Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Highsider · 22-02-2009 09:46PM

whatawaster wrote: »

Kuyt was out best player today, changed the game against Portsmouth, and plays a valuable role for the club.

Agreed. Kuyt is one of the most under rated players in the league. Sure he ain't no Maradona but he's no Pennent thank god.

rossie1977 · 22-02-2009 10:15PM

PHB wrote: »

Im sorry, I just don't get this way of defending Benetiz.
People say United have a better squad (I agree with that), but whose fault is that?
Since Benetiz joined Liverpool, United and Liverpool have spent very similar amounts of money.

The blame of United's squad is better than Liverpool is at the foot of Benetiz. Even if he is tactically good enough, he hasn't been good enough in the transfer market. And the excuse that its because of funding we all know is a load of crock.

there is of course another way of looking at this;

ferguson spent as much if not more than dalglish between 1987 and 1991 yet never came close to challenging liverpool during that time

jesus_thats_gre · 22-02-2009 10:42PM

PHB wrote: »

Im sorry, I just don't get this way of defending Benetiz.
People say United have a better squad (I agree with that), but whose fault is that?
Since Benetiz joined Liverpool, United and Liverpool have spent very similar amounts of money.

The blame of United's squad is better than Liverpool is at the foot of Benetiz. Even if he is tactically good enough, he hasn't been good enough in the transfer market. And the excuse that its because of funding we all know is a load of crock.

You keep posting the same thing without ever mentioning the years before. You can't seriously believe that those years don't count?

missingtime · 22-02-2009 10:57PM

Benitez has never had the chance to buy the players outright (apart from Torres possibly Babel)

Everyone talks that he should have bought this player and that player but the board would never give him 15m for one position (eg Dani Alves) so he has to buy a dossena and a arbeloa because those positions need to be filled. Its unfair to say he has been bad in the transfer market he's had to make do with the funds he has.

~Marky~ · 22-02-2009 11:55PM

Dont know if this has been posted but gave me a good laugh

Manchester United fan who drove 400 miles for an amorous rendevous with a woman he wooed on Facebook discovered he’d been well and truly stitched up by a couple of Liverpudlian pranksters.

Stuart Slann, 39, met the pair on a holiday in Cancun, Mexico, last November. According to the Telegraph, the three soon started giving it some gob about their rival football teams, and Slann was subsequently thrown into the swimming pool by the Liverpool fans.

Back in Blighty, the two decided to further humiliate their victim, and set up a Facebook page under the name of "Emma" - a Scottish temptress who began to flirt with the unsuspecting Slann. After a month of preliminaries, Emma arranged a face-to-face with her beau in Aberdeen, and he duly drove from Sheffield to the remote farm where he expected to have his evil way with his online girlfriend.

Slann explained: "I’d been chatting to this girl on Facebook for about a month or so. I really thought she was genuine, and I had no reason to doubt it. On the night she asked me to Scotland I was on the road for about nine hours. And then when I got to this remote farm she sent me a text to say she was still in work.

"That’s what made it worse, not only had I driven for nine hours, but I had to wait for about another three and a half hours for her to finish work."

Finally, one of the Liverpudlians rang to tell Slann the terrible truth. The recorded conversation last week escaped into the wild, and has since popped up on YouTube. The recording contains further humiliating details of the hoax, and is NSFW:

Slann said: "There’s no doubt that I’ve been done good and proper by the lads from Liverpool. It was cruel but I’ll hold my hands up and say they really wound me up."

He concluded: "If they had asked to drive to Manchester, Leeds or even Liverpool it wouldn’t have been so bad and maybe I’d have seen the funny side. But to drag me all the way to Aberdeen was just cruel."

Slann’s wife Louise, 32, discovered the "affair" last week when the whole sorry tale went public. The Slann’s marriage "is now over", the Telegraph notes

Watch the video as well

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/facebook%252Bnightmare/video/x8ampc_facebook-nightmare_fun

zing · 23-02-2009 12:04AM

Tusky wrote: »

Last season we had .... Kewell ....

