Swansea V Liverpool (13/5/12)

[Ring of Fire]

Absolutely bang on mate, nothing i can add to that. Couldn't agree more.

 

As always Randy, nail on head.

 

Thanks DM, you useless twat.

[buffaloboy]

I also agree Randy. I love Kenny but I can't honestly see next season being much better with him in charge. If he was to leave now people can say he won a cup and he can go with a bit of dignity. He bought crap in the summer and other players there already have gone backwards. It's not the players who set transfer fees but however you work it out we had Carroll 35m and Suarez 22m against Swansea City and drew another blank. Graham who cost Swansea 3.5m got the winner against us. It's not a one off either.

 

Bellamy was fantastic until January when he hasn't scored or been much good since. It's a carbon copy of his first season for us a few years ago.

[DooooodekNo5]

Faustas and Randy spot on ...... couldn't of said it better.

[DooooodekNo5]

Closer to relegation than Champions League. We've regressed this season at an alarming rate. I'm shocked that people want to go into next season with a few tweaks and a bit of luck.

 

Its truly fucking astounding after spending all that money that we gone went so far backwards , thats what crushes me , anyone of us on here could of spent that money better ............ This club just doesn't ever seem to have people with sense running it.

[billypilgrimnz]

wow, what a stupid thing to say.

 

Notice the important use of the word "almost". And the fact on my TV, it didn't show the Mancs crying, which would have cheered me up no end.

 

But I get no pleasure from a bunch of City fans celebrating. Sorry, that's just me. Fuck them. I want Liverpool to do well, or no-one.

[FrenchEyeGlass]

37% possession.

 

Against Swansea.

 

Sigh.

[KopOut]

Off The Pitch:The fact is, this club should never have been sold to the American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks. Was it the better deal? Or should it have been Sheikh Mohammed and DIC? It was going to be, and we would have gone down a very different road if it had been. Was David Moores negligent, in looking to line his pockets just a bit thicker??

 

On The Pitch: During the 2008–09 season we achieved 86 points, our highest Premier League points total, and finished as runners up to Manchester United, then (from memory) with essentially the same team, in the 2009–10 season, we finished seventh in the Premier League and failed to qualify for the Champions League. If this sort of thing can happen, I'm starting to think that it's a fucking lottery this football lark.

[moof]

Another match thread ruined by the same people posting the same posts over and over again.

 

 

This was the deadest rubberiest game I can possibly imagine. Up to FSG to decide what happens with the back room staff, we have to support their decision (personally I hope they decide to keep Kenny); and the manager, whoever he may be, needs to find one or two gems in the summer and get rid of some under performing/uncommitted players.

 

It's football, at the end of the day. A game between 22 men. Anything can happen next year. Well, almost anything, if you consider all the shit that went on this season then it couldn't possibly get worse.

[Jarvinja Ilnow]

I couldn't agree more, Randy lad. It's disgusting what we've become.

 

This goes well beyond Hicks and Gillett, for me. We've dithered on every fucking thing as a club for 20 odd years. We've twiddled our thumbs over a stadium and been content to stick a stand on top of the Anny Road as the filth have steamrolled Salford to cram 76,000 into their gaffe. We've dithered over signings even before Abramovich and Mansour came into the picture. What's that, Roy Evans? You want Desailly and Sheringham? Too old- take Kvarme and an over the hill Karlheinz Riedle instead. We've been run as a joke for 20 years and we've sat by with our hands on our arses saying 'it's the Liverpool way' (which, frankly, I think is as far away from what Shankly originally envisioned and has now come to justify mediocrity- as Rick Parry appeared to do in Brian Reade's 'Epic Swindle').

 

The mentality has crept in over 20 years and it's absolutely disgusting. Fucking disgusting. Everybody at this club needs a long hard look at themselves- and I include supporters in this- to see if they've got what it takes to make this club great again.

 

Fucking sick at what we've become. Sorry if I'm become repetetive, but we've just got to get back to believing we're the best as a start. The rest will follow.

 

Spot on. Somewhere along the way someone confused consistency with stagnation and called it 'TLW'. It suited Rick Parry's agenda to trot this out whenever he was faced with a task he was daunted by, or lacked the skills or courage to face. Ditto for Moores.

 

The problem is TLW became a byword for what we had when were were massively successful. We were not resting on our laurels during this period, we were aggressive and operated much like Bayern do in Germany, snatching up the best domestic talent and weakening our rivals.

