Liverpool Thread - Premier League Champions* 2019/20

Not sure about Meireles' new haircut either tbh...I mean it probably looks better than the greasy dego cut prior, but he looks like an absolute nutter now.

He looks like he is about 45 years old! Those ESPN commentators are painful. Tyler2010-10-01 16:11:07

Hey El-Nino didn't you give me a serve a few weeks ago about me getting into Reina and his crap handling?
So how come you changed your tune to this,
don't even get me started on our keeper, he costs us points every week...

Hodgson is the same as Banitez and has very little idea about changing shape or intention on how to play various opposition.
At least under Roy Evans we played the best football in the league and finished in the top 4. The suits at Anfield shafted Roy E.

win tonight and were 4 points off second...

An excellent article on (and with) Benitez:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/liverpool-is-my-home-and-i-will-come-back-2362665.html



Good luck tonight lads! YNWA

Please, please, please get 3 points.

Blackpool ffs, need a good run into the Derby...

COME ON YOU REDS!!!

I wonder what excuse will be dished up today?
What an unbelieveable save at the end.
Going down with the West Ham?
sanday2010-10-04 04:52:07

Blackpool the better team by a mile the whole game.
The lights will be on big time in Blackpool tonight.

King Kenny back between now and the end of the international break.

Better than the London derby imo.

LMAO!!!!

Just feel sick this morning.

Hicks Out
Gillet Out
Cecil Out
Roy...

What is it with our shambolic 1st half performances?

I can't believe I'm reading this. Roy's comments on the weekend (before this mornings match)

Roy Hodgson has launched a strident defence of his stuttering start as Liverpool manager, insisting he will not change the approach which earned him the job, dismissing concerns over his side�s league position and intimating his team have done little to suggest more should be expected of them than his former club Fulham.

By Rory Smith
Published: 11:59PM BST 02 Oct 2010

Hodgson, appointed by managing director Christian Purslow in July to replace Rafael Ben�tez, has overseen just one Premier League win in six games � though he remains unbeaten in Europe � after a series of mediocre performances and his side begin Sunday afternoon�s visit of Blackpool hovering just above the relegation zone.

Such a r�sum� is hardly the sort of start deemed acceptable at Anfield. Hodgson, though, is quick to scotch the suggestion that his style of coaching and philosophy of play is not suited to a club where expectations are so high and the staff at his disposal so high-profile.

�Unbelievable,� said the Liverpool manager, when asked whether his approach could be applied on Merseyside as effectively as it was in west London. �How many clubs have I had in 35 years? What do you mean, do my methods translate? They translated from Halmstads to Malmo to Orebro to Neuch�tel Xamax to the Swiss national team.

�The question is quite frankly insulting, I suppose. That question is suggesting something. To suggest that suddenly because you move from one club to another, the methods that have stood you in good stead for 35 years and made you one of the most respected coaches in the Europe suddenly do not work. I find it very, very hard to believe that someone has even asked me that question.�

He is equally scornful of the idea that Liverpool boast a different type of player, either in terms of technical ability or psychological needs, players who require a different form of coaching to his former charges at Craven Cottage. �What do you mean, �a different type of player?'� he asked.

�At the moment arguably one or two of the players that you are suggesting are very different to the Fulham players maybe are not playing any better than the Fulham players played. Journalists work on names and not on performances. You watch people play and you base your judgement on their name and not necessarily what they have actually done on the day of the game.�

If such remarks suggest Hodgson is starting to feel the pressure of life under the intense glare of attention which England�s most decorated club attracts, he insists nothing could be further from the truth, regardless of the apparent precariousness of Liverpool�s league position.

�I could not give a monkey�s whether we are 16th or 18th,� he said. �What bothers me is that we have only got six points and I would have liked a few more. But then I knew Manchester United and Manchester City were going to be tough, and I knew Arsenal with 10 men was going to be tough, so maybe six points is not so bad.

�[But] when you have six points from six games, you understand people are going to be making negative judgments. That is the way it is. Those things do not bother me. I have had two and a half wonderful years where nothing negative was ever said about me and my team. Now maybe people are saying negative things. It does not change anything.�

Such confidence will do little to quell the growing unease among Liverpool�s fans, though Anfield is famed for its enduring faith in those who inhabit the Boot Room. Hodgson, though, insists such concerns are borne of hopes heightened beyond realism.

