2015/2016 Barclays Premier League Thread

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by Locke

Looks like Courtois has to go in for knee surgery. Selling Cech doesnt seem so brilliant now does it?

Cech looked pretty human vs West Ham, & Begovic is solid.

[devo22]

Mourinhos 3rd year at a club is always fun. Great to see him deliver once again!

[White Out 403]

Late goal for city by the 18 year old Iheanacho!

[cam_wmh]

Rooney out. Picked up injury in training?

[devo22]

yup.

Manchester United ‏@ManUtd
Louis van Gaal says Wayne Rooney felt something in training: "It's not too serious but we cannot take a risk." #mufc

[Locke]

Yeah, I'm surprised that the commentators are surprised at this match. It isnt brilliant, but it isnt two Juggernauts fighting for the league anymore, its two high to mid-table clubs trying not to lose.

Look at the two XIs, does either of those squads look 'World Class?' Not in my eyes. I look at Liverpool and thats just not a great looking team.

At the moment if one team reaches out to win this you have to say that United look more likely.

That being said, I like Firmino, hes got some steel to his game.

[devo22]

well that's 45 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. Yawn.

[cam_wmh]

GUYS!
This has turned into another level.

Two fantastic goals.

[devo22]

Martial is a panic buy, they said. Martial is too expensive, they said.

[The Big Chill]

I haven't seen the game yet, but these type of performances have become completely par for the course for Liverpool. I don't really get surprised or angry about them anymore. It's time for a change.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by The Big Chill

I haven't seen the game yet, but these type of performances have become completely par for the course for Liverpool. I don't really get surprised or angry about them anymore. It's time for a change.

Klopp?

[The Big Chill]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

Klopp?

I'd be pretty happy with that change. He seems to want a move to the EPL.

[devo22]

obviously don't want it to happen, but I think Klopp/Liverpool would work really well. In any case, Liverpool have to get rid of the clown that is currently coaching them.

[d_phaneuf]

I hope they keep David Brent as long as possible

[d_phaneuf]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...e-Benitez.html

One time he did suffer a meltdown involving Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson. I went home from training that Friday lunchtime and switched on the TV. Rafa sat down with his usual half-smile. It looked likely to be a normal press conference, but then he reached into his pocket for a piece of paper.
He spread it out on the table and began to read out one 'fact' after another. Rafa kept saying 'fact... fact... fact...' and I could not believe what I was hearing. I was grabbing the couch, digging my fingers into the arms, feeling embarrassed for him.
Rafa started by saying that maybe Manchester United 'are nervous because we are at the top of the table'. I thought: 'Uh oh, what's happening here?'
It seemed so unlike Rafa to talk in such an emotional way. You could see the anger in him. 'I want to talk about facts,' Rafa said. 'I want to be clear, I do not want to play mind games too early, although they seem to want to start. But I have seen some facts.'
Rafa went off on a ramble about how Manchester United and 'Mr Ferguson' had not been properly punished for various misdemeanours. He listed dates and incidents and concluded that 'Mr Ferguson is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things'.
He then railed against the fixture list and the timing of matches being skewed in United's favour. Rafa was sounding muddled and bitter and paranoid. He was humiliating himself. It was a disaster. I couldn't understand Rafa's thinking in wanting to take on Ferguson, a master of mind games, when we were sitting so calmly on top of the table early into a new year.
When I met up with England all the Manchester United players told me Fergie was just laughing at Rafa, saying: 'I've got him. I've got him.'

[Bagor]

On the morning of the game, I felt like a caged animal. As I warmed up on the afternoon last March, the United fans opened their throats.They pelted me with abuse — and their favourite song echoed around the away end:
'Steve Gerrard, Gerrard... he slipped on his f****** arse, he gave it to Demba Ba... Steve Gerrard, Gerrard.....'

After a while, when they got bored, they swapped it for another chestnut:
'You nearly won the league, you nearly won the league... and now you better believe it, now you better believe it, now you better believe it, you nearly won the league.'
The anger in the caged animal grew and grew. United were swaggering, Anfield was very quiet. It was obvious I would come on at half-time.
We had stood off United in the first half and made very few tackles. It went against everything built into my DNA. Tackling and collisions mattered against Manchester United.
While we waited for the second half to start, I looked around Anfield, my ancient battleground, and did a last few warm-ups, rotating my torso from the hips, tugging at my shorts, impatient for the game to get under way.

