2007-08 EPL Thread

[lamaros]

Newcastle done good.

Now to see if Utd can crush Derby as expected.

[lamaros]

Kewell rested, Liverpool loses.

Oops.

[HaemishM]

The Reading game was a fucking nightmare. I cannot fathom for the fucking life of me what Benitez was thinking putting Voronin on the wing. Everybody just tried to squeeze right up the middle, surprise, Reading beat the piss out of them. By the time Benitez pulled his finger out, the game was over. Why is Sissoko playing still? He's pisspoor in possession, useful only to break up a good run up the middle every now and again. Sissoko needs to be loaned out in the January window.

I haven't yet seen the Marseiile game (it's on the Tivo) so don't spoil it.

[sigil]

Marseilles looks fucking fruity in their third uniform. the pink with the baby blue swirl.


it looks like someone got some bleach on a Houston dynamo jersey.

[sigil]

North London Derby tomorrow.

And since I'm afraid to say anything about possible outcomes. I'll leave it at that.

[HaemishM]

Liverpool get Inter in the Champions League knockout. Not a great draw, but at least it wasn't somebody like Barca or AC Milan. Poor Celtic. Hope they get legitimately beat this year, instead of getting jobbed like they were last year in the knockout.

Also, Liverpool pretty much lost any hope of the title this past weekend. I'm surprised none of you United fuckers rubbed it in.

[Mr_PeaCH]

Not here to rub it in about Liverpool's changes for the title but...

WTF got into Crouchy the other day?  Nice two-legged-full-bodied tackle there mate.

[rk47]

Liverpool was never title contenders to begin with, the current generation relied too much on a few key players to perform, if they don't they're out. Simple as that.
More like title pretenders.

[eldaec]

Liverpool was never title contenders to begin with, the current generation relied too much on a few key players to perform, if they don't they're out. Simple as that.
More like title pretenders.

I find it remarkable how much people enjoy saying this, because if there is an enormous gulf between Liverpool and ManU, Arsenal, Chelsea to go alongside the self evident enormous gulf between Liverpool and fifth place, the implication of just how shitty teams 5-20 of the EPL are compared to Arsenal et al must be depressing you all beyond words.


Personally I think people overstate how far back Liverpool are. When they play the rest of the big3+chelsea people keep telling me how they never compete.

Last 3 matches vs Chelsea : Lost, Won, Drawn (on the basis of a patently wrong ref decision).
Last 3 matches vs Arsenal : Lost, Won, Drawn
Last 3 matches vs Man U : Lost, Lost, Lost

Whiskey-nose seems to have the measure of Benitez, which is intensely irritating, but that aside, people overstate the case.

[rk47]

they're a one-off team that's all I can say, it explains a lot why even during Houllier era, the only titles they get are final ties. Even benitez came close to winning 2 finals or three. That's all and good, but for premiership race, you need consistency that you can only by gelling the team together often.

[eldaec]

Or, to look at it another way, the others are just a bunch of bottlers on the big occaision.


In fact the one off, cup-tie team accusation has never made much sense to me tied with the 'can't do it against the big teams' jibe that always comes after a loss like the one vs Man U.

Ho hum.

In practice this sort of nonsense gets rolled out whenever the big3+chelsea lose a couple of matches.

[lamaros]

Ho hum. Liverpool wont win the title again.

If Inter has one of their 'on' days Liverpool will get ruined in the champ league too.

[Hoax]

If you've got any of Inter's game recently you would be saying "if Ibrahimovich can be bothered Liverpool should be doomed" fuck if I can spell his name but when he's awake and playing his form this year has been disgustingly good.

[HaemishM]

they're a one-off team that's all I can say, it explains a lot why even during Houllier era, the only titles they get are final ties. Even benitez came close to winning 2 finals or three. That's all and good, but for premiership race, you need consistency that you can only by gelling the team together often.

Benitez is a great one-off coach, but his rotation system is fucked. He reminds me of Mike Martz in American football. It seems like he wants so badly for everyone to consider him a genius that he tries to put square pegs into round holes. Like playing Voronin on the wing. Fuck that, play him forward or put him on the subs bench, you twat. I like Rafa, but he just overthinks things too much and doesn't let his players play to their strengths. 2-1 to DERBY? FFS, that should have been a walk game. But Gerrard seemed to hold back until the 60th minute or so, and I get the feeling it wasn't his idea.

Speaking of asshead coaches, has anyone been watching La Liga this season? Valencia is my team and they are fucking PAINFUL to watch. The team has a ton of talent, but they sacked their coach, Flores, earlier in the year. His replacement was Koemen from PSV Eindhoven. I can't imagine why. Watching last year's second leg of Eindhoven and Liverpool was painful as none of PSV players looked in anyway enthused to be playing what was a lost cause. They just drifted through. Well, that's how he has Valencia playing.

He's told 3 of their longest standing vets to go find other teams, including their #1 goalie and their captain. And these guys weren't playing bad. He's insisting on playing the team with a lone striker up front and the team isn't built for that. Hell, he's making players like Silva and Joaquain look ordinary, and these two are world class. The team has no inventiveness in his system, and yet he's blaming the players. I also don't think he's named an unchanged side since he got there. Oh, and they haven't won since he got there either, not in Europe, the Copa Del Rey or the league.

[lamaros]

Raffa needs to do less rotatin' and more resting. Like Arsenal and Utd.

[sigil]

I read that as roasting. and was thinking that  ManU does well enough with the amount of roasting that they do, well except for that one girl who pressed rape charges.

[HaemishM]

Liverpool can't beat Wigan at home.

Seriously, what the fuck?

[Tige]

Speaking of Liverpool.  You see the game at Kenilworth Road vs. Luton Town?  Sucks for Liverpool fans, but damn, what a great match.  By the end of the first half the crowd in front of the broadcast booth was really enjoying the match and their beer. 

