Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14 Mod warning post#7005

Knex*

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I think it'd be great if all the regulars here decided not to post in any of the other teams mega threads for the rest of the season.

As a sort of big 'all that fcking matters is Liverpool' crusade.

Bandana boy wrote: »

As cool as this would be ,it would lead to the death of Boards as a Football forum if our amazing wisdom and insight was limited to one thread.

Don't forget our wit, humour, and off topic tendencies. They only pretend they don't appreciate our in-thread-jokes.

The Forum would be miserable.

Vicxas

Bandana boy wrote: »

As cool as this would be ,it would lead to the death of Boards as a Football forum if our amazing wisdom and insight was limited to one thread.

And the term "As a Liverpool Fan" would become a think of hatred.

5starpool

whatawaster wrote: »

There already is 20% of the EPL in the Champions League.

I was just going to post that :pac:

Morzadec

daithijjj wrote: »

I see the position loud and clear.

Ultimately though, it reads like a general Arsenal fans view from 10 years ago (seriously, read it again imagining your an Arsenal fan from 04) and pretty much a constant view they hold now. They have been indoctrinated into the ways of 'money' is a trophy. Problem is, they rarely if ever spend it, they dont compete for signatures with others in the CL, they have the highest ticket prices in the country and they celebrate 4th like it really is a league trophy.

Great big healthy portions of apathy and cringe. I will have given up watching football if LFC becomes a club with 'great' players and a 'great' manager etc but collects nothing except pay cheques and more sponsors and considers that a good job done.

Greatness is defined by what you win, not what you compete in.

In any case, this bogus CL is just a baby step to a European league, in 20 years lads will be travelling to Poland for a Saturday league game if the governing bodies get what they want and Watford will be winning the English league title because the EPL will be considered like the league cup is now.

But who cares..........we will have cash, more cash.

No, not just more cash - better players to build a world class squad capable of winning any trophy it competes in! That's the whole point.

We want to be the best.

The best clubs compete in (and eventually win - something Arsenal have not done for a long time) their domestic league and Champions League.

The latter is impossible to do without CL qualification, the former is almost impossible to do (can we be the exception that proves the rule this year?)

Ultimately it's about managing long and short term goals.

The ambitious long term view, to make Liverpool one of the top teams in England and Europe can ultimately only be achieved through CL qualification.

For a club who do not have the fanbase, who are not a big club, to sustain consistent CL qualification, I would certainly understand the view of an FA Cup win being more important, but ultimately I want Liverpool to win the CL or EPL again and the FA Cup does little or nothing to further that goal.

Qualifying for the Champions League sets you on the right path.

daithijjj

Demosthenese wrote: »

Arsenal of 10 years ago never seen where they'd be now, it was a club on the rise and had a really good team. Fast forward and they still have the big nights in Europe which is as fans, as much as we can expect these days. Competing with the big guys means needing to overtake Arsenal for the next 10 and that in itself will be some accomplishment. We have all but wrapped up the CL this season but to repeat it as well as sustain a title bid is something to aspire to.

The bigger European league idea has been around as long as i can remember now and it if it were to ever happen it would have gone ahead a decade ago. No way are they getting away from the PL until the sky money goes and then some! Its pie on the sky. Sure they might alter the CL and what method they use for groups etc, but there will not be any super league of note for many years to come.

As for Arsenal treating getting 4th as winning something, i put alot of that down to the manager and his failings.

At the end of the day, Arsenal have forgetable forays into Europe and a club full of players who havent got a single medal between them.

The way ye are playing ye will be lucky not to be overtaken by Everton in 2 weeks. Perhaps thats the bubble Arsenal need as a wake up call.

Knex*

I don't normally post in the other threads anyway, but I have to say, this season is fascinating and its easy to see why people would be drawn towards the United thread, as a Liverpool fan or not.

I didn't even read the other threads until this season, and even now, I'd only pop into the United and Arsenal ones from time to time.

