andy_g wrote:kazza and lando, do you not see the irony / hypocrisy in what you are saying? you continuously accuse mick of repetitively writing the same old things and trying to convert people to believe the same as him - but is that not exactly the same as you two are trying to do? for example, lando, you mention at the top of this page that you try to 'put people right' and get ever more frustrated when you don't succeed. frustrated to the point in fact that you get yourself all in a tizz and pick up another card. kazza, you just go for the character assassination and make all sorts of childish insults and speculations about mick's character. you then both dream up this fantasy that he has a bunch of 'followers', 'cohorts', 'acolytes' or whatever and you only get more and more frustrated and start banging away at your keyboards with ever more fervour in an attempt to sway peoples' views even more.
the truth of the matter is that the only people who are Fu*king up this forum are the ones that constantly bitch and moan about the input of other posters who are at least trying to dicuss the matters in hand. if you don't like it then be a grown up and ignore it and move on until you find something you'd like to dicuss. don't behave like a little school kid throwing around stupid infantile insults and casting aspersions about peoples' characters and then claim some sort of moral high ground for having done so.
to be honest i find myself agreeing less with mick's views and miss the days when he'd post good stuff about tactics, formations and intricacies of the game. but right now the overriding theme is that we're in trouble and there's a lot we can discuss about why that is the case.
let's have a couple of open questions:
a) are we currently in a precarious situation with the team performing badly?
b) shall we highlight what the problems are then, and see if we can work out where its been going wrong?
if your answer to question 'a' is a resounding 'no' then there is no point reading on because your heads are firmly buried in the sand. just carry on shouting 'go, rafa!' and waving your scarf believing that everything is just rosy in the garden of lfc. dismiss the ones who are concerned about the defeats as people happy to have their point proven (ridiculous assumption number 1 on this forum), not 'real' supporters, and build your insulting barricades a little higher.
if your answer is 'yes', as most open minded, objective thinking people would answer, then lets have a discussion about why that is the case. lets analyse all the possibilities about purchases, budgets, individuals, tactics, motivations, etc etc etc. the truth is we don't know the definitive answer but at least we can have a good hard look at things. and yes, its going to get a little repetitive because their isn't a whole lot else to talk about. its also not always going to be pleasant reading because its not exactly a pleasant situation to be in. or would you prefer a small number of threads like,
- europa league, yay we'll win it!
or
- rafa benitez, its ok, he'll make it all better
or
- kuyt, he's the 2nd best winger in the premiership
followed by 300 posts basically saying 'yes, thats right, we're the best'...?? support and flag waving is for the ground, and in and around the pubs before and after the game. that's where we do our work as supporters to cheer on the team, to show them our passion and belief. on here it doesn't really matter, none of them are reading it, and we should be free to say what's on our minds about the state of the team and its performances.
Do you seriously think I care whether I have people on here agree with me? It's not about opinions - it's about facts. The FACT that Alonso was key to the system we played - months and months of abuse and "hahaha's" later, who was right?
"Rafa has out-spent Man Utd" - when they blatantly ignore the fact that 3/4 of their team was there when Rafa signed for us.
"Rafa doesn't understand the Premiership" - then he goes and gets our best-ever points total.
"Rafa is too defensive" - yet we out-score everyone and thrape Man Utd, Madrid and Chelsea.
"Rafa has spent £200m" - ignoring the money recouped in sales and Champions' League positions.
"Rafa isn't good enough in the transfer market" - despite the fact that he's bought in some of the best players to ever grace Anfield.
"Rafa isn't a winner" - despite having won everything of note but the Premiership.
"Rafa doesn't buy British" - Well, apart from Crouch, Pennant, Hobbs, Anderson, Carson, Keane, Johnson, Bellamy, Martin, Cooper, Steven and Crowther - not to mention the ones picked up as trainees...
"Rafa is an idiot because he doesn't make subs before 60 minutes" - I'll take comfort in the fact that last season we came from behind and went on to win more games than any other team. I'll also take comfort in the fact that he and his staff know more about fitness than the regular members of this site combined.
"Rafa has lost the dressing room" - Fernando Torres doesn't seem to think so in his autobiography. (But then, what does he know, right?)
Andy. I really don't mind people having opinions about these areas - it's when they pass them off as fact that it gets my goat. BigMick, for all his effort, only ever chats about negative rubbish. When facts are put in his way he conveniently swerves them and carries on regardless. Whenever a player comes out in support of the boss it's "Well he's bound to say that because..." or "I'd like to know how old that quote is."
Whenever wasters like Pennant or Babel say anything negative, it's "indicative of the current predicament."
Total rot.
. Dear oh dear.
I was a bit bored so I started answering some of the points. Aplogies but I ran out of will to live half way through.