Half way

[Jim D]

The table shows after 19 games we've accumulated 37 points, at the same stage last season we had accumulated 34 points.

 

So we've bettered our points tally on the first 19 games by only 3 points. Putting this into context, there has been minimal improvement from last season considering we already been to Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, Goodison, Emirates and came away with zero points.

 

Our away form has improved dramatically and been totally turned on its head but we've let ourselves down badly at home compared to our rivals. Points taken at home this season by the top 4:

 

Arsenal = 28 points

Mancs = 28 points

Chelsea = 22 points

Liverpool = 16 points

 

There is a 12 point differential between ourselves and the League leaders and that ultimately explains the gap between ourselves and Arsenal right now in the table. The result today against City on its own is a point gained but in the context of the title race it is 2 points dropped because we are trying to make up for our poor home form. It seems under Rafa we are either good at home but poor away or good away but poor at home. I hate saying this but I personally feel we've left ourselves with too much to do, yes we can hope but I think we are out of the title race and the best we can achieve this season is another 3rd place finish.

Edited December 30, 2007 by Jim D

[Guest efcrmagic]

I'm glad to see you don't count the win at our place as "real" seeing as how much of a farce it was.

 

I thank you for seeing sense.

[Guest Si]

Dont think you need points totals to see we are not title contenders.

 

We lack the belief and quality to win the league right now.

[RafaShanks]

Dont think you need points totals to see we are not title contenders.

 

We lack the belief and quality to win the league right now.

 

Agreed.

 

Another year wasted in the league. Hopefully we'll have some joy in the cup competitions.

 

In the summer Rafa will need to show his ruthless streak. We all know which players aren't good enough.

[Gunga Din]

The table shows after 19 games we've accumulated 37 points, at the same stage last season we had accumulated 34 points.

 

So we've bettered our points tally on the first 19 games by only 3 points. Putting this into context, there has been minimal improvement from last season considering we already been to Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, Goodison, Emirates and came away with zero points.

 

Our away form has improved dramatically and been totally turned on its head but we've let ourselves down badly at home compared to our rivals. Points taken at home this season by the top 4:

 

Arsenal = 28 points

Mancs = 28 points

Chelsea = 22 points

Liverpool = 16 points

 

There is a 12 point differential between ourselves and the League leaders and that ultimately explains the gap between ourselves and Arsenal right now in the table. The result today against City on its own is a point gained but in the context of the title race it is 2 points dropped because we are trying to make up for our poor home form. It seems under Rafa we are either good at home but poor away or good away but poor at home. I hate saying this but I personally feel we've left ourselves with too much to do, yes we can hope but I think we are out of the title race and the best we can achieve this season is another 3rd place finish.

 

i was saying there was a real danger of this happening three months ago, and was accused of just being negative for the sake of it. 85 points is what we would need to win the league. we are nowhere near consistant enough to mount a challenge. we haven't won 5 league games in a row in almost 2 years.

 

but too many of our fans seem happy with a top 4 finish. the best thing that could happen this club is if UEFA put the Champions league back to entry for the champions only. it might give a few people at the club a kick up the a*** to get the club back to where we want to be

[surf]

The table shows after 19 games we've accumulated 37 points, at the same stage last season we had accumulated 34 points.

 

So we've bettered our points tally on the first 19 games by only 3 points. Putting this into context, there has been minimal improvement from last season considering we already been to Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, Goodison, Emirates and came away with zero points.

 

Our away form has improved dramatically and been totally turned on its head but we've let ourselves down badly at home compared to our rivals. Points taken at home this season by the top 4:

 

Arsenal = 28 points

Mancs = 28 points

Chelsea = 22 points

Liverpool = 16 points

 

There is a 12 point differential between ourselves and the League leaders and that ultimately explains the gap between ourselves and Arsenal right now in the table. The result today against City on its own is a point gained but in the context of the title race it is 2 points dropped because we are trying to make up for our poor home form. It seems under Rafa we are either good at home but poor away or good away but poor at home. I hate saying this but I personally feel we've left ourselves with too much to do, yes we can hope but I think we are out of the title race and the best we can achieve this season is another 3rd place finish.

 

Not so much poor home form as poor form against the top teams, IMO.

[Cunny]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle3111742.ece

 

This sums it up for me, by Oliver Kay in The Times

 

This was an all-too-familiar tale for Liverpool. When they come to reflect on another unsuccessful title challenge, they will rue points dropped at home to Birmingham City and Tottenham Hotspur, as well as their failure to beat any of their three title rivals at Anfield, but it is not only on home turf that they have come unstuck.

