Liverpool FC Forum

[tonyeh]

But make no mistake utd did not take it from us, we handed it to them. They were poor but they were not made to pay for it as we dropped points at home. I think this year will be a good learning curve. Rafa knows what is missing now. He just needs to put in the finishing touches and we will win the league.

Yep, absolutely. We fluffed it.

Far too many games throughout the year, played conservatively. If only we had played the season like we are playing now, we'd have won the damn title by now.

I only hope that we start out of the blocks next year with the same attack minded mentality.

[DrPepe]

i would agree that we bottled it, and showed a bad attitude or naivety in certain games (spurs(A), boro(A), westham(H), fulham(H), stoke(A)). IMO in the majority of these games the problem was the players on the pitch , not Rafa/tactics 

I think now the players have to realise that every single game is worth 3 points.

However, we have also done a lot of positive things and the 2nd half of the season has been great.


By the way,  there is absolutely nothing to support the premise that this has been a "weak" season for chels and the scum and  therefore it was our last or best chance...

[Igor Zidane]

No fat lady singing just yet . By the way if we don't win it ,i think it's because we should have sacked Raffa in January and got Paul Jewell in .We would have p!ssed the league then . Ahh well we live and learn , we can always sack him if we lose the first game of next season.

[tubby]

That's another thing. Now that he has signed a long term deal there is no chance of any media Rafa-quit fest. Annoyed me to no end reading that shyte in the paper every other day.

[Alex G.]

With this squad you can´t get more than 90 points by season. You should be more realistic, we depend too much on Gerrard Torres and Alonso, while United can allow themselves to have Tevez (worth 30 million), Berbatov (worth 30 million), Nani (worth 20 million) and Anderson (worth 20 million) on the bench, and rotate them with Ronaldo, Rooney and Park. And one 20 million player injured all the season (hargreaves).

For me Ferguson is not praiseworthy, with that squad even my grandmother could achieve that success.
At the end, everything is the money.

[7_Kewell]

the fat lady is warming up, but she isn't singing yet. Lets hope that either Wigan or Arsenal pull off a shock result and we can go into the last day of the seaosn with a slight chance of winning it.

[radun5]

Let's hope BOTH Wigan and Arsenal pull a shock result.

It ain't over till it's over

Proud of the boys anyway 

[7_Kewell]

Let's hope BOTH Wigan and Arsenal pull a shock result.

It ain't over till it's over

Proud of the boys anyway 

me too...2nd place and we've chased the mancs all the way. 

[Madmax]

Arsenal are as similar as horse .. mannure will smash them easy 3-0... I don't want to build any hopes anymore was praying citeh will take something today yet nothing happened. United have won the title so no point waiting for wigan and arsenal to do us a favour because it wont happen. We have only ourselves to blame!
Anyhow its been a decent season to bad theres no trophies for us but atleast we mounted a decent challenge that in the end was out of our hands!

[bigmick]

i would agree that we bottled it, and showed a bad attitude or naivety in certain games (spurs(A), boro(A), westham(H), fulham(H), stoke(A)). IMO in the majority of these games the problem was the players on the pitch , not Rafa/tactics 

I think now the players have to realise that every single game is worth 3 points.

However, we have also done a lot of positive things and the 2nd half of the season has been great.


By the way,  there is absolutely nothing to support the premise that this has been a "weak" season for chels and the scum and  therefore it was our last or best chance...

I think the players probably knew that every game is worth three points, although it's an interesting angle to suggest otherwise. It's also an interesting thought that if we set up with two holding midfielders at Home, or take off our two main goal threats with ten minutes to go once Wigan equalise, or settle for a point at the Emirates with Arsenal down to 10 men it's all down to the players.

We'll agree to differ on that score just for a change  , although I do agree weve improved a lot in the second half of the season. Presumeably the players just got the hang of attacking more during that period.

As for the thing about it being our "last" chance, at least we agree on something as that's a ridiculous notion. If anybody said it was our "last" chance of winning the Premiership then obviously they are an idiot. It was though clearly our "best" chance of many years, as we actually put in a sustained challenge (and indeed still are doing). Much of the fact that it has been our "best' chance for years is and has been been down to our excellence, both of the team and of the manager. Some of the fact that it has been our "best" chance for many a year though is obviously because Arsenal aren't as good as they historically have been, and neither are Chelsea. We can dispute the point until we're blue in the face (or at least you can if you like) but it remains as close to a fact as you can get I should think. Unless of course you truly do think that Arsenal are as good a team as they were last season, or that Chelsea wouldn't have been stronger had Hiddink been there all year. Anyways thats for you to wrestle with as you try and make the various threads of your argument hang together, for my part I'm simply glad we've improved.

[DrPepe]

I think the players probably knew that every game is worth three points, although it's an interesting angle to suggest otherwise. It's also an interesting thought that if we set up with two holding midfielders at Home, or take off our two main goal threats with ten minutes to go once Wigan equalise, or settle for a point at the Emirates with Arsenal down to 10 men it's all down to the players.

We'll agree to differ on that score just for a change  , although I do agree weve improved a lot in the second half of the season. Presumeably the players just got the hang of attacking more during that period.

