On a Positive note

[Red Nick]

At least we made Utd go and win the title rather than us losing it.

 

Rafa's two titles were won well Real and Barca fell away respectively. However Manu dont fall away but it is good that we kept up the pressure until the last two games of the season.

 

Stevie G summed up everything perfectly in his post match interview yesterday.

 

Now its time to look forward and not backwards as long as we dont repeat the mistakes.

 

Hopefully this summer we buy the creative player to win us the title next season and buy one or two players of real quality, Quality and not quanitity.

 

Onwards and upwards and Rafa's best ever season.

[hamstrung]

I'd say his best ever season was the one where we won the big shiny cuppy thing.

[shaunstrudwick]

who do you think we can get in Nick?

 

Eto'o & Silva could be v.good additions imo

 

add to that Barry for Lucas and get in Richards for RB maybe?

 

Babel and Dossena to leave

 

maybe we should look at a different ressie keeper as Cavelieri (or whatever) is v.weak

[JohnnyH]

That's exactly what I was just thinking. It's great that we are the ones in the race. What is so important now is that there is no repeat of 2002-2003. We have had a very good season and are on course for 86 points. A tally that will have won the league more often then not. So it is vital that we move on next season and get even more points. With the right signings I can see no reason why we can't win the league next year.

[Guest TK-421]

Definitely our best season in the league under Rafa so far and I think we'll win the last two games to end on 86 points. It probably won't be enough but we've put in a very good effort.

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

Fucking hell.

 

Red Nick in positive post shocker.

 

As Chris Kamara would say, "unbelievable Jeff".

[Trucker Paddy]

At least we made Utd go and win the title rather than us losing it.

 

Rafa's two titles were won well Real and Barca fell away respectively. However Manu dont fall away but it is good that we kept up the pressure until the last two games of the season.

 

Stevie G summed up everything perfectly in his post match interview yesterday.

 

Now its time to look forward and not backwards as long as we dont repeat the mistakes.

 

Hopefully this summer we buy the creative player to win us the title next season and buy one or two players of real quality, Quality and not quanitity.

 

Onwards and upwards and Rafa's best ever season.

 

The thing is Nick it was all the Draws last season aswell that cost us and we did'nt learn from that, last summer same shit not one player signed that improved the 1st team, Quality not quantity I agree with you 1 top class attacking left sided player and a top right fullback is whats required, but this is Rafa he'll sign another keeper another left full 2 more centre midfielders and a couple for the future, and next summer we could still be saying were only a couple of players away.

[Guest LFD]

If only Torres stayed fit longer this season...

[Trucker Paddy]

If only Torres stayed fit longer this season...

 

Alot of those points dropped were when he was in the team, we were 2 reliant on him and Gerrard, we should have bought better last summer as another source of goals/gamebreaker. Lets just hope we dont make the same mistakes this summer.

[Red Nick]

The thing is Nick it was all the Draws last season aswell that cost us and we did'nt learn from that, last summer same shit not one player signed that improved the 1st team, Quality not quantity I agree with you 1 top class attacking left sided player and a top right fullback is whats required, but this is Rafa he'll sign another keeper another left full 2 more centre midfielders and a couple for the future, and next summer we could still be saying were only a couple of players away.

 

Agree with all of that I just dont see the point in dwelling on the title we should have won. Whatever some of us feel about the manage he is going to be the manager for next season so its best to start off in a positive frame of mind. This summers transfer businees will have a big impact on how we do next season and hopefully Rafa is prepared to change and start to risk losing a game to win a game.

[Catch22]

We have scored more goals than the Mancs but lost the title as we have conceeded more.

We scored 5 goals over 2 legs in the CL but went out

 

Yet people demand a 'creative' signing...........

[Crazyhorse7778]

The stats don't lie.

[Trucker Paddy]

We have scored more goals than the Mancs but lost the title as we have conceeded more.

We scored 5 goals over 2 legs in the CL but went out

 

Yet people demand a 'creative' signing...........

 

11 draws

[Woo]

We have scored more goals than the Mancs but lost the title as we have conceeded more.

We scored 5 goals over 2 legs in the CL but went out

 

Yet people demand a 'creative' signing...........

 

Yes, because what has cost us the title is not scoring against the lesser sides at home. Mainly because we have not 'CREATED' good enough chances to score.

