Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2007/2008

redspider

gucci wrote: »

Man i feel sick today.
Ultimately chelsea overpowered us for large parts of the match in midfield. Mascherano was not his usual self, I think it was because chelsea were playing deep in midfield and he didnt know whether to play further up or sit and cover Hyypia, and i think he got caught in no mans land bit too often.
I was devastated when Yossi was hauled off. For 10mins before 'Nandos goal he was our best player, running from wing and inside always looking for the ball

Ah im just gonna leave it, going on a rant to explain where i thought we lost it is pointless as none of us, me included want to read it.

Well, sometimes its good to talk .... ;-)

Yes, I also spotted Mascherano far forward at times but ineffective. Liverpool's 4-2-3-1 with Alonso and Masch in defensive midfield positions was working well when in defensive mode, but when in attack mode, this leaves us with less potentcy going forward. Masch doesnt have attacking skills alas, and Alonso prefers to stay deep and do his passing from there. I wish it were otherwise that Alonso was a box-to-box player as he has good technique and should be able to get off shots when in and around the edge of the box and their final third. But he is seldom there.

Yes, I agree that Benayoun was reasonably effective, the goal was his best foray, and that bringing on Pennant was a zero-effect substitution in my mind, although arguably Pennant had better capability at going wide and potentially getting crosses in. However, its not as if we had a heading target to aim for and getting past his old team-mate, Ashely Cole, was never going to be an easy task. As it proved, it didnt come off.

Redspider

LuckyLloyd

kida wrote: »

The thread is called "Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2007/2008".It is for everyone to discuss Liverpool.

As often pointed out, there is a difference between Liverpool fans or Utd fans discussing Liverpool; and Utd fans / other fans using the subject to troll Liverpool fans. I'm going to stop trolling Utd fans over Ronaldo or whatever going forward and I'm simply going to stick what I perceive as posters who are trying to troll us on ignore going forward. Life is too short.

prendy

i was gutted last night but on reflection im not as bad.
Chelsea were bound to beat us at some stage in the CL. they are a very strong team and hopefully go on to win it.

I thought gerrard was very poor last night. yossi also although that could be down to playing on the left.the Skyrtle injury ruined it for us. I think it forced Rafas hand a bit. Riise is NOT good enough anymore. He was brutal last night and although he was a good servant its time for him to leave. Agger will be a huge addition to the team next year.

Our need for quality wingers was highlighted last night yet again. it has been the problem the last few seasons and Rafa has to divert a lot of his budget towards there.

kida

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

As often pointed out, there is a difference between Liverpool fans or Utd fans discussing Liverpool; and Utd fans / other fans using the subject to troll Liverpool fans. I'm going to stop trolling Utd fans over Ronaldo or whatever going forward and I'm simply going to stick what I perceive as posters who are trying to troll us on ignore going forward. Life is too short.

this is what you said though - you basically said Utd fans are not allowed discuss Liverpool
"fair enough have your say in the match thread but it seems this thread has become somewhere for united fans to talk down liverpool, to tell us what we need and what is wrong with our team"

astrofool

So, on reflection, what went wrong for Liverpool this season? In every measurable way, a decline on the trophyless season before.

Was resting players earlier in the season in a bid to win the CL, or be fresh for the run in the downfall? If so, it should be obvious early into the next season whether Rafa (if he's still there), has learned from this.

Was the CL run just papering over the cracks, going out early to a lower league team in the FA cup, putting out a weakened team in the Carling cup. Will Liverpool fans accept another season the same as this? (competing in a cup, but being inept in the league).

Has the ease of getting into the top 4, and get a CL place, the past few years removed the killer instinct needed from the players to maintain a league challenge?

Mr Alan

astrofool wrote: »

In every measurable way, a decline on the trophyless season before

Are we not considerably closer to the league leaders than we were last year?

Did we not have another excellent run in the CL beating Arsenal and Inter Milan in the process?

I view this season as an improvement on last year and with the spine of the team getting stronger with the addition of one of the worlds top strikers.

Sherifu

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

As often pointed out, there is a difference between Liverpool fans or Utd fans discussing Liverpool; and Utd fans / other fans using the subject to troll Liverpool fans. I'm going to stop trolling Utd fans over Ronaldo or whatever going forward and I'm simply going to stick what I perceive as posters who are trying to troll us on ignore going forward. Life is too short.

