Manchester City vs. Liverpool Match Thread 20.00 KO

#15

niallo27 wrote: »

the Barry saga was the year before after Alonso had a really poor year, are you honestly saying that returning to his home country in a world cup year had nothing to with his descision,

That's exactly what I'm saying

Former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso has confirmed that he began to reconsider his future when the club tried to sell him during the summer of 2008.

Throughout last summer Alonso looked on the verge of a move to Italian giants Juventus to join former teammate Momo Sissoko who had recently joined the Turin club.

But when Reds boss Rafa Benitez failed to capture Alonso’s replacement Gareth Barry from Aston Villa, the Spanish international stayed at Anfield and sealed a £30million switch to Real Madrid this summer.

“Last summer the club proposed to me that I might have to be sold to find funds for new players,” Alonso told Sky Sports.

“It was a difficult decision or difficult moment to accept that. I accepted that as a professional and that moment probably changed my mind and I thought that maybe from that moment that maybe it was time for a change.”

It's pretty irrelevant at this stage anyway though.

niallo27

#15 wrote: »

That's exactly what I'm saying



It's pretty irrelevant at this stage anyway though.

These comments were from the year before after he was very poor for the year, I thought you said it was because he had a row with rafa, he stayed after these comments for another year and was excellent, he could have stayed if he wanted, I don't begrudge him for wanting to go, do you think it was fergusons fault Ronaldo went to Madrid as well

DOC09UNAM

niallo27 wrote: »

The row of training, do tell me what that was about, the Barry saga was the year before after Alonso had a really poor year, are you honestly saying that returning to his home country in a world cup year had nothing to with his descision, would he have started in the world cup if he was Liverpool player

This is not a knee jerk reaction after last night, many of us have expressed doubts since Roy took over

Oh i get it, you judged Roy before he even took over, that makes alot more sense.

#15

niallo27 wrote: »

These comments were from the year before after he was very poor for the year, I thought you said it was because he had a row with rafa, he stayed after these comments for another year and was excellent, he could have stayed if he wanted, I don't begrudge him for wanting to go, do you think it was fergusons fault Ronaldo went to Madrid as well

That quote is after he signed for Real.

He said they tried to sell him in 2008. He subsequently went on to have the best season of his career in 2008-09, having already decided he was off.

''I thought that maybe from that moment that maybe it was time for a change.”

It's clear he decided to leave when Rafa was trying to flog him in 2008.

There were rumours of a bust-up around the time Alonso's wife had a baby, just rumours though. May not be true.

LuckyLloyd

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Oh i get it, you judged Roy before he even took over, that makes alot more sense.

God damn, I hate these types of arguments. It's the same stuff that was thrown around when Poulsen was signed: "oh how can you comment on him before he's played for us" etc, etc.

We know a ton about Roy Hodgson. Two seconds on Google pulls up his full managerial CV and brief synopsis of what went down at each club. Two minutes googling can pull up a load of articles and quotes about his style and strengths down through the years, and twenty can get you more content (video interviews / fan forums) that's a little more in depth and off the beaten track. And that's all aside from him being at Fulham in a league that has saturation coverage in this country (then the UEFA / Domestic cup runs on tele).

On the basis of all this wealth of information, a lot of fans have formed an opinion that he is a serious downgrade from what we've had here since 1999, and that his track record in terms of delivering trophies and accomplishments at the top end of leagues does not stand up to intense scrutiny. He's a decent manager, that everyone would have known beforehand to be a man of integrity who says the right things in front of a camera.

It's not "writing him off", it's having a bearish position on what he can achieve long term. But that position is supported by a ton of knowledge.

Mister men

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Oh i get it, you judged Roy before he even took over, that makes alot more sense.

What's wrong with that? For what it's worth i don't think Hodgson is good enough for Liverpool but except he's as good as we can hope for at the moment. That does'nt mean i'm not hoping to be proved wrong. As the season drags on getting rid of Benitez is going to seem more and more bizarre.

MuPpItJoCkEy

niallo27 wrote: »

The row of training, do tell me what that was about, the Barry saga was the year before after Alonso had a really poor year, are you honestly saying that returning to his home country in a world cup year had nothing to with his descision, would he have started in the world cup if he was Liverpool player

This is not a knee jerk reaction after last night, many of us have expressed doubts since Roy took over

Not sure about the rows in training.

The Barry saga is what pushed Alonso out. Benitez trying to flog him to Juventus so he could bring in Barry. This certainly didn't go down well with Alonso. Saying Alonso didn't have a good season prior to Benitez trying to flog him well I suppose I could agree with that simply because he had an injury plagued season.

Returning home in a world cup year didn't have much to do with it at all. If he had of played for Liverpool the way he did which made Real madrid want to fork out and sing him in the first place, it wouldn't have mattered if he'd been playing for either club so to answer your question, If he could make Real want to buy him while he was a Liverpool player than I think yes he would have played in the world cup.

