Liverpool 6 Leeds 0 (Feb 23 2022)

[Razoray]

1 hour ago, Ron B said:

I didn’t mind the Wilkinson era. Not great to watch, but Leicester have been the only side since them to win the title with a proper rag-tag team. A keeper who was good but had been binned by Arsenal when they wanted an upgrade; a defence full of players who had done OK elsewhere without being irreplaceable (Sterland, Whyte, Fairclough); kids in midfield (Wallace, Batty & Speed) backed up by a guy who’d been binned by Slur (Strachan); and one of the ultimate journeymen strikers (Chapman). 
Even Cantona was just a bit-part player, who scored half as many goals as Steve Hodge did for them. Bonkers, but fair play to them. 

You forgot Gary Mac. That was an excellent midfield

Strachan Batty McAllister Speed. 

Sterland got injured halfway through the season and the left legged Gary Speed played RB with Hodge coming into the side. It was mostly Wallace who played up front with Chapman and Cantona started a few games after he joined.

Dorigo was an underrated LB too. 

Chris Whyte was playing indoor football in the USA for a year in 87/88 aged 27 after he left Arsenal because nobody wanted him. 

Venables let Fairclough go from Spurs because he preferred Fenwick and Bergsson as partners to Mabbutt. 

[Ron B]

9 hours ago, Razoray said:

You forgot Gary Mac. That was an excellent midfield

Strachan Batty McAllister Speed. 

Sterland got injured halfway through the season and the left legged Gary Speed played RB with Hodge coming into the side. It was mostly Wallace who played up front with Chapman and Cantona started a few games after he joined.

Dorigo was an underrated LB too. 

Chris Whyte was playing indoor football in the USA for a year in 87/88 aged 27 after he left Arsenal because nobody wanted him. 

Venables let Fairclough go from Spurs because he preferred Fenwick and Bergsson as partners to Mabbutt. 

No, I remembered Gary Mac, he was just a strange anomaly. The best player, but by no means their best performer that season, and comfortably overshadowed by Strachan. We wanted him under Kenny, apparently he didn’t back himself to force his way into the team so he went to Leeds. If he hadn’t eventually joined us under Ged he’d have got filed under “Good players who never had the career that they should have done”. So… I copped out and didn’t mention him!

Same as Dorigo - he, Cantona and McAllister were the only three players who surely would have been worth a starting place for any other team in the First Division, yet they were a left-back, a substitute striker, and probably the third or fourth most important midfielder. Bonkers. 

[Paul]

Interesting discussion lads and a good reminder of how skilled some managers of the past were at team building in the days before the mega riches of the PL. The best managers would take misfits and failures and build cohesive teams out of them.
 

In no sense am I suggesting they were halcyon days (football is easily the best it’s ever been in every respect, for me, now), but there was evidence of real creative thinking and leadership back in what we inevitably now think of as the dark ages of football.