Have we had a 'how f*cking good are we ?' thread..

[David Hodgson]

If this has to be repeated, then so be it. I am getting more amazed by the week at the quality of the current side. No Liverpool team since '88 has had me regularly gasping with admiration at their football, but I'm finding myself more awestruck by the week.

 

It's not just that we systematically took Newcastle apart yesterday, it's the stylish and relentless way we went about it. The years are well and truly being rolled back.

 

All the things you want to see are back. The triangles, the link-up play, the tricks..it's all part of our game at the moment. It helps having the best midfield in the country. In great midfields does greatness lie.

[Guest Les Howard]

sssshhhhh !

[Paul B]

What an awful, tragic shame it is that some gangster with balls the size of spacehoppers robbed the Russian people and decided to invest some of his ill-gotten gain in an English football team. For me, the only shadow on Liverpool at the moment is the one Chelsea are casting on the rest of football. Given a level playing field, we could be looking at a bumpy ride between us and Man Ure for the title this season and how bloody good would that be?

[Kite]

We're a far better team at the moment than Man Ure - they are hanging on purely by the abilities of their two front men whereas we are looking f***ing awesome at the moment as a complete team - passages of play yesterday from us were some of the best football I've seen in years. One time, about ten minutes before half time, where we went down the left back into midfield across to the right, back out diagonally to the left etc etc shifting the ball at speed with people always available just left me with my mouth open. It was absolutely brilliant.

[Morse]

Each week we are getting better and better.

I am actually expecting us to win every game and every time I watch us play I am amazed at the levels of skill, fitness and hunger.

 

The only fly in my ointment, so to speak, is the January transfers...and my worry is that they will not make an immediate impact...possibly destablising a winning team.

 

I can imagine us finishing second in the Premiership this season, a handful of points behind Chelsea.

Does anyone agree with me at all or am I delusional?

[Puma]

Delusional, defenetly. I have a feeling Rafa will complete his jigsaw in january and the only activity we'll see next summer will be replacments for aging players. He'll push for a RM and a CM - both proably be eligiable for Europe.

[Guest AdamS]

I've got a feeling Mourinho might get out while he's still winning and go to Real

[Tosh]

Yes we played some great football yesterday, and in the past few games

 

But to be fair, Newcastle were dire. REALLY bad. Their best players yesterday were Given and Bramble. The latter speaking volumes about how bad the rest of them were...

 

Speaking of decent play and triangles, Villa's last 2 goals against the Blues were a joy to watch in the simplicity and quality of the execution

 

Hope we have our shooting boots with us tomorrow

[Magic8Ball]

I've got a feeling Mourinho might get out while he's still winning and go to Real

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That would make me very happy

[Guest Cardie]

Despite how good we've been I still don't think we're performing anywhere near our capabilities especially in attack.....which is nice.

[Gray - YPC]

Everyone I have spoken to recently seems to agree that we are close to giving someone a hiding - a 5 or 6 nil-er!!

 

I only wish it could be Everton who get it!!

 

Some of the stuff we are playing is fantastic at the moment - and the best thing is that no-one is realising it. They are too busy trying to hype up Owen's return, or make a scapegoat out of Crouch, or try to deny him his perfectly legitimate goals etc!

 

The Reds are coming up the hill!

[Guest PaulMcC]

Everyone I have spoken to recently seems to agree that we are close to giving someone a hiding - a 5 or 6 nil-er!!

 

I only wish it could be Everton who get it!!

 

Some of the stuff we are playing is fantastic at the moment - and the best thing is that no-one is realising it.  They are too busy trying to hype up Owen's return, or make a scapegoat out of Crouch, or try to deny him his perfectly legitimate goals etc!

 

The Reds are coming up the hill!

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f***ing great isn't it. Sometimes tho it does my head in the lackof recognition we get tho.

 

Just back from Liverpool for Christams and i was telling my brother, who i haven't seen since last christmas, that Finnan and Carragher are the best right back and centre back in England and he said if they were that good then the papers would be going on about hem. He couldn't believe i thought we had a better defence and midfield than Chelsea.

[David Hodgson]

The only thing I feel that can derail us is injuries. Our first 11 (or 13) is the best in the country, but I fear we've been as lucky with injuries this term as we were unlucky last season.

 

I've always believed the midfield quartet is the key to success, and in Kewell, Alsonso, Sissoko and Gerrard I think we have as good a foursome as there is anywhere in the world. My fear is that if we lost 2 of them to injury we'd lose a lot.

