Ace Ventura wrote:Does everyone of the disallusioned fans think that if we played these games spread out over the season that we would of lost them all ?
Rafa brought in a number of new players, which most fans seemed really happy with, players take time to fit in and build an understanding with new team mates...thats a fact.
If we had played Watford and Charlton away instead of Chelsea and Arsenal do you all think that our away record would be as dire ?
If the fixtures had been kinder the new players might of bedded in, we might of played these teams when we were in form and the results could of been different.
I know we havent moved on from last season YET, but give the manager a break and lets see how we fare in our away games from now on, after all we won in Bordeaux and drew a very awkward game in PSV so its not all bad.
I am confident we will pick our away form up now, and climb the league.
I don't know if we would have lost them all, but I'm not filled with my usual levels of high optimism when we come against the top three in league (particularly in away games). That's not to say I don't have optimism when we come against the big three.
You're right, Rafa did bring in new faces and as we all know (well most of us know) new faces do take time to settle in, I've not criticised players like Pennant, Bellamy, Palletta, Gonzales and Aurelio, I understand that they will take a while to adjust to a new team, new surroundings both on and off the pitch, new training methods and so forth.
If we played Watford and Charlton I'm sure we would have won and got points, I'm sure we would have a much better away form, but that to me doesn't make any difference, we would of had to face the big three, Bolton and Everton away at some point in the season, we just have to face facts that we are not up to the level of the big three at the moment, I'm not just talking about facing them in a match, I'm talking about going toe to toe with them over thirty eight matches.
I don't think facing the likes of Watford instead of Man Utd earlier in the season would have made much (if any) difference to the time our new players are taking in imbedding into the squad, if anything it's a plus point that players like Gonzales faced Man Utd early because than he is more prepared for the match at Anfield.
If you're referring to me, then I am giving Rafa space, time and he has my full support, I think I've been fair and constructive in my criticisms of Rafa, I don't think I've criticised him in an over the top manner and I've praised him many a time.
However I do feel we have moved backwards since last season, thus far in the league, we had a pretty decent away record last season compared to the season before (I know we faced good team, top teams early this season, but that's not what my point is about) we have a similar away form to that of Rafa's first season in charge. I agree with you we can only make a full scale judgement once the season is complete; however I am making observations of the season so far, which I feel I'm entitled to do. I acknowledge that we are moving forward in the league, last season showed that and I feel we moved too fast last season, which carried and still carry's a huge burden on this season, IMO this season will be somewhat a failure if we fail to improve upon last season, even if it's only a slight improvement, it's an improvement nonetheless. I feel we are going in the right direction, but sadly I still think we haven't made much progress since Houllier, even Houllier had one outstanding season as our manager, Evans didn't do too badly either, so really we haven't made much progress for well over a decade, despite some high standing league positions.
That's not to say we aren't going in the right direction under Rafa, because we are, I know the task Rafa has taken on, it's not easy, but he will deliver, but IMO it's naive to say we've made mass improvements since the days of Houllier, in cup competitions we have improved old big ears is a fine example of that, but in terms of the league, I don't think so, I'll grant you that we have made an improvement, but not much, not enough to say we've improved a lot, because we haven't and I don't think it's disillusioned to say that, because I think it's the correct statement.
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