Match Thread: Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool FC 01/11/08

Chong

ntlbell wrote: »

ok.

Watch these sentences very closey and read them slowly.

He has been terrible desicions every single year since he came to liverpool in the prem.

a manager can evolve but you asked me to show you mistakes this year.

and instead you pointed out mistakes he made TONIGHT.

Getting it so far?

you pointed out a bad descion TONIGHT.

is that a manger evolving or proving he is still going to make mistakes?

christ.

I cant quite understand why you are getting so excited tonight and posting about pool's ineptitude.

It confuses me, fcuk, pool lost nuff said.

But some folk here have crawled out of the woodwork to declare that this is the beginning of the end, the dream is over , the cracks are showing. Its all c0ck!!

Some people here creaming themselves over their loss.

I was happy for Man United tonight as a United fan but for this to stretch 300 posts with crap well its just plain sh!te.

Edit : Also happy for Harry , and to see him do well.

Chardee MacDennis

ntlbell wrote: »

this manager has proved time and time again he is clueless in the prem consntatly making terrible desicions constantly picking the wrong team consntalt making bad subs chosing the wrong formation.

last season benitez picked the wrong team 17 times, fergie 11 times, we've already closed that gap this season. jog on...

Melion

Can someone please explain to me how Rafa messed up tonight? He played our strongest XI, took off Keane who yet again showed absolutely fúck all. We dominated Spurs for 75-80 minutes, we were very unlucky today but that happens. I think its hilarious that because we've lost one game(Did Chelsea beat Spurs?) we are automatically out of the title race. But the same people saying that will still say Arsenal are in the race.

All season Rafa has made the right substitions at the right times, look at the Wigan game for the best example. The 4231 he played tonight is our best formation, anyone who doubts that needs to STFU.

Im fully expecting to absolutely hammer West Brom next week just to shut up all the fúcking idiots that will have their 15 minutes this week.

opr

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

I guess your argument has credence, but I would imagine he only starts for the Argies because he is the only player of that mould throughout the squad. Well him or Cambiasso, neither World class.

The main reason I don't think he is world class is that, on the ball, he is so bad. He is like a dog chasing a car, once he gets the ball, he has no idea what to do with it.

I think it would be more fair to say, he is a world class ball winner. Not a world class midfielder.

If you look at some of the past masters of that genre of player, Keane/Viera/Makelele they never lose the ball. There passing is above competent and they also look composed and assured on the ball. I think Masch lacks all those qualities.

I completly agree with everything in this post apart from your assumtions that hes not world class. What i am saying is i don't think we could have a better player doing what i think Mach does for us.

Its like a motor car each part does its job then the car runs well. If one of the parts fails it could mean the car doesn't work as well but thats not the other parts fault.

If you look at the amount of chances liverpool had it means Mach made sure we had enough of the ball to win this game. In doing this he did a fantastic job as a ball winner and giving it to our more creative players.

I think when you have the likes of Alonso and Gerrard in midfield Mach is the perfect foil for them and i think as a trio playing together they should be world class.

To say we have not made progress and are not better than last year is just pure madness. Since the millennium the team who have gained most points in matches involving the other top four clubs have won the Premier League six times in eight years. Its always here that liverpool have struggled but this has changed this season and given this stat if its the only thing thats changed i have a big chance of being a happy man come the end of the season

Opr

spockety

In all my time on boards soccer forum, I have never, ever, seen Man Utd supporters get as excited about a Man Utd victory as they do about a Liverpool loss. I really can't understand it, but each to their own I guess.

Man Utd winning, losing, or drawing brings out very little emotion in me, unless it's Liverpool they've just played.

At best you are all way off topic given that this is the match thread (have you said anything at all about the match itself, before you all creamed your pants?), at worst (and I suspect it's more the case) it's blatant trolling.

p.s. yes I appreciate the irony of my own post

p.p.s. Credit to Archimedes.

Dont be at yourself

Disappointed about this. It had to come sooner or later, and I'm relieved it didn't come against Portsmouth mid-week, as that could have really knocked the wind from our sails. A loss at the Lane to a resurgent Spurs side is unquestionably disappointing, but it's not the end of the world.