Don't think I've ever looked at Chelsea or City. (Do they even have one?! )

hefferboi

HD Highlights

My view on last night, I found the whole 90 minutes very uncomfortable. I find this season that you can tell how the match will pan out after 5/10 minutes. More often than not we explode from that start, pressing and harrying and you can tell straight away that we're up for it. Some times though, like last night, we're slow with everything we do, no options for the player with the ball and no one pressing high up the pitch. This tends to happen only against the teams lower down the league. I knew straight away last night the game could go either way.

Johnson was shocking, as usual this season. He had a spell of about 4 passes in a row that went straight to Sunderland players. One was a cross that he had plenty of time with but couldn't beat the 1st man. He'd another few crosses that he just kept the head down and hit and hope. Not good enough at this level and I'd personally like to see us cash in during the Summer.

Skrtel leaves a lot to be desired defensively as well. Is good with balls coming down field in the air and attacking our own corners but other than that I wouldn't rate him highly. Loses his man a lot unless he wraps himself around them. Would also like to cash in.

The game passed by Gerrard I thought. He didn't have a whole lot to do but did his usual and distributed well. I also thought he should have picked up a yellow as he now walks a tightrope to stay card free for our last few games (I also had him backed ).

I thought Coutinho was motm but even at that he wasn't exceptional. If he can add consistency to his game and stop the silly shooting from all angles then I'd have him as a guaranteed starter every week. His talent on the ball is obvious to see. He went on a mazy run there in the second half and was just making fun of the Sunderland players.

Sturridge had a poor game. Very selfish when he had the ball I thought. He took too long on the ball doing stupid step overs and ended up doing nothing with it. He took a couple of shots from outside the box when there were better options available to him. Very frustrating to watch and I found myself fcuking him out of it over the telly too often.

Suarez had a poor game too but won the free and worked for 90 minutes. Things just didn't go right for him that, on other days would have looked brilliant. He'll be back to terrorise Spurs though!

The rest of the team did their bit without anything worth a mention.

Overall though there wasn't enough urgency and not enough players being an outlet for the man on the ball. I expect a better showing on Sunday.

brevity

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I think it'd be great if all the regulars here decided not to post in any of the other teams mega threads for the rest of the season.

As a sort of big 'all that fcking matters is Liverpool' crusade.

As a fan



I approve of this!

daithijjj

whatawaster wrote: »

There already is 20% of the EPL in the Champions League.

I actually meant to say its going from a max of 20% to an allowance of 25%, thats what im talking about in regard to baby steps. There's also 2 chances to qualify for it now for anyone who finds themselves in the Europa.

whatawaster

daithijjj wrote: »

I actually meant to say its going from a max of 20% to an allowance of 25%, thats what im talking about in regard to baby steps. There's also 2 chances to qualify for it now for anyone who finds themselves in the Europa.

For purely selfish reasons, that would be great.

It would give Liverpool a better chance of qualifying for the competition every season.

Morzadec

djPSB wrote: »

Should there be such a large gap between Arsenal and Everton? Seems excessive.

Morzadec wrote: »

It does...

Been checking back and it appears I had a bit of a brainfart the same night when I forgot to deduct United's score... I gave Everton -0.5 instead of +0.5...

I thought I've been pretty careful totting up the cores but I'm going to double check all of them now as there's no point doing it if I've fudged up the scores somewhere

Cheers for djPSB for pointing out a little flaw here. My score for Everton was not quite right. Had me worried I had the whole thing fudged up, but I've checked all the teams against the fixtures remaining and that was the only one wrong (even still slightly off when I corrected it last night - must have slipped up somewhere else )

This is definitely 100% correct:

1. Chelsea: +7
1.. City: +7
3. Liverpool: +6

4. Arsenal: +1

5. Everton: -3
6. Spurs: -6
7. United -10.5

Imo this table does not show the strong position City are in.

Their score is relatively low as they have 3 tough away games (1 ppg target for a CL chasing team) left - Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton.

