Liverpool FC Forum

by **Leonmc0708** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:31 pm

Now here we are, mid January and we have managed to be on the end of a staggereing 12 defeats.

Hardly championship winning form, not exactly FA Cup winning style, and by no means the way to win the Champions League ( Unless your Man Utd in 1999 of course ! ).

So what is it? Are we sacraficing proper defensive qualities for the sake of playing football more pleasing to the eye than that which we where forced to endure during the final couple of seasons of Gerard Houllier's tenure.

OR Are we simply going the right way? Are we just a couple of good decisions from turning the results into posotive ones?

Well for me, it is most definitley the latter.

Of the 12 defeats we have been forced to suffer as fans this season, an amazing ten of them have been 1-0 defeats, not exactly getting trounced, and the others where a 2-1 loss at Old Trafford and 0-2 at Boro (when we where awful).

To me, this tells me that we are in fact, just s little bit of luck away from making these wins or at least draws, and the concensus of most fans will be the same.

This season, we lost 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, no real problem, beaten Arsenal at home, lost to Man Utd by 1 goal twice, and lost to (Mike Rielly's) Chelsea at Anfield 1-0. Not bad performances against the "BIG THREE".

Now I am not one for talking about referees' decisions, but I do not need to mention handballs against Birmingham and Chelski not being given to make you see that we were very unlucky in a fair few of those games.

Whilst we have failed to score in 12 games this season, the distinct lack of forwards whilst bot being an excuse is an answer to that particular conundrum. Manchester United have been without strikers the last month, and scored once in four games.........

I guess the reason for the thread is to try and make people understand htat I really do not think its all that bad. A new manager, new players, new formation and lots of injuries and weare still doing well.

Build it and he will come, well Rafa's doing exactly that, building it.........................

by **andy_g** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:36 pm

aren't there other threads on this already, leon?

by **dawson99** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:41 pm

great thread leon
nice to see someone not jumping from the fith floor and crying into whatever is beneath them
i wont use the old excuses by saynig that we have had loadsa injuries (altho we have) but the future is looking better and im still optimistic (as i said somewhere else, but wanna reiterate the fact)

by **Redrider** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:43 pm

It isn't just about luck, we still need 3/4 new players in key positions. The consistent thread is that our defeats have mainly been against teams who are higher than us in the league, including 'boro and Everton.
To say it is bad-luck is to take a complacent view, there is still serious pruning and replanting work to be undertaken and I fear it may get worse, before it get's better.

by **taff** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:44 pm

There are but I still enjoyed reading it

encore Leon

by **andy_g** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:46 pm

but seriously...

i don't think we can look back on these defeats as unlucky or whatever. we have been beaten 12 times. the fact that we have been beaten 1-0 so many times illuminates the fact that we haven't been able to match another team for 1 goal so many times - including games like birmingham (!) at home.

a lot of this does have to go down to our unbelievable injury list this season, which has especially affected our attack. baros has stood up and played like a star on many occaissions when he hasn't been injured himself and with nando alongside him now i see goals coming thick and fast.

benitez has consistently refused to make excuses and respect to him for that. but he knows as well as we do that we have suffered through injuries and a couple of decisions, but not as many of those as some people seem to think.

this season is beginning to look like an effort to get CL football next season which i really believe we'll get. i believe in the raffalution and when we have alonso, morientes, cisse, kewell, nunez and the like all fit AND on their game we'll be a team to be reckoned with at any level.

by **El Guapo** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:22 pm

Alright lads, I'm a long-time reader but first time poster.

I agree with the views expressed by Leonmc0708 above, I was very disappointed with last night's result but one other positive change since the Rafalution that shows how we are progressing is that we are now able to beat lesser teams at home, aside from the Birmingham result, we have convincingly put away any of the lesser teams that have come to Anfield. This wasn't happening under Houllier. We are not that far off the top three in terms of head-to head matches against them (not forgetting that we beat Arsenal) and I can see us closing the gap over the next 18 months. Results like last night's are disappointing but looking at the bigger picture it will stand the younger lads in good stead for the future. Its hard to be positive after the last couple of results but we are definitely moving in the right direction.

by **Ciggy** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:30 pm

Great post Leon :cool:

.
I think your right aswell, we will get better with a few more aditions to the squad, Rafa didnt want us in that comp last night. He wouldnt have risked our best players on that pitch.
Everyones coming down on our youth but lets not forget 8 changes to the side, and the kids havent had a game for 5 weeks.
We will have to concentrate now on the comps we are still in and next season will be much much better than this one.

by **Big Niall** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:30 pm

Luck doesn't come into it, we've lost 12 games. every team have injuries, Manu are without Horseface and still scoring enough to win games.

We have a lot of work to do and it will take a lot of time, I always say to give a manager 3 yrs and then see where we are.

I do think we are at least watchable now, watching GH's team was painful.

by **azriahmad** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:41 pm

A CL qualifying finish is still the priority in the absence of an Abramovic-esq investor at Liverpool and frankly, we are not good enough to win the FA Cup this year anyway. An extended run would have the risk of picking more injuries.

I still support Rafa and think that he will bring us forward in many more ways than GH had done by winning insignificant cups (the League Cup and the Super Cup) but failing big time to get closer to the Premiership title.

by **FrankM** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:55 pm

Does anyone know how matches we have played in those yellow shirts and how many of these have we won. Not many I think

by **The_Rock** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:13 pm

It should be better when :

1)Kewell
2)Alonso
3)Cisse

comes back.

But we really need quality players for the below position.

1)Quality Right winger - if anybody says garcia or nunez can do a job there....i will puke.....i really will.

2)Quality Centreback - Hyppia is ok, but if we have to match arsenal, chelsea or manure, we will need someone better to partner carra.

3)Quality goalkeeper - Is this a curse position for us ? Why are all our goalkeepers prone to so much errors ?

4)Good left winger - Kewell will be 1st choice (he will be great as he is finally getting his ankle/groin problem fixed), so we need someone to cover him. Risse and Warnock should be our left fullbacks now.

It should all happen before the start of next season.

by **stmichael** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:15 pm

The_Rock wrote:Quality Right winger - if anybody says garcia or nunez can do a job there....i will puke.....i really will.

i hear that there are a number of clubs sniffing around wayne routledge at the moment.

by **FrankM** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:16 pm

Would suggest Andy Reid and Wayne Routledge for wing positions. Both are relatively experienced ( Reid at International level and Routledge at Premiership) and would probably get both for about 6mill or less if we could offload some deadwood

by **stmichael** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:18 pm

andy reid is a strange one. i saw him playing for ireland a few times last year and he looked pure class. probably the best player in the championship. he's predominantly a left sided player though. i heard everton had bid 4m.

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