WITH our derby on the horizon and nothing pressing to scrutinize, this is a perfect time to stop, take a breath, and look at some central issues concerning Liverpool FC.
To begin with, many of those who provide negative comments need to take a really close look at where this team stands and how some of its individuals have performed. Accusations such as “we are nothing more than a mid-table team” or “Brendan Rodgers is the worst manager ever” are patently false in light of the numbers.
The following table represents the relative performance of the top 6 teams since the closing of the transfer window in January.
|
Position |
Team |
GP |
Wins |
Losses |
Draws |
GD |
Points |
|
1 |
Arsenal |
29 |
19 |
5 |
5 |
26 |
62 |
|
2 |
Man U |
28 |
18 |
5 |
5 |
26 |
56 |
|
3 |
Liverpool |
28 |
16 |
7 |
5 |
34 |
55 |
|
4 |
Chelsea |
29 |
16 |
7 |
6 |
19 |
54 |
|
5 |
Spurs |
28 |
15 |
8 |
5 |
11 |
53 |
|
6 |
Man City |
28 |
16 |
6 |
6 |
27 |
52 |
On the basis of these statistics it is clear that, apart from Arsenal, the contenders for the top 6 are extremely close with Liverpool firmly in the middle of the pack. But look at that goal difference!
There are items not included on this table such as the number of points dropped by Liverpool due to bad refereeing decisions. According to Debatabledecisions.com, Arsenal had the most close decisions go their way: 8 more for than against. Liverpool got the worst refereeing decisions. With an obvious bias against Luis Suarez, the Reds were at the other end with 9 more calls against than for.
What this means is that, head to head, Arsenal received 17 more calls (including penalties) to their benefit than Liverpool. The number of wins that turned to draws or losses as a result can only be imagined (or researched by someone with more time on their hands than your columnist).
What does this say about the Manager (affectionately known as “Brenda” to the homophobic naysayers) and his ability to bring in top players and other teams’ cast offs to form a contender? What does it say about the equally maligned Fenway Sports Group and their commitment to winning?
A piece I read recently by Kristian Walsh is reason for even more optimism. Mr. Walsh has dusted off his calculator and come up with the fact that if Liverpool manages a lion’s share of the points on offer when playing the bottom 13 teams, their qualification for the Champions League is virtually assured.
There is no need to rely on 3 point outings against the top 6, just the occasional serendipitous result to make up for the odd stumble against teams in the lower part of the table. Rogers has thought along the same lines, calculating that an average of 2 points per fixture will easily see them playing in Europe next year.
So how good are we? We are a match for anyone in the Premiership and, with the insertion of a marquee left back or central midfielder during the transfer window, would certainly contend for the title as early as this season. How’s that for rose coloured glasses?
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I think the writer is right. Its not ok taking points from top 4 teams and loosing to teams far below us. So far so good this season bcos teams we have lost to or dropped points playing against have equally done so to other top sides. The derby next weekend should end as a statement of intent. For the left back position, if Enrique isn’t back Agger should cover up and not Cissoko. That’s just my opinion.
Yawn . Biased Muppet
Sure, why not.
If we were getting * from teams that were miles better than us I would be dubious about us finishing well- but there aren’t really any there. Man Utd are getting their stuff together post Taggart. Chelsea aren’t the powerhouse they once were, Spurs are rebuilding, Man City aren’t invincible, and the result last weekend shows Arsenal aren’t unbeatable either.
There are other teams up there as well- Southampton and Everton for example. I’m sure their fans feel much the same way ours do- that so far this is the closest season the league has seen in years, and there is an opportunity to do well with it.
…. and to Liam- wtf do you expect to read on a Liverpool fan site? Seriously? If you want to read anti-Liverpool propaganda go grab a newspaper. Where they finish every story about Liverpool by saying “Suarez racially abused Evra and bite Ivanovic.” There’s plenty out there.
How is that biased the stats r thereu pleb
Part 2 next week.
