Liverpool 0-0 Fulham

[Ben]

Sell him to City you mean Tbh I don't reckon Gerrard will leave now after signing what he said would be his final contract of his career. The only reason I wouldn't want to let him go is because he is the captain and I still reckon he is a very good midfielder even though he is on the decline.

 

[Mike.]

i said ths earlier in the seaosn but people slated me, rafa cares more about himself than he does for liverpool. if he wins the europa league, its another thing hes won (and liverppol obviously), but he'll end up leaving knowing hes gonna get another job, while liverpool end up with a trophy they dont need, and not qualyfying competition they need to be in

zebedee
re gerrard, i dont think hes declining, i see a man who just cant keep carrying liverpool while most others around fail to pull their weight, while again its for nothing, i think hes sick and tired of the failure

 

[JoeBeton]

I'm going to risk being hung for heresy but I think Gerrard is now starting to decline as a player and we could do worse than to sell him to some daft club with a lot of money to spend who don't realise that he's past his best in the summer.

Haha my dad's been saying that since January and it is a fair point as Gerrard's the sort of player who plays with real energy and drive and he might be jaded by a lack of success this season and generally between a rock and a hard place regarding his Liverpool career and whether he should move in an attempt to win the league.

 

[Mike.]

Haha my dad's been saying that since January and it is a fair point as Gerrard's the sort of player who plays with real energy and drive and he might be jaded by a lack of success this season and generally between a rock and a hard place regarding his Liverpool career and whether he should move in an attempt to win the league.

he looks dejected, almost like he find it in himself to drive on

 

[*Jones*]

if some team (city, madrid) wants to offer us £30 million for Gerrard. I'd take it. Sorry but he's 30.

 

[Zebedee]

Sell him to City you mean Tbh I don't reckon Gerrard will leave now after signing what he said would be his final contract of his career. The only reason I wouldn't want to let him go is because he is the captain and I still reckon he is a very good midfielder even though he is on the decline.

Yeah mate, there's a big part of me which would love him to stay at the club until the end of his career (Carra too) and take an active role in coaching as well as making cameo appearances.

But honestly don't think we can afford not to be pragmatic as a club and for the good of the club it might be wiser to say goodbye to him in the way we said goodbye to Keegan and Souness. Get the money to invest in a new talent. His wages alone are nearly 8 million a season and 20 million plus for him should be a given (possibly closer to 30 million) - providing the money is then re-invested in the playing side of things (heh fat chance at the moment) then we could pick up a high quality replacement or two for him and give ourselves a bit more depth to the squad. I don't think we can afford to carry squad players on the wages Gerrard and Carragher are on, and they're rapidly approaching the point where if they're not sold then we'll have no money to then reinvest in replacements.

 

[Jack Fulham]

You can't just expect Gerrard to bail us out with 25 yarders in every game where we can't break the deadlock.

I don't but last season, he did it a lot. This season, I've seen it rarely, I really dunno' what's happened to Gerrard, he was a different player last season.

 

[Tezzz]

You can't just expect Gerrard to bail us out with 25 yarders in every game where we can't break the deadlock.

Yeah but weve hardly seen it at all... I think weve seen 2 or 3 saving goals this season from us, where he normally plays amazing each game. Dont get me wrong, this year hes been average but because were expecting more of him then it looks as if he is under-performing.

 

[Zebedee]

i said ths earlier in the seaosn but people slated me, rafa cares more about himself than he does for liverpool. if he wins the europa league, its another thing hes won (and liverppol obviously), but he'll end up leaving knowing hes gonna get another job, while liverpool end up with a trophy they dont need, and not qualyfying competition they need to be in

Nah, there's a reason why the Kop love Rafa and that's because we know that he gives everything for Liverpool. I've never met a more humble man, and while I'm sure he wants to create a legacy, that's exactly the kind of manager who Liverpool supporters should want and why we're willing to keep the faith. If you want a CV filler - Harry Redknapp's your man.

