Liverpool FC Forum

[stmichael]

Looking back now, who remembers the posts on here after the first 6 weeks or so of the season? Particularly after the mauling by Chelsea at home? After the drab display away at Fulham and after the embarassing Carling Cup defeat to Palace? I just bring this up because at that time, some people were having serious doubts about the manager, claiming thet he "underestimated the importance of domestic cup competitions".

How we were worse than sh!te and there was no hope of improvement. How we had replaced one Houllier with another one, and that anyone playing the "it's early days, it's only one bad game, and we'll be better by the end of the season" card was a gobsh!te who knew nothing about football?

Remember them?

I do.

I'd call a 24 point increase an improvement, wouldn't you? Infact if the Premiership had started in October we'd be champions now. We were a ridiculous Cisse miss at the scum away from finishing 2nd... We're an insane own goal against ten-man relegation fodder away from not having to go through the CL qualifying rounds.

In a season where the real race was for 2nd place, and the true contenders for NEXT season were sorting themselves out, that was a bloody good season, with a disappointing lull at a very inopertune time. Looking back now, I fully believe that had we played Benfica two weeks later, we'd possibly be looking at another Champions League Final on the horizon. As it is, I'll take another trip to Cardiff next week, looking to put the icing on the cake. We've already put together a club record eleven straight wins. A victory at Cardiff will turn a very good season into an excellent one.

What say all you chicken littles out there now? I personally can't wait for next season already. As I've said in the past, it'll be the greatest title race in history next season and I think we'll be in the mix come the end.

How would you sum up the season as a whole?

[Judge]

summing up

11 straight victories in all comps - club record
finished 3rd, two places better than last year
In another cup final - AGAIN

Nice season, and i look forward to the next one with great enthusiasm

btw, glad to see josemi go, now we need morientes out and cisse. I am happy fowler has another year with us. Garcia - jury's out on him, and i'm glad kewell proved me wrong. Hopefully zenden will be fit soon, and hope Alonso doesnt miss the FA Cup

well done RAFA

[dawson99]

i think its a little unfair to say we were a cisse miss away from 2nd. there were a lot of games early on we were dreadful in, all the way up to the 0-0 Vs charlton.

Also, cheatski took the foot completely off the pedal at the end.

Not all bad tho.

cheatski, whoever they used on the pitch, wanted to win 110%. They always say they have 2 teams and with the money they spent its true. Finishing 1 point off 2nd and 9 points off 1st is a tremendous achievement when you loo at our season. the funniest thing if you ask me is everyone said wed run out of steam, but its really only been the latter half of the seasonwhen weve turned the gas on properly.

bring on 2007  season!

[madred]

I was never in doubt about Rafa. Always backed him from the start and always will. There have been signs now that we can mount a serious title threat to Chelsea next season with the addition of a striker and Gonzalez. He has got the defence sorted also the middle of the park and next season he will sort out our goalscoring problems. What the fickle people forgot is that it was going to take some time for him to adapt to the english style of play and way of life. He has come a long long way in 2 seasons in my opinion. A top class manager who is going to take us to the top soon me thinks.

[HacksawJimDuggin]

No one could have expected the progress we have made this season. I do not believe there will be too many personel changes in the summer and see this as a positive thing.

Rafa has worked wonders and has put us well and truly on the Premiership map as genuine title contenders for 2006/2007.

[The Ace1983]

Excellent talking points there StMike.

To address the doubts of the first few weeks of the season, I'd have to say it was expected. When a team isn't performing well, even the most intelligent and loyal fans harbour doubts and fears, though some express them more emphatically than others. I don't think I posted my negativity, but I was worried what with Crouch's drought, our general lack of goals and the humiliation at the hands of Chelsea, though I can understand why some voiced their doubts. Looking back it does seem ridiculous, but so much emotion is brought out with every match, these things will always happen and are part of every fan-based discussion.

As so for my recollections of the seasons, they are nothing but fond and good. I recently posted my season review, so I won't get too in depth, but overall, yes, it has been an excellent season. 3rd place and the gap in points not only between us and Chelsea, but also us and Arsenal show our improvement and if the league had started at Christmas, we would have been a few points clear at the top. Rafa has demolished the rickety and weak foundations laid by Houllier and has gone about creating a defensively minded, strong, all contributing and balanced squad that will, I'm sure, be likened to Valencia and look what he did with them.

We've got the Euro-Super cup, we're in the CL next season, we're being linked with some very exciting talents, we've invested in the youth squad (which won their own FA cup) and are now in the final of the world's most famous domestic cup competition. I want to win the FA cup, and I think we will, but even if we don't, when the dissapointed has died away, I would still regard this as a successful season. But if we can get our hands on the FA cup, it will be a resoundingly successful season and a perect springboard into what represents a very tough 06/07 campaign.