 

I don't see how anybody can argue that is what we desperately require.

[The 5th Benitel]

We have scored more goals than the Mancs but lost the title as we have conceeded more.

We scored 5 goals over 2 legs in the CL but went out

 

Yet people demand a 'creative' signing...........

 

But the run of games that cost us points were cos we were struggling to score cos of a lack of decent replacements/other quality attacking options and general negative play. I'd be interested to see if we'd scored more goals than the mancs before the Real games.

 

We've scored more cos since that game we've been consistantly been putting 3 or more past teams. The reason we're not gonna win the league all happened in the 2 or 3 months prior to that.

 

And i agree he got his tactics wrong for the Chelsea game but the return leg was a freak and doesn't tell you much. Chelsea were really unlucky to concede one goal against the best attacking team in the world so a game where they concede 4 can harldy be considered typical.

[Catch22]

Yes, because what has cost us the title is not scoring against the lesser sides at home. Mainly because we have not 'CREATED' good enough chances to score.

 

I don't see how anybody can argue that is what we desperately require.

 

 

Least goals let in correlates much better than most goals scored with finishing position.

 

Just on our games

 

4-4 vs Arse (h)!!

1-1 vs Citeh (h)

1-1 vs Wigan when ahead with 10 mins to go

1-1 vs BS (h)

2-2 vs Hull (h) !!!

1-2 vs Spurs from a leading position

 

13 points dropped compared to keeping a clean sheet

 

Creativity is better to watch but if you want to win things you have to be tighter at the back than we have been this year.

[The 5th Benitel]

Least goals let in correlates much better than most goals scored with finishing position.

 

Just on our games

 

4-4 vs Arse (h)!!

1-1 vs Citeh (h)

1-1 vs Wigan when ahead with 10 mins to go

1-1 vs BS (h)

2-2 vs Hull (h) !!!

1-2 vs Spurs from a leading position

 

13 points dropped compared to keeping a clean sheet

 

Creativity is better to watch but if you want to win things you have to be tighter at the back than we have been this year.

 

 

Arsenal: 3 very bad and uncharacteristic mistakes cost us.

 

City: We barely attack, the other team nicks one (always a possibility) we go hell for leather but only have enough time to get one back.

 

Wigan: Fail to put enough daylight between us and them (2-0 and it would have been over) and an individual mistake cost us, which can always happen to any team eg Vidic against us.

 

BS: Similar to above. Dont attack enough to finsh them off and get caught by a set piece which is also one of their big strengths.

 

Hull: This is the best example. Dossena plays like he's snorted Nytol before he comes on the pitch and we find ourselves 2 down. The players visably abandon negative tactics and get us level, nearly putting us ahead. He gets us in at halftime, we sit back again, they dont threaten but neither do we. 2 points dropped.

 

Spurs: I wouldn't actually be that critical with this one. We were very unlucky imo.

[Woo]

Least goals let in correlates much better than most goals scored with finishing position.

 

Just on our games

 

4-4 vs Arse (h)!!

1-1 vs Citeh (h)

1-1 vs Wigan when ahead with 10 mins to go

1-1 vs BS (h)

2-2 vs Hull (h) !!!

1-2 vs Spurs from a leading position

 

13 points dropped compared to keeping a clean sheet

 

Creativity is better to watch but if you want to win things you have to be tighter at the back than we have been this year.

 

Villa (A) - 0-0

Stoke (H) - 0-0

Fulham (H) - 0-0

West Ham (H) - 0-0

Hull (H) - 2-2

Stoke (A) - 0-0

Wigan (A) - 1-1

Everton (H) - 1-1

Boro (A) - 2-0

 

All games we should have won, that we didn't, mainly due to the fact that we didn't create enough clear chances.

 

In 6 of those, your precious clean sheets were still kept.

 

That is what has cost us the league this season. Not the fact that we have conceded 26 goals in the league this season. We have kept clean sheets in over half our league games I believe.

 

Failure to score in games, correlates more with no success, than conceding less than a goal a game.

[The 5th Benitel]

Villa (A) - 0-0

Stoke (H) - 0-0

Fulham (H) - 0-0

West Ham (H) - 0-0

Hull (H) - 2-2

Stoke (A) - 0-0

Wigan (A) - 1-1

Everton (H) - 1-1

Boro (A) - 2-0

 

All games we should have won, that we didn't, mainly due to the fact that we didn't create enough clear chances.

