Liverpool FC Forum

[115-1073096938]

I'm desperate to know people see in him?

I really don't see what he has to offer.

[Puddlian Lane]

O Neil is a great motivater. He single handedly rescued Celtic. Trust me cos I live in Scotland. O'Neil has brought in some very shrewd moves such as Thompson and Sutton and has developed youngsters such as Kennedy and Marshall. Under him Celtic went from second best in Scotland to Uefa Cup finalists beating us along the way with less resources. He alson beat the second team in La Liga field 4 players who were only recently promoted from the academy. A man who is as good as that is a great manager.

[Woollyback]

1) Magnificent man-motivator. Look at what he achieved with a ramshackle bunch at Leicester. Look at how far he has taken Celtic with virtually nothing to spend and without much attraction to top names to come to the Scots prem. This demonstrates how he has, on a consistent basis, got mediocre players to give 120% effort. Players such as Kewell, Murphy etc would thrive under a boss like him. (By the way I'm not saying Kewell is mediocre but he's bone idle at times) 

2) He clearly has the nouse and persuasive powers to hold on to top names, look how he held onto Heskey for so long at Leicester despite almost constant rumours about clubs being after his signature. Look at Henrik Larsson.

3) Business acumen. He has never pressurised a club into spending beyond their means. He has made the absolute best of what he's had.

4) A well-respected name in football, invaluable when trying to bring top names to a club

5) A proven winner. He's won 2 league cups with Leicester in 97 and 2000 plus trophies galore at Celtic. I know you're gonna say Scottish football is a joke but you can only beat who's put in front of you and the way he turned round Rangers' total and utter dominance in such a short space of time is remarkable.

6) Hunger. Motivation. Aggression. Drive. Determination. Appetite. Whichever words you wanna use, O'Neill is a BORN WINNER and has ambition and drive pouring out of him.

Will 6 do you Stu? Let's see if you can give me 6 reasons why he's not the man and remember, if you resort to abuse you immediately forfeit any right to present your views.

[Stan Laurel]

I agree, but I am not sure about his formation 3-5-2 style.

[115-1073096938]

Why is he a great motivator?

What does he do to motivate players? Heskey was EXACTLY the same at Leicester as he was at Liverpool.

I can give you many examples of great motivation by Houllier. Motivating isn't a factor. Great players gain confidence and that is a motivator. O'Neil doesn't need to motivate players like Thompson, Lennon, Guppy etc. They know when they play Juventus its the chance of a lifetime, they're already motivated. The problem comes when you have Owen and Gerrard and Kewell playing against Wovles. Even then its down to tactical play aswell which O'Neil isn't great with.

As for his acheivements with Celtic, yeah, well done, he's done a good job. But the only player that he's signed who'd cut it in the prem is Sutton. The rest simply wouldn't. Celtic is a team full of good players, there is no outstanding class acts with maybe the exception of Larrson who's now retired.

In response to Wooly...

1. As for his Leicester side he built a semi decent side, Heskey, Izzet, Savage, Guppy, Elliot, Keller. Its ok, but nothing special. They won a League cup or two but that was because the bigger teams didn't take it seriously and the ones that did (Like ourselves) were at the time no good. He did finish a respectable 9th in the league tho which is good. However, how does this make him better than O'Neil or Allardyce?

2. Larrson wanted to stay anyways, he has never shown ambition to move, he's said in the press numourus times he likes Scotland, he also knew he wouldn't be as big a star in a bigger league. Heskey was linked away a few times, but nothing concrete, as soon as it was he left. So i don't see how you can use this as an argument.

3. Neither did Houllier. Not many managers do. In that respect i'd rather see Alardyce or Curbishley. If either of them got the Celtic job i'd expect them to do exactly the same.

4. Respected in England, yes... overhyped also.

5. I could finish second in Scotland managing Celtic and i would expect the odd success along the way and i have practically no managerial experience. I would expect any good manager (which in my opinion is what he is, nothing more) to do the same. Again i mention Allardyce and Curbishley. Both could do the same job if not better imo.