These are tough fixtures, but one would expect a team of City's quality at the business end to probably come away with more than 3 points from these 3 games - that's the problem with this model which was originally set up to track progress for CL spots.

Imo City, with their games in hand, are certainly in a stronger position than shown here.

daithijjj

Morzadec wrote: »

No, not just more cash - better players to build a world class squad capable of winning any trophy it competes in! That's the whole point.

We want to be the best.

The best clubs compete in (and eventually win - something Arsenal have not done for a long time) their domestic league and Champions League.

The latter is impossible to do without CL qualification, the former is almost impossible to do (can we be the exception that proves the rule this year?)

Ultimately it's about managing long and short term goals.

The ambitious long term view, to make Liverpool one of the top teams in England and Europe can ultimately only be achieved through CL qualification.

For a club who do not have the fanbase, who are not a big club, to sustain consistent CL qualification, I would certainly understand the view of an FA Cup win being more important, but ultimately I want Liverpool to win the CL or EPL again and the FA Cup does little or nothing to further that goal.

Qualifying for the Champions League sets you on the right path.

Thats nothing more than a pipe dream though, as nice as it is. Off the pitch we talk about how well Arsenal is run and on it we talk about emulating Dortmund who routinely have their best players plucked away from them these days and finish 25 pts behind Bayern. And if we listen to Ayre, the CL goalposts wont change how we run the club whether we are in or out of it.

Again, the fact the FA cup has developed like that in poeple's thinking is a man made one. Perhaps the governing body involved in that decision should mirror the one taken by Uefa re the Europa league concerning the CL spot.

djPSB

daithijjj wrote: »

Thats nothing more than a pipe dream though, as nice as it is. Off the pitch we talk about how well Arsenal is run and on it we talk about emulating Dortmund who routinely have their best players plucked away from them these days and finish 25 pts behind Bayern. And if we listen to Ayre, the CL goalposts wont change how we run the club whether we are in or out of it.

Again, the fact the FA cup has developed like that in poeple's thinking is a man made one. Perhaps the governing body involved in that decision should mirror the one taken by Uefa re the Europa league concerning the CL spot.

Dortmund have won the Bundesliga and reached the CL final recently.

Hardly a bad blueprint.

We are slightly different to Dortmund in that we have done our utmost to keep hold of Suarez and other top players where as Dortmund couldn't keep hold of Gotze and will soon lose Lewandowski.

ush

daithijjj wrote: »

The dynamic is easy enough to change but there has to be a will to change it. The only reason the CL has taken over is because of the disparity with money over other comps. That disparity should not be there and the responsibility lies with the governing bodies who are basically slaves to the $ and overloaded with corruption.

Yeah right. Away at Oldham, Bournemouth or Notts County thats some dynamic. Lots of adverts for beer and razor blades on the backs of those matches.

djPSB

Morzadec wrote: »

Cheers for djPSB for pointing out a little flaw here. My score for Everton was not quite right. Had me worried I had the whole thing fudged up, but I've checked all the teams against the fixtures remaining and that was the only one wrong (even still slightly off when I corrected it last night - must have slipped up somewhere else )

This is definitely 100% correct:



Imo this table does not show the strong position City are in.

Their score is relatively low as they have 3 tough away games (1 ppg target for a CL chasing team) left - Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton.

These are tough fixtures, but one would expect a team of City's quality at the business end to probably come away with more than 3 points from these 3 games - that's the problem with this model which was originally set up to track progress for CL spots.

Imo City, with their games in hand, are certainly in a stronger position than shown here.

I still think the table under estimates Everton's top 4 chances slightly. If they beat Arsenal at Goodison, they're in the driving seat imo.

Just an observation, not saying your calculations are wrong

Excellent table by the way, has been very interesting following it all season and has been very accurate as to how things have panned out.

whatawaster

daithijjj wrote: »

Thats nothing more than a pipe dream though, as nice as it is. Off the pitch we talk about how well Arsenal is run and on it we talk about emulating Dortmund who routinely have their best players plucked away from them these days and finish 25 pts behind Bayern. And if we listen to Ayre, the CL goalposts wont change how we run the club whether we are in or out of it.