zebedee
re gerrard, i dont think hes declining, i see a man who just cant keep carrying liverpool while most others around fail to pull their weight, while again its for nothing, i think hes sick and tired of the failure

Failure is relative I guess. He's had injuries the past couple of seasons which haven't helped him, but it's evident that his legs are starting to go. He's finding it harder and harder to have the same energy levels in consecutive matches and so his movement suffers and that has a knock on effect on how the team plays. He's actually looked at his best this season while sitting very deep and making the occasional break forward but his passing radar is too inconsistent to play that deep-lying playmaker role (if he can curb the urge to try and play the impossible ball and play a bit more to keep possession then that would help too though I think he's too used to being the superstar to play a team role like that).

Personally, I think it's amazing that he's managed to be so consistent for so long at that level given the amount of injuries he had as a youngster and it could be that things are now starting to catch up with him.

Not writing him off as he's still a very, very good player but Liverpool can't afford to have someone on his wages sit on the bench every other match. Just the hard facts of life for us right now.

 

[Mike.]

Nah, there's a reason why the Kop love Rafa and that's because we know that he gives everything for Liverpool. I've never met a more humble man, and while I'm sure he wants to create a legacy, that's exactly the kind of manager who Liverpool supporters should want and why we're willing to keep the faith. If you want a CV filler - Harry Redknapp's your man.



Failure is relative I guess. He's had injuries the past couple of seasons which haven't helped him, but it's evident that his legs are starting to go. He's finding it harder and harder to have the same energy levels in consecutive matches and so his movement suffers and that has a knock on effect on how the team plays. He's actually looked at his best this season while sitting very deep and making the occasional break forward but his passing radar is too inconsistent to play that deep-lying playmaker role (if he can curb the urge to try and play the impossible ball and play a bit more to keep possession then that would help too though I think he's too used to being the superstar to play a team role like that).

Personally, I think it's amazing that he's managed to be so consistent for so long at that level given the amount of injuries he had as a youngster and it could be that things are now starting to catch up with him.

Not writing him off as he's still a very, very good player but Liverpool can't afford to have someone on his wages sit on the bench every other match. Just the hard facts of life for us right now.

yeah he had terrible problems with his back around 18-19 wasnt it? our opinions differ on rafa, but i dunnoi just sometimes feel he's too stubborn and that it hurts liverpool at times. regardless of the rivalry, i'm hoping the lack of CL does not do major financial damage to liverpool, thats not the way i'd like to see a rival suffer


as for redknapp... thats for another thread, but lets just say i have nothing good to say about him, and leave it at that

 

[Jack Fulham]

I think a big problem is that Gerrard has been playing all pain killers whilst still injured for a lot of this season, he hasn't been given enough time to recover fully which has affected his performances on the pitch. With the World Cup coming up, he won't get much rest in the summer either.

 

[Zebedee]

yeah he had terrible problems with his back around 18-19 wasnt it? our opinions differ on rafa, but i dunnoi just sometimes feel he's too stubborn and that it hurts liverpool at times. regardless of the rivalry, i'm hoping the lack of CL does not do major financial damage to liverpool, thats not the way i'd like to see a rival suffer

Aye, he got sent to a posture specialist in France by Houllier and the results were that he could play consecutive matches. Jack's right about lack of rest time too - Torres also needs a summer of rest which he just isn't going to get. Apparantly he's at a knee specialist this weekend to see what needs to be done.

Rafa's stubborn but a lot of the media stuff is just that. 'Rafa's defensive' is just nonsense - when you guys play 4-2-3-1 with Fletcher and Carrick sat deep, we don't hear Ferguson being called a defensive manager and Lucas makes far more runs into the box than Fletcher and Carrick do. Rafa isn't perfect, and he does things which make everyone scratch their heads, but he's no fool and I'm positive that he has the best interests of Liverpool FC at heart.

