Match Day Thread Blackburn v Liverpool FA CUP

Sanchez was the perfect option that unfortunately didn't happen. Not a long term solution but Tevez would have been as close a replacement as we could have got after Sanchez rejected us. Lavezzi would have replaced him too but without the same level of goals.

 

Was...? Neymadge is still on is temporary stepping stone on his way to Liverpool

 

they do but i got lambasted before chirstmas for saying half of city's team is average enough...

I agree totally with what you have said. we have one guy in coutinho who's a bit special and the rest? well yes good players, above average in places etc.

I said on rival thread yesterday utd have more top 4 quality players than us for example.

and again you are right, its not all doom and gloom as we have youth and potential around the club. I would also say 3 really good players would improve us no end.

 

I am surprised that the club/Rodgers haven't learnt from the past. The club (and every top club) needs that very top iconic player. Recently we have had Suarez but before we have had Torres, Gerrard, Rush, Dalglish. The mancs have Rooney and now Di Maria. Arsenal have Ozil, Sanchez. Chelsea have Hazard, Courtois.

Such a top player galvanises the others and takes them to another level. A host of above average players do not do that. Suarez made everyone look good. So why did we not get another like him even if he did cost as much as £75m??

 

We need to be playing Champion League year in year out. Player like Messi would not like to play in the Europa league.

 

To counter that, was it easier for Rafa to buy stars? We'd just won the CL, were challenging fro trophies and were a big name.

Kenny came in and that had dropped making it harder and although still a big name made it possible, as getting harder.

When Rodgers came in, we'd been out the CL for a long time, not competing in the league and had more rivals like city who weren't as my of a threat 10 years ago.

Attracting top top talent now is a lot harder than it would have been 10 years ago because of our position and the money involved.

 

Bollocks. If his name was Flanninho people would be raving and he'd be first name on the team sheet.

 

Bar Rafa's first season (when he signed Alonso) as it was our first season back in the cL for a while and pre-CL win, I agree with that

 

Rafa didn't really buy stars though? He bought quality players that he helped turn in to stars; Alonso, Reina, Masch, Torres were good players that he developed in to top players. Whilst it may have been easier for Rafa because we were in the Champs League, he was the one who mostly earned that by keeping us competitive enough to keep challenging, on what really amounts to a shoestring budget, and he is still criticized because he neglected the squad depth.......you couldn't make it up!!

 

well this is a hard thing to say.

1. 2005 v 2-15 the moeny difference is vast. the wages are vastly increased and fees have trebled nearly

2. 2005 rafa bought very.... well.... mixed at best. his english knowledge was pants and his Spanish was encyclopedic. Reina, alonso and others were all well on his radar and he brought them in without recourse to our scouting network

3. In 2005 there was no spurs really and there was no city either. it was a top 4 and we just had to beat off a bunch of nobodies well not really but you get my general meaning yes? if we were good 4th was ours and it was a lock out.

4. the reality is Rafa took over and bought a lot of players, an awful lot and had a good spend too.. very good for anyone outside of top 4 at that time. What occured to rafa was two fold; first a 20mil budget with certain peopel deciding ti could all go on target 3 and not at all on target one and that pissed him off.. he got keane and whined but he later admitted he wanted barry first then keane second. he then bought aquilani. so he psent all his budget on players who flopped and filled in round with bad players. Clearly after 2008 G&H were reining in hard and I cannot see how a kyriakos can be explained other wise. In 2012 rafa had injury nightmares all over. had torres and gerrard been fitter and he just had the small squad he could have survived but the writing was on the wall. you could accuse him of injuring said players too by over playing but hey... thats the demands of success.

Rafa sold alonso and bought aquilani.. i just cannot describe how baffling that is.

he finished 2009 ith mascherano wanting to go but convinced to stay, kuyt, torres, gerrard, alonso just about to leave, agger, carragher... johnson.. reina... really 7th was a bad return for all that but injuries told... plus woefully poor buys.

 

he also signed morientes... so it was all not sweetness and light either. he also bought josemi, had nunez forced on him by real, pelligrino and morientes

he bought alonso and garcia and had cisse bought by houllier to play... who was pants

all in all rafa had a mixed success rate but his eye when it was in was for real good players

 

We have rarely bought established stars in recent history - we have (and still should be) bought Tier 2 player i.e. players who have relatively young (23 ish), who have performed at a pretty high level and have established a promising reputation around Europe. Suarez, Torres, Mash, Alonso, Reina fit that category.

Also, Rafa was a big name manager at that time - players wanted to play for him. And that is the problem we have with Rodgers - who wants to play for him? Who outside have Europe have even heard of him? What has he achieved?

 

Most top managers have 50% success rate.

Rafa certainly has his fair share of signings who ended up as world class. What Rafa did was build the team around a solid defence and midfield. In fact - most top managers do that. Because being able to defend and control a game is far more important. And he then established a core - a strong spine of players who could play most games and maintain that control.

If Rafa added a couple of quality wide men, then the team was practically complete.

 

Manager of the year in the premiership ? A whisker of the title?

But seriously, the buying of these types of players is so much touch and go. If you are lucky you'll uncover a Torres or a Suarez once in a while. It is like kissing 100 frogs to get that one prince. Though you are more likely to get the Markovic, lallana, Allen 's of this world. Good but not good enough. The test between two teams is which players from one would the other take to improve it.?

I have got to say that I can see only Sterling as a player which would be wanted by another of the top 4 clubs. Talking of which, rumours are already circulating of a deal between LFc and Arsenal:

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-04-10/...m-raheem-sterling-and-theo-walcott-swap-deal/

 

What Rafa had a shoestring budget? ****ing hell talk about re-writing history ffs. He spent £250m

 

first 11 yes but not squad. he never had the squad... by the last season it was n'gog and torres and no-one else. it was gerrard or.. no-one. benayuong as sub for wide positions not two subs etc etc

 

Big Summer for Rodgers, get it right and we'll have a superb team the youth is in place, cover in every position and a group that will get better we just need that experience in to replace Suarez and Gerrard and we're good to go. Will he get it right? No ****ing idea!

 

i'd say get it right and we will improve, don't think superb can be attained by next augest having seen our cl showing.

just need to keep improving faster than players degrade/leave to keep moving up

 

Get it right we could win the title. Get it wrong we won't even get a CL place..

 

Getting it right in both the PL and CL is a tricky business.
Rafa was good in Europe but never truly got the hang of the PL. There's a handful who have done the opposite. Even Fergie, who dominated the league, under-achieved in the CL considering how often he got in it. And as for Wenger's Arsenal.......

Realistically, I expect it to take a few seasons before we learn to play well again in Europe, assuming we actually qualify.
I would be happy with a consistent challenge for the title, and a steady, if slow improvement in Europe.
Of course, I'd like us to win everything, but I'm trying to be realistic- and I'd rather we put in a series of serious performances in the title race than the CL over the next few years.
I know some think the CL is more important, but I'm not one of them.