Liverpool FC Forum

[NANNY RED]

Well im made up with our draw,

An thats the bitters out an all

[NANNY RED]

  Look at the face on Kenny, brilliant, an him trying to text RAFA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTRgi-stZEs

[redbeergoggles]

Well im made up with our draw,

An thats the bitters out an all

Even if they manage to scrape through ,they will probably meet Athletico in the next game ,some of the lads are absolutely gutted Nan ....    and her indoors is not exactly jumping through hoops .....   (Not that I would wind her up or anything )   

[NANNY RED]

Well im made up with our draw,

An thats the bitters out an all

Even if they manage to scrape through ,they will probably meet Athletico in the next game ,some of the lads are absolutely gutted Nan ....    and her indoors is not exactly jumping through hoops .....   (Not that I would wind her up or anything )   

My lad has just ben trying to tell me weve drew a good team I told him just dont go booking any holidays to Portugal , wasting your money , if you wanna go to Lisbon , GO THE ONE IN lIVERPOOL ITS CHEAPER

[redbeergoggles]

My lad has just ben trying to tell me weve drew a good team I told him just dont go booking any holidays to Portugal , wasting your money , if you wanna go to Lisbon , GO THE ONE IN lIVERPOOL ITS CHEAPER

Its cheaper Nan ,but he might have to dress up more   

[bigmick]

Well looking at the draw we obviously ought to beat the Romanian team. They aren't even a big club in Romania by all accounts, Petrescu has done wonders getting them as far as he has. I did a little look up and they got promoted for the first time in their history to the top division in 2006. They finished 10th in their first season with petrescu at the helm, they were struggling big time till he went there. In 2007/2008 they finished fifth, and last season they won the Romanian title for the first time in their history (no wonder Petrescu is being considered for big jobs Worldwide).

In the Champions League they drew two at Home and won one. They drew with Ranger and Stuttgart, and beat seville 1-0. Away, they won 4-1 at Rangers and lost the other two matches 2-0 and 3-1. All in all, if we can't beat these over two legs we might as well give over.

Anyway after we've beaten them, we'll probably play Fenerbace I should think. Aside from the inevitable invasion of the boards by Raki fuelled nutters who think that "hell" consitutes a full football ground and a couple of flares being let off, it won't be interesting. We'll beat them though, which will see us through to the quarter finals where we might have to play someone decent so we'll have to have our wits about us.

[Kukilon]

I wouldn't underestimate Fenerbace. I actually went and saw them play earlier this year and they ain't that bad. They also love us for beating Besiktas as we did in the CL. They actually sang about it during a totally meaningless game.

Crazy fans if you ask me.

[kazza]

As far as im concerned being in the Europa league gives us a chance to try out some of the backup players and the youngsters..

Due to injuries we have been playing backup players and youngsters since day one. Hense the mess we are in.

[shawnk]

Exactly why we should play the backup players and youngsters because they needed to be improved or to get familiar with Rafa's system as well as preventing  first team players from getting injured playing in lower priority competition.

[Owzat]

What has changed that makes it now such an inferior trophy to what it was eight years ago? Instead of three rounds there's a group stage but after that the format is identical, and most of the teams competing where it matters remain predominantly second tier sides.

It seems to be the case that it has only gone down in one's estimation because we've become used to seeing the team progress in the Champions League over the past five years.

Not at all, you were probably in more of a coma over the last eight years than now. Initially the Champions League was Champions only, then it expanded to non-champions and two, then three and now four sides. In 1998 the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup merged. The original group stage was play each other once and 3/5 of the sides go through so rather pointless, not that 2/4 going through is any better.

