neopulian

Adam Hammill

How's his splinters collection from Southampton, BTW?

;) Yep Joe Cole never dives. Or Tery or Lampard. Or Rooney.

Gerrard :eek:

:tease:

Santa Cruz is still only 26 & would have been a good foil for Torres.

Did someone forget to mention that he flopped at Bayern and had a long history of niggling injuries?

Imagine the reaction from some of your truly here if we had PAID for an "injury-prone Paraguayan flop". You can forget "Fuck off Benayoun".

Blackburn gambled and it paid off. Good for them. Period

Some of you mofos have no shame.

What about the fact that "Where a million miles away"from winning the title.

 

People who think where a player "here and there" away from winning the league need to have a good look at themselves.

 

We will struggle to finish top 4. Get rid now.

Wanna put your money where you mout...er... finger is? I say we WILL finish in the top 4 (comfortably at that).

When Rafa took over he knew, and made it clear to everyone, that removing Arsenal and Man United from the summit would take time. Tell me, how many years did the Mancs give Ferguson before winning ONE trophy, never mind the league title? Was is 7 seasons or something like that?

 

People also often forget (or rather, prefer ignorance of) the fact that when ManU took over, there was a power vacuum. We under Souness fucked up beyond all recognitions and took themselves off the top. Arsenal became complacent in George Graham's last few years. It was left to Man U, Leeds, and Sheff Wednesday to fight for hegemony and Man U was in the best position (financial resources, will, and planning) to take over. IOW, in a race, it helps for people have to play catch up if the leader slow down a bit (or ground to a halt, aka Liverpool circa early 90s).

If anything, the arm race at top top of the EPL heated up enormously in the last few years. Man U and Chelsea invested even more in their squad. In such situation, it's difficult to keep pace let alone overtaking them. Psychologically, we're also weighted down by the same thing that plagued Man U for 27 years -- the burden of over-expectation.

There was a small windows to recapture the championship in the past during Evans reign-- but we fucked up and finished 3rd in a 2 horses race.

There's no need for the aggression in that post mate. By all means disagree with him but how about putting your point across in a manner which will command a reasoned response?

I understand the deficiency of this medium as a platform for communication. For instance, there is a much wider grey area between fire benitez/worship benitez extremes (or similar derivatives, you get my point). Even when we talk face to face, misunderstandings can be riped due to our personal prejudices, presumptions, e.t.c... let alone when we do it through a keyboard, which minimized/neutralized the nuances of non-verbal expressions.

If the point of communication is to reach an understanding, one line snide based on a possible false premise can only have the opposite effect. If he wanted a reasonable response, he should have kept reason in play.

On the other hand, rude scolding doesn't exactly inspire deep understanding either, Mea culpa.

 

There are some holes in your logic as well IMO. You say it's speculative to presume that Gerrard was playing deep on instructions, yet then you say he was obviously doing so because of the Everton substitution and England debacle. How do you know this? Did he tell you that?

What hole? I was dismantling the presumption that Benitez was tying an anchor to Gerrard at half time. Rather, the difference, I argued, was that we got lazy and we sucked after the half (hence Gerrard had to stay behind more). About Gerrard working on the tactical aspect of his game, he said as much in some of the interviews.

Also, the reason that Benayoun was brought on for Hyypia was that a centre back was absent from the bench, which is a tactical issue to be fair.

It was a mistake (not sure tactical is the right word for this kind of bench selection mistake), but he could have sent in someone else, less attacking -- Mascherano for instance.

I think the main concern today is not the team selection, but the tactics.

Enough with this mindless snidey stupid shit. Mind pointing out his tactical deficiencies in the game? Not saying his tactic was bona fide, mind.

Your single issue seemed to be why Gerrard played so deep in the second half and seemed convinced that Benitez ordered him to do so. Other than the fact that your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what was happening at the halftime team talk, due all respects, what utter drivel.

All the players had responsibility, in attacking and defending, and most of all, captain and central midfielder Steven Gerrard. IOW, Gerrard had to do his share of defensive works. Period. Not to mention recently he's been working on his tactical awareness after the debacle with England and his substitution against Everton.

We came out in the second half playing without any rhythm. Passes after passes were misplaced. What good would Gerrard do upfield without the fucking ball AND proper support? If Rafa was so bloody mind about protecting the scoreline, why did he replace Hyypia with Benayoun?

Rafa should have done better keeping his players focused for the second half. All other criticism are, rather, speculative with the aid of hindsight.

I'd love to know what the problem was. If it was totally down to the players, then why didn't we see Rafa on the touchline going beserk at them? At one point he was stood there on the touchline pushing his hands together and telling the team to be compact.

