
We’re in 6th place now because of Roy’s tenure in the first 5 months, combined with an injury list that seems intent on challenging the 09/10 season for the record.

We can bemoan the points Kenny’s team has dropped since taking charge…
But its still far fewer points than Roy dropped…
… and 9 points from the first half of the season would have us in the top 4.
Things wouldn’t look quite so dark then, would they?

But we are where we are.
I see the merits in the idea of a “clearout” of sorts…
… I’m curious how you do that and “build the squad” though?
… unless you find a LOT of quality free signings.
Coz I don’t think FSG is gonna come up with more than 40-50 million… and realistically that only buys you the 2 “world class players” everyone is screaming for, maybe 3 if you can bargain well.

There are perhaps 5 players who are “obvious sales”.
The only player who’ll bring in “Torres-like” money is Pepe Reina… and none of us really wants to see that.
… but the rest… can those sales generate the necessary funds for more than 5 replacements?
… of a better quality??
If the answer is yes, then great… (and I’d say its no) …but that only improves the quality of the “team” not the “depth of the squad”.

Get past those initial 5 players and you are into players that could arguably “be kept as squad players”, or if you are going to sell them, really aren’t going to generate a great deal of income to finance “quality replacements.”

Thankfully Jay Spearing is in contract talks for a 3year extention… I think that’s a good idea. The lad is a 4th choice midfielder, he’ll be signing on wages that reflect that, and he’s a local lad who while some don’t rate him, I feel confident in saying “will improve”.

But he’s a perfect example… if we weren’t considering resigning him… how much would we get for him?
Certainly not enough to both replace him with equal qualify AND add a decent quality squad player.

The young lads are what the young lads are… a mixed bag of the unknown.
Martin Kelly comes in and does well.
Wilson looks “not up to this level”… yet.

But that’s the thing… “yet”.
We have some real “promising talent” among the youth…
… its mighty easy to ruin that by throwing them in the deep end, having them flounder in front of 40,000 fans, and a televised world, half of whom then can’t shut up about how crap they are on blogs from Bombay to Bristol.

Getting experience in a settled first team…
… is vastly different than…
Getting experience in an unsettled team that is relying on you.

In the first you have teammates to cover your mistakes and encourage you.
In the latter your mistakes are highlighted, perhaps even magnified, and you get bollocked by teammates.

A clearout might be necessary…
… it’s the fastest way to “wipe the memories and various lingering issues” of (by then) the last 24 months.
So like I said, it has its merits…
…but I reckon a clearout means we’d best just relax and enjoy the ride next season, coz I can’t see us competing for finals and a top 4 spot if it happens. (unless we get lucky and everyone just “gels” from the off, and others stumble like they did this season…. which could happen, but you can’t count on it… it’s the low percentage.)

And if we do have a “New Look Liverpool” next season…
… how long is it before many of them are deemed “not good enough”???
… once you start down that road, it’s a slippery slope lads.

Kopcolly: not much, exceptt maybe a bit more exposure for Liverpool FC?
Pshenava: good question. I reckon an ‘overhaul’ would lead to 8-ish players being sold. I generally hate seeing a squad being torn apart. But thinking long & hard about it, I reckon it has to be done. Nobody (except Shiteh & Chav fans) likes seeing half their starting lineup change when the season resumes – we’ve been in the fortunate position where we’ve never had to i.e. come in the bottom half of the league. But FSG have arrived with a certain philosophy & ‘game plan’. That is to nurture the talent within the club (read: investing in the Academy), buy young, up-and-coming players & lower the wage bill (read: offloading older players).
As I said, I think it has to be done. Luckily, we don’t just have a stupid Chairman & a football director or manager, who would sit down over several pints (Mike Ashley/Dennis Wise) and say “lets sell him, let’s buy him”. We have some shrewd guys at FSG (I believe). We also have Kenny AND Comolli. I can’t remember ever having a Director Of Football, but they say ’2 heads are better than 1′, or in this case: Werner, Henry, Ayres (?) Comolli and (hopefully) Dalglish – 5 heads are better than 1!!
My point being, between these guys, I am pretty confident that they will make the correct decisions. Decisions that will affect the club & the fans, but which will be given a lot of thought. FSG didn’t buy this club as a toy or a souvenier. They want success.
You can bet your bottom dollar that Comolli & Kenny have a list of targets as long as Schindlers List. It is up to them to convince Werner & Henry, who will put up some cash but at the same time, need to generate revenue from selling fringe players. Stating the obvious, I know, but long story short…I have faith in the wise heads that are now in control of Liverpool Football Club. We might have to wave goodbye to players like Maxi, Ngog & Spearing – personally would like to see all 3 stay at the club – but rebuilding needs to happen.
We obviously would keep:
Pepe (please stay!) / Kelly / Carra (squad) / Johnson / Gerrard (unless we are offered 50 mill / Meireles / Lucas / Kuyt (?) / Suarez / Carroll.
And as long as the incoming players learn to respect the city, the club, the fans and The Liverpool Way – just like Rafa made them do (well, we thought Torres got it).
Sorry I’ve rambled on here…just typing as I think, and had a long day with the wife & kids.
In a nutshell: sell everyone cept the mentioned, and buy Turan plus a few other quality players under the age of 26.
Oh, and bring back Insua & Aquilani!