[HaemishM]

No, Setanta didn't have the Liverpool FA Cup games. In fact, I haven't seen a football match in almost 2 weeks. I'm jonesing.

Big Sam fucked right off. I'm still not sure why he couldn't make things work at Newcastle, but I bet Bolton is wishing they'd waited a bit longer to hire Megson.

[lamaros]

I have no sympathy for Big Sam. He talked himself up to hell and back -was pissed off that he wasn't made the English manager and all- yet when it came down to it played the same boring style, couldn't get results, and couldn't handle the criticism that came with the job.

They should get Jol if you ask me. They say and Englishman, but there are no fucking decent ones I'm aware of, and recycling the same old useless shit and then sacking them after 6 months-2 years is getting old.

[sigil]

Jol would be a nice change of  pace for a fucking dreadful and dire team.

Spurs biggest problem this season was the fact that they had no force in the defence to hold things together. King being hurt  was not Jol's fault, Picking up Bent wasn't Jol's fault either.

And there are no good english coaches right now. LOL Bruce Arena for Newcastle! Someone who speaks like Sylvester the cat in the land of the Geordies. That would  bring a smile to my face.

Frankly I'm ready to write off the season for Spurs. My Dynamo will start up the Pan Pacific Tourney in a few weeks. Concacaf Champions Cup starts in March.

[eldaec]

Big Sam fucked right off. I'm still not sure why he couldn't make things work at Newcastle,

Thing is, he was making things work.

11th is an entirely appropriate position for Newcastle.

The problem was he provided insufficient comedy. The purpose of Newcastle is to give the rest of the country something to laugh at.

NUFC, plus Ant and Dec, sums up Newcastles contribution to British comedy.

[lamaros]

Bets on the next liverpool coach?

[eldaec]

Bets on the next liverpool coach?

Until a month or so I'd have responded with 'LFC are not Tottenham or Newcastle'.

The really frightening thing is it's impossible to be sure what the new owners are thinking.

[HaemishM]

Fucking hell. Liverpool... I just don't know what to say. They can't beat Wigan at home, can't barely tie Boro on the fucking road. If it hadn't been for one bit of brilliance from Torres, they'd have lost. And I can't say I'd blame it in any way on Benitez, that team was total shit yesterday. They couldn't pass to save their fucking lives, couldn't hold possession, their defense got constantly run past, and until Babel came on, they made no fucking attempts to get down the wings on offense. Riise is not a winger, he's a back and lately not a great one. He's way too slow to play on the left midfield, you might as well put Alonso out there. Benayoun is good, but he's not a true winger. He tends to cut into the center way too much, and can be good at it, but when your entire team just compresses into the center, the defense just contracts and suddenly there are no shooting lanes. If there was anything Rafa needed, it was some faster defenders and a pacy winger. Babel is not that winger. I'd actually like to see Rafa sell Voronin and use Babel to play off of Torres up front. Then buy a goddamn winger to play the other side of Kewell. Voronin has been a complete disaster, and I can't figure out if it's just the English game, he's over the hill, or he's being played in the wrong manner. But it just isn't working.

Title hopes were gone weeks ago, now I'm just hoping they can get their thumb out long enough to stay in the top 4.

[sigil]

Bets on the next liverpool coach?

Until a month or so I'd have responded with 'LFC are not Tottenham or Newcastle'.

The really frightening thing is it's impossible to be sure what the new owners are thinking.

Welcome to the Mediocrity FC Division of the Premiership.

Spurs have style in their mediocrity, and Newcastle are funny to watch. What will LFC bring to the party?

LOL, LFC=Loser Football Club.

[eldaec]

Voronin has been a complete disaster, and I can't figure out if it's just the English game, he's over the hill, or he's being played in the wrong manner.

He's an average player taken in on a free because rafa knew he was likely to be one short on strikers.

He tries hard, but should really be 5th choice out of the 5.

[eldaec]

Jurgen Klinsmann

Fucking hell.

I honestly don't know which is more retarded:

a) Believing that Jurgen Klinsmann is a potential Liverpool manager.
b) Publically admitting to talking to him.

Either way, these are the two most retarded things to happen at Liverpool football club in over a quarter of a century.

I honestly didn't think I'd see 'Souness as manager' being beaten into third place for at least a generation.

[lamaros]

klinsmann is taking over at bayern at the end of the season, have no fear.

you'll get someone even worse.

[HaemishM]

Bah, Klinsman made the German team play a really fun, uptempo sort of game. At the very least, he'd have probably stuck with one goddamn lineup as opposed to Rafa's "throw darts at a roster card" method.

[sidereal]

My contribution to this thread is to point out that I'm a huge Newcastle fan.  You can just derive my opinions and suicidal attitude from there.

[sigil]

Bruce Arena For Newcastle, I'm telling you 

[sidereal]

Arena would be only slightly worse than Maurinho, snide bastard.  Shearer screams desperate short-term attempt to hold onto fans.  I liked Allardyce.  He should have had more time.

Part of the problem is that most Toon fans think they're entitled to a top 5 finish, and aren't going to be willing to spend any time rebuilding.  This isn't that team anymore.

[lamaros]

Shearer is a tosser. Sitting around like a dickhead with no experience and making no effoert to get it, yet unwilling to rule himself categorically out of contention and hanging on to the dreams of certain fans and dicking with the authority of the manager at the time.

They should just appoint him, see the failure and then move on properly.

[HaemishM]

Allardyce is a good manager, he just plays boring boring boring ass football. Toon fans want Tottenham play style with Bolton level defense, which you aren't going to get without spending like the Big 4 (or hell, Big 3 these days).