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I believe Liverpool have been quite a disappointment this season. Expected them to fight a bit harder for second place.
Oddly enough, I expect success in Europe for them (not neccessary winning the cup though).
Oddly enough, I expect success in Europe for them (not neccessary winning the cup though).
Well it's lunch and we're gonna discuss things. I've met most of them before as well.
Anyway, hopefully we'll be the first to beat Citeh at their ground
and Chelsea 
Anyway, hopefully we'll be the first to beat Citeh at their ground
and Chelsea Excellent pic
Btw I think Alonso was MOTM today, even though Gerrard got the winner. We've missed him.
Btw I think Alonso was MOTM today, even though Gerrard got the winner. We've missed him.
Alonso, like everyone in the 2nd half, was %%%%%%%%.
kpg
No, this was worse I'd say. That half hour period after HT was abysmal
Not as bad as Portsmouth.
Given the context of yesterdays results, that was a great win yesterday.Simple as that
DontBuyTheSun
Not as bad as Portsmouth.
Performance wise I cant remember us being that bad to be honest, for that 30 mins after half time. We had no shape, our defenders booted the ball to kingdom come, our midfield couldn't keep it, forwards were non existant. We made Derby look half decent. Became like a lower league v premiership team cup tie in the end.
Made the winner all the sweeter though I guess and yesterday's 3 points could turn out to be very vital indeed.
kpg
Made the winner all the sweeter though I guess and yesterday's 3 points could turn out to be very vital indeed.
Made the winner all the sweeter though I guess and yesterday's 3 points could turn out to be very vital indeed.
With Arse and Chelsea dropping points, that goal off gerrards leg could be the biggest goal we score all season.
Depends what happens when we go down to city.
30 Dec, 2007 Manchester City Barclays Premier League A
02 Jan, 2008 Wigan Athletic Barclays Premier League H
06 Jan, 2008 Luton Town FA Cup 3rd Round A
12 Jan, 2008 Middlesbrough Barclays Premier League A
21 Jan, 2008 Aston Villa Barclays Premier League H 20:00
29 Jan, 2008 West Ham United Barclays Premier League A 19:45
02 Feb, 2008 Sunderland Barclays Premier League H 17:15
City is a very important game to win, would open up a nice gap, the top4 then the others..On top of that we would get ahead of Chelsea!
After that game, id expect us to win atleast 4 of the 5 games, and hopfully beat Villa too since we're at home!
*hopes for a good fun*
02 Jan, 2008 Wigan Athletic Barclays Premier League H
06 Jan, 2008 Luton Town FA Cup 3rd Round A
12 Jan, 2008 Middlesbrough Barclays Premier League A
21 Jan, 2008 Aston Villa Barclays Premier League H 20:00
29 Jan, 2008 West Ham United Barclays Premier League A 19:45
02 Feb, 2008 Sunderland Barclays Premier League H 17:15
City is a very important game to win, would open up a nice gap, the top4 then the others..On top of that we would get ahead of Chelsea!
After that game, id expect us to win atleast 4 of the 5 games, and hopfully beat Villa too since we're at home!
*hopes for a good fun*
A Club in Crisis?
As the start of 2008 draws ever nearer, I return as the bearer of bad tidings. Not much of a Christmas present but as most of us learned as kids, you can't always get what you want.
I return as the columnist of Christmas mediocrity with my main bugbear being about how Liverpool Football Club has gone from being very harmonious and with things on the up following the takeover by George Gillett and Tom Hicks, to being a club in a crisis involving the manager and the owners.
When Gillett and Hicks, using the umbrella Kop Football Limited, agreed a deal with then chairman David Moores for the complete
buyout of all shares in Liverpool Football Club in February it was hailed by many of the supporters including yours truly. For what they lacked in footballing knowledge, they would make up with financial clout given to Rafa in the transfer market. Nine months on from that immaculate conception of the new era in the club's history, things aren't looking that way. I'll keep the cheap festive puns to a minimum from now on.
So where has it all gone wrong? Let's look at the timeline of events since the Americans have taken over
Tuesday 6th February 2007 - a day that heralded a new era at Anfield as George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the joint owners of Liverpool Football Club following an agreement to buy David Moores' controlling stake in the club.
They are vastly wealthy men who made their money through entrepreneurism. Hicks specialised in leveraged buyouts and bought several well-known consumer brands. With is disposable income he invested that money into the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars, to name but two. Gillett made his money in the public broadcasting sector and started out with only three small-time television channels. With his money he has bought the Montreal Canadiens and his own NASCAR racing team - Gillett Evernham Motorsports.
