Liverpool FC Forum

[EddieC]

Sadly we don’t have too many bright sparks in our youth system by the looks of things

So we won the FA youth cup with a cr@p team?

We've got Anderson, Hammill, Antwi, El-Zhar & Hobbs, all of whom I think will be in the 1st team in the next few years, and Guthrie, Peltier & Roque who I'm undecided on but might make the grade.

Just because we don't rush our youngsters into the 1st team doesn't mean they're not good enough.

[67-1161385641]

If they were as good as they are made out to be then they would be included more and more into the team. I've seen a few and I'm impressed, but if you're serioulsy going to compare our youth system with Arsenal's and United's then you're off yer head. 

[EddieC]

If they were as good as they are made out to be then they would be included more and more into the team. I've seen a few and I'm impressed, but if you're serioulsy going to compare our youth system with Arsenal's and United's then you're off yer head. 

Arsenal, I agree, have a very good youth policy.

But Manure? Maybe a while back when Beckham, Scholes & the Nevilles broke through, but I don't think much of what they've got coming through now.

I'd take Anderson, Hammill & El-Zhar anyday over Bardsley, Jones & Richardson.

[crouchaldinho]

(CharmlessMan @ Dec. 07 2006,13:12)

Quote (crouchaldinho @ Dec. 07 2006,12:17)
i have to say IMHO i hope rafa doesnt sign anyone. I believe that the players we have currently are capable of winning the league, providing we get the best out of them. I mean, WTF??? are we saying lets sign all these big names cos thats wot Chavski have done the last few seasons - f**k that!!!

I hate to say it, but look at the squad the scum have got, i mean f**king Fletcher? O'Shea? dont try and tell me that we havent players to match their quality all through our squad, and they are regulars in their team, not just fringe players. I think all the new signings of the summer need or have needed time to settle, which IMO is now starting to happen. I reckon if we can get back to the sort of team spirit that saw us come back from a 3 goal deficit one night in may last year (against a very good AC Milan side i might add) we can once again be the team to beat in England and, possibly, Europe for a few years to come.

This last paragraph is obviously retrospective to the rest of this post, and it kinda contradicts the rest of what iv said here (but f**k it, im not starting again) - I do actually think we need a top quality right winger, i cant see Pennant cutting it in a side that wants to challenge for the league (although not bad cover, but thats all he should be, at best)

I can't see us winning the league; I had the utmost optimism until we got trounced by Arsenal.

Fair enoughtoo was left totally deflated by that result at the time, but you have to bear in mind, last season we amassed 83 points, which as im sure has been mentioned on this forum before, would have won us the league in 14 of the 15/16 years the premiership has existed. So as fans, i think at the end of last season, we had good reason to be optomistic for this current season. Im sure a large percentage of us were even more so considering signings like Gonzales (who came with an excellent reputation from spain) and bellamy (who had a fantastic season at Blackburn). Unfortunately, we stuttered at the start of the season, lacked a bit of luck in certain games, and it became increasingly obvious that the new signings weren't settling as quickly as we'd all have liked. I have to say, though, that i think we have, at times, played some scintillating football, which could have ripped the best defences in the world apart. So, going back to my original post, IMO we have to concentrate on getting back that winning 'spirit', 'mentality', call it what you will. THEN, i think we will be genuine title contenders.

[inglis5]

I think it's clear for a couple of reasons this is takeover is not heralding the beginning of a Abramovich style spending spree;

1. DIC are an investment company who will run Liverpool FC as a business, not a billionaires plaything. The new stadium and the clearing of the debt will mean that we will have the same financial clout as Man Utd and, to a lesser extent, Arsenal - not Chelsea.

2. Rafa believes in the team and not the individual. He chooses the right player for the postion in the team, he doesn't choose the players first and then the formation second.

The way I see it going is that there will be no - Kaka's, Ronaldinho's or Torres's for the foreseeable future. The new money will allow us to compete for the type of players that we have previously been linked to but have been unable to afford - top-quality players in foreign leagues (but not world stars) like Alves and Aguerro & young English potential like Richards and Walcott.

