épieur

I simply don't think we have the players for that right now. That kind of approach requires us to camp in the opposition half for the majority of games and our main defensive task being snuffing out attacks early. This is of course antithetical to Hodgson's 'contain and counter' approach, but in fairness it looks like we simply don't have the players to succesfully be this aggressive, defensively and offensively. No Alonso to ensure a smooth transition into possession football high up the pitch, no Mascherano no ensure that when we lose the ball, we don't lose it for long. Our limitations in our attacking play this season can be boiled down to Hodgson and lack of confidence. But us being bossed and outplayed by inferior opposition, whilst certainly sharing in those causes, imo also reflects the fact that we simply don't have the players to stop this from happening these days.

I think Lucas is on his way to being good enough to be a starter in a top 4 midfield. Not as the main man though. And that is what he is for us now. We need a general in there.

Although G&H is largely to blame for him having to shop in the bargain basement, rafa was not exactly inspired in his cheap buys. N'gog is a promising youngster, but not exactly a terrific backup striker. f*** knows what Jovanovic is supposed to be. The greek was actually good value for the money but again, he's not exactly knocking on the door for a starting place. Spending 17m on Johnson in principle wasn't a terribly wrong decision at the time for him as a player. But it sure as hell looks weird to spend that kind of money on a fullback when our squad was getting hollowed out in all other areas. Surely we could have found on 10m cheaper good enough for the first XI and put those 10m to use elsewhere. But then, that has been my problem with Rafa's transfer strategy from day one. The players he bought were generally sound enough, but far too often we spend a lot of money in areas of the team that weren't necessarily our most urgent ones and depleted resources away from properly adressing them. That was not something new to the G&H depletion era, but their lack of funds provided certainly highlighted the shortcomings of his general transfer strategy. Rafa did incredibly well in building a very strong spine to the team, much stronger than anything Houllier managed. But beyond that I don't think his transfers were all that inspired. A revolving door of good players who could do a job that meant that once he had to look in the bargain bin for his revolving door squad, the quality of our squad eroded alarmingly quickly. His main transfer legacy, a strong spine has likewise been eroded. Partly thanks to himself, with the Alonso mess, partly due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, mascherano wanting away and partly due to idiots like Purslow and Hodgson letting a player like Aquilani go on loan. But the fact is, Rafa has had opportunities to maintain the strength of our spine and wasted them. He wasted 20m on keane (I realise he didn't have much control of his sale, but if he had bought a proper player, such as a wide creative midfielder that we actually needed, instead of extra competition in an already wellstocked centre, there's no way we'd have seen a january sale like that), 'wasted' another 20m on Aquilani (a good player, but he erred seriously in signing a player who would be injured from the start when we needed someone to fill the void from alonso immediately) and for 17m Johnson has not exactly established himself as a key player so far. G&H and Purslow certainly played a big part in our demise. But that doesn't hide the fact that the transfers Rafa did make in his last two seasons were just not sharp enough.

It's odd. Before his legs went, he kept the likes of Zidane and Totti utterly quiet on the big scene. I figured he'd at least be a lesser version of Hamann, who didn't need great stamina because he knew where to position himself all the time. It's like his footballing brain got flushed with his legs. He has no idea how to adapt his game and his decisions are all dominated by the trepidacious awareness that he can't do what he used to.

He may never back down, but he will be walked all over.

Scott Parker would be a good signing under Hodgson. Good player for consolidating our position as a midtable team. Guarantee we won't be relegated with him in the side. We need players that are the envy of other sides, who can lift the team and win games for us. Not players that are a mild improvement on what we already have, if Parker is even that. He'd be a good signing as a squad player, but we simply can't afford to be in the market for squad players when we have an urgent need to fill out the starting XI first and foremost.

In a way. I think it's a real possibility that this team collectively don't believe that are all that anymore. And aren't. I'm not sure you need to flush the team, but I think it may require several marquee signings for them to start believing they can win things on a regular basis and play like it. Also, I think Kuyt is finished. He's lost what he had.

Alonso left and our team coherence went away. Then Mascherano left and now teams are dominating our midfield as well. There is a gaping hole left in our midfield and it really is no surprise that we are so lacking in what they gave to us when our replacements are Meireless and Poulsen. Meireless is a decent enough player to have, but if we want to have pretentions of being a top 4 again, we need players visibly better ahead of him in the pecking order.

Riise was a better defender than he gets credit for. In his latter years it was only really Gronkjaer and Pennant who had his number. Whereas players like Ronaldo he kept firmly in his pocket. That infamous game against chelsea aside, he usually did well when the chips were down in the important games. He was even a cultured technical fullback for a while. Shame he forgot about that in favour of shooting on sight and longballs towards the end. Strange that his game regressed like that.

Since it is established on the webs that carra conspired against Rafa, that Rafa defo would have dropped him this season (even though he should have done so a lot earlier and never did, even playing mascherano and skertl at rb instead of moving him out of the centre for just a few games), I believe the Rafatollah advocates against him being a starter. Personally, I think he is still better than skittle but we really should be looking for someone better to partner Agger.

Certainly hasn't been true this season. In fact, don't think it's been true in the past two seasons that's coincided with his loss of form. Imo, his 'constant communication' is no great loss. His moaning and shouting at others is indiscriminate and just as often happens when he makes mistakes himself. Reina is the true leader and organiser at the back and the one the backfor should be deferring to on the pitch.

Suarez doesn't impress me that much. He could grow into a terrific player but I think it just as likely he won't. Turan though... I might just do a little jiggle if we signed him.

Holloway is a character and decent enough for it, but he has his moments of buffoonery. He looked like he was ready to cry from frustrated outrage when he took it upon himself to comment on Rooney wanting away from United. He does like to talk a bit too much.

We certainly do to get back in the top 4. Roy, and the sycophantic press, was peddling the line that we could only expect improvement with new players. Good to have a man who believes even this team should be doing much better than it is.

There's no way he'd join as an assistant. Secondly, he is leaving FC Copenhagen in the summer to coach the Norwegian national team. That's where he is going.

gasp. But, but... we were told we'd need new players to do better!

Kenny is actually about to do the old 'what's that on your shirt' trick on stevie. Brilliant.

An away game coming up and I actually fancy our chances. It's been a while since I've felt that.

purslow is gone. Ryan needs our help.

I love Ryan. He's the most lovable stupid footballer around.

expectations. f*ck havig our feet on the ground, hodgson style. Let's win the bloody Europa League and make an epic push for 4th place. Only because Torres has that wand.

This. The club has lost its way the past years under the tyranny of G&H. Dalglish embodies LFC and everything it stands for more than any other person. Having him in charge means instilling the liverpool way back in the dressing room and the staff surrounding it. Hopefully, it will rub off in the higher echelons as well. Love him. There is not a person around I want to see succeed more than him, and not just because I want LFC to be succesful. Really hope he does so well he gets an extention, but even if he doesn't it will all have been worth it. This simply feels right. Me too. Add to that Dalglish's own "Torres has got a magic wand." Love it. The man hasn't been back for five minutes and he is slinging out classic lines aleady.

genius

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I should probably say my 'coup de grace; was meant metaphorically. fwiw, I completely concur.