Liverpool FC Forum

[Stackman]

When he had financial support he bought Diouf (£10M? ?), Diao, Biscan.

[115-1073096938]

And Kewell and Hyypia and Baros.

[Woollyback]

And Domede, Ferri & so on...   Stu, we can all pick out individuals to show that GH is either a) very good or b) not very good at buying players but we have to look at the overall effect of the players he's brought in and generally you'd have to say it's not great.

[115-1073096938]

Woolyback listen mate, thats my point, people are sitting here slagging his signings.

I ain't sayin they are all class. But there are alot of class ones aswell as bad ones. His record is good. Its not sh##e, its not cr#p, its not world class, its good. Nothing more, nothing less. The good signings BY FAR outwiegh the bad.

[JBG]

I wouldn't necessarily say Houllier has bought terribly. Indeed up until 2002 most of his signings were excellent, with a few dodgy ones (but then again, almost every manager, even the very best, makes a few bad buys).

However, I think he took a gamble in 2002 with his transfer budget and it has backfired on him.

There are more good signings there than bad ones, but the signings that came when it really mattered (2002) were poor ones, and that is what has cursed Houllier.

[Woollyback]

JBG, I think you've hit the nail on the head there. His bad signings all seemed to come at a crunch time when everyone was expecting him to lift us up another level. Also it's unfortunate for him that the bad signings have, by and large, been the more expensive buys like Diouf, Diao, Biscan. Stu, before you jump down my throat yes there have been good signings for relatively big money like Kewell, Hamann and so on, and I think Diouf should be given more time cos I think he's got it in himself to come good.

So overall GH's signings have been fairly good (not great) but 2002 he's dropped a bollock.

GH, however, doesn't help himself the way he hypes up new signings. OK, he's trying to give us all a lift and give us something to be excited about but it's putting a huge burden of expectation on the player's shoulders and leaves us a bit disappointed if the player doesn't immediately become Ronaldo.

[woof woof !]

Must admit after watching Diao and Diouf playing for Senegal in the world cup I was doing cartwheels when we signed them. I really thought we had signed two OUTSTANDING players. Obviously so did GH . I still can't understand why these players have not reproduced the form they showed .
Maybe they need a decent run in the side together.As for the signing of Kewell , we all know he has class but so far he's not showing enough of it .
In fact when you look at it we do have a lot of talent within our squad but too often that ability is not produced .
Who do we blame for this ?
Then we have the signings of young unproven players who have "massive potential " and although we have seen flashes of this potential , how long will it be before that potential is realised ? and can we afford to wait ? if the answer is no , who do we blame . I think you all see where I'm going with this. GH has made some good , bad , and wait and see signings . So has every manager throughout the world . What GH hasn't done is to take a very talented squad and turn them into winners. Every team now fancy their chances of getting a result against us . Who do we blame for that ?
Finally , just to keep this balanced , we beat Blackburn 4:0
but I'm not blaming GH for that !!!!!!!!!!!      

[ckay]

Is the poor form down to bad coaching, lacking tactically or poor confidence?

[woof woof !]

Is the poor form down to bad coaching, lacking tactically or poor confidence?

A mixture of the first two, which leads to the third.
I have serious reservations about our management team.My belief is that we as a club are playing way below our potential and have done for the past 2 years. Players will always have good and bad games. It's up to the management to ensure we have significantly MORE good that bad.
The stats speak for themselves

[JBG]

My feelings as to the 2002 signings:

1. Diouff: brilliant in the African Nations Cup of 2002, brilliant in Korea/Japan. Looks an amazing player in 2002. Comes to Liverpool absolutely knackered after his 2002 international exploits. Also suffers first major drop in form of his young career. Played out of position. Might yet come good, but needs to really work on his game in training, particularly shooting and become more economical in possession. If he is here next year (and probably will) it'll be make or break for him.

2. Diao: Ditto. Played a stormer at the two international tournaments of 2002 but arrived at Anfield absolutely knackered. Started very well before fatigue caught up with him. Got a lot of unfair blame for the bad winter run of 2002/03. Now has been made a bit of a scape goat and is rarely played (also due to injuries), and if he is picked its out wide, at right back or even centre half. The mistake as far as I see it was Houllier changing his mind in August 2002 by deciding to bring Diao over to England 5 months early: Diao wasn't meant to come here until Januaru 2003, but an injury to Steven Gerrard tempted Houllier to bring him here early. Had he stayed in France he probably would have re-charged his batteries, missed the bad run (and thus might not have suffered the blow to his confidence) and would have arrived at Anfield in 2003 as a strong, fit and confident player. Hindsight is a great thing, eh?

Now looks like he'll be the first out the door in the summer. A bit unfair I think but that's GH's Liverpool.

3. Cheyrou: hyped to the high heavens in France, the new "Zidanne" according to some. Suffered a serious dip in form in the summer of 2002 when he had two stinkers for France in summer friendlies. The alarm bells should already have been ringing when he came to Anfield. Was completely off the pace of English football when he signed, and clearly his confidence was hit. Showing some signs of improvement since the turn of 2004 but he still is a major disappointment. Like Diouff he should be here next season, but is in danger of being frozen out by GH if Liverpool sign another midfielder in the summer.

[ckay]

I would like to add something to that but I can't. Spot on post that make a lot of sense.

[woof woof !]

Yeah good assesment from JBG although I wouldn't neccesarily put Diouff and Diao's loss of form down to just "being knackered" from the world cup. I would put as much emphasis on the posistions GH played them.I seem to recall that both of them played for Senegal in a left sided posistion and with Diao never too far behind Diouff they seemed to have a great understanding.
At the time I thought (in terms of our needs) Diao was the better prospect.It's a pity we don't see the pair of them played together in that way.


                                     Diouff               Owen
           
                      Kewell          Diao          Gerrard         Cheyrou

                      Rise            Hypia            Henchoz         Carragher
                       
                                             
                                                  Dudek                 

                Arsenal 1   Liverpool 2 

[ckay]

He won't play Henchoz. His out burst in the press has p#ssed GH off and will probably result in him only playing a couple of the remaining games ( if that ). Biscan will get the nod ahead of Henchoz untill pre-season.

[woof woof !]

He won't play Henchoz. His out burst in the press has p#ssed GH off and will probably result in him only playing a couple of the remaining games ( if that ). Biscan will get the nod ahead of Henchoz untill pre-season.

Thats a real pis*er . Henchoz answered a simple question basically saying " I don't know why I'm not playing " .... hardly what you would call an outburst and yet Foolier has responded as though Henchoz had called him a "Silly overated french c*nt who knows f*ck all about football " Which of course is what Henchoz should have said .    

[ckay]

Now that would have made better reading!!!!!!!!!!!