We're secure, strong and looking forward and to top it off, Big Dunc's been chucked out of the blues!tes! . A successful season, as Rafa would say, "for sure".

[stmichael]

I do not believe there will be too many personel changes in the summer and see this as a positive thing.

according to bascombe in the echo there could be as many as seven new players next season.

[48-1119859832]

This season we've made significant progress, kept lots of clean sheets, been solid at the back all season, kept ten clean sheets in a row to equal the club record, had two long unbeaten streaks, scored around 18 goals in 4/5 matches. Midfield has looked strong, finished 3rd in the league, got to a cup final again and we've signed some great talent too.

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 than I'm calling this season a failure. And I don't mean to be impatient or come across as bad supporter but whilst 3rd place and a 24 point improvement upon last season is a good achievement, 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.

[stmichael]

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.

[EddieC]

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!

[lakes10]

It was a good Season, loads of clean sheets and once the strikers started to hit the net it looked even better, but for me one of the big things that happend this year was Rafa turning down the Real managers job, as you know i was sure he was only here till the job come up....i was wrong.
this year we have seen thar Rafa can manage in the english game and not only in Europe.....once again i was wrong.
Rafa also took note of the fans over the FA cup and put out strong teams in the games almost from the start.
Some of the player like zenden i feel are not fit for Liverpool and i still think MORIENTES needs to do more to pat back Rafa for how much he has stuck with him.

but in all it turned out a good year and best of all GOD IS BACK.

[JC_81]

The mark of a team's improvement is their league form, no question.  And our points total is significantly better, unlucky not to get 2nd and with a better start to the season we'd have pushed Chelsea all the way. We were unlucky in Europe too, despite some on here championing Benfica as a superior side over the 2 legs, I obviously didn't watch the same games.  We battered them, Koeman admitted they were lucky in the 1st leg and at Anfield it was clear for all to see that luck was against us - which is fair enough because we had our share of luck in that competition last season.

As for people criticising Benitez after the games v Fulham, Birmingham and Palace, it was justified imo.  The 5 man midfield with Crouch on his own front was not working, we didnt have the players for that system and it was blatantly obvious.  What a surprise we switch back to 4-4-2, stop squad rotation for a few weeks and suddenly we win 10 in a row.  I've praised Benitez as much as anybody on here, but he made mistakes early in the season and I'm not afraid to point them out.  Never once though did I say we should get rid of him, that was crazy talk by a couple of posters.  Overall Benitez himself has been fantastic this season - his signings last summer have all been good and the way he has conducted himself has been ultra-professional as always.

Good solid season - for the first time in ages we were going into games against mid-table and lower-table sides with the attitude that only a win was good enough, and for a club like ours so it should be.  If we win the FA cup it'll top off a good season, if we don't, it'll still have been a good season and we'll go on to push for the title next season.  In fact I'll be putting money on us winning the Premiership next season, I really think we'll be competing for it to the end next time.

[stmichael]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We find ourselves at make or break point (again).

United and Chelsea WILL have money to spend, while Arsenal, backed by their new stadium, CL football and maybe being Champions of Europe, will also prove an attractive force in the Summer.

Players too can do their bit in attracting potential signings to their respective clubs (no I don't mean Terry and Lampard style!). For instance, who wouldnt want to play alongside Henry or Rooney?? If either have a storming World Cup (for Rooney it seems unlikely), then that will be a major ace up the sleeves of their employers.

Fortunately for Liverpool they have a player who is set to be the centre piece in England's set up, given the injury's England have suffered. If he can carry over his current club form that had wavered up until a couple of weeks back, then Liverpool could have a beacon to shine when trying to attract the cream of World football in the Summer. Not to mention the potential for Alonso and Garcia to do the same.

On the other side, it's important the likes of Cisse and Morientes show their worth in the Summer if (as believed) they are looking to attract new suiters.

The Summer will also see the arrival of Paletta and (hopefully) the long awaited Mark Gonzalez. Two of the most exciting prospects in South American football, an area Liverpool have frustratingly refused to target before (bar the hapless Pellgrino).

Rafa will no doubt build on our encouraging Youth and Reserve teams, instilling an even stronger crop of players who will hopefully push for starting places over the next few years.

The reserves have done massively well and have taken on a major facelift from Ged's final season. We've gone from a 2nd string made up of failed big signings, to a team full of Academy youngsters who just didnt make the grade (Whitbread, Potter) and now have an exciting mix of local, English born and foreign under 18 players who look to be building a team spirit and understanding of their own. The Arsenal blueprint maybe. And long overdue.