�Expectations are very high,� he said. �You cannot live in a dream world of how wonderful it would be if every time one of our players got the ball, he raced past four defenders and smashed it into the net. That would be living in a fantasy world. That is not going to happen in plenty of games in Europe and the Premier League.

�I would accuse you of being unrealistic if you are suggesting we should doing what Arsenal, who have had the same team for the last six years, and Chelsea, who have just won the league, are doing. We finished seventh last season. I don�t understand why you are suggesting we should be comparing ourselves every day with Chelsea or Manchester United at this early stage of the season.�

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8038680/Roy-Hodgson-launches-strident-defence-of-his-start-to-life-as-Liverpool-manager.html


We have to be comparing ourselves to Chelsea and Arsenal! They're our rivals! We belong at the top fighting for Championships. Not giving monkeys about being 16th or 18th - You what?!

Lolz. Naize first half, la's.

it wouldnt matter if we had ronaldo and messi on the wings...
theres a problem with the club, and the sooner we hit administration the better, as sad as it sounds

I was actually just laughing right throught the first half. We were just so so so awful. We were taught a lesson in how to play. I wasn't even surprised, that's how bad it is. Don't even know what to say. 

 
still think getting rid of him was the right decision, but maybe getting roy in as a replacement was the wrong one?

I'm prepared to admit that I was wrong when I eventually called for Rafa to go. Hindsight is wonderful and it's devastating at the same time because now we know for sure it wasn't actually Rafa. It was the board. H&G tightened the screws and Cecil screwed Rafa over making his ability to manage unmanageable. The same is happening to Roy (who I sadly feel a bit sorry for) as he doesn't have ability to stand against the board like Rafa nor does he have the ability to take the team forward. Where's the plan?

It's going to be a hell tough season lads. Two weeks and hopefully H&G are off. Let's hope there's new owners in the shadows and Cecil can go back to Banking. Roy... I just don't know. Not really his fault... but he can't stay at this rate.

Keep Roy At Pool.

you dont honestly think we would be doing a whole lot better with rafa in charge??

Probably not. Wouldn't matter who the manager is right now, they'd all be getting strangled from above.

I reckon you guys have way to much class to go down, as most people do, but it'd be interesting to see if you can get a Europa spot back. Probably a moot point at the moment though...

If we get deducted 9 points or whatever will go into negatives...??

Yes. To -3 at this rate.

How unusual to see a team ending in 'pool' win at Anfield.

"In six months, the Benitez era will seem like a golden age"
Dion Fanning, Sunday May 09 2010.

This from a Fulham fan earlier in the summer:

On substitutions:

He�ll make few substitutions, those he does will come late in the game and be mechanical. For example at Fulham he�ll take off Danny Murphy on 75 mins, every game. His philosophy is essentially one of Plan A, Plan A, Plan A. He�s worked on a plan with his team (no really, he has) and he�ll see it through on the basis that it is just a question of keep on working at it and it will work eventually. He is not short on believing in his convictions.

On selections:

He believes in having a first 11. He will work out who it is and then stick with it, week in week out. Others will play in the Europa League and the cups [now labeled his Liverpool �B team�]. Don�t expect to see him at the Academy too often, just not his thing.

On formation / tactics:

He�ll get his team to sit back in two banks of four, very narrow and basically say to the opposition, �go on play through us�. It had some success against teams like Arsenal. When you win the ball back, first option will be a ball to the striker and let him hold it up. Wide midfielders will often play on the side opposite their best foot to cut in (like Damien Duff at Fulham) and the fullbacks will have to provide any width. You�ll find it frustrating to watch as they won�t press, and as a fan it is very hard to get into the game when there is limited energy in attack or defence.

At Fulham the fans get into it because their expectations are lower and they have more games against what they see as better teams, and anything from the games is a victory of some sorts they can support. I think you�ll find it tougher to hang on to that at Anfield.

^ Yeah, I saw that. Really interesting and bang on.

Welcome to the relegation battle

i still believe roy is the right man for the job, and i hope that the board isnt so short sighted as to sack him not even halfway through the season

I hope they don't but with all due respect he ain't the man to be leading a team like Liverpool even with all his "worldly experience" as a Manager i reckon H&G see him as a caretaker manager. I like Woy but...