Liverpool v Wigan Post Match Thread

[Daniel 7]

I never knew Ablett played left back, thought he was always on the right or the centre?

[yamiedo]

I still think Kenny's the man to take us to the next level but I fear he will be sacked at the end of the season.

[vonk]

I'd be shocked if they sacked him. He needs to get at least one more season and I would want him to. Kenny, Clarke and Comolli need to sit down together at the end of the season and admit the mistakes that have been made. That's the most important thing, to see the mistakes and do something to rectify them. I'm hoping this is already happening. The mistakes that need rectifying are:

Andy Carroll - this saga has been a noose around the clubs neck. I was prepared to take his lack of positional sense for a powerful presence in the box, but he's not even that. He ends up on his arse most of the time, whining that he's been fouled. It's very frustrating. The club needs to accept that it was a huge mistake and sell him.

Downing - If he was 20 I'd be prepared to give him slack, but he's an England international who hides. Consistently inconsistent. One decent game followed by a stinker and seems to completely lack any cahones when things go bad. He just doesn't have the right mentality for LFC. He was a mistake, get rid while we can get some cash.

Adam - a squad player at best but even though he was cheap he's simply not good enough to be in a Liverpool midfield. Get rid if we can, which is a big if.

Dirk and Carra - finished. Give Carra a coaching role.

Get some decent youngs players in and build an exciting young squad. Look at players like Ben Arfa, young cheap and worth a look. We seem to be buying the 17 year olds who's career could go either way. What about young players who are already getting established in teams here and abroad? The transfer policy needs to be better than spending massive amounts on potential. We need to be cleverer in the market.

[Mostar]

Jonjo vs Wigan


[ame="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpoivi_jonjo-vs-wigan-24-03-2012_lifestyle"]Jonjo vs Wigan 24-03-2012 - Video Dailymotion[/ame]

[Phoenix07]

When Pako left everything turned to ****

And when Rafa grew his goatee.

Seriously though, Pako has a very valid point which I think the traditionalists are struggling to accept.

Winning cups didn't necessarily mean team progression for him.

[Lecter]

I never knew Ablett played left back, thought he was always on the right or the centre?

Nope

Ablett played leftback frequently

[Daniel 7]

Burrows? Nicol?

I was only a nipper back then tbh

[Nicey]

And when Rafa grew his goatee.

Seriously though, Pako has a very valid point which I think the traditionalists are struggling to accept.

Winning cups didn't necessarily mean team progression for him.

Winning cups is nice, but I agree it hardly denotes progression, just look at Birmingham.

I honestly think we have been amazingly unlucky this campaign and each bit of bad fortune has tipped the scale for more freakish misfortune. That said mistakes have been made along the way. We also play too cautiously at times, not enough men in the box, we almost always come out of the gates fast, do not score, get deflated, ease off, conceed a stupid goal and repeat the processs.

My brain is telling me stick this out, my heart longs for Rafa and Pako

Boy do I miss that man being our manager, i ****ing adored him and his football, his press conferences, the all consuming confidence of his teams for the most part, wrecking machines ... I loved it

[sean_lfc]

Winning cups is nice, but I agree it hardly denotes progression, just look at Birmingham.

I honestly think we have been amazingly unlucky this campaign and each bit of bad fortune has tipped the scale for more freakish misfortune. That said mistakes have been made along the way. We also play too cautiously at times, not enough men in the box, we almost always come out of the gates fast, do not score, get deflated, ease off, conceed a stupid goal and repeat the processs.

My brain is telling me stick this out, my heart longs for Rafa and Pako

Boy do I miss that man being our manager, i ****ing adored him and his football, his press conferences, the all consuming confidence of his teams for the most part, wrecking machines ... I loved it

Amen brother!

With regards to the 'unlucky' and 'misfortune' stuff. When you're good, you get 'lucky', you have lots of 'fortune', it just seems to click in place. Just look at United, always sneakily lucky, last minute goals all that ****. When you're ****, you hit the post all the time, miss last-gap equalisers etc. When you're successful you create your own luck.

[Lecter]

Burrows? Nicol?

I was only a nipper back then tbh

Nicol often switched between left and rightback

He also played left midfield on the odd occasion when Barnes moved inside

[Daniel 7]

Yep, I just don't ever recall Ablett playing on the left...

