The Official 10/11 Liverpool F.C. Thread

[Nuje]

I could go on about what should've been a straight red, but that was winnable.

Tom Hicks has to go. Now. Changes need to be made, and these changes cost money, which he doesn't have.

[ShotDownInFlames12]

After the first half, and the great 2nd by Berbatov, I thought it was long over. Even after the penalty, it just didn't seem like Liverpool had the attack in them. Probably should have been a straight red, but really, i don't know if that would have mattered. Man U dominated the pressure most of the game and deserved to win.

I have been really impressed with Konchesky these past two games. He was all over Nani, and was really strong. Nani is as bad as Torres with the flops everywhere, I loved that for once Jon Champion actually pointed out how embarrassing it was

[Dagger]

First of all, I'm glad to be back. I have no idea who David Ginola is or who he used to be. I am my own person. I don't know what he was doing trying to say he was me.

2nd of all, I didn't like Roy's tactics save for when he brought on Ngog to open up space. We had success after that, but when he brought on Jova and Agger I thought we looked worse. We probably deserved to be battered that game.

Konchesky was solid against Nani, but lost him a few times backpost and we almost conceded. Wasn't strong getting forward, passes were poor generally speaking and I thought Aurelio or Insua would have done better.

Poulsen was terrible. Made about 1 good challenge in the 76th and had a decent ball to Meireles but other than that dreadful. I remember him chasing Berbatov, Berbatov giving him a nudge and then Poulsen fall way off. His passing was way off, his challenges were weak and far between and he offered little.

Maxi and Cole were irrelevant most of the match. Cole had the one good ball to Torres before the pen, but he tries too much fancy footwork and forgets to move forward or gets stuffed.

Agger should be starting at CB every week, Carragher isn't and hasn't been a very good CB since 2 seasons ago.

How about Lucas gents? Belter against Steaeu. As well he played 90 in the last 3 times we've beaten United and every time against them he was sublime.

[Dagger]

Oh and if you haven't seen the news, Blackstone or whatever they're called will NOT be financing Hicks. Excellent news.

[Nuje]

Originally Posted by Dagger

Oh and if you haven't seen the news, Blackstone or whatever they're called will NOT be financing Hicks. Excellent news.

Yes! Saw that earlier this morning. Only 15 days left until some thing gives on that *insert every word in the swear filter....and fata*, unless something disastrous happens.

[Dagger]

Originally Posted by Nuje

Yes! Saw that earlier this morning. Only 15 days left until some thing gives on that *insert every word in the swear filter....and fata*, unless something disastrous happens.

Supposedly, the real d-day for them from RBS is November 11th. I'm not sure how valid that is though.

[Locke]

Carling Cup, Liverpool v. Northampton.

Purslow says that any money made from the sale of players is fully available to Roy for the purchase of new players.

And if you believe that, I've got a wonderful, lightly used bridge for sale in the San Francisco Bay area.

[united]

Am I going to be waiting forever for your take on Sunday's match, Locke? I've been waiting in anticipation for your list of lame excuses since Sunday afternoon.

All of the other regular Liverpool supporters/posters chimed in with their legitimate takes, where's yours?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by united

Am I going to be waiting forever for your take on Sunday's match, Locke? I've been waiting in anticipation for your list of lame excuses since Sunday afternoon.

All of the other regular Liverpool supporters/posters chimed in with their legitimate takes, where's yours?

I unfortunately didnt see the match in it's entirety so I refrained from comment. Cant adequately comment on something like that from highlights alone.

One of these days I'm going to get a PVR for just these sorts of occasions.

[Dagger]

And the tactical genius known as Roy Hodgson has lead his team to defeat against Northhampton.

He's done well to steady the ship.

[Locke]

This season has been pretty depressing thus far.

