To JWH, Dalglish and Comolli

[Mattshark]

Oh come on Matt, Lucas did very little in his first couple of seasons at the club apart from pass the ball sideways and look a bit scared. He wasn't abysmal, but he certainly wasn't even close to the player he has matured into now. As for Henderson, I've got no problem with suggesting the lad has played too much this season, or that we paid too much for him, but I don't think the comparison with Lucas in his first season is at all unfair.

Sorry but I thought he looked good from quite early in his career and just got a lot of unfounded and unfair criticism. Just my opinion.

[Icon]

The owners constantly iterate that they want success for the club, but it is an ongoing process and it will take time, and it's that 2nd part that hurts.
As a club we have had to 'rewind' almost every year and prepare for another period of transition. This season is no different.
With this in mind I don't believe we will see any major turnover at the club over the summer, apart from trying to land a natural goal scorer, which, if the owners are truly hungry for success for the club, they must surely realise.

[barnes10]

i see that we're in transition and just need a few more tweaks but:

our buying policy last summer was about proven premier league talent whereby we bring in players who have done it in the PL and will therefore slot in straight away. the whole point of this strategy is to hit the ground running.

regarding the goalscorer. thats supposed to be carroll isnt it. thats what kenny/damien told the owners they'd be getting for that 35mill.

those 2 things are big failures and kenny will be asked to explain himself.

the only answer i can see is that AC was basically a huge disappointment but one that may yet turn good. then that the others required this season to gel. that it was a big change to how the team plays so whilst the signings instantly comfortable in the PL unlike cheaper foreigners, they still need to get to know each other and the style of play.

oh and JC's decline has been far faster than anyone anticipated leaving the defence weaker overall and hence us shipping goals that cost us serious points.

whilst those explanations are all fair enough, i dont for a minute believe that FSG thought they were being overly ambitions in expecting us to land 4th as the season started.

[MrMichael]

i see that we're in transition and just need a few more tweaks but:

our buying policy last summer was about proven premier league talent whereby we bring in players who have done it in the PL and will therefore slot in straight away. the whole point of this strategy is to hit the ground running.

regarding the goalscorer. thats supposed to be carroll isnt it. thats what kenny/damien told the owners they'd be getting for that 35mill.

those 2 things are big failures and kenny will be asked to explain himself.

the only answer i can see is that AC was basically a huge disappointment but one that may yet turn good. then that the others required this season to gel. that it was a big change to how the team plays so whilst the signings instantly comfortable in the PL unlike cheaper foreigners, they still need to get to know each other and the style of play.

oh and JC's decline has been far faster than anyone anticipated leaving the defence weaker overall and hence us shipping goals that cost us serious points.

whilst those explanations are all fair enough, i dont for a minute believe that FSG thought they were being overly ambitions in expecting us to land 4th as the season started.

I don't disagree with most of that, but I'm not sure we can really blame anything this season on the defence; we've the 2nd best in the league and have conceded one less than ManU. I genuinely struggle to think of any games when shipping goals has cost us more than the failure to convert at the other end... perhaps Spurs away, though that was really lost in midfield & with the red cards.

While Carra's decline has certainly been an issue, Skrtel has performed better this season than I think many of us thought him capable of. If anything's hurt us in that area its been Lucas' injury, and Reina hasn't particularly been as great as he can be, but overall if asked to say one area I was happy with this year I'd point out the defence.

[Trippendicular]

I'm as frustrated as anyone, but our poor season (results-wise) comes down almost entirely to a combination of bad luck and very poor finishing. Whilst we certainly overpayed for players like Downing, Carroll, Henderson et. al., we couldn't have expected them to have such a poor showing in front of goal.

Had Downing, Carroll, Adam even just matched their goals/assists from last season, I think we'd comfortably be in the top 4. Who we blame for this is anyone's guess, but it certainly isn't FSG or Comolli.