Anyway, going back to the point of the original post. Who do I think we would /should buy?

Right Back (priority) - Alves / Richards
Centre Back - King / Upson
Left Back - Baines / Cicinho
Midfield - van der Vaart / Nolan / Barnes
Centre Forward - Huntelaar

I don't think we'll see any major signings in January and I don't think we need them. Pennant (basing this on Tuesday's performance) may yet settle and I really think that Bellamy is going to be a great player for us. Finnan needs replacing at some point, either this season or the next, and so does Sami.

So revolution, not evolution... let's see the team evolve, not errrr... revolve? 

[Bad Bob]

I can't see us winning the league; I had the utmost optimism until we got trounced by Arsenal. That said it’s not impossible for us to win the league, if we play well and win matches we can win the league or at least close the gap considerably from which currently separates us from Chelsea and United. Hopefully we can build on the Wigan away match and carry that on in our away games. I think its debatable saying that we have good enough players to win us the league, I think we are one or two players off from making the transition from being a good team to a very good team.  Hopefully we’ll have more money behind us so that Rafa can buy his first choice players and not having to resort to buying bulk up the squad with second tier players.  I don’t think anyone with a brain is saying lets go out and buy hordes of good players for expensive prices,  only the Football Manager addicts are suggesting this, but who listens to these people?  Man Utd have managed to gel their youngsters into the first team relatively well, like what Arsenal are doing (through being forced to) and this will pay off for them in a few years time. Arsene Wenger and Ferguson are great at moulding new talent into their squads, Fergie’s made a career of doing it Wenger is about to follow suit. Sadly we don’t have too many bright sparks in our youth system by the looks of things and even if we have Rafa isn’t playing them on a regular basis, he’d rather play Zenden in the middle than say Guthrie or Peltier.

Two questions for you:

1) What young talent are you speaking of at Man Yoo?  Beyond Rooney and Ronaldo, they've got precious little in the way of exciting young prospects coming through the ranks so I'd hardly hold them up as the model for youth development in their current form.

2) How can you complain that Rafa doesn't play our young talent in this post after criticizing him for doing just that against Galatasaray the other night?  He played the young'uns and you interpreted that as some major display of disrespect for the greatest competition in football.  You cannot have it both ways.

[account deleted by request]

I can't see us winning the league; I had the utmost optimism until we got trounced by Arsenal. That said it’s not impossible for us to win the league, if we play well and win matches we can win the league or at least close the gap considerably from which currently separates us from Chelsea and United. Hopefully we can build on the Wigan away match and carry that on in our away games. I think its debatable saying that we have good enough players to win us the league, I think we are one or two players off from making the transition from being a good team to a very good team.  Hopefully we’ll have more money behind us so that Rafa can buy his first choice players and not having to resort to buying bulk up the squad with second tier players.  I don’t think anyone with a brain is saying lets go out and buy hordes of good players for expensive prices,  only the Football Manager addicts are suggesting this, but who listens to these people?  Man Utd have managed to gel their youngsters into the first team relatively well, like what Arsenal are doing (through being forced to) and this will pay off for them in a few years time. Arsene Wenger and Ferguson are great at moulding new talent into their squads, Fergie’s made a career of doing it Wenger is about to follow suit. Sadly we don’t have too many bright sparks in our youth system by the looks of things and even if we have Rafa isn’t playing them on a regular basis, he’d rather play Zenden in the middle than say Guthrie or Peltier.

Two questions for you:

1) What young talent are you speaking of at Man Yoo?  Beyond Rooney and Ronaldo, they've got precious little in the way of exciting young prospects coming through the ranks so I'd hardly hold them up as the model for youth development in their current form.

2) How can you complain that Rafa doesn't play our young talent in this post after criticizing him for doing just that against Galatasaray the other night?  He played the young'uns and you interpreted that as some major display of disrespect for the greatest competition in football.  You cannot have it both ways.

