Questions of various difficulty

[PTP]

When was the last time we scored from a corner?

can't remember but i'm sure we have this season
I know we have. But with the amount of corners we have every game, shouldn't we be scoring more? Is any team worse than us on a corner/goal ratio?

Why is Dossena not even in the squad when Insua is going through a rough patch?
pretty sure he is injured
But the entire season?

Why is many of our players suffering from recurring injuries?
few reasons, bad luck, not a good enough squad to rotate/rest certain players and ****ing internationals interfering
I accept bad luck. Rotation/rest to an extent. But the internationals? I know Torres and Gerrard has returned injured a couple of times from the internationals. But surely England and Spain don't train in a way that only injure our players regularly?

Why does everybody expect us to challenge for the title, when our budgets don't?
to be fair, from last season we were right in the mix even with our budget, the problem is though when you get tha close you have to gamble and we didn't - fortune favours the brave, due to our budget we will never take that leap/gamble to go a step further.
But last year we punched 20% (IMO) above our weight and this year 10% (IMO) under. What gambles would we have taken if we were brave?

Why is Skrtel **** this season?
lack of confidence

Will we buy in January?
i wouldn't hold my breath

Is our owners as patient as I am?
I'm not sure they know what day of the week it is, so patience doesn't come into it

Does voodoo work? And does Sir Alex have an Anfield voodoo dollhouse?
yes and yes

My head hurts...

my heart hurts....
Mine too...

fair two much random quoting going on - anyway with reference this one
"But last year we punched 20% (IMO) above our weight and this year 10% (IMO) under. What gambles would we have taken if we were brave?"

I think that first bit is a great assessment of last year/this year performance wise - maybe in a twisted way we shot ourselves in the foot by punching above our weight which could be viewed as papering over the cracks.

Gamble wise, well it involves money, which sadly we seem have none but we have to have some element of risk -

At the end of last season, i thought great! we have a solid squad - add another quality attacking mid, and a good solid cover for torres to give us more options and we are defo in a position to push on - We lost Alonso which was a blow - ok we replaced with aquilani and time we tell how good he is, but it meant we started the season in a mess as lucas looked out of his depth and mascher looked ****ed - we have never really recovered from this. Maybe a mistake on rafa's part, ok aquilani might become a great player for us - but we started the season, a vital season, with a severly weakened starting XI!

Also, we failed to make the two key signings i wanted - i'd say it would have been about a £30m to £40m gamble. - A top class attacking winger (preferbly on the left), and at a bare minimum we should have signed some decent competition/cover/or even a partner when needed for Torres. - I don't buy this well we play 4-5-1 so it means no decent striker will come to us as he will never play. I say bollocks to that theory.

You have to have someone else there. It's not as rigid and black and white as the same XI playing the same tactics for 90 mins for over 60+ games. We have to have the options to be flexible, to change things, and try things to open up, suprise or at least panic the opposition into thinking about what they are doing. Due to our lack of quality, opposition defenders will be pissing themselves. As good as Torres is(and he is a superstar), we have probably the weakest attacking 'options as a whole' as I can ever remember. It's clearly a major **** up. - Voronin is ****ing woeful at best, kuyt is no longer a striker, Babel is too busy ripping his **** as a mad wannabe gangsta rapper with his head in the clouds, and I like ngog i do, but he shouldn't be in the position he is - he should be at best our third striking option who is young/raw/coming through the ranks, and learning from torres and one other.

So that for me is the major failing and the gamble risk i wanted to see taken.

[DannyMan2006]

Gamble wise, well it involves money, which sadly we seem have none but we have to have some element of risk -

At the end of last season, i thought great! we have a solid squad - add another quality attacking mid, and a good solid cover for torres to give us more options and we are defo in a position to push on - We lost Alonso which was a blow - ok we replaced with aquilani and time we tell how good he is, but it meant we started the season in a mess as lucas looked out of his depth and mascher looked ****ed - we have never really recovered from this. Maybe a mistake on rafa's part, ok aquilani might become a great player for us - but we started the season, a vital season, with a severly weakened starting XI!

Also, we failed to make the two key signings i wanted - i'd say it would have been about a £30m to £40m gamble. - A top class attacking winger (preferbly on the left), and at a bare minimum we should have signed some decent competition/cover/or even a partner when needed for Torres. - I don't buy this well we play 4-5-1 so it means no decent striker will come to us as he will never play. I say bollocks to that theory.

You have to have someone else there. It's not as rigid and black and white as the same XI playing the same tactics for 90 mins for over 60+ games. We have to have the options to be flexible, to change things, and try things to open up, suprise or at least panic the opposition into thinking about what they are doing. Due to our lack of quality, opposition defenders will be pissing themselves. As good as Torres is(and he is a superstar), we have probably the weakest attacking 'options as a whole' as I can ever remember. It's clearly a major **** up. - Voronin is ****ing woeful at best, kuyt is no longer a striker, Babel is too busy ripping his **** as a mad wannabe gangsta rapper with his head in the clouds, and I like ngog i do, but he shouldn't be in the position he is - he should be at best our third striking option who is young/raw/coming through the ranks, and learning from torres and one other.