 

Yesterday’s performance was reminiscent of their goalless draws away to Portsmouth and Blackburn Rovers, matches that they could and should have won but lacked the cutting edge to do so. All three were creditable results in one sense, but draw too many of those games and you leave yourselves in difficulty, particularly if you cannot beat your main rivals.

 

BenÍtez claimed that the number of chances his team had created – he cited 17 goal attempts – showed that Liverpool “can beat anybody”, but the more relevant fact is that, at the halfway stage in the Premier League season, they have beaten only three of the teams that make up the top nine. They are strong enough to hold their own against just about anybody – or to “control the game”, a favourite BenÍtez phrase – but too often they lack the individual brilliance to turn a commanding performance into a win, particularly if Gerrard and Torres are off-colour, as was the case yesterday.

[RafaShanks]

Not so much poor home form as poor form against the top teams, IMO.

 

Bit of both actually. Stupid home draws have cost us. 2 points out of 9 against our bitter rivals is piss poor.

 

This is what has cost us.

 

Our away form which is usually dire in seasons gone by, has been superb, which is one of the best in the Premiership.

 

| Home | Away

Team P W D L F A W D L F A GD PTS

1 Arsenal 20 9 1 0 23 7 5 4 1 17 9 24 47

2 Man Utd 20 9 1 0 22 3 5 2 3 15 8 26 45

3 Chelsea 20 6 4 0 20 8 6 1 3 11 7 16 41

4 Liverpool 19 4 4 1 20 6 6 3 1 13 6 21 37

[Swipe]

In many respects, there wasn't too much wrong with our play today - until it got to the final third.

 

Torres had a bad game, and when that happens it's a worry, cos we're simply not good enough in this area.

 

Kuyt and Voronin are terrible strikers.

 

And that's a worry, because unless we have a much more exciting january transfer window than we're expectin, there's no chance of this problem being rectified until the summer - and that's before we get into the politics of money and what will happen to Rafa.

 

Once again, our challenge is all but up before the turn of the year. Not good enough.

 

Think we're playing for 3rd place this season with Chelsea.

[Guest Kaizer]

We have scored 33 goals so far, that is an indication of improvement but we still lack a bit behind to be real contenders, if we keep up the exact same numbers we will end on 66 goals.

 

A few goals short from the minimum amount of goals I think you will need to win the league this season, around 75 goals scored.

 

Goals scored from the Champions, second place and us since the PL started:

2006/07: 1- 83 goals, 2- 64 goals, Liverpool- 57 goals.

2005/06: 1- 72 goals, 2- 72 goals, Liverpool- 57 goals.

2004/05: 1- 72 goals, 2- 87 goals, Liverpool- 52 goals.

2003/04: 1- 73 goals, 2- 67 goals, Liverpool- 55 goals.

2002/03: 1- 74 goals, 2- 85 goals , Liverpool- 61 goals.

2001/02: 1- 79 goals, 2- 67 goals.

2000/01: 1- 79 goals, 2- 63 goals, Liverpool- 71 goals.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1999/00: 1- 97 goals, 2- 73 goals, Liverpool- 51 goals

1998/99: 1- 80 goals, 2- 59 goals, Liverpool- 68 goals

1997/98: 1- 68 goals, 2- 73 goals, Liverpool- 68 goals

1996/97: 1- 76 goals, 2- 73 goals, Liverpool- 62 goals

1995/96: 1- 73 goals, 2- 66 goals, Liverpool- 70 goals

1994/95: 1- 80 goals, 2- 77 goals, Liverpool- 65 goals

1993/94: 1- 80 goals, 2- 63 goals, Liverpool- 59 goals

1992/93: 1- 67 goals, 2- 57 goals, Liverpool- 62 goals.

[Florist Cinema Pond Goal]

Today killed the hope in my mind but in all honesty we lost it the moment Tevez put past Reina. 2 points from 9 at home against your rivals is poor, we simply left ourselves too much to do especially when you factor in the number of other draws we've accumulated.

[Guest MB_talklfc]

We can write off this season and start preparing for next one NOW. Disappointing season once again, lost the title even before turn of the year, really is NOT good enough.

[Guest GrandpaSimpson]

We can write off this season and start preparing for next one NOW. Disappointing season once again, lost the title even before turn of the year, really is NOT good enough.

 

How many times have we "written off" a season with 5 months plus remaining. Too many is the answer and its f***ing embarrassing. Will we ever challenge for our bread and butter again?

[Maldini]

We're not out of it yet lads, calm down.

[Knox_Harrington]

We're not out of it yet lads, calm down.

We're not; we can walk out of Christmas joint top of the mini league of four but there is an element of an opportunity missed. Regardless, yesterday's performance was a good performance, one of the better this season and I include games we've won in that. What's hurt us, and people were mocked when they called it, were the home games against Spurs and Birmingham. If we have four points more now, we're four behind United with a game in hand and that's "not out of it yet", that's right in it.

