The View From Flagpole Corner - Athens Aftermath
Under-estimation Cost Us The Cup
Whichever way you look at it, there's no way we were going to win the European Cup with Bolo Zenden on the pitch. There were a few tactical decisions by Rafa that I didn't agree with.
Firstly I'd have put Arbeloa at left-back instead of Riise, secondly Gerrard should've been in the middle with Mascherano - not Alonso and I would've played Sissoko in the middle with those two so that we had a 5-man midfield.
The problem I think we had was that we underestimated Milan and believed that they played the same style as in Istanbul. The fact that our team was considerably better than that in 2005 wasn't enough to go on and I believe that a more aggressive attacking approach would've won us the game.
We also needed a proven goalscorer that night which we don't have at time of writing.
History Repeating Itself
I was watching the game in the Philharmonic Hall in town and even I could see on the big screen prior to kick-off that something wasn't right and the reports I heard on the radio when I got back seemed to back up my thoughts.
A mate of mine was over there for the game and said that there was no stewarding at the ground, just policing. He said that it had scary connotations of both Heysel and Hillsborough because fences were being pulled up, there were no proper turnstiles to speak of and Liverpool fans were lynching their own supporters in a bid to obtain tickets.
The grafting of tickets isn't something that's relatively new as I saw at the 2001 FA Cup final when a group of lads set upon a young red, a few years younger than meself at the time and kicked the living daylight out of him before making off with his ticket.
The scariest part of it all is that the stadium was so poorly set up in terms of the policing and organisation at the ground. Former Tory leader Michael Howard was in the ground and he's said that he feared another Hillsborough happening.
UEFA and the other football associations (namely the FA) need to learn from this that they should not favour the corporates over the real fans. There's been talk on several Liverpool forums of boycotting next year's FA Cup semi-final if we get there because the corporates will be ******* on us from above and the FA will be getting rich of the back of their own incompetence as they did after the Hillsborough disaster.
It's time for fan power to be put into effect big time otherwise football won't belong to the fans any more, it'll belong to the corporates and that will be the death of the game.
Hope In Our Hearts
Leaving the Philharmonic last night I thought that the fans would be dejected and silenced, once again I underestimated our fans.
They were singing on the streets, in Concert Square and were proud of what we had achieved.
There were a few gloating Evertonians who made reference to 1985 and us getting our "just desserts" but throughout all that our fans were a credit to the team and the city.
Time To Look Forward
Despite the defeat in Athens, we have a lot to look forward to over the summer and next season. We have Andriy Voronin and Lucas signed up already, I'm hoping that Mascherano will soon follow suit. The departure of Zenden and Gonzalez will hopefully pave the way for Simao as well as a few others.
The funds being given by the new owners and Rafa's refusal to let sentiment get in the way of transfer decisions (unlike his predecessor Gerard Houllier) shows that the future is bright for LFC.
Whichever way you look at it, there's no way we were going to win the European Cup with Bolo Zenden on the pitch. There were a few tactical decisions by Rafa that I didn't agree with.
Firstly I'd have put Arbeloa at left-back instead of Riise, secondly Gerrard should've been in the middle with Mascherano - not Alonso and I would've played Sissoko in the middle with those two so that we had a 5-man midfield.
The problem I think we had was that we underestimated Milan and believed that they played the same style as in Istanbul. The fact that our team was considerably better than that in 2005 wasn't enough to go on and I believe that a more aggressive attacking approach would've won us the game.
We also needed a proven goalscorer that night which we don't have at time of writing.
History Repeating Itself
I was watching the game in the Philharmonic Hall in town and even I could see on the big screen prior to kick-off that something wasn't right and the reports I heard on the radio when I got back seemed to back up my thoughts.
A mate of mine was over there for the game and said that there was no stewarding at the ground, just policing. He said that it had scary connotations of both Heysel and Hillsborough because fences were being pulled up, there were no proper turnstiles to speak of and Liverpool fans were lynching their own supporters in a bid to obtain tickets.
The grafting of tickets isn't something that's relatively new as I saw at the 2001 FA Cup final when a group of lads set upon a young red, a few years younger than meself at the time and kicked the living daylight out of him before making off with his ticket.
The scariest part of it all is that the stadium was so poorly set up in terms of the policing and organisation at the ground. Former Tory leader Michael Howard was in the ground and he's said that he feared another Hillsborough happening.
UEFA and the other football associations (namely the FA) need to learn from this that they should not favour the corporates over the real fans. There's been talk on several Liverpool forums of boycotting next year's FA Cup semi-final if we get there because the corporates will be ******* on us from above and the FA will be getting rich of the back of their own incompetence as they did after the Hillsborough disaster.
It's time for fan power to be put into effect big time otherwise football won't belong to the fans any more, it'll belong to the corporates and that will be the death of the game.
Hope In Our Hearts
Leaving the Philharmonic last night I thought that the fans would be dejected and silenced, once again I underestimated our fans.
They were singing on the streets, in Concert Square and were proud of what we had achieved.
There were a few gloating Evertonians who made reference to 1985 and us getting our "just desserts" but throughout all that our fans were a credit to the team and the city.
Time To Look Forward
Despite the defeat in Athens, we have a lot to look forward to over the summer and next season. We have Andriy Voronin and Lucas signed up already, I'm hoping that Mascherano will soon follow suit. The departure of Zenden and Gonzalez will hopefully pave the way for Simao as well as a few others.
The funds being given by the new owners and Rafa's refusal to let sentiment get in the way of transfer decisions (unlike his predecessor Gerard Houllier) shows that the future is bright for LFC.
Comment