Guardian's Liverpool Season Preview

[honourablegeorge]

Guardian Link

 

 

Agree/disagree?

[McBain]

Disagree that Masch cant pass but i agree that rotation has to be reduced and that at the moment Rafa has everything to prove in the league

 

Right now i think we'll end up 3rd again. Until i see a change of mentality in the players and in particular the manager i dont think we'll challenge

[Knox_Harrington]

Not as bad as I was expecting. First couple of paragraphs fair enough but Mascherano can pass, Alonso didn't go missing (indeed he was probably our stoutest midfield performer on the road) and Pennant only played that well towards the end of the season.

 

Beyond that though I'd say it was fair enough. People might not like it but on the road in the league the manager has got something to prove, to us, to his team and to the league at large. The irony is that the complete opposite is the case in Europe where either in the group stage or in the knockouts there's none finer.

[Walrus]

Rafa inferior to Mourinho and Ferguson? => disagree

[Cobs]

agree with it all apart from these words

 

"Manager for manager, they definitely do"

 

oh, and Masch can pass.

Edited August 3, 2007 by Cobs

[McBain]

Rafa inferior to Mourinho and Ferguson? => disagree

 

In terms of the league i dont see how even the most fervent red could ever make that argument

[Cobs]

In terms of the league i dont see how even the most fervent red could ever make that argument

well, it's not stated 'in terms of the League' is it?

[John am Rhein]

An essentially sh*te article that makes a couple of good points

[nvdm]

well, it's not stated 'in terms of the League' is it?

 

Adding "in terms of the league" as a disclaimer for every point made in a league preview would probably make for terrible reading.

[cliff p]

well, it's not stated 'in terms of the League' is it?

 

well it is called a premiership preview so im kind of guessing thats what there getting at

[Walrus]

Is Gerrard inferior to Lampard 'in terms of the league'?

[yellow jumper]

not sure how you compare a relatively young spanish manager with three years experience in britain with a seventy year old scot who's never managed anywhere else. but still.

 

think it's easy for journalists to talk benitez down in comparison to mourinho. he's less demonstrative and less giving from a press point of view for starters. his record in the league doesn't compare favourbaly either. think there are reasons for that which go beyond his control, such as starting points, finances and quality of players, but from another point of view it is just as easy to point at the things he does differently from everyone else; the rotation, the holding midfielders, the occasionally slow, continental style of play, the preference for hold-up strikers rather than sheer pace. in that sense, and of all the foreign managers he's the one who seems to stand the most resolutely apart from the british game.

 

think he'll continued to be under-estimated and talked down until he challenges for the title in this country. and while it's a pretty parochial viewpoint given his achievements elsewhere that's the way it's bound to be.

Edited August 3, 2007 by george lees

[cymrococh]

shameful that we didn't get a red.

 

No mention of Lucas or Leto, at their peril.

Edited August 3, 2007 by Paul Caruso

[Cobs]

Adding "in terms of the league" as a disclaimer for every point made in a league preview would probably make for terrible reading.

 

indeed it would

 

 

but ignoring the European record of Benitez when making emphatic statements about the merits of Benitez v Mourinho/Ferguson makes you look a cn*t - so best qualify that particular statement, is all i'm saying.

[Cobs]

well it is called a premiership preview so im kind of guessing thats what there getting at

i disagree

[McBain]

well, it's not stated 'in terms of the League' is it?

 

The whole article is in terms of the league

[Walrus]

I ask again, if Rafa is inferior to Mourinho and Ferguson in the league, then is Gerrard for instance inferior to Lampard 'in terms of the league'?

 

george lees makes good points in his post.

[Cobs]

The whole article is in terms of the league

 

including the dismissive bit about our European run

[McBain]

I ask again, if Rafa is inferior to Mourinho and Ferguson in the league, then is Gerrard for instance inferior to Lampard 'in terms of the league'?

 

No. Gerrard is an exceptional premiership player. As is Lampard. Rafa isn't an exceptional premiership manager. His record is fairly average

[Guest Kaizer]

I think it was fair enough.

 

Like he said player for player there is not that big a difference and looking at our home record there is nothing that suggests we should be abysmal away from home compared to the other two teams is there.

 

So why is there such a difference?

 

I think its because of the managers tactics and the negative mentality with not really going for it but always trying to control the match instead, "we controlled the game" is up there as my most hated phrase by the way, I`m sick to death from hearing exactly that.

 

Take some chances, move a couple of players forward into the box and we might win a couple instead of just controlling them.

[Will]

Rafa isn't an exceptional premiership manager. His record is fairly average

How the f*** is finishing fifth, third and third in the League "average"? Do you understand the meaning of the word?

[Cobs]

How the f*** is finishing fifth, third and third in the League "average"? Do you understand the meaning of the word?

[fred]

How the f*** is finishing fifth, third and third in the League "average"? Do you understand the meaning of the word?

 

Well said that man.

 

As to the article: cutting edge journalism, innit? I mean, "may win the league but probably won't" - how bold is that? It might be worth noting that it was written by Paul Doyle who has a penchant for sticking the boot into managers. He did a piece on Houllier when GH took over at Lyon which is best described as a hatchet job - Doyle all but predicted relegation for them...

[John am Rhein]

I think its because of the managers tactics and the negative mentality with not really going for it but always trying to control the match instead, "we controlled the game" is up there as my most hated phrase by the way, I`m sick to death from hearing exactly that.

 

Why does this thinking persist?

If it was simply a matter of 'going for it' then don't you think we (and others) would already have done that and succeeded?

[John am Rhein]

Well said that man.

 

As to the article: cutting edge journalism, innit? I mean, "may win the league but probably won't" - how bold is that? It might be worth noting that it was written by Paul Doyle who has a penchant for sticking the boot into managers. He did a piece on Houllier when GH took over at Lyon which is best described as a hatchet job - Doyle all but predicted relegation for them...

 

If there was a journalists' league then it would be HIM getting relegated.

 

Although journalists are sh*te collectively, to be fair.