 

This cowardly, pathetic version of TLW that is trotted out all the time is a myth. It wasn't that of Shankly when he came in and took the club in a different direction, putting administrators in their place, chopping out the dead wood, and changing the club kit so we had a different aura. This was the real Liverpool Way, though. It was the committment to excellence, and the pursuit of the number one spot.

 

It was ruthless and single mided, and didn't cut slack to people who couldn't contribute to our success. When Shanks resigned the club was aware he could be a Busby type ghost, exerting his influence over the staff and causing Bob Paisley problems; so he was not allowed to do that. The club effectively marginalised a true club 'legend' - a word so commonly used for the mediocre that it shows how deeply our malaise has set in with the fans as well.

 

Consistency is essential when things are going your way but detrimental when you are in the doldrums, as we have been for most of the last 20 years.

 

Would Smith and Robinson have allowed this to happen? Definitely not. They would have adapted to the problems faced by us in the modern game. They would have developed a strategy and would have implemented it ruthlessly, regardless of whose feathers it ruffled. For all those crying about the title being bought, it was us (not the Mancs) who went into shirt advertising first - to give us an advantage over the rest. If Robinson was with us now, he might even have gone out to court a rich Mansoor like sugar daddy if it meant solving our problems. We need to stop believing in this myth ofthe cowardly, ineffective version of TLW.

 

I hope FSG can make the difficult decisons. I believe Kenny needs the chance to implement his vision next season but if there is no sign he has learned from this season then it would make no sense to persevere with him. I hope and believe he can bring us through this.

[Randy Marsh]

Another match thread ruined by the same people posting the same posts over and over again.

 

 

This was the deadest rubberiest game I can possibly imagine. Up to FSG to decide what happens with the back room staff, we have to support their decision (personally I hope they decide to keep Kenny); and the manager, whoever he may be, needs to find one or two gems in the summer and get rid of some under performing/uncommitted players.

 

It's football, at the end of the day. A game between 22 men. Anything can happen next year. Well, almost anything, if you consider all the shit that went on this season then it couldn't possibly get worse.

 

You say yesterday was a dead rubber. What is the excuse for the other 24 league games we have failed to win? It goes much deeper than yesterday, which was just the icing on a very shit cake. If it's a dead rubber then blood the future, Sterling, Coates, don't persist with the shite who have delivered our worst league display in half a century. Our capitulation in the past 6 months, particularly since the Carling Cup Final when everyone on the club said we would kick on, is a total disgrace and a massive disrespect to the supporters.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

37% possession.

 

Against Swansea.

 

Sigh.

 

That's credit to our players. Unlike Hodgson, at least Kenny doesn't actually believe this stuff.

[05 Milan]

What a terrible league season.

 

My heart says Kenny will turn it around. My head says he'll be a dead man walking next season, as the pressure on him will be unbearable when we fall out of next season's title race in september/october. It's going to get very ugly.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

What a terrible league season.

 

My heart says Kenny will turn it around. My head says he'll be a dead man walking next season, as the pressure on him will be unbearable when we fall out of next season's title race in september/october. It's going to get very ugly.

 

Well, we either keep him for all of next season, regardless of what happens on the pitch, or we get somebody in now. No top manager wants to leave a team half-way through the season and join another club.

[J-V]

You say yesterday was a dead rubber. What is the excuse for the other 24 league games we have failed to win? It goes much deeper than yesterday, which was just the icing on a very shit cake. If it's a dead rubber then blood the future, Sterling, Coates, don't persist with the shite who have delivered our worst league display in half a century. Our capitulation in the past 6 months, particularly since the Carling Cup Final when everyone on the club said we would kick on, is a total disgrace and a massive disrespect to the supporters.

 

It's only a dead rubber because we lost. Had we won we'd have to hear about what a great win it was and of course our title push next season.

Edited May 14, 2012 by J-V

[Gym Beglin]

Sounds like somebody had tapped up Skrtel

If its city we need to be d them over a barrell and get players or a wheel barrow of cash.

If Lescott is worth 24ml we need to be getting the same.

Johnson,Milner,Adebayor would be worth asking for.

 

We'll never get £24m for Skrtel if he's handed in a transfer request.

We're more likely to get Stefan Savic plus £7m, or something equally useless.

 

IF it was Skrtel, and I'm not altogether convinces it was, then I'd take £15m. On his day, partnered with someone like Agger, he's brilliant.