I did say last night;

Sherifu wrote: »

Don't feed Mr.Nice Guy.

It is best to ignore. I see someone got banned. That's all MNG wanted tbh.

mike65

Dunno how you make that out astrofool, the gap between Liverpool and whoever wins the Prem will have been halved if Pool win the last two games. We signed proper players this season like Torres, Skrtel and Babel the youth set up in now starting to yield results.

The title was never very likely this season, the pre-season hype was mainly paper talk. I reckoned 2nd was the best we could reasonably expect. The failure came from Dec 29th to early Feb with that horrid run of poorly played draws - the formation was wrong and the wind fell out of the sails. Rafa at least saw what needed to be done with the change to 4-2-3-1 but it was too late by then. Had those draws against Man City/Wigan/Boro/Villa been wins the team would now be 8 points better off. On 78 points, Utd and Chelsea have 81. We also blew 6 points against Reading away (Rafa at his pre-CL match worst) and West Ham at home in that bad period.

We're not as far away as it looks.

Mike.

redspider

According to Forbes, which values the top clubs annually, Liverpool are valued at 1.05 billion US Dollars (about 500m ukp)

This is good news for Hicks, maybe reasonalbe news for Gillet, but perhaps bad news for DIC. However, the value of clubs is really only what people are willing to pay for them. Moores and the other owners at that time it would seem sold for for less than what Forbes valued them as.

500m though is an amount that I think both G&H would accept, as it would net them a tidy profit.

Liverpool also rank quite well, 4th in the world isnt bad, and interestingly ahead of Chelsea!

The rest of the table is like this:

1 Manchester United 1.800m USD
2 Real Madrid 1.285m USD
3 Arsenal 1.200m USD
4 Liverpool 1.050m USD
5 Bayern Munich 917m USD
6 AC Milan 798m
7 Barcelona 784m USD
8 Chelsea 764m USD
9 Juventus 510m USD
10 Schalke 470m USD
11 AS Roma 434m USD
12 Tottenham Hotspur 414m USD
13 Olympique Lyonnais 408m USD
14 Inter Milan 403m USD
15 Borussia Dortmund 323m USD
16 Newcastle United 300m USD
17 Hamburg SV 293m USD
18 Werder Bremen 262m USD
19 Valencia 254m USD
20 Celtic 227m USD
21 Everton 197m USD
22 West Ham United 195m USD
23 Manchester City 191m USD
24 Aston Villa 190m USD
25 Olympique Marseille 187m USD

Mr Alan

Mike, i'm impressed, didnt think ya had it in ya!

there is life in the old dog yet,lol

astrofool

Mr Alan wrote: »

Are we not considerably closer to the league leaders than we were last year?

When the other teams were under pressure to win to stay in the race, Liverpool didn't, when Liverpool did have to win to stay in the race, they weren't able to.

Mr Alan wrote: »

Did we not have another excellent run in the CL beating Arsenal and Inter Milan in the process?

Again, on the back of being able to rest players and not compete in the other cups. Both Inter and Arsenal were playing their strongest teams week in, week out, to win the league.

Mr Alan wrote: »

I view this season as an improvement on last year and with the spine of the team getting stronger with the addition of one of the worlds top strikers.

Then why are you fourth, not third, knocked out early in the FA cup, instead of the semi, and not in the final of the champions league, like last season?

Carraghers a year older, Finnan seems to be out of it, Hyppia will soon be doing laps against a tortoise, Pennants not good enough, Crouch seems to be hated by Rafa (his own signing ), Kewell is gone, Riise is a spent force. Liverpool's positives were signing a world class striker, and getting world class performances out of him, and getting Skrtel in to shore up the back line, and Mascherano adapting to the English league. Everything else has been a bust, both on the pitch results wise, and off the pitch, on the ownership issue.

To compare:

Utd have done worse than last season, but have added youth, and are still in the league race, and in the CL final, are an extra striker, and maybe a right back from a perfect on paper team.

Chelsea have improved, getting to the Carling cup final, still in the league race, and in the CL final, they will have plenty of cash to splash this summer as well.

Arsenal are once again competitive, being favourites for the league much of the season, and able to at least compete on all fronts. Need to add some experience, or hope the current players mature over the summer break, Wenger has them playing beautiful, and usually effective football, if they can curtail the blips, they might be unstoppable.

