LOLiverpooLOL - Next Season

[PlasticRoyale]

I can't see Everton winning 6-0 so at least they won't go bottom

[Alan Partridge]

They are more than awful. Torres is playing like Shane Long, Gerrard is surrounded by absolute crap, Joe Cole has been atrocious, Carragher is finished at the top level. They are definitely not too good to go down. I think the West Ham team that went down on the last day at Birmingham was a better side than this current Liverpool one in all honesty.

[frimmers3]

how joe cole must regret not joining 'arry down the lane....

[Victor Meldrew]

Everton deserved to win.
Far too many samey midfield players in the Liverpool side with nobody able to beat a man out wide.
A direct contrast to the way Reading play even though both play with a lone striker.
Liverpool just huffed and puffed and I'm afraid the two London boys are actually worse than what was there before.
One small point-how on earth could Yakubu not be offside?-a far worse example than the one at Spurs yeaterday of a player interfering with play as he was directly in front of the keeper and obstructing his view whilst stood in an offside position.

[SLAMMED]

Robbie Fowler suggesting the Leeds team that got relegated in 2004 was better than that Liverpool side that played today.


Ouch

[Rex]

So what's wrong with the club then. Pre / post takeover blues, dissatisfaction with Roy, Torres wanting to possibly play himself out of the club, players out of sorts or bedding in issues with style, positioning........

[TBM]

Robbie Fowler suggesting the Leeds team that got relegated in 2004 was better than that Liverpool side that played today.


Ouch

He's got a point though.....take Gerrard and Torres out of the side and they dont have any world class players left

[roadrunner]

So what's wrong with the club then. Pre / post takeover blues, dissatisfaction with Roy, Torres wanting to possibly play himself out of the club, players out of sorts or bedding in issues with style, positioning........

Jury's out on Roy. Like Mark Hughes I feel he's better suited to a less expectant football club. Liverpool need a ball winner in the middle of the park and two decent wingers. They're 2 strikers light and the defence is tired and desperate. Basically everything is wrong and will take a lot of money to put right. Torres will be desperate to leave now as well, and Gerrard may not be far behind.

[Alan Partridge]

Liverpool just desperately lack pace, mobility and a plan B. When they had Keane and Crouch they were a half decent side. Operation remove all strikers apart from 1 and replace with mediocre 'holding' midfielders hasn't really worked.

Holding midfielders are a cancer on the game i love. Especially utter dogshit ones like Lucas.

That Mereilles or whoever he is (with all the inkwork) I thought did ok, Maxi LOL Tampaxi more like. absolue crud, Joe Cole has been appalling thus far in all honesty. Torres looks slightly overweight, completely disinterested and is playing like a megapcunt. He desperately need some help.

Feel a bit sorry for Woy (my favourite Owl) but I think he's walked away from a better job at Fulham, seriously. In terms of club stature and everything else Liverpool is streets ahead but in terms of players, expectations and stability Fulham are a better club than them right now. He has inherited a terrible squad, althought I think he'd have been better off spending the £6-7 million spent on Brad Jones (lol) and PauLOL Konchesky would have been better off invested on any half decent centre forward.

They are in a dire position right now, they need about 6 new players to even think about the top 6-7 places and they have to shift nearly all that side out the door.

[Wizard]

No Agger today, I don't pretend to hold much of an interest but is he injured? Much better option than Kyriagos.

[PEARCEY]

Don't much care if Liverpool go down. Man Utd,Man City,Chelsea and Tottenham have all been relegated in my lifetime so can't see why they can expect to be any different.
Agree with the sentiments on here. Benitez made some appalling and overly expensive signings. In that respect I feel sorry for Hicks and Gillette who did make plenty of funds available to him.
They should never have sold Alonso either.....from that day on they have struggled.

[cmonurz]

One of my ponderings, Pearcey - and about all clubs, not just Liverpool, but using the sales of Alonso and Mascherano as examples. Why is it that in-contract players find it so easy to leave clubs these days. Add those two back into the mix and Liverpool would have a midfield of some class, but they got a bit fed up and moved on with barely (it seems) an effort by their club to keep them.

These are professional sportsmen and as much as the media might hype up behind the scenes 'bust ups', I don't believe that these players are a genuine 'negative influence' by being unhappy at their clubs, or indeed can't be coached and trained through it. And ultimately, they sign multi-million-pound contracts that should safeguard the interests of the club as well as the player.