First day of November. Hopefully not a return of past mistakes. We'll hopefully have Torres back and raring to go at the weekend, and on paper, we have a run of very winnable games coming up. Lets see if we can pick ourselves up.

roryc

spockety wrote: »

In all my time on boards soccer forum, I have never, ever, seen Man Utd supporters get as excited about a Man Utd victory as they do about a Liverpool loss. I really can't understand it, but each to their own I guess.

Man Utd winning, losing, or drawing brings out very little emotion in me, unless it's Liverpool they've just played.

At best you are all way off topic given that this is the match thread (have you said anything at all about the match itself, before you all creamed your pants?), at worst (and I suspect it's more the case) it's blatant trolling.

p.s. yes I appreciate the irony of my own post

p.p.s. Credit to Archimedes.

and this week Liverpool lost AND united won! Its double the fun!

ntlbell

spockety wrote: »

In all my time on boards soccer forum, I have never, ever, seen Man Utd supporters get as excited about a Man Utd victory as they do about a Liverpool loss. I really can't understand it, but each to their own I guess.

Man Utd winning, losing, or drawing brings out very little emotion in me, unless it's Liverpool they've just played.

At best you are all way off topic given that this is the match thread (have you said anything at all about the match itself, before you all creamed your pants?), at worst (and I suspect it's more the case) it's blatant trolling.

p.s. yes I appreciate the irony of my own post

p.p.s. Credit to Archimedes.

I'll tell you what's hilarious

Liverpool beat chelsea

Liverpool fans falling of their chair to post how great they are and how good it feels to be x amount of points aheaf of united and slagging off united fans because of their league position.

Liverppol lose to spurs and liverpool fans come in to tell united fans how immature they are

the ironing is piled so high it's sickening

Melion

ntlbell wrote: »

I'll tell you what's hilarious

Liverpool beat chelsea

Liverpool fans falling of their chair to post how great they are and how good it feels to be x amount of points aheaf of united and slagging off united fans because of their league position.

Liverppol lose to spurs and liverpool fans come in to tell united fans how immature they are

the ironing is piled so high it's sickening

Any links to that?

spockety

ntlbell wrote: »

I'll tell you what's hilarious

Liverpool beat chelsea

Liverpool fans falling of their chair to post how great they are and how good it feels to be x amount of points aheaf of united and slagging off united fans because of their league position.

Liverppol lose to spurs and liverpool fans come in to tell united fans how immature they are

the ironing is piled so high it's sickening

Haha, Liverpool fans "come in" to this thread to talk to United fans? You do know where you are posting, right? This is the match thread for Spurs Vs Liverpool. The Man Utd vs Hull thread is also on this board......

Liverpool fans were of course delighted to both beat Chelsea, be top of the league, and be ahead of United (which is as a result of beating them at Anfield), what is wrong with that? I still haven't seen Liverpool fans say "this is our year" here, yet you're quoting it all over the place.

Liverpool have as much chance of winning the league now as they did before they lost to Spurs. We let in an own goal today and hit the wood work 4 times. These things happen, that's football, fair play to Spurs I hope their fans are feeling delighted now with the results they got against Arsenal and now us, hope it kick stars their season big style as they are a club that belong in the Premiership.

I just have to say I find it incredibly odd at the presence of United fans in Liverpool threads when things aren't going well. I mean for crying out loud, yourself and SantryRed have over 50 posts in this thread ALONE as #1 and #2 posters respectively. Are you... lost?

rosboy

I think I've missed something.

At 5.30, Liverpool were the top of the league table with the best ever start on any team to the premiership. We had beaten last years runners ups and winners, as well as 7 (or 6 maybe) of the other top ten teams in the league. We were grinding out results, playing some good passing football, and being lauded for having a fighting mentality.

90 min later, we are second in the league (behind on goal difference). We lost a match we dominated for 70 minutes until we scored an own goal. We hit the woodwork 3 or four times. We have no new major injury concerns (assuming Torres is almost back).

After 10 games, Liverpool supporters were told that they were getting carried away with themselves because they were saying they had a chance at winning the league this year. We were told that 10 games was only a quarter of the league. Nothing was won in October. Now after 11 games, these two things seem to be forgotten. Apparently losing your 11th game in November, shows you haven't got what it takes to win the league. Good thing for Chelsea fans they we beat them in October, on their 9th. Or for United fans that we beat them in September in their third game!