[67-1161385641]

I can't see us winning the league; I had the utmost optimism until we got trounced by Arsenal. That said it’s not impossible for us to win the league, if we play well and win matches we can win the league or at least close the gap considerably from which currently separates us from Chelsea and United. Hopefully we can build on the Wigan away match and carry that on in our away games. I think its debatable saying that we have good enough players to win us the league, I think we are one or two players off from making the transition from being a good team to a very good team.  Hopefully we’ll have more money behind us so that Rafa can buy his first choice players and not having to resort to buying bulk up the squad with second tier players.  I don’t think anyone with a brain is saying lets go out and buy hordes of good players for expensive prices,  only the Football Manager addicts are suggesting this, but who listens to these people?  Man Utd have managed to gel their youngsters into the first team relatively well, like what Arsenal are doing (through being forced to) and this will pay off for them in a few years time. Arsene Wenger and Ferguson are great at moulding new talent into their squads, Fergie’s made a career of doing it Wenger is about to follow suit. Sadly we don’t have too many bright sparks in our youth system by the looks of things and even if we have Rafa isn’t playing them on a regular basis, he’d rather play Zenden in the middle than say Guthrie or Peltier.

Two questions for you:

1) What young talent are you speaking of at Man Yoo?  Beyond Rooney and Ronaldo, they've got precious little in the way of exciting young prospects coming through the ranks so I'd hardly hold them up as the model for youth development in their current form.

2) How can you complain that Rafa doesn't play our young talent in this post after criticizing him for doing just that against Galatasaray the other night?  He played the young'uns and you interpreted that as some major display of disrespect for the greatest competition in football.  You cannot have it both ways.

Richardson is a going to be a very good player, the same for Darren Fletcher, Ben Foster on loan at Watford looks like a very promising prospect for the future, United are still producing good, quality youngsters. Of course they aren't producing as much as they once did at this current period of time, but the youngsters they have got at the moment are doing the business, hence why they are the top of the table.

As for your second question, you raise good points, but there were a fair few games in which we could have played youngsters this season and more so last season. We had the World Club Championship to field youth etc. We could also mix youth with experience in some other matches against the likes of Watford, Sheff United in the league that we could play youth etc. You don't play a weaker side in the Champions League, that's a fundamental fact, isn't it funny how you only pick certain parts of my posts apart, what's wrong with the other chunks you didn't quote in Bold?

[66-1120597113]

Charmless man you are a hypocrite!
You complained the other night when young players were played in an away fixture that meant nothing in the way of points or results.
1)You were wrong on this account for 2 reasons:
It was sensible by the manager as mathematically it was impossible for anything else than us to top the group.So he rested players,leaving them at home because as we all know we need a win this weekend in the domestic league.THIS WAS SENSIBLE AND GOOD MANAGEMENT.

2) It was an excellent and rare chance to give young players experience in a tricky away European night which will benefit them in the future.....hence taking them a step closer to being ready for the squad.

A day or 2 later Mr Know it all is now saying basically that our youngsters coming through are not much use and the fact they are never in the squad.....contradiction!
If you look at the sub bench week in week out you will see that some of the youngsters are on the bench and increasingly more so...this is taking steps towards 1st team football..is it not?
The reason they have not broken into the squad is because they are not ready and rushing them into it can have a negative effect on their careers..not because they lack talent.

The other night you also stated that Raffas decision was 'disrespectful' to the C/L...what a load of balls,im sorry if our team our in the last 16 i'll take being 'disrespectful' every time if it secures us 3 much needed League points the following weekend.

What i do find disrespectful to everything LFC is YOU...critising Raffa doing things that are for the good of the team then having the audasity to sh.it on our youth and in the same sentence w@nk over the scums young talent....says it all really!

Maybe you should do a bit more reading and a bit less posting...your names in every single thread and 90% of what you post is boring..i know it all,im always right...or just plain sh.ite!!

