expectation

[Shaggy]

Nothing personal of course but I think that is a blinkered and outdated view.

[Jennings]

... We must manage our expectations better, rather than blindly demanding the title every season.

Brilliant point.

One way this could be done is making publicly visible the objectives for the season. Eg. My objectives are clearly laid down by my boss.

Obviously the downside is that the pressure mounts from the press if it looks like the targets won't be met. But so what? The manager is not answerable to the press.

There may be other ways of managing expectations but transparency and visibility is a good one.

[Leyton388]

Yeah maybe mate just sick of united winning everything and us fans coming up with the same excuses every year saying maybe next year. Not the right attitude for liverpool fans to have. Lets face it liverpool fans have been through a lot these past 3 years.

[FatTony]

Expectation.

We have to manage our expectations better. In terms of our revenue, stadium size etc, we have no divine right to win the title. Yes we're Liverpool FC but the game has changed - it's mainly about money. We can't compete with United and Chelsea on that front and so we are where we should be, in 3rd. Our squad has been assembled less expensively than either of those two. Rafa is edging us nearer to a title challenge (this has been more of a surrender than a challenge) and has us competing for the European Cup every single season. Cast your minds back to where we were under Houllier - lucky to be in the CL never mind challenging for it every year. Sacking Rafa would put us back to square one.

Yes he has his faults and some of them show no sign of being corrected, but I shudder to think where we'd be without him and I for one, after a good night's sleep, would be happy for us to continue under his stewardship and being one of the most feared teams in Europe. We must manage our expectations better, rather than blindly demanding the title every season.

My expectations are yours. To actually take the EPL title would be a magnificent achievement and it would be as a result of one of the top 2 clubs in the EPL slipping up. This season they both did slip up, yet Rafas squad folded like wet cardboard.

Football is very much about money. He with the most toys normally wins, and on that front we should finish 3rd unless something happens to the top two, but this season it wasn't the teams with more money we dropped the points against, it was against those with far less, and that is inexcusable. We had the chance this season, it won't happen again for some time.

Rafa's side yesterday, in what was the most important game of the season, was nothing short of embarrassing. 5 years in and its last chance saloon to maintain the title chase and the best we can come up with is having Kuyt up front on his own, Ngog, Lucas, Skrytel, El Zhar and Babel. Its a pathetic squad of players yet he's spent more money than most. Yes Torres wasn't fit, but you look at the players we have to bring in now when either he or Gerrard are injured and its mediocre trash. Its a disgusting state of affairs 5 years and £130m in. This better squad of players that fans keep talking about doesn't actually exist.

So, in short I agree that we should be finishing 3rd, but this season was one of those where the top 2 clubs in England actually ****ed up and gave us a chance. Rafa failed.

[Craig_H]

We had a chance and blew it, yeah, but by the same token United are winning it just as much as we're chucking it away. They've won 14 games on the trot or something FFS. Ultimately I don't think it would've mattered what we did - they just keep winning.

Villa are overachieving IMO, yeah. Just like Everton did a coupla years ago.

Sorry mate, but if we could beat ****e relegation fodder at home, we'd be up there with United. They havent done anything miraculous, they just win the games they should win - we dont.

Maybe if we'd won those games and been breathing down their necks, the pressure may have led to them dropping a few points here and there.

As it is, they're playing without pressure.

[Exiled_red]

Sorry mate, but if we could beat ****e relegation fodder at home, we'd be up there with United. They havent done anything miraculous, they just win the games they should win - we dont.

Maybe if we'd won those games and been breathing down their necks, the pressure may have led to them dropping a few points here and there.

As it is, they're playing without pressure.

When we were above them they were under pressure and they still got the results. They just cope better with the pressure than we do, in fact they almost thrive on it, Ferguson has built up this "everyone is against us mentality" which drives them on to success. All his comments to the outside world back this up, - which is why when he says the FA or the Referees or whoever are against them we all laugh, but he's got the whole squad and club believing it. Mourinho did the same at Chelsea.