Some days I'm thinking that the best we can do is hope that somehow we still have what it takes to finish in Europa, 7th or so, hopefully in January we get some new owners who will hopefully:

1) Shytecan Purslow
2) Hand over the keys to the ground and the blank chequebook to King Kenny

I dont have too much against Roy, hes the manager right now, but hes been given an impossible task and quite frankly, he may be a good manager, but Liverpool dont need a good manager, they deserve a great manager. I think King Kenny is the man once the 'ship is stable' because he knows what it takes to pull on that red jersey and achieve expectations.

Hopefully, but thats just my two cents.

[Dagger]

I think that if we get new owners whilst we can still salvage this squad, we'll see maybe one or two years of Kenny before Rafa returns.

Rafa will manage Liverpool again one day, and that is about the only thing I can be hopeful of which is manageable.

[Nuje]

Originally Posted by Dagger

I think that if we get new owners whilst we can still salvage this squad, we'll see maybe one or two years of Kenny before Rafa returns.

Rafa will manage Liverpool again one day, and that is about the only thing I can be hopeful of which is manageable.

Yep. The fans will welcome him with open arms, and I think anybody new in charge would as well. It wasn't him, it was us (and not really us, just that virus HicksGillett).

[Dagger]

Originally Posted by Nuje

Yep. The fans will welcome him with open arms, and I think anybody new in charge would as well. It wasn't him, it was us (and not really us, just that virus HicksGillett).

Yeah. Have you seen the comment Broughton had where he was asked why Rafa was sacked, as he was a premier manager in the world, and he replied "I note your view isn't shared by the media."

Such a joke.

[united]

I would welcome Liverpool getting Rafa back with open arms as well...

[Nuje]

Originally Posted by united

I would welcome Liverpool getting Rafa back with open arms as well...

I note your view is shared by only one other person I know (excluding Liverpool fans of course)

[united]

Well that person is clearly a smart individual!

Difference of opinion comes with sports and everyone is wrong now and then so me sharing a different opinion than people you know isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think he's a great tactician but awful when it comes to man management and purchasing players.

In my opinion Liverpool's problem in recent years has been depth and use of players, not as much tactics. Now I rarely watch or read about their play on the field but always analyze their buys, so your opinion on their play would be a much more educated one than mine.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by united

Well that person is clearly a smart individual!

Difference of opinion comes with sports and everyone is wrong now and then so me sharing a different opinion than people you know isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think he's a great tactician but awful when it comes to man management and purchasing players.

In my opinion Liverpool's problem in recent years has been depth and use of players, not as much tactics. Now I rarely watch or read about their play on the field but always analyze their buys, so your opinion on their play would be a much more educated one than mine.

Rafa was a little baffling with his tactics, he liked weird things like zonal marking off of corners and free kicks rather than man on man, and not putting players on the posts on corners.

The thing that I found about Rafa is that he had a system and you played it and that was that.

But, in my own experience as a soccer coach as well as my lifetime of passionately following the game, the few inevitable truths that I have found stem from this sort of inflexibility.

There is no mystical, magical system that will ensure that you always win. There are ways for improving your odds of not losing, but there is no great system for winning, despite what the English will tell you due to their baffling hardon for the 4-4-2.

You design the system to exploit the weaknesses of the opponent and shield your own weaknesses.

And the other thing is, having a system is all well and great, but you have to have the players that can play it. When you work at the top flight, you can say this is the system and this is how we play it, we'll bring in players that can play that way and ship out ones who cant because hes the manager and what he says goes.

But if you hold on to players who cant adapt to the style, or wont, then the whole thing becomes this useless anvil that you're dragging around hindering you from winning.

That being said, I thought Rafa was good in many ways, but at the same time, I feel his time has passed. He had his run at Anfield, and it was a good one and one that I feel means that he's earned a special place in the hearts of supporters, but that doesnt discount the fact that his time had come.

Dont want to stay too long so the supporters can watch you become fallible.