I find it hard to see what Liverpool can do to even improve on this trophyless season going in to next year, all they can seem to hold out for is a feck load of luck to go their way.

Mr Alan

Astrofool, how foolish of me, i forgot some people are just, the glass is half empty types!

Simple fact is, that up until the Fulham game, the pressure was still very much on us to continue to get results in the PL as Everton were breathing down our necks for 4th place-if anything the pressure was worse as we are deemed favourites to win that race which is never our strongest point.

We havent really rotated in the league at all, in fact both Wenger and Ferguson have been doing it more than us, so thats not an excuse for another strong performance in the CL.

I'll tell you wat we can do to improve it. As opposed to hanging out for a load of luck (are you for real with that, or just say that to piss people off?)

Couple of new signings and Win three games next year they didnt this year.

Laughing all the way.

As has been said, its a fine line.

mike65

Half empty then? The ownership issue had NO bearing on the play and that will be done and dusted in the next few weeks I think (DIC have been holding off until the season was over which it is now in all but name), Riise is gone, Kewell is gone, The defensive fralities have been exposed but sh-i-t happens Agger was injured and Skrtel bought in, they will be the primary CB pairing by mid-season.

I don't belive Arsenal are anything like as good as they think they are - pretty yes but a bit of a paper tiger. If Rafa gets the transfer targets and sticks with a set first team squad of 16 there will be few rubbish draws and the gap will be closed.

Stat Alert - Liverpool have lost 4 games this season, so have Man Utd. We've drawn 13 so far they've drawn 6. Thats the difference.

Mike.

PHB

People shouldn't read too much into the points difference being 10 points towards the end of the season. Liverpool might only finish 7 points away from Liverpool, but they are a good distance further away from a title challenge than that.

Two new wingers is the minimum needed imo. The defence then needs to be looked at. Then the Alonso situation needs to really be considered. Then you have to deal with the fact that without Torres you're a shadow of yourselves.

No point in comparing Liverpools squad to Uniteds or Chelseas currently, you have to compare them to United and Chelseas next year after their summer spending.

In order for Liverpool to catch up with United and Cheslea they need to spend better than them every summer, finding bargins which turn out to be absolute gems, and spending money on great players when you need to (Torres) who turn out to be absolute gems aswell. That's what overturning a lead is all about. Otherwise every year will just be moving to the same levels again.

zing

PHB wrote: »

Liverpool might only finish 7 points away from Liverpool

Now that'd be some achievement

Cyrus

PHB wrote: »

People shouldn't read too much into the points difference being 10 points towards the end of the season. Liverpool might only finish 7 points away from Liverpool, but they are a good distance further away from a title challenge than that.

Two new wingers is the minimum needed imo. The defence then needs to be looked at. Then the Alonso situation needs to really be considered. Then you have to deal with the fact that without Torres you're a shadow of yourselves.

No point in comparing Liverpools squad to Uniteds or Chelseas currently, you have to compare them to United and Chelseas next year after their summer spending.

In order for Liverpool to catch up with United and Cheslea they need to spend better than them every summer, finding bargins which turn out to be absolute gems, and spending money on great players when you need to (Torres) who turn out to be absolute gems aswell. That's what overturning a lead is all about. Otherwise every year will just be moving to the same levels again.

phb for a guy so obsessed with stats etc i cant believe what ive read, 7 points is 7 points, as in, if liverpool had 8 more they would have won the league

joe123

Liverpool have improved this season.

First of all if you look at the league were closer than ever behind the top 3....and we only lost 3 games all season.

The squad is looking alot stronger this year too. Mascherano and Torres are now there with gerrard and carragher in the spine of the team. We had no agger all season, Alonso was dogged by injury(though I can see him leave)


Next season will be a big year for Babel and Lucas.Two players with alot of potential. Skrtel looks a good buy.

Yes we may have ended the season trophyless and in no final but the general improvement is within the squad. With a couple of good buys (bentley and a good rb/lb and hopefully a striker) we can challenge next year.

PHB

Well actually they'd need 12, since they are 11 behind United and Chelsea.