Benitez didn't do much for Liverpool I feel. Ye he won them the Champions league but that was with a team he got from somebody else anyway. Not exactly his own imprint on the team. Benitez got them an FA cup the following year. I think a lot of Liverpool fans dwelled on that. Coming second in the league was an over achievement and lucky other teams were doing so badly. They had a great start to their season and then after xmas, it all went Pete Tong.

He was given plenty of money to spend and spent it badly. Now you can point out what other managers have spent but Hicks and Gillet did provide Benitez with money and apart from making profits on some players, he didn't bring in any more trophies.

Hodgson, I'd give him time to at least shape a team he can call his own. You can look at his CV all you want. I think I'd rather judge him when he's got a decent team together or players that he's wanted to bring in before judging.

DOC09UNAM

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

God damn, I hate these types of arguments. It's the same stuff that was thrown around when Poulsen was signed: "oh how can you comment on him before he's played for us" etc, etc.

We know a ton about Roy Hodgson. Two seconds on Google pulls up his full managerial CV and brief synopsis of what went down at each club. Two minutes googling can pull up a load of articles and quotes about his style and strengths down through the years, and twenty can get you more content (video interviews / fan forums) that's a little more in depth and off the beaten track. And that's all aside from him being at Fulham in a league that has saturation coverage in this country (then the UEFA / Domestic cup runs on tele).

On the basis of all this wealth of information, a lot of fans have formed an opinion that he is a serious downgrade from what we've had here since 1999, and that his track record in terms of delivering trophies and accomplishments at the top end of leagues does not stand up to intense scrutiny. He's a decent manager, that everyone would have known beforehand to be a man of integrity who says the right things in front of a camera.

It's not "writing him off", it's having a bearish position on what he can achieve long term. But that position is supported by a ton of knowledge.

So he took fulham to the Europa cup final, and you're saying you wouldn't be happy with that for liverpool?

Ush1

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

So he took fulham to the Europa cup final, and you're saying you wouldn't be happy with that for liverpool?

redzerdrog

ntlbell wrote: »

but one should be slated after two games, one which included a draw against arsenal when down to 10 men for 45 miniutes?

Awsome.

nobody is slating hodgson for the arsenal result whatsoever what people are slating him for was playing 4-4-2 last night which was obviously such a bad mistake.

ntlbell

redzerdrog wrote: »

nobody is slating hodgson for the arsenal result whatsoever what people are slating him for was playing 4-4-2 last night which was obviously such a bad mistake.

well maybe if masch wasn't throwing his toys out of his pram he might have done?

redzerdrog

ntlbell wrote: »

well maybe if masch wasn't throwing his toys out of his pram he might have done?

and what if cole hadnt of been suspened and what if fowler hadnt of left and what if my aunty had balls

at the end of the day the manager picked the wrong tactics if masch had been playing i still think 4-4-2 would have been stupid. all our players are used to and suited to a 4-2-3-1 formation and to go up against a man city that was going to play 4-5-1 with 3 strong kickers in CM was one of the worst decisions I have ever seen.

ntlbell

redzerdrog wrote: »

and what if cole hadnt of been suspened and what if fowler hadnt of left and what if my aunty had balls

at the end of the day the manager picked the wrong tactics if masch had been playing i still think 4-4-2 would have been stupid. all our players are used to and suited to a 4-2-3-1 formation and to go up against a man city that was going to play 4-5-1 with 3 strong kickers in CM was one of the worst decisions I have ever seen.

and IF you played 4/5/1 4/3/3 you still prob would have been done.

using woy as a scape goat is rediclous the players didn't do thier job.

they were owned by far superior players. end of.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

As a City fan pretty pleased with this result but still not getting carried away. Thats one decent performence (and thats all it was, Liverpool were very poor) and one pretty bad performence so far. I don't know, maybe its just the inner Man City fan used to such horrible inconsitency and constant let downs after much building of hope that's holding me back here from thinking this could be a very exciting and rewarding season but I am just not buying into it as of yet.

Next 3 games against Sunderland/Blackburn/Wigan will give a very good indication as to where the team will be at this year. Need 6 if not 9 points out of these if we want to be top 4.

TBH if we finish top 4 this year and above Utd I will consider that a massive step forward. Then push on and challenge for the title next year.

JohnnyRyan99

Mods come on, someone change this to the Rafa vs Woy thread!

tok9

ntlbell wrote: »

and IF you played 4/5/1 4/3/3 you still prob would have been done.

using woy as a scape goat is rediclous the players didn't do thier job.

they were owned by far superior players. end of.

We'll never know...

I seriously hope people aren't using Roy as a scapegoat. Imo it was the wrong decision to play 4-4-2 also but everyone makes mistakes and Roy will learn from this I hope. Judge him at the end of the season.. not after 2 games.

ntlbell

tok9 wrote: »

We'll never know...

Ya, that was the point.