They followed in the footsteps of Randy Lerner at Aston Villa and the Glazer family at Manchester United as two more American millionaires with visions on enhancing the profile of association football or 'soccer' as they call it in the United States, as well as their bank balances.
Their takeover of England's most successful club was greeted with a lot of positivity from both the fans and the manager. In turn, the new owners appeared to be embracing the club's history and traditions. They were quick to praise the supporters; the twelfth man. Gillett even said that he wanted to sit in the Kop for one game but his security wouldn't allow him to. Hicks echoed those sentiments but spoke more about business acumen and giving financial backing to 'Roffa' as well as the new stadium.
Plans for the new stadium on Stanley Park where redesigned following the arrival of the new owners which was a welcome relief to the supporters who had resigned themselves to a stadium that was another generic twenty first football stadium which resembled a cross between Bolton's Reebok Stadium and Manchester City's current home at Eastlands. The new design, unveiled in the summer, was greeted with much positivity with the unveiling of an 18,000 seating Kop that would be the centrepiece of the new ground.
However that wasn't the only thing the two Americans did. They made a sizeable amount of funds available to Benitez for strengthening his team and the jury is still out on those signings with the exception of one - Fernando Torres. Since his arrival from Athletico Madrid in July on a £20 million plus deal, Torres has set the domestic and European stage alight with ten goals in his first twelve matches. The club's record signing is proving to be a hit with the fans as well with his name
chanted in the form of the Dalglish hand-clap.
Those signings appeared to be making an impact as Liverpool started the season in a highly impressive fashion with an excellent run of form culminating with a 6-0 victory over Derby County at Anfield on September 1st which saw the club positioned at the top of the Premiership table. Unfortunately that run of form didn't last long following the departure of Benitez's right-hand man and friend of over thirteen years, Pako Ayesteran. Ayesteran was the most unlikely assistant manager as his expertise lay in physical fitness instead of football tactics but he had been with Benitez at Tenerife and Valencia so the manager knew he was the right man for the job. The reason for Ayesteran's departure still remains unknown but there appears to be a strong correlation in the team's run of form since his leaving of Liverpool. Benitez and Ayesteran were a formidable partnership, similar to that between Harry Redknapp and Jim Smith at Portsmouth during the early 2000s, so whatever happened behind the scenes has been more than a simple misunderstanding or brief falling out.
The drop in form was not as great as some in the media predicted with Liverpool going on an unbeaten run in the league until they slumped to a 3-1 defeat against Reading on Saturday 8th December. The club's European form was a little more inconsistent with defeats at the hands of Besiktas and Marseille which left them needing to win all their forthcoming games to qualify for the knock out round.
While all this was going on, relations between Benitez and Messrs Gillett and Hicks were highly strained with the manager's frustrations boiling over in his weekly pre-match press conference in late November 2007 ahead of the trip to face Newcastle.
Following the failure by England to qualify for Euro 2008, Benitez made reference to becoming Steve McClaren's successor saying that he was open to the possibility of it. The media present at the weekly pep talk at Melwood tried at every opportunity to trick Benitez into saying something which he didn't want to say in a bid for a sensationalist story but he wasn't going to give into them but his mood and approach to the press conference set off alarm bells amongst the supporters who were even more concerned at the statement released by Gillett and Hicks to the club's official website.
The brief statement said that the owners had made "a significant investment in the playing squad during the summer" and desperately wanted the team to succeed. They went on to say that they would leave any talk of buying or selling players until they'd had a meeting with Benitez which was scheduled for December.
That was on November 22nd. Three days later, following the victory at Newcastle, another statement from the owners appeared on the club's website telling the supporters that there was "nothing new to say."
It was a highly embarrassing affair for any Liverpool supporter watching it or reading the transcript as a usually media friendly Benitez was very abrupt with his answers to all the questions posed to him by reporters. Sensing that Benitez was disgruntled, the assembled journalists asked him about what funds would be made available to him from the American owners in the January transfer window to which Benitez replied, "As always I am focused on training and coaching my team." When asked if
he'd had any assurances on the situation, Benitez repeated his original answer. For the remainder of the press conference variations on his initial response were uttered.
