I was referring to mindsets. Many examples of how near misses lead to future success - United in 92 appears a useful one to use on these boards.
Brentan Rodgers
- Thread starter The Neviller
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Which Liverpool manager cracked up. Presume you don't mean Rafa. The rant is way overstated. After Rafa's press conference Liverpool were brilliant towards the end of the 08/09 season but United took it to another level.
That's actually true. Lots of teams even recently that have lost finals come back to win titles. Milan lost the final in 2005 in such crazy fashion but came back to win in 2007. Bayern lost to Chelsea and came back to beat Dortmund. But it tends to happen more in cup competitions. Liverpool didn't respond with anything similar after 2009 so that gives me loads of hope
You're coming out with the full repertoire this morning. Is there a commonly held copy and paste Liverpool bank of responses to every situation? A sort of Paul-Tomkinspedia?
The 3 points from 3 very winnable games in the immediate aftermath of Rafa's rant is probably where you should look when people discuss the impact. Liverpool top of the league, United with a few tricky fixtures, and that happened.
At least the 'near miss' spurred you on to come back even better in 2010.
Just in case you are unaware, the "top" players signed so far.
Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, Emre Can, Rickie Lambert, Javier Manquillo, Lazar Markovic, Divock Origi and Kevin Stewart.
The 'top players' spiel is a bit silly, considering the glaringly obvious inability to sign big name players.
IT really depends on how you look at it (them), it's true that we will have the utmost difficulty in attracting the very top players in Europe to the North of England - but that doesn't just apply to us does it ?
With regard to the signings : Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana (both excellent PL players), Emre Can, Lazar Markovic, Divock Origi, Moreno and Javier Manquillo (all very highly rated youngsters who can make an impact now - and TBH for us this is the age we need to secure them and develop them a la Coutinho, Sterling and even Suarez to an extent), Rickie Lambert (decent backup squad player) and Kevin Stewart (signed because we lack strength in the reserves in that position).
Yes, you just said it yourself. You've struggled to attract the top top players. Sanchez is a decent example in this regard.
It's starting to happen isn't it? He'll be wearing T-Shirts next
i didn't disagree with you ! However Sanchez was maybe a different case as it seems his wife chose London because of her modeling career. That said Liverpool and Manchester will struggle to attract players more interested in living in Paris, London, Monaco, Madrid or Barcelona. Outrageous salaries & success is the only way to sway some of them, as City have shown.
I think in this case 'Manchester United' in general has some power to overcome the 'I want to live in London' type of thing. I just personally don't think Liverpool has that extra pull.
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You're coming out with the full repertoire this morning. Is there a commonly held copy and paste United bank of exhausted lines to every Liverpool-related situation?
You're coming out with the full repertoire this morning. Is there a commonly held copy and paste Liverpool bank of responses to every situation? A sort of Paul-Tomkinspedia?
Kind of works both ways, no?
You're incredibly tiresome, really.
I'm guessing pickleddick of dumbfeck is posting?
I told you guys Rodgers would be forced to go back on his word regarding Balotelli 
What happened?I told you guys Rodgers would be forced to go back on his word regarding Balotelli
To be fair he hasn't gone back on it because they haven't signed Balotelli.....yet.
Brendan thinks Mario Balotelli is a good value for money signing.
The value in relation to the talent is very good. The obvious issue is the attitude. Only time will tell if value for money exists in this deal.
Financially it's not a gamble.
I'm not a fan of lambert, so I'm coming around to the idea that this is a good signing for Liverpool.
It's a huge gamble. Maybe not the purchases themselves. Spending £4m on Lambert and £16m on Balotelli is low risk out of context but when you consider the context is "trying to replace arguably the 3rd best forward in the world", it suddenly becomes a risk.
As I said in reply to Dumbstar laughing at £60m for Di Maria, it's better to spend your money on quality, there is only 11 spots on the field after all and you've not even come close to replacing him yet while you continue to swell your squad with players who other Champions League clubs wouldn't take a first look at let alone a second.
Enjoy your "value" signings.
I actually think Lambert will do better for Liverpool than Ballotelli who won't last more than 2 seasons before they ship him out again.
Almost every signing is a gamble. This one is a big one, cos if it backfires, you've spent 16M and probably won't recoup much (don't see who will spend much money on him if he doesn't convince at Liverpool) + his salary. Of course it's a gamble.
For that, you have to factor in Markovic and Lallana as well.
I don't think there are many, if any, 16m players you could see recouping more than Balotelli if it doesn't work out.
That just amplifies my point though, no?