I'm a Liverpool fan. I don't know if we can win the league or not this year. I came into this season thinking that if we could close the gap with the leaders to 4-5 points at the seasons end it would be a great step forward. Instead, we have shown some good form over the last 11 games. There has been great progress from last year. We are still weaker in some positions than I would like though, and we can improve (as can United, Chelsea, and Arsenal). We can also play better, be more clinical, and kill teams better But remember that United conceeded three at home today to Hull, and Chelsea looked very second class when they went behind to us, a well organised team. Chelsea could only manage a draw with Spurs....in Stamford Bridge. Neither team is looking like a flawless team that will run away with the league.

So to all those writing of Liverpool's chance of winning the League, you may be right. We may not win. But you writing off our chances based on today's game is ______ (choose one from: naiive, innocent, short sighted, uninformed, poorly reasoned, emotionally motivated).

roryc

Jesus christ its a bit of banter lads... you realise that the only reason most of us post on here when theres an upset like this is to get a rise out of fans? Thanks for taking the bait

Guaranteed if Hull had gotten back to a draw (or win!) against United tonight it would have seen a similar amount of abuse in the United match thread...

Christ 'Pool have had their best start for years, beating United and Chelsea. Of course this should be their best year for a while, I don't think they have any chance of winning the title but put the toys back in the pram ffs

Theresalwaysone

opr wrote: »

I completly agree with everything in this post apart from your assumtions that hes not world class. What i am saying is i don't think we could have a better player doing what i think Mach does for us.

Its like a motor car each part does its job then the car runs well. If one of the parts fails it could mean the car doesn't work as well but thats not the other parts fault.

If you look at the amount of chances liverpool had it means Mach made sure we had enough of the ball to win this game. In doing this he did a fantastic job as a ball winner and giving it to our more creative players.

I think when you have the likes of Alonso and Gerrard in midfield Mach is the perfect foil for them and i think as a trio playing together they should be world class.

To say we have not made progress and are not better than last year is just pure madness. Since the millennium the team who have gained most points in matches involving the other top four clubs have won the Premier League six times in eight years. Its always here that liverpool have struggled but this has changed this season and given this stat if its the only thing thats changed i have a big chance of being a happy man come the end of the season

Opr

I dont think I ever said Liverpool hadn't made progress this season, I think it is clear to all that they have. Or, are, at the very least, running way hotter than they should be. I would guess its a combination of both.

They played United off the park from 25mins onwards. They were much much better than chelsea. I cant say they havent made progress because they have.

What I am saying is, imo, that progress still isnt enough. Benitez will make mistakes tactically, it will happen. Saying it wont is being naive. Your fullbacks are absolutely useless, Dossena, even if he does now start for Italy, is diabolical. Arbeloa is just as bad. Both going forward and coming back.

Your wingers are also very weak, Kuyt (while in a great vein of form) is not a winger, and certainly not a good enough one to help win the premiership. I can even remember who you have on the other side, I havent seen enough of Riera to comment but he does look decidedly average.

Your midfield is very strong depending on Formation. But Gerrard/Alonso and Masch are great together. And no matter what anyone says, Gerrard is world class. You have one real striker, and what a striker.

You are 4 or 5 players short of a great team.

Regarding Masch, I can't see for the life of me how you can rate him as world class. He is "half a player", good at one part of the game while woeful at other similarly important parts. If you cant pass/shoot/run with the ball whats the point in winning it? I understand your point about him laying it ogg to Xabi or Gerrard etc but a world class player wouldnt need t do this, and he does need to do it.

BTW, I am not getting excited over a liverpool loss at all, I thought they were desperately unlucky today and I have no argument if someone calls my analysis insane. It quite possibly is.

Chardee MacDennis

roryc wrote: »

Jesus christ its a bit of banter lads... you realise that the only reason most of us post on here when theres an upset like this is to get a rise out of fans? Thanks for taking the bait

so your admitting to being a troll?

