The Official 09/10 Liverpool F.C. Thread

[Jagger]

Originally Posted by Razor Ruddock

I saw the match today and I must say that I thought he was very poor. Liverpool's worst player by far in fact.

Carragher should have been off long before Vidic, poor refereeing.

Are you talking about the Owen incident where it looked like Owen fouled Jamie as much as the other way around?

Why would a Liverpool fan, judging by your nic I would assume that you are, be questioning this and commenting on a poor ref? Doesn't jibe with being a Liverpool fan to me. Perhaps you're actually a Spurs fan.

I certainly wouldn't say that Johnson was very poor. He didn't stand out but he wasn't that bad.

The much maligned Lucas had a great match I thought. He is getting better and, although I was not convinced with him before, he is starting to win me over.


edit. The Special One and Razor Ruddock both gone now. How interesting is that? Yeah, true Liverpool fans.......

[Nuje]

Agreed about Lucas. That guy's been getting better and better. He still makes some occasional gaffes, but his game has gone miles since he came for sure.

Agreed about Johnson as well....and it's good to see that with Gerrard missing, and Johnson not playing his best game, Liverpool still posted a 2-0 win. Great atmosphere at the pub that morning, a ton of songs going.

Unfortunately, I probably can't watch Wednesday's game. . Note to those who try not to miss games, the UK is now off daylight savings time, whereas Canada and the USA are not, so be sure to factor in only a 6 hour time change rather than a 7.

[Bagor]

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has revealed he does not know when captain Steven Gerrard will be able to return to first-team action.
Gerrard, 29, has missed two games with a groin injury, and Benitez has not ruled out the possibility of surgery.
"Gerrard is improving but the next week will be crucial in terms of what we will do with him," said Benitez.
"His progress is slow, we will have to decide what to do if he doesn't progress as quickly as we would hope."
Gerrard picked up the injury while on England duty earlier this month and had to be taken off in the first half of Liverpool's Champions League game against Lyon on 20 October.
He is definitely out of Liverpool's Premier League match against Fulham on Saturday and is a major doubt for their return trip to Lyon next week.


With an operation looming if Gerrard's condition does not improve, the influential midfielder could be looking at a much longer absence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ol/8334835.stm

[Locke]

Argh.

[Jagger]

Friggin tough sledding right now. 6 defeats in 7 outings. The win against the Mancs doesn't even seem that great anymore. I cannot remember the last time that happened in the 35 years plus that I've been following the team.

The squad appears wafer thin to me. Without Torres or Gerrard and we're pretty much hooped.

Ah well, through the wind and rain and all that jazz.............

YNWA

[Dasani]

The squad IS wafer thin. I'd say that at least eight other Premiership teams have a better bench.

When you're subbing players in like Vorinin, Degen and N'gog, you're not going to be in the running for anything. Liverpool have two great players - Torres and Gerrard - and not much else. Glen Johnson couldn't cut it at Chelsea, Carragher looks old and slow, Alonso jumped ship as soon as he could, and they have probably the worst manager in the Premiership "rotating" players in and out, killing any kind of fluidity and form the team might find. Benayoun is good enough to play on any team but so often ends up subbed or not even in the game!

The American owners are killing the club. Benitez should have gotten the sack months ago but they are too cheap to pay him off and bring in someone who can command the team properly.

[Nuje]

Originally Posted by Dasani

The squad IS wafer thin. I'd say that at least eight other Premiership teams have a better bench.

When you're subbing players in like Vorinin, Degen and N'gog, you're not going to be in the running for anything. Liverpool have two great players - Torres and Gerrard - and not much else. Glen Johnson couldn't cut it at Chelsea, Carragher looks old and slow, Alonso jumped ship as soon as he could, and they have probably the worst manager in the Premiership "rotating" players in and out, killing any kind of fluidity and form the team might find. Benayoun is good enough to play on any team but so often ends up subbed or not even in the game!

The American owners are killing the club. Benitez should have gotten the sack months ago but they are too cheap to pay him off and bring in someone who can command the team properly.

Glen Johnson simply wasn't good when he played for Chelsea. Even Chelsea fans have told me that they're generally pissed that he only decided to perform after leaving. Agree about Carragher for sure, that guy frustrates the crap out of me.