It's all about how you got those. Earlier in the season, when you were actually in the title race, you we're doing ok initially (first 4 games), but then the pressure got to you and eventually you strated to drop off and were eventually out of the title race by Christmas-Feburary. Then once the pressure was off, you started winning again. Even if Liverpool add the players to still be in it seriously by Christmas, they've still got nobody in the squad at all who has the experience of dealing with the pressures of actually fighting for the league throughout the year, and whenever they have had those pressures, they've crumbled.

Just look at Arsenal this year. They might be only 7 points ahead of you, but their league season has been massively better than yours. They eventually crumbled under the pressure in a 5 game spell where they got 5 draws (which wasn't helped by injuries), but they probably have learnt an awful lot about themselves and are going to really improve next year. Next year there's no doubt in most peoples minds that they will be in the league race until at least crunch time in March.

If Liverpool add say 2 quality wingers and a LB, probably the most pressing things, they could certainly challenge. However, they will be extremely susecptible to injuries ruining their season and everyone one of their first 11 performing (including the mis-firing Alonso). In order to get past that, they need to catch up with the levels that United and Chelsea are at, they need imo 6 new players.
United had weak areas of the squad this year, and to a large extent, we got lucky. A long term injury to Rooney imo would have ended our league challenge. That is going to be addressed this summer though. Arsenal were unlucky. They got hit badly where they didn't have enough cover, up front and RB.
Liverpool with three signings can get to the level Arsenal were at this season imo. They need more to get above that level, or else they need a lot of things to go there way.

ShiverinEskimo

+1 PHB

Arsenal will be a good bet for next year's title. They were so close this year they could smell it and then two losses to Chelsea and Us when they were in front in both matches really knocked them. Expect them to tidy up next season and build on an excellent season that has been wrecked with Injuries including one horrific leg break that seemed to affect results soon after.

Edit - But this is the pool thread so who cares. Sorry.

monkey9

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

+1 PHB

Arsenal will be a good bet for next year's title. They were so close this year they could smell it and then two losses to Chelsea and Us when they were in front in both matches really knocked them. Expect them to tidy up next season and build on an excellent season that has been wrecked with Injuries including one horrific leg break that seemed to affect results soon after.

Edit - But this is the pool thread so who cares. Sorry.

Apology accepted

Tusky

How good was Benayouns run for the Torres goal ? Amazing. Babels goal was great too. Its amazing how powerful his shots are. They seem to come from nowhere as well. Would like to see him given a run up front.

Massively disappointed obviously. Have no interest in a Chelsea v Manchester Utd final. Either winning is a kick in a shin.

RE*AC*TOR

Tusky wrote: »

Babels goal was great too. Its amazing how powerful his shots are. They seem to come from nowhere as well. Would like to see him given a run up front.

Agree with this. Think he is poorly utilised on the left. Like to see him and Torres play up front together.

Mr Alan

Can please just dispell this myth that only when the pressure has been off Liverpool we've been getting results in the league?

Up until Christmas we were fine, it was the run of games from then on when our wheels fell off, since then we've been fine again.

Not because the pressure has been off, in fact, the pressure has been firmly on with Everton clipping at our heals constantly and for a time, the players playing to keep Rafa in a job.

A couple of new signings, Aggers return and Torres/Lucas/Babel having a little more experience of the PL, may make all the difference.

RE*AC*TOR

Mr Alan wrote: »

Can please just dispell this myth that only when the pressure has been off Liverpool we've been getting results in the league?

Up until Christmas we were fine, it was the run of games from then on when our wheels fell off, since then we've been fine again.

Not because the pressure has been off, in fact, the pressure has been firmly on with Everton clipping at our heals constantly and for a time, the players playing to keep Rafa in a job.

A couple of new signings, Aggers return and Torres/Lucas/Babel having a little more experience of the PL, may make all the difference.

Don't let a minor thing like facts get in the way of a good arguement.

Cyrus

PHB wrote: »

Well actually they'd need 12, since they are 11 behind United and Chelsea.

It's all about how you got those. Earlier in the season, when you were actually in the title race, you we're doing ok initially (first 4 games), but then the pressure got to you and eventually you strated to drop off and were eventually out of the title race by Christmas-Feburary. Then once the pressure was off, you started winning again. Even if Liverpool add the players to still be in it seriously by Christmas, they've still got nobody in the squad at all who has the experience of dealing with the pressures of actually fighting for the league throughout the year, and whenever they have had those pressures, they've crumbled.

