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Quote from sinbad :So what should change?
Hopefully Benitez will wake up and realise he needs to do things differently, not just in the short term, because ultimately the buck stops with him. He has had money (not Man city or Chelsea quantities, but still enough to sustain), he has had time. The players are his players.

He keeps saying it will turn around, but by the time it does, if it does, expectations will have dropped to the point where a UEFA cup spot next season will seem like an achievment.

Being proud to support your club doesn't equal blind faith that they are the best that they can be, and being happy with whatever they do, wherever they finish. It's just as much about wanting the best for your club, even if that means change.

At the end of the day, I am in no way passionate about Football like I am with Formula 1. I don't have enough time for two sports, so when the F1 is on, chances are I'd rather watch F1 than football, unless it is a world cup. Or other international tournement.
I have to admit, after the last two games I'm a lot more positive about things at Liverpool. I'm not about to to a complete u turn yet, but things are looking up a bit, for one reason... we are showing some balls and desire at last. The football may be highly unattractive, but at least theres some passion being shown. I'll take points through passion over limp surrenders anytime

Who's the biggest surprise of them all? Step forward our £1.5 million backup, the jolly Greek giant Kyrgiakos. We look so much better in defense with him in the side. The guys immense, a beast. Commanding performances and showing some leadership in the center of defense. From what i heard he was a bit pants when he was at Rangers. Well he's certainly added some much needed steel in the last two games. If he continues playing like that he'll be undroppable, surely?

Aquilani looks better each game, he's got a lovely first touch and vision. It doesn't always come off, but it's getting better by the game. Pleased to see him playing off the striker tonight. When Gerrards back he should play in the middle with Masch and leave Aquilani in the hole. (They could keep swapping during the game anyway, making it harder for anyone to pick them up)

Finally...cometh the hour, cometh the man. He first touch is cack, he gives the ball away far to easily and does a fine impression of a headless chicken 80% of the time, but by god he does have a tendency to pop up and bag a crucial goal when we need them. Well done Dirk! As a footballer your as poor as it gets at times, but man..he's got a heart. (and nerves of steel when it comes to penalties ) I'll forgive the two sitters my grandma could have scored, you did the job when it mattered.

Hopefully this isn't a false dawn and we can push on and grab that 4th place, which would seem like a successful season the way things have gone.

I hope to be eating my words from previous posts at the end of the season. I'm not entirely convinced, but as long as we keep showing some fight and pride in the shirt we might just get out of this mess after all. I will offer full apologies for the "sunshiner" comments if we do

YNWA



Ohh, and just to add... I missed the game live tonight, and had to download it. i managed to get a copy that didn't have any commentary, only the sounds from the stadium. What a great way to watch the game! None of the crappy waffle, just 90 mins of the atmosphere. Superb. I hate 99% of commentators. This was more like being at the match. That's it from now on..i want commentary free matches as standard pls!
You're starting to sound like a fan again and not just a critic :P good on yer Moosey
Moose has always sounded like a fan in this thread. Every fan has their right to voice their opinion, especially one that has followed the team for over two decades. But then again it was blueflame who posted it, the notorious jump to conclusions without actually reading the threads.

I have to agree about Kyrgiakos he was a rock at the back for us against spurs. His aerial ability stood out in that game especially considering spurs had good ol' crouchy up front. rafa will probably keep him on at wolves due to our low confidence, normally against 'lesser' opponents i'd say throw Agger on and exploit his piercing runs from defence and his deadly left foot.

Is it a new dawn? - well probably not just yet. We need to win a game comfortably first. If we put 4 past wolves on tuesday then yes we are back and lets keep that momentum like we did on the latter part of the 08/09 season.

About the superfan speech, hahah well i didnt mean to sound patronizing, although looking back it does read like that sorry . It was more that people make mountains out of mole hills, and through trouble we must stick together. That attitude was pretty much shared with all the lads at anfield.

Rafa has had his problems but nothing worth getting the boot for. Hes not great at transfers but people just read into the bad things - the keane affair was daft but we dont know the full story about that do we?. He brought Alonso, Torres, Garcia, Aurellio, Arbeloa, Mascherano, Benayoun, Reina, Agger, Skrtel... the list goes on. Look at where they were when they came to the team and look at where they are now.

Look at what he has setup in that background. Look at Melwood, look at the Academy.

His tactics are normally spot on, i remember reading something like 'liverpool dont have a plan B' in this thread which made me giggle. Liverpool have shown time and time again that in a shit match they can turn it around. Rafa is a master tactician, one of the best in the game, ask anyone in football (maybe not a dirty manc) and they will probably tell you the same. Not just with liverpool, look at his career at Valencia. Before you get on the bandwagon read the facts.

At the end of the day its easy to be a critic and to read into the bad things.

YNWA!
HOLY CRAP......County are only 6 points behind leaders Dundee with 3 games in hand. Can the unthinkable happen and County gain promotion to the SPhell.

BTW best coment I heard today was at Dens Park from the stadium anouncer, when going the EPL half time scores he mentioned that the Burnely v Chelsea game was an evening kick off...

...then added "John Terry will have to wait a wee while longer before playing away from home"
Real Madrid finally beat Deportivo la Coruna on their home pitch... after 19 years.