So that for me is the major failing and the gamble risk i wanted to see taken.

Spot on. The lack of a second striker to Torres was highlighted in January when Keane left and has not been addressed. Rafa got ****ed over and suddenly ahd to count on Voronin, a player he had tried for over a year to **** off.

The Aquilani buy was always going to be a gamble and we would have been fine had other areas been sorted out. With a full squad we could may have played Gerrard in CM and the new striker and Torres up top.

When Torres has needed rest we could have done so and played the new striker up top. Torres would be in much better condition now had we been in a position to rest him. Same goes for Stevie G. Rushed back because we had no option but to gamble.

[PTP]

Spot on. The lack of a second striker to Torres was highlighted in January when Keane left and has not been addressed. Rafa got ****ed over and suddenly ahd to count on Voronin, a player he had tried for over a year to **** off.

The Aquilani buy was always going to be a gamble and we would have been fine had other areas been sorted out. With a full squad we could may have played Gerrard in CM and the new striker and Torres up top.

When Torres has needed rest we could have done so and played the new striker up top. Torres would be in much better condition now had we been in a position to rest him. Same goes for Stevie G. Rushed back because we had no option but to gamble.

yeah it's a fair point re the aquilani deal - i think we would have coped had we got at least one other player in but certainly with two. - This purely for the sake of the arguement as using their names so please no-one come out with the "wel we could never afford him so it's pointless" - if we had kept keane, or signed someone of a similar standard and say added Silva - well we could have had plenty of options to try different things to both wait for aquilani to be ready and too also cover/rest/rotate both Gerrard and Torres and i'm certain we'd be in a better position than we are.

this for me is where we have been let down - i don't care who is too blame, it's irrelevant blame the owners or rafa or whoever - what is vital is we address this problem and get it properly sorted. The best we can hope for is we somehow keep ourselves in it by xmas and then between now and then find at least £10m to on a forward and maybe £15m+ to go on a winger and then hopefully the 2nd half of the season restore some faith and pride.

[DKdan]

fair two much random quoting going on - anyway with reference this one
"But last year we punched 20% (IMO) above our weight and this year 10% (IMO) under. What gambles would we have taken if we were brave?"

I think that first bit is a great assessment of last year/this year performance wise - maybe in a twisted way we shot ourselves in the foot by punching above our weight which could be viewed as papering over the cracks.

Gamble wise, well it involves money, which sadly we seem have none but we have to have some element of risk -

At the end of last season, i thought great! we have a solid squad - add another quality attacking mid, and a good solid cover for torres to give us more options and we are defo in a position to push on - We lost Alonso which was a blow - ok we replaced with aquilani and time we tell how good he is, but it meant we started the season in a mess as lucas looked out of his depth and mascher looked ****ed - we have never really recovered from this. Maybe a mistake on rafa's part, ok aquilani might become a great player for us - but we started the season, a vital season, with a severly weakened starting XI!

Also, we failed to make the two key signings i wanted - i'd say it would have been about a £30m to £40m gamble. - A top class attacking winger (preferbly on the left), and at a bare minimum we should have signed some decent competition/cover/or even a partner when needed for Torres. - I don't buy this well we play 4-5-1 so it means no decent striker will come to us as he will never play. I say bollocks to that theory.

You have to have someone else there. It's not as rigid and black and white as the same XI playing the same tactics for 90 mins for over 60+ games. We have to have the options to be flexible, to change things, and try things to open up, suprise or at least panic the opposition into thinking about what they are doing. Due to our lack of quality, opposition defenders will be pissing themselves. As good as Torres is(and he is a superstar), we have probably the weakest attacking 'options as a whole' as I can ever remember. It's clearly a major **** up. - Voronin is ****ing woeful at best, kuyt is no longer a striker, Babel is too busy ripping his **** as a mad wannabe gangsta rapper with his head in the clouds, and I like ngog i do, but he shouldn't be in the position he is - he should be at best our third striking option who is young/raw/coming through the ranks, and learning from torres and one other.

So that for me is the major failing and the gamble risk i wanted to see taken.

I fully agree. I was just curious to know wether it was as a club or as a manager we needed to take risks. You mentioning it would take 30-40 million. What a difference a left wing and a back up striker would have made!!!

[PTP]

Aye - i think it's gotta be a bit both - certainly the club needed to be willing to make the gamble - but as much as i like benitez i do think he is over cautious and also too stubborn in his ways.

haha the £30m to £40m was a bare minimum figure i felt we should have gambled in the summer when the time was right - i now think it will be closer to £100m

[SimonNo7]

When was the last time we scored from a corner?
1945

Why is Dossena not even in the squad when Insua is going through a rough patch?
He's been injured hasn't he?

