Poll - Expectations of Fans, Manager and Owners

[little dave hedgehog]

i saw there was one answer where you could select "this is an absurd question" but i thought there was more than one where that's the answer i wanted to give.

[ISMF]

There are a few things I would change in hindsight, but have so many responses I dont want to go back and change it.

[ISMF]

Are they all for this season?

Like the position for FSG to be happy, obviously it's 4th upwards.

Yep all for this season

[-V-]

Thanks guys for taking part,

I guess many of the questioned are influenced about what have been debate topics over at TIA.

Whist it might seem obvious he is targeting top 4, we have had very mixed messages. For example in the past he has stated something along the lines of finishing higher than 8th would be a fantastic achievement.

This is reflected in the results so far, approx half believe he is targeting a lower position.

Surely its obvious that he is just trying to take the pressure off himself? He has inherited a side which struggled badly in the league last season and is the process of trying to change our style of football and implement new ideas. On top of that he has got loads of young players he is trying to develop into first team players. He is giving youth a chance like no other manager has done at our club for donkeys years. Obviously we never started the season well so he had no choice but to try to take the pressure off

Anyone who thinks he is 'targeting' a place outside the CL spots is a ****ing idiot. Why would anyone set a target like that? He just said a few days ago how 4th place is possible and we will try our hardest to achieve it. Whether we can still make up the ground is the real question.

[elrichio86]

I got the impression the questions were trying to lead me towards being critical of the manager.

It'd be interesting to see the results depending on which forum they post on, but I guess its too late to add

[-V-]

Dec 12-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/14/liverpool-brendan-rodgers-fourth-place

Brendan Rodgers has told his Liverpool players that the fourth Champions League qualifying spot cannot be the height of their ambitions and has not ruled out overtaking Manchester City, the champions, in the Premier League.

Liverpool have overcome their worst start to a season in over a century to move to within four points of fourth-placed Everton following last weekend's win at West Ham United. The prospect of reinforcements in the January transfer window, plus an inviting run of fixtures over the Christmas period, has encouraged talk of a return to the Champions League for the first time since 2009-10 but the optimistic Rodgers is aiming higher than the final qualification place.

Asked whether fourth place was open this season, the Liverpool manager replied: "So is third, so is second and maybe even first. I said to the players this morning that everyone talks about fourth place but what about third? We are 11 points off second so, if we can get some consistency, keep our mentality and our focus then it is not fourth place we want to aim for. We have still to play Manchester City and we should have beaten them at home.

"You want to aim as high as you possibly can but, of course, when the club has been out of the top four for so long, that is the ultimate ambition. But we will not get too carried away. We are not even halfway through the league. We just need to focus day to day on our work, tactically prepare the team, keep confidence high and keep as many players available as we can in order to get results."

Their manager says it is not unrealistic to believe City, currently second, can be caught.

"I am always positive with the players because I've seen their work, their honesty and I see their willingness to take responsibility," Rodgers added. "I want to reinforce that it isn't just about fourth place for this club. This club is bigger than that. OK, we might not arrive there this season but everyone is talking about arriving in fourth position when there is not that big a difference between us and third. There is not that big a difference to second. There are 17 points between us and Manchester United and that is a big ask, of course, but 11 points isn't and four points certainly isn't. There is real belief in the group. They believe in what we are doing."

[souliv]

Dec 12-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/14/liverpool-brendan-rodgers-fourth-place

Brendan Rodgers has told his Liverpool players that the fourth Champions League qualifying spot cannot be the height of their ambitions and has not ruled out overtaking Manchester City, the champions, in the Premier League.

Liverpool have overcome their worst start to a season in over a century to move to within four points of fourth-placed Everton following last weekend's win at West Ham United. The prospect of reinforcements in the January transfer window, plus an inviting run of fixtures over the Christmas period, has encouraged talk of a return to the Champions League for the first time since 2009-10 but the optimistic Rodgers is aiming higher than the final qualification place.

Asked whether fourth place was open this season, the Liverpool manager replied: "So is third, so is second and maybe even first. I said to the players this morning that everyone talks about fourth place but what about third? We are 11 points off second so, if we can get some consistency, keep our mentality and our focus then it is not fourth place we want to aim for. We have still to play Manchester City and we should have beaten them at home.

"You want to aim as high as you possibly can but, of course, when the club has been out of the top four for so long, that is the ultimate ambition. But we will not get too carried away. We are not even halfway through the league. We just need to focus day to day on our work, tactically prepare the team, keep confidence high and keep as many players available as we can in order to get results."

Their manager says it is not unrealistic to believe City, currently second, can be caught.

"I am always positive with the players because I've seen their work, their honesty and I see their willingness to take responsibility," Rodgers added. "I want to reinforce that it isn't just about fourth place for this club. This club is bigger than that. OK, we might not arrive there this season but everyone is talking about arriving in fourth position when there is not that big a difference between us and third. There is not that big a difference to second. There are 17 points between us and Manchester United and that is a big ask, of course, but 11 points isn't and four points certainly isn't. There is real belief in the group. They believe in what we are doing."

I think that article is not the best to mention because we lost to Aston Villa straight after, I would prefer we just get on with it and just take it one game at a time.

[Liverpel]

Done.

[Buzzo]

Done.

[Kenneth]

Done

[Alex]

Done. Great idea.

[ISMF]

I think it has to be accepted to a certain extent the position that we are now in. Three consecutive seasons we have not even been close to a CL spot. Ignoring City and United, there are two spots up for grabs.

Before Rodgers even started everyone knows that it will be incredibly difficult to overcome two of Arsenal/Chelsea/Spurs. In our current situation it is verging on impossible (10 points behind 4th spot)

So while he may have hopes of a CL spot, and will publicly state it that may not be a true reflection. A closer analogy might be AVB a couple of months ago, he was stating he wanted to challenge for the league title, everyone took that with a pinch of salt and knew he realistically was probably targeting simply a CL spot.

Likewise Rodgers, he may have hopes of over coming the odds and that may be his target. However he might be more down to earth and target 5th (Europa league spot) using it to build for next year.

It all depends on your perspective. Did Rodgers see this as a transition year were the most important thing was progress on the pitch/with youngters? Or do you believe he was targeting CL spot from day one ?

If implementation of philosophy trusting youth is the approach, then it is responsible to assume he might wish for a CL spot but realistically target a lower position (as transition year expecting to drop points)

[ISMF]

I got the impression the questions were trying to lead me towards being critical of the manager.

It'd be interesting to see the results depending on which forum they post on, but I guess its too late to add

Each forum has a different link, so will be able to compare directly

[Muddled]

This is the same Poll that is occurring on TIA, and hopefully soon RAWK and TLW

After just over a week I will post the overall results in here, as well as just the answers from this forum.

Done.

Will we get to see the individual results of each site that participates too?

[ISMF]

Unless I get any objections from site owners, I will post everything (all sites data) free for anyone to access