Again, the fact the FA cup has developed like that in poeple's thinking is a man made one. Perhaps the governing body involved in that decision should mirror the one taken by Uefa re the Europa league concerning the CL spot.

There are things about Arsenal worth emulating. They are very well-run financially and are in a great and sustainable position in that regard. That they haven't won a trophy in so long is down to a variety of factors, including imo a stagnation with the manager and the squad and some poor transfer decisions. We can strive to be all the best bits about Arsenal without resigning ourselves to never winning a trophy.

And Dortmund have won 2 league titles and got to a Champions League final and quarter final in the last 4 years. They are 25 points behind potentially the best ever European side and have had an injury ravaged season. Again, there is much to admire and emulate about Dortmund, not least their on-field success in recent years.

Knex*

djPSB wrote: »

I still think the table under estimates Everton's top 4 chances slightly. If they beat Arsenal at Goodison, they're in the driving seat imo.

Just an observation, not saying your calculations are wrong

If they do, you'll see the table reflect that. It can't accrue for hypothetical future scenarios!

ush

daithijjj wrote: »

Again, the fact the FA cup has developed like that in poeple's thinking is a man made one. Perhaps the governing body involved in that decision should mirror the one taken by Uefa re the Europa league concerning the CL spot.

"Man made"? As if the rules of the game came down from high?

The FA risk reducing their allocation of CL spots by allowing a team that wins a knock-out competition to qualify for the CL. The league is a better reflection of a teams worth.

The solution to not turning into an Arsenal is to win the league or CL occassionally; not hoping for a domestic cup.

whatawaster

There is plenty we would all change about how Liverpool are governed, but perhaps we should be more grateful we have the owners that we do.

They wasted little time getting rid of Hodgson. They hired Rodgers when many fans thought they were mad. They refused to entertain offers for Suarez when plenty of folk were certain they were looking to cash in (and sell the club shortly after).

They have made mistakes, but right now I'm very glad we are in their hands.
12 months ago, Levy was everyone's wet-dream of a Chairman. He has made a complete mess of things at Spurs in that time it must be said.

Demosthenese

hefferboi wrote: »

My view on last night, I found the whole 90 minutes very uncomfortable. I find this season that you can tell how the match will pan out after 5/10 minutes. More often than not we explode from that start, pressing and harrying and you can tell straight away that we're up for it. Some times though, like last night, we're slow with everything we do, no options for the player with the ball and no one pressing high up the pitch. This tends to happen only against the teams lower down the league. I knew straight away last night the game could go either way.

Johnson was shocking, as usual this season. He had a spell of about 4 passes in a row that went straight to Sunderland players. One was a cross that he had plenty of time with but couldn't beat the 1st man. He'd another few crosses that he just kept the head down and hit and hope. Not good enough at this level and I'd personally like to see us cash in during the Summer.

Skrtel leaves a lot to be desired defensively as well. Is good with balls coming down field in the air and attacking our own corners but other than that I wouldn't rate him highly. Loses his man a lot unless he wraps himself around them. Would also like to cash in.

The game passed by Gerrard I thought. He didn't have a whole lot to do but did his usual and distributed well. I also thought he should have picked up a yellow as he now walks a tightrope to stay card free for our last few games (I also had him backed ).

I thought Coutinho was motm but even at that he wasn't exceptional. If he can add consistency to his game and stop the silly shooting from all angles then I'd have him as a guaranteed starter every week. His talent on the ball is obvious to see. He went on a mazy run there in the second half and was just making fun of the Sunderland players.

Sturridge had a poor game. Very selfish when he had the ball I thought. He took too long on the ball doing stupid step overs and ended up doing nothing with it. He took a couple of shots from outside the box when there were better options available to him. Very frustrating to watch and I found myself fcuking him out of it over the telly too often.

