Liverpool FC Forum

[Ciggy]

Its quite obvious from results and lack of form and consistancy this season, that Liverpool are separating the Premiership to the Champions League.

The premiership has been dire for us liverpool fans, ok new boss new players injuries etc etc...........

But the same goes for the Champions League aswell.
Judging by that performance yesterday, against brum, the saints, against Blackburn, our team are only on par with the likes of spur, city, charlton.

Then we play in the Champions league and all of a sudden we are world beaters. Yesterday was for all to see that the players have there eye on european success, yes it will be fantastic if we win it, but the premiership is where they earn there keep week in week out, and not the Champions League.

So what is the problem?
Why cant Rafa get them motivated for a game in manchester, Birmingham, newcastle, Southampton?

But they are motivated in Liverpool tuesday night, Bayern Leverkussen in Germany, Monaco?

im sure rafa doesnt know these answers either

Liverpool mid league team in the prem

Liverpool 3-4th in the european league.

Doesnt make sense does it

Uefa’s Champions League seedings are as follows:
1. Real Madrid
2. Valencia
3. Barcelona
4. Manchester United
5. Bayern Munich
6. Deportivo La Coruna
7. Arsenal
8. Porto
9. AC Milan
10. Liverpool
11. Juventus
12. Internazionale
13. Roma
14. Lyon
15. Chelsea
16. PSV Eindhoven

Now 12 of these teams are eliminated does that mean we are better than Barca? Better than Valencia?

I think we are in europe so why are we so cr@p in the premiership?

Surely to be Champions of Europe you have to do well in the domestic leagues dont you? Or does it not matter to Liverpool?

I give up I am lost, with Juve drawing 3-3 last night to Florintina I fancy us now all of a sudden on wednesday against Juventus, yet I think we might get beat by Portsmouth in a few weeks.

Beat Juventus 2-1
Got beat by Southampton 2-0

What is happening?

[LFC #1]

it is baffling tbh. Perhaps its the added pace of physicality of the PL that Rafas tactics haven't quite adpated too, or the foreign imports are still trying to adapt to the different style of play over here.

If you watched Liverpool yesterday and had no idea what was going on in Europe then you would have a mild heart attack if you found out they had just beaten Juventus in the first leg of the 1/4 finals.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you saw the Juve game and had no idea where liverpool were placed in the league, you would have an even more serious heart attack if you found out they were behind Everton.

[kazza]

I think that it is the physical nature of English football. In Europe the play is a lot more technical and less physical, which suites our game. We have two hard guys in Carra and Gerrard (maybe Risse), other than that rest seem to be mostly French and Spanish (there are exceptions) and they play accordingly.

In Europe the referees give the players more protection, which allows them to express themselves. In the EPL, many physical challanges are not called so they happen more often. What seems to happen is the players are so concerned with riding the tackle, they fail to play at their full potential. Add to that that once the player recieves the ball he has less than a second before someone charges him, means that our players are so happy to play in Europe and it shows.

I think Raffa has learned a lot this year, and I am very interested who comes in the summer. I would bet they will be hard (small framed or not).

[joependo]

We get beat by all the bottom teams nearly and win arsenal and juventus,bayern leverkusen, monaco,and olympiakos. who are all good teams

[A.B.]

I don't know what the f#ck is going on. The more I think about it the more puzzled I become.

[A.B.]

Last season our home form was poor while our away form was miles better than it is this year, this season it's the exact opposite.

[woof woof !]

I don't know what the f#ck is going on. The more I think about it the more puzzled I become.

Me to, maybe it's an indication of how hard the EPL is compared to other euro leagues.

[andy_g]

the only explanation there can be is that, as others have already said, many of our players are more equipped for the european style of play. luis garcia is the prime example - looks a world beater in europe but (mostly) poor in the prem. other players, like stevie g, seem to need the big games to get motivated.

maybe its another symptom of clubs and players thinking they're bigger than everyone else. (look what happended to manure this weekend). maybe all the talk about our great pride, history and honour doesn't do us any favours when we have to play against the southamptons, man citys and birminghams of the world.

[A.B.]

Perhaps or is that we have too many players who are inconsistant thus making the team overall inconsistant. We were inconsistant last year under Houllier, and we're inconsistant this year under Benitez.

I can't wait till summer, surely there is going to be a clear out and rightfully there should be.

[andy_g]

sure some good new players is always kind of exciting. but then will we have to wait another season while the new players 'get used to the premiership'? you don't just build a new succesful team. the success of chelsea this season has been built on a foundation of established players, not the new guys.

[JC_81]

I dont buy all this talk about our foreign players not adapting to the premiership, they have matched and beaten arsenal this season and were unlucky against chelsea twice.  We have also beaten everton and bolton who are the so-called more physical teams.

Therefore the problem must lie in motivation.  By the time our team got settled a few months into Rafa's reign, we were already too far behind chelsea to be thinking about challenging for the title.  I think the likes of Gerrard and other key players are dissilusioned by the fact that we can only finish 4th at best this year and therefore struggle to lift themselves for league games. 

Although 4th is important for the club, in the players minds it is not a trophy, unlike the champions league.

[A.B.]

If Gerrard is disgusted with us finishing fourth then I'm disgusted when he goes missing in games like the one yesterday.

He can't play well just when he feels like it, he's far more capable than what he showed against Man City, he missed a clear chance which I can understand sometimes but his perfomance as a LFC player and captain was poor.

[A.B.]

ure some good new players is always kind of exciting. but then will we have to wait another season while the new players 'get used to the premiership'? you don't just build a new succesful team. the success of chelsea this season has been built on a foundation of established players, not the new guys.

I agree but in my mind we need a really good winger because if we want to see Morientes score more then we need a winger who is not one-dimensional like Riise and someone who can always make good crosses into the box.

We also need a defender as I don't think that Hyypia will be here next year and Pellegrino won't be playing in every game therefore we should find a defender that could play very well with Carragher, that or a central-midfielder if Gerrard leaves.

[Paul C]

We have too many players which play on certain ocassions for example Biscan who can only play well in the CL and Garcia who only plays well at home or in the CL, the team is still learning Rafa's way of football, as said previously their will be a lot of change in the summer and I think we'll see the real LFC next season.

[Ciggy]

The foreign players isnt really a big issue look at arsenal, they have fielded a team without any english in this season and still won games.
Every pass yesterday from Biscan was to gerrard I was really angry at Igor cause gerrard kept loosing the ball with miss hit passes.
Ok Stevies a great player but f.uckinell he cant do everything on his own.
usually finnan gets down the wing yesterday he didnt come past the half way line
Morientes didnt have a look in need a partner for him and fast.

Baros has probably cost us 6 points had he have played yesterday we would have won about 3-0.

But then again we should have strikers to come and fill in for him.

Heard a radio interview from rafa after the juve game to spanish radio and the interviewer asked him over baros and Valencia, Rafa said they dont know what they are getting?
That tells me all isnt good in the Rafa Baros camp.

Next season is going to be the same if we have a mass clearout, then its going to be another bedding in process, oh well Ill probably be a grandmother by the time we win the league