http://www.thisisanfield.com/2013/05/lfc-season-comparison-201112-201213/ More interesting but possibly useless stat comparisons..... Make of them what you will.
stats are generally best used at individual level i think. i eman looking purely at say a midfielder knowing how far he ran, peak heart beat and such and so forth then trending it over the course of the week you can see where he peaks, where he troughs, etc etc. then take action. i can't see how analysing somethings that get analysed has really anything t odo with anything bar having something to talk about
When I seen the title of this thread I was expecting to read a much worse review. Nothing said in there is particularly unfair. Liverpool finished pretty much where everyone thought they would although I thought they would finish above Everton.
The only thing it misses is that it doesn't include any context whatsoever. It makes the point about us not beating the top 4 and to the casual reader who don't watch LFC that makes us sound really ****e, BUT it doesn't say that stat is only true because of 2 players making unforced individual errors that cost us a goal each and meant we drew against City twice when we easily were the better team and deserved to win both games. It also doesn't highlight that against the top 4, based on performance the only goal we were bettered for the whole 90 and was deservedly beaten was against Arsenal at home and maybe Utd away, although really poor ref decisions have cost us too. Also no mention that FSG mugged the manager off and left him with no strikers bar Suarez until January which cost us a LOT, and it also doesn't mention that once we were able to bring in the required attackers in Jan we displayed top 4 form from there on in till the end of the season. Overall I feel 7th was fair and about right for us, as this season, with the squad we started with, we had the 7th best team on paper, so I think its fair enough from that point of view so no complaints about the verdict there. However, i don't think its fair on BR that the BBC doesn't mention any of the above mitigating circumstances that were out of his control like the disastrous summer window, and doesn't highlight how once he could strengthen in January he's done a hell of a lot better. Its a very lazy effort overall and wouldn't be surprised if it was written by McNulty who is the bitterest of the Bitters and absolutely hates us and BR.
sorry but this is NOt true toe. "Also no mention that FSG mugged the manager off and left him with no strikers bar Suarez until January which cost us a LOT, and it also doesn't mention that once we were able to bring in the required attackers in Jan we displayed top 4 form from there on in till the end of the season" They allowed rodgers to buy borini... they allowed hi mto spend another 3 mil on assiasidi and another 3 mil on yesil. rodgers forced carroll out. so mugged off? nope. if rodgers put all his eggs in the dempsey basket, spent all his cash and hope 3mil would cut it then let carroll go? no the WHOLE club needs to take a good look at themselves not FSG on this one. Yet again, FSG ponied up another 20.5mil in january for us. You can't slam them in the summer for giving rodgers 20 odd mil net which he spent on sahin, assiadi, allen, borini and yesil (take off sales which were not huge but still) and then only give rodgers credit for top 4 form when FSG gave him him another 20mil in January and now. sorry but no. Especially not when you absolve rodgers of any blame for the summer window when it is patently obvious the club spent a lot of cash net once again (subject to being sustainable which in my view is fine) we simply don't see how privileged our club is to be spending 20mil net. Rodgers chose borini who was a disaster before his injuries noting that his foot injury happened well after we were already in deep do do... Lets say this. rodgers, ayre et all needed to learn a big bloody lesson and now its their chance to build on january and prove they learned it. That's a positive way to look to the future. We expect. Here's the chance to prove you have improved mr Rodgers and ayre.
"Very obvious inability to beat the top six, Tottenham apart." Funny, since actually we only lost to 3 of them, 2-0 being the largest deficit. They make it sound like we were getting thumped.
I think you have exactly the opposite problem we (Arsenal) have, we cannot buy a win against anyone in the top 7 and we win against all the smaller sides. You have a great record against the top teams in general but struggle against the weaker outfits for some reason, i.e. getting a very credible draw with Man City away and losing to WBA and Villa.
The problem for us is that when we do perform well we won't always get a result. And we don't have the mentality/ability to consistently win games where we are playing poorly by the odd scrappy goal. We just run out of ideas and seemingly desire to win after about 60 minutes and start launching ridiculous crosses into the box toward no one in particular and our players start trying to score from 30 yards instead of being patient and waiting for that one chance. Arsenal may not have players as individually as talented as us but they have a manager who has managed to drill the mentality of getting wins when it counts and winning when the pressure is on into them. Just a shame that the board don't want to give him funds to improve the squad anymore as they are content with getting a CL place every season.
none of it's technically inaccurate but a fair bit is worded as if the writer was on the windup or extremely bitter about something. It's not balanced at all and doesn't take anything into consideration other than a negative view.
Some good objective points there.. Like everyhting else in life, it depends on expectations. You are a billionaire car fanatic and spend £100K+ on a Bentley Continental and you think it is absolute crap. Another is retired pensioner on a modest income and changes his old fiesta to a newish Skoda Fabia and thinks this is the best car ever and loves it to bits. If you view Liverpool as a top 4 or 5 club, then there is no way this season was anything but bad. The gap to the top 4 was as significant as ever. The inconsistency was there. I do not know enough of the players to assess who had good or bad seasons. But from a football fan perspective, Liverpool should have done better esepcially as they took the drastic step of sacking their previous manager who had brought them 2 cup finals (and 1 trophy) but missed out of top 6. This year, out of top 6, dreadful cup runs, lose against better sides, overreliance on one player in the first half of the season. All the talk about refreeing decisions and matches where you palyed well but lost again is missing the point. There are other matches you won which the other fans would say the refs were not fair and had given you the decisions and the points. All in all, if you are looking for improvements you could look at points and ranking and say Rodgers is along the right path and next season he is bound to improve. BUT will the other 6 teams stand still? have they overachieved this season so that they will come down to earth next? Realistically who will let Liverpool in? Everton because of transition? Will United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs underperform to let you in? I do not think Rodgers has given any hint that his team will significantly improve their ranking next season. But hey you are fans and the classical trait of a fan is boundless optimism at the start of each season..