Ah now - let's be serious for a minute

monkey9 · 23-02-2009 12:05AM

~Marky~ wrote: »

Dont know if this has been posted but gave me a good laugh

Manchester United fan who drove 400 miles for an amorous rendevous with a woman he wooed on Facebook discovered he’d been well and truly stitched up by a couple of Liverpudlian pranksters.

Stuart Slann, 39, met the pair on a holiday in Cancun, Mexico, last November. According to the Telegraph, the three soon started giving it some gob about their rival football teams, and Slann was subsequently thrown into the swimming pool by the Liverpool fans.

Back in Blighty, the two decided to further humiliate their victim, and set up a Facebook page under the name of "Emma" - a Scottish temptress who began to flirt with the unsuspecting Slann. After a month of preliminaries, Emma arranged a face-to-face with her beau in Aberdeen, and he duly drove from Sheffield to the remote farm where he expected to have his evil way with his online girlfriend.

Slann explained: "I’d been chatting to this girl on Facebook for about a month or so. I really thought she was genuine, and I had no reason to doubt it. On the night she asked me to Scotland I was on the road for about nine hours. And then when I got to this remote farm she sent me a text to say she was still in work.

"That’s what made it worse, not only had I driven for nine hours, but I had to wait for about another three and a half hours for her to finish work."

Finally, one of the Liverpudlians rang to tell Slann the terrible truth. The recorded conversation last week escaped into the wild, and has since popped up on YouTube. The recording contains further humiliating details of the hoax, and is NSFW:

Slann said: "There’s no doubt that I’ve been done good and proper by the lads from Liverpool. It was cruel but I’ll hold my hands up and say they really wound me up."

He concluded: "If they had asked to drive to Manchester, Leeds or even Liverpool it wouldn’t have been so bad and maybe I’d have seen the funny side. But to drag me all the way to Aberdeen was just cruel."

Slann’s wife Louise, 32, discovered the "affair" last week when the whole sorry tale went public. The Slann’s marriage "is now over", the Telegraph notes

Watch the video as well

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/facebook%252Bnightmare/video/x8ampc_facebook-nightmare_fun

It's been posted a few times this week

PHB · 23-02-2009 01:10AM

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

You keep posting the same thing without ever mentioning the years before. You can't seriously believe that those years don't count?

They do in terms of youth development. No doubt about that. However, United have built an entirely new team since then, the only left overs are Scholes, Giggs, Brown, O'Shea and Fletcher. Liverpool have Carragher and Gerrard. Both sides have spent similar money, is the only real difference the additions of Brown, O'Shea, and Fletcher.
Now I take the point that Liverpool have had to maintain 4th place, that's fair enough. But the squad that Benetiz has built is not as good as it should be, and that is evidenced enough by last summers dealings.

The Insider · 23-02-2009 01:22AM

PHB wrote: »

They do in terms of youth development. No doubt about that. However, United have built an entirely new team since then, the only left overs are Scholes, Giggs, Brown, O'Shea and Fletcher. Liverpool have Carragher and Gerrard. Both sides have spent similar money, is the only real difference the additions of Brown, O'Shea, and Fletcher.
Now I take the point that Liverpool have had to maintain 4th place, that's fair enough. But the squad that Benetiz has built is not as good as it should be, and that is evidenced enough by last summers dealings.

There is more then that isn't there? Ronaldo was bought before Rafa came to Liverpool (I am pretty sure) and I am sure there are a good few more.

Rafa took over a team which needed to be fully replaced, they were 15 points back of Man Utd who had one of their worse seasons in a long time for multiple reasons (Rio banned, the sale of Beckham etc). You can't compare the two from that point on.

