2006/07 Reviews?

[Red Chilli]

Anyone?

I haven't seen any yet and there are some posters on here that have a history of writing very good post season reviews. I'm not very good at them but here goes for starters:

Personally I'm disappointed. Failing to win any silverware (except the community shield) is a major disappointment but more than that is the fact that we were so abject domestically. We failed to remotely compete in any domestic competition.
To finish more that 20 points behind the champions, and for those champions to be SCUM, is very poor. Rafa still hasn't got to grips with the English game. On top of that some of our performances were lifeless, we didn't turn up for some games and had no idea how to break them down.
In Europe we were fantastic again. The only times we looked threatened were the qualifying round and the tight games against Barca and Chavski. We should have won the final but were robbed by a more clinical performance by Milan.
New signings:
Pennant - took a LONG time to settle in but encouraging performances at the end of the season, I hope he pushes on and continues to improve. Looked better in Europe, strangely.
Gonzo - failed to settle. Where was his lightening pace from Spain? short of confidence and seemingly on his way. The left wing curse strikes again.
Aurelio - Unlucky to get injured when he was finally starting to play well. Started the season in defence and looked totally lost. I'm still not convinced he's a good defender.
Kuyt - Decent goal return for his first season. From his first appearance he's never stopped running around and harrying defenders. I like that side of his game but he needs to get in the box a bit more.
Bellamy - Seems to have a purple patch whenever he's surrounded by drama. Immediately after his trial he put in a few great performances. Then he went off the boil, then he whacked Riise with a golf club and went and scored in the Camp Nou. It hasn't worked out for him but I don't think he let anyone down, he's just not got the quality ultimately.
Mascherano - Undecided




No, he's done well in the few games he's played. Why hasn't he had a contract offer yet?

Agger: Not a new signing but he didn't play much before this season. WHAT a find this lad has been. We need to tie his future up ASAP. Hopefully he'll have a good 2nd season.

[REDSCOUSER]

I was gonna do one but my spirits were crushed after the Athens defeat so I did not bother after that.

In a nutshell
1-Away form is very poor, must improve
2-Must beat the other big 3 more often, its easy beating bottom half teams
3-New signings some hit as in Kuyt, Agger, Mascherano, some miss such as Pennant, Aurelio Gonzalez & Bellamy.
4-Gerrard carried the team in most of the matches but when he went missing hardly anyone stepped up.
5-Rafa must be more adventerous in his tactics, maybe with better players we will score more goals.

[loco_law]

To me, I wasn't as put off by our season as everyone else seems to have been.

1. Our keeper/defence was again the best in the league.

2. We finished with the 2nd best home record in the league. 1 point behind the league champs and better than Chelsea in 2nd.

3. 2nd best home goal difference in the league. Only 2 behind Manure We only conceded 7 goals in 19 home games. 2 of those came in a home game that didn't matter at the end of the season with a weakly fielded team.

4. Our keeper set an LFC record for most clean sheets over his first 100 games.


Our away form is the only thing that needs help, and even that isn't putrid. We allowed a goal a game on the road. We scored just under a goal a game. All it will take to change that is 10 more goals on the road. With just 10 more goals scored on the road, 1/2 a goal average a game, we would have had 21 more points.

Guess what? That ties the league winners this season.

I am extremely confident of our season next year.

[desertscouser]

Domestically, it was a rubbish season. Uninspiring and the quality of our football was poor. If we don't spend big this summer then I'm afraid its going to be more of the same next season.

The CL run saved our season somewhat, especially our victories over Barca and Chelsea.

[tomasjj]

I was gonna do one but my spirits were crushed after the Athens defeat so I did not bother after that.

In a nutshell
1-Away form is very poor, must improve

YES

2-Must beat the other big 3 more often, its easy beating bottom half teams

YES

3-New signings some hit as in Kuyt, Agger, Mascherano, some miss such as Pennant, Aurelio Gonzalez & Bellamy.


I wouldn't say so. Pennant is showing signs now, and Aurelio, almost free, was great before he got injured.

4-Gerrard carried the team in most of the matches but when he went missing hardly anyone stepped up.

Bollocks. That is just a myth. SG was average last season by PL standards too.

5-Rafa must be more adventerous in his tactics, maybe with better players we will score more goals.

YES!

[dww]

It was a disappointing season domestically. The new players took a long time to settle and injuries to Aurelio, Garcia and Kewell severely reduced the balance of the team and the level of creative attacking play we could muster.

We defended well, but we had that the season before. We failed to break down packed defences or take advantage enough of superiority in many games - think Everton and Man United home and many away games. We did show in a few games, such as aginst Bolton that if you add width to our play then we can play much better.

Gerrard improved his ability to play a disciplined CM role but compensated by becoming crap on the right and scoring far fewer goals.

Pennant became a more than useful squad player by the end of the season but needs to improve his play under pressure. In games like the CL final his delivery was disappointing and at a top club handling these sorts of situations is key.

Gonzalez was a massive disappointment.

Crouch did really well and proved he can continue to be a vital part of the team whoever we bring in. Kuyt stated well but was less effective when played deeper and didn't score enough goals to be our striking saviour. He did show enough to imagine he might improve next season, especially with better service.

Agger continued his footballing education and showed he will be a worthy replacemment for Sami.

Mascher came and did well but we were already strong in CM.

Momo had his moments but his passing has gone backwards after considerable improvement over the course of his first season. If he isn't going to return to at least he previous level he needs to be sold.

Riise had a poor season but not as bad as many made out. I still think in the long term our fullbacks need to contibute more to our attacking play and to improve their passing into midfield and overlap out wide more. The difference when Aurelio found form (for all of two games before injury) on the left was pronounced and showed what a difference this could make.

Carragher recovered from early season crapness to become his usual excellent self in the second half of the season. Much the same can be said about Reina.

Bellamy disappointed me but his attitude to not playing regularly was better than I expected. Brief period of good form post court case was not enough to mean he should stay next season.

[The Glove]

Mascherano - Undecided




No, he's done well in the few games he's played. Why hasn't he had a contract offer yet?

Because he is still under contract at West Ham.

[Red Chilli]

Because he is still under contract at West Ham.

Really?

I thought we'd signed him on an 18 month contract.

So is he only on loan then? Considering the Tevez contract at West Ham was 'torn up' in April does that mean Mascherano's contract with them is dubious too? In which case he could become a free agent?

[Craig_H]

Anyone?

I haven't seen any yet.

[Red Chilli]

I meant from the internet fans perspective