Liverpool FC Forum

[manufantastic]

It is definately time you changed your manager before the end of the season. Houllier will not get you into the champions league. Watching your team v southampton on saturday it struck me that the problems are the following (1) Loss of Confidence (2) unavailability of 2 of your best players (Owen,and Kewell) (3) Lack of match fitness of Hamman (4) Most significantly poor tactics. This last reason in my opinion is down to the manager. You have the players so logically you should be up there challenging for the tiitle never mind hoping to scrape fourth spot. I know Houllier has not be helped with injuries to key players, but the team was not exctly setting the league alight with a fully fit team. A good manager and /or coach will galvanise the talents you have at the club and then you will be back up there. Just my honest opinion.

[REDTILLDEAD]

Shove your honest opinion up your ar#e!! manc scum!! we dont need any input from "scumchester shi#ited" nerds!! 

[JBG]

In fairness to the above named Man U fan he gave a fairly unbiased and honest opinion which was pretty close to what we are all saying ourselves.

It makes a difference from the usual Man U scum who come here to gloat.

All the same, people here aren't too keen on taking advice from Mancs.

[Owzat]

Oh such revelations! Perhaps the mancs should worry more about Ferdinand, Abrahamovic and their own troubles..........

[big al]

JBG spot on again.  I have no hatred for Man u players, and about half their supporters.  The other halve our arogant s##t heads, but we must recognise some of them are alright.  There manager is very good at his job but he's a s##t head too.  One thing I will add is I would'nt gloat so much if I was a Man U fan.  I think Arsenal and Chelsea will run you bloody ragged.  The tide is definitely turning sadly our boat is full of holes because of our Captain.

Houlier is the captain of our ship, of our ship
Our ship is a tanker and Houlier is a W***ker

[redandblue]

I don't think that the United fan above was gloating (which in itself is unusual). He is spot on. As we all know, United have a great team and a great manager. We have a poor team and a dreadful manager coupled with an imbecile of a chairman.

But our fans are still the most knowledgeable in the game and unlike the Mancs, are good at appreciating the skills of opposing teams. Unfortunately these days, we have to sit back and watch in silence as we fail to beat Bolton, Spurs, Southampton, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea......and not so long ago Crystal Palace.

[big al]

Your right Redandblue he was'nt gloating,but some of them are though.  I think to there cost.

[redandblue]

Yes, a lot of them are just loving it, watching us struggle week in week out and listening to Houllier bleating on about injuries. It is particularly galling when Ferguson says that Houllier is doing a good job for Liverpool. He is having a good laugh.

You'd never hear Ferguson saying that Wenger was doing a good job, because he knows that it's true.

[Cool Hand Luke]

I think Houllier was doing fine until summer 2002.  This is when he made 3 rash signings before and at the start of the World Cup. He spent the rest of the summer resting after his illness.

Though many will disagree, the signings of Cheyrou and Diao were not the disaster, beacuse we needed a Left Sided midfielder and cover for the Central Midfielders who left(Redknapp and McAllister), the signing of Diouf was what really cost Houllier.  We recieved over 12MIL for Fowler, a legend at Liverpool, we needed to see a replacement come in and fill that void. Houllier used 10MIL and signed Diouf, I believe this was a quick decision rather than one that was built up over a number of months.

When Diouf arrived Houllier played him upfront and realised that he had made a mistake, Diouf was not fit to replace Fowler.  So he stuck him out on the right and continiued with Heskey, after this the board lost confidence, because Heskey had proved to be a total waste of money and Diouf was not worth 10MIL. And the fact that we did not qualify for the Champions League meant that Houllier could not sign the Left Sided Midfielder and the Striker we needed, due to lack of funds.

In the summer Houllier bought very well in the tranfer market, and there was hope for progression but a combination of bad luck and not being able to swallow his pride has cost him dearly, the signing of Heskey could be forgiven, making another mistake in that magnatude(Diouf) was unaccpatable.

The summer of 2002 will always haunt Houllier and he knows it.

[redandblue]

Good analysis. He may have been doing fine, but his team was frequently awful to watch. Just awful.

[JBG]

Yeah, the summer of 2002 was when he blew it.

People go on about Diao and Cheyrou being poor (including me) but they were really signed as squad players, and I don't think Houllier saw them as being in the first team straight away, at least not with Diao who was supposed to only come to us in January 2003 but Houllier brought him over early as cover for the injured Gerrard (in hindsight Diao would have been better off staying in France until January).