Alonso jumped ship because he got offended over the Gareth Barry saga, and was probably offered nice cash.

Lately, Liverpool have had injuries to Gerrard, Torres, Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Riera....With that sort of injury bug, your bench needs to be something special. Liverpool's bench isn't as good as it should be, but it's hardly the junk everyone makes it out to be.

[Dasani]

Originally Posted by Nuje

Glen Johnson simply wasn't good when he played for Chelsea. Even Chelsea fans have told me that they're generally pissed that he only decided to perform after leaving. Agree about Carragher for sure, that guy frustrates the crap out of me.

Alonso jumped ship because he got offended over the Gareth Barry saga, and was probably offered nice cash.

Lately, Liverpool have had injuries to Gerrard, Torres, Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Riera....With that sort of injury bug, your bench needs to be something special. Liverpool's bench isn't as good as it should be, but it's hardly the junk everyone makes it out to be.

I think you're being far too easy on Rafa here. Every team has injuries.

Whose fault is it that Alonso got offended over the Gareth Barry saga? Whose fault is it that Robbie Keane was offloaded to Spurs, leaving us with only one truly first-rate striker? Whose fault is it that Jamie Carragher is still playing when he's clearly Championship-level at best now? Who wasted two hundred millions pounds on the likes of N'gog, Babel, and others pieces of rcap?

[Dasani]

With the money made available to him, Rafa should have a bench that looks like this:

Michael Turner
James Milner
Aaron Lennon
Robbie Keane
Craig Bellamy

not this: (bench against Fulham last week)
Dossena
Babel
Plessis
Gulacsi
Spearing
Eccleston
Ayala

[Nuje]

Originally Posted by Dasani

I think you're being far too easy on Rafa here. Every team has injuries.

Whose fault is it that Alonso got offended over the Gareth Barry saga? Whose fault is it that Robbie Keane was offloaded to Spurs, leaving us with only one truly first-rate striker? Whose fault is it that Jamie Carragher is still playing when he's clearly Championship-level at best now? Who wasted two hundred millions pounds on the likes of N'gog, Babel, and others pieces of rcap?

List me this 200 million pounds on "N'gog, Babel, and others pieces of rcap"...

Nobody knows who's fault it is that Alonso got offended. We don't have much inside into the goings on in there, and who knows if Alonso simply carried that Barry saga over into the next year, where Rafa clearly didn't wanna sell him. Oh, and by the way, he wanted 35 million, Real wanted to pay 20. Rafa definitely won that, as he got right around 30 million.

Robbie Keane played great in Tottenham before and after....but frankly, he was garbage here. I don't know why, but if you even imply that he made anywhere near the best of his chances here, you're being blind. He had 2 good consecutive games at one point, but other than that, he'd miss setups as mint as the one N'Gog got against United.

Definitely with you on the Jamie bit though. Not a very healthy squad, but when they are, it really should be Agger and Skrtel in the middle, with Johnson and one of Aurelio or Insua on the other side. Kyrgiakos is ahead of Carragher on my depth chart at this point in time. Hopefully the team does really well over the duration of his ban.

Your list of Rafa's bench is absurd though. You have to look at a players value AT THE TIME of him being acquired. In 2003, the Flames should've drafted

Parise
Weber (better value than getting Phaneuf in round 1)
Hejda
Stempniak
Dawes
Pavelski
Enstrom
Byfuglien
Tarnasky

But it just doesn't happen like that.

Torres wasn't in the conversation for the best striker on earth when Rafa got him, but he's one of maybe 3 guys on there now.

[Dasani]

No man, you don't have to look at the player's value when he bought them. You need to look at what happened to the player's value AFTER he bought them. Rafa has very rarely made money on any of his purchases. Look at Martin O'Neill, he's made great buys like Ashley Young and Richard Dunne, both of whom would waltz into Liverpoo's starting XI.

Robbie was never given a chance under Rafa because Rafa didn't want to buy him, the board bought him for him.

If we lose to Birmingham tomorrow, turn the lights out on our season. Rafa must go in this case, I don't think the Kop will allow him to stay on regardless of how cheap our American owners are. Look at what happened to Gareth Southgate.