Moronic
There kind of articles always make me laugh out loud. Whilst using some ‘facts’ from a selected time frame , and ignoring other ‘facts’ such as the easier fixture list , lack of meaning of the end of season matches etc etc , it is just another blinkered self-delusional piece of drivel.
Im sure most fansites are full of this ‘aren’t we wonderful’ even when we clearly are not.
I can just picture another ‘author’ of the same ilk on a crystal palace website with ‘facts’ that shows them to be top 4 contenders.
Cest la vie
…except that the ‘selected time frame’ spans a long stretch (28 games, or 3/4 of a season) in an entirely relevant time period, so countering it with ‘easier fixture list’ and ‘meaningless end-of-season matches’ doesn’t work. Go ahead and disagree with the author — it’s an opinion piece on a fansite, not a mathematical proof — but don’t act like you’re a football genius sneering at the work of lesser pundits. Otherwise you’re just a step above niall up there with his ‘Moronic’ comment.
Idiot
Are you trolling the author Mr Hunter?
Nothing productive to say, should change your name!!
Or the previous post?
Aaron the boring troll . Get a life
Get a dictionary, they’re not hard to come by.
There are other words in there, boring and idiot you have used a million times, now that is tedious
Excuse typo, new phone
You called 3 people idiots in a few minutes . You get a dictionary .
Idiot
Just you Hunter, just you. I called you idiot three times, repeating your useful dialogue back at ya. Can’t you read now as well, haha, I shouldn’t laugh when all I do is feel real sorry for you ;(
Please say something about football or is netball your sport? Either way, comment on something sport related.
A li ar and a troll Aaron. You called 3 different people idiot on a different article
Boring idiot
Your right fat Irish barman(racist). Squeaky bum time is a term coined for the meaningless time frame between x_mass and and end of season, where other teams were not fighting relegation battles and top4 battles.
Ha hs ha ha .
Littleno sheep is sooooo dumb he doesnt know what racist means .
Look it up . Your stupidity knows no bounds.
haters get lost
Somtimes i wonder if these dudes….are
trully died hard fanx……in e.p.l is dia any smal teams…
Westbrom we won 4 ..1
nearly won chelsea at stamford brd…….
So hatersz if yu dnt ve any good dam moda *tinx to say…kindly…
DONT POST…
UP ROGERS….
UP LIVERPOOL…..
UP DIE hARD FANX…
Y..
N..
W
A… ….Y.N.W.A
Like james rightly said,you dont have to be arrogant or insultive to express your opinion.Talk of easy fixtures, i will remind you that Man city,Totenham,lost their so called easy fixtures recently,while Chelsea,Everton drew their suppose easy fixtures.even ManU,Arsenal lost to westbrom and Aston Villa respectively,so easy or no easy fixtures the writer made a point.
You’re going to get trolled for sensible comments like that.
Good point well made by the way Osang
Your the troll Aaron . Nobody cares about your opinion
The thing is B Rodgers has improved the mentality of the players and brought in some good defensive players, but he has only brought in 2 good class quality attacking players out of 6. 4 of the attacking players have been average or poor and the money should have been spent elsewhere ( Alberto 6.8m, Assaidi 2.8m, Aspas 7.7m and Borini 10.5m)
But with the 4 average poor attacking players mentioned in bracket we still have way too many dead wood average players at the club:
1: GK : B Jones 2: CB: Coates
3: RB: Flannagan 4:RB: Kelly ( Injury Prone/Sick Note)
So that is 8 players, that need to be shipped out between now and the summer.
The club between the two transfer windows are 10 players short of class, quality and depth:
The owners need to give Rodgers some serious investment (50-75m) in January to improve class, quality, competition for places and depth amongst squad.
