Liverpool FC Forum

[JC_81]

Joko...

'the strikers infertility'

'best brigade of midworkers'

'we will significantly fill this crack'

 

quality...

[kunilson]

ive been very impressed by liverpool this season.

most of you have said what needs to be said so ill just say that we showed what kind of team we are this season, we've showed consistency, fighting spirit....and we've managed to get to another major cup final.

Benitez is doing something special here.....

[stmichael]

Without trying to sound too pessimistic, we will do well to beat this year's total of 82 points. I'm not saying we won't beat that total, just that of we do then it will be a brilliant season, no matter what position we finish in.

Rafa has improved the side so much over his 2 years here. But other teams will soon start to work out a game plan to stop us from playing. They will also work out a way to hurt us as well. This happens to all good teams eventually. Once you are flying high, there are teams down there working out a way to plot your downfall. Rafa needs to strengthen the first team enough to enable us to cope with this.

I don't think it's just a case of improving our results from this year. Some results we can improve - the obvious ones are home games against mancs, Chelsea, Birmingham (even though they're relegated) and Charlton. But we also have to match the excellent results we've had this year, for example Newcastle, Man City, West Ham and Blackburn away - which got us 12 points this season.

It's going to be difficult enough to improve from this season. But while I think we will do just that, I really can't see us beating Chelsea to the title. I think they will just keep improving by spending their cash and it will be a race for second again.

[JC_81]

Without trying to sound too pessimistic, we will do well to beat this year's total of 82 points. I'm not saying we won't beat that total, just that of we do then it will be a brilliant season, no matter what position we finish in.

Fair point.  But I'd argue that 82, maybe 85 points next season will probably be enough to win the league.  I can't see Chelsea running away with it next year, they'll still be favourites but cracks are definitely starting to show, I don't think Mourinho himself is happy there any more judging by his general mood and comments during the 2nd half of this season.  Man U and Arsenal are harder to gauge.  Who do United buy for midfield? Who do they replace Van Nistelrooy with?  And does Henry stay at Arsenal?

Whatever happens the top teams will all take points off each other next season.  Chelsea will not dominate the top 4 encounters like they did this season I don't think and therefore it will be tighter at the top and take less points to win the league.  We need to be better in the big games next season, but not necessarily amass more points.

[66-1112520797]

Without trying to sound too pessimistic, we will do well to beat this year's total of 82 points. I'm not saying we won't beat that total, just that of we do then it will be a brilliant season, no matter what position we finish in.

Rafa has improved the side so much over his 2 years here. But other teams will soon start to work out a game plan to stop us from playing. They will also work out a way to hurt us as well. This happens to all good teams eventually. Once you are flying high, there are teams down there working out a way to plot your downfall. Rafa needs to strengthen the first team enough to enable us to cope with this.

I don't think it's just a case of improving our results from this year. Some results we can improve - the obvious ones are home games against mancs, Chelsea, Birmingham (even though they're relegated) and Charlton. But we also have to match the excellent results we've had this year, for example Newcastle, Man City, West Ham and Blackburn away - which got us 12 points this season.

It's going to be difficult enough to improve from this season. But while I think we will do just that, I really can't see us beating Chelsea to the title. I think they will just keep improving by spending their cash and it will be a race for second again.

Good read.

I agree with all that, apart from the last lines St.Mike. We are one of those teams trying to work out how to catch and hurt Chelsea. We will be trying to plot there downfall along with the Mancs and the Gooners.

Chelsea can only sign so many players, plus Abrimovich will soon look to start making some of his money back from the club. I dont think he will continue to pour millions into transfer fees, at some point this will slow down and even eventually stop. He will look for Maureen to re-cope money eventually adding pressure to his job, eventually somethings got to give and there bubble will burst.

As for us we can only do what we're doing, moving forward. We have room for improvement in our squad and team, and  because of this with some good signings from Rafa we can only get better in my view. So therefore I dont think its gonna be as clear cut as Chelsea just winning the title, I believe we can run them even closer or maybe pip it ourselves, of course luck plays a massive part and Chelsea if you look havent really had any injuries over the season and they too have had there fair share of luck.