Why is many of our players suffering from recurring injuries?
Because we don't pull them out of Internationals like Manure do

Why does everybody expect us to challenge for the title, when our budgets don't?
Because we are Liverpool and we should be

Why is Skrtel **** this season?
Out of form or not really a good player - one of them

Will we buy in January?
Doubt it but you never know


Is our owners as patient as I am?
Probably not but if we are as skint as is constantly reported they may have to be

Does voodoo work? And does Sir Alex have an Anfield voodoo dollhouse?
Yes, oh an he allegedly uses brown envelopes too

My head hurts...
Alcohol, lots of

[BG1973]

I fully agree. I was just curious to know wether it was as a club or as a manager we needed to take risks. You mentioning it would take 30-40 million. What a difference a left wing and a back up striker would have made!!!

Would have made **** all difference if we had still defended the way we have.

Goals conceded are our major problem this year and i guess you would have to look at a new right back, inexperienced left back and ever changing central defence pairing for the answer.

[red g]

Would have made **** all difference if we had still defended the way we have.

Goals conceded are our major problem this year and i guess you would have to look at a new right back, inexperienced left back and ever changing central defence pairing for the answer.

johnson carra agger aurelio.......dont think 3 of them have played together all season, no chance of getting a settled back 4 with that.

[Exiled_red]

I fully agree. I was just curious to know wether it was as a club or as a manager we needed to take risks. You mentioning it would take 30-40 million. What a difference a left wing and a back up striker would have made!!!

Totally agree

[DKdan]

Would have made **** all difference if we had still defended the way we have.

Goals conceded are our major problem this year and i guess you would have to look at a new right back, inexperienced left back and ever changing central defence pairing for the answer.

I think you are right to an extent. But with an excellent left winger and a back up striker worthy of the shirt we would have killed some of the games off before we tend to drop things. Then there is the confidence thing. Our team confidence would have been boosted greatly by a Silva and eg. Diego Milito in our side. And the times we have been unable to field Torres and SG, it has given our opponents a great boost. I don't think they would have had much of a boost if they saw a lineup like this:

-------------Reina---------------
Johnson--Skrtel-----Carra---Insua
---------Masher---Lucas---------
Kuyt---------Yossi-----------Silva
--------------Milito--------------

There are so many factors to consider that we cannot conclude how we would have fared with 2 more class additions.

Just look at how poo Ferdinand looks now. Does that have something to do with more teams having a go at them, now that they dont need to worry about Ronaldo/Tevez? Who knows. There is probably more to it than that, but you never know.

[SERVO2]

My question is quite simple... why do some people have the cheek to call themselves supporters when all they so is bitch & whine???? (Not in anyway aimed at DKDan - but some people are pissing me off now) THAT makes my head hurt!!!!

Cheers

Rach

[Joe King]

John Bradley, LFC commentator, said 65% of all goals now come from set pieces. That obviously doesn't apply to us.

[RoadEnd]

I don't think we really know how close the owners got us to administration while trying to renegotiate their loans. There was no money to gamble, and no-one would have been prepared to lend them anymore in the current climate. I think the only reason we got Aquilani was because the transfer fee in instalments.

The current set of injuries are concerning. We went through a similar period under Souness. I remember when our only fit striker was Erik Meijer
If I remember, it was suggested that changes in the training had contributed.

[PTP]

I don't think we really know how close the owners got us to administration while trying to renegotiate their loans. There was no money to gamble, and no-one would have been prepared to lend them anymore in the current climate. I think the only reason we got Aquilani was because the transfer fee in instalments.

The current set of injuries are concerning. We went through a similar period under Souness. I remember when our only fit striker was Erik Meijer
If I remember, it was suggested that changes in the training had contributed.

Aye thats an issue, no-one knows really what was happening behind the scenes - i do know tho, that we need something serious to happen to jump start the club and get something happening again.

Regards the aquilani fee, to be honest i'd say 99% of transfers nowadays are done through installments - that said, the fact we couldn't even scrape together say £10m(be it £5m up front and £5m later say) just for some cover up top is worrying.

[DKdan]

And if the money aren't there, they aren't there. I don't want us to go the way of Leeds.

I just find it strange that Rafa is the man responsible for our slump according to the media.

And while he could do better IMO with set pieces training, then I think the main responsibility lies with our owners.

What annoys me is, that if Moores had owned us still, then we would have had more money to spend. And the reason for a sale, was that we coudn't compete financially.

Tragic really!

We can't erase that, but if we turned down our expectations to match our budget, we woudn't be under such substantial pressure now, and it would be easier for the players to handle. As a result we probably would have more points now.

For the pressure to drop, it would require Purslow to say: Our ambition is a top four finish. We would like to finish higher, but we're skint, our owners are ******s, and top four is the most we can expect. (and budget wise we cannot even expect that)

What are the odds on that?