Rodgers needs a minimum of 4 players: And these are the 4 players and positions Rodgers should priotise in January in order for team to push on again:
1: DM: Someone to push and compete with Lucas Leiva and keep him on his toes week in week out: M’Vila(23) Of Rubin Kazan or Fernando(26) Of Porto needs to be brought to club
2: CM: Someone to push Henderson for his position and bring more class, creativity, goals and quality to centre of park: Y Cabaye(27) Of Newcastle should be brought to club
3: RW / RWF: Someone to play on right wing or right side of attack with pace,skill, speed, regularly creates chances for team mates and keeps teams pegged back but also brings goals to side from out wide. M Salah(21) Of Basel or J Montero(23) Of Monarcas Morelia in Mexico, one of these players needs to be brought to club
4: LW/ LWF: Someone to play on Left wing or Left side of attack with pace,skill, speed, regularly creates chances for team mates and keeps teams pegged back but also brings goals to side from out wide. B Arfa(26) Of Newcastle or D Capel(25) Of Sporting Clube De Portugal
Those 4 players will help us stay in the hunt for a champions league poistion, M’vIla or Fernando would bring moe mobility, physicality, presnce, strength in the centre of the park. Cabaye would bring more class, creativity , fight and goals to side from centre of the park. Salah(21) and Capel(25) or Montero(23) and Arfa(26) , both pairs of wingers woukld bring class, creaivity, Goals, Width and we would be able to keep teams pegged and stretched with good pace, speed out on either wing.
Agree on assiadi and Flanagan, assiadi I don’t think has the end product to play for liverpool. Flanagan unfortunately I don’t think has the pace or attacking ability to play for a top team.
Can kinda understand why you want Coates,jones and borini gone. Coates I still have hope for, would have been ideal for the middle of a back 3, plus a major advantage at set pieces. Jones I feel is a decent back up goalie, he doesn’t look the safest but is effective, borini no doubts about it has struggled, but I will wait till end of season to say he is not good enough.
Aspas Alberto and Kelly I don’t get why you want these gone or how they have failed. Alberto has only played a few mins and look quite good. Aspas is out injured, looked good in preseason but not great in the league. You talk about getting more goals into the team, well that is what aspas should give us once settled and over injury. Kelly has had a bad injury record over the last couple of seasons. Well 2 injures really hamstring and ligaments, hardly injury prone more like very unlucky. Agger was also considered injury prone but is now on a good run with out any serious injury. Kelly’s form is not up to scratch but how could it be when he has been out for so long, it takes time to get back on track. Lucas is still recovering from his injury. Look at Ramsey another example.
No sheep. Cop on you clown. You know zero about football.
Aspas and Alberto are rubbish. Not fit for any premier club. Sad fools like you keep making excuses for poor players
No Sheep, You must really not have a clue about football.
Coates is not good enough to play for Liverpool , as if he was Rodgers wouldn’t have signed Llori, Sakho and Toure in the summer. I think that in the summer, one more centre back should be brought to club.
As Agger(28), Skrtel (28) will compete with Llori(20) and Sakho(23) for the next 2-4 years, i think toure(34) may not be at the club after this Season. But who knows, so i think another good young centre back should be brought to the club in the summer so in 3-4 years time. Club would have three class experienced centre backs competing with one another week in week out.
K Papadopolous(21) Of Schalke should be brought to the club in the summer
Kelly is a good right back but he is on the treatment table more than he plays and does not offer G Johnson(29) any real competition for his place as he is never injury free or fully fit for more than two months. Kelly is like Aurelio, class, great when they play but are always out injured for 80% + of the season , so what is the point of having a class, quality player on good weekly wage who will miss 80% of the season every season. Flannagan is abyzmal and everytime he plays in first team, he looks way way way out of his depth as he simply is not good enough.
No Sheep: Alberto, Assaidi, Aspas, Borini are simply not good enough. The reason Coutinho and Sturridge have excelled at club is becuase they have always been class, quality players just they were never really loved enough or given the freedom and chance to enjoy their football week in week out in the preferred position. But now they have come to our club, their ability, class, hunger to succeed is there for all of us to see.
I feel and think Shelvey and Suso are both better than Alberto, both of those players have shown their class, quality in games for club but their probem was they are both not consistant enough week in week out.
