DaveT

The two biggest positives for me so far have been the games against Sunderland and Fulham away. Even through the darkest periods of the last 10-15 years, we were always capable of beating anyone at Anfield, pressing hard and buzzing off the crowd. For us to completely dominate possession and attack relentlessly with lots of players in the box is almost unheard of though, and I can't really remember the boys of 95-97 doing that much, it was mostly down to some individual brilliance from Fowler, McManaman or even Collymore back then.

 

I really, really hope this is to become the new norm when we travel to mid-level opposition or the bottom clubs. Quite a few on here have been advocating this approach for some time, and the argument that we haven't got the players for it doesn't really hold water when you look at Monday's lineup. I'm not sure we could do it without Suarez (Torres didn't really run enough off the ball), but when everyone display the sort of unity and belief that we have been doing of late, great things can be achieved with smaller resources.

 

There are a ton of positives coming out of Anfield and Melwood these days, and as Dave U mentioned in the match reaction the blow from the Mancs 19th title has been softened quite a bit by our recent turn in fortunes. I feel a bit like I did after us losing in Athens (e.g almost certain of successes despite a disappointing result), let's hope these American owners don't fuck us over like the last ones did.

Good points. One of the key differences under Kenny is the much greater tactical flexibility allied to vastly increased energy levels. The latter is down to the work rate of Kuyt and Suarez (compared to lazy-arse Torres, who barely broke sweat away at newcastle) up front, plus Lucas & Speo behind them and now, Maxi & Meireles busting a gut every time to get in the box. Great player that Gerrard is on the ball, he doesn't bring the same desire to ball-winning and tracking runs when he's in centre mid that we're seeing from Speo..... check out the West Ham game in Feb and plenty of others away from home under Hodgson. Which says to me that Kenny has to find a role for Gerrard in front of a more dynamic CM pairing for next season.

It's all positive, though, and everything Kenny and the team has achieved since Jan has been with a squad substantially affected by injuries - at no point has Kenny had anything near a full squad to pick from.

Fantastic performance. Fulham weren't worth two goals, and only an excellent strike from Sidwell and an abject performance from Lee Mason, got them there.

 

What a nasty, spiteful team Fulham have become under Hughes's tutelage. He deliberately sent his players out to injure our players, and the only tactic he could come up with for his players to stop Suarez in the second half, was to have them wrestle him to the floor. Fucking overrated twat.

 

And finally to that fucking rodent-faced piece of dogshit, Kevin Phillips. It's clear that Phillips entire career was built on instinct alone, because his co-commentary showed what a clueless bellend he is.

Agree. I was wondering if I was the only one bawling at the referee to get a grip on Fulham. Dirtiest display I've seen in a while. How they ended the match with 11 players is a complete mystery.

Haven't followed the full thread, so apologies for any repetition..... two observations..... Arbeloa, whilst a lot more cynical than he used to be, was excellent the other night, had Vila in his pocket most of the game...... Eidur Gudjohnsen, commenting at half time on players diving - what a hypoctritical cunt!!!!!!

neither did Robin....he gave it to her proper. Women liked to be roughed up

Who was the woman? Eboue?

Ferguson isn't backing down. He's becoming more and more defiant and he's using this little example to alienate Rooney from the rest of the footballing establishment whilst gluing himself to Manchester United. It's a clever tactic, if football was all that mattered in life. Unfortunately it isn't. Ferguson stretches the limits of fair play to destruction, certainly for me. I can barely stand to watch the sport anymore because it is populated by players like Rooney and managers like Ferguson who have no ethical code whatsover.

 

Despite being probably the best manager for the last two decades he's a national disgrace. Rooney is a disgrace also but really he doesn't know any better. He's a man-child that has probably learnt that raw aggression is the only way to succeed. Unfortunately, millions of actual children are watching Rooney and Ferguson and also learning that fallacy. God help us all.