6. Hunger. Motivation. Aggression. Drive. Determination. Appetite. Whichever words you wanna use, O'Neill is a BORN WINNER and has ambition and drive pouring out of him.

Are you telling me Houllier didn't have those? I can't agree with that if you are. Houllier IS a red to the bone, theres his motivation, and was hungry for success, we all shared his vision and dreams. He was as determined as ever untill he got sacked and even now thinks he has unfinished business which in my opinion he has. He also shown determination to carry on after nearly dying. He was also aggressive when he needed to be with players and the media. He never gave up and thats a quality in itself. He loved the club.

Also O'Neil tactically isn't to clever. Defensively he gets a team well organised but he uses a 3-5-2, they should have beaten Lyon away but he played this system. Lyon simply kept sending runners forward from midfield which is the easy way to break that system down, he also left 3 centre halfs playing against 1 striker and 2 deep wide midfielders... wheres the logic in that?

Another thing about O'Neil, ALL of his teams have been known for hard work, good set pieces and graft. Not the pretty play all of you lot want.

And finally don't flatter yourself thinkin i'd bother abusing you.

[woof woof !]

And finally don't flatter yourself thinkin i'd bother abusing you.

Yawn, somebody wake me when he's finished his " I know it all you know fk all " rant.

Can no longer take this guy seriously. 

[115-1073096938]

miow!

[woof woof !]

miow!

Always knew you where a pussy 

[Woollyback]

And finally don't flatter yourself thinkin i'd bother abusing you.

Hehe, you just had to get a little dig in somewhere...

When it comes to what he does to motivate players I don't know cos I've never been at one of his team talks but it's pretty obvious it works otherwise how could he have steered a ramshackle bunch at Leicester to 8th in the prem (not 9th, as you said)? Motivation is a subjective thing but no-one can argue that O'Neill isn't a fine motivator. 

You state that it's easy to fire a team up to play Juventus etc but it's not so easy against the likes of Wolves. Tell me then, how does MON fire his team up so well for every non-Rangers game all season?

You can harp on as well about how Larsson is Celtic's only real class player but that's not MON's doing - that's down to the fact that he's had no money to spend and the Scots prem is not attractive to most top players. MON could and would attract world class players to Anfield.

As for overhyped, that's subjective and in the eye of the beholder so we can argue that until the cows come home.

I am not suggesting GH wasn't driven, ambitious and so on. What I am stating is that MON has more hunger in him and imo has more of a "born winner's" attitude than just about every other manager in Europe today. Christ, the guy's been a resounding success at Wycombe, then Leicester and now Celtic. That you cannot argue against.

Tactically nobody knows how he'd play it at LFC until he ever eventually became manager but tactics are often dictated by the players available.

Finally what's this pretty style of play we all want? I for one would happily see us grind out a season full of dire 1-0 wins and bring back the league title. Otherwise wouldn't we all want Keegan?

PS. Flatter myself by courting abuse from you? Sorry Stu, you flatter yourself by thinking I give a monkey's about your personal opinion of me. Keep it football or don't bother Stu.

[Puddlian Lane]

Tactically clever? Excuse me, as I said, he took a team that consisted 4 youth players, went to Nou Camp and got a result against one of the top european sides at the moment. I don't think these youth players were Saviola standard, yet his tactics ousted the great Frank Rijakard. Lyon only beat them cause of the farce at the end. Also, Thompson, Kennedy, Marshall and Balde could easily drive themselves into any of the top prem teams, stop undermining the Scottish Prem. And if Houllier was so good, why did we underachieve. And no offence, you could not take Celtic to second place. Celtic were beaten by Hearts, Dunfermline and Dundee Utd when they fielded a slightly under par side.

[JBG]

I think O' Neill plays 3-5-2 because its often a safe system to play where you are dealing with fairly limited players who are none-the-less prepared to give their all.