CL football and its impact on our finances could be a good or bad thing. The silver lining is that it may be the catalyst for our owners being willing to accept a market value bid for the club rather than overpricing it. I know our budget isn't based around CL football but likewise I think everyone should have realised by now that even CL football doesn't guarantee squad investment for us (in fact consistent qualification seems to have led to the current owners skimping on it). Last season we challenged for the league and rather than investing in strengthening the squad we actually barely maintained what we had despite spending 20 million less in the summer than we got from selling Alonso and Arbeloa (Johnson cost 6 million cash because Portsmouth still owed us 11 million for Crouch and for obvious reasons we didn't want to risk losing that, Aquilani cost 5 million up front with the rest to be paid on the never-never and Soto cost peanuts).

as for redknapp... thats for another thread, but lets just say i have nothing good to say about him, and leave it at that

 

[Mike.]

Aye, he got sent to a posture specialist in France by Houllier and the results were that he could play consecutive matches. Jack's right about lack of rest time too - Torres also needs a summer of rest which he just isn't going to get. Apparantly he's at a knee specialist this weekend to see what needs to be done.

Rafa's stubborn but a lot of the media stuff is just that. 'Rafa's defensive' is just nonsense - when you guys play 4-2-3-1 with Fletcher and Carrick sat deep, we don't hear Ferguson being called a defensive manager and Lucas makes far more runs into the box than Fletcher and Carrick do. Rafa isn't perfect, and he does things which make everyone scratch their heads, but he's no fool and I'm positive that he has the best interests of Liverpool FC at heart.

CL football and its impact on our finances could be a good or bad thing. The silver lining is that it may be the catalyst for our owners being willing to accept a market value bid for the club rather than overpricing it. I know our budget isn't based around CL football but likewise I think everyone should have realised by now that even CL football doesn't guarantee squad investment for us (in fact consistent qualification seems to have led to the current owners skimping on it). Last season we challenged for the league and rather than investing in strengthening the squad we actually barely maintained what we had despite spending 20 million less in the summer than we got from selling Alonso and Arbeloa (Johnson cost 6 million cash because Portsmouth still owed us 11 million for Crouch and for obvious reasons we didn't want to risk losing that, Aquilani cost 5 million up front with the rest to be paid on the never-never and Soto cost peanuts).

fair enough about benitez, the stick he gets from the media is awful, they ask constant leading questions. on lucas, he was playing him much more defensive early on, recently he's released him and hes been very good (hope SAF will do the same for anderson when he returns next season).
the owners need to see sense this summer, they turned down a great offer already.

i think aquilani will come good next season as well, and torres really needs time off or he risks long term damage,

 

[Ride The Walrus]

Aquilani was dreadful again today, he's not the type of player we need. He gets caught on the ball too much,and is a ******.
I've been saying Gerrard has had an awful season,all season and been ****-raped for it :S

 

[Zebedee]

fair enough about benitez, the stick he gets from the media is awful, they ask constant leading questions. on lucas, he was playing him much more defensive early on, recently he's released him and hes been very good (hope SAF will do the same for anderson when he returns next season).
the owners need to see sense this summer, they turned down a great offer already.

i think aquilani will come good next season as well, and torres really needs time off or he risks long term damage,

Gossip within the club is that Aquilani may need another operation. Bit worried about that because it sounds so similar to what happened when Fowler's first ankle op didn't go as well as hoped. Got to ask questions about our medical staff though not picking up on that - perhaps that's why we've got a new director of medicine at the club? Who knows. It makes my blood boil to see some of the tackles going in on Torres considering the rules were changed to try and protect talent like him from picking up these kind of niggling career threatening injuries - just praying the lad will make a full recovery. He is the best talent I've seen at Liverpool for many, many years.

Sad thing is that I've kind of resigned myself to Rafa being hounded out by the sections of the fanbase here who demand instant success. Echoes of the start of Ferguson's reign at Old Trafford, although Rafa has been far better than Ferguson's mid-table finishes.