Agree with every word of this and feel the same way about Premiership football. Pisses me off no end that the media ignore the obvious here - Rooney is not the problem, it's his manager. The list of appalling behaviour that Ferguson has tolerated (encouraged?) over the last couple of decades is endless..... from the mass brawl with Arsenal in 1990 resulting in the docking of points, through the serial harrassment of referees by Ince, Bruce, keane etc (Andy D'urso, anyone?), the Cantona kung fu kick, the Keane career-ending tackle on Haangeland, the Rooney elbow..... to mention but a few. The common thread....? Ferguson is toxic, he's corrupted football in this country, but who in the media has the balls to tell it how it is?

FA should deprive him of his chewing gum for 5 games, he'd probably blow a fuse.

Ferguson must be the biggest hypocrite and most poisonous influence in the history of English football. This is the man who:

- was manager of United when they took part in a mass brawl in 1990 with Arsenal players leading to both teams being docked points

- condoned (promoted?) the systematic harrassment of referees through Bruce, Ince, Keane etc, culminating in the shocking Andy D'Urso incident; only when the media were revulsed by this tactic, did Ferguson cynically adopt a more muted approach to referee intimidation (mind you, it was only a few months ago that Fletcher pushed Webb during their match with Arsenal and got away with it)

- condoned the attack on a (albeit yobbish) spectator by Cantona

- condoned the serial diving of Ronaldo

- tolerated the constant verbal abuse of referees by Rooney - the whole country can easily lipread 'fuckin' wanker' nowadays

- condoned the thuggish elbow in the face of McCarthy by Rooney recently.

This is top of the head stuff - with a little bit of research .......

With jaw-dropping cynicism, and spin tactics that would embarass Goebbels (or even Alistair Campbell) Ferguson has recently tried to deflect media attention from the Rooney elbow incident by blowing up the Chelsea decisions and the Carragher tackle. With some success he took the focus away from Rooney and onto himself by attacking Atkinson, in the knowledge that he would get a fine and ban, but also that it would take the heat away from Rooney. These latest criticisms of Taylor and Kenny are consistent with this tactic. As for the Babel incident - does he not know that Babel was fined £10k - and of course isn't even a Liverpool player any longer. Not to mention the fact that a very long history of atrocious decisions at Old Toilet was what prompted the tweet in the first place.

His must-win attitude at the cost of any degree of integrity, sense of fair play or respect for the opposition/referees/authorities has poisoned football in this country. Watch any kids match anywhere in the country and you'll see the youngsters (and their dads) apeing the appalling attitudes on display every week in the premiership. This man, more than any other in the game today, is to blame for most of what is wrong with modern day football. Pity the media are too much up his arse to acknowledge it.

He'll probably get a 2 game touchline ban, plus a further two for the previous suspended sentence. Probably a fine, too. BIG FUCKIN' DEAL. What's so devastating about a touchline ban? And any fine will be pocket money to someone whose salary is measured in the millions. About time the FA grew a set and properly punished this serial offender. Maybe docking points? Oh, that would upset the applecart, wouldn't it & ruin the cosy relationship between the FA and the Mancs.

Kenny and Ferguson don't take any shit from the media, but Kenny responds with wit and humour.

.....whereas Ferguson simply bans or boycotts them (e.g. the spineless BBC), - and somehow gets away with it in direct conflict with contractual commitments

Thing is, the whole 'that's capitalism, suck it up' argument doesn't really wash. First of all, the supply-demand equation is massively distorted because UEFA are allocating 25000 tickets to corporates & 'UEFA family' (!) - most of whom won't be paying for their own tickets anyway and a further 11,000 tickets to neutrals. Which means the big clubs alllocation falls way short of their own season ticket numbers and there's a massive imbalance between supply & demand.

In any other market, you don't like the price, you go buy elsewhere. Football's different. You're a fan (fanatic), you have your team you do your best to follow them as much as you can.

Basically, UEFA have a captive market, they continmue to take the piss, except it's getting worse. I hope they end up with a crappy final, empty seats, no atmosphere - prawn cocktail brigade will be in the bars - and kill the golden goose.

