Liverpool FC Forum

[JoeTerp]

And then the previous season Torres and Gerrard were fit for most of it, Torres scored a goal each time he kicked the ball, and yet we were out of it by October. It just goes to show that there are a multitude of factors which come into play. I think it's interesting to hear Rafa talking of the need to be "perfect" if we are to win the title. That may be going a bit far because nobody manages perfect for long, but fairly obviously you can't afford too may of the self inflicted bullet holes in your instep which we have suffered from at times.

we didn't "discover" the gerrard-torres partnership until the end of that season.

[bigmick]

And then the previous season Torres and Gerrard were fit for most of it, Torres scored a goal each time he kicked the ball, and yet we were out of it by October. It just goes to show that there are a multitude of factors which come into play. I think it's interesting to hear Rafa talking of the need to be "perfect" if we are to win the title. That may be going a bit far because nobody manages perfect for long, but fairly obviously you can't afford too may of the self inflicted bullet holes in your instep which we have suffered from at times.

we didn't "discover" the gerrard-torres partnership until the end of that season.

You make a good point Joe, you need to "discover" your most potent formation before the end of the season if you want to extract the maximum from the players at your disposal.

If we buy Silva for instance, I read that he can play all the way accross the middle and also as a withdrawn front man. "Discovering" which of these roles (or indeed if any of them) benefit the team the most as quickly as possible, is obviously key.

That's what you've got a manager for though, and that's why you  pay him extortionate amounts of money. Getting such decisions right, and getting them right quickly decides whether or not you win titles and trophies.

[aCe']

nope ill go with Mick on this one.... was a golden opportunity for us and we truly fcked it up in style ... were looking somewhat comfortable until we started fcking things up for ourselves rather than others stepping up... the keane thing, the rafa "facts" conference, then of course everything else on the pitch... until it was too late, then we decided maybe a change of plans could be a better idea...
as things stand, im glad we realized (however late that might have been) that the way things were done was never going to win us the league...
Chelsea fcked up their season with Scolari, then his sacking and all that while having some of their best players (Joe Cole, Essien and Drogba) out for most of the season... Arsenal similarly struggled with injuries (RVP. Walcott, Eduardo, Rosicky, Fabregas...etc) and that coupled with a lack of experience in their side meant they struggled to get off to a good start... after January they brought in Arshavin and Fabregas (amongst others) came back from injury later on and their side looked a whole lot better towards the end of the season... Ofcourse, ManCity werent even in the equation last season....

If Ancelotti is any good with Chelsea it will be interesting to see how we match up with them this season... same with Arsenal now that they seemingly have everyone back... Afterall, i would'nt personally dismiss an attacking side that has Walcott, Nasri, RVP, Arshavin, Fabregas playing in their ranks...

I really wish you would just go and ------- ---- yourself with a big ---- off -----, ------- yourself and leaving your stinking -------- rotting on the floor.

But I don't hold my breath.

So, to prevent a total breakdown in the stability of the Universe, and to maintain the status quo of this forum, kindly go and ---- yourself instead.

yea Lando.. we won the league last season... in fact we won every game and scored 5 without conceding in every game in doing so...

again, your contribution to this thread was enlightening and indeed very relevant...



i still stand by what i said... we well and truely fcked it up in style imo..

"
Bythe end of December we were still top on 45 points, the mancs back in third on 38 points

By the end of January we were third on 48points, the mancs were top on 53 points.
"

this right here says it all for me...

17  13.12.2008  Hull City  home  D2-2  1  38
18 21.12.2008 Arsenal away D1-1 1 39
19 26.12.2008 Bolton Wanderers home W3-0 1 42
20 28.12.2008 Newcastle United away W5-1 1 45
21 10.01.2009 Stoke City away D0-0 1 46
22 19.01.2009 Everton home D1-1 2 47
23 28.01.2009 Wigan Athletic away D1-1 3 48
24  01.02.2009 Chelsea  home  W2-0  2  51
25 07.02.2009 Portsmouth away W3-2 1 54
26  22.02.2009 Manchester City  home  D1-1  2  55
27 28.02.2009 Middlesbrough away L0-2 3 55

**************************************

11 games where we picked up 4 wins... never good enough in a million years... funny enough it came around the same time when we sold Keane, and shortly after Rafa's "facts conference"... the 7 games after his talk, we won only 2 ... whether thats relevant or not is certainly open to debate...

anyways.... I agreed about the missed opportunity part Mick,  i certainly didnt call Rafa a c*nt but to me the way the team was handled around that time was what eventually cost us the title... 


and Lando... ffs give it a rest once and for all and stick to general chat.. i cant even be bothered replying to your sht anymore, it was amusing the first few times but its just boring now..