The Insider · 23-02-2009 01:25AM

If fact if you want to compare like with like you should compare how long it took fergie to win his first league trophy, he took over in Nov of 1986 and it was the 92/93 season before he won it (and it was easier to win then IMO). So Rafa still has next season to go before you can start making comparisons.

whatawaster · 23-02-2009 01:30AM

PHB wrote: »

Now I take the point that Liverpool have had to maintain 4th place, that's fair enough. But the squad that Benetiz has built is not as good as it should be, and that is evidenced enough by last summers dealings.

But Rafa has had Rick Parry/David Moores/Hicks dictating to him how much Alves, Simao or various others are worth. So he's missed plenty of targets. Hence his contract demands

Last summers transfers have been a disaster, i agree. But our spend this season is only about 5 or so million i think, so hopefully Rafa will have closer to 40 million to spend next summer. Wouldn't bet on it though.

missingtime · 23-02-2009 01:40AM

whatawaster wrote: »

so hopefully Rafa will have closer to 40 million to spend next summer.

if he does he will have to spread it over forty players.

Thanx 4 The Fish · 23-02-2009 01:50AM

Was there. Was gutted. Am still pished.

I did not think that Beny did us too many favours, the lad is awful and offers very little to a game.

Not buying into that, it's all over stuff though.

SWAR · 23-02-2009 07:58AM

Horrible result yesterday but I have to agree with some of the earlier posts in that it shows how lacking our squad is. Yes we have a good spine to the team with the likes of Reina, Carra, Skertel/Agger, Gerrard, Alonso & Torres...all world class imo. We also have a few good / average players on their day but unfortunatley we have a lot of underperforming players and a lot of pure **** players.

The likes of Babel and Lucas who were dubbed as being potential world class players is obviously a thing of the past...both are not good enough for LFC. I personally thought Babel had serious potential, perhaps he does, but he seems to have gone backwards this year. Some people can say that he only gets the last 15 mins or so of games, but ask yourself why that is? Riera had a good start to his Liverpool career but hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire of late...perfect chance for babel to stake his claim in the side....but no he can't manage to do it.

As for Lucas...yes he's young and all that but you don't need experience to be able to keep possession of the ball and play a simple pass, which he is not able to do most of the time. Again, not good enough for LFC imo.

A lot of the other younger players that Rafa has bought in recent years don't seem to good either...take for example El Zhar and Ngog. El Zhar came on yesterday and ran around like a headless chicken and Ngog has looked totally out of his depth so far this season.

As for Kuyt...oh dear...I just can't see how people keep defending him. Ok maybe "defending him" is the wrong phrase to use as he is a likeable guy and has a top class work ethic but that only goes so far. He would be a decent squad player...like United's equivalent to JS Park...but he is NOT a right winger and never will be and he is not a striker who will get you 20 goals a season; he'd probably make a decent right back!

I think Yossi also falls into the decent squad player category but not good enough to start week in week out for LFC....I know he doesn't usually but has been of late - some will say this is on the back of some decent performances but in general I don't think he's good enough.

All those players, together with Dossena, Arbeloa and the four or five additions he makes to the reserves every year, were bought by Rafa. How many of thos young players have broken into the first team? There seems to be a recurring trend at LFC every year in that we buy 3 or 4 players for £5 - £8 million and usually half of them are sold 12 - 18 months later. Ok Rafa maybe doesn't get the players he wants initially and this is possibly why he is stalling over his contract but he has to take some of the blame for his dealings in the transfer market.

BTW on another note, I was at a Liverpool legens lunch last year and was at the same table as Phil Thompson. Some guy asked him what he though of Ronaldo (was obviously having a great season at the time) and he said that Houllier could have signed him as he was offered him for £8 million but was only prepared to pay £4 million...then united swoop in with a £12 million bid....ah well, what might have been!

The Rooster · 23-02-2009 08:52AM

Rafa's a great man for taking notes and reading statistics. Surely ta feck he's come across this - A comparison of Liverpool's W-D-L league record this season:

A: 14-5-1
B: 1-5-0
Total: 15-10-1

"B" being when BOTH Lucas and Mascherano have started in midfield together. "A" being every other league game.