Just look at Arsenal this year. They might be only 7 points ahead of you, but their league season has been massively better than yours. They eventually crumbled under the pressure in a 5 game spell where they got 5 draws (which wasn't helped by injuries), but they probably have learnt an awful lot about themselves and are going to really improve next year. Next year there's no doubt in most peoples minds that they will be in the league race until at least crunch time in March.

If Liverpool add say 2 quality wingers and a LB, probably the most pressing things, they could certainly challenge. However, they will be extremely susecptible to injuries ruining their season and everyone one of their first 11 performing (including the mis-firing Alonso). In order to get past that, they need to catch up with the levels that United and Chelsea are at, they need imo 6 new players.
United had weak areas of the squad this year, and to a large extent, we got lucky. A long term injury to Rooney imo would have ended our league challenge. That is going to be addressed this summer though. Arsenal were unlucky. They got hit badly where they didn't have enough cover, up front and RB.
Liverpool with three signings can get to the level Arsenal were at this season imo. They need more to get above that level, or else they need a lot of things to go there way.

same post different day, can you not do these once, nobody agrees with you except the other united fans who post in here so frequently, is the man united thread very quiet or what?

and i said 8 because you used the example of 7!

Mr Alan

RE*AC*TOR wrote: »

Don't let a minor thing like facts get in the way of a good arguement.

Facts like........

RE*AC*TOR

Cyrus wrote: »

same post different day, can you not do these once,

Good idea - could be stickied on the main page.

RE*AC*TOR

Mr Alan wrote: »

Facts like........

Facts like the things you said in your post.

Cyrus

kida wrote: »

this is what you said though - you basically said Utd fans are not allowed discuss Liverpool
"fair enough have your say in the match thread but it seems this thread has become somewhere for united fans to talk down liverpool, to tell us what we need and what is wrong with our team"

i didnt say that, but while we are on the subject why do ye feel the need to preach about liverpool so much, where we have gone wrong, what we need, how it doesnt matter how many points we get because we never challenged for the league??

is the united thread that boring, ye must have loads to talk about, gary 'busybody' nevilles attempts to grow a knack tache, ronaldo being better than maradonna that kind of stuff

monkey9

Mr Alan wrote: »

Facts like........

I could be wrong, but i think he was agreeing with you

RE*AC*TOR

monkey9 wrote: »

I could be wrong, but i think he was agreeing with you

Yep.

monkey9

I love Liverpool F.C

RE*AC*TOR

monkey9 wrote: »

I love Liverpool F.C

I want to make love to Liverpool FC, and have its babies.

Mr Alan

sorry about that Reactor

RE*AC*TOR

Mr Alan wrote: »

sorry about that Reactor

ain't no thang






(i feel dirty for saying that)

PHB

Mr Alan wrote: »

Can please just dispell this myth that only when the pressure has been off Liverpool we've been getting results in the league?

Up until Christmas we were fine, it was the run of games from then on when our wheels fell off, since then we've been fine again.

Not because the pressure has been off, in fact, the pressure has been firmly on with Everton clipping at our heals constantly and for a time, the players playing to keep Rafa in a job.

A couple of new signings, Aggers return and Torres/Lucas/Babel having a little more experience of the PL, may make all the difference.

Sat. 11 Final Aston Villa 1 - 2 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 19 Final Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea - Draw
Sat. 25 Final Sunderland 0 - 2 Liverpool - Win
Sat. 1 Final Liverpool 6 - 0 Derby - Win
Sat. 15 Final Portsmouth 0 - 0 Liverpool - Draw
Sat. 22 Final Liverpool 0 - 0 Birmingham - Draw
Sat. 29 Final Wigan 0 - 1 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 7 Final Liverpool 2 - 2 Tottenham - Draw
Sat. 20 Final Everton 1 - 2 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 28 Final Liverpool 1 - 1 Arsenal - Draw
Sat. 3 Final Blackburn 0 - 0 Liverpool - Draw
Sat. 10 Final Liverpool 2 - 0 Fulham - Win
Sat. 24 Final Newcastle 0 - 3 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 2 Final Liverpool 4 - 0 Bolton - Win
Sat. 8 Final Reading 3 - 1 Liverpool - Loss
Sun. 16 Final Liverpool 0 - 1 Man Utd - Loss
Sat. 22 Final Liverpool 4 - 1 Portsmouth - Win
Wed. 26 Final Derby 1 - 2 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 30 Final Man City 0 - 0 Liverpool - Draw

11 wins, 7 draws, 2 losses, 40 points.

