Liverpool Thread - Premier League Champions* 2019/20

 

was so lazy, he just carelesly swung his leg and the ball flew high into the stand. That really pissed me off.

 

Stevie was running, trying to do things all game. torres was an embarasment

 

I'm sorry. You're just a moron. Playing like that for the last year? Are you taking the fking piss?

 

We're 19th, ffs. As bad as last season was, it wasn't anything on this season. We are simply awful. There is NOTHING good you can say about how we're playing. At least we beat Everton last season.

 

Getting rid of Skrtel? Don't know what your problem with Skrtel is. Maybe he should have a look at Konchesky first. Or Johnson. And Maxi? He never really offers us much except a neat and tidy player. I'd have him in the squad, tbh. But Cole was simply terrible. Forgot he was even on the pitch. Even Babel outshone him.

 

On Babel, it was pretty obvious that he needed to be brought on earlier. Then again, I thought it was pretty obvious that you actually need to press the ball and not defend so deep. Even Moyes tactically beat us. There wasn't a single player out there whose performance was acceptable. And if Roy doesn't have it at his disposal, why did Babel offer that? He obviously does have players capable. And yeah great, blame Rafa for not signing a pacy winger. He used the full-backs for width anyway, which is why he signed those kinda wide players.

 

Oh, and as for the drop Torres comment? Maybe he should stop dropping the entire side so fking deep on the pitch and then Nando can get the service and support he actually needs.

 

Roy is an idiot. Who else can you blame? He's turned Torres- one of the best forwards in the world- into a sh*te Zamora. He's turned one of the best defences in the League over the last five years into one which leaks goals for fun. He's turned the previous midfield pressing machine into one which moves about as much as a fking snail; never mind the passing. He's signed sh*te players. His tactics take the piss out of our club. And his interviews make me want to shoot myself. Please, get out of our club. 

 

I really thought we would win this game, not gonna lie. We just always beat the bitters and after the boost of our off-the-field issues, it seemed the perfect match. Unfortunately, I forgot how sh*te we were.

I don't expect us to challenge for the title, or even maybe the Top Four. But it'd be nice to see some direction. We just get worse and worse. And Roy doesn't have a clue what to do to stop it. It involves getting out of our club.

 

Mate, I got up at 1.30 to watch this game, but thats nothing compared to the 3000 fans who sat there and had the piss taken out of them, not only by the Evertonians, but by our own manager.

 

Just admit we were wrong in sacking Rafa, and that Roy doesn't have a clue. Sacked in the morning? I fking hope so.

 

And Buffy, those are funny but please leave us to be depressed

 

Roy must be stoked he signed him, tbf. He's carrying our team, is Joe Cole. What a player  90,000 a week, for nothing.

 

I feel sorry for you. .

 

 

 

Exactly. He labelled it our best performance of the season, ffs.

Only two possible seeds in the back of our minds sprout to a sacking of Roy Hodgson. One is knee-jerkism. He can't win matches, and the team looks like sh*t. The other stems from looking ahead, extrapolating the current trajectory, and cutting losses, essentially betting that all else being equal - reduced revenue from loss of CL revenue, crippling interest payments, indebted absentee owners, borderline supporter mutiny, potential administration, possible relegation aside - the future is marginally better without Hodgson than with.

Knee-jerkism is a poisonous trait to have, to be sure. Six games into a new managerial reign may indeed be too little time to try, judge, and execute a new manager. Rafa's early results were worse than Roy's are now in some ways - a home loss to Graz versus 5 straight wins to start a European campaign. League results weren't that much better under Rafa in the early days. I'd argue that Trabzon is a tougher result than Anfield. It could get better with Roy here, and not someone else. After all, it's happened that way before.

However, it is my opinion that the best possible outcome for the future of the club probably does not involve Roy Hodgson at the helm of football matters. That much is clear. Even if future results get better, this team cannot evolve into anything substantial. It is too old, it is too expensive, it has too little money for replacements, and it is dangerously unbalanced to the detriment of certain glaring positions.