If you need convincing why the UEFA Cup was better when we won it than it is now :-

F - Liverpool, Alaves
SF - Barcelona, Kaiserslautern
QF - Celta Vigo, PSV, Porto, Real Vallecano

And teams like Bordeaux, Inter, Feyenoord, Rangers, Werder Bremen, Olympiakos, Shakhtar Donetsk, Locomotiv Moscow, Parma, Hamburg and Roma were in it. To highlight the difference, in 05/06 the latter stages teams were :

F - Sevilla, Middlesboro
SF - Steaua Bucharest, Schalke
QF - Basle, Zenit SP, Levski Sofia, Rapid Bucharest

If it were any good, would last season's Semis feature THREE Champions League drop-outs? So it was won by a side that wasn't in the top sixteen teams in Europe. Even the last sixteen of the Champions League features a few ordinary sides, it only really gets down to the nitty gritty at the QF.


Who had heard of the side we face before this season?!? I think they need to go back to 2 or 3 sides from the top leagues in the Champions League, perhaps bring back the Cup Winners Cup. I doubt they will because they want the Champions League showpiece on Tuesday AND Wednesday to maximise televising opportunity, while Thursday is all day nothing European footy with the same TV opportunity. If they split back to three competitions they wouldn't have enough days to put the extra competition on TV without dividing a day

[Owzat]

Exactly why we should play the backup players and youngsters because they needed to be improved or to get familiar with Rafa's system as well as preventing  first team players from getting injured playing in lower priority competition.

Two points made excellently in one concise statement. We don't want injuries, we do need players to play as much as possible - especially the inexperienced. I think N'Gog, Spearing, Darby, Kelly, Pacheco, Insua, Lucas, Cavalieri, Degen, Voronin and Babel would benefit from playing in the Europa League. Stick a spattering of key players on the bench if you must, but I would be livid if they got injured and we didn't go on and win it - there is no guarantee we will win it, although some seem to think we should.

I'd be happier if we lost a key player or two injured trying to win the FA Cup, less games and more chance of winning it depending on the draw. Talk of winning trophies so early in a competition is daft anyway

[woof woof !]

I take your point Owzat that the Europa league doesn't perhaps contain the same quality as the old uefa cup. However lookiing at the teams that are still in it there are some good sides in there many with good european pedigree.

This term we could have quarter finals featuring, PSV, Villareal, Galatasaray, Benfica, Roma, Liverpool, Juventus and Valencia.

Ok, it's not the premier european competition but there's still some more than tasty opposition in there.

[Ciggy]

It shows how far we have come under Rafa when people are p!ssed off we are in this, once upon a time we couldnt even get into this competition.

Im made up and hope we go to win it, proper football games again in shady places thats what its all about, might bring my love of the game back a bit instead of playing fuckin Chelsea again.

[LFC2007]

If you need convincing why the UEFA Cup was better when we won it than it is now :-

F - Liverpool, Alaves
SF - Barcelona, Kaiserslautern
QF - Celta Vigo, PSV, Porto, Real Vallecano

And teams like Bordeaux, Inter, Feyenoord, Rangers, Werder Bremen, Olympiakos, Shakhtar Donetsk, Locomotiv Moscow, Parma, Hamburg and Roma were in it. To highlight the difference, in 05/06 the latter stages teams were :

F - Sevilla, Middlesboro
SF - Steaua Bucharest, Schalke
QF - Basle, Zenit SP, Levski Sofia, Rapid Bucharest

Don't be such a bell end.

What I actually said was, what is that makes it 'such an inferior trophy' to what is was eight years ago? It perhaps has declined a touch but not massively. If you take a broad look at the teams that have been involved over the past 7/8 seasons, there's a consistent spread of teams not too dissimilar in quality (and let's not pretend those Roma and Barca sides were at their peak, far from it in fact). You've selected the 05/06 season which cointains probably the weakest bunch of all and so is least representative of the general trend. It would be better in fact to just look at the competition this year with the likes of Liverpool, Valencia, Juventus, Bremen, Roma, Villareal, PSV, Hamburg, Benfica; which shows that the overall level is not too dissimilar to what it was eight years ago.

[red37]

It shows how far we have come under Rafa when people are p!ssed off we are in this, once upon a time we couldnt even get into this competition.

Im made up and hope we go to win it, proper football games again in shady places thats what its all about, might bring my love of the game back a bit instead of playing fuckin Chelsea again.

Nailed.