Melion

roryc wrote: »

Jesus christ its a bit of banter lads... you realise that the only reason most of us post on here when theres an upset like this is to get a rise out of fans? Thanks for taking the bait

Jesus, how pathetic must your life be?

roryc

Your trying to start an argument on the internet and your asking me how pathetic my life must be

spockety

roryc wrote: »

Jesus christ its a bit of banter lads... you realise that the only reason most of us post on here when theres an upset like this is to get a rise out of fans? Thanks for taking the bait

Wow, an outright admission to trolling! There isn't even any need to report your post, it's in such plain sight. :eek:

Guaranteed if Hull had gotten back to a draw (or win!) against United tonight it would have seen a similar amount of abuse in the United match thread...

See, I don't actually think it would be anything like it.
And if you can show me that Liverpool fans on this board carry on like that in United centric threads, I will be very embarrassed for them, and very sorry for your troubles.

roryc

spockety wrote: »

Wow, an outright admission to trolling! There isn't even any need to report your post, it's in such plain sight. :eek:



See, I don't actually think it would be anything like it.
And if you can show me that Liverpool fans on this board carry on like that in United centric threads, I will be very embarrassed for them, and very sorry for your troubles.

trolling? ok maybe I shouldn't have spoken on behalf of other people by saying 'us' but point out one post where I am trolling pls... its a bit of banter ffs

Mr.Nice Guy

Every year it's the same thing. Liverpool start well - it must be their year. United start indifferently - the tide has turned and now Liverpool have overtaken them. History however shows that by around January it's a different story.

If Liverpool fans stopped thinking the title race was decided by October, other fans would be less likely to feel the need to hammer home the important point fact that the title race is decided after 38 games.

Liverpool fans remind me an awful lot of England fans. A few good results go their way and suddenly they're world beaters. Ultimately though they fail to build on these performances and soon the angry recriminations start.

Sack Benitez, sack the board, get rid of [insert scapegoat's name].

How about this instead - cool the celebrations until you have actually won the trophy, because folks the best predictor for future behaviour is past behaviour and the fact of the matter is, past behaviour shows that Liverpool have not been able to sustain a title challenge under Benitez.

So please some of you climb down from your high horses and quit the poor me routine because if you make boasts and end up with egg on your face, don't expect other fans to have much sympathy for you.

Edit: Also, when did banter become trolling by the way? FFS grow up.

pvt.joker

Can the Liverpool fans not just take their beating. They were very happy to gloat last week after beating Chelsea about how they were above the "mancs" in the table.
Says a lot about them really.

pvt.joker

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Every year it's the same thing. Liverpool start well - it must be their year. United start indifferently - the tide has turned and now Liverpool have overtaken them. History however shows that by around Janaury it's a different story.

If Liverpool fans stopped thinking the title race was decided by October, other fans would be less likely to feel the need to hammer home the important point fact that the title race is decided after 38 games.

Liverpool fans remind me an awful lot of England fans. A few good results go their way and suddenly they're world beaters. Ultimately though th fail to build on these performances and soon the angry recriminations start.

Sack Benitez, sack the board, get rid of [insert scapegoat's name].

How about this instead - cool the celebrations until you have actually won the trophy because folks the best predictor for future behaviour is past behaviour and the fact of the matter is, past behaviour shows that Liverpool have not been able to sustain a title challenge under Benitez.

So please some of you climb down from your high horses and quit the poor me routine because if you make boasts and end up with egg on your face, don't expect other fans to have much sympathy for you.

Excellent post. Sums it up perfectly.

Melion

roryc wrote: »

Your trying to start an argument on the internet and your asking me how pathetic my life must be

Sorry, where did i try to start an argument?

spockety

roryc wrote: »

trolling? ok maybe I shouldn't have spoken on behalf of other people by saying 'us' but point out one post where I am trolling pls... its a bit of banter ffs

Banter? Yis have basically wrecked the bloody thread, there is no hope of doing any sort of reasonable analysis of the match with fellow Liverpool fans and Spurs fans.

Like, if a Spurs fan wants to come in and lord it up, by all means totally understandable. But WTF are you doing in here? Your team played today and there is another thread discussing that match, as well as a United thread where you can discuss general stuff about your team.

Maybe I'm odd in not 'getting' it.

Melion

pvt.joker wrote: »

Can the Liverpoor fans not just take their beating. They were very happy to gloat last week after beating Chelsea about how they were above the "mancs" in the table.
Says a lot about them really.

Ive already asked ntlbell, can you link to a post like that?