Suarez had a poor game too but won the free and worked for 90 minutes. Things just didn't go right for him that, on other days would have looked brilliant. He'll be back to terrorise Spurs though!

The rest of the team did their bit without anything worth a mention.

Overall though there wasn't enough urgency and not enough players being an outlet for the man on the ball. I expect a better showing on Sunday.

You would swear people do not ever watch the PL over the last 10 seasons. Even when United were totally dominating a game there were games exactly like this when they players didn't click, in fact we used to be shouting in the forums "How on earth did man u get a win there" so many times over the Ferguson era that it became common. So everyone was poor and some players need to be shown the door? Really? 7 wins in a row or is that now 8? ... and we are still talking negative about our first genuine shout for a league finish in many years. I understand you wearing your heart on your sleeve but come on ... we were in total control of that game for a very long period. The rest well, we have misgivings and at least this season we tend to get away with it. Even the top teams have problems dominating a game for 90 mins. So relax and enjoy it!

People need to stop seeing the fear in games and enjoy what we seen last night. We will learn alot from it, we will still grow in confidence and it will hopefully enable us to be a little less edgy if the same thing were to happen this Sunday v Spurs.

It is a rollercoaster ride for sure, but a very enjoyable one. We have top4 secured for sure imo and i plan on loving every minute of this assault for 1st. Good times.

whatawaster

Demosthenese wrote: »

You would swear people do not ever watch the PL over the last 10 seasons. Even when United were totally dominating a game there were games exactly like this when they players didn't click, in fact we used to be shouting in the forums "How on earth did man u get a win there" so many times over the Ferguson era that it became common. So everyone was poor and some players need to be shown the door? Really? 7 wins in a row or is that now 8? ... and we are still talking negative about our first genuine shout for a league finish in many years. I understand you wearing your heart on your sleeve but come on ... we were in total control of that game for a very long period. The rest well, we have misgivings and at least this season we tend to get away with it. Even the top teams have problems dominating a game for 90 mins. So relax and enjoy it!

People need to stop seeing the fear in games and enjoy what we seen last night. We will learn alot from it, we will still grow in confidence and it will hopefully enable us to be a little less edgy if the same thing were to happen this Sunday v Spurs.

It is a rollercoaster ride for sure, but a very enjoyable one. We have top4 secured for sure imo and i plan on loving every minute of this assault for 1st. Good times.

Exactly. Chelsea have had so many games this season where they have been underwhelming I've lost count.

We have been as consistent in our performances as anyone.

Demosthenese

daithijjj wrote: »

At the end of the day, Arsenal have forgetable forays into Europe and a club full of players who havent got a single medal between them.

The way ye are playing ye will be lucky not to be overtaken by Everton in 2 weeks. Perhaps thats the bubble Arsenal need as a wake up call.

YE .... ) i am not a Gooner thanks. Were Liverpool's forays into Europe forgettable when they didn't win it? So every season that Arsenal/Liverpool/United/Chelsea played CL football to their fans delight it was all for nothing and forgettable just cos they had no silverware? That's a sad view on some great nights. Even Spurs fans will have fond memories of the Inter games when Bale came of age and destroyed them.

Yes, football is about winning, but competing is necessary before you can sometimes life the holy grail. That's why sport is so compelling and especially the CL where retaining it is something of a rarity.

daithijjj

ush wrote: »

Yeah right. Away at Oldham, Bournemouth or Notts County thats some dynamic. Lots of adverts for beer and razor blades on the backs of those matches.

As opposed to Zulte Waregem you mean?

daithijjj

ush wrote: »

"Man made"? As if the rules of the game came down from high?

The FA risk reducing their allocation of CL spots by allowing a team that wins a knock-out competition to qualify for the CL. The league is a better reflection of a teams worth.

The solution to not turning into an Arsenal is to win the league or CL occassionally; not hoping for a domestic cup.

