I don't believe the myth that "it's all equal as everybody plays each other twice". Who you play and when does matter, all the history and evidence proves this. Evidence suggests the best time to play Chelsea is between October-January. Evidence suggests the worst time to play newly promoted teams is August-September. Evidence suggests the worst time to play Wigan is March-May. The best time to play Arsenal is Post-Christmas. United from November. Different teams peak physically at different times and winning breeds confidence. Nothing can be won in the first 2 full months of the season but it can certainly be lost. Look how quickly City and United broke away from the pack early on, same with Norwich and Swansea
To be fair, we've traditionally performed better against the top teams and more so at home irrespective of manager or squad. Our downfall is against "lower" teams sooo if we need to bed in a newer squad/style of play; playing against the teams we'll naturally up our game for first might not be bad. If we win them all; we get up a head of steam. If we lose them we use the adapting to style excuse..
At least our last 2 friendlies at the end of July are against Roma & Spurs; that should be good prep.What date does the Europa start?
At Anfield definitely but Liverpool's downfall has usually been away to the better teams. Despite your dismal home form I thought your better performances ironically came at home
The games away against the better teams aren't really that important. They're just a bonus in my opinion.
I'm going to assume that it is just me that is slow but... As anyone else realised that Steve Clarke's first game as a manager is going to be at Anfield...? I say good luck to him but I hope we batter the **** out of you on the opening day... Edit: although that could be a bad thing since he knows our players very well...
But that's what I meant: 3 of the first 5 games are against top opposition at Anfield. And our downfall in the past age has never been our results against the top 4-6, it's the multiple draws & losses to teams below us in a season. Last year; results wise was just plain bad, home or away.
Last year, we just couldn't get around the teams that came and parked the bus. I suppose it is a sign of respect that these teams, just came to shut up shop, but we just couldn't get creative enough to overcome that. I suspect that now that the lads have a better understanding of each other, that will not be as much of a problem, plus Brendan can plug the more obvious talent gaps.
Carroll starting to look like his old self will help. Teams sitting deep will allow us to use width and get the ball in the box, perfect for Mandy If they push out to prevent this then it creates the space for Gerrard, Sigurdsson (hopefully) and Suarez to exploit, bonus
I still think Liverpool can make top 5. I've never thought Carroll was genuinely a bad player but Henderson and Downing are awful. For a team that finished so low down the table (By LFC standards of the last 50 years) your defensive record was very impressive especially given that Reina had a poor season. It at least leaves foundations to build on which Rodgers will like. If Carroll can get better service he can still do a job at LFC. I'd be fascinated to see if Rodgers sticks with the 4-4-2 as I don't think he will. The finishing can't and won't be as bad for you as it was in the 11/12 season. I'm far more optimistic Rodgers will succeed at Liverpool than I with AVB at Spurs or for that matter any other managerial appointment that has been made so far, even our own. Sadly I think winning the CL and FA Cup is as good as it will get for RDM but I won't mind that as he is a legend. We will thrive in the cups under his stewardship