[Guest MB_talklfc]

We're not; we can walk out of Christmas joint top of the mini league of four but there is an element of an opportunity missed. Regardless, yesterday's performance was a good performance, one of the better this season and I include games we've won in that. What's hurt us, and people were mocked when they called it, were the home games against Spurs and Birmingham. If we have four points more now, we're four behind United with a game in hand and that's "not out of it yet", that's right in it.

 

Not to mention we lost to reading when the team was on TOP scoring form when every other team have no problem scoring 6 pass reading.

[Maldini]

We're not; we can walk out of Christmas joint top of the mini league of four but there is an element of an opportunity missed. Regardless, yesterday's performance was a good performance, one of the better this season and I include games we've won in that. What's hurt us, and people were mocked when they called it, were the home games against Spurs and Birmingham. If we have four points more now, we're four behind United with a game in hand and that's "not out of it yet", that's right in it.

 

spot on. I was saying to a mate yesterday that the City game was the sort of one Ronaldo has been winning single handedly for United over the past couple of years, same goes for the two you mention. That's still the only advantage they have over us, they have more goal-scoring threat from midfield and more creativity in the final third.

 

I'd prefer us to wait until the summer to sign a CB and go out and get a quality winger in January.

Edited December 31, 2007 by Maldini

[DarthVader]

spot on. I was saying to a mate yesterday that the City game was the sort of one Ronaldo has been winning single handedly for United over the past couple of years, same goes for the two you mention. That's still the only advantage they have over us, they have more goal-scoring threat from midfield and more creativity in the final third.

 

I'd prefer us to wait until the summer to sign a CB and go out and get a quality winger in January.

 

I'd prefer us to sign a decent CB in January rather than wait until the summer.Arbeloa looked shaky in the first 20 - 25 mins and had City been more adventurous they could have caused us problems at the back.

 

How many quality wingers out there who would really improve our first team?I can think of Ribery,Quaresma and maybe Bentley.None are available in january.

[Maldini]

I'd prefer us to sign a decent CB in January rather than wait until the summer.Arbeloa looked shaky in the first 20 - 25 mins and had City been more adventurous they could have caused us problems at the back.

 

How many quality wingers out there who would really improve our first team?I can think of Ribery,Quaresma and maybe Bentley.None are available in january.

 

We're talking about signing a player to be third/fourth choice or signing a player to be first choice.

[DarthVader]

We're talking about signing a player to be third/fourth choice or signing a player to be first choice.

 

If we are talking about a winger definitely 1st choice.Ribery or Quaresma would be ideal as they are mobile and can play on either wing.They score goals too.

 

We have 2 wingers right now - Kewell and Pennant.Pennant will always be average and doesn't score goals while Kewell has been ravaged by injuries and is not the same player who was such an attacking threat at Leeds.His best years are behing him.

[Florist Cinema Pond Goal]

We're not out of it yet lads, calm down.

 

We've dropped 20 points from 57. The lowest points tally of the champions in the last 4 seasons has been 89 points. To achieve 89 points we can only afford to drop 5 points from 57, and bear in mind that's setting the target of the lowest points tally achieved by the eventual champions of the past 4 seasons.

 

Now factor in that we travel to Old Trafford, the Emirates and Stamford Bridge. Rafa's league record away against Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United stands at 0 from 27.

 

We can make a challenge and get within 6 points in the final league table but do you honestly believe we can win this?

Edited December 31, 2007 by Florist Cinema Pond Goal

[Coyler]

We can make a challenge and get within 6 points in the final league table but do you honestly believe we can win this?

Have teams leading a league never lost two games towards the end of a season before or something?

[Florist Cinema Pond Goal]

Have teams leading a league never lost two games towards the end of a season before or something?

 

What?

 

I'm saying 83 is possible but 89 is too far. Are you making the case that it will only take 83 points to win the league?

[Earl Hafler]

How many times in recent memory has a team come from our position in the league at Christmas to win the title ? Of those, how many times was it us ?

 

People might mention Istanbul but that was against one opponent in a single match.

 

The real odds of us winning the title must be over 100-1

[Guest Ant]

We are out of the league race because points at home to teams like Birmingham and Spurs have been deemed acceptable. because we had this crazy positive thought that we would make up ground around this stage of the season.

 

Which we haven't, we have dropped more points on teams above us, and even when they have dropped points, so have we.

 

It's really ironic that it would of only taken 2 wins at home to get us back up there, or there abouts.

 

Anyone who thinks we are in this race is seriously deluding themselves.

 

Get ready for the cliche boys and girls...

 

 

MAYBE

 

NEXT

 

Wait for it...

 

SEASON