SOFTLAD

Whatever about the chain of events, there's one thing for sure, they have six months to try and replace him,and who on here would say we trust the manager / commitee to do that, Carragher no replacement, Suarez, no replacement, Gerrard here we go again.

As someone said earlier a decent man but I cant abide listening to his interview he drives me fucking mad with the monotone bullshit,the best can be said at the moment is his hearts in the right place, and we should really look at the situation as a whole. The support is torn between giving him a chance as it was the Liverpool way not to sack a manager, and getting him away soon. guilty of wondering where hes leading us myself though and hate not having confidence in him to turn it around.

Before now the expectation of any transfer window was who can we get into improve what we have, its always been an exciting part of the season waiting to see what will happen, now it fills me with dread as expectation is were going to overpay for more of the same mediocrity, gone are the occasions when a debut was followed soon after by a first goal, today's inability to defend and fuckin score says it all the two main integral parts of playing, talk of defensive midfielders, what the fuck a player on fifty grand a week that cant shoot straight to score, whats that all about

Mignolet took the fucking fall for the rest of the defence as well as the manager, fuck it the manager should be benched as well, for ineptitude the United defence is as bad as ours, and any no 9 would've got on the score sheet at least once. just sat through the game again Degea is shite as well, fucking raving about man of the match they were all shots hit at him he never had to move too far, put the u21 keeper in against Bournemouth, couldn't be any worse.

what can be said about this one 3 had to get points against an awfully bad side that to be fair most championship sides wouldve battered after going down to 10, but delighted to get a result. Uncertainty with the Captain, unnerving goalkeeping, an average night mid table fare.

Shaky and low in confidence,will take a bit of a boost after that great save, shouldve booted it up the field after he caught it when berkovic was up for the corner and a bit dissatisfied with Grobbelaar I remember well the embarrassment he had at the start as well,

Its no again, but delighted about the goal look at the relief of the players they didn't give a shit who scored, so relieved to have won but fuck him, he's been clumsy and cocky first time he's stuck his neck out for the side, and again cynically thought afterwards a few good performances now to get a new deal or shop window.

Cant even blame fucking Ballotelli for todays ineptitude

fuck, double fuck, treble fuck,

Rafa is rattling the chains to see if there would be any interest, it is a possibility this bad run continues and Brendan will be under immense pressure, its been a mixture of bad luck and bad judgement.

Its pretty obvious now, Sturridge is a long term problem, Podolski supposedly unsettled at Arsenal, would we be interested probably.

now we know the reason why,fuck sake, on sky now.

