English League Football ** spoilers ** [16th - 19th October 2010]
- Thread starter red11
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I give up, carry on listening to Sly Sports.
I have seen that thread, but Hodgson doesn't seem to be taking a ribbing, as I would've expected.
To see Liverpool, after 8 games, in a relegation battle is shocking. I would've thought that some fans would be making calls for his head on a platter. Instead, I'm seeing quite a few people sympathising with him and suggesting that he should be given more time.
I remember a few years back (2004), when Man Utd were struggling and finished 3rd...there were calls for him to go and make way for a new manager, as perhaps he was too old for the job now. Had we been in a relegation battle, some rather unpleasant things would've been said about Fergie, despite him winning so much for Man Utd.
I just think that the situation at Liverpool is being underestimated by many Liverpool fans. To be talking about Champions League or Europa League is madness. What should be discussed is the relegation battle which Liverpool are now in.
I said at the time that I wanted dalglish as temporary manager while we continued to look for a permanent manager. I still think that would have been a better option than the knee jerk reaction of getting a new manager at the time.
Yeah, its all Rafa's fault he had to sell 3 to buy 1 for every season the cancers were in the club.
Having not watched Sky Sports for over 2 months now, that's an interesting comment to make to me.
So where is this top notch squad that Benitez left? The squad he "built" is an embarrassment, it got worse throughout his tenure, he wasted money on Aquilani and Johnson, and any manager was going to struggle coming into that scenario with a lack of funds.
I'm not saying that Hodgson has been anything other than poor. The players do not look motivated, and the tactics aren't working. But the squad itself is terrible, and this is almost entirely down to Benitez.
Caporegime
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This. You can forgive rival supporters for listening to Sly and believing them but not our own
The 5th most expensive squad in the league that he built finished 2nd two seasons ago, and 7th last season where he was massively criticised for under achieving with the players he had available.
Hodgson inherits the squad and has us in the bottom 3 and it's Benitez's fault?
Caporegime
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If our squad is so bad how did we manage to finish 7th last season despite losing Torres and Gerrard for a large part of it?
As for your lack of funds argument, that's just embarrassing. £4 million on Konchesky, £5 million on Poulsen, £2 million on Jones and £11.5 million on Meireles. Half the ****ing team is his already!
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The same Aquilani who managed 1 goal and 7 assists in 4 games at the end of last season? Oh it would be nice to have a player capable of sucking that much in these last 4 games or so.
And Johnson, who we had a dilemma with - Buy and wipe out the money owed from the crouch deal (of which Pompy hadn't paid even 15% of it) or wait and see if we get paid instead.
Chances are - we would have still been waiting for that Crouch money now.
Hodgson inherits the squad and has us in the bottom 3 and it's Benitez's fault?
I didn't say that. I said that Benitez deserved to be sacked, and that the squad he left is poor. Nowhere have I said that Hodgson has been good, or that it's not his fault that we're in the bottom three.
The money would have eventually made it's way to us, the PL were withdrawing Pompey's TV money and paying it direct to clubs owed money. However we wouldn't have had it to spend last summer so it was a case of Johnson or nothing, I'd imagine.
Caporegime
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It is Rafa's fault, its not Rafa's fault that Mascherano left, but its certainly not Hodgesons fault he left, it IS Rafa's fault that he pushed Alonso out the door and left the joke that is Lucas as the only "defensive" midfielder. Maxi was a hilariously bad buy, utterly useless today, yet to see him put in more than one good 5 minute spell since he joined. Babel was decent but no other top team wanted to buy him due to his attitude(and greed) issues, again Rafa ignored them and thought he got a bargain. Athletico hadn't been starting Maxi for a couple years as he was well passed it, Rafa thought he was a bargain.
The club, Rafa/someone thought Cole was a bargain, he wasn't, at all.
The club was on its way down last year, they didn't start the season with no confidence, this year really no matter who was in charge they were going to start the season with no confidence. Its like seeing liverpool play they way they did in the last 4-5 months throughout the whole year this year. This season unless a miracle happened, they were always going to be significantly worse than last year.
Its hardly a relegation fight either, 3 wins in a row puts them well into the top half of the table. It might not start next week, but they'll improve, eventually.
