cuppatea

He must be shit in training because he's looked good in matches under Klopp but barely given a sniff in the side.

Are the people suggesting we sign Shane Long all Irish?

Let him prove he's good enough for us first before we start to worry about him fucking off to greener pastures. He's obviously got ability and has looked good against footballing sides when he's given room to play but he, like the team, needs to learn how to play against sides who are happy to sit deep and let us dominate possession.

Thought he was the best of a bad bunch against Newcastle and excellent against Stoke, with a month spent as an unused substitute in between. He can count himself unlucky if he doesn't start on the weekend.

Did you recognise yourself as one of the hysterical fannies I was referring to?

I was hoping for someone with at least a 17 for marking but I suppose he'll do.

I'm not too arsed about him, I just try to provide a bit of perspective for the hysterical fannies on here who blame him for everything that's gone wrong at the club, including things that happened years before he arrived or months after he left.

They made the step up to 5th 10 years ago, which is more or less where they've been ever since. They were a scarier proposition when Bale, Modric, Van Der Vaart and co were finishing 4th and playing in Champions League quarter finals than this current team which barely limped ahead of us last season and have been taking routine hammerings off us for the past few years.

What has Pochettino done at Spurs to earn the sort of credit he's getting on here, besides leading them to their lowest points finish in years last season? They're no better now than they have been for the last 6 or 7 years.

I'm starting to think Rodgers is a genius for consistently hammering this incredible Spurs team and being comfortably better than them for most of the previous 2 years.

A Spurs side that we routinely tonked under Rodgers and hasn't finished above 5th since Redknapp left is being held up as a shining beacon of what we should aspire to?

We were miles ahead of them 2 seasons ago, would have finished comfortably ahead of them last season if not for a spectacular collapse and have battered them in head to heads in recent years. IF they have a better squad than us, the gap is surely small enough to be overcome by an enormous upgrade in management. We got more points than them across Rodgers' 3 full seasons in charge and had beaten them 5 times in a row in the league, with an aggregate score of 18-4 in our favour.

They barely squeezed past us last season, largely because we gave up with about 2 months to go. Don't think their squad is much/any better than ours at all. If Sturridge could stay fit (admittedly a big if) they wouldn't have got near us last season or this one.

Then fuck Mignolet off and get a better first choice keeper. If we spend £115k a week on keepers I'd rather the split be £100k/15k on first and second choice than £65k/50k.

Personally I wouldn't be arsed if Danny Ward was our number 2 but obviously they wanted someone with a bit more experience. Of all the things to get up in arms about, the quality of our substitute goalkeeper shouldn't even register. We signed him on a free from a League One side and we're paying him £15k a week. Of course he's shit. To spend more on our reserve goalkeepers means to spend less on the rest of the team (that ones who will actually play) and if you think that's how we catch up the teams at the top (who are already spending far more than us on those areas to begin with), then I completely disagree. Any increase in spending on goalkeepers (where spend about £80k a week to Man United's £350k) should go towards having a better first choice, not upgrading our League Cup keeper.

Couldn't give a fuck who our substitute keeper is. If we're to compete with teams with vastly more resources than ourselves then we need to cut a few corners and if that means allocating a smaller percentage of our wage/transfer budget on a player who is lucky if he plays one league game per season then so be it.

You rate Shaqiri "twice as good" as Lallana based on a decent 6 month spell for a mid-table Premier League side (it can't possibly be based on his disastrous spells in Germany or Italy), completely ignoring that Lallana performed far better than him when he was playing for a mid-table Premier League side himself, which is why he cost so much money and ended up here in the first place. Playing for Liverpool is a completely different kettle of fish, as we've seen time and time again. Do you not see the irony in saying "these players we've signed because of their excellent form for mid-table Premier League sides are shite, why can't we sign good players, like the ones doing well for mid-table Premier League sides now?" Speaking of Charlie Adam, go sift through all the "he's better than anything we have" posts on here when he was playing for Blackpool: http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/index.php?/topic/87593-charlie-adam-set-to-join-liverpool/page-6 They're playing for shit teams because, in most cases, that is their level. They cost less than our players because their performances at other clubs dictated they were worth far less than our players. They can't get anywhere near their national sides, whilst ours are regulars for France, Brazil, Germany, England, Belgium etc because they're not as good as the players we have. They perform better because the average mid-table Premier League side is a relaxed, carefree environment compared to Liverpool, which is why "The Beast" who terrorised us so often for Villa was playing like a scared little child yesterday, Lallana, who scored and made goals regularly for Southampton is afraid to shoot or pass forward and Firmino, who ran the show at Hoffenheim, shit himself and passed it to Ibe when he was 8 yards from goal against Sunderland. You could say our players just lack character but the same thing is happening at Man United, where World Cup, European Cup and domestic league winners from all over Europe play like they're terrified of the ball. Primarily, we're shit because Hicks & Gilette asset stripped the club and Man City spent a billion quid to take our place in the top 4. Arsenal went a decade without a trophy or anything resembling a title challenge when they stopped spending but since there was no club to take their place they could just hang on in 4th until they eventually finished paying off their stadium and now, lo and behold, they're good again (thanks to signing a handful of established world class players, which we're unable to attract). Our fall coincided with Man City's rise so now we're faced with trying to break into the top 4 from the outside, which only Chelsea and City have been able to do in the last decade, and that was off the back of a billion pound investment each. We're in the same boat now that Everton and Tottenham were in 10 years ago. Do you think they were just a decent manager or a "lol, we just need to not be retards in the transfer market!" away from establishing themselves in the top 4? Arsenal have never missed out on Champions League qualification under Wenger. Chelsea have never missed out since Abramovich spent a billion quid to get them in there in the first place. City have never missed out since Mansour spent a billion quid to get them in there and Man United have missed out once. And then spent £211m net in 2 years to ensure it doesn't happen again. We've spent about £350m net in our entire history. My problem is how idiotic the "hur hur, it's easy, we just need to not be shit" mentality that permeates our fanbase is.

