Your man Tomkins

[Royal Family]

Lucas is "getting better and better". For crying out loud, even his strongest supporters have to admit that he's been abject in the last few games, afater playing decentlky earlier in the season.

 

That's the problem with Tomkins - he may have some good and valid points to make, but then you read a nugget like this, which is so hysterically hyperbolic and so patently wrong, that you can't take ANYTHING he says seriously.

[WaltonRed]

"Enforced changes". We have a manager who constantly made 3/4 changes every week for 4 seasons and defended that policy by telling us that rotation was the way to go. Now that the changes are forced, Tomkins is telling us that this an excuse for the results?

 

"I don't want to sound like I'm just making excuses, but I'm finding it almost impossible to judge the performances this season.

What should we expect of the team when constantly missing players, with numerous enforced changes each and every week?

 

Maybe I should expect more. Or maybe others expect too much."

 

 

I copied and pasted that bit to make exactly the same point Hermes.

 

What a joke of a article written by someone who needs to remember were his loyalties lie first and foremost.

[Whelan]

"Enforced changes". We have a manager who constantly made 3/4 changes every week for 4 seasons and defended that policy by telling us that rotation was the way to go. Now that the changes are forced, Tomkins is telling us that this an excuse for the results?

 

 

Yeah, cos they are exactly the same thing aren't they, exactly.

 

 

Lucas is "getting better and better". For crying out loud, even his strongest supporters have to admit that he's been abject in the last few games, afater playing decentlky earlier in the season.

 

That's the problem with Tomkins - he may have some good and valid points to make, but then you read a nugget like this, which is so hysterically hyperbolic and so patently wrong, that you can't take ANYTHING he says seriously.

 

Lucas has been playing really well of late, as have the team, average on Saturday mind.

[spider-neil]

seriously, what the fuck do you expect him to say? he is a writer employed by the official site. 'somehow' I don't think, 'we are shite, our defense is shite, we have a sqaud of mediocrity and rafa should be sacked post haste' will go down to well with his employers.

[Royal Family]

"I don't want to sound like I'm just making excuses, but I'm finding it almost impossible to judge the performances this season.

What should we expect of the team when constantly missing players, with numerous enforced changes each and every week?

 

Maybe I should expect more. Or maybe others expect too much."

 

 

I copied and pasted that bit to make exactly the same point Hermes.

 

What a joke of a article written by someone who needs to remember were his loyalties lie first and foremost.

 

But also he's a fan of rotation - so. by his own argument, the squad OUGHT to be able to cope easily with 3 to 4 changes per match. That's the problem with his logic - rotation is good when Rafa does it willingly, but when forced upon him it's bad because we have a clear first XI?

 

Pathetic - why not just admit we're playing badly but hope we'll come out of this slump, and ask players (ie Kuyt, Lucas, Carra even) to take a bit more responsibility rather than hiding on the pitch.

[rondeco]

As far as I can recall, all 3 subs on saturday were enforced changes. Changes made during a game. Rotation was about starting a different team every week. Not making subs. And this rotation myth was blown to pieces when it was shown that ferguson and mourihno changed as much if not more than rafa did.

[rondeco]

Plus during this 'rotation' era, didn't the back four remain the same consistently? I doubt ti has remained the same for more than 2 games this season.

[Mr T]

We need some straight talking now and none of this snivelling excuse making. I understand the wider picture, the problems with the owners but Rafa should not be making such fundamental mistakes over and over again. Just fuck off Kuyt, make inspiring substitutions and sort out the fucking defense for set pieces. It shouldn't be that hard.

[goatboy59]

There's another "cut-off point", 1 win in 10? 11? 12? 13?

 

Happily side-stepped, I see.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

In Houllier's darkest days it was 1 win in 13 wasn't it? Maybe the cut off point is when we go for the record!

[WaltonRed]

Next two games will sort it out one way or another for me.

[Faustus]

The man's become a parody of himself.

[CityofLiverpool]

Tomkins..

 

for me, anything written which is NOT close to realistic, is horrible.

 

Tomkins is horrible, fucking Alice in Wonderland.

[goatboy59]

In Houllier's darkest days it was 1 win in 13 wasn't it? Maybe the cut off point is when we go for the record!

That might be league only, he did get a few cup wins in-between.

 

And he did rack up 30 pts from the opening 12 games.

[Whelan]

That might be league only, he did get a few cup wins in-between.

 

And he did rack up 30 pts from the opening 12 games.

 

Didn't get many from the rest though did he! Starting the Houllier revisionism a bit early aren't you? Normally we wait until the new manager is in place before we start eulogising on the past.

[Lario]

Flame away, but I like reading Tomkins stuff.

 

I really want Rafa to get us out of the mess we're in, and to win us the league (probably not this year mind). The thought of us getting rid of him doesn't sit easily with me at all.

The amount of (sometimes unwarranted) grief Rafa's been getting for years now is incredible. From playing Gerrard out of position, to zonal marking, to rotation, to the "rant", and now our current plight.

Now I'm not for one mintue saying we're in a great position at the minute, or that some of his substitutions haven't been baffling. But he knows a whole pile more about his squad, and football in general, than any of us on here.

 

So reading Tomkins stuff dampens all the negativity for me.

[Tom R]

[RedinSweden]

Speaking of whom; does any fellow fossil remember the completely unnecessary glasses he used to wear as an ITV pundit? Worra fuckin ballooon

 

You could see his glasses? How could you look past his blinding shiny jackets?

[Antynwa]

Expect too much.

 

To be fair to Tomkins one win in ten is pretty greedy.

 

Fucking hell

[RedKnight]

Expect to much, when did winning matches become a high expectation for LFC? Dickhead.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

In Houllier's darkest days it was 1 win in 13 wasn't it? Maybe the cut off point is when we go for the record!

 

Wasn't that when Thommo was standing in after Ged had had the operation? Wasn't it November till January or something?

[Tom R]

Wasn't that when Thommo was standing in after Ged had had the operation? Wasn't it November till January or something?

 

No. I think was when we were unbeaten so far, and then for some reason Ged decided to play one up front against Boro and we imploded from there on in.

[Tom R]

I seem to remember us doing quite well under Thommo...

[stringvest]

I don't want to sound like I'm just making excuses, but I'm finding it almost impossible to judge the performances this season.

 

Believe me, he would not have found it at all difficult to judge the performances this season had we played well and accumulated a few wins over the last few months. What a complete merchant.

[goatboy59]

I seem to remember us doing quite well under Thommo...

He did have his own blip around Christmas and New Year, but nothing like as bad as what followed a year later.

 

The original poster did mean 02/03.