The Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (5 Viewers)

[mat2154]

manu really lacked grit in the centre of midfield, completely outplayed by the likes of gattuso. We needed someone like keano to put in the crunching tackles and distribute the ball

 

[adders]

On the Champions League, I'm praying Milan do it. No predicitons, I'll let the Scousers jinx themselves, but here's hoping. God, gloating Scousers have less class than gloating Chelsea or United fans. Revenge is a great motivator it has to be said though. It can give you a lot of focus. Unfortunately we know Liverpool are going to play a spoiling game, just hope it backfires.

The only reason why we gloat is because we have something to gloat about unlike any other english club. Perfectly summed up in the exchange between liverpool and chelsea fans at anfield 'you ain't got no history'.

Additionally we will win in Athens, we're unstoppable in Europe, some jealous individuals may criticise the way we play (because the gunners haven't won a trophy in 2 seasons now) but the fact remains we get the necessary results and will always continue to 'Walk On'.

Good luck to Man u, hope u win the double so mourinho gets sacked that arrogant bastard.

6 times in Athens
You'll Never Walk Alone

 

[HeCtic]

The only reason why we gloat is because we have something to gloat about unlike any other english club. Perfectly summed up in the exchange between liverpool and chelsea fans at anfield 'you ain't got no history'.

Additionally we will win in Athens, we're unstoppable in Europe, some jealous individuals may criticise the way we play (because the gunners haven't won a trophy in 2 seasons now) but the fact remains we get the necessary results and will always continue to 'Walk On'.

Good luck to Man u, hope u win the double so mourinho gets sacked that arrogant bastard.

6 times in Athens
You'll Never Walk Alone

What I find amusing is that you're the same group of fans who get on their high horse and gloat about being the intelligent fans, the most fair fans and in short the best fans, when to be honest you're just the same as everyone else, with the added hypocrite factor to boot.

You talk so much about results and history, where's your first Premiership going to come from. Does Rafa have it in him to win a Premiership? A cup team bagging about their fluky cup runs gets pretty tiring fast, however repetitive and irrelevant arguing is what Liverpool fans specialise in.

You know what would be hilarious though, is if the team who bribed their way into this season's Champions League winning it. I'd love to hear you Scousers bitch about it, especially considering the free ride you got last season. If Milan win, I guarantee that'll happen and it'll be hilarious.

 

[sk1001]

This thread has been labelled wrongly. Should say soccor instead of football. We don't live in England. We say soccor.

get a goose and beat it you imbecile.

 

[LMF^^]

We were outplayed, outclassed in Milan, and they deserved to go through to the final. They showed us how European football should be played, and their experience is still the best in Europe. Although we have matured since we last met them, we have not matched them yet. I'm sure we'll be back again stronger next season.

Liverpool will not win in Athens, Milan will do them good. I will be deeply hurt if Liverpool win the European Cup again, yes, deeply hurt.

I kinda expected the loss though, so I'm not really down hearted about this. We still have two major trophies to fight for, and I'm definitely proud of how the team went about things this season. Top of the league, final of the FA Cup, and semi final of the European Cup, if someone told me we would be in such a position before the start of the season I would be laughing.

To the Scouser above, you will jinx your team by saying "6 times in Athens" all the time. And after seeing Milan's display today, there's not much chance Liverpool has against them, unless Gerrard starts diving again, but then Milan will be prepared for it, it won't happen again like Istanbul.

 

[matt#1]

@matt#1
Everton are a shit team man.. wtf you going on about..

Please explain to me when the fuck I mentioned anything about Everton

 

[Phyuk_Yiu]

Heh, here we go, Liverpool get to the final and everyone starts to bitch on about how shit we are.
Milan were good today, Man U made a similar mistake to Bayern; they gave away two uncessary goals in the first half and everyone expected them to get back in the second. But as we saw it never eventuated, I thought it was strange though that after the third goal Man U lost all their composure. They would have had to score two goals anyway so at 3-0 down the mentality should not have changed.

Even with that performance, Liverpool still have a good chance of winning. The games against Chelsea were tough due to similar tactics and experience. But against Milan it will be a different affair. Added to that is our strong defense which will not make it as easy for them to score.
I really hope we win it again, though not to silence the critics, who will hate us no matter what we do.

 

[adders]

You talk so much about results and history, where's your first Premiership going to come from. Does Rafa have it in him to win a Premiership? A cup team bagging about their fluky cup runs gets pretty tiring fast, however repetitive and irrelevant arguing is what Liverpool fans specialise in.

Wat do u mean fluky cup wins, we've made the final of the european cup 2 out of the last 3 years, considering its the premier football tournament in the world i hardly consider this achievement fluky.