[tubby]

I can't see us winning the league; I had the utmost optimism until we got trounced by Arsenal. That said it’s not impossible for us to win the league, if we play well and win matches we can win the league or at least close the gap considerably from which currently separates us from Chelsea and United. Hopefully we can build on the Wigan away match and carry that on in our away games. I think its debatable saying that we have good enough players to win us the league, I think we are one or two players off from making the transition from being a good team to a very good team.  Hopefully we’ll have more money behind us so that Rafa can buy his first choice players and not having to resort to buying bulk up the squad with second tier players.  I don’t think anyone with a brain is saying lets go out and buy hordes of good players for expensive prices,  only the Football Manager addicts are suggesting this, but who listens to these people?  Man Utd have managed to gel their youngsters into the first team relatively well, like what Arsenal are doing (through being forced to) and this will pay off for them in a few years time. Arsene Wenger and Ferguson are great at moulding new talent into their squads, Fergie’s made a career of doing it Wenger is about to follow suit. Sadly we don’t have too many bright sparks in our youth system by the looks of things and even if we have Rafa isn’t playing them on a regular basis, he’d rather play Zenden in the middle than say Guthrie or Peltier.

Two questions for you:

1) What young talent are you speaking of at Man Yoo?  Beyond Rooney and Ronaldo, they've got precious little in the way of exciting young prospects coming through the ranks so I'd hardly hold them up as the model for youth development in their current form.

2) How can you complain that Rafa doesn't play our young talent in this post after criticizing him for doing just that against Galatasaray the other night?  He played the young'uns and you interpreted that as some major display of disrespect for the greatest competition in football.  You cannot have it both ways.

Richardson is a going to be a very good player, the same for Darren Fletcher, Ben Foster on loan at Watford looks like a very promising prospect for the future, United are still producing good, quality youngsters. Of course they aren't producing as much as they once did at this current period of time, but the youngsters they have got at the moment are doing the business, hence why they are the top of the table.

As for your second question, you raise good points, but there were a fair few games in which we could have played youngsters this season and more so last season. We had the World Club Championship to field youth etc. We could also mix youth with experience in some other matches against the likes of Watford, Sheff United in the league that we could play youth etc. You don't play a weaker side in the Champions League, that's a fundamental fact, isn't it funny how you only pick certain parts of my posts apart, what's wrong with the other chunks you didn't quote in Bold?

I think we can all agree on here that Roy Keane was one of the best midfielders in Europe in his prime?

Ok so remember when he lashed out at everyone. Incase youve forgottenCharmlessman herers what he said about your precious Man Utd youth.

On Richardson "Hes the worst left back ive ever seen"

On Darren Fletcher "I cant see why everyone in Scotland raves on about Darren Flether"

Mate your views are deluded. Seriously. One thing we are yet to see at Anfield is to see a youth member of Benitez's era break through and make an impact. I cant comment on who that may be as I havent seen them in action enough but id like to see Anderson, Guthrie and El Zahri come through.

[67-1161385641]

I did contradict myself, but you haven't allowed me to explain my stance. We had plenty of games to play them last season and we've had a few chances to play them this season, you don't play youth in the CL, I don't think me saying that is hypocritical.

[tubby]

You change your mind every 5 mins Charmless man. We had already qualified and been assured top spot. Rafa could have alos been resting the big players to avoid unexpected injuried yet you class this as disrespectful.

