Pack your bags Roy

[red g]

Completely how I feel. King Kenny saw this coming, as did quite a few posters here to be fair. I’m gutted I didn’t, and wanted to keep the “LFC way” of not firing managers without giving them a chance. Roy has surprised and disappointed me as he’s still a nice guy.

I don't actually buy that either......seems to be a nice guy when winning. But his comments and looking at some old blackburn stuff seems a tad deluded and very critical of all around him.

I think he is a bit spiteful if i can be honest and seems to to take his bat and ball home far to easy.

[RoadEnd]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/early-doors/article/295174/

You know that horrible feeling when you splash out on a big purchase, only to realise you have chucked your money away?

When you save up your hard-earned to spend a three-figure sum some needlessly jumped-up pair of jeans from a poncey boutique, only to see them half-price in the chain store next door.

When you stretch your finances to the limit to buy a one-bedroomed box in a gloomy suburb, then watch a vastly inflated housing market come crashing down around your ears.

When you wake with a fuzzy head and a mouth that taste like badger faeces (not that ED would know, etc.), tot up all the dog-eared receipts and realise you've spent £100 on a 'quiet drink', treated yourself to a cab home because the night bus seemed like too much of a challenge, and bought an extra large kebab, the majority of which is spread rancidly around your face, neck and torso.

Or when you splash out £300 million on a famous football club, then go to a match and realise you have wasted your money on a team of impostors in red shirts, and Sammy Lee.

Before this turns into an Alanis Morissette song, let's cut to the chase.

Liverpool were so awful in the Merseyside derby, so abject, so witless, so gutless, so sorely lacking in rudimentary skills, so disorganised, so inferior to an Everton side who have also struggled this season, so absolutely devoid of hope, that John W Henry and his NESV cronies must have thought about giving Hicks and Gillett a call, and offering them the club back at a hefty discount.

Roy Hodgson's absurd claim that Liverpool "dominated the second half totally" has been roundly derided, although he may be right that: "The second half was as good as I saw a Liverpool team play under my management."

Which says it all about just how ridiculously bad Liverpool have been this season. It is not just that they are 19th in the table, it is that they deserve to be there.

There have been no hard-luck stories, no beach balls or contentious refereeing decisions. Each of their four defeats has been deserved (against Manchester City, Manchester United, Blackpool and Everton), while the most questionable result was their only win, a scraped 1-0 against West Brom.

Theirs has truly been relegation form.

The team has 'not good enough' stamped all over it. In fact, let's go through the senior squad in all its abject misery. It is clear they need major reinforcements in every position except in goal.

Goalkeepers
Pepe Reina - Good
Brad Jones - Perfectly acceptable back-up

Full-backs
Glen Johnson - A bit flaky but basically OK
Paul Konchesky - Would be an OK back-up. Sadly, he's first choice at left-back.
Stephen Darby - Not trusted. We know this because Jamie Carragher plays right-back when Johnson is out. And Carra ain't a right-back.
Fabio Aurelio - Says it all that he was released at the end of last season, then reluctantly re-signed.

Centre-backs
Jamie Carragher - A decent player, a great dessing-room influence.
Martin Skrtel - No-nonsense. If by 'nonsense' you mean 'basic ball skills'.
Daniel Agger - Horrendously injury-prone, and he's got a mouth on him.
Sotiris Kyrgiakos - Really, REALLY not good.
Defensive/central midfielders
Lucas Leiva - Not as bad as everybody thinks and, at 23, has time to improve. But he's plainly not ready to be Liverpool's main man in midfield.
Christian Poulsen - A dreadfully inadequate replacement for Javier Mascherano.
Raul Meireles - Uninspiring, particularly considering his hefty £11.5m price tag.
Jay Spearing - Oddly tiny, and was atrocious in the Carling Cup defeat to Northampton.

Attacking midfielders
Steven Gerrard - Yes. Even if he was subpar at Goodison, Gerrard is inspirational and indispensable.
Dirk Kuyt - Made entirely of blond curls and distilled endeavour. But very much crocked, and quite possibly off to Inter in January.
Joe Cole - Doesn't look so much like the transfer coup of the summer now, does he? There is a small chance Harry Redknapp is glad he got Rafael van der Vaart instead.
Maxi Rodriguez - Drifts through games, contributes little.
Ryan Babel - Much-maligned, and usually rightly. But rarely gets a chance these days.
Milan Jovanovic - Identikit mid-table player. Was at Standard Liege for a reason.