Its not a settled team nor one he has been able to change dramatically in the summer.
With little to no money available to spend he didn't have a whole lot of choice in replacing Mascherano.
Rafa gutted the team, relied in 3-4 players in the spine of the team as he replaced everyone else with utter rubbish. The club has lost 2 of the spine in a couple of seasons, probably the two most important players in the two most important positions in any team, not sure what people expected of Hodgeson.
He's given babel a chance to turn his attitude around, Babel threw his chance away, he's now only got Maxi as a choice, where does he go?
They were bad today, the only difference between today and 2 years ago in similar derbys is Gerrard playing a blinder, and by blinder, I mean he'd dive, get players sent off, then score a couple.
Did people not notice that Everton won a single game and jumped to 11th, its not a relegation battle, not even close, win a few on the trot and Liverpool will be around where they finished last year. They could win 2 in a row and be way into the top half of the table if other results go their way.
The club, Rafa/someone thought Cole was a bargain, he wasn't, at all.
The club was on its way down last year, they didn't start the season with no confidence, this year really no matter who was in charge they were going to start the season with no confidence. Its like seeing liverpool play they way they did in the last 4-5 months throughout the whole year this year. This season unless a miracle happened, they were always going to be significantly worse than last year.
Its hardly a relegation fight either, 3 wins in a row puts them well into the top half of the table. It might not start next week, but they'll improve, eventually.
Its not a settled team nor one he has been able to change dramatically in the summer.
With little to no money available to spend he didn't have a whole lot of choice in replacing Mascherano.
Rafa gutted the team, relied in 3-4 players in the spine of the team as he replaced everyone else with utter rubbish. The club has lost 2 of the spine in a couple of seasons, probably the two most important players in the two most important positions in any team, not sure what people expected of Hodgeson.
He's given babel a chance to turn his attitude around, Babel threw his chance away, he's now only got Maxi as a choice, where does he go?
They were bad today, the only difference between today and 2 years ago in similar derbys is Gerrard playing a blinder, and by blinder, I mean he'd dive, get players sent off, then score a couple.
Did people not notice that Everton won a single game and jumped to 11th, its not a relegation battle, not even close, win a few on the trot and Liverpool will be around where they finished last year. They could win 2 in a row and be way into the top half of the table if other results go their way.
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What good has or even could have come out of sacking Benitez?
I said last season was a massive dissapointment and in normal circumstances Benitez's job should have been under threat but given the position we found ourself in, sacking Benitez was the worst possible outcome.
Benitez was sacked on the back of 1 bad season and even that was overstated by the fact that we had over achieved in the past few seasons.
And whilst were at it, Lets look at the AMAZING contribution to our squad Roy has made shall we?
Meireles is the one good signing, but we lost Masch for him, and we needed a good DM. RM is not a DM, hes a traditional CM player, or a "75%" of Gerrard type player.
Poulsen - All the fans said it was squad strengthening, i said he was Masch's replacement. Nice to know i was right. And he sucks, major sucks.
PK - Terrible at defending, as was Insua. But this guy is average / terrible going forward to. Considering everyone slated Insua for 'having no pace' its amazing how many times he beat his man on the outside. Not to mention his attacking-positional sense was 100% better. Crossing is light-years better. Ball control is better, dribbling is better .. shall i go on?
Joe Cole - He's not as good as the media wants everyone to believe, but he never sucks as bad as he has for Roy.
Meireles is the one good signing, but we lost Masch for him, and we needed a good DM. RM is not a DM, hes a traditional CM player, or a "75%" of Gerrard type player.
Poulsen - All the fans said it was squad strengthening, i said he was Masch's replacement. Nice to know i was right. And he sucks, major sucks.
PK - Terrible at defending, as was Insua. But this guy is average / terrible going forward to. Considering everyone slated Insua for 'having no pace' its amazing how many times he beat his man on the outside. Not to mention his attacking-positional sense was 100% better. Crossing is light-years better. Ball control is better, dribbling is better .. shall i go on?
Joe Cole - He's not as good as the media wants everyone to believe, but he never sucks as bad as he has for Roy.