I think he hoped to play Cheyrou in the first team, but it was obvious Houllier had second thoughts about signing him even before the 2002/03 season kicked off as he very publicly kept Cheyrou on the bench for the first 5 or 6 matches in order to allow the Frenchman to "watch and see how the English game is played" (a retarded excuse).

Diouff was the summer's big name signing, and as Has said, he was seen as the long term replacement for Fowler. However, I don't think Houllier rushed into signing him as I remember Liverpool being linked to Diouff as early as January 2002 and I also remember Houllier praising him in March (during the African Nations Cup) and again in early May 2002. I even remember looking out for him in the opening match of the 2002 World Cup as he was strongly linked to joining us at this stage and I was absolutely amazed at his (and I don't think I'm exagerating here) young Luis Ronaldo like performance against France when he absolutely destroyed Dessailley and Thuram.

Houllier spent ages agonising over whether to keep Anelka or sign Diouff, before going for Diouff in the end. A lot of the newspapers at the time we advising Houllier to sign Anelka and Damien Duff but Houllier told everybody to trust him over Diouff and Cheyrou.

It soon became obvious that Diouff was knackered after the World Cup and his style of play didn't suit Liverpool at all, and the move to Anfield was probably too soon for him. Cheyrou was also completely unsuited to Liverpool. He had a big reputation in France, but most French journalists thought that he would have been more suited to Arsenal's style, or even go to Fulham under Jean Tigana.

Houllier blew it in 2002 because even though his side finished 2nd in the Premiership and performed very well in Europe they occasionally struggled at home against weaker teams (we could beat Barcelona or Roma at Anfield but draw or lose to Charlton). It was probably only a matter of time before teams adapted to our negative style of play and used our weaknesses (poor technique, lack of width) against us....in fact, we were caught out from October 2002 on. He really needed to have added some width and penetration in the summer of 2002 and if he had signed Duff and Anelka, as well as holding onto Litmannen, I am very confident we would have won the league last year.

[leothelion]

SOME VERY GOOD POINTS THERE JBG VERY VALID POINTS DONT KNOW ABOUT WINNING THE LEAGUE BUT WE WOULD DEFINETLY HAVE DONE BETTER

[BOODIDDY]

Have to agree with comments made on Diouf, he was a world beater at the WC and its not easy to be crowned African Player of the year twice! However, it is just a fact that certain players, no matter how technically gifted, can't come to terms with playing in the premiership. Houllier, for his bad luck, has just happened to buy maybe four or five of these players. I happen to believe that Diao, Cheyrou and Diouf would be very good players in Spain or Italy, but the pace here is far too much for them to handle. This misjudgement from Houllier, is probably due to the fact he is foreign, and also cant really fathom out what the premiership is all about, and thats a shame. It's time for him to go, but please don't give the job to Thommo and Lee thats backward. We need to think big and go for a proven coach.

I've previously said O'neill (along with the masses), but how about Big Sam, because believe you me, the man is as tactical and shrewd as any manager in Europe.

So, lets get MON or Big Sam!

[116-1065305004]

In fairness to the above named Man U fan he gave a fairly unbiased and honest opinion which was pretty close to what we are all saying ourselves.

It makes a difference from the usual Man U scum who come here to gloat.

All the same, people here aren't too keen on taking advice from Mancs.

I will accept any fan on this forum and this manc has given a honest opinion on the team and for that we should be grateful he isnt taking the p#ss unlike some of the manc dickheads on this site.
There was one I gave loads to on sunday night but supersub must have deleted the post because I cant find it anywhere.
Liverpool FC are good enough to accept any fan on their forums unlike Manchester United, because when I went to check out their site the other week it warned you that if you dont support Manchester United you will be banned from the site which is a bit f##king arrogant.
Anyway I am getting off the topic this United fan was making a good point.

[leothelion]

SO TRUE MUST MANC SUPPORTERS ARE a##holes AND CANT GIVE AN HONEST OPINION ON ANYTHING ELSE I PERSONALY HATE MUFC BUT NEVER MIND SITTING DOWN TALKING TO A FAN OF ANY CLUB ONCE THEY CAN BE HONEST AND OBJECTIVE