Strikers
Fernando Torres - One of the best in the world when on form, which he isn't.
David N'Gog - Still just 21, and actually quite promising. But like Lucas, he needs time to develop.

Let's say NESV had unlimited resources to build a title-winning squad. How many of the above would they actually want to keep? Who could they realistically see contributing to the first championship in over 20 years?

By ED's reckoning, just these: Reina, Jones, Johnson, Carragher (for historical reasons), Lucas, Gerrard, Torres, N'Gog.

Eight players. Including two keepers and two players called Lucas and N'Gog.

NESV might be able to rescue Liverpool from crippling debt, but they cannot bring in 15 quality players overnight, they cannot compete with Manchester City or Chelsea in the transfer market, and they certainly cannot do it while bankrolling a new stadium.

It would be melodramatic to describe Liverpool's decline as terminal, but it is hard to see how Henry can ever restore the club to its former glories. He might be asking his lawyers to check their pockets for that receipt this morning.

Still, on the bright side, Scouse songstress Rebecca Ferguson did well on X-Factor.

[Reece]

They forgot Martin Kelly.

[Shaggy]

This is just bollocks

Sotiris Kyrgiakos - Really, REALLY not good.

Proof whoever wrote that has done it on reputation alone. Soto has played really well almost every time he's been called upon.

[red g]

They forgot Martin Kelly.

my first thought, put Darby in and leave Kelly out?

anyway half those players mentioned would thrive under a good boss!!

[RedReet]

Martin Skrtel - No-nonsense. If by 'nonsense' you mean 'basic ball skills'.

[The_weatherman]

Goalkeepers
Pepe Reina - Excellent player
Brad Jones - Poor player - thankfully backup

Full-backs
Glen Johnson - Very good player - need the right setup though
Paul Konchesky - Awful player - would be a good backup for Fulham
Stephen Darby - Doesn't have a future at the top level.
Fabio Aurelio - Permanently injured - a good player though.
Martin Kelly - Has never let us down, better then Konchesky.

Centre-backs
Jamie Carragher - Good player but I am concerned about how he influences the team.
Martin Skrtel - Decent, not top four quality though, needs a quality partner.
Daniel Agger - Excellent player if injury prone.
Sotiris Kyrgiakos - Decent back up.

Defensive/central midfielders
Lucas Leiva - Decent squad player.
Christian Poulsen - A dreadfully inadequate replacement for Javier Mascherano
Raul Meireles - I think he could be a good player IF played in his natural position.
Jay Spearing - No future.

Attacking midfielders
Steven Gerrard - Inspirational and indispensable, ? marks about is influence on moral.
Dirk Kuyt - Crocked my arse! Good player, very dependable.
Joe Cole - Dont know really.
Maxi Rodriguez - Drifts through games, contributes little.
Ryan Babel - Much-maligned, and usually rightly.
Milan Jovanovic - Identikit mid-table player.

Strikers
Fernando Torres - One of the best in the world when he gets service.
David N'Gog - Still just 21, and actually quite promising.

I'd definately keep those in bold and try to add to that core. So for me it's Reina, Johnson, Kelly, Carra, Skrtel, Agger, Lucas, Meireles, Gerrard, Kuyt, Cole, Torres and Ngog plus Pacheco and Shelvey at least. Babel, Maxi, Jova and Aurelio could stay for a while to provide some depth for the time being as the main problem is the way we set up which would make Messi and Drogba look poor.

[Neil Young]

Overnight I'd started to wonder whether, despite his massive limitations, there might be some sense in retaining Hoxhson for the season, until someone of stature was available to replace him (and I don't mean Rijkaard).

Reading all the threads has reminded me how completely sh*te we were yesterday and have been this season. As for his peevishness and hopeless attempts to misrepresent how we're playing, just f*** off, a million times f*** right off.