[bigmick]

The thing about the rant which was most interesting to me was that we chose to do it while we were top of the league. To my mind, a bit of sh!t stirring, getting under peoples skins etc is entirely legitimate, which probably explains why I've never been as offended by some of our more "wind up prone" manegerial rivals as others, it's all part and parcel I reckon. I just think it was odd that we did it while we were clear.

The ideal time to get into such things is when you're behind. You get into the team which is top then, try and knock them off their game.

The thing is with football, I am very much of the opinion that once you are on a roll you very much try your best to keep it going, doing as little as possible to disturb your equilebrium. If your striker is scoring, keep picking him. It doesn't really matter if he is actually rubbish, if he's on one of "those" runs, keep playing him till he's stopped. If you "stumble" upon a winning formation, or indeed if you studiously work one out, keep playing it until it's run its course. When you get on a winning run, shut the feck up, keep your head down and keep winning. Simple as that.

Next season we'll have runs and blips too. So will the Mancs, so will Chelsea, and possibly Man City and Arsenal too. The team which eventually wins it, is who can keep their "runs" going the longest, and their bliiiiiiips the shortest. When you're on a run though, stay out of the headlines, keep picking the same team, and rack up the points.

[account deleted by request]

Personally I don't believe Rafa's rant had much effect either on the mancs or on our own players. I think our players were like a mountain climber that is happily climbing up the mountain only to glance down and panic at how high they had climbed. Maybe Fergies little rant had a similar effect on our players as saying don't look down would on a novice climber?

Certainly during our prolonged bliiiiip we didn't show much of the do or die approach that we had shown earlier in the season and would show again later in the season. It seemed to me that on occasion during this bad spell we settled for a point rather than gambling on winning the three.

[JoeTerp]

clearly Cahil was able to get free on corners because our players were too busy thinking about facts instead of zonal marking  

[The_Rock]

Arsenal: A shadow of the team they've been in the past.

I expect arsenal to be "way better" this season. Ashavin looks the real deal and some of their youngsters are gonna make the step-up this season.

[JoeTerp]

also something that I think Rafa tremendously underestimated was the lack of attention as to what the facts said, and that all of the attention actually went to him. all the questions at all the news conferences were some semblance of "why did you do that, do you wish you could take it back, did it have an affect" and all of this nonsense that follows a newspaperman's way of thinking, but not an athlete or coaches mentality.  The only annoying thing about it is the fact that you have to answer the same questions over and over, and I duno about you, but when that happens to me I get really frustrated.  Rafa is a pro, so he trys to mask it, but I am sure for the other 23.5 hours in the day he isn't bothered by it in the slightest

[JoeTerp]

and some of their youngsters are gonna make the step-up this season.

don't people say that about them every season?

[account deleted by request]

also something that I think Rafa tremendously underestimated was the lack of attention as to what the facts said, and that all of the attention actually went to him. all the questions at all the news conferences were some semblance of "why did you do that, do you wish you could take it back, did it have an affect" and all of this nonsense that follows a newspaperman's way of thinking, but not an athlete or coaches mentality.  The only annoying thing about it is the fact that you have to answer the same questions over and over, and I duno about you, but when that happens to me I get really frustrated.  Rafa is a pro, so he trys to mask it, but I am sure for the other 23.5 hours in the day he isn't bothered by it in the slightest

The only real way to answer Fergie is to do what Wenger did and throw your soup over him. Anything else and the press will just say Fergie has won the mind games ...... whether he has or not.

[crazyhorse]

The thing about the rant which was most interesting to me was that we chose to do it while we were top of the league. To my mind, a bit of sh!t stirring, getting under peoples skins etc is entirely legitimate, which probably explains why I've never been as offended by some of our more "wind up prone" manegerial rivals as others, it's all part and parcel I reckon. I just think it was odd that we did it while we were clear.

The ideal time to get into such things is when you're behind. You get into the team which is top then, try and knock them off their game.

