Liverpool FC Forum

by **Owzat** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 2:51 pm

Taken from BBC website

Houllier blames the injuries for his side's failure to challenge for honours.

"It's not an excuse, this is a fact," said Houllier.

"With the injuries we have had, we have been unable to challenge the top three. Realistically, now we have to compete for fourth place with a number of other teams.

Gerrard's attitude epitomises what being a captain is all about

"But I am confident that when we get everyone back and fit we will be a lot better."

We have been very average for the past season and a half and that is with less injuries. We have added only Kewell, Finnan and the two French youngsters to a very disappointing side. I think he is deluded if he thinks a) that injuries are the only reason we are mid-table, and b) that their return will guarantee fourth place or higher.

The absence of Owen is damaging but there is insufficient quantity and quality of back-up for him and that is down to the manager. Most of the injuries have been to non-pivotal players, it is the one or two key players that Houllier is essentially admitting maketh the team. Even if we do finish fourth I think he should go, the excuses are just too much

by **Chinesegirl** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 2:57 pm

any team would miss those players
but now the liverpool players have become glass men.(the CCTV-5 said)

by **cheesecakery** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 3:00 pm

GH put his foot in his mouth years ago and he has been doing it ever since. He said he would win the premiership with LFC within 5 years, it has'nt happened and won't happen until a new manager is appointed with new ideas who will get rid of some of the rubbish that plays for LFC and brings in some talent. Liverpool without doubt have some brilliant players but they also have some very bad ones. Traore, Biscan, Diao, Cheyrou and Diouf should not be playing for LFC they are simply not good enough, they have been terrible buys from Houllier. Would Wenger, Ferguson or Ranieri have bought them, NO. Wenger French purchases have been players like Henry and Viera who even i have to admit are brilliant players. I think a manager like Wenger would have brought glory days back to LFC, but it is too late now.
Had Houllier been a manager of another big team with the amount of money he has been spent he would without a doubt been sacked. I personally think after the poor season LFC had last season he should have been sacked then, but once again we are repeating all the same stuff that was being said a year ago.
Every time the pressure is really on GH, LFC manage to win, like for example against Bolton which takes the pressure off. Then a few days later they draw against Man City and the perfomance was very average. GH keeps saying that Liverpool would be higher up the table if Owen, Baros etc were fit but when Arsenal or United have a few big stars injured you never see them slip to 9th in the league which shows that have class throughout the squad.
I have supported Liverpool for about 20 years and have seen them come from being the best domestic team in Europe maybe the world to being an above average premiership team which they are now.
The board must go against their morals and sack Houllier before even more tragedy is put onto this great club.

by **116-1065305004** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 3:33 pm

cheesecakery wrote:I have supported Liverpool for about 20 years

WELL DONE CHEESY!
GOOD SPEECH MAN!
SEE PEOPLE HE CAN BE SERIOUS AND TALK GOOD FOOTBALL!

(P.S:you said you are only 2! So how could you support them for 20 years

)

by **cheesecakery** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 3:46 pm

the return of beavis wrote:
cheesecakery wrote:I have supported Liverpool for about 20 years

WELL DONE CHEESY!
GOOD SPEECH MAN!
SEE PEOPLE HE CAN BE SERIOUS AND TALK GOOD FOOTBALL!

(P.S:you said you are only 2! So how could you support them for 20 years )

PS who said im two?

by **oldredeyes** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 4:08 pm

Cheesey! is that really you?
If it is I'm glad you have started to put in some serious stuff, and I must admit to agreeing with what you said. As you know I've supported the reds for over forty years and consider this bunch the most badly organised team out of the lot.
Yes! they certainly have huge potential and some considerable talent, besides the rubbish we all know about - but somehow the whole thing never gels or moves forward.
GH will have to go and I believe his successor will be MON in the summer if not before, lets hope for better things in the new year.
All the best to everyone for 2004! Keep smiling!

by **greenred** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 5:56 pm

cheesecakery wrote:GH put his foot in his mouth years ago and he has been doing it ever since. He said he would win the premiership with LFC within 5 years, it has'nt happened and won't happen until a new manager is appointed with new ideas who will get rid of some of the rubbish that plays for LFC and brings in some talent. Liverpool without doubt have some brilliant players but they also have some very bad ones. Traore, Biscan, Diao, Cheyrou and Diouf should not be playing for LFC they are simply not good enough, they have been terrible buys from Houllier. Would Wenger, Ferguson or Ranieri have bought them, NO. Wenger French purchases have been players like Henry and Viera who even i have to admit are brilliant players. I think a manager like Wenger would have brought glory days back to LFC, but it is too late now.
Had Houllier been a manager of another big team with the amount of money he has been spent he would without a doubt been sacked. I personally think after the poor season LFC had last season he should have been sacked then, but once again we are repeating all the same stuff that was being said a year ago.
Every time the pressure is really on GH, LFC manage to win, like for example against Bolton which takes the pressure off. Then a few days later they draw against Man City and the perfomance was very average. GH keeps saying that Liverpool would be higher up the table if Owen, Baros etc were fit but when Arsenal or United have a few big stars injured you never see them slip to 9th in the league which shows that have class throughout the squad.
I have supported Liverpool for about 20 years and have seen them come from being the best domestic team in Europe maybe the world to being an above average premiership team which they are now.
The board must go against their morals and sack Houllier before even more tragedy is put onto this great club.