[Dagger]

I don't get what was so wrong with zonal marking. I mean we're a pretty short club at the back bar Hyppia a few years ago, and Soto. If you look at most of the goals we've conceded recently I'd be willing to say most of them came through one of the back 4 being defeated via the aerial route, and in open play man to man is what they resorted to.

The zonal marking actually worked pretty well, far better than man to man so far.

Rafa's system works against nearly every side. It's a smother and barry type thing. No matter who we played, we were always in the game because we held possession and created chances.

Further more, for all the negative football Rafa played, we actually lead the league in scoring by a fair margin in 08/09, and we were only 6 goals behind Tottenham who don't own nearly the same label as us last year.

You're right, there is no magical system that ensures we will win. But if you look at Rafa in the CL, when he had ages to prepare a side, there probably isn't a stadium you could name that we didn't win in. This is the system that has won at the San Siro, Bernabeu, Nou Camp, Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford etc. even look vs other managers. He's beaten probably 80% of the top managers in the world. Wenger is the only one he really has had difficulty with domestically.

I'll just ask you this. Why would he sell someone if he knew he wouldn't have the money to re-invest? I mean the squad was thin enough as it was because he HAD to focus on the XI, but he couldn't afford(both fiscally and tactically) to get rid of somebody that isn't perfect for the role, because we'd be getting someone subpar back in because of the obvious constraints.

His time hadn't come. Look at Valencia, he won the league, had a shocker domestically(18 points under the winners) only to win the league again. It was a blip, a big one but it was something we saw before and he bounced back. He was sacked because they(as in Sky) wanted an Englishman and now had an excuse to hire a media friendly one.

Rafa football was never becoming sour. Sour is what Hicks is right now where he is seemingly just holding on to the club to spite us. With cash investment Rafa would have absolutely won the league at least once. When he got cash he delivered a Champions league final, followed by record setting points and a quarter final in the same year(giving Grant a run for his money, nearly taking Chelsea out after a stinker at home and going up 2-0 at halftime sans Gerrard.

What we have now is a man that has a boner for Sir Alex, is uncomfortable defending our players(unless the fans exaggerate according to him), believes our best CB is a backup LB and 30(he's 25) thinks Northhampton and West are a formidable side even at Anfield and has said if we beat Northmapton people would have looked back at the positives at Old Trafford, a game which we lost and were lucky to be in.

[Locke]

What a match. That one was everywhere, but I wish the announcers wouldnt make such a huge deal of Agger playing LB. Hell, I thought Agger had a great game! Hell, he could have won it at the death! Wheres Torres there? You put that ball on Torres' head rather than a CB in Agger and thats 3 points! At least Agger tried.

That said, obviously this is not the Liverpool of old, this is probably a mid-table club at best, and at worst they're going to earn a lot of draws. Little possession, mediocre movement and no width. I cant think of the number of times they tried busting in down the middle, very few wide passes to the wings in expectation of a cross. And no creativity in finish.

I mean, I saw Gerrard 2 yards ahead of Carra and Skrtl in a tie game with 4 minutes left. WTF IS STEVIE DOING IN OUR OWN HALF WHEN WE NEED A WINNER? Holy hell. Mereiles was poor, as was Kuyt, as was Torres. It wasnt fun to watch, I'll say that. Not to mention Poulson. Wow, learn to defend man! What're your arms doing all the way up there? That was an ironclad penalty, no doubt about it.

At least they didnt lose a la Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal. Thats positive, but they are going to have to start bringing in 3 points occasionally. Could have used those 3 points today to catch up!

And another thing, this 'extra time' business is getting out of hand. 6 extra minutes? Thats nuts. And then they played what, almost 8 I think after the keeper got injured? The entire World Cup never saw more than 3 minutes. I guess the fans are getting their money's worth. Maybe Roy is borrowing some of Fergie's minutes, I wonder what the rate plan is for those minutes.

I dont think I have ever seen a regular addition of 6 minutes outside of a Man Utd game. Unreal. 5 and then they play a little extra, maybe, but 6 on the board?