Liverpool FC Forum

by **Kharhaz** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 4:38 am

I was watching the top 100 players who shook the kop, Kenny Dalglish, Jan Molby, Steve Nicol, Steve McMahon, Graeme Souness, Ray Houghton, Ronnie Whelan, Ian Rush. And looking at the game today, and peoples opinion. And although many people wont like it the fact is Arsenal are playing like we used to play, and look were they are. Top of the league. Arsene is in a position to say as you were because the players he has at his disposal he can say, same as last week lads. Looking at them now and how we used to play, is there much difference? I dont think so, the biggest change being we have made the game more complicated then it needs to be. (we being the club and supporters as a whole).

by **lakes10** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:27 pm

so much has changed i not sure where to start, The Ball, the goal posts, the grass, the boots, the shirts,the training, pace of the game, diet.

by **Big Niall** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:21 pm

Due to the lack of fitness back then, a player was only supposed to be master of his area i.e. a full back defends, doesn't get the ball and attack, learn to cross, get on the end of moves etc.

I think today's players are better - and not just because of fitness.

However, you can only be judged in your time, so the LFC players of the 1970s were obviously a million miles better than todays - that isn't insulting todays, but winning the league nearly every year and winning 4 Euro cups in 7 years hasn't been matched.

by **Big Niall** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:23 pm

While I do consider most of the continentals to be sissies (hair bands, diving, whinging) I think it is great that skillful players are protected.

I wish George Best, Maradonna, Van Basten etc had not been kicked around as much.

Plus the pitches back then were terrible, we get the odd bad one today, but most of them are like carpets.

by **crazyhorse** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:33 am

Although in terms of "pure football" I would much rather watch the Liverpool of the 70s and 80s the game has changed so much that I feel now that the teams of that era would not be as successful as they were back then.

These days the game is mostly about pace, power and money when back when I was growing up skill and tactical ability were the key. Footballers these days are fitter, stronger and more aware of their health as well as having outsode footballing interests. We can bemoan the way things are with the amount of money thrown at footballers these days but really back in the 70s players were worshipped just as much, only the reaction from them was nothing like it is now with the cash that is thrown their way. The Keegans of the world were also celebrities (he was voted man of the year in Germany)!!! but first and foremost they were players where now the issues outside the game I think consume them to an extent that in some cases they are players second, and celebrities first.

Possibly for me the rot set in when Brian Clough paid out 1 million pounds for Trevor Francis (although Clough claims the fee was a couple of quid short of the million). For sure this record would have been broken eventually but it set things up for the years that followed and the later transfers such as the then world record fee for Shearer by the time they came around were not out of the ordinary. A bit of long sighted vision from the FA in the form of a transfer cap in the 80s and 90s, especially as the Sky TV money came through would have helped. SKY also contributed IMHO as the money they pumped into the PL widened the gap between the PL and the rest of the football league and also brought live football to a wide audience, this all seemed good at the time but the Leeds Utd and Luton Towns of this world may well beg to differ. The money meant that PL league clubs began to look for the expensive foreign players, and we began to see the Zolas and Cantonas coming in - this meant that Lower league clubs lost out on the money from the big guns buying their up and coming players and the few that were "the cream" began to be overpriced themselves as clubs competed for them. This led the PL clubs to look further afield for the "foreign bargains" as well which has been derogatory to the game in this country as a whole. The Liverpool of the 80s and 90s brought in british talent like McMahon, Houghton and Rush at relatively low cost and the success they brought to the club speaks for itself. It is a poor state of affairs that this only happens rarely now.

by **Sabre** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 6:35 pm

That was an interesting post. It's good to have you back regularly crazyhorse, post more often (If you can, that is

)

by **crazyhorse** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:56 pm

Thanks Sabre.. I dont post as often as I could because frankly the quality of post is a little poor sometimes. I feel people dont really read the threads and just post their own point of view, therefore there is little or no actual debate or discussion.

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