Saturday’s game was the perfect opportunity for Liverpool to move to within three points of the elusive 5th place Europa League spot, two penalties and a smug ex manager later and its looking like a massive uphill task, which begs the question – Do we really care? Is the Europa League really that important to us?
Many fans would say no, not competing in Europe will give us the opportunity to focus on domestic competitions and return to the top four again, a position where Liverpool Football club undoubtedly belong. Who knows maybe Kenny can get us challenging for the all important Premier League, and with the right signings who is to say we can’t.
As a fan in his thirties I have never fully appreciated the club lifting the league title, when we lifted it back in 1990 I was much too young to realise the significance of such an achievement. I have, however been fortunate to observe and appreciate our wins of domestic cup after domestic cup along with numerous european trophies. The highlight of my thirty year spell as a supporter really should be the 2005 European Cup final. As utterly mind blowing as the match was I wasn’t in Istanbul for that famous night (yes, I am a disgrace but unfortunately money talks). My personal highlight was in fact the Uefa Cup run which culminated in ‘THAT MATCH ‘on the 16th May 2001. It is possibly the greatest moment of my life (with the exception of the birth of my son). My wife however would sincerely disagree as she literally ended our relationship twice during our route to the Westfalenstadion.
The first occasion was a result of our plans for a nice relaxing day out being shattered with a phonecall of “sorry love the queue for my ticket is a little bigger than anticipated”. Nine hours later I didn’t have a girlfriend, but I did have my Barcelona ticket!! The second came shortly after when she uttered the words “It’s me or the cup final…….!” I don’t think I need to elaborate any further as to what the outcome of that discussion was, I was on cloud nine with my ticket in hand. She would later appreciate the importance of this ticket as this game had it all, excitement, outrageous tension, unbelievable atmosphere, and it all ended with Liverpool winning the competition for only the 3rd time in our club’s history. The run to the final wasn’t bad either beating the likes of Olympiakos, Porto, Roma (thanks to referee Jose Garcia Andrade) and Barcelona en route.
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INTRODUCING CRYSIS 2!
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Maybe if the manager stopped loaning out first team players then we’d have a big enough squad to compete in both domestic competitions and European competitions. The following players are all out on loan but I reckon most of them are good enough to play against rubbish teams in the Europa League: Jones, Darby, Degen, Ayala, Mavinga, Insua, Konchesky, Aquilani, El Zhar, Amoo, Pacheco and Eccleston. These players out on loan plus a couple of fringe players would make a decent team in the Europa League and our key players can then focus on the league.
Jones
Degen Soto Ayala Konchesky
El Zhar Aquilani Spearing Insua
Pacheco
Ngog
Subs: Gulacsi, Darby, Mavinga, Poulsen, Shelvey, Amoo, Eccleston.
I have to agree with you, Shank’s would turn in his grave with the attitude of some supporters.
Who decides which compititions are “micky Mouse” because as far as I am aware all teams want to win titles and silverware.
Each title and cup adds to the history of our club and the LFC website includes the following trophy count
League Champions 18
European Cup 5
FA Cup 7
League Cup 7
UEFA Cup 3
Nowhere does it say “but these don’t count cos they’re Micky Mouse”.
Liverpool are a club revered throughout the world because of it’s history in Europe so qualifying for next years Europa league should be an absolute priority. I was also in Dortmund in 2001 and in terms of significance it cannot be compared to Istanbul, however in terms of drama, emotion and sheer excitement it was just as good and will never be forgotten by anyone who was in the stadium that night. Liverpool needs european football and european football needs Liverpool.
In response to any socalled Liverpool fan, the Europa League is a joke of a competition and is not worth bothering with. It is only the Premier League and the Champions League that Liverpool should be involved in. When Dalglish took over in January Liverpool had 18 league games left, if all of those had been won the club would have finished second this season, instead he used key players like Kelly and Agger in the Europa League where they picked up injuries.