Our play last season was certainly top 6, our defence for the most part was top 6.......However our goal return was relegation form......Add it all up an we are somewhere in the middle. However all we have to do is improve our goal return and then we become a top team again...........We all know this, we said it all through out last season. We de do need a new striker, but we also need to keep carroll. We are not going to develop of form of football that is 100% effective against everyone, so what we need is options.......Our Squad is a top squad, it just needs a few tweaks and the right players used in the right positions in the right formation, with the right mentality at the right times. (eg, No 5 man midfield against Stoke.) Looking forward to seeing how we do. We are certainly not a poor side, not are we a fantastic side......We are a good side, and good sides finish 7th/8th.....But just being a good side is not good enough for Liverpool and never will be..... Liverpool have to be strong and the lesser sides will fall..... If we show weakness in a season, the smaller clubs see that as an opportunity to get one over a massive club, that is why teams always showed up at Anfield last season and we had an appalling home record...... if we can show strength, then these teams will not come into games with such confidence to beat us.....
i'd agree with that, our defense unitl agger was injured was very good. carrgher coming in and enrique losing form really dented us... but individual errors crept in. goal return is one thing but the attitude and attacking stuff rodgers talks shop about is another thing i think we'd all want to see and think would improve us no end. you are right we are not poor but we're less than stellar in a league where 2-3 teams will and can spend 200mil on a whim. the maths of the thing doens't lie.... if you win 10 home games and 10 away games then you've 60 points before you even play a top 10 side. thats the reality. those are bread and butter bottom half teams that need handing thier heads and we singulalry fail to go do it. If you look at it again and say hey at anfield you REALLY ought to win 13, draw 3 lose 3. then thats a 42 points and precisely what rafa delivered year on year... throw another say 9-4-6 away and thats another 31 points and you have 73points and enough for 4th. its not about beating top 4 sides, that mini league up there is about who finished 1-4. (when we finished second we won 4, drew 2 v the other top 4 teams) getting there is all about handing newly promoted sides, perennial strugglers and midtable sides their heads and then at the very least holding you won agasint the 5th to 8th placed teams. Swansea took 5 points off us, wigan handed us defeats... the list goes on... if rodgers philosophy is about out working these teams and forcing errors out of them then he'll get a return. (half the goals kuyt made were form hassling defenders into errors)
I don't think there is too much work to do. It pains me that we pissed so much money up the wall last summer, missed opportunity IMO, but we are where we are. I've said a few times, there were only about 6 league games we deserved to lose last season, and we were strides better than the previous season. The Squad looks better than it has for years, but the starting XI isn't. 3 good signings for the starting XI and luck with the youth will improve us further. TO be honst, dropping points at Anfied wasn't just a problem last season, it's been a issue for ages - it ust used to be that we'd draw games we should have won, last season we lost them instead. Bit of stability, a sensible approach from a manager and getting the tactics right ans a 20+ goal a seaon striker ans We'll be in contention for top 4 again.
This is purely my opinion. I'm not having a 'go' at anybody. If you agree with any of it, feel free to say so. If you don't agree with any of it then the same applies - but I would appreciate knowing the reasons why. I stated earlier that Liverpool are not and never have been a mid-table side. I will attempt to justify that statement by stating that it is not the number of points achieved or the final league position that identifies if a club is a mid-table club or not. The key thing is in the culture of the club itself, in it's history and it's ambitions. If you accept that identifier then the archetypal Premiership mid-table club is Fulham. Here the whole club, style of play, ground size, players and as importantly supporter expectations is dedicated to that objective. (BTW that is not intended as a slur on Fulham). However, the tag is not fixed as clubs can become mid-table through circumstance and management ambition eg Villa. Liverpool clearly do not fit that descriptor. We have clearly under-achieved and we can argue as to why that is but we as a club have never limited our goals in the same way. last season, we knew that we were engaged upon a re-development process. Irrespective of who we bought or what we paid we had a limited target of finishing the season in the top 4. We did not expect to challenge for the title and accepted that we were a 'work in progress' both on and off the field. As it transpired, we did not achieve our target but we did attempt to do so. Even as supporters we held on to that target until it became mathematically impossible for us to achieve it. That differentiate us from a mid-table side who would probably never have set themselves such a target.
Agreed...very philosophical!!! i think therefore i am. I dont think liverpool will ever have a mid table mentality, we would never allow it
fordeck, love to agree with you. Fulham are not even a midtable side imo, i think their chairman hasn't even that ambition. i don't know a btter current example, i eman the old days you had coventry, southampton and others who were that but they all went one way. Villa are certainly mid table. i don't think targeting 4th in a league with city, arsenal, utd and arsenal... let alone spurs is a limited target though... perhaps an ambitious one even though as the year turned out any side could have gotten it from previous 5 years also rans.... perhaps the best thing to say is we sacked kenny legend dalglish for not achieving it and NO midtable club would do that... how about that?
Glad we can agree. I was deliberately trying to ensure that I was not targeting either you or luv. Can somebody please get the pre-season underway? I'm getting sick of this journo talk that is upsetting us all for no good purpose.
What the **** is going on? Let's get the anger and aggression back or I'll think you've all gone soft.... Red nets....Mmmmmmm.... GKRK