So over the course of the season, when they both start Liverpool average 1.33 points per game. When neither, or only one, of them start Liverpool average 2.42 points per game. (Man Utd average 2.38 points per game this season).

So Rafa, please don't play those two together. They don't work!

Highsider · 23-02-2009 09:05AM

The Rooster wrote: »

Rafa's a great man for taking notes and reading statistics. Surely ta feck he's come across this - A comparison of Liverpool's W-D-L league record this season:

A: 14-5-1
B: 1-5-0
Total: 15-10-1

"B" being when BOTH Lucas and Mascherano have started in midfield together. "A" being every other league game.

So over the course of the season, when they both start Liverpool average 1.33 points per game. When neither, or only one, of them start Liverpool average 2.42 points per game. (Man Utd average 2.38 points per game this season).

So Rafa, please don't play those two together. They don't work!

True. The same Rafa who wanted Gareth Barry for the times when Stevie G or Alonso where out and boy oh boy has he been proven right. Do you think if Mr. Ferguson had wanted Barry during the summer that he would'nt have got him. Rafa is in an impossible position. Utd get over 70k people for there homes games whilst we get 43k. Now that's why season after season Mr.Ferguson can buy 30m+ players at will whilst we have to make do with players in the 7-8m region.There was a stat a few weeks back that every single player on the utd bench was bought for over 18m each bar the keeper. Rafa has worked miracles with the money he has considering the squad he had when he took over. Unfortunatly money wins you things in the world of football and LfC don't have it and until they do don't expect Rafa to overhaul utd anytime soon

Mitch Connor · 23-02-2009 09:43AM

But over the course of the entire premiership the spending of United and Liverpool has been comparable. That transfersleague has Liverpool's as higher although i think they have calculated it too high - i would says the spends are probably quite close. United have purchased 30million players, but when we do that is usually on the back of player sales and usually one of only a couple of players to come in. The reason United can spend 30million, is because we don't radically overhaul our squad often, we only ever really need a player or two, not because we have a bottomless pit of cash.

slingerz · 23-02-2009 10:45AM

Barry wouldnt be a replacement for Alonso or Gerrard.

Mikael Arteta would be a way better solution and could also play in Kuyt's position if needed. He'd probably have been cheaper too

PiE · 23-02-2009 10:50AM

Since the start of the PL?! Are we blaming Rafa for Souness/Evans/Houllier's transfer dealing now too?

If Benayoun had stuck that volley away, there'd be tumbleweeds rolling around this thread.

spockety · 23-02-2009 10:51AM

Mods : Can we please have a sticky post somewhere near the top of the Soccer forum called, "Liverpool/Benitez - The Transfer Costs Perpetual Debate" and just leave it there so that every time someone wants to comment on the billions Rafa has spent, or how he has spent more than United and Chelsea combined etc., that we have a ring fenced thread for it? It has been done to death in this thread and it's predecessor and it's really grating that the same points keep getting brought up over, and over, and over.

Handsome Bob · 23-02-2009 10:56AM

spockety wrote: »

Mods : Can we please have a sticky post somewhere near the top of the Soccer forum called, "Liverpool/Benitez - The Transfer Costs Perpetual Debate" and just leave it there so that every time someone wants to comment on the billions Rafa has spent, or how he has spent more than United and Chelsea combined etc., that we have a ring fenced thread for it? It has been done to death in this thread and it's predecessor and it's really grating that the same points keep getting brought up over, and over, and over.