The game restarted, I went in hard with a fair, but slamming tackle on Juan Mata. I cleaned out Mata, who went flying, and I won the ball.
I was involved again, immediately, as Ander Herrera came hurtling towards me to shut down space. I was too quick for him. I completed a simple pass as Herrera came flying in with his sliding tackle. His right leg stretched out invitingly on the Anfield turf. I couldn't stop myself. Without even giving myself time to think I brought my left foot stamping down on Herrera. I felt my studs sink into his flesh just above the ankle. It had to have hurt him.

Herrera clutched his ankle and writhed around on the ground. I raised my arm above my head and gestured angrily. I was trying to deflect attention away from me. I knew I was in trouble. But I'm still a footballer and so I pointed at myself, almost in self-defence, as if to say:
'What? Me?'
'Yes, you,' referee Martin Atkinson's walk said. I didn't like the look of his walk. I didn't like the look of his face.
Wayne Rooney was close by. Wayne looked at me. He knew I was gone.
As I left the pitch I asked myself: 'What have you just done? Are you f****** stupid?'
It had taken me just 38 seconds to get myself sent off against Manchester United. Thirty-eight seconds in which I had been at the heart of every small cameo of action and ferocious display of rage. It had been, in the end, 38 seconds defined by anger and a kind of madness.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...tamp-fury.html

If you read on he then in typical Stevie Me fashion tries to deflect the blame on Rodgers for his state of mind that day.

Then there is this gem towards the end where his intelligence shines through and he more or less says that Liverpool were crap (with the exception of him of course)

In 2004, Ferguson had called me 'the most influential player in England, bar none' and suggested that 'anyone would love to have Gerrard in their team'.So I was a little hurt and surprised when 13 years later, Ferguson used his autobiography to insist he was one of the few who never thought I was 'a top, top player'. I wouldn't lose any sleep but I was slightly taken aback after all his praise.
The only point that mattered was that I have real respect for Ferguson, but I wondered how many league titles he thought Scholes or Keane might have won if they had played for Liverpool.
I would have done OK in a United team playing alongside Keane in midfield with David Beckham on the right, Ryan Giggs on the left and Ruud van Nistelrooy up front. I would have managed pretty well in that side.

[d_phaneuf]

Stevie wasn't a fan of some of the other transfers either

It was a disastrous decision to sell Alonso, and especially for just £30million — which looks a snip now when you reflect on all he has achieved subsequently, both at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and with Spain, winning the Euros and the World Cup. I blame Rafa entirely for the loss of Alonso. He could still have been playing for Liverpool six or seven years after he left in 2009.

He was one of three new signings which were meant to turn Liverpool into Premier League champions.
We had finished as runners-up to Manchester United the season before and a combination of Diouf, Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou was supposed to drive us to the title. It was probably the biggest waste of £18m in Liverpool’s history.
We finished the season in fifth place and Diouf had sealed his place at the top of the list of Liverpool signings I liked least.

In my last season, Brendan Rodgers came to me at Melwood one day in mid-August. We had a chat on the training pitch. He said, ‘You know we’ve missed out on a couple of signings. I’m basically left with no option but to have a bit of a gamble.’
Brendan paused before he spoke again: ‘The gamble is Mario Balotelli.’ My instant reaction was, ‘Uh-oh.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...Balotelli.html

[Locke]

Originally Posted by The Big Chill

I haven't seen the game yet, but these type of performances have become completely par for the course for Liverpool. I don't really get surprised or angry about them anymore. It's time for a change.

I agree. The last two transfer window purchases have been very poor and that game the team selection was poor and the tactics were poor.

So yeah, its likely time for a change.

Its just so strange, sometimes Rodgers just nails it and then other times, such as this weekend, I see the lineup and I'm wondering WTF hes thinking?

That lineup was going to lose 10 times out of 10 and it was setup to fail.

[The Big Chill]

Originally Posted by Locke

I agree. The last two transfer window purchases have been very poor and that game the team selection was poor and the tactics were poor.

So yeah, its likely time for a change.

Its just so strange, sometimes Rodgers just nails it and then other times, such as this weekend, I see the lineup and I'm wondering WTF hes thinking?

That lineup was going to lose 10 times out of 10 and it was setup to fail.

Ya it's painful to watch players get played out of position. It's no surprise that we have a poor game when Ings and Firmino get played out wide when they are both central players. Rodgers does it all time.

[cam_wmh]

Klopp talks are heating up. Apparently Rodgers flew to Boston yesterday, and Klopp has indicated he's interested.