Also a nice pass.
Wayne Bridge is refusing to play for England with John Terry again. Let's hope Terry shags Emile Heskey's missus too before the World Cup then!
Ross County 9 (Nine) - 0 Stirling Albion

Quater Finals of the SFA cup, 2nd in the League only 6 points behind with 3 games in hand, Caley got knocked out and all but 1 of of players have signed up for next season.

It's a good time to support the county, I'm off for a beer.
#885 - CSF
Hmmmm Hibs... should be an interesting game.
Quote from CSF :Hmmmm Hibs... should be an interesting game.

Off all the teams we could have got, Hibs wwas the team I wanted to avoid.

Fancied our chances with the old firm at home, but Hibs away is a tough one. Also it's on the same day as Scotland fight...I mean play the English at Rugby.
Quote from BlueFlame :If you want glory then go support Man U or Arsenal because you don't seem like you have enough pride to be a Kopite.

i've only just seen this post (nearly a month too late) but what?
so, if you want to win, support Man Utd or Arsenal?
pride doesn't win matches. Goals do. Score more, get more glory.
Liverpool (imo) need to write this season off (again) and hope that City and Spurs don't get any better next season. Also, maybe get in some more players who don't rely on Gerrard or Torres all the time. you only have to look at the strength of Manchester United (pitch and bench and reserves) to fully understand how much work is needed at Anfeild.
Blatter could scrap offside rule.

This is the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. Scrapping offside would mean the defenders would have to stay behind and look after the strikers and couldn't join the offense. Yes, there are quite a lot of mistakes in judging whether a player is offside but that could be cured by taking their heads out of their ass and finally using video replays to judge the debatable situations in important games, not coming up with this nonsense.
The man makes Bernie Ecclestone look like a sane person.

Although I'm sure this is probably one of those things the press have exaggerated a bit.

It would destroy football as we know it. There would be far less excitement, every attack would be played in front of defenders who would leave little or no room in behind them.
Brazil 2-0 Ireland

Crappy line-up as usual, boring game as usual, win as usual. I'll comment on our team just because it's the one I know better.

It's quite impressive how our manager can completely ignore the best players and keep calling the ones he want. Although we're experiencing a pretty good time results-wise, the football was never brilliant and I wouldn't be surprised with a poor and/or brief participation on the World Cup. I personally blame the lack of talent from the other teams, this is hardly our best team (a good one at the best case scenario).

The defence is solid (although someone explain to me why Luisao and not Thiago Silva), maybe a little lacking on the left side.

Midfield is crap, too slow, too defensive yet doesn't defend.. the ball always reach our defence somehow. Gilberto Silva must go, I don't have enough fingers to count how many players would do better than him (and that's only considering local players). Ramires as an offensive midfielder? You gotta be kidding me.
Judging how things are going we'll have only Kaká as a real player on the World Cup, please lord don't let him get injured!

Attack is again sub-optimal, although pretty good. Nilmar should be playing over Robinho, not the other way around. Heck, little Robson shouldn't even be there! Adriano is a safe bet, but again wouldn't be on my team.

Just to finish my rant, Robinho should be banned from the universe.


How were the other friendly matches? There's more tomorrow as well, I heard...
ok i got as far as the second paragraph and had to stop. were you watching the same match? Ireland were all over Brazil in the first half. the irish had 51% of the ball in the first half and Brazils first goal was an O/G
the second goal was all Brazil.
your defence was not as solid as you think. you want your midfeild to defend more but you also want Ronaldinho to start...this guy doesn't know how to run back and defend.
yeah 2-0.....destroyed. you can only count the chances you put away. brazil just don't play the way they used to. they remind me of arsenal.
for sure. but in the first half Brazil were non-existant. ireland should of taken advantage of that. ireland need another few years to work on their stamina. robbie keane had a great game. he was everywhere. he was also controling the irish midfeild quite well and at times, Brazil didn't have an answer for him.
all in all, it was an average friendly. tonights game should be more interesting.
Quote from dadge :your defence was not as solid as you think. you want your midfeild to defend more but you also want Ronaldinho to start...this guy doesn't know how to run back and defend.

I said it is solid, but they were so sleepy last night...
I want midfield players that defend better and actually know how to play when we have the ball. Two good defensive midfielders is plenty. It's all about keeping the ball for yourself, and our midfield can't seem to do that.

Quote from dadge :for sure. but in the first half Brazil were non-existant. ireland should of taken advantage of that. ireland need another few years to work on their stamina. robbie keane had a great game. he was everywhere. he was also controling the irish midfeild quite well and at times, Brazil didn't have an answer for him.

Please I don't mean to offend anyone here, but that's what I meant by 'boring game' and 'blame the lack of talent from the other teams'. As good as Ireland played (and they did what they could), we were actually walking all first half, and still managed to reach half-time leading the score (illegal and O/G, but not our fault).
Leave "ugly but effective" football to Italy or Germany. It's unacceptable for Brazil to play that bad.
England 0-1 Egypt [HT]

Oh please...
Eygpt are no walk over. they've won something in the last 6 months. England haven't.
Egypt are a good side. Don't let geography or demographics fool ya!
Ofc. But still - we're supposed to be uber amazing
SCOTLAND WON :woohoo:



I know I'm in shock too.
Who are Scotland?

The General Football Discusion Thread
(3469 posts, started )
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