[Nuje]

Originally Posted by Dasani

No man, you don't have to look at the player's value when he bought them. You need to look at what happened to the player's value AFTER he bought them. Rafa has very rarely made money on any of his purchases. Look at Martin O'Neill, he's made great buys like Ashley Young and Richard Dunne, both of whom would waltz into Liverpoo's starting XI.

Robbie was never given a chance under Rafa because Rafa didn't want to buy him, the board bought him for him.

If we lose to Birmingham tomorrow, turn the lights out on our season. Rafa must go in this case, I don't think the Kop will allow him to stay on regardless of how cheap our American owners are. Look at what happened to Gareth Southgate.

For starters, Torres would cost a team well over 20 million right now.
Alonso netted a 20 million pound profit
Benayoun cost reportedly around 5 million. He'd certainly be worth more right now.
Skrtel for 6.5 million was also a good deal

I realize that you have to look at a player's rising value as well, and getting good deals. If you ask me about this summer, I think Kyrgiakos has done well so far, and we have yet to see much of Aquilani, so the jury's out.

As I previously said about Keane....he didn't get the best opportunities in the world to show what he can do, but he did get fairly good opportunity. He had chances to be up with Torres, and he did nothing with it. He got a chance to be a lone backup striker, and he did nothing with that as well. He wasn't just a little off. He was bad.

So clearly you don't like Rafa. Who should Liverpool hire instead then?

[Dasani]

Originally Posted by Nuje

For starters, Torres would cost a team well over 20 million right now.
Alonso netted a 20 million pound profit
Benayoun cost reportedly around 5 million. He'd certainly be worth more right now.
Skrtel for 6.5 million was also a good deal

I realize that you have to look at a player's rising value as well, and getting good deals. If you ask me about this summer, I think Kyrgiakos has done well so far, and we have yet to see much of Aquilani, so the jury's out.

As I previously said about Keane....he didn't get the best opportunities in the world to show what he can do, but he did get fairly good opportunity. He had chances to be up with Torres, and he did nothing with it. He got a chance to be a lone backup striker, and he did nothing with that as well. He wasn't just a little off. He was bad.

So clearly you don't like Rafa. Who should Liverpool hire instead then?

Giovanni Trappatoni. He'll be looking for work in about a week.

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by Dasani

Giovanni Trappatoni. He'll be looking for work in about a week.

What about Neil Ruddock ... or Jose Mourinho?

[united]

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=3282272

Huge dive by Christiano Ronaldo in the Manchester United game...Oh wait!

In all seriousness, I hope that is reviewed and Ngog is banned for a few matches. Terrible dive.

[Jagger]

Originally Posted by united

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=3282272

Huge dive by Christiano Ronaldo in the Manchester United game...Oh wait!

In all seriousness, I hope that is reviewed and Ngog is banned for a few matches. Terrible dive.

I've been highly critical of Ronaldo over the years so you certainly won't find me defending that pathetic piece of play acting. Quite honestly I'd rather take the loss than tie the game in such a manner.

[Dasani]

Terrible performance. Glen Johnson is an out an out winger, not a full back. He skinned James McFadden about ten times before McLeish mercifully hauled him off.

However, Johnson made some terrible passes and was caught in far too advanced a position down the right wing on at least three occasions. He shouldn't be playing right back. He should be playing right wing, and with the injurie yesterday to Benayoun I think he might just get a chance to do that.

[Locke]

I was just beginning to think Ngog had some potential, but man, I'd easily rather lose than tie the game up on that atrocious dive. Can they retro-actively suspend him? You have to get that BS out of the game!

[Dasani]

Originally Posted by Locke

I was just beginning to think Ngog had some potential, but man, I'd easily rather lose than tie the game up on that atrocious dive. Can they retro-actively suspend him? You have to get that BS out of the game!

No. The Scottish FA tried to bring in post-match video review to stamp out diving and FIFA threatened to bar them from World Cup qualifying.

[Nuje]

http://www.thisisanfield.com/2009/11...d-ngog-starts/

Well, Aurelio, Riera and Benayoun have also received this bizarre horse placenta treatment, and rather than being 3 weeks away, they may start tomorrow. Let's hope for better....everything than almost every game this season.