cuppatea

Go back in history and remove Guardiola from the gene pool and you can't tell me Barcelona don't still enjoy incredible success during the period when their academy produces Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Puyol, Pique, Fabregas, Pedro, Thiago and Valdes. I can't imagine any club not winning trophies when there is half a billion quid's worth of academy talent playing in the first team.

It'll be interesting to see whether his brand of football works in England, if they're able to attract genuinely world class players at the peak of their careers (which English clubs have always struggled to do) and if he can be successful in more difficult circumstances than his previous 2 jobs (though still with the best squad and biggest budget in the country).

What is Dimity Payet if not proven mediocrity? A 28 year old valued at £10m, who has never played for a top team, never won anything, never established himself in the French squad, not wanted by any of the 30 or so clubs he'd have rather moved to than West Ham, yet most on here would point to him as exactly the sort of player we should be signing (with hindsight, of course). On the other hand, Man United have signed players of undisputed class such as Di Maria, Schweinsteiger, Kagawa, Depay, Falcao and Valdes and their performances have ranged from bang average to absolute shite, despite being exactly the sort that the TLW mob would happily bankrupt the club to sign (without hindsight, of course).

If only we could operate with the benefit of hindsight and only sign players who we knew for a fact would prove to be successful, we'd never have to worry about overpaying.

Be honest, you've never actually seen him play, have you? From everything I've read, he's quick but not lightning like a Douglas Costa and he's absolutely a central player who has very rarely, if ever, played out wide. He's spent more time playing as a holding midfielder than a winger or wide forward.

As if anyone gives a fuck (or even knows) what went on between him and his missus. He was fighting a bit of an uphill struggle because he replaced a popular manager and he wasn't the kind of glamorous name that fans crave but the personal abuse he gets stems from results and performances towards the end of his reign being shit. Klopp will receive exactly the same treatment (from mostly the same people) if we're not consistently winning trophies and/or qualifying for the Champions League over the first few years of his reign and the same words people are hanging off now will be used as a stick to beat him with.

*allone

4th time we've scored 5 against Norwich in our last 6 meetings. Should have seen it coming, really.

That line-up is depressing.

Putting aside the transfer stuff, if his captain and most experienced player doesn't make a huge, uncharacteristic mistake then he's a title winning manager and forever cemented as a Liverpool legend.

Hopefully Smith gets on the pitch. I'd like to see Allen's recent form rewarded with a start and I'd keep Benteke in to try and play him into some sort of form. Probably stick Caulker in there as well since he's cup tied and we could do with saving Toure's legs for Stoke.

They talked at length but the short of it is they think he's a good bloke and a good manager who tried his best, came very close to achieving something great but ultimately came up short, for reasons not entirely of his own making. They credited him for a lot of the good that happened here (the incredible campaign of 13/14 and the improvement of players like Suarez, Sturridge, Coutinho, Sterling, Flanagan and Gerrard under him), absolved him of much of the blame (a bit too much I thought, at least in regards to transfers) and seemed to hold him in high regard.

Listened to the latest TAW Unwrapped, with four clued up, match going reds, who live in the city and have interacted with Rodgers and others at the club, discussing him and his legacy at Liverpool. Needless to say, their views didn't match the popular opinion on here.

Never seen him kick a ball myself but here's what a Shakhtar fan on Reddit makes of him:

This forum specifically has got fuck all to do with it, other than being a reflection of the fanbase as a whole. You can't tell me the players aren't aware our own fans think they're shit, or that Anfield isn't genuinely a more daunting environment for our players to play in than the opposition.

C'mon Jair mate, just because I pull you up on the factually incorrect, nonsensical bollocks you love to post doesn't mean we can't be friends. People generally don't like to be proven wrong (see Jairzinho). You can't tell me that when Benteke is through on goal in the last minute of a cup tie we're winning 3-0, someone like Grinch, whose entire M.O. is to slate Benteke, is genuinely hoping he scores, when he's already written out "see! I told you he's fucking shit!" on here and is waiting to post it. If people aren't outright willing him to fail (and some are) then there's certainly a sense of "go on then you useless fucking lump, show us you're not as shit as we think you are" whenever he has the ball, which isn't the best environment for a footballer to thrive (see the numerous players we sign from smaller clubs who come here, have their confidence eroded within about a month and never look like the player we thought we were getting).

Good ability, poor intelligence, absolutely zero confidence. You've got to have enormous self-belief not to wilt here with half the fanbase willing you to fail and I don't think he does.

We've fuck all left to play for and Moreno has looked knackered lately - time to start Smith in a league game.

Apparently a lot of full transfer documentation has been leaking out of Portugal and the Illori deal was as follows: Tiago Illori (Sporting to Liverpool) Liverpool paid 4.8 million Euros (£3.7 million) Liverpool will pay 500,000 Euros after his 15th appearance Liverpool will pay 500,000 Euros after his 30th appearance Liverpool will pay 500,000 Euros after his 45th appearance Liverpool will pay Sporting 25% of any future transfer fee Liverpool cannot sell the player to Benfica, FC Porto or Braga unless they pay a minimum of 60 million Euros to which Sporting will receive 50% of

Genk were the highest scoring team in Belgium when he was there. Aston Villa didn't score a lot because because the rest of their team is shit - see the current league table. When did a 12 year old Origi get picked ahead of Benteke? You mean at the World Cup, when Origi was played ahead of Lukaku because their first choice striker (Benteke) got injured before the tournament? He's started the majority of matches he's been fit for at international level and Belgium have won lots of games, scored lots of goals and shot up the rankings with him in the side.

Is Paul Doyle Shane Long's agent?

We didn't have any of those things last season (besides an over the hill Gerrard) and we still finished 2 places and 10 points higher than the season before Rodgers arrived and that was with 2-3 months of relegation form at the end. This time last year we were in a run of 33 points from a possible 39, putting us right in the thick of the top 4 race and now I'm hearing that virtually the same squad is as bad as we've had in living memory and anything in the top half will be an achievement.

If the squad got weaker under rodgers but we were finishing higher up the league and with more points than before he arrived, was he overperforming in every area besides transfers?

That's assuming players in good form for smaller clubs in the division could replicate their performances here, which there has been very little evidence of over the past decade or so.

All very true and there are 2 ways to look at it from that: The sides at the top are poor in the transfer market, so if we can be good we can overtake them despite having less money. Or If the sides at the top can't crack it, how are we going to do it on a fraction of their resources? Unfortunately, I'm a pessimistic bastard so I tend to lean more towards the latter.