Liverpool LIVE

[Shaggy]

Great point about McManaman. He was a different animal, so to speak, watching him from the stands rather than your sofa.

[Revo]

what are you laffin at?

[Craig_H]

what are you laffin at?

The idea that you'd bother with tickets

[Revo]

the glove bunks me in

[Craig_H]

[DannyMan2006]

I have to say that if you wanted to see how good a player really was you would have to watch his performances over a number of live games to assess even a half decent opinion. And by watch I mean looking at that particular player for the whole game.

The next step down is watching the player on TV over a number of games, by doing this you would see some of the good and bad parts to someones game.

At the bottom by a longshot is a highlights reel of a particular player. Back in the day this was more common, but basically agents would send a video in the post to the big clubs with a video showing how great they are, in essence a youtube clip of the player. Once this was seen, if impressed the manager would then send a scout to watch the live games before deciding if a bid was required.

Theres a well known story of Souness being sent a video of a player claiming to be George Weahs cousin whilst in charge at Southampton. Obviously the player in question looked fantastic in the video. Souness was then pressured by the agent who claimed there was a vast army of teams banging his door down for his signature. Souness therefore decided that he would be a fool to miss out and promptly agreed a fee and contract.

Anyhow Souness wanted to play him in a reserves game, but as luck would have it the game was rained off. The next saturday he was in the squad and with Southampton trailing Souness decided the time had come for the world to witness the next superstar. Said player therefore came on as sub. Now I could go onto explain that his performance was probably the worst in premiership history, but the fact he lasted 8 minutes or so before being subbed and put out his misery probably best sums this up.

There is no substitute for the live game for watching a player. And be very wary of Youtube.

[Shaggy]

Ali Dia. Legend.

[Shaggy]

Here's the Wiki entry about him...

Ali Dia born Dakar, 20 August 1965, is a former Senegalese footballer who once played for English FA Premier League club Southampton, after falsely claiming to be a Senegalese international.

After a playing career at the lower levels in France and Germany, and having already had failed trials at Port Vale, Gillingham and Bournemouth, Dia was signed by Southampton manager Graeme Souness in 1996, after Souness received a phone call purporting to be from Liberian international and former FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah. "Weah" told Souness that Dia was his cousin, had played for Paris Saint-Germain and had played 13 times for his country. In actual fact, none of this was true, and the phone call was from Dia's agent. Nonetheless, Souness was convinced, and signed Dia on a one-month contract.

Dia played just one game for Southampton, against Leeds United on November 23, 1996. He was originally scheduled to play in a reserve friendly against Arsenal, but the match was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch. In the match against Leeds, he came on as a substitute for Matthew Le Tissier after 32 minutes but his performance was spectacularly below Premier League quality; many would say that Dia was the worst player to ever play for Southampton. He himself suffered a substitution (by Ken Monkou) after playing for 53 minutes. Leeds won the match 2-0.

Dia was released by Southampton two weeks into his contract. He briefly played for non-league Gateshead, before fading into obscurity.

He has achieved a notorious status amongst English football fans for his lack of ability, and is regularly featured in lists of bad players or bad transfers.

Ali Dia wore shirt number 33 on his one and only appearance for the Saints.

[Parm]

Ali Dia. Legend.

[DannyMan2006]

Ali Dia. Legend.

That's the one. Imagine reading all the hype on the web only to witness his true class.

And I thought hard done by when witnessing the next Viera and Zidane!

[El Jefecito]

Just wanted to throw a couple of points out there.

1/ With advent of wide-screen and HD TV it is much easier to a feel for the peripheral elements of the game. The difference is AMAZING, it really shows how poor your typical TV view is.
2/ Rafa does a lot of his tactical work based on DVDs of games. So the poor relations like myself can take some comfort that at least it's good enough for Rafa

[DannyMan2006]

Just wanted to throw a couple of points out there.

1/ With advent of wide-screen and HD TV it is much easier to a feel for the peripheral elements of the game. The difference is AMAZING, it really shows how poor your typical TV view is.
2/ Rafa does a lot of his tactical work based on DVDs of games. So the poor relations like myself can take some comfort that at least it's good enough for Rafa

When Rafa can get to games too view the opposition he does. He is usually however managing LFC during a game however so this is not feasible, though he will of course send scouts to watch our next opponents. Watching DVDs is one of the only realistic options he has.

Having said that the main point was the viewing of players that is greatly effected.

[El Jefecito]

When Rafa can get to games too view the opposition he does. He is usually however managing LFC during a game however so this is not feasible, though he will of course send scouts to watch our next opponents. Watching DVDs is one of the only realistic options he has.

Having said that the main point was the viewing of players that is greatly effected.

No question about viewing the players. But again wide screen gives you 2/3-3/4 of the pitch and from a better camera angle. Maybe it evens itself out.

[DannyMan2006]

No question about viewing the players. But again wide screen gives you 2/3-3/4 of the pitch and from a better camera angle. Maybe it evens itself out.

When you stop seeing Scouts at games you will be right. Until then.......

[El Jefecito]

When you stop seeing Scouts at games you will be right. Until then.......

fair enough. I still think it is a more than good enough substitue for the typical spectator.