Yes, man made = mistakes. At least Uefa are trying to rectify the fk up they made of the Europa.

How do they risk reducing their allocation when Uefa is doing exactly that themselves?

segadreamcast

Morzadec wrote: »

Cheers for djPSB for pointing out a little flaw here. My score for Everton was not quite right. Had me worried I had the whole thing fudged up, but I've checked all the teams against the fixtures remaining and that was the only one wrong (even still slightly off when I corrected it last night - must have slipped up somewhere else )

This is definitely 100% correct:



Imo this table does not show the strong position City are in.

Their score is relatively low as they have 3 tough away games (1 ppg target for a CL chasing team) left - Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton.

These are tough fixtures, but one would expect a team of City's quality at the business end to probably come away with more than 3 points from these 3 games - that's the problem with this model which was originally set up to track progress for CL spots.

Imo City, with their games in hand, are certainly in a stronger position than shown here.

I've really enjoyed reading this table all season, and just wanted to say thanks for it. Think it's a really clever way of analysing things.

ArmaniJeanss

daithijjj wrote: »

Yes, man made = mistakes. At least Uefa are trying to rectify the fk up they made of the Europa.

The CL rules are that national associations can only nominate via league placings so any change to give a place to the FA Cup cant be made by England alone.
Whilst UEFA are correctly concerned enough about their own EL competition to give it a place, why should they care about the perceived nostalgic value of the FA Cup?

niallo27

Need to get my post count up here.

niallo27

So how is everyone

daithijjj

Demosthenese wrote: »

YE .... ) i am not a Gooner thanks. Were Liverpool's forays into Europe forgettable when they didn't win it? So every season that Arsenal/Liverpool/United/Chelsea played CL football to their fans delight it was all for nothing and forgettable just cos they had no silverware? That's a sad view on some great nights. Even Spurs fans will have fond memories of the Inter games when Bale came of age and destroyed them.

Yes, football is about winning, but competing is necessary before you can sometimes life the holy grail. That's why sport is so compelling and especially the CL where retaining it is something of a rarity.

If you are a fan who goes to games there will be memorable days all the time, be it CL or some league 1 club in the cup.

Im not interested in 'great nights', im interested in how the club goes about collecting trophies, can leave the great nights to Arsenal tbh, they can frame the shirts they swapped for posterity instead of achievements in the form of medals. Of course, London life and CL football will only take you so far with an ambitious mind. Most the ambitious ones have long gone now. I dont want the same to happen to our club.

Knex*

niallo27 wrote: »

Need to get my post count up here.

:pac:

ush

daithijjj wrote: »

If you are a fan who goes to games there will be memorable days all the time, be it CL or some league 1 club in the cup.

Im not interested in 'great nights', im interested in how the club goes about collecting trophies, can leave the great nights to Arsenal tbh, they can frame the shirts they swapped for posterity instead of achievements in the form of medals. Of course, London life and CL football will only take you so far with an ambitious mind. Most the ambitious ones have long gone now. I dont want the same to happen to our club.

Domestic cups aren't ambition. Not all trophies are equal.

ush

daithijjj wrote: »

How do they risk reducing their allocation when Uefa is doing exactly that themselves?

Crapier teams can win the cups. They in turn perform worse than a club that qualifies on league finish. The league's ranking sinks and in turn gets less places.

Demosthenese

daithijjj wrote: »

If you are a fan who goes to games there will be memorable days all the time, be it CL or some league 1 club in the cup.

Im not interested in 'great nights', im interested in how the club goes about collecting trophies, can leave the great nights to Arsenal tbh, they can frame the shirts they swapped for posterity instead of achievements in the form of medals. Of course, London life and CL football will only take you so far with an ambitious mind. Most the ambitious ones have long gone now. I dont want the same to happen to our club.

Can't win things without great nights ... tell me the last Cup Liverpool won that wasn't a great night? they go hand in hand and especially in the Champions league which is extremely difficult to win. What we need is to mirror the Barcas/Bayerns/Uniteds of the last 10 years and emulate their consistant performances among the elite and then we will be in with a shout of winning the trophies we all desire.

