The Guv

Unfortunate for you is the reality that today's game is a business, governed by business principals and practices. Far from simply being an analogy, this is a real situation that Hicks and Gillett will soon have to face and address.

Because we were chasing shadows while they ran circles around us.

Magic8Ball, Your company's success is defined by seldom (not never) hitting set targets and your main competitors enjoying greater levels of success.

You're a company owner. Your company isn't hitting set targets and has seldom done so during the 4 year appointment of the company's current "project manager", despite significant investment. Your company's competitors however, have enjoyed greater success, greater growth, and their "projects" have had a better reception in the marketplace during this period. What do you do? a) Replace the project manager b) Inject more capital into your "project" c) other - please state

I'm embarrassed. Our team is f***ing s***.

The team in shockingly incoherent. The quality of football on display is utter sh!te and has been all season bar 2 or 3 matches. Morale is low. Players are penalised for playing with passion whilst single-handedly dominanting a game. Players that struggle to execute the most basic of football skills regularly feature in the first team. Watching Liverpool is becoming a chore, a duty of alligiance, rather than a pleasure. I'm of the opinion that this is the result of erratic rotation, poor man management and poor tactics; faults that are all managerial. These issues must be addressed and sorted before this campaign slips into the depths of mediocrity. I couldn't bear to watch us in the UEFA Cup.

Yes, and would have been subbed for his efforts. Passion is a bad bad thing.

I can feel it. I'm never wrong.

Forsight or hindsight. Which is better?

Would prefer Aurelio to Arbeloa, but otherwise agree. Mix that with consistency, slick passing, movement off the ball and a dose of desire and that might do it.

....

In answer to the initial question, I was really optimistic by our form, performances and mentality during the first three or so matches of the season. It was new, it was refreshing and we were winning. However, it was the Portsmouth game where normal service was resumed and since then I haven't been convinced that we'll even mount a title challenge this season. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. What's most frustrating this time around however is that we clearly have the quality to do so. At our best I believe that there's no team in Europe that can cope with us. But quality sitting on the bench means nothing. Nor does quality with the wrong mentality or low personal morale.

Mooks, do you really think Lawrenson's views were delusional? Who are our "match-winners" if not the four or five mentioned? Do you not see the logic in what he's saying; that consistantly playing these players from the start will give us a better chance of winning matches at a time when we're not performing? (and I wonder why) We're a load of rotated rubbish at the moment and a bit of consistancy, mixed with the starting of our "match-winners" (within reason) will go a long way. Or maybe I'm also delusional.

Got a good feeling about this game. Gerrard in particular.

As i saw the match: Individual performances Torres: World class! Best performance in a liverpool shirt. Crouch: helped in creating space for torres, slow, some decent touches, non-goal threat Leto: average, slow reaction, good interceptions, great pass for torres assist Lucas: composed, missing in 2nd half Yossi: great goal, poor positioning, worked hard and covered at the back Momo: played in 1st gear 1st half, switched to 3rd in the 2nd and bossed the midfield Keeper: uninspiring start, improved during half, at fault for their 2nd Gerrard: showed why he's simply the best Team Good performance, slow start but improved immensely as the game went on, fluid attacking - a pleasure to watch. Torres was phenomenal! (well done Rafa!)

As i saw first half: Individual performances Torres: class touches, strong, quick, threatening, good runs Crouch: ineffective, slow, some decent touches, average distribution Leto: average, slow reaction, good interceptions Lucas: composed Yossi: great goal, poor positioning Momo: playing in 1st gear Keeper: uninspiring start, improved during half Team Poor start, got better as half went on, not enough attempts on goal, too many short passes backwards and sideways, reasonably assured at the back, showed glimpses of start-of-season form

When has a poor Liverpool performance/result not been the result of poor team selection or use of the wrong tactics? Mourinho just got sacked as Chelsea's board believed he was having an adverse affect on their performances on the pitch. How many times has Benitez had an adverse affect on our performances? My question is, if we do not win the title, or mount a serious challenge for it this year, should Benitez be sacked?

I remember him doing exactly the same to Pennant at the start of last season after he made an impressive start to his Liverpool career. He came back looking half the player he was, confidence shattered till the latter parts of the season. Lessons not learnt it seems.

Apparently, Torres should only be played against class opposition (be it not after an international break) as we have enough quality to beat other teams without him. f***ing b******s.

This is s***. After looking so good earlier on this season...

FFS! Don't mean to be negative before a ball's been kicked, but...FFS! (Especially if its all in the name of rotation!) Just pisses me off. 3 - 0 (Gerrard, Masch, Crouch) :-)

Same here. He hadn't been his usual charismatic/a****** self this season, seeming muted and distant during press conferences like he wasn't bothered anymore. I remember watching SSN a couple days ago and he was reading out Chelsea's injury list with an expression on his face like he wasn't arsed. He will be missed. Like Zoob said tho, this unfortunately could be a blessing in disquise for 'em, as everything wasn't exactly in unison. Wonder what the root cause was... treatment of Ballack & Shevchenko maybe?

Said in slight jest, yes, but not daft. We've both presented our arguements so all we can do at this point is agree to disagree. Or we can continue going back & fourth till dusk turns to dawn if you want? (in typical forum tradition)... Cheers.

Ok, allow me to retort... *cough* Firstly, my notion that we were trying to show the world how big our squad is was clearly tongue-in-cheek. However, upon scrutiny, this statement still holds enough weight for me to form a valid defense of it (or would I even if it didn't...?). You counter argued stating that Benitez picked our best team from what was available to him on the day. Now, in my opinion of course, I believe this statement to be absurdly inaccurate to say the least. Benitez, with his wealth of footballing knowledge, can not and in my opinion did not believe the starting eleven he picked yesterday to be the best team he could have selected from what was available. The manager (and others within the club's hierarchy) have highlighted our increased squad strength on numerous occasions thus far this season (whether promted to or not). Now what better way to demonstrate this than to leave out your captain (and arguable the best midfielder in the world), the striker you brought in during the summer for a club record fee, and one of the brightest emerging stars in world football. Did he believed that yesterdays team, without Gerrard, Torres & Babel, was stronger than a team with them in? No, I'm sorry but I just don't buy that. So why? To save players for the Porto game on Tuesday? Ok, this could have been argued in the past, before Benitez assesed the league as being his priority and the priority of the club this season. But even if this was the case, there's still an element of the "look how big and talented our squad is" syndrome in this strategy. If we were solely gunning for the 3 points, like we should have been as serious title contenders, we would have fielded our best available team (as Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal did), and yes, a team that included our best players, who were not as injured, exhausted or physically inept as you would like to believe. Yes, the statement was made during a period of immense frustration immediately after the match, and wasn't really intended to be taken biblically, but there's still an element of truth in it no matter what angle you look at it. No further questions your honour.