And we will win the league, one must consider we have a lesser budget than the other 3 clubs and we've dont have a genuine target man, but i assure u that in the coming seasons we will get a good front man, and we will win the league. Don't criticise Rafa, no other manager could do wat he has done with the men at his disposal, surely he deserves recognition for that achievement.

I have faith in the team that's why i write 6 times in athens, because no-one can beat us in Europe, and i think we've proven that with our victories over barcelona and chelsea.

 

[Led-Zep]

you have been fluky, very fluky. however benitez does know how to play in Europe, he has the style down pat. pool wouldnt have gone as far without him and his tactical genius within european level, he cant do that in the epl which is their complete undoing and they wont win it for years i can say that for sure even with hundreds of millions. See benitez knows how to adapt his players to certain styles, eg barca, chelski, milan etc. in european level that is, compared to united and fergie, eg 2002-2006 trying a 4-5-1 formation that did not work, and last nite, united only KNOW how to play 4-4-2 and at time s 4-1-3-2.

i did find this funny though, Quote ,Hectic,"A cup team bagging about their fluky cup runs gets pretty tiring fast, however repetitive and irrelevant arguing is what Liverpool fans specialise in", *cough arsenal last season anyone cough...*

united comprehensivly beaten, could see it coming, 3-2 is not a good score to take, especially with our away from in europe. but i dont get y fergie went with 4-5-1? what was he thinking, at least get smith in there or something, our defense was woeful, midfield non existent. milan totally deservd it, seedorf, kaka and gattuso, genius just brilliant. hope they beat the pool. i cant stand 5 times, let alone 6.

Anyway hopefully u gooners can help us out for a change and beat chelski, that aint asking for much. would love to wrap it up this wknd, cause i dont fancy united at chelski, they would be real fired up.

 

[hachoo]

Bad luck to Man U. Things just didn't go their way on the night. I think the injuries really go to them, espiecially seeing Vidic back without match practice. Everything looked shakey and I have no problems as a Man U supporter of losing to AC. You're all right in saying Kaka might be the best player in the world at the moment. He's consistently excellent and dominating centre mid. If only Ronaldo and Rooney could be as consistent.

AC V Liverpool. Liverpool are a shocker in EPL, but in CL they seem to get it together. It's quite unique. If Kaka, Gattuso and Seedorf put in a less than average performance, i can see Liverpool going 2 in 3 years. Crouch, Gerrard, Alonso, Kuyt and Riise all need to step up like they always do on the big occasions.

What are the hopes like on Harry Kewell? Apparantly playing reserves.

 

[adders]

Honestly i hope kewell plays, if he;s in form he's a quality left winger, much better than gonzalez or zenden. Zenden has been playing regularly but his inability to cross decently is a major worry. If kewell is fit and he plays well and charlton and fulham, then i hope he starts is athens

 

[HeCtic]

i did find this funny though, Quote ,Hectic,"A cup team bagging about their fluky cup runs gets pretty tiring fast, however repetitive and irrelevant arguing is what Liverpool fans specialise in", *cough arsenal last season anyone cough...*

Haha, when have I ever bragged about that? And Rafa's tactical genius? Yeah, he really meant to lose 1-0 at Anfield, rely on penalties and dodgy linesmen against Chelsea, give Milan three goals in Istanbul, relying on one player against West Ham etc. He's a good manager, but very overrated. The fact that his best season in the Premiership co-incided with his worst in Europe tells you a lot about his squad building ability.

Wat do u mean fluky cup wins, we've made the final of the european cup 2 out of the last 3 years, considering its the premier football tournament in the world i hardly consider this achievement fluky.

And we will win the league, one must consider we have a lesser budget than the other 3 clubs and we've dont have a genuine target man, but i assure u that in the coming seasons we will get a good front man, and we will win the league. Don't criticise Rafa, no other manager could do wat he has done with the men at his disposal, surely he deserves recognition for that achievement.

Winning the Premiership is so different to winning any other competition. No matter what his La Liga or European record is, the Premiership sorts the wheat from the chaff as far as managers go. Only great managers win Premierships.

You have spent about as much as United over the past few years, and far more than we have. Every one of our buys is accompanied by a major sale or release of a highly paid player, so your we're so poor argument falls by the wayside too.

You shouldn't be complaining about your personnel either. Rafa signed most of the current squad,so all this we're overperforming shite is funny. Please, we may have gone a couple of seasons without silverware, but you guys haven't put in a significant challenge for a Premiership yet.

Long-balling your way through cup competitions is all well and good, but for the supposed best club in the world, it's not up to standard.

 

[Benny_]

HeCtic- I respect Arsenal's youth sytem, and the way they've played under Wenger over the years. They're definitely my favourite of Pool's rivals. That out of the way, I have to defend Liverpool.