[Lecter]

Yep, I just don't ever recall Ablett playing on the left...

Gary Ablett - a lovely man who will be sadly missed


Phil McNulty | 12:04 UK time, Monday, 2 January 2012




Gary Ablett, who has died at the age of 46, had a career to be proud of and will always be guaranteed a unique place in Merseyside football history.

Ablett, who had suffered from non-Hodgkins lymphoma for 16 months, was the first - and still the only - player to have won the FA Cup with both Liverpool and Everton.

He will also be remembered by anyone who ever had personal dealings with him as one of the game's genuinely nice men, something that can be said too easily at times like this but in Ablett's case so true.

Even as recently as November, when he celebrated his 46th birthday, he was replying personally to Tweets sent to him by well-wishers with good humour and remarkable optimism given the seriousness of his condition.



Ablett won FA Cups with both Liverpool and Everton. Photo: Getty

Ablett was popular not just with his fellow professionals but also with the media. Always willing to chat in good times and bad and with a lovely line in self-deprecating humour, his death at such an early age will be widely mourned.

As his family come to terms with their loss, they can reflect on a man who had a playing career anyone would be proud of. They can also reflect on someone who, even though fiercely committed on the field of play, was a gentleman off it. A credit to himself and the game.

As a player he made his name in Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool team of the second half of the 80s, performing with versatility and distinction as a left-back and central defender in a team that contained such stellar talents as Alan Hansen, Ian Rush and the player-manager himself.

Ablett was in Liverpool's side that won the post-Hillsborough FA Cup Final against Everton in 1989 and also won the title twice at Anfield, only being denied a third success by Michael Thomas's famous final intervention of that 1989 season that took the crown to Arsenal.

Perhaps the most remarkable turn of his career came in January 1992, when he left Liverpool for Everton in a £750,000 deal, a gamble by then manager Howard Kendall given the nature of the deal but one which was ultimately fully justified.

I recall Kendall passionately defending his move and the player at the time, maybe realising that Ablett's arrival from Anfield would not necessarily be a cause for widespread rejoicing on the royal blue half of Merseyside.

It was a move inevitably regarded with suspicion and scepticism by many Everton supporters and yet in the contrary manner that often marks out football fans, they were very careful not to show it given the courage Ablett had shown in making the move.

They got fully behind Ablett and once again, particularly under Joe Royle, the faith reaped dividends. Royle wisely used Ablett's defensive solidity as a safety valve to release the attacking instincts of Andy Hinchliffe, always happier providing telling deliveries for the likes of Duncan Ferguson.

Ablett was crucial to a game-plan that saved Everton from what looked like certain relegation until Royle's arrival. Ablett duly took his place in history in May 1995 when he played in Everton's side when they beat Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley to claim the FA Cup.

He may not have enjoyed those successes again as he embarked on a nomadic conclusion to a playing career that included a spell at Long Island Rough Riders in America - but his standing in the game ensured Ablett would be in demand as a coach.

Ablett's year-long managerial career at Stockport County was unfulfilling, hard times with the club in administration, but he showed his quality working with and guiding young players for four years at Everton's academy before becoming reserve team coach at Liverpool in 2006 for a three-year spell.

Roy Keane knew enough about Ablett to take him to Ipswich Town as a member of his backroom team, which is where he was when he was taken ill in 2010.

Ablett was held in genuine affection throughout the game and the tributes pouring in from a Merseyside football community united in sadness by his death are an accurate measure of a lovely man and a fine footballer.

Gary Ablett, Liverpool and Everton FA Cup hero, dies at the age of 46

Date: 02 January, 19:19
Author: joHnkiIttwillis


Gary Ablett, the only man to win the FA Cup with Liverpool in 1989 and Everton in 1995, has died following a long battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. He was just 46.

The Liverpool-born defender died on New Year’s Day having been diagnosed with the illness in the summer of 2010 while working as an assistant to Roy Keane at Ipswich Town. Among the many to pay tribute to Ablett was Michael Owen, who wrote on Twitter: “So sad to hear the news that Gary Ablett has passed away today aged 46. He played for some great clubs and had a career to be proud of. RIP”. The Labour MP and Everton fan, Andy Burnham, also wrote: “So sad to hear about Gary Ablett. Achieved rare feat of playing for, and being loved by, both clubs. A measure of the man he was. RIP.”

