Liverpool FC Forum

[Penguins]

Well, there's no denying now that we'll fight for 4th spot and it will be tough. We can't finish any higher this season imo.

[The Manhattan Project]

Once again, 4th place becomes our hope.

Forget Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd. They are gone.

Very disappointing.

[The_Rock]

I still think a couple of months down the line the usual top 4 will have broken away. On current form though, we're going to be at the bottom of it.

Obviously you look at Man U, who are hotly pursuing Berbatov, and Chelsea who have brought in Anelka, and it's plain to see that we're still not competitive enough in the transfer market with those teams above us. I think Rafa was pinning his hopes on a magical second season from Kuyt, but now that the reality's dawning on him that it's not going to happen, we look ridiculously short of ideas around Torres.

Lets no bring the financial sh1t into the picture for a bad performance shall we....

Manure already have a huge stadium  and chelsea don't need a huge stadium as they don't have any fans.

We need a huge stadium...so cash is a little tight now. But the owners are still giving rafa money.

If rafa can get rid of Kuyt, voronin, sissoko we could also afford to buy anelka...why isn't he doing that ?

IMO....rafa will never buy classy buty a little lazy players like berbatov and anelka. He prefer defensive strikers like voronin and kuyt who are even more of a "headless" chicken than baros was.

[puroresu]

I am worried.  I just dont see us putting a big run together and pulling away from the other sides fighting for 4th.

[mart]

If rafa can get rid of Kuyt, voronin, sissoko we could also afford to buy anelka...why isn't he doing that ?

Probably because
1. Noone is fighting to sign any of those players, with the exception of sissoko that still is a great talent.
2. Anelka wants to go to chelsea that will give him twice the wage liverpool will.

The big question is why didnt we sign anelka when he was here.

[bigmick]

I'm still not worried and think we will finish fourth with a fair bit to spare. So long as we snap out of our latest extended bliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip fairly soon, we will have all three of the teams who are currently level on points with us come to our ground, so we'll have plenty of opportunity to pull clear. I'm still taking us to finish fourth, although I'm pushing out my prediction for the points defeicit between us and the eventual winners (which will be the Mancs) to between 14-16 points.

The main problem we have is that Everton (who will finish fifth IMHO) and indeed the other two teams who are our main rivals as of now, have got the bit between their teeth and have got some real momentum going. It is a word I use a lot when I'm talking about football teams (not as much as rotation I'll grant you but quite a lot anyway) and it's a crucial element I feel. Once you've got it of course you absolutely cling onto it, and I've no doubt those three teams will be trying their very best to disturb as little as possible and keep the wheels rolling along.

For our part, we've got zero momentum I think it's fair to say so a little tinker here and there probably wouldn't go amiss. If it was me, I'd be move Gerrard to the right, play Lucas with either Alonso or Masherano in the centre (I don't really care which but slightly prefer Masherano) and I'd play either Crouch or Babel up front with Torres (once more don't care which). Since we've just shelled out a few quid for a central defender, you'd hope he might be an improvement on Sami so I'd stick him in as well. As long as we can pick ourselves up off the floor fairly soon we'll be OK in my opinion, but a performance some time soon definately wouldn't go amiss.

[parchpea]

Well we have little chance of making the top 3 the way its going and quite frankly those teams do look superior to Liverpool.

The African nations will have some impact but its clutching at straws given Chelsea just brought Anelka in to cover and lets face it the have a strong pool of players there.

I hate to say it but Everton look a good team this year and I feel there will not be much between us and them at the finish so its going to be a close call.

Fingers crossed

[burjennio]

4th place must now be top priority, if were are having financial woes not qualifying for the champions league would be a disaster

i think come the start of next season there will be a new coach in place and he's gonna need a good transfer chest, at least Gerard scrapped into the Champs league for rafa to win it the following season. lets hope a similar pattern is ahead

[J*o*n*D*o*e]

its deffo going to be tough with away trips to the top 3 still to come, we need to take something from atleast 2 of these games to stand a chance imo

unbelievable how its all gone tits up since Reading.

[The Manhattan Project]

It's not all doom and gloom though.

One positive is Fernando Torres. The goal against Boro was simply outstanding.

There seems to be no limit to this guy's ability and he's certainly the real deal.

With some decent support he'd be unstoppable.

[Owzat]

Assuming this season is no different to any other and 68 points is enough to finish fourth then I am concerned. Not just because of form to date but because of games to come, and tied in with home form of P10 W4 D5 L1

Home

Man City
Everton
Blackburn
West Ham
Newcastle
Reading
Middlesboro
Aston Villa
Sunderland

Away

Man Utd
Arsenal
Chelsea
Tottenham
West Ham
Bolton
Fulham
Birmingham

Nine wins should do it, five trips to London won't help and that away fixture list looks ominous given Rafa's never so much as picked up a point away to any of the top three. We ought to win at least six at home, but so far we've drawn half including Wigan, spudz when they were struggling and brum so nothing's certain.

What is noticable is that our home form looks more like away form, seven teams including Liverpool have won more games away than we've won at home. Only Derby (20th), Fulham (19th), Birmingham (16th),  MIDDLESBORO (14th) and Portsmouth (8th) have won fewer home games. Middlesboro have only won twice at home, against Arsenal and brum.

[bigmick]

The away games in particular do have a formiddable look about them it has to be said. I wouldn't count any of them as absolute bankers were we playing them this weekend coming, and if somebody offered me four wins and two draws out of the eight I'd fecking bite their hands of at the elbow TBPH. That would give us fourteen more points of course, leaving us on fifty three and assuming Owz's stat is about right, needing 15 points from nine winnable Home games to break that 68 point barrier. I think we'll do that no problem, although the fourteen points from the away games might be a tall order. FWIW I think we'll finish on low seventies, and fairly comfortably in fourth place. We can't keep playing like we are right now surely.

[roberto green]

what the bet that we will take a back seat in tje league will just make sure we get 4th and with the champions league coming uo we will surprise everyone again like Barca last year and beat Inter and go on another run again.

In my eyes the only way Rafa can save his neck is to win the champions league.

Inpossible?

Where have i heard that before!

[LegBarnes]

i would like us to finish 8th this season and not go in any EU cup comp then we might be able to mount a real Prem challange.

Also we would see how much rafa really loves the club or if he is just here for the CL games.

[JamCar05]

i would like us to finish 8th this season and not go in any EU cup comp then we might be able to mount a real Prem challange.

Also we would see how much rafa really loves the club or if he is just here for the CL games.

Well if that happened Rafa (in all likeliness) wouldn't be here the following season whether he wanted to or not.