[67-1161385641]

I can't see us winning the league; I had the utmost optimism until we got trounced by Arsenal. That said it’s not impossible for us to win the league, if we play well and win matches we can win the league or at least close the gap considerably from which currently separates us from Chelsea and United. Hopefully we can build on the Wigan away match and carry that on in our away games. I think its debatable saying that we have good enough players to win us the league, I think we are one or two players off from making the transition from being a good team to a very good team.  Hopefully we’ll have more money behind us so that Rafa can buy his first choice players and not having to resort to buying bulk up the squad with second tier players.  I don’t think anyone with a brain is saying lets go out and buy hordes of good players for expensive prices,  only the Football Manager addicts are suggesting this, but who listens to these people?  Man Utd have managed to gel their youngsters into the first team relatively well, like what Arsenal are doing (through being forced to) and this will pay off for them in a few years time. Arsene Wenger and Ferguson are great at moulding new talent into their squads, Fergie’s made a career of doing it Wenger is about to follow suit. Sadly we don’t have too many bright sparks in our youth system by the looks of things and even if we have Rafa isn’t playing them on a regular basis, he’d rather play Zenden in the middle than say Guthrie or Peltier.

Two questions for you:

1) What young talent are you speaking of at Man Yoo?  Beyond Rooney and Ronaldo, they've got precious little in the way of exciting young prospects coming through the ranks so I'd hardly hold them up as the model for youth development in their current form.

2) How can you complain that Rafa doesn't play our young talent in this post after criticizing him for doing just that against Galatasaray the other night?  He played the young'uns and you interpreted that as some major display of disrespect for the greatest competition in football.  You cannot have it both ways.

Richardson is a going to be a very good player, the same for Darren Fletcher, Ben Foster on loan at Watford looks like a very promising prospect for the future, United are still producing good, quality youngsters. Of course they aren't producing as much as they once did at this current period of time, but the youngsters they have got at the moment are doing the business, hence why they are the top of the table.

As for your second question, you raise good points, but there were a fair few games in which we could have played youngsters this season and more so last season. We had the World Club Championship to field youth etc. We could also mix youth with experience in some other matches against the likes of Watford, Sheff United in the league that we could play youth etc. You don't play a weaker side in the Champions League, that's a fundamental fact, isn't it funny how you only pick certain parts of my posts apart, what's wrong with the other chunks you didn't quote in Bold?

I think we can all agree on here that Roy Keane was one of the best midfielders in Europe in his prime?

Ok so remember when he lashed out at everyone. Incase youve forgottenCharmlessman herers what he said about your precious Man Utd youth.

On Richardson "Hes the worst left back ive ever seen"

On Darren Fletcher "I cant see why everyone in Scotland raves on about Darren Flether"

Mate your views are deluded. Seriously. One thing we are yet to see at Anfield is to see a youth member of Benitez's era break through and make an impact. I cant comment on who that may be as I havent seen them in action enough but id like to see Anderson, Guthrie and El Zahri come through.

Oh yes, lets listen to Roy Keane, for starters Richardson is a left midfielder and Darren Fletcher is a good player, if he wasn't he wouldn't be in the United team. Good job playing the "you must be a Manc for praising your rivals youth players", yet you call me sad, off and support your local team, I ain't surprised Stu can't stand you, you're posts are , you represent everything wrong with the modern day football fan.

[67-1161385641]

You change your mind every 5 mins Charmless man. We had already qualified and been assured top spot. Rafa could have alos been resting the big players to avoid unexpected injuried yet you class this as disrespectful.

Better than being a Londoner supporting a Northern team, you , There's only one STR, only one STR. 

I'm logging out of this forum, it's full of London based like you or bastids from Belfast or from Canada, this is the worst forum anyone could join.

[inglis5]

You change your mind every 5 mins Charmless man. We had already qualified and been assured top spot. Rafa could have alos been resting the big players to avoid unexpected injuried yet you class this as disrespectful.

Better than being a Londoner supporting a Northern team, you , There's only one STR, only one STR. 

I'm logging out of this forum, it's full of London based like you or bastids from Belfast or from Canada, this is the worst forum anyone could join.

Anyway back to the topic 

Who should we buy?

Right Back (priority) - Alves / Richards
Centre Back - King / Upson
Left Back - Baines / Cicinho
Midfield - van der Vaart / Nolan / Barnes
Centre Forward - Huntelaar

What do you think?