Lucas (26) is the only player at club who plays as a defensive midfielder and reads danger well, he has improved since he came to club. But he has had no real class or quality competion for his position for 5 years now, when he had real serious class quality competition( Alonso, Sissoko and Mascherano), he was just learning his trade at the club. The problem with Lucas is he is not very mobile or quick, We need a mobile, quick young strong tough tackling enforcer to compete with Lucas week in week out, then i am sure Lucas will not be a regular in side. If M’Vila(23) Of Rubin kazan is brought to club in January and Rodgers gets him fully fit and he stays injury free, Lucas will have a task keeping M’Vila out iof the first 11 week in week out.
Your right Denis d I know nothing about virtual reality video games unlike yourself, but it’s not video game football we are talking about.
All these players you keep putting up saying we need for 90 to 100 million. Does your video game teams have to comply with FFPR? Didn’t think so but the Liverpool team I talk about does have to otherwise there’s no point in finishing in the top 4.
Also you want rid of Kelly cause he is injury prone and bring in Ben arfa. The same Ben arfa that is struggling to get into the new castle team. Just another example of your childish posts. You keep changing the players on your list like a child in a toy shop, I want that one, no I want that one, no I want that one. No doubts the names you are posting at the moment will change by January. Except for Alex McCarthy, who has a line of premier league teams looking to get him.
And anyone , I mean ANYONE who thinks financial fair play has any relevance is a total total TOTAL moron
No Sheep, You do talk Rubbish. In all the leagues in last five years: Spanish, English, French and German leagues.
Who have dominated the league? The biggest spenders or lowest spenders?
do you think Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG, Real Madrid, Now Monaco would be where they are today without the millions of millions of millions they pump in on players they bring to club every year?
NO, Our club needs proper investment. World class players come at a premium 25m plus, we need attacking players of Coutinho, Gerrard, Sturridge and Suarez’s ability.
But we don’t need be wasting millions on potential, we need to be bringing in attacking players with real class and quality who will make real difference to side, something alberto, assaidi, aspas and borini have not done.
Just says it all with Alberto is not good enough, but ilori is. Tell us how you have come up with that one sir Alex?
You are clueless about football no sheep . You simply dont have the brains to understand it . Leave the football chat to the adults .
You could try educating yourself first ?
No sheep, even when coutinho was out rodgers did not use Alberto, he used moses who is a winger there. Llori has four good centre backs older, wiser, more experienced and better than him at club. Agger, Sakho, Sktrel and Toure, so Llori will be learning from them while he is on the sidelines.
But Alberto is only other player currently at club similar to Coutinho, Suso is also but is currently on loan. Yet when Coutinho was out injured for 5-6 games, Alberto was not played from start once. What does that say about the player then? Alberto is only other PLAYER Similar to coutinho at club, yet couldn’t even get a game
I’d be happy with 2 signings for now
Coentrao & Bender. Left back /wingback is a big weakness and Bender can fill a number of different roles in midfield (though not sure we can afford him).
Great wright up fritz. Amazingly their will be people attacking you over this. Look forward to part 2.
Back to school for you no sheep. Havent you learned to spell yet ?
A little education helps .
These articles are just clutching at straws to be fair, Roy Evans team played very attractive pretty football in the mid 90’s and regularly finished in the top 4 with a partnership of Fowler & Collymore. But Roy Evans only won 1 League Cup in 5 years, the worst trophy record of an LFC boss in 40 years. This is a serious case of deja vu with BR, Evans also experimented with 3 centre-backs, so many similarities between the two.
I agree there are some similarities. The 2 big differences in that Evans had a brilliant attacking midfielder in McManaman while we don’t (Coutinho is still young and a different type) but Rodgers team works much harder without the ball. Evans team was lazy (and his 3 centre backs weren’t that good).
Pie in the sky . We had a reason to be optimistic under kenny but not now
Rodgers team is like a house of cards . A few injuries or tough matches and it will fall down.
People are only getting carried away because
1. We have had easy start
2. Our rivals are struggling to gel
Apart from sturridge n couts Rodgers has not improved the team .
Top 5 at best.
He appears to have improved Henderson and Skrtel? Toure has been excellent and Enrique looks better imo. Mignolet too proving vital.
Moses also has glimpses of quality.
Just a tad more than sturridge and couts I think?