This lot were the scourge of our club for a few years but heres an often untold but familiar story, how many of the young lads do we regularly ship off after a few seasons when the hope does fade. wouldnt have been interested only Brendan is quoted as knowing him. Adrian Doherty: the lost star of Manchester United’s class of 92A contemporary of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, Adrian Doherty had an extraordinary talent, as attested to by Sir Alex Ferguson and Brendan Rodgers, but it was tragically short-lived • The Class of 92 documentary Share6563 inShare8 Email Daniel Taylor The Observer, Saturday 15 November 2014 12.30 GMT Jump to comments (213) A team picture from the 1990 FA Youth Cup semi-final against Spurs. Adrian Doherty was man-of-the-match in both legs. Back row (left to right): Mark Bosnich, Ryan Giggs (Wilson), Darren Ferguson, Paul Sixsmith, Jason Lydiate, Sean McAuley. Front row: Mark Gordon, Craig Lawton, Lee Costa, Alan Tonge, Adrian Doherty. Photograph: Manchester United FC/Inside United The chances are you might never have heard of Adrian Doherty, let alone remember him play football. Yet if you had seen him, it is also fair to say you might never have forgotten what it was like when he had a ball at his feet. Doherty is the player nobody mentions when they talk of that group at Manchester United who eventually became known as the class of 92. He was on the opposite wing to Ryan Giggs and for a while Alex Ferguson and his coaching staff wondered whether he was actually the better player. “One of the fastest wingers many people have ever seen,” according to Tony Park, co-author of Sons of United, a history of the club’s youth team. “The United scouts said he ‘could catch pigeons’ he was that quick.” Park has been watching United at that level since the late-1970s and reckons in all that time he has seen only four absolute certainties to make it to the top: Norman Whiteside, Paul Scholes, Giggs (then Wilson) and Doherty. “One coach commented that of all the lads at the club at the time only Wilson, Scholes and Doherty were certs to make the grade. And while Wilson had a great left foot with pace, and Scholes could use both feet brilliantly but lacked pace, Doherty had it all.” Brendan Rodgers can vouch for it, too. He and Doherty were friends from the same boys’ team in Northern Ireland and early in the Ferguson years at Old Trafford they used to travel together to represent United at schoolboy level. Rodgers could not be clearer. “Speak to Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, the Nevilles, they will all tell you he was the best player they ever played with at that level.” Ferguson put Doherty in his squad for the first time when he was 16, in March 1990. “Behind the scenes Doherty is tipped to make the kind of impact not seen since George Best was given his chance,” David Meek wrote for the Manchester Evening News. “Alex Ferguson is being urged by his back-room staff to play the boy from Belfast.” He was a few miles out – Doherty was actually from Strabane in County Tyrone – but you get the point. “His speed and skill have been a revelation in training,” Meek continued. “Doherty, a first-year trainee, is immensely shy but plays with a courage to match his ability. He is a winger who can dribble at top speed and shoot with either foot.” Except Doherty never played for Manchester United and his story, ultimately, is laced in tragedy. A few days before he was supposed to make his debut his knee gave way in an A-team fixture against Carlisle: his cruciate ligaments, the injury every footballer fears the most. It took seven months to heal and in his comeback game the joint buckled again. This time he was out for more than a year. He returned again but after a handful of games it was clear he was not the same player. The cruciate was even more of a big deal back then than it is now. It destroyed, rather than delayed, careers. Adrian was one of the victims. His father, Jimmy, has always thought United should have done more to care for his son during and after that long rehabilitation. The truth is the “Doc”, as the other players called him, was not the classic superstar-in-the-making. He was different: bohemian, slightly eccentric in a football context. He was not particularly interested in haircuts or cars or looking the part, often turning up at the Cliff, United’s old training ground, in a baggy old Aran sweater with a guitar over his shoulder. Robbie Savage, from the year below, remembers him “strumming in the next room”. Doherty took that guitar to the Christmas do where he played a song, possibly a Bob Dylan track, to his team-mates. He did not really follow football, preferring to write poems. “He was a fearless, strong and skilful footballer but what I remember most was his personality and his intelligence,” Brian McClair says. “He loved to chat about music, books and poetry.” His former team-mates remember him becoming something of a lost soul. He drifted, even working for a spell in a chocolates factory in Preston. There were three appearances for Derry City, where Jimmy was once on the books. Then he gave up football for good. Rodgers remembers his friend wanting to break into the music industry and there is some grainy old footage on the internet of his band playing Strabane’s Melmount Centre and one of his favourite Dylan songs, All Along The Watchtower. Adrian Doherty’s potential, so highly rated at Manchester United and other clubs, was crushed by a knee injury. Photograph: Ross Kinnaird/EmpicsIt never worked out. April 2000 was the time United, now European champions, won their sixth championship in eight seasons and the superstars from the class of 92 paraded another trophy inside Old Trafford. It was also the month Doherty decided to move to Amsterdam to work for a furniture company. In his first week he slipped into the canal, on the way to catch an early-morning train. He was in a coma for a month, and died on 9 June. The next day would have been his 27th birthday. Why tell this story now? It happens to be the anniversary on Wednesday of the day he signed for United, aged 14, with the rest of his life ahead of him. And it is a story that deserves to be told: the star we never saw. Better than Giggs? We will never know whether he had the personality for all that brilliant potential to flower but he had everything else. Arsenal