Indeed, including that essential Arsenal ability to dive around and win unwarranted free kicks and penalties. I have visions of all their youth teams holding synchronised diving competitions on a daily basis - it's clearly instilled into them from an early age. But for me it undermines Wenger's lauded philosophy of football because it's little more than organised cheating.

 

Fabregas (who is an odious player and individual) and Van Persie are the worst practitioners of the art, but Wilshere and Walcot are developing nicely.

And you forgot Eboue, who must be the biggest girl playing in the Prem at the moment.

The standing joke about Jordan during his playing days whenever he was absent was that he was away having some teeth extracted....from his elbow.

He's a top player and sooner or later Chelsea work out how to get the best out of him. Until then I hope they lose every game and he doesn't score (apart from against the Mancs).

Spot on report as ever. Just want to mention one incident that you didn't cover.... the Huth tackle on Kelly. Two footed, off the floor. Only gets a yellow. It seems that we continue to get excessive punishments - Gerrad vs Mancs, Cole vs Arsenal, most of Lucas' bookings, yet the opposition seem to be getting away with much worse. There was a nasty scissor tackle by Sidwell on gerrard last week that ought to have had a yellow - didn't even get a ticking off from the ref. And what's the betting that He-who-shall-not-be-named suddenly starts getting decent protection now? Rant over!

On another note, do you think Suarez and Carroll would dovetail well?

 

I don't think either striker has played with the footballing equivalent of the other, can't see Carroll being big on give-and-go's in and around the box, and I can't see Suarez being the master of the knock-downs in and around the box, it's just not his game.

 

Part of me is scared stiff about this, the other half is incalculably excited and willing to embrace our Brave New World.

I love the idea of Carroll marking Nando at corners when we face the Chavs, and throwing a couple of elbows into the twats cheek.[/QUOTE]

 

Me, too. But you know what will happen when Torres is playing for the Chavs, don't you? He'll suddenly get all the protection from refs that he never got while playing for us, especially from twats like Atkinson. Not only that, he'll stop picking up all those soft yellow cards he got with us for his first foul of the game after being kicked around by the opposition for an hour

He has done a number on us here, but I don't think the club are as fucked by this as is being made out - certainly no more fucked than spunking money on interest payments, the threat of administration prior to the takeover and Roy's Dad's Army tactics before being replaced with Kenny.

 

We've just signed Luis Suarez (remember?) And we will have something we haven't had for a few years...tens of millions of pounds to spend on players.

 

I'm likening this to Andy Cole leaving Newcastle for Man Utd in January 1995, we could end up with our equivalent "Shearer/Ferdinand/Ginola" forward line or with other areas strengthened.

 

Fernando fucking who? Show us the money, we rebuild, we move on, we are Liverpool Football Club and don't anyone fucking forget it!

Or when Keegan fucked off to Hamburg and we got Kenny in. Or when Rushy went to Italy and we got Barnes and Beardsley. One more here-today, gone-tomorrow footballer thinks the grass is greener elsewhere and moves on. Fuck him.

Don't really care what happens to Gray and Keys - I don't watch the build-up, nor Gray's 'analysis' and turn the commnetary right down.

The irony of all of this is that the referee's assistant had a good game, especially regarding our first goal, as opposed to the cunt in the middle who was as blatantly biased against us as he always is (see thread elsewhere), a point which didn't get a mention anywhere in the media.

I'm a Scotsman, says Ian McTavish.......... Blackpool boss Ian Holloway on his in-demand midfielder Charlie Adam: "There are three teams in and around us in the league who have all offered unbelievably little amounts of money for him (Liverpool, Aston Villa Birmingham). I am disappointed by that - £2.5m, £3.5m and £4m. Any chance of putting a one in front of that and you might have a chance. If he's only worth £4m then I'm a Scotsman called McTavish."