Ablett, who also played for Birmingham City, Blackpool and had a short spell in America, won two league titles and the 1989 FA Cup for Liverpool in an Anfield career spanning 147 games. He joined the club as an apprentice in 1983 and was handed his first-team debut by Kenny Dalglish three years later, initially establishing himself at left-back in the 1987-88 title-winning campaign before featuring more regularly at centre-half and winning the league once more in 1989-90.

The Liverpool manager said today: “The most important thing just now is to pay our respects to Gary, his wife Jacqueline, the two boys and his wee girl. It’s a sad, sad day for his family and everyone connected with Liverpool Football Club. Obviously he had a long battle and I’m sure it was a lot of suffering and a lot of pain for him, but the only thing you can say is at least he won’t be suffering any longer.

“I gave Gary his debut and remember him scoring on his first start at Anfield against Nottingham Forest. He was a really good servant to the football club not only as a player, but also as reserve-team coach. He served the club proudly and credibly. It’s very sad for everybody.”

Under Dalglish’s replacement as Liverpool manager, Graeme Souness, Ablett lost his first-team place and was sold across Stanley Park to Everton for £750,000 in 1992. He went on to make 156 appearances for the Goodison Park club and secured a unique place in Merseyside football history in 1995 when Joe Royle’s team beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final to give Ablett his second winner’s medal in the competition. He was also part of the Liverpool team that lost the 1988 FA Cup final to Wimbledon.

Ablett went on to make over 100 appearances for Birmingham, whom he joined for £400,000, before ending his playing career in 2001 after a brief spell with Long Island Rough Riders. He then returned to Everton to take up a coaching role with the club’s youth teams, where he enjoyed great success for four years before being offered the position of reserve- team manager with Liverpool. He guided Liverpool’s reserves to the Premier Reserve League north title in his second season in charge and took his first senior management job at Stockport County in 2009 with the club in administration throughout his only season in charge.

Following relegation from League One with Stockport, Ablett was offered a coaching role at Ipswich by the then manager Keane but was diagnosed with the disease shortly after his arrival in July 2010. He appeared at Everton’s end-of-season awards dinner in May last year and fronted the club’s cancer awareness campaign in September.

David Moyes, the Everton manager and a friend of Ablett’s, said: “It is so, so sad about Gary. He was a regular visitor here to Finch Farm over the last six months and he was a lovely man, well liked by everyone. My thoughts are with all his family at this terrible time.”

In October Ablett spoke of his shock at being diagnosed with the disease. “Jacqueline took one look at me and took me straight to the doctors,” he said in an interview with Everton’s website to support Blue September, a campaign to raise awareness of forms of cancer specifically affecting men.

“The following day they whisked me to Ipswich hospital and the sister asked us if we knew why we were there. We said ‘for tests’ but she told us they had found a really aggressive lymphoma and that without immediate treatment I’d be in serious trouble.

“From diagnosis to that first session of chemotherapy was less than three days, so it was a massive shock.”

Birmingham have announced there will be a minute’s silence observed before their Championship game at Peterborough today, and prior to their FA Cup tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers at St Andrew’s on Saturday, while Ipswich players will wear black armbands for the visit of Nottingham Forest this afternoon.

The Ipswich chief executive Simon Clegg said: “It’s desperately sad news. I stayed in touch with Gary as he battled his illness over 18 months, which he did with bravery and dignity and our thoughts go out to his wife Jacqueline and their children at this very difficult time.”

[Lecter]

Yep, I just don't ever recall Ablett playing on the left...

He definitely played leftback against Forest in the 1988 FA Cup semi final and also in the 5-0 mauling of them at Anfield and also the 88 final v Wimbledopn I distinctly remember them

He played there a lot early on (until Hansen started getting frequently injured)

[McDermotX]

Credit to Roberto.........did he actually say this after the game the other day

Quote Of The Year
"Credit to Liverpool, they didn't just come to make up the numbers" - If beating Liverpool wasn't enough, Roberto Martinez sticks the boot in by patronising them as well.

[Lee]

Ouch!