 

In 6 of those, your precious clean sheets were still kept.

 

That is what has cost us the league this season. Not the fact that we have conceded 26 goals in the league this season. We have kept clean sheets in over half our league games I believe.

 

Failure to score in games, correlates more with no success, than conceding less than a goal a game.

 

Exactly and the mancs clean sheet run got so much attention cos it was so unusual. The fact is most teams in our league are capable of nicking a goal so it's vital you're capable of scoring a few to avoid losing games like the ones mentioned above or drawing the games Catch 22 highlighted.

 

Completely agree with what Woo has said there. Anyone suggesting it's our defending that's cost us the league is choosing to ignore most of our games from xmas up to when we played Real. There were also a number of warning signs in the games before that i.e Boro, Wigan, Pompey.

[Dougie Do'ins]

Although we have obviously improved, I think we more than played our part in letting UTD back into the title chase. Even if we end the season in second place its a massive disappointment for me.

[Monkeywool]

Basically, we couldn't win in our blip, no matter what we did. We missed a couple of match winners from the bench who could have popped up when we were struggling and scored a winner. Keane could or maybe should have been the guy, but he wasn't. After that, we had Ngog, who is good but not exactly a match winner, and Babel, who must just wake up and ask his mirror or just flip a coin to see if he is gonna play well.

[Newport]

At least we made Utd go and win the title rather than us losing it.

 

Well, in my opinion we lost the title to them through our poor results at home in the middle of the season. And that fucking game at White Hart Lane where we had the three points in our pocket and should have killed the game several times.

 

A great season by all means, but unfortunately we don't have anyone else than ourselves to blame for not winning the title.

[Torvald Utne]

At least we made Utd go and win the title rather than us losing it.

 

Rafa's two titles were won well Real and Barca fell away respectively. However Manu dont fall away but it is good that we kept up the pressure until the last two games of the season.

 

Stevie G summed up everything perfectly in his post match interview yesterday.

 

Now its time to look forward and not backwards as long as we dont repeat the mistakes.

 

Hopefully this summer we buy the creative player to win us the title next season and buy one or two players of real quality, Quality and not quanitity.

 

Onwards and upwards and Rafa's best ever season.

 

[YOUTUBE]JEH59SV0njU[/YOUTUBE]

[Croque Monsieur]

At least we made Utd go and win the title rather than us losing it.

 

We lost it. We were seven points clear at one point.

[welsh_kopite]

I think there is a number of reasons we need a really creative player. Firstly, the games we have drawn 0-0 this season, the Stoke games for example. Teams toward the lower end of the table generally set up against us to purely defend and keep us from scoring. In these games you need a little bit of magic or that deft touch to set up a goal etc. With an added creative talent, we'll have a player to provide this. Furthermore, in these games you tend to see Gerrard and Torres being marked very closely or even doubled up on...teams target them as the threats. However, with another quality attacking threat, he'll have more space with Gerrard and Torres being marked. Even if they then decide to mark him closely, the rest of the team will have more space. It's all about firepower and having players who can create something from nothing. Realistically, we only have Gerrard and Torres to do this. Would it hurt to have three 'genuine' creative players. By creative I refer to creating something from nothing.

 

Secondly, clean sheets have been mentioned and how we've conceded goals in games that we shouldn't have. I think the point is that had we scored more goals in these games and had the benefit of another quality attacking threat then we wouldn't of had to worry about conceding late goals and hanging on at 1-0. It could be also be said this is down to our mind-set and sitting back when we are 1-0 up. However, adding another quality attacking option will only increase our chances of scoring and arguably provide us with more chances to turn a 1-0 into a 2/3-0.

 

Take United for example. They rely so heavily on Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez and Berbatov to a certain extent. How many games have they been 0-0 or with the scores level and then any of these four pop up with a goal towards the end. We have Torres and Gerrard but outside of these two, it's hard to see where that bit of individual brilliance will come from.

 

Who this player is I don't know, I'd love us to sign David Silva. I think he'd be great here and really improve our attacking options. Silva, Barry and Tevez would be great and give us that added push to win us the title next season.