Sherifu

You're such a bunch of bull ****ting united trollers tbh

Robocop was better than this.

p.s. I also think Archimedes post earlier was bang on.

ntlbell

Melion wrote: »

Ive already asked ntlbell, can you link to a post like that?

Go to the chelsea v liverpool thread it's on page 3

i'm not wading through 400 posts.

spockety

pvt.joker wrote: »

Can the Liverpoor fans not just take their beating. They were very happy to gloat last week after beating Chelsea about how they were above the "mancs" in the table.
Says a lot about them really.

What the hell are you talking about? What is the alternative to "taking [our] beating"? Are you suggesting that there are Liverpool fans on here who are actually denying that we lost to Spurs today?

As for last week, of course we were gloating, we had just beaten Chelsea, and were above the "Mancs" in the table (who as title holding Champions is a decent enough marker to peg your team against, no?).

ntlbell

spockety wrote: »

Banter? Yis have basically wrecked the bloody thread, there is no hope of doing any sort of reasonable analysis of the match with fellow Liverpool fans and Spurs fans.

Like, if a Spurs fan wants to come in and lord it up, by all means totally understandable. But WTF are you doing in here? Your team played today and there is another thread discussing that match, as well as a United thread where you can discuss general stuff about your team.

Maybe I'm odd in not 'getting' it.

these threads are not restricted to liverpool and spurs fans.

whats not to get?

pvt.joker

spockety wrote: »

What the hell are you talking about? What is the alternative to "taking [our] beating"? Are you suggesting that there are Liverpool fans on here who are actually denying that we lost to Spurs today?

No, they're not denying it. They're turning on genuine, salt of the earth United fans who are pointing out some home truths to them.
Namely-
a)the title is not won in october
b)its looking like the wheels are coming off the liverpoor bandwagon-again
c)your manager makes bizarre decisions

Melion

ntlbell wrote: »

Go to the chelsea v liverpool thread it's on page 3

i'm not wading through 400 posts.

Nothing there im afraid

spockety

ntlbell wrote: »

these threads are not restricted to liverpool and spurs fans.

whats not to get?

I'm not saying they are or should be restricted to Liverpool or Spurs fans, but given they are the ones with the most interest in the game you would expect a decent level of 'banter' between them.

If you have a lot to say about todays match (did you even watch it?) then I'm all for hearing your analysis as an outside observer.

You have all watched Liverpool fans getting excited over the last couple of months because we have been winning matches. You are confusing that with title talk. There has been no title talk, at least not around here. We want a title challenge. And we are getting one so far.

Mr.Nice Guy

spockety wrote: »

What the hell are you talking about? What is the alternative to "taking [our] beating"? Are you suggesting that there are Liverpool fans on here who are actually denying that we lost to Spurs today?

As for last week, of course we were gloating, we had just beaten Chelsea, and were above the "Mancs" in the table (who as title holding Champions is a decent enough marker to peg your team against, no?).

An alternative would be to take the gloating. If you are going to gloat about Liverpool victories (and I see you are happy to justify it from a Liverpool perspective) then don't complain when you end up on the receiving end from other fans after a defeat.

If you are going to dish it out be prepared to take it.

Melion

pvt.joker wrote: »

No, they're not denying it. They're turning on genuine, salt of the earth United fans who are pointing out some home truths to them.
Namely-
a)the title is not won in october
b)its looking like the wheels are coming off the liverpoor bandwagon-again
c)your manager makes bizarre decisions

a) Who has said we've already won the title?
b) One loss? Fúck, thats relegation form.
c) Such as?

spockety

pvt.joker wrote: »

No, they're not denying it. They're turning on genuine, salt of the earth United fans who are pointing out some home truths to them.
Namely-
a)the title is not won in october
b)its looking like the wheels are coming off the liverpoor bandwagon-again
c)your manager makes bizarre decisions

This is my last post here;

a) Please point me to the Liverpool fans saying they had won the league in October
b) One loss away to Spurs is wheels off a bandwagon, seriously?
c) That's why they pay him the big bucks.

ntlbell

Melion wrote: »

Nothing there im afraid

you didn't look very hard

here's just one for an example

Statso wrote:

Actually i'd say it was the head to head record against the other top 4 that has failed us in previous seasons. If Liverpool had beaten United in the two games last season they would have won the league ahead of Chelsea even with all the draws. the fact that we are turning those draws into wins this season and beating the other members of the big four for the first time surely bodes well for Liverpool. If you think they aren't in with a shout this season your blinded by United bias. Btw, how does it feel to be 8 points behind Liverpool in the league?