BBC Sport - Football - Live - Saturday's football

Villa or Everton? He wouldn't want to be anywhere near either of those two - he likes to get the ball on the deck and play football, which is anathema to those two 'lump it forward to the big lad' teams. (Villa may well change under Houllier, as signalled by Bent arriving and carew on his way out, but that was their style under O'Neill). Maxi doesn't do anything spectacular, as opposed to what Luis Garcia, mentioned earlier, could do. But he is intelligent, hardly ever gives the ball away (unlike Luis.....or Kuyt, or N'Gog, or.....), and is more often than not involved in our better passing moves. He ought to be no more than a squad player, however, and his presence in the team is more reflective of the cash we've had available in recent years. For £1.5m or whatever he cost, he's good value for money.

typo

That's a brilliant post. Not one of the top 5 clubs would have him in their lineup. He wouldn't get near Villa or Everton's XI either.

 

To make matters worse, he's taking up a spot that should be Pacheco's or Suso's.

 

Rafa's allergy to pace and youth cost us yet again.

Villa or Everton? He wouldn't want to be anywhere near either of those two - he likes to get the ball on the deck and play football, which is anathema to those two 'lump it forward to the big lad' teams. (Villa may well change under Houllier, as signalled by Bent arriving and carew on his way out, but that was their style under O'Neill). Maxi do anything spectacular, as opposed to what Luis Garcia, mentioned earlier, could do. But he is intelligent, hardly ever gives the ball away (unlike Luis.....or Kuyt, or N'Gog, or.....), and is more often than not involved in our better passing moves. He ought to be no more than a squad player, however, and his presence in the team is more reflective of the cash we've had available in recent years. For £1.5m or whatever he cost, he's good value for money.

I say get Insua back and rotate with Aurelio if theres no other cards on the table. Better than Warnock.

Rafa ran Insua in to the ground while he was here, so maybe with a bit of proper handling he could do a job.

 

Agree with this completely. Insua was showing great potential until Rafa over0used him due to the Aurelio injury/Dossena fiasco. Insua's certainly got his deficiencies defensively, but is at least as good as Warnock and much younger. Everything the Villa fans were quoyted as saying about Warnock were the kind of views I had about him when he was still at Anfield - looked ok going forward but weak positionally and short of pace.

What a breath of fresh air from KK.

The pride in the club, the defiance in the face of a sworn enemy and a bent referee. Not being afraid to call that decision for what it was, whatever the repercussions.

In a nutshell - LEADERSHIP. Something that has been sadly lacking around the place for far too long. Still a lot of sorting out to do in terms of playing personnel. But for the first time this season, I'm not worried about what embarrassment or humiliation the next match might bring.

This is the man who didn't give a penalty against Arsenal last season when Fabregas deliberately handballed it, despite him clearly seeing it.

 

Nothing, nothing suprises me with that utter prick.

Same man who failed to give a pen at home to Arse last season when Gallas chopped Gerrad at the knees. Same man who gave Mancs a pen for mascherano's tug on Valencai when it happened clearly outside the box (checked the freeze-frame!). Same man who tried to duck out of giving us a pen at the Toilet this season when Evans took both Torres' legs -only the linesman's frantic flag-wagging forced him to give it.

See the pattern?

Why does the club continue to be so inept commercially? The ticket office has been a joke for decades...example, buying my Blackburn tickets recently by phone, my transaction took 50 seconds, yet at the time I joined the queue, there were only 5 callers ahead of me, yet I had to wait 33 minutes! ...all this while paying rip-off 0843 rates.

The online shop - half the time, there's no stock of the item/size you want...when there is, there's a £5 delivery charge (for a t-shirt weighing a few ounces?!) and a 7-14 day delivery commitment. Compare this with Amazon and many others - free delivery and maximum 5 day delivery.

When is the club going to smarten up in these areas and also stop taking supoorters for granted?

Bit of a side issue here, but Villa's ticket allocation is now open to anyone with an 'AVFC booking history' which presumably means any Villa fan who has ever been to an away match. Our initial allocation for the Blackpool game, with a very similar number of tickets available, is to ST holders with EIGHTEEN away games from last season. Big club? 2nd city? Don't make me laugh. (Sorry, folks, just one of my hobby horses).