Liverpool FC Forum

[LFC2007]

IDLMR either Mick, makes me dizzy 

[bigmick]

I'm like death and taxes, fecking boringly predictable. Right as well though

[Igor Zidane]

Ok ok it didn't work last season and we were out of it in the league by jan

Igor on another thread you (at least I think it was you) said that this year you hoped we were still in it by Christmas, and here that we were out of it by January.

Mate we were out of it by October. After six games of fecking about we were out of it. Now assuming Bob's point about the West Ham game being re-scheduled because of Champions league commitments is correct (and no doubt it is knowing Bob) then the alarm bells are already ringing for me. We have a start of Villa Away, then Chelsea at Home.

Now if we go to Villa and like we did at Sheffield Utd last season open up with a fecked about line-up and then have to settle for an extremely fortuitous point, and then make five changes for the Chelsea game and lose that one, we are likely to be five points behind them and Man Utd after two games. Would we be out of it? Probably not but we wouldn't exactly be in it either. How far can you afford to drop behind TWO leaders like Man Utd and Chelsea? Well maybe seven or eight points at an absolute push.


So what do you do? Well I know what I'd do. I'd use the first couple of pre-season games as feck around let's get fit affairs, and then I'd be playing pretty much my strongest team in the last two before the opening game. If we have to play Champions League qualifiers, you want your very strongest team in the first leg, then when you've won that one 4-0 let the players have a rest and rotate. Not like last season when we scraped a 2-1 win at home in the first leg with a last minute winner after playing Bellamy on his own up top, before having to field an absolute full-strength eleven in the away leg to ensure we qualified. That's what I'd do but I won't hold my breath.

I tell you this here and now, if we go to Villa and try and take the p!ss like we did at Bramhall Lane on the opening day of last season we may get a very nasty shock indeed. While we're at it, I wonder if Chelsea will rotate much in their first few games, or Man Utd for that matter.

Mick that post was pretty tongue in cheek mate.

Pretty much agree with what you are saying , iknow we were out of it after six games and that was partly down to not having a settled side ,you say over rotation and i'd say players in bad form , a tw@t of a fixture list and abit of over rotation.

Now hopefully rafa will have learned from last season and play his best team in the first match , and like you say he can do all the rotating and bedding in of new players pre-season .

For this to be successful though mick , we have to get new players in early and have them playing rafa's system or systems well into pre-season.

Also the quality of player he buy's must be a big improvement on last year for him to continue with his rotation. Only slight rotation though and not on mass.

We will only know what the squad will be like in the coming weeks . I personaly think that the fixture list is not bad at all and if Rafa gets it right from the start, and we are still in the mix by christmas we should be able to mount a very good title challenge.

[Bad Bob]

Now assuming Bob's point about the West Ham game being re-scheduled because of Champions league commitments is correct (and no doubt it is knowing Bob) then the alarm bells are already ringing for me. We have a start of Villa Away, then Chelsea at Home.

Says so in the ECHO, mate:

____

Chelsea set for Anfield opener

Jun 14 2007

While Blues host Wigan and Rovers land Leeds cracker

by David Prentice, Liverpool Echo


LIVERPOOL and Chelsea will renew their fierce rivalry just a week into the new season.

Jose Mourinho’s men will bring up the curtain on the 2007-08 campaign at Anfield, after Rafa Benitez’s side kick-off with an opening day trip to Aston Villa.

The scheduled visit of West Ham to Anfield on August 14 will be postponed because of a Champions League qualifier, which could see Liverpool facing Chelsea after a tiring trip in Europe.

Everton open at home to Wigan on August 11, before a midweek trip to Tottenham and then another long away day at Reading.

Tranmere have arguably the most attractive opening day fixture against Leeds, with the League One season scheduled to kick-off on the same day as the Premier League campaign.

The first derby match of the season will be played at Goodison on October 20, with the Anfield return scheduled for March 29.

The Christmas programme has also been kind to local fans.

Everton make the short trip to Old Trafford three days before Christmas and have home matches on Boxing Day and December 29.

Liverpool will travel to Derby on Boxing Day and Manchester City on December 29.

Manchester United have back to back Mersey clashes in December. They travel to Anfield on December 15 then entertain the Blues the following weekend.

Chester City kick off their League Two campaign at home to Chesterfield, with a trip to Rochdale the following Saturday.

Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce will make a swift return to Bolton on the opening day.

Manchester United will open the defence of their crown at home to Reading.

Newly-promoted Birmingham will travel to FA Cup winners Chelsea, while Championship winners Sunderland host Tottenham.

Derby’s reward for winning the play-off final at Wembley is a home date with Portsmouth in their first Premier League match since 2002.
-------------------------------

As you say, we had best do the business in the first leg of the CL tie so that we can field a b-squad in the return leg and focus on playing our best team against Villa and Chelsea. 

The fixture list looks a lot kinder after the Chelsea match for us but, of course, the Mancs have a very soft first month of fixtures and could build up quite a head of steam again.  We must keep pace!