Liverpool FC Forum

Big Niall wrote:I would swap it for 4th. 4th is guaranteed CL next season, a lot of money in the bank, more attractive to top players etc and provide hope of being a big club again.

Its possible we'll win CL but a guaranteed spot next season is better than a 25% (being generous with Chelsea and AC still there) chance of winning this year.

woof woof ! wrote:

A.B. wrote:This club has lowered it standards, fourth place is no longer acceptable. The players lowered their standards as well thinking that by finishing fourth everything will be alright when in fact it's not.

We got to aim higher if we want to go forwards.

AB, This might sound nuts to you but bear with me .
Winning the CL (if it happens) in year when our performance in our own domestic competition has been patchy and sometimes downright embarrasing ( to say the least) is not a sign that the club has progressed .

Perhaps our fortunate progress in the CL competition has blinded some of us to the fact the present squad are unable to deliver a consistancy that will once again establish us as one of the top sides in europe .

Be honest (all of you reading this) , right now we are in the last four in the CL , does anyone out there truly believe we are one of the BEST four teams in europe ? .

I agree with you AB ,we have to aim higher than just qualifying for the CL . After all , any cup competition eventually becomes a lottery and is no 100% indication of the status of the teams involved .

Personnally I would like to see the CL to involve ONLY the champions of the various domestic euro leagues. Everybody else should just go into a uefa cup competition, this may take the focus away from just battling to finish in the top four(so we can enter the CL) and redirect it (as before ) to actually winning our own domestic competition in order to compete with the elite .

yckatbjywtbiastkamb wrote:

woof woof ! wrote:

A.B. wrote:This club has lowered it standards, fourth place is no longer acceptable. The players lowered their standards as well thinking that by finishing fourth everything will be alright when in fact it's not.

We got to aim higher if we want to go forwards.

AB, This might sound nuts to you but bear with me .
Winning the CL (if it happens) in year when our performance in our own domestic competition has been patchy and sometimes downright embarrasing ( to say the least) is not a sign that the club has progressed .

Perhaps our fortunate progress in the CL competition has blinded some of us to the fact the present squad are unable to deliver a consistancy that will once again establish us as one of the top sides in europe .

Be honest (all of you reading this) , right now we are in the last four in the CL , does anyone out there truly believe we are one of the BEST four teams in europe ? .

I agree with you AB ,we have to aim higher than just qualifying for the CL . After all , any cup competition eventually becomes a lottery and is no 100% indication of the status of the teams involved .

Personnally I would like to see the CL to involve ONLY the champions of the various domestic euro leagues. Everybody else should just go into a uefa cup competition, this may take the focus away from just battling to finish in the top four(so we can enter the CL) and redirect it (as before ) to actually winning our own domestic competition in order to compete with the elite .

i know what your saying mate but i dont think anyone was really under the impression that this squad was good enough to win or come close to winning the title. houllier wouldnt have gone if the board thought we were close, the fact is that this squad has been either out of the cl or scraping in the cl for the last five years, and thats after throwing over a hundred million at the team.benitez has taken over basically another mans team and inherited his problems including the lack of cash available due to poor signings and poor sell on value of those players.
we`re lucky that houllier went when he did because i`m convinced gerrard as well as owen would have jumped ship last year if he had stayed and the thought of him in charge without those two is too awful to ponder on.
okay we`ve had a poor run, but when houllier had a injury crisis we went on the worst run in fifty ****** years, with some of the worst football to boot. without owen and gerrard i honestly think we could have been flirting with relegation, i honestly believe that with some of the dross i had to watch.
benitez has coped with horrific injuries to key players to run us close to getting 4th, getting us to a league cup final and the semi`s of the biggest competition in club football, you say thats not progression, well with all that has been on his plate i call it a miracle. let rafa bring in his own players and you will see progression. i`m convinced of that.
i dont kid myself we are the club of my youth winning everything in sight and with our financial status it will need a miracle to get us back to the top without a fat chequebook.
but i think we`ve got that miracle in benitez.
at least we can let him have a couple of years or so to sort out 15 years of faliure without the big inquisitions, these things snowball onto radio phone in`s etc putting pressure on the management.i`m sure he`s saying the same as us to his staff.

Great post, Benitez has had unbelievable bad luck with injuries and hasn't complained, we have witnessed some disgraceful away performances but i really think with a settled side and a striker who can find the net regulary we will improve our league form considerably. Fourth place isn't good enough for this club, no matter what the circumstances are, Rafa is a winner and feels the same as us on that, i would say give him time to get rid of the rubbish that he was left with. He will get signings wrong...who doesn't ??
But in Alonso and Garcia he has got two big signings right.
I'm lookin forward to the pre-season transfer activity.
And i'm looking forward to the semi final of the champions league tonight (who would of thought before it began that we might be here)