Arsenal had opened up a 6 point lead on you with 46 points.
United had caught up with you after a disasterious start and were on 45 points.

Then the league was a dream, and you went into a worse slump. Drew against Wigan Boro and Villa when you knew you absolutey had to win if you wanted to have any hope of staying in the title, but you couldn't hack the pressure and dropped off.

Then you were like, oh ****, we need to come 4th, so you picked it up and just decided to perform better than Everton and Villa. Beating Inter boosted Liverpool in this regard.

The pressure of beating Everton is nothing compared to the pressure of winning the league.

Cyrus

PHB wrote: »

Sat. 11 Final Aston Villa 1 - 2 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 19 Final Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea - Draw
Sat. 25 Final Sunderland 0 - 2 Liverpool - Win
Sat. 1 Final Liverpool 6 - 0 Derby - Win
Sat. 15 Final Portsmouth 0 - 0 Liverpool - Draw
Sat. 22 Final Liverpool 0 - 0 Birmingham - Draw
Sat. 29 Final Wigan 0 - 1 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 7 Final Liverpool 2 - 2 Tottenham - Draw
Sat. 20 Final Everton 1 - 2 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 28 Final Liverpool 1 - 1 Arsenal - Draw
Sat. 3 Final Blackburn 0 - 0 Liverpool - Draw
Sat. 10 Final Liverpool 2 - 0 Fulham - Win
Sat. 24 Final Newcastle 0 - 3 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 2 Final Liverpool 4 - 0 Bolton - Win
Sat. 8 Final Reading 3 - 1 Liverpool - Loss
Sun. 16 Final Liverpool 0 - 1 Man Utd - Loss
Sat. 22 Final Liverpool 4 - 1 Portsmouth - Win
Wed. 26 Final Derby 1 - 2 Liverpool - Win
Sun. 30 Final Man City 0 - 0 Liverpool - Draw

11 wins, 7 draws, 2 losses, 40 points.

Arsenal had opened up a 6 point lead on you with 46 points.
United had caught up with you after a disasterious start and were on 45 points.

Then the league was a dream, and you went into a worse slump. Drew against Wigan Boro and Villa when you knew you absolutey had to win if you wanted to have any hope of staying in the title, but you couldn't hack the pressure and dropped off.

Then you were like, oh ****, we need to come 4th, so you picked it up and just decided to perform better than Everton and Villa. Beating Inter boosted Liverpool in this regard.

The pressure of beating Everton is nothing compared to the pressure of winning the league.

i presume you copy and pasted this from one of your similarily informative posts 100 pages ago

NotWormBoy

He might have a point though. I say might, because at the time (like earlier in the season against Pompey and Birmingham), a lot of the draws that should've been wins in December/January were attributed to Rafa's rotation policy and fiddling with positions.

I don't think you can blame it entirely on either one of the rotation policy or caving under pressure, but I personally think it was a bit of both.

Mr Alan

PHB-you piss me off something serious. You say the same things over and over and over, no one in here wants to hear em again and again and again.

You are not a premier league manager, you are not a professional footballer, you are a mod on a soccer forum-Stop preaching about everything as if it is gospel. Its all you opinion which holds no more importance than Pigheads for crying out loud.

this season;

we dropped points to

Birmingham
Spurs
Blackburn
Reading
City
Wigan
Boro
Villa
Birmingham

and Portsmouth.

As well as the other top 4 teams.

with the exception of the top 4 teams, these are game we should have done better in. games we should have won with the team out on the field.

If we were to improve on 50% of those games, we'd be runaway league winners, if we were to improve on 10% we'd be in the title race, the gap is not wat you like to pretend.

The league must be very boring for you, you simply feel that the team with the strongest squad wins....this is not true. Nor has it ever been true of any sport.

Liverpool dont HAVE to get "2 new world class wingers, a new LB, new CM, new striker" to compete, they just have to ****ing play better! new players will help, but its not an exact science. Agger back,another yer under some players belts and a bit of stability could make all the difference, who knows?! i dont and you certainly dont.

Please stop repeating yourself every two weeks with the same spiell, tbh, you know the reaction it gets here and we're sick and tired of it, imo it borders on trolling and stinks of smugness.