Still trolling other peoples comments ? Your so boring
Idiot
No you TW@T responding with an opinion, had you a dictionary, you’d have seen that.
Now go away you silly silly little boy
No . You are trolling. You are putting down another persons opinion. You are a troll.
Idiot
Explain where the put down is and I’ll give you a million quid.
The guy said only two players BR signed has improved the team, I suggested a few more examples.
You really are so silly, you should be banned from this forum and society, you’re a danger to yourself and others.
He came on here to leave his opinion. You portrayed his opinion in a negative way.
You are a troll Aaron
Explain the negative way.
Also explain why you love me so, my new favourite pet!
Boring troll Aaron . You disagreed with his opinions and pointed out where you thought he was wrong. Nobody cares about your opinions. You are a troll.
Idiot
troll hunter: you have contributed NOTHING to this topic but vitriol and name calling. This is neither informative nor entertaining. In terms of trolls, the hunter deserves to be the hunted.
Fine article (if a bit fanciful) since it is time for us all to see the glass as half full rather than as half empty.
Aaron: stop rising to the bait. Sometimes silence is the best retort.
Nice try Aaron. Still trolling ? Even if it is under a different name
Kitti is a friend of mine from Montreal and an avid Liverpool supporter. She has never heard of Aaron. When I saw her post I messaged her not to get involved because it only feeds the distraction. Unless you have something to add to the topic . . .
To be fair Aaron has been just as bad with numerous homophobic insults on here, looks like he enjoys winding people up.
Aaron is the one who spreads vitriol + name calling , he should b banned.
Must be hard for you lot to understand. But unfortunately it’s a comment used a lot in Liverpool.
Aaron isn’t from Liverpool you fool. Neither are you . And calling people fags or queers is not what people do , except dumb 10yr olds
Only against those who have aggrieved me, I do not randomly insult people not in my nature.
Not once have I said anything remotely homophobic, if you actually read the post you will see me say to one person he should stick with his gay lover, who he regularly joins forces with on this tit for tat forum.. Not the best retort, not the worst, certainly not homophobic… Unless you have limited brain capacity, coupled with not many life skills.
please indicate how in the hell that is homophobic? If you can.
Liam you don’t know me, which I’m totally glad about, you would make me look bad walking down the street. With your knuckles dragging on the floor and tongue hanging out like the lager make yourself out to be.
Oohh, I used the word tit… I guess that makes me sexist as well.
I love all the over exaggerating and overreacting on here, clutching at straws trying to prove points.
If you abuse me, I’ll really enjoy abusing you back.
But at least talk football. My pet …Troll Hunter has never ever ever said one thing connected to football and that’s a shame really as by the looks of it he could be the new Souness and I’d really like to hear his nuggets of wisdom.
Boring boring troll. No one cares what you say.
Idiot
I’ve bought you new copy and paste buttons, you’re wearing your other ones out.
Boring idiot.
Must be really exciting copying and pasting all the time. That MUST be REAL BORING.
Idiot.
Actually, I’ve just seen the light, by me copying and pasting the words Boring and Idiot, I now see how smart, I think it makes me sound.
Thank you TH, unsure where I’d be without you xx
Your just a boring troll Aaron , everyone knows it .
One thing’s for sure. . .there’s been massive improvements compared to most recent years. . . Some peeps just find pleasure in insults. . .quite agree with the writer..there’s a reason for optimism…LIVERPOOL FOREVER
BR.. please
Get back : Fernando Torres for cover sturridge and suarez
Get 1 DM : Matuidi , Mvilla or Strootman
Get RB , LB / WB : Cover for enrique and johnson
When we got 3 man more , we are complete team.
……………………….mignolet…………………………
……..skertel………..kolou………….agger
Johnson………………Mvilla……………….enrique
……….Suarez…….Gerrard…..Coutinho
……………………..Sturidge
How I wish we could just talk about the game we love and the team we support . . . I taught 13 and 14 year olds and the name calling here is evocative of the sort of pettiness that is so predominant here. Is it possible that those who are most vocal in their silliness are also too young to drive a car? Just wondering.