In case you haven't noticed we actually finished in front of you last season, and unless if we decide to rest everyone in our last two games against the mighty Charlton and Fulham, we'll finish in front of you again. Yes, we have spent pretty sizeable amounts of money, but never really on the players we've wanted. Why? Because the squad Gerard Houllier left us was weak all over. We needed badly to to improve the overall quality of the squad, and I don't think anyone would argue that we've done that now (although apparently David Moores had to pay from his own pocket to fund the purchase of Kuyt, hopefully he'll be vindicated next year when Rafa decides to actually play him as a striker instead of in the hole). This means that we'll have the funds in the European summer to simply splash out on one or two major purchases. These purchases, I think every Liverpool fan will expect to be world class.

As for how we play.. well, I don't think it's too unfair to say that we haven't really had the players to play how Rafa intends for this team to play, and that's with two effective wingers supplying some decent crosses. The wingers we have haven't been good enough. I already mentioned that Pennant was not our first choice on the right, Mark Gonzalez was admittedly a miscalculation on the left, although it might've been better even if Kewell had just not been injured for the whole season. I'm sure we'll see Liverpool playing a more attractive brand of football next year. Hopefully the end result isn't something like how Chelsea played in the two seasons before.. but hey, we've been waiting a long time to win the league again, so I'm sure we won't mind hearing you complain one bit if we're holding aloft the trophy at the end of next season.

On Rafa.. he's a great manager. As I said, Liverpool fans have been disappointed by the lack of really top quality signings as well, but a strong squad is something Rafa believes in, so now that he finally has a strong squad.. I think we will at last see the measure of his team building abilities- next season. So far though, well, we've had 2 shite seasons in the league, and one decent season (highest ever point tally to have come 3rd in fact I think)- and two European finals. We're not complaining over here. If you really want to talk about 'best seasons in the Premiership coinciding with worst in Europe'.. how did Arsenal do in Europe oh lets see.. every season before last? Does that say something about his 'squad building ability'?

To sum up

Rafa's not perfect, but he's had a total of THREE seasons with Liverpool. Fergie's had twenty with United (and 6 before he won the league if I'm not mistaken). Wenger's had ten with Arsenal, all credit to him for winning the double so early in his career. He's a great manager too no doubt. Mourinho.. well, it would be interesting to see what he'd be able to do if he'd inherited Liverpool instead of Chelsea. Our transfer kitty hasn't been the smallest (except comparing to the Cuntskis obviously), but it has to be said that our squad was originally already worse than those of Chelsea, United and Arsenal. You might remember that our CL winning squad included great players like: Djimi Traore, Igor Biscan, Antonio Nunez, Vladimir Smicer, Josemi and Milan Baros (yes I'm aware Josemi and Nunez were Rafa's signings).. also had others who played a little less, like Stephen Warnock and the mighty Salif Diao. Our left side consisted essentially of a brilliant but prenially injured Kewell and an attacking minded fullback in Riise. Our right side, before Gerrard got shipped over, had Antonio Nunez and occasionally Florent Sinama-Pongolle. Our centre, with Xabi or Stevie injured at various stages, at one stage had Igor Biscan being first choice. Djimi Traore was our first choice left back for the full season, and occasionally even got shunted into the CB position.

Since that first season we've definitely made some real progress. Here's to hopefully winning another CL in three weeks time, and more progress next year.

In response to Led-Zep's comment about us not winning it for years.. I'm cautiously optimistic we will. Our real problem in the league has been breaking down a team defending with 10 men behind the ball. Whatever I say in Liverpool's defense, we do lack some creative spark that the other top 3 teams have that can unlock those defences. Our most creative players, Luis Garcia and Kewell, have both been injured for the best part of the year, and that hasn't helped. With investment I hope we'll sign someone along the lines of Quaresma (who's been the best player in the Portuguese league this year) to play ahead of Pennant on the right, a real 20-a season striker (Eto'o might come a bit cheaper of Barca don't win the league), and maybe another player in the hole who's a bit better than what we have (Aimar's too good for Zaragoza, Carlos Tevez won't stay at West Ham if they go down.)

 

[Led-Zep]

benitez is a good manager, if you have read some of his stories about preparation for games it borders on obsessive! as much as i hate pool, even more so than arsenal(whom i respect for attacking footy much like united), only hate chelski for the $$$, he has only been in charge for 3 seasons. and yes they have finished above the gunners last season and look like it for this season. that said pool are at least 5-6 players b4 they can make a challenge for the title lasting longer than october. sorry benny i dont think pool can match it with gunners,united chelski for the next 5 years at least. arsenals youth will come good, united still have a good squad and will strenghen, and chelski have $$$.

the football required for cup comps is obviously different than the league, and i dont think liverpool have ever really adjusted to the premierleague format even since it came in place. they still do the kick and chase footy that doesnt win you the league these days, chelski do it but much more effectively and to be honest the last 2 seasons when they won it they didnt rely on it as much as this season due to Ballack and no wingers.

feel kinda dirty almost defending liverpool..ewww.