As for O' Neill the motivator I think he has shown that with the brilliant performances he coaxed out of Tony Cottee at Leicester, Sutton at Celtic and to a lesser extent (but brilliantly for a short period of time before he got injured) Stan Collymore at Leicester.

I think people flatter the Premiership when they say that only Chris Sutton of the current Celtic team could perform there.

Remember that Celtic knocked us and Blackburn out of the UEFA Cup (and Blackburn were very good that season) in 2002/03.

I'm a massive supporter of O' Neill but from what I have heard he is not in the running for the Anfield job.

[Leonmc0708]

Tactically clever? Excuse me, as I said, he took a team that consisted 4 youth players, went to Nou Camp and got a result against one of the top european sides at the moment. I don't think these youth players were Saviola standard, yet his tactics ousted the great Frank Rijakard. Lyon only beat them cause of the farce at the end. Also, Thompson, Kennedy, Marshall and Balde could easily drive themselves into any of the top prem teams, stop undermining the Scottish Prem. And if Houllier was so good, why did we underachieve. And no offence, you could not take Celtic to second place. Celtic were beaten by Hearts, Dunfermline and Dundee Utd when they fielded a slightly under par side.

Thompson was ****** at Bolton.

Who is Kennedy??

Who is Marshall??

Bobo Balde would not get a game at Man U, Chelski, Arsenal, Newcastle, Spurs, Villa, and most of the other decent teams in the Premeirship. My Sunday League team would knock him back.

Any manager would take Celtic to second place in the Scot Prem, its the crappest league in the British Isles, at least the Irish and Welsh Leagues have some competition.

[supersub]

O'Neil ruled himself out of the running.

[JBG]

Where have you heard that Supersub?

[115-1073096938]

Hehe, you just had to get a little dig in somewhere...

When it comes to what he does to motivate players I don't know cos I've never been at one of his team talks but it's pretty obvious it works otherwise how could he have steered a ramshackle bunch at Leicester to 8th in the prem (not 9th, as you said)? Motivation is a subjective thing but no-one can argue that O'Neill isn't a fine motivator. 

You state that it's easy to fire a team up to play Juventus etc but it's not so easy against the likes of Wolves. Tell me then, how does MON fire his team up so well for every non-Rangers game all season?

You can harp on as well about how Larsson is Celtic's only real class player but that's not MON's doing - that's down to the fact that he's had no money to spend and the Scots prem is not attractive to most top players. MON could and would attract world class players to Anfield.

As for overhyped, that's subjective and in the eye of the beholder so we can argue that until the cows come home.

I am not suggesting GH wasn't driven, ambitious and so on. What I am stating is that MON has more hunger in him and imo has more of a "born winner's" attitude than just about every other manager in Europe today. Christ, the guy's been a resounding success at Wycombe, then Leicester and now Celtic. That you cannot argue against.

Tactically nobody knows how he'd play it at LFC until he ever eventually became manager but tactics are often dictated by the players available.

Finally what's this pretty style of play we all want? I for one would happily see us grind out a season full of dire 1-0 wins and bring back the league title. Otherwise wouldn't we all want Keegan?

PS. Flatter myself by courting abuse from you? Sorry Stu, you flatter yourself by thinking I give a monkey's about your personal opinion of me. Keep it football or don't bother Stu.

The reason is he doesn't have to movtivate players for these games. He's got mid table premiership players in Lennon, Hartson, Petrov and Thompson, quality in Larrsson and Sutton. Basically playing against division two standard players at best. Look at Rangers, they aren't as good as Celtic and have even less quality and they don't lose many games.

What world class players would want to play for Liverpool under O'Neil? Arsenal under Wenger, Man Utd under Ferguson, Chelsea under abramovic are far more attractive options. He's also never unearthed a real talent. The closest he's had is Heskey.

Managers have preffered ways of playing and use the same system in most cases. O'Neil has never used anything but a 3-5-2 and he's always used a target man.

Well why have a stab if ya don't care? Point?