had tried to sign Doherty before United gazumped them (Pat Rice described him as “a blur”). So had Brian Clough for Nottingham Forest. Matt Bradley, who helped alert United after coaching Doherty at Moorfield Boys in Derry, regards him as “the best young player I have seen in Ireland in over 30 years of coaching and scouting”. Billy Bingham called Doherty into Ireland’s under-21s when he was 17 (Ferguson withdrew him on the basis he thought he was too young). Gary Neville remembers “an easy-going lad who got on with everybody, who never upset anyone, just a really good lad”. The club ran a tribute in Inside United magazine in 2007 and Giggs, five months younger than Doherty, described him as “formidable”. Park has seen them all. “Imagine a bit of Giggs, a bit of Andrei Kanchelskis and a bit of Cristiano Ronaldo, then put it all together; Doherty had everything.” The Doherty story is certainly a reminder about how cruel this business can be and how quickly, with a bad landing, a late tackle or just the wrong turn of a knee, everything can change. Doherty is far from alone in that. The football world is littered with people the sport has left behind, quickly forgotten because injuries ended their careers before they had even really started. Plenty find their lives spiralling and, however bewildering Gordon Taylor might be, at least there are some good people working for the Professional Footballers’ Association who recognise more needs to be done these days for the footballers the game passes up. Jimmy and Geraldine, their daughter, Ciara, and sons Gareth and Peter gathered for the funeral on 16 June 2000. “Tributes Flow for Tragic Soccer ‘Gem’” was the headline in the Derry Journal. There was nothing about it, however, in the English press, bar a few lines in the Sunday Mirror. Football had moved on, like the juggernaut it is. It was the day before England played Germany in Euro 2000, with Beckham, Scholes and both Nevilles in the team. The newspapers had plenty to fill their pages. Yet the people who saw Doherty play will not forget the sense of awe when he had the ball. There is something of the fifth Beatle to Doherty’s story considering what happened next to Giggs, Beckham et al and it is good to learn that one day it will be told in full. A book is planned and there are certainly some distinguished football people to make contributions. Ferguson will be one – the former United manager introduced Doherty in one set of programme notes as “greased lightning” – and Rodgers will be another. Liverpool’s manager tells one story about his time on Reading’s playing staff when Jim Leighton joined on loan and Rodgers got talking to him about life at Old Trafford. “I asked him if he had heard of such-and-such a youth player and he said no, and such-and-such a youth player and he said no.” That was the moment Rodgers mentioned he had been friends with a young lad from Strabane called Adrian. Leighton stopped. “The Doc?” he said. “The Doc is a legend.” Dier’s England decision simply does not add upHowever it is dressed up, Eric Dier’s request to be excluded from the England Under-21s is strange, to say the least, and it is not entirely easy to see how it benefits him in the long term. Dier says it is not a snub and that he simply wants to use the international break to put in some specialist work as a full-back now it is clear he will not be used in his favoured position in central defence. “I just felt that this two-week period gives me the opportunity to work on parts of my game that I have had problems with over the past two months.” Gareth Southgate, manager of the Under-21s, has chosen his words carefully to make it sound as though he does not hold it against the Tottenham player, and the Football Association has gone into overdrive to try to control what has come out in the media. But Dier’s explanation does not stack up. He was one of England’s better players in both legs of their play-off against Croatia and, as Southgate acknowledged, he may now have jeopardised his place in the team for next summer’s European Championship. Tottenham, meanwhile, have 25 players away on international duty, with another five out injured. How possibly can a few sessions on a deserted training pitch be of more use to Dier than two more caps and the chance to help cement his place for a major tournament? Keane and the black marker penFrank Gillespie, the pub landlord who ended up in hospital after a row with Roy Keane, is so well acquainted with the Republic of Ireland set-up he was allowed to sit with Jack Charlton in the dugout and has his own book, with a picture on the front cover of him supping Guinness with the former manager. It was his bar in Boston where Keane was drinking when he infamously turned up late for the team bus during a 1992 tournament, leading to the captain, Mick McCarthy, questioning his professionalism (and Keane, in turn, questioning McCarthy’s first touch). Gillespie, in other words, is a familiar face on the Irish football scene. At the risk of sounding slightly harsh then, he probably should have known from experience that asking for Keane’s autograph when he is on other business is about as sensible as getting out of your car in a safari park. When Keane was a player the Irish squad used to make contingency plans when it came to signing shirts and footballs. Nobody, quite simply, would dare suggest it was Keane’s turn with the black marker pen. And over time the kit man, Johnny Fallon, perfected a Keane signature. As Niall Quinn recalls: “Getting the kit man to forge the signature of one of your team-mates is the price you pay for accommodating genius.” Sign up for The Fiver emailThe Guardian's free football email, delivered every weekday at around 5pm - hence the name. Sign up for The Fiver email Football Manchester United · Sir Alex Ferguson · Brendan Rodgers · Ryan Giggs SportMore features More comment More on this story Fifa whistleblowers submit complaint Football:Whistleblowers who made allegations about the 2022 World Cup have made a formal complaint to Fifa Bonita Mersiades: 'I was traduced by Eckert' Bernstein calls for World Cup boycott Keane on to the offensive over 'distractions' Bosnia Herzegovina sack coach after Israel loss Owen Gibson: no Fifa reform until Blatter goes Wenger: Abou Diaby could get new Arsenal contract Share inShare Email What's this? More from the Guardian