A rumour doing the rounds on Merseyside at the time was that the reason Benitez was wearing a club tracksuit instead of his trademark three-piece suit attire on the touchline at St James Park two days after that press conference was part of his own personal protest to the owners because he had just handed in his resignation. However it appeared that the lack of contact from Gillett and Hicks was not down to their own personal ignorance but more to do with the continuing incompetence of chief executive Rick Parry who had failed to inform the co-owners about the manager's wish to discuss transfer targets and funds. It's hard to pick who's worse; Parry with his loud ties, babbling incompetence and refusal to play the 'numbers' game, or Gillett and Hicks who should've been in contact more with their employee.
Benitez probably suspected as much because the owners appeared to be highly approachable. These two gentlemen are very astute businessmen but their ownership of Liverpool Football Club is anything but a pastime. It is an investment that they wish to see a very speedy return on in the form of trophies and increased revenue for the club.
They have proven as much with the minimal investment in the squad over the summer because as former red Jim Beglin highlighted following the 2-0 Carling Cup defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The club received £10 million for reaching the Champions League final in Athens the previous season, combined with the £20 million that Benitez recouped from selling players saw £30 million go into the Anfield coffers. However those funds went out of the war chest as quickly as they went into it with Benitez spending £40 million on Torres, Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun, Lucas Leiva, Sebastian Leto and Charles Itandje.
It appears that that despite being worth an estimated $1.3 billion each, Gillett and Hicks are reluctant to put up sufficient funds to strengthen their new investment.
Their post-match meeting with Benitez after the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United at Anfield, arranged to repair relations between co-owners and manager after mixed signals from both parties, appeared to be highly positive with a statement on behalf of the owners, Benitez and chief executive Rick Parry.
George Gillett actually said that the meeting was positive and also, "Rafa is the one we want as a manager further on, and we have faith in him."
In mid December there were reports in the media that costs for the proposed new stadium costing in excess of £400 million. Despite this widely reported story which also revealed that transfer funds may be limited in order to fund the stadium, due to open in 2011, chief executive Rick Parry said that it was all untrue but revealed several days later which made him look slightly foolish.
Benitez himself was made to look especially foolish following the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Carling Cup. When asked by ITV Sport's Gabriel Clark if having money to buy players was important to strengthen the team, the manager responded by saying, "I am happy with the performance" and if the Spaniard fails to deliver the Premiership to Anfield or at least keep the club in serious contention until the final furlong in May, there may be a changing of the guard at Anfield. The owners have no time for sentiments or taking into consideration the fact that Benitez took a team of no-hopers to the summit of European
football in his first season.
There is no smoke without fire and there's no paper talk without problems. The club's supporters will be hoping that in the season of goodwill most of, if not all, the problems will be rectified and that Benitez will have free license to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window. The alternative
doesn't bear thinking about.
Will Liverpool Football Club still be a club in crisis following the closing of the January transfer window? Only time will tell but whatever happens, internal relations at Anfield are highly strained as it is so, to quote D-Reem, things can only get better.
As the start of 2008 draws ever nearer, I return as the bearer of bad tidings. Not much of a Christmas present but as most of us learned as kids, you can't always get what you want.
I return as the columnist of Christmas mediocrity with my main bugbear being about how Liverpool Football Club has gone from being very harmonious and with things on the up following the takeover by George Gillett and Tom Hicks, to being a club in a crisis involving the manager and the owners.
When Gillett and Hicks, using the umbrella Kop Football Limited, agreed a deal with then chairman David Moores for the complete
buyout of all shares in Liverpool Football Club in February it was hailed by many of the supporters including yours truly. For what they lacked in footballing knowledge, they would make up with financial clout given to Rafa in the transfer market. Nine months on from that immaculate conception of the new era in the club's history, things aren't looking that way. I'll keep the cheap festive puns to a minimum from now on.
So where has it all gone wrong? Let's look at the timeline of events since the Americans have taken over
Tuesday 6th February 2007 - a day that heralded a new era at Anfield as George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the joint owners of Liverpool Football Club following an agreement to buy David Moores' controlling stake in the club.
They are vastly wealthy men who made their money through entrepreneurism. Hicks specialised in leveraged buyouts and bought several well-known consumer brands. With is disposable income he invested that money into the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars, to name but two. Gillett made his money in the public broadcasting sector and started out with only three small-time television channels. With his money he has bought the Montreal Canadiens and his own NASCAR racing team - Gillett Evernham Motorsports.
They followed in the footsteps of Randy Lerner at Aston Villa and the Glazer family at Manchester United as two more American millionaires with visions on enhancing the profile of association football or 'soccer' as they call it in the United States, as well as their bank balances.