Peyton Manning

Im sorry but "salt of the earth United fans"?

I have never seen ntlbell post so enthusiastically about a United victory.

pvt.joker

spockety wrote: »

This is my last post here;

That's mature of you :rolleyes: God forbid you would enter into reasoned discussion.
Far better to throw barbed comments and sly digs at United fans when your team wins, and to not post when your team loses.

ntlbell

Archimedes wrote: »

Im sorry but "salt of the earth United fans"?

I have never seen ntlbell post so enthusiastically about a United victory.

?

nonsense.

Melion

ntlbell wrote: »

you didn't look very hard

here's just one for an example

Different settings means it wasnt on Page 3 for me.

Melion

pvt.joker wrote: »

That's mature of you :rolleyes: God forbid you would enter into reasoned discussion.
Far better to throw barbed comments and sly digs at United fans when your team wins, and to not post when your team loses.

A reasonable discussion with the kids that post here when Liverpool lose? How is that possible?

Surely its only a matter of time before Rafa's spending is mentioned. Its about €150billion now i think

ntlbell

Melion wrote: »

Different settings means it wasnt on Page 3 for me.

i meant the liverpool v chelsea thread was on page 3

Thanx 4 The Fish

Ladies, get ot back on track or there will be bannings.

Melion

ntlbell wrote: »

i meant the liverpool v chelsea thread was on page 3

Ah, sorry

opr

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

I dont think I ever said Liverpool hadn't made progress this season, I think it is clear to all that they have. Or, are, at the very least, running way hotter than they should be. I would guess its a combination of both.

They played United off the park from 25mins onwards. They were much much better than chelsea. I cant say they havent made progress because they have.

What I am saying is, imo, that progress still isnt enough. Benitez will make mistakes tactically, it will happen. Saying it wont is being naive. Your fullbacks are absolutely useless, Dossena, even if he does now start for Italy, is diabolical. Arbeloa is just as bad. Both going forward and coming back.

Your wingers are also very weak, Kuyt (while in a great vein of form) is not a winger, and certainly not a good enough one to help win the premiership. I can even remember who you have on the other side, I havent seen enough of Riera to comment but he does look decidedly average.

Your midfield is very strong depending on Formation. But Gerrard/Alonso and Masch are great together. And no matter what anyone says, Gerrard is world class. You have one real striker, and what a striker.

You are 4 or 5 players short of a great team.

Regarding Masch, I can't see for the life of me how you can rate him as world class. He is "half a player", good at one part of the game while woeful at other similarly important parts. If you cant pass/shoot/run with the ball whats the point in winning it? I understand your point about him laying it ogg to Xabi or Gerrard etc but a world class player wouldnt need t do this, and he does need to do it.

BTW, I am not getting excited over a liverpool loss at all, I thought they were desperately unlucky today and I have no argument if someone calls my analysis insane. It quite possibly is.

In fairness i think our EV was probably a bit lower than our actual points tally showed before todays game but i guess as in all things the gods evened that out today !

Again i don't have much argument with the rest of your post. The thing is i'll reserve judgement on Benitez making mistakes untill they happen. I think you said he made a mistake in europe during the week but for me that was a sign that its prem that matters this season. We should walk that CL group so who cares if we end up drawing it was the prem match that was important when he made the decision to withdraw players in europe.

For now progress is all i was looking for and i feel we have gotten that in spades. I am happy that we will be much closer but wether thats enough i don't know.

Thing is with a fit Torres and our midfield trio firing on all cylinders i think that gives us enough of a nuculous for me to at least believe its at least possible.

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing, and no good thing ever dies”

Opr

~Rebel~

disappointed with todays result, but not so much with the performance. Thought we actually played quite well tbh. Some very nice crisp quick passing which i'm really enjoying in every game this season. Been a long long time since we've passed as well as we are now. Spurs deserve a lot of credit for hanging in there and eeking out a result that, until the o.g, looked very unlikely.

