1996/97 The Premiership Tears...

[Chewie]

on sky this morning they were showing the 1996/97 season and I just couldn't believe that I couldn't remember how badly we threw the league away that year!! It was a shocker....so many lost points at crucial times even though we were capable of playing some great football...

 

a home loss to freakin' Coventry who were bottom of the league!

scum at home when we were 1 point behing em with 4 games to go...and the downfall of David James....

that draw with everscum and fowler's red card (incidentally that gave Owen his run out...)

with 4 games to go we had 64 points...by the end of the season we had 68...defeats to scum, Wimbledon and a dreary draw...

honestly - that was ours to win and watching it again I almost convinced myself that we were going to do it....then the reality check came home....

 

the way they do those programmes too is to use actual prematch build up from the time rather than reminiscing and they had a feature on how Evans was rebuilding the Shankly Way...bit by bit...then we dropped points at Villa

 

made me wonder though...how would our club have differed if we won it under Evans...would we have moved on from there? how different things might have been - it'ld have bought him at least another three seasons - would we have improved or would the party boys have wanted more...it's that old chestnut about Fergie...the year they won the FA cup that saved his bacon they were close to going out in the third round until Mark Robins won it for em...Mark Robins eh - quite possibly the most important player in the scum's last 15 year history - if they'ld have lost that it'ld have been another new manager and even more upheaval and we'ld probably have won the league a few more times in the early 90s....

 

strange footie init...I know there ain't much of a point being made here...but maybe its just that sometimes it just goes for ya and sometimes it doesn't....

 

but where would that era have taken us if Roy had have won it....we played some blinding football then by the way!

 

Chewie

[Lee W]

....we played some blinding football then by the way!

 

Just a shame it was all in the oppo's half.

[Chewie]

Just a shame it was all in the oppo's half.

 

not necessarily true - David James played many blinders in the last dozen games!!!

 

Chewie

[Guest Snorky]

David James was never as bad as the media made out.

[Chewie]

David James was never as bad as the media made out.

 

actually I agree with you Snorky....

 

don't know if you remember but at the start of that season the great dope....er...dane...was having a Mare at Old Toilet and Ginsoak gave him some time off....meanwhile James was absolutely brilliant....

 

but come about March time it all reversed...the dane saved everything while L'Eric was knocking em in and James was flapping at everything...he never really recovered after that due to poor form and the expectation that he would have poor form...once a label is attached its hard to shift and Calamity stayed with him for a very long while....

 

there was just so much potential in that side and so much of the history of our club in the last decade probably turned on their inability to convert genuine quality into medals....

[Guest Snorky]

Also, James was for the most of his Liverpool career playing behind some awful defenders, I would have loved to have seen him stay and play behind Hyypia and Henchoz.

[anny road]

david James can be a great keeper but he switches off

 

he didnt do it that much last season i grant you but at our place, Vill and City he used to do it every so often and it cost spoints

 

Reina, for example, just doesnt

[Guest Snorky]

david James can be a great keeper but he switches off

 

he didnt do it that much last season i grant you but at our place, Vill and City he used to do it every so often and it cost spoints

 

Reina, for example, just doesnt

 

Reina had a dodgy patch at the start of last season, there was a time when Dudek was even being considered :shudder:

[Chewie]

david James can be a great keeper but he switches off

 

he didnt do it that much last season i grant you but at our place, Vill and City he used to do it every so often and it cost spoints

 

Reina, for example, just doesnt

 

i think for keepers more than any other players the difference at that level is a mental one....

 

quite a lot of keepers at lower clubs look great cos they are involved quite a bit and have to make a lot of saves. The goals against columns for their teams however is rarely in the top five in the country...in short they hav emore shots to save and more chances to concede....

 

yet at the top clubs its concentration needed to be out of the game for long periods of time and then to make the right decisions when it really matters...the fact that you haven't been doing much for 10 - 15 minutes doesnt mean you have to get over excited at having something to do...I reckon its the ability to not be doing much and then doing the simple things well without trying to make yourself look spectacular that separates the top goalkeepers from those of similar ability outside of the top teams...

 

quite apart from the keeper debate...how would we have done with that side if they had won it eh....Roy would have been granted a lot more years as manager and the course of history would have been very different....

 

what if eh....

