Well if maxi couldn't then i'd have to agree with you
Maxi must have felt like elizabeth fritzl stepping out on to the harsh light of the pitch
Bye bye Kenny (part 2)!!!!!
- Thread starter mr_moo
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Status
Maxi must have felt like elizabeth fritzl stepping out on to the harsh light of the pitch
Wouldn't disagree with any of that. Just saying that, had we still had him, he'd have been good enough to turn a few of our draws into wins.
Undoubtedly. Or at least swan dived to get us a pen. Which we'd then proceed to miss
Iain Macintosh
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 13:05
Iain Macintosh says things will soon look up at Liverpool, Stewart Downing aside, that is...
Watching their struggles from the press box at Wembley, a horrible truth finally dawned on me. Liverpool are actually really, really bad at football. There’s no hiding it, they’re absolutely rubbish. This is terrible news for me because I’ve been defending Kenny Dalglish in print all season, constantly reminding people of the state of Liverpool under Roy Hodgson, of the time it takes to change a team’s mentality and of the difficulties experienced by new players at big clubs.Nevertheless, this was a real ‘dear diary’ moment. In every department, in every area of the pitch, Liverpool were crap. Even their second half near-comeback was the result, not of shrewd tactics, but of a stream of ‘hail mary’ passes that stunned a team who had actually gone to sleep at some point around the hour mark. So why does Dalglish deserve a second season?
Somewhere, deep down, in the midst of all that ineptitude, is a football team trying to pass its way out. Confidence is shot, self-belief has evaporated, tactical discipline has dropped its rifle and gone screaming over the hill-top, but over the course of a good pre-season, that can be fixed. Three things will change this summer.
Firstly, Lucas will return to the team. Never has one player’s reputation improved so much in absentia. The Brazilian was much maligned for over-cautious sideways passing (pay attention Jordan Henderson) but when he found the courage to stamp his mark on a game, he finally found favour in the stands. Jay Spearing has worked doggedly to fill the gap, but is too young and inexperienced to offer the same kind of composure and control. Lucas will make Liverpool a better team.
Secondly, Pepe Reina cannot have a worse campaign than this one. The brightest light of the Hodgson/Dalglish season, by which I mean the only light, has been a disappointingly dim bulb in the new era. His performance against Chelsea was desperately poor, but he’s still an outstanding goalkeeper. A long break from playing competitive football will do him good and, assuming that Iker Casillas and Victor Valdes don’t fall down a well in the next few weeks, that’s exactly what he’ll get.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Dalglish should be retained because all of my original points still stand. It does take time to reprogram a team for a short-passing style. It takes months for the players to trust themselves and their team-mates. When Liverpool click, as they have done several times this season, their movement and poise has been genuinely impressive. When they clunk, when they convince themselves that their team-mates couldn’t trap a beanbag, they are borderline unwatchable. Jordan Henderson will eventually adjust to his status and showcase the range of passing that we’ve only seen glimpses of so far. Andy Carroll has reminded everyone that he is actually quite effective when he fancies it.
Stewart Downing is…well…no, it’s no good. I can’t do it. I don’t want to exaggerate matters, but I’m beginning to think that Downing isn’t just the worst piece of business in football, but the worst piece of business in all sports, in all genres, in all of humanity since the dawn of time itself. Buying him for £20m was basically the worst deal since one caveman swapped his sharp rock for a handful of shiny pebbles and was promptly bludgeoned to death and had his shiny pebbles snatched back from his cold, stiffening fingers. But that aside, I really do think things are looking up.
Even with Manchester City’s unlimited resources, it’s still taken them four years to reach a title-winning position. Suggestions that Liverpool were going to challenge them this year were always laughable. If Dalglish is allowed the time to stabilise, if he’s given the chance to build on strong foundations that have been obscured by abject recent form, there’s no reason why Liverpool can’t eventually return to the Champions League.
Never has one player’s reputation improved so much in absentia.
Count, where was that article published or is it off a blog?
Got it from Tony Barrett on twitter.
Ian Macintosh is a freelance journo
He's right about City though, for all their finances, it's taken time (and unwavering indulgence in their manager) to get them where they are. They looked good at times last season but still well short of what they are now, simply because they've clicked more, been together longer and have been shaped into a good squad with something finally resembling a first XI, there or there abouts and admittedly, with plenty in reserve.
Not only because of my hatred of United I actually want City to win it because they have played by far and away the best football in the land this season, Kompany, Toure, Silva, Kun all superb players..... I actually quite like them.... i dont know why but I think ive always had an uneccesary soft spot for city, the fact that people in manchester would be willing to support them while Utd ran away with things struck me as them having a bit of soul.... they been really really good to watch too.
It did take time to gel them together it is true, so maybe there might be a hope of our newbies settling and developing but then their recruits were just a little bit of a higher calibre you might suspect considering the whopping amounts of cash the Sheik poured in. Wasnt there an article a few months back which heralded their total spending as having breached the 1,000,000,000 pound barrier in three years.... 1 million pounds a fucking DAY....Its like Chelsea with Knobs on..... amazing investment I have no clue how they will possibly recoup it.
R
RedZeppelin III
Guest
so do alot of us have unrealistic expectations ? were we in such a bad position when kenny took over that we've done well this year ?