Lallana was player of the year for a Southampton team better than any of that lot, named in the PFA Team of the Year and is a regular for an England side that breezed through Euro qualification and recently beat a French squad that Dimitri Payet can't get anywhere near. None of those teams have anyone better than him, never mind twice as good. They're half the price and playing for shit teams for a reason and god knows we've wasted enough money on them over the years to know what a load of bollocks the "<insert mid-table journeyman in good form> is better than our players" stuff is.

We came closer to winning the league in 2014 than we did in 2009, or any other year since 1990. That's a fact. Also, beating Cardiff on pens in the league cup final, our only trophy in the 6 years before his arrival, says fuck all about our standing in the division. Would you have expected Cardiff to establish themselves in the top 4 if they had won the shootout? Our status as Premier League also rans who won fuck all was firmly established before Rodgers got here. At worst he merely continued the tradition. You'd think he had done a Moyes and driven a successful side into the ground the way people go on here. As for the squad, it was bad enough for players like Jay Spearing, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing to be starting the cup finals you're on about and most of the good players in it were well past their prime. A bunch of German, Brazilian, French, Belgian, Spanish and English internationals in their early to mid-20's who were arguably a result at Old Trafford away from finishing 4th last season is no worse a platform to build on than the one Rodgers inherited.

I find the vitriol fucking bizarre. Even if you want to strip him of all credit for overseeing our best league campaign in 25 years, we're no worse off now than before he arrived. In fact we're closer to the top and have a much younger squad. He certainly can't be blamed for the ruin of a club which had just scraped into 8th on goal difference before his arrival and had been firmly established as a team nowhere near the top 4.

We've seen numerous examples of players who are tearing up the league for smaller clubs move here and look completely out of their depth. Do you honestly think if we had signed Payet, a 28 year old journeyman worth £12m, he'd have replicated his West Ham performances here? Do you think Vardy could have gone from non-league football to Man United and do what he's doing at Leicester? It's like a Real Madrid fan looking at Toni Kroos stinking up the Bernabeu and saying "why didn't we sign that Luis Alberto fella who is playing well for Deportivo?"

I'll never forgive that cunt for dragging us down from the dizzy heights of 7th, 6th and 8th place league finishes to the depths of 2nd and 6th. The twat.

Players like Payet and Shaqiri get eaten alive here. We've signed far better and they've failed to perform. Playing under massive (and frankly unrealistic) expectations is a completely different kettle of fish to playing for a small mid-table outfit who are happy just to be in the division. Just look at what's going on at Man United, where players of enormous, undisputed quality look like they're playing with the weight of the world on their shoulders and buckle under it. Does anyone think the likes of Mahrez, Payet and Ighalo are better than Di Maria, Mata, Kagawa, Schweinsteiger etc just because they're performing far better for far smaller clubs?

Looked totally bereft of confidence and afraid of the ball today. As did a number of others. I suspect if he had switched shirts with Carroll before kick off, he'd have been the one tearing us apart and Carroll would have looked like a shrinking violet in his place. I don't know if it's the expectation or what but players collapse under the weight of something at Liverpool.

There are issues at the club that go beyond player quality. We take the absolute best players from clubs like West Ham and they drown here. I'm sure no one who played for them today would have a prayer of making it here. Even Payet is a 28 year old journey man who can't get in the France squad and he's miles better than anyone else they have. We bring in players who start for Germany, France, Belgium, Brazil etc and then slaughter them for not being good enough. Lallana was the best player for a Southampton side better than that lot and he couldn't complete a 5 yard pass today. Benteke used to tear us apart for Villa and today he looked like a Sunday league player, whilst Carroll, who was massively out of his depth here, looked like a world beater. Firmino was one of the best players in Germany and starting for Brazil when we signed him and he looks hopeless. Moreno was one of the few internationals Sevilla had (they barely have an international in their entire squad, whilst ours is overflowing with them and yet they'd most likely batter us in a head to head) and looks shite. All these players would torture us if they played against us for mid-table Premier League sides.