[stmichael]

Without trying to sound too pessimistic, we will do well to beat this year's total of 82 points. I'm not saying we won't beat that total, just that of we do then it will be a brilliant season, no matter what position we finish in.

Fair point.  But I'd argue that 82, maybe 85 points next season will probably be enough to win the league.  I can't see Chelsea running away with it next year, they'll still be favourites but cracks are definitely starting to show, I don't think Mourinho himself is happy there any more judging by his general mood and comments during the 2nd half of this season.  Man U and Arsenal are harder to gauge.  Who do United buy for midfield? Who do they replace Van Nistelrooy with?  And does Henry stay at Arsenal?

Whatever happens the top teams will all take points off each other next season.  Chelsea will not dominate the top 4 encounters like they did this season I don't think and therefore it will be tighter at the top and take less points to win the league.  We need to be better in the big games next season, but not necessarily amass more points.

i'm certainly hoping for more than a one point increase and a second place finish.

Next season is going to be a very hard one. It'll be tough to match this years points haul and the consistancy we have had.  If we can get off to a better start though, then we should be just fine. We will challenge, we won't run away with it i don't think, but we should be fighting with 2/3 weekends left.

I have a very good feeling about it though.

Ask me after the summer, early august!  

With the new players, Gonzalez, Paletta and new signings the team will further improve.  Improvement in the attacking play via better retention of the ball, scoring more goals and in better overall performances where 'off' days are closer to the 'best' days.

The players Chelsea buy will impact more when we play them.  They could be harder to beat.  It's up to us to get as many points as possible.  I would see a realistic target of bettering this season's points total.

At least QF onwards in the CL depending on the luck of the draw and the bounce of the ball.

FA and Carling - semis at least.

But next is the 2006 FA Cup!

[joko]

It's going to be difficult enough to improve from this season. But while I think we will do just that, I really can't see us beating Chelsea to the title. I think they will just keep improving by spending their cash and it will be a race for second again.

two seasons back, we were too miles away from chelsea. when the season was over, chelsea bought more both quantity and quality players which i read somewhere refering to peter kenyon, even exceeding their initial budget plan. while we were with unlimited money trying to repair many damage occuring in almost every sector (thanks to houllier)

the result was; chelsea got the EPL and carling, we got the most wanted as well as precious cup in europe

last season, when their players were a bigger bunch of big containers of russian oil that's probably wealthier than half of russian people, we bought some players with extra careful, given the financial problems

the result was (just now); our position was far closer to them in EPL (and we share our crash in champion league). NINE points difference only equalizing MILLIONS of pounds difference.

now what will they do now?

[48-1119859832]

now what will they do now?

Go on a spending spree. 

[48-1119859832]

3rd is nothing to boast or be happy about; in fact I'd say it was a great shame and somewhat embarrasing that a team of Liverpool's stature is finishing the season 3rd.

Remember Chelsea are only at the top cos of their money. If it wasn't for that we would've been 2nd, 1 point off the top. I think this has been a great season, we just need the cup to finish it off. Roll on the day the russian mafia knock off Abramovich & Chelsea do a Leeds!

EddieC,

I'll agree a big part of Chelsea's dominance is due to their vast financial power but the league doesn't lie at the end of the day and Chelsea are top because they've managed to get the wins under their belts and have been consistent all season, they were the best team in the league, like it or not.

It's a nice way to look at things, by cancelling out Chelsea's positioning and saying minus Chelsea we'd finish second and whilst second place (with a point behind) looks better than 3rd (- 9 points). We've made improvements this season but they are not improvements I'd boast about or be over the moon with, perhaps I'm too much of an impatient tool but I don't believe that finishing 2nd,3rd,4th or even 20th in the League is anything for any set of fans boast about, let alone Liverpool supporters.

And as I've said and St-Mike quoted me as saying if we don't win the F.A Cup than this season will be a failure. You don't go from winning a trophy to winning nothing the next season, that's not proper progress is it?

[EddieC]

I'll agree a big part of Chelsea's dominance is due to their vast financial power but the league doesn't lie at the end of the day and Chelsea are top because they've managed to get the wins under their belts and have been consistent all season, they were the best team in the league, like it or not.

