crazy_pool_fan

:thumbsup: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N154985070214-1351.htm

Isn't there a "conflict of interest" kind of scenario back in NHL now that they own a different business together while they are owning clubs which are competitors? Anyone? :dunno:

Very well said there and overall as well. Pennant has looked pretty weak amongst all of the new faces, maybe confidence or form or both. Either playing him exposes him completely which makes him go to the ressies to improve (he is young, maybe he might). Or better still he improves and shows he is atleast worth what we bought him for. Bellamy/Garcia on the right otherwise. Zenden on the left can do a pretty good job as well then the back four stays as it is.

First of firsts we have only 3 proper center halves. To expose all of them at once - I am not sure thats a wise thing to do. If one picks up an injury and a long term one you are back to what? 442; but after a second injury you are back to 3-5-2 with full backs playing center halves. It could all happen in two consecutive matches. Too much risk if perceived from a sensible forward thinking manager.

Tactics quite evidently. The blame has to be taken by Rafa and/or the board. I start with selling players in the summer or sending them out on loan - getting them off your wage bill - either pressure from the board or Rafa wanted to look very good. As a manager you must anticipate that all signings won't work immediately or your key players might go off form. So you put together a squad. But if in the squad you have substitute for key players (when off-form) are new signings - not sure what else it indicates. If "quality" is the problem then unfortunately here is the case of - "I went to buy lampshade got some cushions instead". Manager's tactics should be such that players look much better when playing the system. If players are looking bad and they are new we have either bought wrong players or they have not gelled in properly. The very fact that one can list that many possible reasons for such a start to the season says there is something definitely wrong at the top.

Crouch, Agger and Kuyt. Interesting to see the best player (which everyone thinks has been) has just featured in just 1 or 2 matches. Dont quite get this Momo glorification. He came to terms with passing in the last few games last season and was quite glad that he was doing pretty well (some intelligent ones), but this season he is back to old days, either lack of confidence or form. He is far from being among the best players, definitely not the best of him that people have already seen. Best "potential" - definitely.

What a poor second half performance. Absolutely no heart or desire to fight it out.

Paul Jewell for me. Very under-rated. If he gets some genuinely quality players he is capable of doing lot more.

Maybe this might help. :dunno: .tv Link Must be some reason for him not doing things which he can do with ease.

(1) Another class defender (backup when the current one's are off-form/injured) (2) A holding midfielder with better distribution capabilities (3) 6 months of league action as experience for all new players. Oh the rate chelski are going (4) definitely a good start to the season.

While agree to that (a bit) but things are not that bad either (other than losing to the worst two or three rivals away so early in the season). Fact is we have lost 4 away games to the teams now positioned in the top 6 other than Arsenal and Portsmouth. While no justification to how our team has been performing (which found its lowest at OT) those who got good starts are at the top of the table and are still playing well, those who had the hiccups or having a problem or two are languishing lower. The big question really will be whether we can put these behind and get wins against these lower teams away from home and try to keep an unbeaten record at home. While on paper away wins seems feasible (win at Reading/Watford/Charlton/Mancity/Boro or draws worst case in Spurs/Blackburn for eg) but then who knows performances like at OT we could lose at Watford or Charlton too.

The team was crying out for Crouch and Kewell both great at not losing possession and we could have built our attacks from there. Wonder why Rafa has stopped playing Crouch especially at away games. EDIT: Starting with Crouch.

Sadly it is not. While 1 goal from 5 away games is a fact but the 9 we conceded everytime we conceded first (which is a fact as well). Said before when you have new players trying to gel in mostly attacking positions there's hardly any confidence in them to string together passes to score goals. Just see today after we conceded how were we attacking? We were being played all over.

He got the best out of Crouch (who you never used to rate), Cisse (enough said about him), Nando (who everyone knows found it difficult to adapt to premiership), Fowler (still struggling to find his fitness and first team) last season. Attacking fluidity well explained in my previous post.

Saw you repeat this over and over again. Unfortunately not true - our problem is defence not attack - look at arsenal scored 3 conceded 2 away from home, sitting pretty with 7 points out of 3. Lets not take the opposition and their quality into consideration. We concede first the whole team just loses the plot of attack, midfield loses confidence on the back four, quality of service to the strikers degenerates - all this especially away from home. We need to stop conceding, especially first because that does the confidence of the team.