The competitions by which Roy is judged are at best distractions that will not earn enough for a Torres or Mascherano, assuming that Roy would even know one if he saw it. Those who masturbate to fantasies of a benevolent owner spunking his fortune on making sure you don't have to understand the concept of a viable business may now stop reading. That Graz result was worth a more than than the five UEFA cup results that Hodgson has mastered. A domestic cup run solves nothing. FA Cup prize money - even for the winner - will not pay Joe Cole's salary for the year. Fact.

Benitez prioritized the Champions League because reaching the final is worth about two league titles. First place in the league and seventh place in the league are separated by only 5m quid, or approximately one Christian Poulson. Reaching the final is worth 30m quid, or approximately 3 young Xabi Alonsos, if you got your scouting right. And Roy doesn't do body counts.

Even if we swerve every other potential disaster, this squad is aging, expensive, and will only get older and more expensive under current transfer policy. Just as Roy has no Plan B, Squad B, or Media Cheat Sheet B, his squad is quickly shooting its own future in the foot. Alonso, Garcia and Josemi or Poulsen, Meireles and Konchesky? Hint - the right answer includes a winning lottery ticket worth thirty million quid. We're not even buying the tickets now.

One thing that's striking about the communistic nature of American sport is that once a team knows it's licked, it immediately identifies the youth as either the future of the struggling club, or as bait for funding or replacements, and dumps the longterm contracts of the aging, knowing that results don't matter because there is a basement. If you're gonna lose, you might as well do it with Insua and Lucas instead of Poulsen and Konchesky. It's cheaper and you have two tickets to the Brazil 2014 lottery. Poulsen and Konchesky will be pensioners by the time Lucas and Insua go to Brazil.

But here, the difference in league positions means f**k all in financial terms; it serves only bragging rights. The competition for the top four's lucrative spots is fierce, and we won't get there with Roy's team. City has a bottomless pit of money. Ancellotti's team is a decent bet for best in Europe. United are flailing like King Kong falling off a building, but still own the wild cards. Spurs are borderline settled, with good signings, and are even performing well with injuries. Ged's got a point to prove at Villa, and his donkey's really excited. We on the other hand have Roy Hodgson, who is under mounds of pressure to deliver results in a league that doesn't even count financially, especially considering that winning the damn thing wouldn't even cover a quarter of our interest expense.

Every spot we gain in the league has a delta of practically f**k All, outside of the top four (potential windfall) and the bottom three (utter financial disaster). Roy talks about the former, in a vague and broadly accepted as unattainable goal of "top four". We will not end up in the top four. Anywhere below doesn't really matter as long as it's above the bottom three.

So then what really is point of Roy Hodgson exactly? He's not the one who can sort through the Riojas, picking the rights one to drink and cellaring the rest. The longer he stays here, the more likely it is that he tries to raise money for overpriced aging shot-term solutions by selling what precious Riojas we have left. That is his policy. Insua should be a warning - 8 years younger than Konchesky, and probably makes half as much per week. Seventh place earns about 10m quid in prize money while twelfth earns 7m. We f**k him off for less than a million euros and then send 4 times that amount plus 2 kids to Fulham for a 29 year old journeyman backed up by a disgruntled centreback and a crock who refused a pay as you play deal for obvious reasons.

His transfer policy can't get the basics right. His matchday selections are even worse. Four centrebacks in a loss against a 4th division team with one of them up front, and not a sub until the end of the match.

To top it off, he himself is a steady the ship appointee on a three year deal worth 9m that cost a further 6.5m to hire. A manager on a 3 year contract who has no track record of delivering 3 years of results. His team features a number of new signings on 4 year contracts who have not delivered 4 years of results. A punter would be best off betting on a wilting of the tree, really, as opposed to a steadying of the ship.

If it's instant success we delude ourselves into expecting, Roy is probably not our best bet. That much is clear: there are no instant results, not even a dessert at the end of lunch at Nando's. If it's medium term survivalism we crave, Roy again is not the the answer, because the difference in revenue between league positions isn't even worth the millions of pounds it cost to bring him in. If it's laying the longer-term groundwork for future chess masters, Roy again is not is the answer. He spends on Poulsens when he has Luci.

The Roy Keane saga should a lesson in cutting losses early before they grow too large. The situation we find ourselves in is not one that Roy Hodgson is probably capable to solving. We have enough sh*t to worry about without mortgaging the future for journeymen who aren't delivering results. The longer he stays here, the deeper the hole he will dig for us to climb out of.