Their takeover of England's most successful club was greeted with a lot of positivity from both the fans and the manager. In turn, the new owners appeared to be embracing the club's history and traditions. They were quick to praise the supporters; the twelfth man. Gillett even said that he wanted to sit in the Kop for one game but his security wouldn't allow him to. Hicks echoed those sentiments but spoke more about business acumen and giving financial backing to 'Roffa' as well as the new stadium.
Plans for the new stadium on Stanley Park where redesigned following the arrival of the new owners which was a welcome relief to the supporters who had resigned themselves to a stadium that was another generic twenty first football stadium which resembled a cross between Bolton's Reebok Stadium and Manchester City's current home at Eastlands. The new design, unveiled in the summer, was greeted with much positivity with the unveiling of an 18,000 seating Kop that would be the centrepiece of the new ground.
However that wasn't the only thing the two Americans did. They made a sizeable amount of funds available to Benitez for strengthening his team and the jury is still out on those signings with the exception of one - Fernando Torres. Since his arrival from Athletico Madrid in July on a £20 million plus deal, Torres has set the domestic and European stage alight with ten goals in his first twelve matches. The club's record signing is proving to be a hit with the fans as well with his name
chanted in the form of the Dalglish hand-clap.
Those signings appeared to be making an impact as Liverpool started the season in a highly impressive fashion with an excellent run of form culminating with a 6-0 victory over Derby County at Anfield on September 1st which saw the club positioned at the top of the Premiership table. Unfortunately that run of form didn't last long following the departure of Benitez's right-hand man and friend of over thirteen years, Pako Ayesteran. Ayesteran was the most unlikely assistant manager as his expertise lay in physical fitness instead of football tactics but he had been with Benitez at Tenerife and Valencia so the manager knew he was the right man for the job. The reason for Ayesteran's departure still remains unknown but there appears to be a strong correlation in the team's run of form since his leaving of Liverpool. Benitez and Ayesteran were a formidable partnership, similar to that between Harry Redknapp and Jim Smith at Portsmouth during the early 2000s, so whatever happened behind the scenes has been more than a simple misunderstanding or brief falling out.
The drop in form was not as great as some in the media predicted with Liverpool going on an unbeaten run in the league until they slumped to a 3-1 defeat against Reading on Saturday 8th December. The club's European form was a little more inconsistent with defeats at the hands of Besiktas and Marseille which left them needing to win all their forthcoming games to qualify for the knock out round.
While all this was going on, relations between Benitez and Messrs Gillett and Hicks were highly strained with the manager's frustrations boiling over in his weekly pre-match press conference in late November 2007 ahead of the trip to face Newcastle.
Following the failure by England to qualify for Euro 2008, Benitez made reference to becoming Steve McClaren's successor saying that he was open to the possibility of it. The media present at the weekly pep talk at Melwood tried at every opportunity to trick Benitez into saying something which he didn't want to say in a bid for a sensationalist story but he wasn't going to give into them but his mood and approach to the press conference set off alarm bells amongst the supporters who were even more concerned at the statement released by Gillett and Hicks to the club's official website.
The brief statement said that the owners had made "a significant investment in the playing squad during the summer" and desperately wanted the team to succeed. They went on to say that they would leave any talk of buying or selling players until they'd had a meeting with Benitez which was scheduled for December.
That was on November 22nd. Three days later, following the victory at Newcastle, another statement from the owners appeared on the club's website telling the supporters that there was "nothing new to say."
It was a highly embarrassing affair for any Liverpool supporter watching it or reading the transcript as a usually media friendly Benitez was very abrupt with his answers to all the questions posed to him by reporters. Sensing that Benitez was disgruntled, the assembled journalists asked him about what funds would be made available to him from the American owners in the January transfer window to which Benitez replied, "As always I am focused on training and coaching my team." When asked if
he'd had any assurances on the situation, Benitez repeated his original answer. For the remainder of the press conference variations on his initial response were uttered.
A rumour doing the rounds on Merseyside at the time was that the reason Benitez was wearing a club tracksuit instead of his trademark three-piece suit attire on the touchline at St James Park two days after that press conference was part of his own personal protest to the owners because he had just handed in his resignation. However it appeared that the lack of contact from Gillett and Hicks was not down to their own personal ignorance but more to do with the continuing incompetence of chief executive Rick Parry who had failed to inform the co-owners about the manager's wish to discuss transfer targets and funds. It's hard to pick who's worse; Parry with his loud ties, babbling incompetence and refusal to play the 'numbers' game, or Gillett and Hicks who should've been in contact more with their employee.