On another day, without Agger, he can be disasterous.

 

I think that Enrique and Reina are more likely to jump ship than Skrtel, and I wouldnt be at all surprised if it was Suarez, and I wouldn't blame him after the way we 'defended' him this season.

 

 

In terms of player recruitment, I usually fast forward through player interviews on MOTD, I find that all bland and wank and unintelligent at the best of times, but I thought I'd listen to Vincent Kompany and give him a chance. He's exactly the sort of player that we lack. An intelligent, personable, hard-working, talented lad who has life in perspective. He said everything that I'd want one of our players to say, he is the sort of player we desperately miss around this club. We've got far too many sheep and not enough shephards on the pitch and on the training ground.

Again, it's a Kenny fault. When you buy a player, you have to look at what ego and personality is coming with that 'talent'. There's far, far too many 'drones' in our set-up, and in football in general these days, such is the ease with which many of these players drift through from a young age, to academies and then into a comfortable life, it's no wonder that many of them don't have any fight in them, any bollocks when the going gets tough.

[silverlining]

 

and I wouldnt be at all surprised if it was Suarez, and I wouldn't blame him after the way we 'defended' him this season.

 

 

What? He got defended above and beyond anything reasonable. The entire club and support defended him to the hilt.

[silverlining]

 

Again, it's a Kenny fault. When you buy a player, you have to look at what ego and personality is coming with that 'talent'. There's far, far too many 'drones' in our set-up, and in football in general these days, such is the ease with which many of these players drift through from a young age, to academies and then into a comfortable life, it's no wonder that many of them don't have any fight in them, any bollocks when the going gets tough.

 

 

I think we should recruit entirely from corrupt, war-torn, medieval African hellholes who like chopping eachother's limbs off and give AK-47s to seven year olds.

[Gym Beglin]

Spot on. Somewhere along the way someone confused consistency with stagnation and called it 'TLW'. It suited Rick Parry's agenda to trot this out whenever he was faced with a task he was daunted by, or lacked the skills or courage to face. Ditto for Moores.

 

The problem is TLW became a byword for what we had when were were massively successful. We were not resting on our laurels during this period, we were aggressive and operated much like Bayern do in Germany, snatching up the best domestic talent and weakening our rivals.

 

This cowardly, pathetic version of TLW that is trotted out all the time is a myth. It wasn't that of Shankly when he came in and took the club in a different direction, putting administrators in their place, chopping out the dead wood, and changing the club kit so we had a different aura. This was the real Liverpool Way, though. It was the committment to excellence, and the pursuit of the number one spot.

 

It was ruthless and single mided, and didn't cut slack to people who couldn't contribute to our success. When Shanks resigned the club was aware he could be a Busby type ghost, exerting his influence over the staff and causing Bob Paisley problems; so he was not allowed to do that. The club effectively marginalised a true club 'legend' - a word so commonly used for the mediocre that it shows how deeply our malaise has set in with the fans as well.

 

Consistency is essential when things are going your way but detrimental when you are in the doldrums, as we have been for most of the last 20 years.

 

Would Smith and Robinson have allowed this to happen? Definitely not. They would have adapted to the problems faced by us in the modern game. They would have developed a strategy and would have implemented it ruthlessly, regardless of whose feathers it ruffled. For all those crying about the title being bought, it was us (not the Mancs) who went into shirt advertising first - to give us an advantage over the rest. If Robinson was with us now, he might even have gone out to court a rich Mansoor like sugar daddy if it meant solving our problems. We need to stop believing in this myth ofthe cowardly, ineffective version of TLW.

 

I hope FSG can make the difficult decisons. I believe Kenny needs the chance to implement his vision next season but if there is no sign he has learned from this season then it would make no sense to persevere with him. I hope and believe he can bring us through this.

 

That's fantstic work, well done.

 

We're further away from TLW than we've ever been. It was never TLW to accept and fucking rejoice in mediocrity. That's the problem, we accept mediocrity and we then expect excellence.

 

After thinking about it a bit longer, I AM now interested in who becomes our new CEO, because it's going to be vital to how the manager runs the club

We have to pick a CEO and a Manager that share a vision and a way of doing things, and have similar standards of ethics and desire to dominate.

The players must feel a bit helpless at the moment if they dont like the way Kenny is running things, who do they go to? FSG wont have the time to micro manage things like that, and vice versa, if the manager has a problem player.