As for the thing about it being our "last" chance, at least we agree on something as that's a ridiculous notion. If anybody said it was our "last" chance of winning the Premiership then obviously they are an idiot. It was though clearly our "best" chance of many years, as we actually put in a sustained challenge (and indeed still are doing). Much of the fact that it has been our "best' chance for years is and has been been down to our excellence, both of the team and of the manager. Some of the fact that it has been our "best" chance for many a year though is obviously because Arsenal aren't as good as they historically have been, and neither are Chelsea. We can dispute the point until we're blue in the face (or at least you can if you like) but it remains as close to a fact as you can get I should think. Unless of course you truly do think that Arsenal are as good a team as they were last season, or that Chelsea wouldn't have been stronger had Hiddink been there all year. Anyways thats for you to wrestle with as you try and make the various threads of your argument hang together, for my part I'm simply glad we've improved.

this season has been an education for sure.

obviously the players know the fact that all games are worth the same number of points, but they sure as hell haven't shown that in the the last 10+ years given some of the performances we've seen aginst teams we know we should be beating...  In that respect, this season has been no different   

Arsenal haven't been as "good as they historically have been" for many seasons now  so i don't really consider them.

But consider the "Big2"; Just think where this season would have been if we'd done the usual capitulation to the scum and /or the chavs, or we'd lost to arsenal - we'd be in 4th and could be up to 20 points behind united, and it would be "same old liverpool".

IMO the only reason they both look weaker is that we beat the feckers (chavs were beaten both under scolari and under hiddink remember), we are above them on merit and have kept up with united (they have improved this season) by our own industry.

[bigmick]

I thought under Hiddink we didn't beat them so I'll have to give you that if that's the case. I thought when we beat them at Anfield with Torres's two goals in the last couple of minutes Scholari was still in charge, and then we got beat at Home in the Champions League and drew with then away while Hiddink was at the helm. My mistake if I'm wrong.

I still don't think it detracts from the fact though that they have quite obviously been a better team now they have changed managers, and equally changing managers mid season is rarely a sign of a team which is firing on all cylinders. Chelsea weren't, they were drifting on a downward spiral under Scholari.

Arsenal "not being as good as they historically have been for many seasons now" is true if you consider the invincibles team of five seasons ago just about the best the premiership has seen (which I do). That said, when I said 'historically have been' I didn't mean EVER,  I was kind of thinking over the last couple of seasons. The Arsenal team last season for instance was a much better team than this one currently is (although it may improve), and anyone who saw one of the most one sided 1-1's you'll ever see in the league match at Anfield last season would find it hard to disagree.

Ultimately though, as I've said many times it isn't really important as long as you win the thing. If you win it with 75 points and it's the lowest Premiership winning total in history, if all the English clubs go out in the last 16 of the Champions League and by common consent it's a poor league, so what as long as you win it? The objective at the start of the season is not to be better than Mourinho's record points winning Chelsea, nor to be better than Arsenals invincibles team, nor to be better than some of the Mancs better teams over the years, it's simply to get more points than anyone else THAT SEASON. This is one of the reasons why it baffles me somewhat that people spend so much time arguing about something which is as obvious as the nose on your face. Would Chelsea have been stronger under Scholari had he been there all season? Are Arsenal as good a team as they were last season? These things are pretty much beyond any sensible dispute in my book, but it doesn't stop sensible people disputing them.

The ONLY reason why such points are relevent in the first place anyway is nothing to do with this season, it's for when you're looking forward. That's when points such as "we had a great opportunity but didn't take it" will be tested out. If Chelsea appoint another unsuitable manager, if Arsenal are as mediocre again, if the Mancs give us such a start again, if Aston Villa are right up there for the first three quarters of the season again then you can probably justifiably claim that this was no more of a golden chance than any other season (not "last" though  ). If though Chelsea do appoint a suitable manager, or Arsenal do improve back to at least where they were last season, and if the Mancs get their act together earlier we might just find it all a bit trickier. That is the only point where the relative strength of this years contenders is relevent.

Unfortunately though, whenever you talk about it, pretty much like if you claim that the Champions League is relatively easy to shine in, people take it as a dig at the manager. It isn't. Saying he rotated too much for four seasons is a dig at the manager, as is saying we were far too circumspect for the first half of this season. They are both digs and both are true, but saying that Hiddink has improved Chelsea or that Arsenal aren't very good this time around isn't a dig, it's simply a statement of fact.

[7_Kewell]

i think it is worth noting that our summer signings have been awful buys. Dossena, Degen, Keane....all flops. Ngog has been ok and didn't cost much...but the rest haven't done a thing and i think the whole Keane sega cost us points.

[Bad Bob]

Bottom line for me is that has been a very good season, all things considered, with a significant improvement in our performances over previous seasons.  There is still room for further improvement for next campaign, however.  Rafa and the lads need to take what's happening out there now, bottle it and quaff it before every game next season.  Oh, and adding one or two diamonds to an already very strong team this summer wouldn't go amiss either.

[JoeTerp]

We were the ones that got Scolari sacked, I think he only lasted one more game.