Liverpool FC Forum

[Fo Dne]

getting knocked out of the FA Cup is slightly different to getting knocked out of the CL dont you think .

WINNING the FA cup is slightly different than getting knocked out of the CL don't you think?

will say it again IN 06 THE OTHER TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE WERE A LOT WEAKER THAN THEY OUR NOW IE BS,POMPEY,ARSENAL,MAN UTD,MAN CITY,VILLA,BLACKBURN  so the competition at that time was a lot weaker bar chelsea

And you base this on what ? Lowest league points by a team ...... Derby last season 11.

'06 - 11 teams got OVER 50 points with 6 getting over 60 points, last season 9 teams got over 50 points with 6 teams getting over 60 points ........... hardly a vast improvement there?

last years team would easily beat the one from 06

Yet they let in more goals, lost to Barnsley, were lucky to get a draw at Luton, lost to Besiktas, struggled badly against Havant and finished with less points. (Maybe the non-league and the lower divisions are much stronger now too)

Put Torres in the '06 team and it wouldn't even be a game mate.

we beat our rivals in the cup - yet lost n the league and even got a right stuffing at anfield by chelsea

You mean like last season when we got pasted at the mancs?

Not worth arguin with him lad.

Completely clueless.

We're the best team in the world and aren't going backwards. That £95,000,000 spent has took us onto a new level.

[GYBS]

How you can sit there and say Sami is equal to Agger and Skyrtel is absoloutely unbelievable.

Not even a comparrison. Hyypia at his best was one of the best around, not some average pass of who's rated only by some of our own fans.

You then say Babel is better than Kewell... at what?

Babel's a disgrace to the shirt and a pile of . Kewell was an excellent player when fit and created chances and helped with ball retention.

Then you completely fail to leave out Fowler who was also a massively important part of the team. You also neglect to mention the balance of the team and the fact that team acheived 82 points in the league.

Listen lad, keep livin in ya fantasy world and stick to pro evo and champ manager because when it comes to real life football you don't have the foggiest.

Hyypia at his best ----- not in 05/06 hence why agger was bought as a replacement .

kewell- yeah excellent when fit - when was that again ? 2001 playing for leeds cause not for liverpool .

Fowler ? your joking me right ? he added nothing to the team on the pitch - maybe increased morale in the dressing room but certainly wasnt massively important

You think a team of sissoko and crouch in it can beat a team with torres and masher in it your living in the dream world .

Balancw ? feck all balabce when gerrard cuts inside all game leaving a big fecking hole out right .

if we had the team of 06 right now we would be in the uefa cup slots - simple as that . momo lasted one season cause he wasnt technincally good enough .

going out of the cl in 06 enabled us to concentrate on the domestic scene - only reason we did well .

the opposition in the prem nowadays is far stronger than what you had back then . that is plain to see .
stop fecking bleating on about 06 - the team wasnt good enough and we have moved on and got better players in the squad now and replaced the that needed replacing .


and as for pro ev and fot manager - never played them in my life .

then again you must have to know more than what a world class manager knows .

[GYBS]

Here is a nice little quote from Rafa - think it applies to a few people on this site

If I play this way or that way or i buy this player or that player, suddenly 20 experts are going on about it. Experts of what, though? I don't know

[metalhead]

GYBS, FACT is that we were so much better in 2005-2006, FACTS state that! 82 points tally!!! and we beat so many records back then.

compared to our current team, yes I agree with stu, the team of 2005-2006 will beat our current team, even with torres and masch because we had a solid defence back then and a balanced midfield with Gerrard on the right.

A

Kewell Sissoko Alonso Gerrard

is better than

a

Babel masch gerrard kuyt

compare the width, nothing compared with what gerrard and kewell offer in games!

If you tell me if Benitez starts playing a

Riera Masch Alonso Gerrard

and Riera turns out to be at least as good as kewell, then yes I think thats a better midfield than the 2005-2006 one, However I don't think Rafa will play Gerrard on the right, so we are stuck with kuyt there!

as for the defence

Riise Hyppia Carragher Finnan

is better than our

Dosenna Skrtel Carragher Arbeloa

Clearly there is a difference in quality there, Arbeloa who I don't rate that much is only solid, while Finnan in terms of defence is better than Arbeloa and more consistant. Skrtel v Hyppia... you know the answer.

If we had Torres back in 2005-2006, then maybe, or I think we would have been 2 points of chelsea and maybe 2nd or nicked the premiership. We were only short of a few things.

[GYBS]

yes and we all know gerrard spnt every game hugging the touchline giving us width and balance - NOPE spent most of the time cutting inside and it was finnan who provided the width .

amazing how people can use facts to back up some arguments yet people arent allowed to use them when say- backing up an argument about kuyt . for a team that is supposedly worse why arent we going backwards in the league - yet we somewhow seem to be staying up there even though the other two strengthen ?  just cant figure that out myself .

[metalhead]

Did Gerrard lose the ball on the right as much as Kuyt? Did Kuyt defend as much as Gerrard on the right?