[Exiled_red]

That article is nonsense, I think we will all concede that our squad is lacking in a few areas, but alot of that is just being spouted becuase we are playing badly and we're an easy target. By my count 16 of the 22 players listed there went to the world cup in the summer so they can't be that bad.

[DannyMan2006]

This is just bollocks

Proof whoever wrote that has done it on reputation alone. Soto has played really well almost every time he's been called upon.

It's not bollocks, but it's not entirely correct.

It does make you wonder how good we actually are. I know we came second not so long back, but we have quite a few players missing from then who were key: Alonso, Mascherano, Arbeloa, Riera, Yossi and Hyypia.

Their replacements?

Meireles, Poulsen, Johnson, Jovanovic, Cole and Soto.

Now that is a vast gulf in class. Maybe if the players in question hit the form they are capable of that gulf would be closed slightly. But it would still be some distance from being bridged IMO.

You can also add to that the loss of Robbie Keane who was never replaced by anyone, the missing striker if you liked. You can also consider that Carra will sadly NEVER be as good now as he was then (age effects even the best).

If you look closely at the squad, we really are a million miles away.

[Neil Young]

It's not bollocks, but it's not entirely correct.

It does make you wonder how good we actually are. I know we came second not so long back, but we have quite a few players missing from then who were key: Alonso, Mascherano, Arbeloa, Riera, Yossi and Hyypia.

Their replacements?

Meireles, Poulsen, Johnson, Jovanovic, Cole and Soto.

Now that is a vast gulf in class. Maybe if the players in question hit the form they are capable of that gulf would be closed slightly. But it would still be some distance from being bridged IMO.

You can also add to that the loss of Robbie Keane who was never replaced by anyone, the missing striker if you liked. You can also consider that Carra will sadly NEVER be as good now as he was then (age effects even the best).

If you look closely at the squad, we really are a million miles away.

Sorry to pick up on just one point but Keane didn't need to be replaced because he contributed absolutely nothing. We could do with another striker - which I imagine is your main point in mentioning him - but he was a misconceived purchase from start to finish.

[Exiled_red]

It's not bollocks, but it's not entirely correct.

It does make you wonder how good we actually are. I know we came second not so long back, but we have quite a few players missing from then who were key: Alonso, Mascherano, Arbeloa, Riera, Yossi and Hyypia.

Their replacements?

Meireles, Poulsen, Johnson, Jovanovic, Cole and Soto.

Now that is a vast gulf in class. Maybe if the players in question hit the form they are capable of that gulf would be closed slightly. But it would still be some distance from being bridged IMO.

You can also add to that the loss of Robbie Keane who was never replaced by anyone, the missing striker if you liked. You can also consider that Carra will sadly NEVER be as good now as he was then (age effects even the best).

If you look closely at the squad, we really are a million miles away.

There may be a gap in class, but the team you mentioned with Mascherano, Alonso, Hyypia, Arbeloa and Riera finished second, we may have down graded but this squad should still be able to at least make the top 7, that seems like a distant dream the way things are at the moment! It's a squad that had 16 players at the world cup in the summer, and around 10 of them were first choice there for their countries. It should be able to swat aside teams like Blackpool at home comfortably, regardless of the step down in quality.

[Shaggy]

It's not bollocks, but it's not entirely correct.

What is it then? And what's it based on? Cos it sure as **** ain't based on his performances for us which have been consistently good. So he has a ****ty reputation based mainly on his time at Rangers. Not saying he's Franco Baresi but we needed an aerially dominant CB and we got one. He's been one of our better players since he signed.

[DannyMan2006]

Sami, Carra, Agger and Skrtel.

When we came second that was a fantastic quartet. Since then Sami has left, Skrtel has lost form and Agger continues to be blighted by injury everytime he looks ready to stake a claim. Carra has also lost a yard of pace.

When we went into that season we were solid at CB. A season and a quarter has shown we no longer are. We are in desperate need of a new top class CB. Add to that a lb, the need for Glen to sort his form out, at least one wide player, etc etc.

We are a mess.

[barnes10]

soto has been an adequate replacement for Sami with the exception that his reading of the game will never be in Sami's class.

but as a Sub he plays with power and commitment and has given us a few key goals.

for 2 mill, he's a solid player who accepts his place on the bench. the squad needs him.