The thing is with football, I am very much of the opinion that once you are on a roll you very much try your best to keep it going, doing as little as possible to disturb your equilebrium. If your striker is scoring, keep picking him. It doesn't really matter if he is actually rubbish, if he's on one of "those" runs, keep playing him till he's stopped. If you "stumble" upon a winning formation, or indeed if you studiously work one out, keep playing it until it's run its course. When you get on a winning run, shut the feck up, keep your head down and keep winning. Simple as that.

Next season we'll have runs and blips too. So will the Mancs, so will Chelsea, and possibly Man City and Arsenal too. The team which eventually wins it, is who can keep their "runs" going the longest, and their bliiiiiiips the shortest. When you're on a run though, stay out of the headlines, keep picking the same team, and rack up the points.

This is, I think the crux of the season. If we are to win we need to be consitantly strong and string together sustained periods where we win.

There are are the start five teams who will strongly fancy their chances with others looking to push as well. Mick is right that there will be blips, and ups for all of them along the way. 

It takes more than to stay injury free and lucky. This is the most open PL season in years and it is there for the taking, but not as easily as some think. If we go into the season without Alonso, or a replacement for him we will be weaker than last year.

[Igor Zidane]

Well it's a pity that some of you havent got LFC tv because i watched Rafa's seaeon review last night . It's very insightful actually and it gives more of an explanation into rafa's thinking during the season . Why he did certain things at certain times . Why we lost the league and so on . It's actually from the horses mouth and not just a theory as to why like we've been doing .

Anyway the gist of it was and i quote Rafa here " I completely agree with igor no, we had to many draws at home and couldn't capitalize on our superiority during games against the lesser sides. Bigmick and saint and ace are all sightly gay for bashing me . They know i'm always right and when we win the league i inseeeeeest that they get "in rafa i trust " tattooed on there botties " No .

[account deleted by request]

Well it's a pity that some of you havent got LFC tv because i watched Rafa's seaeon review last night . It's very insightful actually and it gives more of an explanation into rafa's thinking during the season . Why he did certain things at certain times . Why we lost the league and so on . It's actually from the horses mouth and not just a theory as to why like we've been doing .

Anyway the gist of it was and i quote Rafa here " I completely agree with igor no, we had to many draws at home and couldn't capitalize on our superiority during games against the lesser sides. Bigmick and saint and ace are all sightly gay for bashing me . They know i'm always right and when we win the league i inseeeeeest that they get "in rafa i trust " tattooed on there botties " No .

Cheeky monkey, I have been defending him for a change !

[Igor Zidane]

Well it's a pity that some of you havent got LFC tv because i watched Rafa's seaeon review last night . It's very insightful actually and it gives more of an explanation into rafa's thinking during the season . Why he did certain things at certain times . Why we lost the league and so on . It's actually from the horses mouth and not just a theory as to why like we've been doing .

Anyway the gist of it was and i quote Rafa here " I completely agree with igor no, we had to many draws at home and couldn't capitalize on our superiority during games against the lesser sides. Bigmick and saint and ace are all sightly gay for bashing me . They know i'm always right and when we win the league i inseeeeeest that they get "in rafa i trust " tattooed on there botties " No .

Cheeky monkey, I have been defending him for a change !

Only joking lash . It was good though , and some of his thoughts on the games we drew and where we lost the title and his rant was pretty interesting stuff .

[account deleted by request]

Well it's a pity that some of you havent got LFC tv because i watched Rafa's seaeon review last night . It's very insightful actually and it gives more of an explanation into rafa's thinking during the season . Why he did certain things at certain times . Why we lost the league and so on . It's actually from the horses mouth and not just a theory as to why like we've been doing .

Anyway the gist of it was and i quote Rafa here " I completely agree with igor no, we had to many draws at home and couldn't capitalize on our superiority during games against the lesser sides. Bigmick and saint and ace are all sightly gay for bashing me . They know i'm always right and when we win the league i inseeeeeest that they get "in rafa i trust " tattooed on there botties " No .

Cheeky monkey, I have been defending him for a change !

Only joking lash . It was good though , and some of his thoughts on the games we drew and where we lost the title and his rant was pretty interesting stuff .

Did he mention mountain climbing? If he didn't he obviously doesn't know what he's talking about