I second this, I don't know where these recent "statistics" have originated from, but Roddy Collins is the latest one to be banging on about them. I don't want to even entertain these so called "statistics" in this thread.

therecklessone · 23-02-2009 10:58AM

spockety wrote: »

Mods : Can we please have a sticky post somewhere near the top of the Soccer forum called, "Liverpool/Benitez - The Transfer Costs Perpetual Debate" and just leave it there so that every time someone wants to comment on the billions Rafa has spent, or how he has spent more than United and Chelsea combined etc., that we have a ring fenced thread for it? It has been done to death in this thread and it's predecessor and it's really grating that the same points keep getting brought up over, and over, and over.

Only if we get to include all the "Rafa is in an impossible position, he doesn't have full control of transfers, and he's building a legacy" type posts that usually accompany what you're referring to there.

Can't have it both ways, some people want to trot out the same excuses when it suits.

Pre-mod days I found the ignore list a hugely satisfying release from tedium.

Mitch Connor · 23-02-2009 11:01AM

PiE wrote: »

Since the start of the PL?! Are we blaming Rafa for Souness/Evans/Houllier's transfer dealing now too?

If Benayoun had stuck that volley away, there'd be tumbleweeds rolling around this thread.

merely pointing out that Liverpool have spent roughly similar amounts to Fergie/United - their squad should be better. Rafa is not entirely to blame, but Liverpool as a club are. They have had the time and money, it is no one else's fault the money has been wasted to a large degree.

Iang87 · 23-02-2009 11:13AM

i dont see why this money thing keeps coming up. We're just not good enough, when we have a full team we still dont ever look clinical enough to try kill a game off or pluck a result out of the sky lik some teams can.

Its not all just about the money you dont need to have money to try get success. Villa didnt spend a whole lot of money so how do they do it.

Handsome Bob · 23-02-2009 11:17AM

Iang87 wrote: »

i dont see why this money thing keeps coming up. We're just not good enough, when we have a full team we still dont ever look clinical enough to try kill a game off or pluck a result out of the sky lik some teams can.

Its not all just about the money you dont need to have money to try get success. Villa didnt spend a whole lot of money so how do they do it.

Stability on and off the pitch.

event · 23-02-2009 11:19AM

therecklessone wrote: »

Pre-mod days I found the ignore list a hugely satisfying release from tedium.

i really dont get why people dont just use this

if they are annoyed with boggles and phb spouting the same comments, put them on ignore

eagle eye · 23-02-2009 11:20AM

In fairness to them they are in second place still. I suppose its as much to do with the other clubs losing ground as it is to do with Liverpool improving but they are still improving.

The spine of the team is fine imo, but you still need one or two more marquee players. Tevez might become available in the summer, he would be the type of player that Liverpool need imo. And also somebody decent for the right side. You can say what you want about Dirk Kuyt but he is not suited to the role he is playing. You need to have the players which allow you to change the game when its needed, your behind, you are struggliing to score. I don't think Liverpool have them players right now.

spockety · 23-02-2009 11:28AM

Iang87 wrote: »

. Villa didnt spend a whole lot of money so how do they do it.

Do what, exactly?

Handsome Bob · 23-02-2009 11:32AM

spockety wrote: »

Do what, exactly?

Progression, no-one can deny that. IMO all they need is one or two acquisitions in the defence and one more centre mid and they will be legit Champions League material next season, if not contenders for the title.

lint316 · 23-02-2009 11:33AM

eagle eye wrote: »

In fairness to them they are in second place still. I suppose its as much to do with the other clubs losing ground as it is to do with Liverpool improving but they are still improving.

The spine of the team is fine imo, but you still need one or two more marquee players. Tevez might become available in the summer, he would be the type of player that Liverpool need imo. And also somebody decent for the right side. You can say what you want about Dirk Kuyt but he is not suited to the role he is playing. You need to have the players which allow you to change the game when its needed, your behind, you are struggliing to score. I don't think Liverpool have them players right now.

Yeah your right. There's a few players in the team that arent good enough to be in a top 4 squad.
Benny, Lucas, Kuyt, Dossena, Ngog. I like all these players but I think they'd do better for themselves elsewhere

Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

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