Are you serious? We had barely managed to scratch our way out of the relegation zone by the time the King arrived. This season has been a disappointment, but that's by the standards Kenny himself set in those first few months, besides which we've won one more trophy than most clubs managed.
how ever you want to dress it up we've had a poor season, the question is will we learn from the mistakes.
* signings
* focus on domestic cups rather than the league
* profligacy in front of goal
* not picking players based on merit
* failure to rotate clearly fatigued players
* missed penalties
a lot of mistakes, that hopefully we will learn from.
* signings
* focus on domestic cups rather than the league
* profligacy in front of goal
* not picking players based on merit
* failure to rotate clearly fatigued players
* missed penalties
a lot of mistakes, that hopefully we will learn from.
I'll stick with "disappointing". Your list is overcooked IMO. Profligacy in front of goal and missing penos (which are the same point really) I'll give you, but it's too early to write off all the signings - look at how Carroll's coming on all of a sudden for example - and Kenny may have decided that sidelining the league was a better way of developing a new squad. I'd be disappointed if he did, but I wouldn't rush into taking issue with him before learning his reasons. His selection decisions were probably a consequence of this overall approach.
for me a big learn to learn from is maximising your squad and playing key players in domestic compeititons is running the risk of losing those players in the league. rafa played a weakend side in the fa cup got kicked out and was flamed and then went on to win the CL the same season.
R
RedZeppelin III
Guest
those standards kenny set in the 1st few months should be the standards we always aim for and expect . I'm fed up being realistic and patient , we had a chance to build on that decent half season in the summer yet we , well kenny and comolli, fucked it up . A whole season later and our best players are still players we had under rafa ,bar Suarez of course , and we still don't seem to know our best formation or starting lineup .
That's completely lacking perspective.
We were on the brink of Administration, had a devastating first few months of last season and finally gained some stability in January. We played with an air of freedom for a few months after uncertainty and replicated our new found optimism onto the pitch, which in turn raised expectations.
Kenny has won the title before for us, is a hero in many peoples eyes and has also won the Premier League with Blackburn. The problem there being that, as we know too well now, we have high standards. What we need to realise is that those high standards aren't always achievable straight away, occasionally we have to be patient and realise it's a longer process than just having a manager turn up and completely change the fortunes of a team within a season. Yes we could have improved significantly more with a couple of different players, but then Rome wasn't build in a day.
I'm not glossing over our fuck ups this season, but there are shining lights amongst what many have labelled a disaster. A couple of our so called failed signings are starting to show glimpses that they might just make it after all, we've won one cup and got to the final of another. An achievement in itself and more than what other 'big' clubs have done this season - a European qualification isn't what gets remembered in the record books, though admittedly it's massively important in the long run financially, its silverware that gets remembered.
Domestically we've been poor in the league, in the Cups we've done well and faired better than most. We've given a few of the big sides good games this season and occasionally got close to wiping the floor with a few sides. While disappointing results have by and large been marginal, in that you can see cause for optimism and hope that we're only a few key signings away from turning many of those results into draws/wins.
Fans need to be realistic. While we've been poor and the league form cannot continue next season, a certain degree of perseverance is required. Sure we could go for broke and appoint someone else, but I'd wager it's more likely we'll have to be indulgent with whomever that is too, and after setting a precedent with Hodgson and now (as many seem to 'hope'), Kenny, they'll be under pressure to be instantly successful. Good luck to whoever is in charge next season, whether it be Kenny or whoever else, because the usual cretins will be baying for blood, writing players off and picking holes in the regime from the off.
He also played a weakened side often in the league that season, that's what he got flamed for most. We had every right to do it in the domestic cups this season, given we weren't in Europe.
I didn't say there were no positives, I said it was a bad season but if we learn from this season than it would have served it's purpose.
The good things about these cup runs is that we beat Man U and Man City on the way but league position is all that counts really. When we then get beaten at home by the dross we have, the cups seem insignificant. The season has been a complete failure. I can't understand anyone that thinks otherwise. We make and spend CL money, so you'd expect competence to get us there, you'd expect above average competence to be seeing us challenge for the title, and below average would see us not challenging for 4th. Nearly 40 points off the top of the league isn't simply below average, it's a massive systemic malfunction.
a big worry is the teams above us will strengthen again so it will be even harder to break into the top 4.
arsenal are linked with m'villa
city/chelsea linked with hazard
manu liked with the asian winger
arsenal are linked with m'villa
city/chelsea linked with hazard
manu liked with the asian winger
Nobody's claiming there haven't been mistakes, serious ones in one or two cases, but that's still OTT as an overall judgment. Such an approach would have choked off Ferguson's ManUre career before it got properly started.
for me a big mistake was not playing coates when agger was injured, we wont better a chance again to play an inexperienced player with relatively little to lose
So Mark four steps forward And three back this season? I remember feeling progress before Lucas got hobbled. and for sure we dropped 15 or more points by not having a poacher or flair player or two in those groundhog day games. This in turn created even more negative momentum for the club.
Harking back to the positive feeling last year, if we address our attacking deficiencies, I see us going places. But we cannot wait for just an improved AC. We need more options.
Harking back to the positive feeling last year, if we address our attacking deficiencies, I see us going places. But we cannot wait for just an improved AC. We need more options.
I have seen the interview, or at least all of it available, from which those comments were taken on the BBC and he didn't say that.
He may well have said it outside the interview shown but I would still like to see the context to it if he did.
- Status
Similar threads
-
- Locked