We are not amused Brendan, audible moans at the subs being made today, never like to hear that, feels disloyal. But I think we would appreciate you more if you said you fucked up with the selections in the past week and ship Ballotelli and Lovren to the deepest bowels of Anfield if you persist in playing them they are going to get you the sack sir.

When Johnson was any use on the football field he wasn't playing for Liverpool, these players have a sense of security which comes with a large contract and a hundred grand a week, their not hungry and certainly wont put themselves in the firing line in case of injury.This man is way behind the pace of things and it was obvious today when he was well out of position with no hope of getting back. Time to go and thank you Glen.

Cant wait for the after match excuses but they ll be the same ones weve heard up till now, I am glad though that there is an international break, and Sturridge will have to make a difference. Please stop giving a player like Ballotelli credit for doing a bit of running, its a basic part of the ability needed to play the fucking game. These players are rudderless and some are doubting their own ability, Emre Can the only positive point and even that only lasted for a period before he tired, whats that all about, doesn't look match fit.

Always easy to be critical of this type of player in and out of the game, was hoping he wouldve got away from Varane in that attack he seemed to give up a wee bit.But like anybody needs a consistent run of games, its just the fact everyone is pissed off at the persistence with Ballotelli, would anyone given that time not at least improve.

That couldve been a positive result, not enough belief, but a damn good show from a few of them, can put up with a defeat when the players at least try, like to see a tackle goin in you build a result on it.

Why the fuck doesn't he just say their the same as every other club pricing the working classes and the passion out of the game , it's sterile, nobody capable of singing a decent song of inspiration or support

Steven Gerarrd. Is indeed on par with Kenny, been carrying this club for years, never ever been in a great side but has always dragged the good for fuck alls to whatever success they've got, he's at times not only earned his own money but theirs as well. But it will be gutting to see him play for any other club in England, he deserves our best wishes and that champions medal.

Commentators alike seem to sing lyrical whenever a player is able to play with both feet, it should be a fucking requirement not an exception for any player we sign, their paid enough.

Every year the transfer market sets us up for the promise that this or that player will be the messiah, And as someone described Lovren recently as stealing a living, now that's the truth doesn't even do the basic stuff well, he's a shocking signing for 20 million.

I hate the we play, after a poor result you can anticipate the managers comments, it's a mirage of commitment ,mentality, technical ability, hard work, endeavour, shite talk. I want him to read the fucking riot act publicly, this fucking bluff, with these millionaire cunts, a hundred grand a week, they should be sweating and pissing blood, for this club or fuck off.

Its fair to say there are other providers out there, never never use Sly, get motorised and as the previous poster said, not a kosher box, away you go everything available from 0.8 degrees to 28.2. and you,ll be watching Liverpool wherever they happen to be. Do your research and its achievable.

The, is a lucky fucker Mario, but lucky Id be delighted with, I think if I were given the wages and opportunities youve had here I would ve scored at least 2, it would have been a bonus if Johnjo had clipped him at the final whistle. But thank God for that result.