[shaunstrudwick]

we need someone at a CEO/director of football level with a vision of where LFC needs to be in 5 years and the nous to get us there

 

FSG have come in with the objective of what? Spend a net £50m to get us back into the top 4? is that really a big enough statement of intent?

 

regardless they hired Comolli to target the right players to acheive CL qualification - and he failed

 

however did anyone have any faith in Comolli when he was hired? the most notable thing he did at Spurs was persuading Modric to go there - Bale was a no brainer really as Spurs are going to be a stepping stone club and were about his level when he was signed - that said i was disappointed we didn't get him

 

the fact remains that the squad still needs a massive overhaul and we are slipping down the pecking order when it comes to snapping up new talent - see Jones and Young opting for the Mancs over us - and not only that but we can't compete with City financially where every player costs £25m or more

 

it's between us, Spurs and Arsenal for attracting a similar Tier 1/Tier 2 player - Chelsea are above us just cos Abramovic can spend whatever the fuck he wants when he wants

 

Arsenal and possibly Spurs will be playing CL football next year - and that makes a massive difference also

 

i know this is a bit of a rant but the bottom line is not only we are still playing catch up - but now the league has even moved on further since Hicks and Gillette came in

 

if we had brought in the right owners back in 2007 i have no doubt we would've won the league because with Rafa you could see that we were moving in the right direction - even if we did lose the 2007 CL final [which we should never have done] :(

 

but events off the pitch have dragged us down and we are now in a starting postion even worse than where we were in 2007 before G&H came in: in terms of squad i would say we are about the same but all of our rivals have improved significantly more than we have in the meantime

 

whatever happens next we need to get it right - and this time it is even more important than at any time in the previous 20+ years

[Gym Beglin]

What? He got defended above and beyond anything reasonable. The entire club and support defended him to the hilt.

 

I dont think we supported him competently, we ended up making him look more of a tit, and in the end we distanced ourself from him. Still the glaring point about the whole thing lacking credible evidence, but we accepted it in the end, because it's United and they don't lie.

[moof]

You say yesterday was a dead rubber. What is the excuse for the other 24 league games we have failed to win? It goes much deeper than yesterday, which was just the icing on a very shit cake. If it's a dead rubber then blood the future, Sterling, Coates, don't persist with the shite who have delivered our worst league display in half a century. Our capitulation in the past 6 months, particularly since the Carling Cup Final when everyone on the club said we would kick on, is a total disgrace and a massive disrespect to the supporters.

 

This is a thread for yesterday's game, if you want to argue about the rest of our season then there are plenty of threads to do that in. As for not blooding the youth, a reason for not playing them could be that it is probably maxi, Dirk and (possibly) Carra's last game at the club? I hardly see this as a game to get upset about, merely a footnote to an awful season that I want to try and forget asap

[piscinin]

Downing in the league

 

Played 35 - 0 goals, 0 assists

 

I think

 

Meireles contributed more to our league season.

 

Played 30 minutes 0 goals, 1 assist.

[FrenchEyeGlass]

Meireles contributed more to our league season.

 

Played 30 minutes 0 goals, 1 assist.

 

Bloody hell. Thats an incredible feat achieved by Downing.

 

It actually seems like theres limitless amounts of embarrassing stats regarding our team and our season.

[Lee909]

 

Meireles contributed more to our league season.

 

Played 30 minutes 0 goals, 1 assist.

 

To be fair Michael Essien contributed more goals to our season than Downing.

[thompsonsnose]

This is a thread for yesterday's game, if you want to argue about the rest of our season then there are plenty of threads to do that in. As for not blooding the youth, a reason for not playing them could be that it is probably maxi, Dirk and (possibly) Carra's last game at the club? I hardly see this as a game to get upset about, merely a footnote to an awful season that I want to try and forget asap

 

As far as i can remember Maxi and Kuyt did their waves goodbye at Anfield in the week.

I think thats how Maxi Dirk and Carra would have preferred to do their sign offs.

No excuse for not giving some younger lads a game.

There hasn't been an excuse for that since about February to be honest. Sadly, Kenny chose to pay Carragher for Coates, Downing for Sterling and Gerrard in a weaker position, or persevering with Spearing, instead of Shelvey.

So from Feb onwards, he's learnt the best part of fuck all about some of our younger prospects.

So it's not just about yesterdays game, hes done it for nearly half a season.

Baffling really.