I'm not able to picture a cohort of "16m players" to compare him with but if it goes tits up at Liverpool, after his chequered career to date, then he is officially damaged goods - with a resale value that reflects that.
Anyway - as I said in this thread a few days ago - this idea that Liverpool are "only" risking 16m quid is really missing the point. That's just the upfront financial risk. The far more significant risk is the damage a typically petulant and lazy contribution from him can do to your campaign, in terms of poor performances meaning dropped points on the pitch and the potentially corrosive effect on the mentality of the squad from having a player in the mix who just doesn't give a f*ck. All the more so when it's possible that he could also create friction between your manager and the board who (allegedly) agreed this signing over his head.
The problem with replacing Suarez is you need to replace the best goalscorer and the best creator in the league. Unless you're taking in Messi, Ronaldo or some such, it can't be done.
I think Markovic and Balotelli are the most direct replacement for him. We'll need at least one of them to hit the ground running, but ok.
I don't think we need a player as good as Suarez to maintain our level though. This team from december/January onwards has been a different unit to the one he came into after his ban. Back then, he came into a decent but not impressive side, banged in two goals a game and basically won games for us singlehandledly. Without that, we'd be much closer to 5th than 2nd last year.
From the second half of the season, he became increasingly less important though, as we started steamrollering the opposition as a team. It become less about everything revolving around Suarez and more about him "just" being the outstandingly best cog in the machine. If we can insert a player or two of high quality to fit as cogs in that machine, I think we'll be grand.
I think the main part to compensate will be players coming off the bench. I imagine there are loads of goals to be made up for by introducing good players in the latter stages of games, as opposed to going down to 10 by introducing Aspas or Moses. And for that matter, being able to do that more often, because it's not Aspas and Moses you have to choose from. With a wider squad to pick from and more quality in for example fullback positions, I think the team as a whole will be able to produce 7-8/10 performances all across the pitch more often than last season.
That, tidying up the defence some more (I don't expect us to be dead solid, just more solid), a few more of our players continuing their progression and I see us improving on our performance from last year. A lot of things to get right, but far from impossible for a good manager. We've got the pieces in, so I'm happy with that. And I think even without getting all those things right, we're still in a very good position for top 4, which I'd be content with.
We managed just fine with Moses performing that role last year.
Edit: But yes, the idea of Ballotelli would be that he comes here and shows hunger and eagerness to do what the manager asks. Have to wait and see on that.
Actually after Rafa had that rant Liverpool went on to draw there next 3 league games against Stoke, Everton and Wigan, pretty much throwing away their chance of winning the title.
Wasn't Moses just not very good? Didn't notice him being lazy/petulant but can't say I paid much attention.
Of course, the big difference here is that he was a "nice to have" player last season. Handy off the bench but you never relied on him at any point. If Sturridge picks up a knock (as he is wont to do) then you are reliant on Balotelli. Which will be... interesting.
Of course, the big difference here is that he was a "nice to have" player last season. Handy off the bench but you never relied on him at any point. If Sturridge picks up a knock (as he is wont to do) then you are reliant on Balotelli. Which will be... interesting.
Feel sorry for Rogers he just said balotelli is world class. He was quite an erudite man considered in his thoughts pre anfield now he can't open his gob lest cliches spill aimlessly before the assembled press.
It was bad enough losing Suarez but the lack lustre rebuild based on Southampton FC and a confirmed nutcase plus his complete refusal to acknowledge the issue of Gerrard will see him off by the end of the season.
£117m spent in this window reported by Sky.
It was bad enough losing Suarez but the lack lustre rebuild based on Southampton FC and a confirmed nutcase plus his complete refusal to acknowledge the issue of Gerrard will see him off by the end of the season.
£117m spent in this window reported by Sky.
He was one of the most lethargic uninterested players I've seen in a red shirt.
At least Voronin dallied around with the assurance that when the ball went to him, he'd spring into action. He wasn't hiding. Moses just seemed completely disinterested in being on the pitch.
I've rarely been so glad to see a player gone. Thank feck it was only a loan.
The problem is he was still the player that other teams feared, and the ones that teams set themselves up to try and nullify.
He may have scored fewer goals over the 2nd half of the season (not sure if thats true, but going off what you wrote), but I think he created a lot more space for Sturridge and Sterling. Take away that threat and teams can instead focus on the other two much more comfortably.
Which is why we'll need at least one player of real quality in there alongside them who can worry defenders and capitalise if they start focusing on Sterling/Sturridge too much. It's a factor, but not an irreplaceable one.
He is. But for comedic value.
Was good to see him laugh along with/make fun of the Brent comparisons.
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