The risk of ending up with a geriatric squad on disproportionately large wages that has nothing to play for increases with each passing week. If he can't get the best out of what he has, what use is he exactly? At the very least, if all he's bringing is is sh*t wine to the party, he shouldn't be allowed to pop open the bottles that were stored for 2015.

We should cut our losses now. Kenny Dalglish is a better bet at steadying the ship, both on the pitch and off it.

 

Mmmhmmm. For pretty obvious reasons.

 

Lol, nah youre right. We played real well last season. Bring back Rafa.

There not need to have a proper argument about, all you Rafa groupies had your minds made up about the Hodge from the start. Hodgson inherited a team that was already playing like sh*t, since then the team has slipped even more for a NUMBER of reasons.

 

 

in saying that i think my favourite bit of rafa's tactical masterclass last season was this team against stoke

 

                             Reina

Carra       Skrtel      Soto            insua

Degen      masch     lucas   aurelio

                   kuyt    n'gog

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, but tbf, he was never really at full fitness. And how did he play at the Euro's in 2008? He doesn't play well for Spain usually. They don't really play to his style.

 

THEN HASN'T HODGSON PROVED US "Rafa Groupies" RIGHT? He has a record of 1 wins in 8 games in the League... I could do better with a team like Stoke's, never mind a team that has the quality our squad has in it. "The Hodge"? Yet another reason why he shouldn't be our manager...

 

I don't get you. We told you. Sacking Rafa is fking stupid because he was the last bit of stability at the club. Never mind the fact that he is one of the best coaches in Europe. Never mind the fact that the club was obviously improving under him. Never mind the fact that the Academy was improving. Never mind the fact that he was working under crazy conditions and being undermined every second week. Never mind the fact that he loved the club and gave his job for our freedom. Then we get this prick sitting there saying the protests were "detrimental" to the team.. well, what's your excuse now, Roy?

 

Playing like sh*te, but not like this sh*te. Andddddd, it wasn't/ isn't a sh*te team.

 

Surely, surely, you can see that sacking Rafa was stupid? We said tha no other good manager would come in. We said it. And look? Its happening. sh*te manager with sh*te tactics. Admit it. Otherwise you're even more of an idiot than I thought. Which is getting pretty hard to believe.

 

I don't even know what to say to that stupid post. At least he doesn't play four fking centre-backs and no left-footed players. Never mind that the man who gave this "tactical masterclass" also led us to wins against Madrid, Barcelona, United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Juve etc etc. But hey. Lets be fair to Roy, he did get us that "famous victory" against Trabzonspor

 

Do one, la.

 

Naw, nice manners.

 

Yeah, still think that King Kenny should get the job until we can find a good manager.

 

Oh, and yeah. I think that most of them can see through Roy. Only Stevie and Carra feel obliged to defend him cos they helped get Rafa sacked.

4C1A3404-4D53-7440-653E-223C6C44BB73

1.02.28

 

That's more like it. A bit of reasoning (or maybe I've just calmed down a bit?). I can see why you'd believe we made the right choice sacking Rafa- although I don't agree with it, I see the reasoning behind it.

 

It was hard though, because people who felt Rafa shoulda stayed said that nobody good would replace him- such as your Pellegrini's of the world.

 

Yeah, Roy is as stubborn as him, but also doesn't have half the tactical brain. Which is making for a pretty lethal combination...

 

But anyways, we can argue all we like about Rafa, he's the past and we have to focus on Roy now, as depressing as that is...

 

Exactly.

 

More dramas to come following a massive upheavel I think.

 

Also do you think that Torres is starting to look for his next club? It seems that he isn't that interested at the moment. I know we have been playing crap and that is soo frustrating as a striker but he doesnt have his usual fire.

He belongs at the type of club that would see him in a tracksuit on the sidelines with his initials emblazoned on his breast in big, obscene letters.

 

As for Rafa, I wish people would get off his d!ck already. He played more than his fair share in our current mess, particularly regarding transfers.

 

Rafa's gone, Woy sucks, deal with it.

 

The only way from here is up. Literally...