Guess you lot at least have had a couple of decades of success before the finances have started going **** up for you. And I'm guessing Ferguson won't be around for too much longer if finances remain as tight as they seem to be for you lot given the squad rebuilding which will have to come soon. Agree about Anderson, I think that he does have the potential to come good and he plays a slightly more dynamic form of Lucas' game and you do have the resources to give him the time to build up fairly slowly.

 

[Mike.]

Gossip within the club is that Aquilani may need another operation. Bit worried about that because it sounds so similar to what happened when Fowler's first ankle op didn't go as well as hoped. Got to ask questions about our medical staff though not picking up on that - perhaps that's why we've got a new director of medicine at the club? Who knows. It makes my blood boil to see some of the tackles going in on Torres considering the rules were changed to try and protect talent like him from picking up these kind of niggling career threatening injuries - just praying the lad will make a full recovery. He is the best talent I've seen at Liverpool for many, many years.

Sad thing is that I've kind of resigned myself to Rafa being hounded out by the sections of the fanbase here who demand instant success. Echoes of the start of Ferguson's reign at Old Trafford, although Rafa has been far better than Ferguson's mid-table finishes.

Guess you lot at least have had a couple of decades of success before the finances have started going **** up for you. And I'm guessing Ferguson won't be around for too much longer if finances remain as tight as they seem to be for you lot given the squad rebuilding which will have to come soon. Agree about Anderson, I think that he does have the potential to come good and he plays a slightly more dynamic form of Lucas' game and you do have the resources to give him the time to build up fairly slowly.

i didnt realise aquilani had done yet more damage again. agree on torres, hes one of the best finishers ive seen, top class player.

i think the glaszers are in for an interesting ride this summer, aso of januray the 80million form ronaldo was still in the bank, we'll finind out this summer if it goes on transfers or loans, if its the latter, the could be real discontent. SAF's reign may be coming to an end in the near future, but he wont leave the club in a shambles if he can help it

two great clubs with unclear futures, what a shame

 

[Zebedee]

i didnt realise aquilani had done yet more damage again. agree on torres, hes one of the best finishers ive seen, top class player.

Ankle's one of those places where too much bone growth as it heals causes problems. Been told that's what the issue may be. Just one of those things I guess and kind of shows the gambles Rafa's had to make on transfers to try and get adequate quality within the squad. Course initial fault lies with Roma for playing him with a dodgy ankle, but wonder whether we'd have been in for him if we'd known that it was quite this bad? Possibly given that if he comes good we've got a player approaching his peak at a very reasonable price for the quality he's definitely got.

i think the glaszers are in for an interesting ride this summer, aso of januray the 80million form ronaldo was still in the bank, we'll finind out this summer if it goes on transfers or loans, if its the latter, the could be real discontent. SAF's reign may be coming to an end in the near future, but he wont leave the club in a shambles if he can help it

The bond release document confirmed that the Ronaldo money is only there if you draw down an interest paying overdraft (ie the Glazers have taken the 80 million quid to pay their debts but have agreed that they can loan some more money for players which you lot will pay the interest on). Guess we'll see what spending will be like for you guys in the summer as you must surely be looking for replacements for Hargreaves, Scholes and Giggs, although I guess squad players will suffice for a few seasons which will make it a bit cheaper.

two great clubs with unclear futures, what a shame

Aye. At least your mob are vaguely aware of what's happening off the pitch - even if we all know that your daytrippers would buy green and gold scarves from the club shop if the Glazers put them on sale there

 

[MisterStubbs]

one man team without torres?






i am of course joking but thats how anoyying it is!

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

Dont the europa league winners automatically get into the champs league? if so its liverpools only chance but so want fulham to win the europ league against pool and see gerrard cry like terry lol

 

[MisterStubbs]

Dont the europa league winners automatically get into the champs league? if so its liverpools only chance but so want fulham to win the europ league against pool and see gerrard cry like terry lol

no, it puts the winners into the qualifing rounds i think your find