you tea leaf cheesy!

by **mistyred** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 7:31 pm

Good one cheesey well done,Happy new year man....

by **tato** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 5:55 pm

Just hello from Malta. Houllier please do something good for Liverpool Football Club.

by **JBG** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 8:09 pm

The sad fact is that even with a full squad we look a good bit away from the top three, and realistically the players we are missing (Owen aside) won't make a massive difference when they return.

Man UTD somehow manage to struggle on when they have injuries, as do Arsenal, but we have had to listen to this injury excuse nonsense for years (remember how Souness always blamed his problems on injuries?)

by **jimbolfc04** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 10:45 pm

yes maybe he should have built a better squad, and yes he has brought in some turd players, but for us losing owen baros, kewell, hamann, carragher, finnan, henchoz, for a large period of this season, it is like man utd losing van nistelrooy, forlan(i know he's s##t!), giggs, keane, o'shea, neville, ferdinand, now they may have better backup than we do but they would still fall short of where they are now, also think of the equivalent loss of players for chelsea and arsenal. our injured players are nearly always first team regulars, and so there replacements are never going to be as good.

by **dennisokoh** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 11:43 pm

Hi there I hope this is in the right window as this is my first use of this forum to express my displeasure in Messers GH and Co.
I think GH has made some poor choices of players (El hadjji-douff, Biscan, Traorre); sold some useful players(P Berger, the Dutch number two keeper the one playing regular CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FOOTBALL with Real Sociedad; and Anelka).
Kewell Was definitely a useful player (I think Arsenal can testify to that as well!) Finan possibly as well.
What I would like to see come back is the purchasing of Lower league players who can be moulded into great players over the period of an off season/first few games into the season.
Rather than settling for half baked less than average foreign players who come in for huge fees maybe the way forward is to look inwards towards the youth and established lower league players.
Also I think with the right manager in place a straight swap of Heskey for Alan Smith; or atleast getting a striker who knows what to do in front goal!

Oh yes before I forget....GH needs to go.

Will Phil Thompson be able to fill those boots?

DO

by **leothelion** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 1:15 am

INJURY IS JUST AN EASY EXCUSE EVERY TEAM EVERY YEAR HAS INJURIES
BUT MOST MANAGERS ALSO PREPARE FOR INJURIES AS A GOOD MANAGER WOULD DO

by **kitweng** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 1:26 am

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

by **The_Rock** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 5:06 pm

cheesecakery wrote:GH put his foot in his mouth years ago and he has been doing it ever since. He said he would win the premiership with LFC within 5 years, it has'nt happened and won't happen until a new manager is appointed with new ideas who will get rid of some of the rubbish that plays for LFC and brings in some talent. Liverpool without doubt have some brilliant players but they also have some very bad ones. Traore, Biscan, Diao, Cheyrou and Diouf should not be playing for LFC they are simply not good enough, they have been terrible buys from Houllier. Would Wenger, Ferguson or Ranieri have bought them, NO. Wenger French purchases have been players like Henry and Viera who even i have to admit are brilliant players. I think a manager like Wenger would have brought glory days back to LFC, but it is too late now.
Had Houllier been a manager of another big team with the amount of money he has been spent he would without a doubt been sacked. I personally think after the poor season LFC had last season he should have been sacked then, but once again we are repeating all the same stuff that was being said a year ago.
Every time the pressure is really on GH, LFC manage to win, like for example against Bolton which takes the pressure off. Then a few days later they draw against Man City and the perfomance was very average. GH keeps saying that Liverpool would be higher up the table if Owen, Baros etc were fit but when Arsenal or United have a few big stars injured you never see them slip to 9th in the league which shows that have class throughout the squad.
I have supported Liverpool for about 20 years and have seen them come from being the best domestic team in Europe maybe the world to being an above average premiership team which they are now.
The board must go against their morals and sack Houllier before even more tragedy is put onto this great club.

i know how u feel. i supported liverpool for 15 years. And this current situation is really disappointing.

GH is not making things easier for himself by proving to be a very bad talent scout. Case... AW buys Toure for $300,000 (i think). GH buys Diao for $3 million plus. Who's got the better deal....? And Toure can play right back, center back, midfield and Diao seems to be able to play in midfield only......

And the worst thing is that Diao is not his worst buy.....

Liverpool FC Forum

Injury crisis - "not an excuse" - Is houllier right to blame injuries?

Injury crisis - "not an excuse" - Is houllier right to blame injuries?

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