To suggest that Arsenal enter competitions only to fail within one month of them all ending is a cop out. Yes i think they celebrated getting 4th last season a little too feverishly but i am sure we would have been the same this season if we were thereabouts instead of being in a better position.

For Liverpool we need to start competing with the big boys again, before we start to worry about winning a CL anyway, for the Premier League we are punching severely above our weight right now so i will not be too disheartened if we should fall short this season ... i'll take giant step which was to compete for it in the first place!

ush

daithijjj wrote: »

As opposed to Zulte Waregem you mean?

Hardly representative of CL standard?

hefferboi

Demosthenese wrote: »

You would swear people do not ever watch the PL over the last 10 seasons. Even when United were totally dominating a game there were games exactly like this when they players didn't click, in fact we used to be shouting in the forums "How on earth did man u get a win there" so many times over the Ferguson era that it became common. So everyone was poor and some players need to be shown the door? Really? 7 wins in a row or is that now 8? ... and we are still talking negative about our first genuine shout for a league finish in many years. I understand you wearing your heart on your sleeve but come on ... we were in total control of that game for a very long period. The rest well, we have misgivings and at least this season we tend to get away with it. Even the top teams have problems dominating a game for 90 mins. So relax and enjoy it!

People need to stop seeing the fear in games and enjoy what we seen last night. We will learn alot from it, we will still grow in confidence and it will hopefully enable us to be a little less edgy if the same thing were to happen this Sunday v Spurs.

It is a rollercoaster ride for sure, but a very enjoyable one. We have top4 secured for sure imo and i plan on loving every minute of this assault for 1st. Good times.

Have you watched every game this season? Johnson has been absolute muck bar 2 or 3 good performances. Hardly top 4 standard let alone title challenging. Skrtel has been our best performing defender this season but I've never rated him as highly as others. He's very very limited. There's a reason why we concede so many goals. I'm not the coach so its not my job to find the problem but I personally think the players aren't good enough and have thought that for some time.

If I was asked to give an honest answer about who the best defenders in our squad are I'd pick Sakho as the only one who could get into Chelsea or Man City's side. Flanno will do a job for you and has been great but I'd see him as backup in the future, but a good back up at that. Johnson, Agger, Toure and Kelly haven't shown enough. Enrique is a fcuked it seems and the rest are young.

Its all well and good looking at us and saying we're some team and this is some season, which it most definitely is, but there's some very serious flaws to this team which have been papered over for a long time. A lot of fans will stare blindly at this season as us being a quality outfit but a lot more will see our flaws. Imo, the reason we're challenging has been freak season's from Suarez and Sturridge, our team chemistry which is as good as any in Europe and a great season from our manager.

It might be an unpopular opinion but its just that, an opinion.

Kunkka

Great post Heffer, totally agree on Johnson. Total passenger

Lord Trollington

Rumour doing the rounds in twitter about Suarez agree

Lord Trollington

Rumour doing the rounds on twitter about Suarez agreeing a deal to sign for Man City for next season.

Marca is the source

K-9

Lord Trollington wrote: »

Marca is the source

.

eyescreamcone

Lord Trollington wrote: »

Rumour doing the rounds on twitter about Suarez agreeing a deal to sign for Man City for next season.

Marca is the source

Suarez cant do a deal without Liverpool's blessing can he?

D'Agger

Lord Trollington wrote: »

Rumour doing the rounds on twitter about Suarez agreeing a deal to sign for Man City for next season.

Marca is the source

It all makes sense now...

gafferino

Lord Trollington wrote: »

Rumour doing the rounds on twitter about Suarez agreeing a deal to sign for Man City for next season.

Marca is the source

Theres your answer right there. Marca are the mouth piece of Madrid. Most likely BS to unsettle the player, stir things up, create fuss where there is no fuss....ahead of their bid in the summer.