For a few players too, with the added competition for places, this coming season could be their biggest one's yet in their already successful Liverpool careers. The likes of Kewell, Garcia, Riise and Crouch will all have fights on their hands for a first team place, and rightly so, unless you're Steve Finnan of course who seems to have held off a more expensive Jan Kromkamp with ease..

The most important thing though seems to be about bringing in the missing pieces of that ever changing jigsaw. Too many times we've been here. Sweated blood to get into the top three and then come sliding back down again.

Rafa seems to like exercising ghosts. He overcame Leverkusen with ease last season, in a game that had left it's pschological scars 3 years previously. He also overcame that dreaded trip to Turin, with composure and discipline, which served to respect those who tragically lost their lives 20 years previous.

So hopefully he can wipe out those bitter memories of the Summer of 2002, when all seemed in place for us to topple the Champions, yet it all fell flat on it's face to the tune of £20m

He's not without his detractors of course. We're still capable occasionally of sleep inducing "effective" play. And his record with strikers thus far has proven both catastrophic, in the case of Morientes, and "effective" if unspectacular or awe inspiring, in the case of Peter Crouch.

He had problems last season with English football, a problem that by any standards, he didnt take long to get to grips with. And he also had a problem with finding a settled backfour, chopping and changing key area's too much, and persevering with one upfront when we really didnt need to.

He seems to have righted all of those wrongs, and seems prepared to adapt his thinking and show a willingness to change his tactics away from his favoured system if needs be.

[JC_81]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We find ourselves at make or break point (again).

I think that's a key point St Mike.  There are a lot of similarities between this summer and the summer Houllier squandered cash on the infamous trio instead of going for Anelka and Duff (who I believe could have won us the title the following season).

Benitez will deliver this summer.  His signings so far have been good - Pelle, Josemi and Nunez were brought in on the cheap, didnt deliver and were shipped out sharpish.  Zenden has his doubters but that's harsh imo as he's been injured more than he's been fit.  Morientes is the one where you could say Benitez made a costly mistake - but who wouldn't have wanted Morientes at that point?  He looked class for Monaco and there was no way of predicting he'd have struggled so much.  But look at most of the players Benitez has brought when he's had money to spend - Reina, 7 mil, class; Crouch 7 mil, great addition; Sissoko, 5 mil, class; Garcia 6 mil, imo great signing; Alonso 10mil, world class; Kromkamp, improvement on Josemi; Fowler, great move; Agger, 5mil, looks a real prospect.  Then there's Gonzalez who looks something special.

We're 2 strikers and a right winger away from being the finished article imo.  I'm confident Benitez can finish the job this summer.

[joko]

very good post stmike!


okay, now it looks like a perfect place to put my masterpiece writing on here    


This season has just met its unimpossible mission being accomplished with a little surprise in the latest course of the competition -at least as being admitted by rafa, that second place had just being on horizon as we closed our eyes tight and suggest "just do your best in every match" into every player's mind.

looks like every flaw and defect had been being repaired while not putting aside the overhaul, the car kept enhanced without lowering the speed on the fly.

imagine some months back, just like yesteday, when we faced our strikers were suddenly only a shower of useless cr@ps amongst the the unstoppable midsectors powered by best brigade of midworkers in england premier league in names of mainly gerrard, alonso, and catalized by the young horsepower supplement in sissoko.

sissoko has become a major gem since his arrival in Anfield. His pace and determination has also brought us what we missed last season. he’s also undoubtedly being one of the most successful acquisitions by Rafa this season.

we have reasonably better players this season. despite the failure in landing a right midfielder and centre back, Rafa has successfully managed to acquire the most immediate needs for the squad.

the strikers infertility just looked worse playing upfront layering the superb backfour that working perfectly only by the ultimate guard covering the latest defense by the post; pepe reina. reina has become one of the successful transfers this season. he simply posses all the skills and confidence, which we were lack of in dudek last season.

altogether side by side with other players with the longest period of cleansheet amongst the other premier league competition in hyypia, carra, and finnan (hatsoff) he has made this achievement as well as broke past records of clean sheet.

some of us understandably were sentimentally call dudek performance during the istanbul moment over pepe's arrival. Regardless of his heroics savior in the CL final, Dudek cost us some unnecessarily missing points in the couple last seasons. In Reina I have a strict belief that we will significantly fill this crack in the future matches. Boss never lets you down. he knows what to do. there was no room for sentiment while he also put an appropriate appreciation in dudek's undisputable contribution by keeping faith in him to remain a part of the team.

pepe's arrival has provided the team with the essential lost that had been a major problems during the last season, the top world class of skilful and confident goalkeeper, that only the kings of europe deserves