was not... but we are LIVERPOOL not a small regional club like Everton. this thinking makes the successes sound mutually exclusive 2001..... CL on last day secured FA cup won in last 8 with a big slice of luck Uefa cup won in mad final If we'd settled for league cup like say a swansea where'd we be... nowhere If we pocketed the league cup and just went for 4th who'd remember 2001 we won them all.... anything can happen.. We are LFC.. we have to go tactically to control the away leg this week then come home and try to beat the league champions end of.
Not a sec What does it mean then? We have 3 games in 6 days. That's one game too many, something has to give a little......so what is a second string exactly? 4 points from the next 2 home games would surely vindicate BR for saving legs? I think it's imperative to tweak things for this match and am glad he seems to be doing so.
If it were just these 2 games, I'd agree. However, 3 days after putting the Champions to bed, we have to play a spirited Burnley side who just took points from Chelsea. That's 3 games in 6 days. It's hardly 'end of' after City. That, right there, is complacency and we would suffer as a result. We need to rotate players, in essence, this means we have to prioritise. End of.
So you'd expect these players to play 3 games in 6 days, repeated if we get through the next phase of EL? Personally, I think that it would be madness to do so. I also believe that our top 4 challenge will fade away. We'd suffer from more injuries and eventually a likely loss of form as players simply run out of steam. That's not to say that we can't go into every game and try to win it.
In order of priority Europa league Fa Cup Top 4 much rather win a trophy than just finish in top 4. EL would be best as means CL anyway but rather win fa cup and finish 5th than no fa cup and finish 4th. If im greedy then both the cups would be nice then couldn't care where we finished
But it's very feasible that we would not win the EL. That'd leave us out of the CL. The FA cup is still the most likely of all 3 and that's only a 35% probability. Whichever way you look at this, it's not an easy set of decisions for the management team.
Just saying which is rather win if someone said I could have 1 of them. EL is the 3rd best trophy to win in domestic European football. Why would you not want to win it?
Put that way, I totally agree as it gets us CL. CL is the holy grail of football, everything but everything must be geared towards this. Without this, there's no money (relatively) and no money means no title challenge either. But if it's what do we prioritise to try to achieve....right now, for me it's top 4.
I get what you mean but it's not prioritising trophies it's just rotating players so that we have the best 11 out to win each game, the fitness of these players is part of that process.
Price of success Rotating does not mean losing If we look at arsenal resting half their team v utd a couple years back and getting hammered then collapsing in confidence is that what you'd like? I say no no no We are resting coutinho v besiktas Johnson is out too. Is that enough for you? We should be going tactically to control this game and get 0-0 or get a n away goal and end it. That should be our plan If we did what Martin o'niell did at villa at this round and travel with a reserve side, get out out and get rounded on by fans who travelled at big cost would you be happy No... I want us to do our very best to compete at all levels
No I expect us to use the squad accordingly. The best eleven tomorrow won't necessarily be the same best eleven as come the Man City game. It's about managing the individuals and giving ourselves the best chance of winning each and every game.
No it's not Rotating = keeping everyone fit You can rotate your team at any time the word rotate suggests identical standards it's not give up and play reserves to a team like say chelsea when they "rotate" they still expect to win The whole premise of this priority is what's the least we'd accept and if we say it's all about 4th then we may as well do one like arsenal fans... Top clubs should want more. What about being like Spurs, constantly whining about 4th and getting nowhere cos no cup is bothering them and they have gained no prestige in 5 years At least this year they got to a final but their celebration of not drawing chelsea on the semi suggests they still don't have the winning mentality Best of luck spurs on Sunday! (With that attitude)
This is bad thinking too We don't have those odds for any of it. We just have to do our best Look over at City, arsenal and chelsea they have to turn round and maximise their chances of winning Some might have the luxury of a 5 point cushion to rest a few in one league game Just like we may feel we can play a squad player or 3 in the fa cup to come and win The point is the premise is its impossible to try... And I can't be having that for lfc. Why bother playing any cup at all if that's the case... Why not be newcastle and focus on prem survival and let our owners focus on selling us trash rather than providing us players
Sure it's the price of success. Where have I said that rotation/prioritising means losing? Why would I want to lose? Just because I'm not naive enough to think that our 11 best players shouldn't be playing 3 games in 6 days doesn't mean that I want to win any less than you! Of all competitions, I'd be less concerned about an exit from this competition than top 4 or FA cup.......but don't confuse that with a lack of desire to win......and I want us to do our very best to compete at all levels....and this means tweaking/rotating and prioritising. Clearly, BR wants Coutinho fresh fro the City and Burnley games. I totally agree with him. I still want to win tomorrow and still think we can......but accept that there is a bit more risk in resting such a key player and it may backfire. To me, that's a risk worth taking.