[Lee W]

Reina had a dodgy patch at the start of last season, there was a time when Dudek was even being considered :shudder:

 

His confidence got knocked a bit by that Zamora fluke, which he was unfairly blamed for by the hounds.

[Cobs]

His confidence got knocked a bit by that Zamora fluke, which he was unfairly blamed for by the hounds.

think it was more when he followed it up with that c**k-up for Everton's 3rd in the derby

[Earl Hafler]

David James was never as bad as the media made out.

 

Yes, he was.

[Diarmuid]

Reina had a dodgy patch at the start of last season, there was a time when Dudek was even being considered :shudder:

A lot of our players didn't start too well last season. Reina got a lot of harsh criticism back then, a lot of it was unjustified.

[Earl Hafler]

david James can be a great keeper but he switches off

 

he didnt do it that much last season i grant you but at our place, Vill and City he used to do it every so often and it cost spoints

 

Reina, for example, just doesnt

 

Reina has made mistakes and he has been the victim of freak goals but it hasn't taken him a season to recover. Very different to our previous keepers and i wouldn't swap him for anyone.

[Guest Snorky]

Yes, he was.

 

No, he wasn't.

[Guest Snorky]

Reina has made mistakes and he has been the victim of freak goals but it hasn't taken him a season to recover. Very different to our previous keepers and i wouldn't swap him for anyone.

 

Neither would I.

[Guz]

Didn't we have like the 2nd best defence in the league that season or is my memory playing tricks on me? Goals against wise i mean. I think at home there were quite a few teams who werent giving away many goals but away from home there cant have been many that conceeded less than us

Edited July 31, 2007 by Guz

[JohnnyH]

think it was more when he followed it up with that c**k-up for Everton's 3rd in the derby

 

That wasn't a c**k-up. He was trying to keep the ball in because we were 2-0 down with time running out. If we were up 2-0 he would have just palmed it over the bar for a corner. Possibly poor decision making but done with the right idea. I didn't fault him for that. It was just one of those things.

[psl]

That wasn't a c**k-up. He was trying to keep the ball in because we were 2-0 down with time running out. If we were up 2-0 he would have just palmed it over the bar for a corner. Possibly poor decision making but done with the right idea. I didn't fault him for that. It was just one of those things.

 

Not quite sure how you can say that wasn't a c**k up.

[Earl Hafler]

No, he wasn't.

 

[Bo Benn]

I think it is at least fair to say he was the worst 1st choice keeper we've had is the last three decades. Including Ray, Brucie, Westerveld, Dudek, Reina, Carson and Kirkland (last one might be questionable).

[Leo No.8]

James has proven to be a good keeper in the latter years of his career, and he always had the ability to do so.

 

But his problem was always that 50% of goalkeeping is the mental side, and that was where he fell down. James always seems like quite a laid back guy, which is why I find it strange he always dealt so badly with pressure.

 

The bigger the game, the more likely he was to panic and make a horrible mistake; the cup final is a great example - total panic, there was just no need to come for that corner but it was like in his nervousness he'd already decided before the dead ball was kicked he was coming for it.

 

Playing for Portsmouth, there's very little pressure as they are a middle of the road side with no great expectations and since going there he has been outstanding. I think it's the ideal situation for him there.

[fred milne]

I think it is at least fair to say he was the worst 1st choice keeper we've had is the last three decades. Including Ray, Brucie, Westerveld, Dudek, Reina, Carson and Kirkland (last one might be questionable).

Kirkland was worse.

[Guest Anders Honoré]

vesterweld was also worse.

 

As I recall it, it was sometime around when he began getting international callups that James turned s***e. Never really recovered for us.

[Bo Benn]

If felt more comfortable with Sander than Jamo. Both had their share of blunders, Westerveld was more comfortable handling the ball with his feet and I don't think he was as bad as James when dealing with crosses. I do admit it's difficult to agree one decent keeper to another. I tend to arrange keepers into World Class > Good > Not very good and below. As long as we have a wold class keep as we do now, who is also very young i cannot complain. Would not want to swap Reina with Buffon for instance.

 

Anyway, should not bash James on his birthday

 

edit: oh and I used to love how Westerveld would have shot at goal from 90 yards

Edited August 1, 2007 by obey Hysén