We on the other hand still seem to have the attitude/mentality of underdogs take the Champions League 2005 after every draw in the knock out round we were expected to go out, Juventus, Chelsea and Milan. It was a almost a case of no-one really expects us to win, we have nothing to lose. I think it's a similar thing with the title and it tends to come out in interviews "If we win the title we'll be heroes" etc that to me suggests a mentality of "we have an outside chance of winning but if we don't no-one really expected it and we've tried" which is a losing attitude going in.

Personally I think we need some pressure to overcome this and ward off complacancy, I remember reading something about Ferguson where he said half way through the season he had an envelope in his office with the names of certain players who weren't performing and if they didn't improve in the rest of the season they would be out in the summer, I think we need something like that to give the players a kick

[Elvoz]

Sorry mate, but if we could beat ****e relegation fodder at home, we'd be up there with United. They havent done anything miraculous, they just win the games they should win - we dont.

Maybe if we'd won those games and been breathing down their necks, the pressure may have led to them dropping a few points here and there.

As it is, they're playing without pressure.

for all the stick craig gets he is bang on
manure will win the league we lost this year
to some not as in the way newcastle blew all them years back but in my mind the very same way .
we stand at march the 1st and for all the liverpool have done well etc we actually havent
we have a fight on to finish 2nd - the same fight on i expected in may to finish 1st

[Shaggy]

Exactly Exiled Red - they were under plenty of pressure when we were 8 points ahead or whatever it was, but they just kept winning. All the time. They can handle the pressure - as you say they thrive on it. We've buckled under it.

[Craig_H]

Exactly Exiled Red - they were under plenty of pressure when we were 8 points ahead or whatever it was, but they just kept winning. All the time. They can handle the pressure - as you say they thrive on it. We've buckled under it.

It's easier at the mid point of the season, less so when you're entering the final 10 games. As it is, we're now too far behind to exert any pressure going into the last quarter of the season.

I maintain, United arent doing anything that's particularly unprecedented.

The team who wins the league usually gets about 90, and United will get about 90 points. Nothing new there.

[Shaggy]

It may be easier in the middle of the season, but regardless they kept winning while, from January onwards (mid-season), we ****ed it up. So while it may be easier, we still couldn't handle it. They could.

[Craig_H]

I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying that they havent produced anything that people 'cant live with', they've just done the expected, we've been ****.

The point being, they'll win this league without having done anything amazingly special.

[Shaggy]

...apart from breaking the all-time record for keeping consecutive clean sheets

[squaddie]

Expectation.

We have to manage our expectations better. In terms of our revenue, stadium size etc, we have no divine right to win the title. Yes we're Liverpool FC but the game has changed - it's mainly about money. We can't compete with United and Chelsea on that front and so we are where we should be, in 3rd. Our squad has been assembled less expensively than either of those two. Rafa is edging us nearer to a title challenge (this has been more of a surrender than a challenge) and has us competing for the European Cup every single season. Cast your minds back to where we were under Houllier - lucky to be in the CL never mind challenging for it every year. Sacking Rafa would put us back to square one.

Yes he has his faults and some of them show no sign of being corrected, but I shudder to think where we'd be without him and I for one, after a good night's sleep, would be happy for us to continue under his stewardship and being one of the most feared teams in Europe. We must manage our expectations better, rather than blindly demanding the title every season.

Agreed

[Guest]

They have got players with massive experience of winning titles. Giggs, Scholes and Neville have been massive for them this season. They are exceptional players; I'd go as far to say that for me, Scholes is the epitome of the perfect midfielder. Hardly loses the ball, plays economically and has got a wonderful range of passing. And he can score. He's the only one player I'd rank alongside (at his peak) Stevie G in english football.

As for Giggs ... another legend and will probably go down as one of United's greatest players.

That's one reason why they are so good ... and to complement that with players such as Ronaldo, Berbatov, Rooney and Tevez ... in small: money to buy the best.