Yeah, they won the league over 38 games, but where were they before Abramovich? You have to wonder how well we would've done this season if he wasn't there. I agree though, the progress we've made means nothing without the cup to back it up.

[48-1119859832]

Real Madrid are an example of how a team with so much money can do so badly, so some essence of Chelsea's success is linked with Mourinho and how he's managed to get all those hundreds of millions of pounds worth of players to gel and work as a unit both in defence and attack and win back to back league titles.

You do have to wonder what Chelsea would of been like without Roman but he's there now and he's made it crystal clear that's he's not planning to head off anytime soon, so we'll just have to carry on building and try and get a good start to next seasons campaign and see where we go from there.

[Bad Bob]

perhaps I'm too much of an impatient tool but I don't believe that finishing 2nd,3rd,4th or even 20th in the League is anything for any set of fans boast about, let alone Liverpool supporters.

Perhaps? 


You have to walk before you can run, mate, and 3rd place, 1 point adrift of the Mancs is a good finish in the league based on our performance last season.  Expecting much more than that was asking too much, IMO.

As for the Cup win, I'll be gutted if we lose but it shouldn't take the shine off a good season of progress.  Cup finals are one-offs where anything can happen.  As long as the lads play hard and create chances, I won't be slagging them if they fail to bag the trophy.


Back to a point that John Craig made earlier...

I agree mate that a subtle turning point for the team came when 4-5-1 was abandoned in favour of a consistent 4-4-2.  That allowed the team to up their play a gear and started to transform draws into wins.

I also feel that the December trip to Japan did us absolutely no favours.  Sure, we came back and managed to win a few games over the festive period but come January, the rot set in a little.  I for one think that we would have been physically and mentally sharper in Jan-Feb had that trip been avoided.  I just hope that, if Arsenal do win in Paris, that Blatter and FIFA make certain they have to travel half way round the world in the midst of a hectic domestic schedule too!

[metalhead]

It has been a fantastic season for us this year. We have improved amazingly well and only 9 points away from 1st place Chelsea, which is a big improvment from last year.

Gerrard wins PFA of the year award

34 clean sheets

Rafa wins best coach in spain award

82 points, only 1 behind Mancs and 9 behind chelsea

F.A cup finalists

Super Cup winners

World Club finalists

and scored 101 goals in all competition!

Its great to be a Liverpool fan

[LFCFan4Life]

But all of that isn't going to be worth much if we fail to land what truly is important and that's the F.A Cup. If we lose then I'm calling this season a failure.

We haven't won a league title for 16 years, do you want us to be miserable b@stards all the time?

I personaly am not going to celebrate this season until after the FA Cup final. To say that the season would be disaster if we didn't win it is quite stupid imo. We're 24 points better off than we were last season and we've gotten into the top three for the first time since we finished 2nd five years ago.

After Chelsea we've conceded the lowest amount of goals and kept more clean sheets than any other side. We've improved in most areas from last season so therefore how is it a disaster? If this is a disaster than what was a fifth place finish last season?

The FA Cup would be an icing on the cake, but that doesn't mean that the cake is sh!t without the icing no?

We were in a similar position five years ago when Houllier was in charage. The problem was that instead of taking a step further, we've went three steps back and has taken several years to get into that same position. It's IMPERATIVE that we don't feck it up AGAIN.

Benitez is a great manager and I'm confident that he is the man to do the job but some said the same about Houllier. In football nothing can be taken for granted [or in life for that matter], but there's something about Benitez that is different from everyone else.

[stmichael]

Not sure i can realistically call this without knowing anything about what our squad will look like after the summer.

This season i said 76 points, a good cup run and a decent showing in the CL would impress me greatly. I am impressed.

Next season? Assuming Rafa gets who he wants in the transfer market and we dont get hit with nightmare injuries?

Quite frankly there is not an awful lot of realistic room for manouvre in the league so:-

88 points, 2 cup finals one being the CL and Mourihno spitting his dummy out would do me nicely.

Oh and for Rafa to be shopping for watches in 2007 at least once.