Did you ever see our play being broken up when Gerrard has the ball on the right? NO, in Kuyt, multiple times and its bloody frustrating.

We got 4th last season in terms of what we got before 3rd, so thats going backward, we got some good signings this season, for example Keane, so time will tell what happens now.

[account deleted by request]

Ever thought that maybe the other teams HAVEN'T strengthened as much as you would like to think since '06 ?

Arsenal '06 Lehman, A.Cole, Campbell, Bergkamp, HENRY, Pires. Replacements :-

Arsenal's transfers in 2006/2007
Players in
Joe O'Cearuill
Fran Merida Perez
Alexandre Song
William Gallas
Denilson Sao Paulo
Lukasz Fabianski
Nacer Barazite
Eduardo
Arsenal's transfers in 2007/2008
Players in
Bakari Sagna 
Lassana Diarra
Luke Freeman

Mancs '06  KEANE, P Neville, Heinze, Van Nistelrooy replacements :-

Man Utd's transfers in 2006/2007
Players in

Michael Carrick
Owen Hargreaves
Anderson Porto
Tomasz Kuszczak
Nani
Man Utd's transfers in 2007/2008
Players in

Carlos Tevez
Manucho

Chelsea '06  Gallas, Makelele, Robben, Duff, replacements :-

Chelsea's transfers in 2006/2007
Steven Sidwell
Claudio Pizarro
Tal Ben-Haim
Salomon Kalou
Andrei Shevchenko
John Mikel Obi
Khalid Boulahrouz
Ashley Cole

Chelsea's transfers in 2007/2008
Players in
Florent Malouda
Juliano Belletti
Nicolas Anelka
Branislav Ivanovic
Franco Di Santo

So hardly a great deal of improvement to their FIRST TEAMS, with the mancs making the best signings, which makes sense seeing as they have won the league the last two seasons.

[bigmick]

I love this thing about Gerrard not helping the balance by leaving "gaping holes" on the right


I can just see Rafa now, "Will you STAY ON THE RIGHT FFS!!!.  I don't give a flying feck that you've scored 23 goals this season or whatever it is, with God knows how many assists. STAY ON THE FECKING RIGHT!!!!!!. Fecks sake, Steve Finnan had to tackle someone a couple of weeks ago"

That season Finnan looked just about the best right back in the league, he never saw a left winger or midfielder all season. They were too busy doubling up with their left full back on Gerrard unsuccessfully trying to stop him scoring.

On a more serious note, the make up of that cnetral midfield pairing was most unusual when you look at it. As is often the case in life, you see it clearer when it's not there any more. It was unusual in that your playmaker and defensive midfielder actually switched positions on the pitch. Sissoko was quite unique in that he was a defeensive midfielder who used to maraud/rampage around the pitch, tackling anything that moved (only occasionally his own players so it was never a huge problem). Alonso meanwhile could kind of dance between the raindrops of the destruction he left in his wake, and bring it all together. As Sissoko used to win the ball in the most unlikely of areas, teams could never really relax in posession and I must say I'd marginally favour that team in a head to head over the current one.

Things are never as cut and dried as we all pretend. On the one hand you've got GFYS saying we'd only make the UEFA Cup with that team, wheras Stu would probably predict it'd beat this one 8-0 on aggregate over two legs. I think it'd be closer, but I'd definately take the 2006 team to prevail, particularly if Kewell was fit as he was within a window of that season. There would of course be absolutely no contest if as Saint says, you stuck Torres in the old team. Feck me with him feeding off Sissoko's cluster bomb approach to destructing opposition play, they probably would drill this team by 5 or 6. It'd be interesting to see Babel/Riera/Benayoun trying to cope with Gerrard leaving "gaping holes" on the right. Feck me you could play all three of them out there if you like and they still wouldn't be able to deal with him, even with Dossena in behind  .  Kuyt would have a fun time trying to deal to Kewell as well.

Interesting though.

[maypaxvobiscum]

so fowler didnt improve the performances? he had a very good strike rate. he scored many important goals that gave us 1-0 victories. he deffo improved the team morale. he played less then the other strikers but his goal per game ration was probably the best. he talk about how kuyt scores important goals no matter how rare and when he does its worth 10mil. and then he discredit fowler's contribution. you're clueless and living in cuckooland gybs.

[maypaxvobiscum]

here it is. fowler's contribution

1) scored against fulham in the 5-1 win
2) scored against west brom in the 2-0 win
3) scored against bolton in the 1-0 win
4) scored against blackburn in the 1-0 win
5) scored against portsmouth in the 3-1 win
6) scored against sheff utd in the 1-1 draw
7) scored against reading in the 4-3 win
8) scored against galatasary in the 2-3 defeat
9) scored against arsenal in our 3-6 trashing
10) scored against 2 goals against sheff utd in the 4-0 win

keep in mind he hardly played, often came on as a sub yet scored goals when called upon to deliver.

[Bad Bob]

Fowler was instrumental in our fantastic run-in that season. FACT.