Glorious Failures and Moral Victories - OTT [R]

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers on his side's away goals loss to Zenit St Petersburg: "I thought we were incredible. Obviously two down from the first leg and to concede again you might think the tie was over. I think we showed our quality. We should have had a penalty and we're thoroughly disappointed. We lost the battle but we won the war in terms of going forward."

 

From Google Translate:

"Don't fire me please."

 

So Suarez doesn't like white people either huh?

 

Grrrrrr, you reminded of that annoying girl.

 

A few times now, I've heard Liverpool fans try to credit Chelsea progressing (and Hazard's goal) to Benitez.

Incredible, really.

 

Hope Hazard's form holds. Who knows, he might have a role in United winning a title after all

 

Adopts mock, melodramatic, high-pitched voice

Oh leave poor Luis alone!! It's just because he's South American!! You don't see this brought up when English players do it!!! SHAME ON YOU ALL!!!!!

Ahem...

So yeah, this is the kind of thing that gets him his rep and means that every last douchey thing he does is highlighted.

 

Many decades into the future, with Liverpool languishing in the sixth tier, their fans and management will still be waxing lyrical about their latest drubbing by Bromsgrove Rovers, explaining that if you look carefully, they actually saw more of the ball in the 5th, 26th and 75th minutes and that after they conceded the sixth goal, they frequently threatened to enter the opponent's half and that the signs of progress were clear and that on the day, they were the real winners.

Meanwhile, they will also continue to claim that they are England's true top team and that the only reason they haven't won a title since 1990 was due to other teams getting good and continuing to be successful, while the hand of fate unfairly caused their great, great managers to sign players who weren't very good.

Also, while it may look like they've had money to spend, when you consider the net spend, it was dwarfed when compared to the average national debt or the cost of building say, an international space station.

They will also demand that we recognise the many stripped titles that were unjustly taken from them after it was revealed that Rush, Lawro, Souness and Grobbelaar were using moutaches laced with performance-enhancing smelling salts throughout the seventies and eighties. After all, the FA had produced no evidence outside of some laboratory test results, testimony and personal admissions.

They did concede that playing with giant, bushy staches on the front of their shirts immediately after the findings as a form of protest, might have been a PR misstep however.

 

I hear what you're saying about Liverpool, but just to be pedantic for a second City were in pot 2 this season, pot 3 last.

12/13
Pot 1 Madrid, 2 City, 3 Ajax, 4 Dortmund

11/12
1 Bayern, 2 Villarreal, 3 City, 4 Napoli

 

Not to worry, and City still illustrate your point quite nicely.

http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/index.html

It's the points that they got in the 08/09 UEFA Cup (QF) and the 10/11 Europa League (Last 16) that helped them avoid being seeded 4th when they first qualified for the Champs League, even if it did them little good.

 

That was Criscito, but point still valid

 

Never really thought about this.

Hmm, conspiracy theory: could it be that as well as tayloring the Champions League to ensure that as many "name" clubs qualify as possible, the drop into the UEFA/Europa Cup is there help such teams buff up their coefficient in the wake of disasterous CL campaigns?

 

Or to make europa league interesting with big names.

 

Does anyone else here realize he can't just say his team is garbage? It's not even the case. It's there for the world to see that the team needs work and most importantly time. Imagine you are a player and you hear your coach berate the team while you try your hardest. It doesn't inspire confidence.

I don't think anything he is saying is outrageous and we have to keep in mind how there is more pressure on coaches now to pet and spoon-feed media and dumb fans alike.

 

Saying his team is garbage is out of the question, but he should at least be managing expectations. What's wrong with "We're doing great, we're even better than West Brom, next year we might get as good as Everton!".

 

I am quite certain he does all this in training and in the locker-room. He's not an idiot.

 

Being realistic at Liverpool gets you hounded out of the club by the best fans in the world™. See Hodgson, Roy.