I haven't read over this thread, but just on the last page i saw people talking about Rafa's crazy decisions, which i dont understand. I was happy with the starting 11, the only somewhat controversial decision was taking off Robbie for Babel, but tbh i thought this was the right move. Spurs were having to go for it, pushing further up the field leaving space behind which none of Riera, Kuyt or particularly Robbie (as furthest man forward) can take advantage of - all too slow. So he takes off the front man and brings on a lightning quick guy who can get behind the defence. As for why he'd replace robbie - well its the only position where he would be free to stay on the last shoulder as both Riera and Kuyt were needed helping the defence. The only thing that stopped this working the same way as it has many many times before is that Spurs got lucky with an o.g very shortly after Babel's introduction meaning Spurs could relax back to their initial shape and close up the space at the back. It makes perfect sense - sure hindsight is 20/20 but such is life, it wasn't a bad or even controversial decision. Personally id have put on El Zhar instead of Yossi, but meh, much of a muchness, and lets not forget that Yossi has a good history of scoring against Spurs, scoring in the last minute to stop them finishing 4th the year of the food poisoning.

Boggles

I have read a few post that Liverpool had a bad November last year.

PL
Blackburn A 0-0
Fulham H 2-0
Newcastle A 3-0

CL
Beskitas H 8-0
Porto H 4-1

4 wins and a draw, scoring 17 and conceding just 1. Plus they hammered Bolton 4-0 at the start of Decemeber and were in an excellent position in the league, That all looks pretty good to me, although for some Reason Martin O'Neill got manager of the Month, Rafa not getting it since Jan 2007. :eek:

LuckyLloyd

pvt.joker wrote: »

Can the Liverpool fans not just take their beating.

pvt.joker wrote: »

That's mature of you :rolleyes: God forbid you would enter into reasoned discussion.

Awesome.

We were much the better team for 70 minutes, and could easily have been 3 - 0 up by then. Unfortunately, we didn't kill it off and an unfortunate Carragher own goal plus a poor defensive effort from Agger in a bread and butter situation consigned us to a defeat. Fair play to Spurs, after all they scored twice from the maybe 4 times they looked dangerous.

From a Liverpool perspective, the performance was decent enough. We put ourselves in a position to win and a combination of bad variance and two mental lapses cost us the win. Claiming that this is the start of the same old story seems premature to me - for this is a very different type of loss to the ones we suffered during Benitez's first three years in charge. Those losses came after we were sloppy and outclassed - failing to turn up and never looking like winning. Today, we did a lot of things right and this stuff will happen occasionally to even the best of teams.

I for one, did not say at the start of the season that we would win the league. I am hopeful that we can be closer though. And if we do end up regressing at the end of this year - it will not be because of performances like the one put in today.

We dust ourselves off and move on. I sincerely hope that some of the people posting in this thread are able to find ways to apply some balance and rationality to aspects of their lives other than football.

PHB

Points dropped for Liverpool. I think the result was endemic of a problem in Liverpools attack personally, but the next 6 games will be big for them:

West Brom - Home
Bolton - Away
Fulham - Home
West Ham - Home
Blackburn - Away
Hull - Home

If they can take 16+ points from those games, they'll be in and around the top of the table coming up to Christmas. Personally, I think they'll take 14 at the most, probably 13.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Jazzy

PHB wrote: »

Points dropped for Liverpool. I think the result was endemic of a problem in Liverpools attack personally, but the next 6 games will be big for them:

pretty much spot on.

funny story - me and my mate were talking liverpool and i was going on about how carragher is my favorite player cos he gets us out of trouble so much and my mate goes to me "ah dont be saying that now cos he'll score an own goal" and i went "yeah, im actually so unlucky that that will happen".

3 minutes later and guess wat?

then i started slagging pavluchenko saying how hes over rated and such. that worked out real well for me

so im sorry lads, it wasnt jamies fault or anyone elses.... it was mine. im just gonna shut up when pool are playing from now on



edit - i see a lot of lol on the pages previous. god bless, i was actually thinking earlier after we lost "the soccer/Man Utd. Vs. Liverpool forum is going to explode from this". its all "gaaahhh liverpool are **** ive been saying that for ages and im deadly" versus "bleeeeeehhhh!!! liverpool are deadly and will win the league cos im deadly". its a hoot