 

[sk1001]

Honestly i hope kewell plays, if he;s in form he's a quality left winger, much better than gonzalez or zenden. Zenden has been playing regularly but his inability to cross decently is a major worry. If kewell is fit and he plays well and charlton and fulham, then i hope he starts is athens

Kewell over Zenden would be a silly decision.

 

[HotShot]

What a load. None of the top managers in England would pass up the chance to by a player who would imporve their team on the basis of their race. If anything of all the European leagues, the Premiership is the best of the lot as far as race issues go.

Looking beyond skin colour, the number of nationalities represented in the Arsenal squad is huge, and despite all the hypocrite cunts who joke about it, is one of the things I love about my club. Togans, Ivorians,Cameroonians, French, Brazilian, English or whatever. They might be black, but they weren't signed because they were black like you seem to be insinuating.

We have plenty of white players as well for your information. Problem recently has been that they've either been shit like Freddie, Aliadiere and Hleb, injured like Rosicky and van Persie, on the bench like Flamini and Senderos, or on loan like Bendtner and Connolly. Pretty much meaning that the only white players we see with regularity are Cesc and Jens. Their non-selections have nothing to do with race.

The fact that we have a white manager who is also one of the most travelled managers going around should dispell that as well. As for Liverpool, I'm not sure if Rafa doesn't like signing too many black players, but they can't be any more cunty than the likes of Bellamy.

Maybe its the other way around then? the black players prefer to play with their own kind? The same with whites? It is astonishing as to why Chelsea and Arsenal have such a significant amount blacks in their team? I mean is there a trend that black players are better or something? It just seems odd doesnt it?

Anyhow on the the final AC Milan vs Liverpool - its always going to be difficult beating the same team again. FOr Liverpool to beat Milan again will take an extraordinary (it will be a close match). But the team that is more hungry for a win will win. Its got nothing to do with tactics or strategies - quite simply it comes down to players and how hungry they are for victory.

Utd are shit - they didnt control Kaka and paid the price. Liverpool are not stupid enough to make the same mistake. I am sure they will not allow kaka enough space or enough ball time to do anything. But it will be a close match - I am guessing 2-2 and extra-time someone scores.

 

[Raginsheep]

A lot of French players are black which I guess stems from their colonial legacy. Arsenal has alot of French players and so I guess they have a large number of black players.

 

[LMF^^]

Maybe its the other way around then? the black players prefer to play with their own kind? The same with whites? It is astonishing as to why Chelsea and Arsenal have such a significant amount blacks in their team? I mean is there a trend that black players are better or something? It just seems odd doesnt it?

Anyhow on the the final AC Milan vs Liverpool - its always going to be difficult beating the same team again. FOr Liverpool to beat Milan again will take an extraordinary (it will be a close match). But the team that is more hungry for a win will win. Its got nothing to do with tactics or strategies - quite simply it comes down to players and how hungry they are for victory.

Utd are shit - they didnt control Kaka and paid the price. Liverpool are not stupid enough to make the same mistake. I am sure they will not allow kaka enough space or enough ball time to do anything. But it will be a close match - I am guessing 2-2 and extra-time someone scores.

What's with your obession with the blacks...? It's a global game so just let it go. There are good black players and good white players, what's your point...?

Pfft, you should stick with your cricket. If Kaka was a player you can easily control then he wouldn't be the top player in the world. And even if we did have two men on him all the time, other players such as Seedorf and Pirlo will start to pull the strings, and in the end, the result would still have been the same.

In my opinion, Gattuso was the man who made everything happen. He won every ball in midfield, just like Keane used to do for us. His aggression was there, he was determined, and he's a beast. We had no answers to him, which is why their midfield was so dominant. I can accept the fact that we were poor, and got outclassed in the game. If only we could replicate the way we played our home leg, we could have had a chance.

Benitez knows about containing teams, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll work. They got stuffed all over the place at Stamford Bridge, and were extremely lucky to only have a 1-0 deficit. Long ball tactics won't do Milan any harm, and with the quality in Milan's midfield, I can't find any reasons how Liverpool can win the final. Whatever, I'll gladly see any Milan win, preferably a 4-0 drubbing of some sort.

 

[sk1001]

A lot of French players are black which I guess stems from their colonial legacy. Arsenal has alot of French players and so I guess they have a large number of black players.

What are you trying to say you racist bastarard?

 

[Raginsheep]

Racist? I'm sorry what are you talking about?