…and don’t forget Ayala and Pacheco, we want them back also!

Don’t take this the wrong way Rafa, but…
Where does this “confidence” that “they will get it right” come from?

I would hope they would get it right.
I wouldn’t be picketing against them.
But I’m not so sure any of their actions so far indicate that they “will” get it right.
And after the last 5/6 years, no one should be given a free ride to do what they want, without analysis and oversight.

As I said, I think a complete overhaul has as much merit as it does not.
Overhauling the squad might be a good thing, but it could also lead to as many mistakes as it solves.
Just as taking a slower more methodical approach to improving the squad can also lead to as many mistakes as it might solve.

Looking at FSG objectively.
It took them 6 months to fire Christian Purslow… granted he was out on gardening leave for that period and it was likely down to contractual issues, but nevertheless, it still took them 6 months to make the move.

It took FSG 5 months to fire Roy Hodgson… I understood their hesitancy and was one of the voices reasoning on their behalf during that time, but again, it still took 5 months to drop the hammer we all knew was inevitable.

FSG overpaid grossly for Andy Carroll. Sure he was English, sure it was January, sure Newcy didn’t want to let him go, sure it was all last minute… but they still grossly overpaid for the lad. And okay they got the money to do so, but my concern is that part of that, even if only a small part, was to placate us over the departure of an (at the time) beloved Kop icon… it certainly worked out in the aftermath.

I think it was Gaz who suggested that we have yet to see any FSG “intent” in the market, since we essentially only spent what we brought in from Babel and Torres.
To some extent that’s true.
On one level trading Torres and Babel for Suarez and Carroll is good business, even if it was to the tune of 50odd million.
But the flip side is that if they’d done it for 40, we’d have had 10 to throw at Aston Villa for Ashley Young… we may still… but the point is, its gonna have to come from somewhere else.

FSG spent 6 months looking for a new managing director… eventually appointing Ian Ayre.
Now I’m not suggesting that wasn’t a good decision… and I understand the idea of checking to see if there is a better qualified candidate…. But still… Ayre was right there… did it really take you 6 months to determine his qualifications?
It’s the same question that applies to Kenny.
It took them 5 months to determine he was the right caretaker manager… and yet… in spite of Ayre making a statement categorically pointing to Kenny’s appointment as having immediate and positive impact on both the playing side and marketing side of the business…. we still wait to see if he will be the permanent appointee.

Like I said, don’t read any of this and go off on an “aitch is anti-FSG” rant/tangent.
I am categorically PRO-FSG based on their tenure to date.

But looking at their decisions so far, they’ve not exactly been decisive… so…
“positive they’ll get it right”?
Nah not so much…
I hope they do and I’ll give them my trust, but I’m hardly “positive they’ll get it right”
…and I don’t think any of you should be either.

You could argue they take there time before making decisions.

And the Carroll transfer must have been made on advice from Kenny/Commoli surely.

Personally I’m more concerned that they make the correct decisions not how long they take to make them.

Act in haste repent at leisure.

They would not have known who Andy Carroll was if they had Knocked over his pint.