Lord Trollington

Story hardly plucked outta their arse?

Might be an attempt by someone to unsettle LFC and or Suarez in the title run in.

D'Agger

Lord Trollington wrote: »

Story hardly plucked outta their arse?

Might be an attempt by someone to unsettle LFC and or Suarez in the title run in.

Suarez is doing it - he'll only stay if we win the title

Now we play for Luis future.

Again...it all makes sense now

Demosthenese

hefferboi wrote: »

Have you watched every game this season? Johnson has been absolute muck bar 2 or 3 good performances. Hardly top 4 standard let alone title challenging. Skrtel has been our best performing defender this season but I've never rated him as highly as others. He's very very limited. There's a reason why we concede so many goals. I'm not the coach so its not my job to find the problem but I personally think the players aren't good enough and have thought that for some time.

If I was asked to give an honest answer about who the best defenders in our squad are I'd pick Sakho as the only one who could get into Chelsea or Man City's side. Flanno will do a job for you and has been great but I'd see him as backup in the future, but a good back up at that. Johnson, Agger, Toure and Kelly haven't shown enough. Enrique is a fcuked it seems and the rest are young.

Its all well and good looking at us and saying we're some team and this is some season, which it most definitely is, but there's some very serious flaws to this team which have been papered over for a long time. A lot of fans will stare blindly at this season as us being a quality outfit but a lot more will see our flaws. Imo, the reason we're challenging has been freak season's from Suarez and Sturridge, our team chemistry which is as good as any in Europe and a great season from our manager.

It might be an unpopular opinion but its just that, an opinion.

I am Johnson and Aggers worst critics. They are what i call plastic defenders, look great going forward and cannot defend as they should be able, Flanno has put them both to shame with his performances of late simpoly cos they guy might lack the suave but makes up for it with determination and aggression. Strangely enough i think that Johnson returned from his latest injury BETTER than he was before it - he is back to good work going forward which shows how bad he was before it! I agree our backline doesn't always install confidence but they have to be credited cos they have gotten us this far and that includes with possibly our best player out of action for a long time ... Sahko. Or what we believe to be our best player, yet he seems to have gotten mysteriously better simply by not playing. Do we really know what he's like? How can we say he'd get into City/Chelsea's sides? He cannot get into our side yet. Jury is still out imo but he "looks" better than what we have for what its worth!

I dunno if many people think we are a quality outfit, but we are certainly quality going forward i am sure most would agree. I think BR knows this and thats why attack is definitely the best form of defence.

In either, the original point was that were were uncomfortable for 90 mins last night when we were not. We were in complete control up until their goal (Which resulted from the usual Agger too busy chickening out of avoiding heading the ball like any decent Centre half should do) and looked comfortable and most likely to add to our 2 goals.

I do agree we have some way to go before we are the finished article, but isn't that the great thing about this season? Even with a suspect backline we are still marching on. Its is great to watch and the rollercoaster is brilliant. I prefer to watch the games without worrying about how fragile we can be defencively and concentrate on how bloody great we are in possession going forward.

It is there to be enjoyed not feared.

Utopia Parkway

Lord Trollington wrote: »

Rumour doing the rounds on twitter about Suarez agreeing a deal to sign for Man City for next season.

Marca is the source

Agueroooo

...and so it begins.



and will only end @12pm 31.8.14

enjoy the ride !

daithijjj

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

The CL rules are that national associations can only nominate via league placings so any change to give a place to the FA Cup cant be made by England alone.
Whilst UEFA are correctly concerned enough about their own EL competition to give it a place, why should they care about the perceived nostalgic value of the FA Cup?

Platini has already put proposals for domestic cups to get a cl place, the FA backed it, only a matter of time. CL rules change as we go, we benefited ourselves in 05/6.

Grayditch

Imagine Wigan in the Champions League.

MarkY91

i have no doubt that suarez is staying at least another season. anyone who watches his passion and delight when we score a goal will know that he is commited.