That's 6th place. I think we could do that with this group, but I think we need a player or two in January to come and make an impact for 6th to be a certainty. If we got the right 2 players in, we could get 5th and be within a shout of 4th. I really don't care what anyone says, we have 1 world class player for his position: Suarez (meaning he could star in a international tournament and make the all tournament team). I think Lucas, Agger, Johnson, Allen, Skrtel, Reina, and Gerrard are international class players (meaning they could start in most international teams). But, other than that, there's not much here. So, what do we really have? 8 capable players and some bright prospects in Suso, Sterling, Shelvey, Wisdom, and Henderson?
a couple things: - with all of the bitching at rodgers, consider this: we've had two game-winning goals disallowed this season. if those rightfully stood, guess what? we're on 20 points with spurs and arsenal. rodgers can't control the linesman. i know it's an 'if' and has no real-world use, but it helps to measure progress. - our two biggest problems are scoring and stopping runners on the counter. why? we have one scorer and no healthy legitimate defensive mid. so, for all the bitching at rodgers, it's a deficiency in the squad that is causing us problems. a healthy lucas will help one of them, we'll pick up another scorer or two in january. the biggest misnomer in all sports is the influence of a manager/head coach. yes, there are exceptions, and a great manager/coach can have a team overachieve. a poor one, or a mismatched one can cause a team underachieve. but, ultimately, the champions of major team sports all over the world are the ones with the best AND in form players. but, when the chips are down, when results aren't coming, the manager is the first one to blame. i'm not saying they aren't culpable, they are, they are the leaders. but why don't the players get more blame for the failings of the team? two reasons: 1. it's the easiest fix. supporters don't want to admit/believe how far they really are from success. so, to believe that you can change just one guy and you'll instantly be better is easier on the psyche that admitting it will take years of cutting, recruiting, developing or buying new players. 2. managers/coaches are rarely 'heroes' or 'legends.' so, its easier to blame the guy in the suit than to believe that your favorite player ever is under performing or has lost it. now, i'm not saying rodgers is perfect or that we don't need to win games. but, if you can't see he is building something i don't know what to tell you. it's hard to hear this, but this season doesn't matter. if it did, then kenny would still be our manager. but FSG decided that it would be better for the long-term success of this club to have a reset/rebuild than to spend another 50 million --plus bad wages -- to chase and possibly miss out on fourth. they thought that we would be better off in three years developing the young players and installing a new system on all levels of the club, than to keep papering over the cracks. we won't know if they made the correct decision for another three years.
Jeez, its relevant debate. What's the point on even coming to a football forum if you cant express your opinion and agree/disagree with others opinions. Some are bitching about the players performance, others the managers. Why is one OK and the other not. Downing, Cole, Henderson, Gerrard and Rodgers can all do better, why is it perfectly reasonable to say that about 4 of them but not the other. But I digress, I don't want to see Rodgers sacked and am positive for the future but that's not to say that he should not be doing better than he currently is.
when did i say people can't come here and express opinion? when did i say people can't bitch about rodgers?
You called people that debate about Rodgers as 'bitching' yet have no problem with others bitching about certain players. The implication is in the terminology you use. State that the players are 'chicken shit' and no comment, state the Rodgers is currently under performing and we're 'bitching'.
huh? that was my whole point: people blame rodgers for our league position and not the players. so, the point of my post was asking why and then giving my opinion of it. people should blame the players, too. that was part of my point. also, when did i say people can't come here and express opinion?
Where did I say that you did? I just don't like being called a bitch for expressing or agreeing with others opinions.
what the hell are you talking about? you said "What's the point on even coming to a football forum if you cant express your opinion and agree/disagree with others opinions." that was your counter to my post. so you inferred -- god knows how -- that i said you couldn't do that, otherwise you wouldn't say "if you can't express your opinion" when you're here, then why come here. or were you not countering my post? also, i didn't call anyone a 'bitch.' and you know that.
I don't think so - for example I will tell people to specifically "stop being a little bitch" and separately to "stop bitching."
Oh good Christ. Look it is absolutely true that the players we currently have are about 8- 10th place level as a collective. Four good to outstanding managers have got them as high as sixth but four years and four managers don't lie. The squad is mediocre. It needs new players. Some of our best right now are kids we brought into the club as mid-teens and are now ready to play. We have bought exactly one great player in four years and he is scoring most of our goals. The other top players are almost exclusively purchases from 4-5 years ago. BR was brought in precisely because it was believed he could get dross and kids to play better than they are. So far he hasn't really shown that, at least by results. We all agree that for large sections of games we look much better than we have looked in years but the results don't show it. Actually in Kenny's first half season we thought the same. Now lets move on to the Spurs match
Let's hope we do, cos Villa have now won as many Prem matches as us! So now only 3 clubs have won less games than us in the League, and one of those has already changed their manager! Everyone can agree that Villa are in a relegation fight this year, they are only 3 pts behind us! Also I don't agree with the post above that Managers do not really matter. The opposite is true, Managers matter a lot. Look at Chelsea, Scolari had them struggling, Hiddink comes in and instant improvement. Same with Ramos and Redknapp at Spurs. Managers do not make a difference? Shankly - enough said!
Yup, that's what I said. I said " managers don't matter." I also called everyone bitches. Did you miss that?
No need to be petulant. I misread your comment and took offense were none was meant and I profusely apologize.
Not sure which attitude we're consisten on though. The sack BR, sack Reina or just sack the team. Or that everyone is consistent in their inconsistency This thread has to be the whineyest (yeh, thought you'd love that word) with some of the stupidest comments I've ever read in the Liverpool board. No, you work them out for yourselves.
Consistent in the fact that they are who they are no matter what the circumstance. You could probably guess how each regular poster would react to every conceivable situation before it even came up. We're like a gaggle of old women around here. Seriously.