So are they sold because the reality is that few if any clubs these days are financially secure? Does £20m in the bank now really mean more than having a world class player in certain positions on the pitch?

Can't disagree much with Ideal's analysis of the Liverpool side - except to disagree totally with the appraisal of Reina, who is one of the best keepers in the country. Iirc his clean sheet record since he came to the club is second to none in that time period, even allowing for Liverpool's prolonged shitness.

Joe Cole has been pathetically poor since he joined the club. I must have counted 7 or 8 'crosses' today that were toe-ended straight to the first defender - that bug was even catching Gerrard's corners in the end, numerous efforts pinged straight in to the near-post man.

That's another of my bug-bears. When James Harper was at RFC we had half a season or so where he was swerving and dipping corners in 8-yards out - a genuine menace, seems strange to me that the top players can't consistently put the ball in the right place in the box. But then I'm a big fan of Beckham and I think many under-rated his ability to put cross after cross onto a 50p piece.

[PEARCEY]

I think in Alonso's case it was a great move for him especially as he is a Spaniard. I was surprised that Liverpool let him go so easily though.
There are obviously so many more foreign players in throughout the four divisions these days that I guess it leads to a more fluid transfer market. Its also in the interests of players agents to always hawk their players to potential buyers.
It certainly seems that signing a long-term contract is primarily protecting the clubs position in any future transfer dealings rather than ensuring the player commits to the club for that agreed contractual period.

As for Beckham he is a rare case of someone who consistently for many years could cross a ball with great accuracy and England have been a poorer team without him.

[frimmers3]

"But then I'm a big fan of Beckham and I think many under-rated his ability to put cross after cross onto a 50p piece."


how many goals did "50p piece" score?....was he minted?

[Tredder]

Joe Cole has been cheating a living for about 5 years now, as for Becks, much much better than most people gave him credit for, sorely missed.

[Maguire]

Agree with a lot of stuff written on here, but just dropped in to say that Alonso and Beckham are two players I've really enjoyed watching play football in the last decade. Absolute class the pair of them. The PL is poorer for Alonso's absence and I don't understand why Liverpool fans underrated him so muchh. Class.

[FiNeRaIn]

Reina - not a lot better than Hahnemann

ALOL!!!

Good joke.

[BR2]

I think in Alonso's case it was a great move for him especially as he is a Spaniard. I was surprised that Liverpool let him go so easily though.
There are obviously so many more foreign players in throughout the four divisions these days that I guess it leads to a more fluid transfer market. Its also in the interests of players agents to always hawk their players to potential buyers.
It certainly seems that signing a long-term contract is primarily protecting the clubs position in any future transfer dealings rather than ensuring the player commits to the club for that agreed contractual period.

As for Beckham he is a rare case of someone who consistently for many years could cross a ball with great accuracy and England have been a poorer team without him.

I think you've got it right Pearcey.
The market is definitely more fluid and players won't stay just for footballing reasons.
Mascherano's wife just didn't settle in England and Alonso didn't get on with Benitez so they have moved on.
I think we will see this more and more as players become mercenaries and even clubs that are wealthy like Chelsea and Man City will see a greater turnover in the years to come.
Cmonurz is right when he says that losing Mascherano and Alonso were massive for Liverpool-the engine room has gone and the club is left with 3 top players (not enough in the Premier League) whereas previously they had 5.

Benitez kept on signing wingers and left-backs but none of them were up to the mark and the same goes for central defenders-many with potential but never seemed to train on.
I would like to see Kelly come in at his best position of centre-back and the young Spanish winger given a run in the side especially with Kuyt sidelined and possibly young Shelvey.
Every side needs some youthful enthusiasm and at the moment Liverpool doesn't have any whereas the likes of Rob Jones (who but for injury would have been England's right-back for many years)Carragher,Fowler and Gerrard were in the side from a young age.

[Tredder]

Liverpool are 2 places above QPR

[papereyes]

I think Liverpool have been signing "squad players" for millions of pounds for the last decade, they should have instead bought a limited number of better players.

Someone put up what they'd spent a few years back and, Torres aside, Liverpool spent a lot of their money on players who didn't actually cost that much. Something like 2 right backs a season went through Anfield under Benitez.

It struck me that they had the money but didn't have much of a plan other than use their homegrown talent (Gerrard basically) and a small number of star players to bolster a very defensive solid core. But once some of the lynchpins of that core have gone, they're, well, oxf*rd.