Benitez probably suspected as much because the owners appeared to be highly approachable. These two gentlemen are very astute businessmen but their ownership of Liverpool Football Club is anything but a pastime. It is an investment that they wish to see a very speedy return on in the form of trophies and increased revenue for the club.
They have proven as much with the minimal investment in the squad over the summer because as former red Jim Beglin highlighted following the 2-0 Carling Cup defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The club received £10 million for reaching the Champions League final in Athens the previous season, combined with the £20 million that Benitez recouped from selling players saw £30 million go into the Anfield coffers. However those funds went out of the war chest as quickly as they went into it with Benitez spending £40 million on Torres, Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun, Lucas Leiva, Sebastian Leto and Charles Itandje.
It appears that that despite being worth an estimated $1.3 billion each, Gillett and Hicks are reluctant to put up sufficient funds to strengthen their new investment.
Their post-match meeting with Benitez after the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United at Anfield, arranged to repair relations between co-owners and manager after mixed signals from both parties, appeared to be highly positive with a statement on behalf of the owners, Benitez and chief executive Rick Parry.
George Gillett actually said that the meeting was positive and also, "Rafa is the one we want as a manager further on, and we have faith in him."
In mid December there were reports in the media that costs for the proposed new stadium costing in excess of £400 million. Despite this widely reported story which also revealed that transfer funds may be limited in order to fund the stadium, due to open in 2011, chief executive Rick Parry said that it was all untrue but revealed several days later which made him look slightly foolish.
Benitez himself was made to look especially foolish following the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Carling Cup. When asked by ITV Sport's Gabriel Clark if having money to buy players was important to strengthen the team, the manager responded by saying, "I am happy with the performance" and if the Spaniard fails to deliver the Premiership to Anfield or at least keep the club in serious contention until the final furlong in May, there may be a changing of the guard at Anfield. The owners have no time for sentiments or taking into consideration the fact that Benitez took a team of no-hopers to the summit of European
football in his first season.
There is no smoke without fire and there's no paper talk without problems. The club's supporters will be hoping that in the season of goodwill most of, if not all, the problems will be rectified and that Benitez will have free license to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window. The alternative
doesn't bear thinking about.
Will Liverpool Football Club still be a club in crisis following the closing of the January transfer window? Only time will tell but whatever happens, internal relations at Anfield are highly strained as it is so, to quote D-Reem, things can only get better.
Stop posting such depressing articles 
Torres's footwork is outstanding. Thought i'd post in here, so much trickery involved, his varying length of stride...his goal away to Marseille and his goal against Derby, for example, his composure on the ball, footwork, so quick, deceiving...
that guy is a very very good footballer - has to be said.
that guy is a very very good footballer - has to be said.
City finally dropped points at home.
Hopefully this will pave way for a win for us on Sunday.
Hopefully this will pave way for a win for us on Sunday.
white_haired_wizard
Torres's footwork is outstanding. Thought i'd post in here, so much trickery involved, his varying length of stride...his goal away to Marseille and his goal against Derby, for example, his composure on the ball, footwork, so quick, deceiving...
that guy is a very very good footballer - has to be said.
that guy is a very very good footballer - has to be said.
and he;s all ours! farhan
City finally dropped points at home.
Hopefully this will pave way for a win for us on Sunday.
Hopefully this will pave way for a win for us on Sunday.
Yep hopefully! 2 conceded at home is always nice to see
City drop points, so did Chelsea, Arsenal and Portsmouth
Tell me this: why do we (one of the best clubs in the world) have strikers of very average calibre such as voronin and kuyt yet blackburn (a mid table team) have strikers who would quite easily get into our side alongside torres such as santa cruz and mccarthy. Those two were TOGETHER bought for less than we paid for Kuyt aka the bluntest knife in the drawer and given the chances he has, would score twice as many as him. Something is going wrong somewhere, surely.
I would mind seeing Santa Cruz playing alongside Torres. Him or Bendtner would be idea, methinks.
Shane-O
Tell me this: why do we (one of the best clubs in the world) have strikers of very average calibre such as voronin and kuyt yet blackburn (a mid table team) have strikers who would quite easily get into our side alongside torres such as santa cruz and mccarthy. Those two were TOGETHER bought for less than we paid for Kuyt aka the bluntest knife in the drawer and given the chances he has, would score twice as many as him. Something is going wrong somewhere, surely.
To be fair, all clubs will have a weak spot in the squad, ours happens to be in strikers/2nd striker which is a problem that needs to be addressed imo...
We're not a club in crisis (yet). Jeez, there's no need to be so melodramatic.
put fabio aurelio in our team noob :|
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