dont be too hard on the new players - yes it was very poor but they were asked to come into a team that was totally unfamiliar. there were few players there to settle them in and today we wouldnt have learned much about if they can cut it in the 1st team
Most of us were happy if we just stayed up again at the start of the season, so doing so well is a bonus and a luxury ML was able to now gamble a bit with todays selection, the goal diff dropped aint as important as it would have been at the bottom. Also how much money saved from final league position bonus for the players is there compared to how much the club get for final ranking ?
That's obvious Dai, considering 70% of our 1st team were either on the bench or injured. However, hopefully this will lead to some serious quality coming in in the summer.
This was a complete and utter bloody shambles. For the first time in many, many years, I was ashamed of my team. There was no organisation, no shape, no fight. There was nothing. That team was devoid of anything that has made us so proud in recent years. Even Leon Britton's passing stunk the place out. He looked like he couldn't find the Great Wall of China from fifteen feet away. Liverpool were playing on the back of a tough, long away game in Europe but they were far faster, far stronger, far more everything than that shower who represented us today. If such a gulf exists between our first choices and the rest, Michael Laudrup had better prepare for some savage surgery in the close season. Oh, and some intensive fitness and strength training for those that remain. I don't blame him for this debacle. He didn't train this team to play like strangers who showed a level of ineptitude that defied belief. If things don't click, if passes don't find their man, the least a team can do is to show some fight, go with the runners, tackle and get stuck in physically. But we don't do physicality do we? We are above that sort of thing, with too many of our players far too precious for their own good. And ours!! I have often said that I was happy to forfeit three points here in order to get a full strength team to Wembley. But the MANNER of this defeat has gutted me. Of course Liverpool are a great side with players of talent but we stood aside and waved them through. And, boy, did they oblige. At the start, I said that I was ashamed. More to the point, the players should be ashamed. Bearing in mind that many of them earn more in a week than the average fan does in a year, Huw Jenkins should reimburse the travelling fans for every penny they spent in going to support that spineless rabble. Were the fringe players out to impress for Wembley? You could have fooled me. I think that some of them have impressed their way out of the club come July. So how will this affect one of the most important games in our club's history? Who knows? Michael Laudrup took a gamble to protect the nucleus of his starting eleven but, in hindsight, maybe he now wishes that he'd played a full strength team and risked the odd injury. Doubtless the players who didn't start will not have a hangover but a result like today will bring the club morale down as a whole. Not good on the run up to such a game. I hope Laudrup gave that lot today the mother of all tongue lashings. I hope that for once he put his Nordic reserve to one side and told them that such performances are not acceptable no matter what side he puts out. The only good thing to come out of this, is that the result should fill our players with a steely resolve to get out on that Wembley pitch and absolutely pulverise Bradford to regain some pride. If that happens then we can put today to bed and Laudrup's gamble will have been vindicated. But, vindicated or not, I'm sure he will have added some names to the list of those who will get their marching orders in the close season.
Any player that expects the club to honour bonus payments for todays match seriously need their head examined
Which in the wider scheme of things can only be a good thing for the club, provided those shipped out are replaced with quality.
I'm sure we would get a pretty hefty pot of cash to waste if that was the case. You never know, he and Michu could join the same side
Well that's the only thing that consoled me on the way home in the car!................ I felt like a QPR fan today!..................
bonus??? they should give the money to the travelling jacks. Its not the players fault mind, it was all laudrups fault as he kept players back unnecessarily as you would think we were playing chelsea in the final and not a league two side...
Pick a scenario Dai, A) Pick a full side and beat Liverpool today and pick up a few injuries to key players that will rule them out of the cup final or B) Rest the majority of the 1st team and lose to Liverpool and go to Wembely with a fully fit squad bar Chico and Neil of course
All due respect to Bradford, especially since they beat Villa and Arsenal on their way to the final, but your reserves should be able to get a result next week! In reality, you faced the unlikely possibility of losing one or two players at most and they had a full week to recover too.
I agree Dai, there were to many unfamiliar pairings on the pitch today, did you notice young Ben giving Monk a verbal second half? all Monk did was throw his hands in the air, even Leon made some poor decisions, but hell he's just come back from an injury, why play him? but my biggest gripe was playing Shechter all game, it was clear half time that he was clueless up front, but Laudrup didn't budge on switching for Moore or Michu, clearly Laudrup had written this game off, before a ball had been kicked!................
The only good thing out of today is it hurts because were not used to losing so easily or badly because weve got a great little team here that will grow stronger on the solid foundations its built on and ML is without doubt still the man to steer us onto future success and were very lucky to have him.
Usual hysteria from the usual suspects. If you're so great why aren't you managing a team? No, thought not. Managers - even the excellent Laudrup - can make mistakes. Shock, horror, the guy is human after all. His mistake wasn't team choice but was probably actually having faith in second string players who as it turned out simply aren't that good. Credit to Liverpool is being forgotten here. A much improved side that I predicted would win today (though not by 5). They'll finish above us in all probability but who cares? Look at the resources and the money they've spent. For us, a top half finish and Europe through a Cup win will do nicely.
You lot deserved it, all the big talk prior to the match, wonder where all those ****s went now. You called us 'has beens', i'd rather call it under-performing, where as you lot have clearly been overachieving in the past two seasons, i don't envy that, but keep your expectations intact. Some of you even thinking about top 4 huh nothing wrong about aiming high, alteast know the difference when a club like Liverpool aspire to be in the top 4 and some small team from Wales thinking of CL. Oh and someone mentioned this game as an embarrassment, i'd definitely be embarrassed if it was anything less than 3-0 against this little's team so-called reserve side.
Shotton - doing your club no good with comments like that. Only one idiot called Liverpool a team of has-beens and most of us know he's a plonker so less generalisations please. Likewise I don't recall anyone here saying we could get top four. If they did they're even bigger idiots. Liverpool beat what was put in front of them, and did it really well. Try and be a tad more gracious. Oh, and you won't get anywhere near CL - you do know that, right?