 

Now i'm not a manager (obivously) but i'm pretty sure that you try to keep compact when you are wanting to be tight and give nothing away, as opposed to trying to score goals.

He was urging them to keep possession. They were giving everything away and treating the match like a training session.

To reform your shape, you kind have to start from a defensive stance.

that was a fucking disgrace .The players were diabolical today and I don't thik much of benitez's "tactics" either .Sitting back away to fucking derby what the fuck .We got out of jail big time today

Sitting back? Don't think that was the intention. But it was hard to attack when your attacking players had no shape, and the minds of some players were already else where, Torres' included.

It was a fucking drivel of a game. We decided to collectively switched off in the second half and almost paid for it. Out level of concentration was appalling.

Derby was shockingly bad, and we almost gave them all 3 points. Fuckin hell.

Our transitional game was pretty awesome. it was these quick, devastating counters that decimated Forest. We didn't really out-pass them (provided Forest was one of the less "direct" teams of the league). It'd be great to have someone like Beardsley nowaday, provided a bit faster and fitter.

Norringham Forest - Liverpool *87-88). This was supposed to be the best performance by one of the best team assembled in Liverpool history.

I nicked this off another forum. You can either watch or download it.

http://www.stage6.com/user/Albatros99/video/1829647/Liverpool-Nottingham-Forest-Season-1987-88

The shorts were fuckin horrible, making it 22 fruity looking players prancing around (NTTAWWT). Brian Clough was a real bastard, forcing Des Walker to soldier on on his injured ankle.

The football was different, clearly slower, and the back pass made all sorts of tactical difference. Goal keeper was the key, give him the ball when the team need some seconds to recollect themselves. We basically played with 2 flair players - Peter Beardsley and John Barnes who provided the nuances. Otherwise, it was a straight forward 4-4-2.

If this team gets to play the current team we have; without the backpass rule, they would probably lose close to double digits -- mostly due to the advantage of modern fitness, athleticism, and extra pressure to hold on to posession that they didn't have to deal with back them by just giving it to the goalie; without it, and with the heavy old ball, they probably whip the current crop while our modern heroes whining to the ref of the tough tackles and the heavy ball that hurt their delicate feet.

Blasphemy, I know.

Yeah, but his centre-forward isn't going to be much good with crosses.

Not just that. He allegedly scored just once, if that.

Time to resurrect 'Go back to Italy. Go back to Italy'

That was crass and stupid then as it is now. Why do it?

WTF???

Did we go to sleep on that corner?

Torres

Gerrard

Riise ... Oh, STFU... Kewell

Phew. Close one. I was in serious doubt until the last kick.

1. Hobbs

2. Mascherano

3. Gerrard

 

Anybody who has Riise in their top three needs shooting as well as that prick.

Aren't you, like, 5 year old?

Wait for your balls to drop first before talking to grown-ups.

STFU and go sit in that corner.

1. Gerrard

2. Riise

3. Mascherano

We shot ourselves in the foot again. Fuck!

Lots of wishful thinking from our uninformed rank regarding a possible Xabi Alonso for Aguero swap. Realistic chance for that -- approximately zero.

Look, Atletico paid silly money to get Aguero, some 17 millions and changes 2 years go. That investment just now seems to return. What more? They are aspired to be "big" again -- not barsa and Real Madrid big, but there is no reason they can't stride to be as good, or better than the likes of Valencia or Sevilla. Hence the recent flurry of spending -- Diego Forlan, Simao Sabrosa, Maniche, Luis Garcia, Thiago Motta ... They let Torres go because he was stagnating there and because they had a replacement in Aguero.

Knowing all that, how much do you think Aguero is worth to *them* currently? How much do you have to pay to price him from Atletico? Lots of zeros that we don't have.

I rest my case.

Blah, wtf is the big deal? He whined, but had some valid points regarding the headless, full-blooded type of football that happens more often in England than anywhere else. Everything else is just part of a culture-shock. Moan on.

As a fan of Liverpool from the beginning of time, hence English footy by association, I'm still sometimes appalled by the tendency to value combatant players "who put in the most effort" over skilled player who scored goals.

We should take the £17m rafa wants to spend on Mascherano, add another £10m or so to it and make a decent bid ourselves.

Other than you going off the humour track, why is it the fans always act like the club had money printing machines installed in the basement?

"10 mils -- pocket changes. 50 mils, no problem, some people just have to put in an extra shift".

1. Gerrard

2. Torres

3. Benayoun

How the fuck did someone mention Reina? One save, one assisst.

 

Torres

Sami

Benny

That's 1 more assist than the rest of the team.

1. Torres

2. Benayoun

3. Reina