RE*AC*TOR

Mr Alan wrote: »

Please stop repeating yourself every two weeks with the same spiell, tbh, you know the reaction it gets here and we're sick and tired of it, imo it borders on trolling and stinks of smugness.

I think tedious is the most accurate term.

Tusky

Arsenals squad is not even nearly as strong as Utds or Chelsea's and they almost won the title. Some new players would be nice but theres no reason why the squad we have now cant do better next year.

PHB

Mr Alan wrote: »

PHB-you piss me off something serious. You say the same things over and over and over, no one in here wants to hear em again and again and again.

You are not a premier league manager, you are not a professional footballer, you are a mod on a soccer forum-Stop preaching about everything as if it is gospel. Its all you opinion which holds no more importance than Pigheads for crying out loud.

Hey, this has nothing to do with me being a mod, I've been de-bunking Liverpool myths since long before I was a mod on the forum.

spockety

Mr Alan wrote: »

PHB-you piss me off something serious. You say the same things over and over and over, no one in here wants to hear em again and again and again.

He's starting to grate me as well, still suffer him though :rolleyes:

this season;
we dropped points to
Birmingham Spurs Blackburn Reading City Wigan Boro Villa Birmingham and Portsmouth.

So did United.

Liverpool have got 66 points from non top-4 opposition so far this season.
United have got 68, and they are on course to win the league.

The difference between Liverpool and United is not how well they fare against opposition from further down the table (because as the table shows, and it never lies, Liverpool and United can not really be separated in that regard), but how well they fare against opposition in the upper end of the table. United have 13 points against top 4 opposition, Liverpool have 4.

THAT is the difference. Get a good enough squad to beat the other 3 teams in the top 4 on a regular basis, and hello league title.

spockety

Tusky wrote: »

Arsenals squad is not even nearly as strong as Utds or Chelsea's and they almost won the title. Some new players would be nice but theres no reason why the squad we have now cant do better next year.

Arsenal have a similar problem to Liverpool, their squad is as strong as United's to compete with the rest of the league (actually their haul is better than United's, 71 points from non top 4 opposition), but against Liverpool, Chelsea, and United, they have only gained 6 points this season.

PHB

spockety wrote: »

Liverpool have got 66 points from non top-4 opposition so far this season.
United have got 68, and they are on course to win the league.

Now that's an interesting stat. Because last year the big difference I thought was that United beat the ****ter teams much reguarly and just got decentish results against the top 4.

Funny those this year the difference could well be goal difference, just emphasising how close it all really is.

But you gotta think that next year Chelsea will be much better because they won't be changing manager, United will be better because they won't lose or draw whenever Rooney doesn't play due to a new striker hopefully and Arsenal will be able to rotate Fabregas and have a bit more depth, Liverpool are likely to add more players, we could well see all the top 4 pushing towards and above 90!

spockety

PHB wrote: »

Now that's an interesting stat.

Yes it is, and I am going to roll it out every time some **** comes wading into this thread with "You have to beat your Wigans and your Portsmouths and your Birminghams to win the league and that is something Liverpool don't do and United do do, cos Liverpool are rubbish and Benitez is rubbish and he has spent one billion euro in the last week alone on player transfers, so there, screw you Liverpool fans".

copacetic

PHB wrote: »

Hey, this has nothing to do with me being a mod, I've been de-bunking Liverpool myths since long before I was a mod on the forum.

Oh, is that what you call it? I thought you were just talking the same complete rubbish over and over and over and trying to antagonise everyone. Good to know you think you are a 'Myth' buster.

Mental Mickey

Jesus.

Is it just me, or has this thread turned into one almighty bitchfest!!??? We lost the game, get over it. We just are not good enough. And unlike others, I don't think Rafa is the man to bring us the Premiership title......? Since he took over, we have not finished any closer to the big three. Houllier was the only manager to get anywhere close to winning the league, when we finished 2nd behind Arsenal. If Rafa fails to get closer to top spot next season, he should be shown the door.

Malice

Mental Mickey wrote: »

If Rafa fails to get closer to top spot next season, he should be shown the door.

Who would you bring in to replace him?

Mental Mickey

malice_ wrote: »

Who would you bring in to replace him?

Dunno?? Sir Alex Ferguson????


I'm joking. Maybe Frank Rijkaard????