 

An additional wide man who is at the level of those four could make a big difference. I think if you added a Joaquin to a pool of the four above, plus Garcia and Hamann, then most eventualities would be covered.

 

The only other clear weakness is the risk of injury to one of our centre halves.

[David Hodgson]

Yes we played some great football yesterday, and in the past few games

 

But to be fair, Newcastle were dire. REALLY bad. Their best players yesterday were Given and Bramble. The latter speaking volumes about how bad the rest of them were...

 

Speaking of decent play and triangles, Villa's last 2 goals against the Blues were a joy to watch in the simplicity and quality of the execution

 

Hope we have our shooting boots with us tomorrow

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You can only beat what's in front of you, and Newcastle were running into a modicum of form. I don't think may teams would have lived with us in the first half on boxing day.

[Paul B]

The only thing I feel that can derail us is injuries. Our first 11 (or 13) is the best in the country, but I fear we've been as lucky with injuries this term as we were unlucky last season.

 

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Don't fear being lucky. It would surely be bad luck to have injuries and this, at the moment, is how things should be. Just think how bloody lucky Chelsea are to have not had John Terry in particular or Peter Cech injured for the length of time their run has been going.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We still don't have a true goalscorer, right midfielder or an accomplished left back.

 

I am amazed that both results and performances have improved so dramatically. Benitez can truly be thanked for that. We are playing with almost the same outfield ten players we had last year and getting vastly superior results. Therefore the significant improvement is down to tactics and the way Rafa has the players believing in themselves.

 

What we do have is an excellent keeper bar one or two errors, a tremendous centre back pairing, the best right back in the country, two world class central midfielders and a tremendously exciting young player in Sissoko, and a bloody handful of a striker upfront who brings other players into the game like few other strikers in the league.

 

I just curse the poor start we had to our league season. Had we been even six points better off we would have a real shot at our 19th.

Edited December 28, 2005 by PoonTangClan

[Case]

The only thing I feel that can derail us is injuries. Our first 11 (or 13) is the best in the country, but I fear we've been as lucky with injuries this term as we were unlucky last season.

 

I've always believed the midfield quartet is the key to success, and in Kewell, Alsonso, Sissoko and Gerrard I think we have as good a foursome as there is anywhere in the world. My fear is that if we lost 2 of them to injury we'd lose a lot.

 

An additional wide man who is at the level of those four could make a big difference. I think if you added a Joaquin to a pool of the four above, plus Garcia and Hamann, then most eventualities would be covered.

 

The only other clear weakness is the risk of injury to one of our centre halves.

1128552[/snapback]

 

 

Good call Dave, but Rafa occasionally rests Xabi, Momo, Harry and Garcia anyway, so in a way we've seen what could happen should we "lose" one or two. Didi and even JAR and even Flo at a push could fit in the midfield pretty effectively - and that's WITHOUT any summer signings and WITH the loss of Zenden, who was playing pretty well when we lost him.

 

I think the key is the buy-in to the system that Rafa plays and obviously works hard on in training. Looking at Newcastle's corners on Monday I noticed Jamie VERY closely organising the zonal defence very VERY carefully. I'm certain that Xabi does the same with communication in the midfield.

 

I think you're right that if we lost say Steve AND Xabi or Jamie AND Sami then yes we'd be affected. But if it had happened two years ago we'd have been stuffed. BIG difference.

[David Hodgson]

Good call Dave, but Rafa occasionally rests Xabi, Momo, Harry and Garcia anyway, so in a way we've seen what could happen should we "lose" one or two.  Didi and even JAR and even Flo at a push could fit in the midfield pretty effectively - and that's WITHOUT any summer signings and WITH the loss of Zenden, who was playing pretty well when we lost him.

 

I think the key is the buy-in to the system that Rafa plays and obviously works hard on in training.  Looking at Newcastle's corners on Monday I noticed Jamie VERY closely organising the zonal defence very VERY carefully.  I'm certain that Xabi does the same with communication in the midfield.

 

I think you're right that if we lost say Steve AND Xabi or Jamie AND Sami then yes we'd be affected.  But if it had happened two years ago we'd have been stuffed.  BIG difference.

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I think you're right, and that's why I feel that the next midfield signing ( a wide man presumably) has to be of a top, low risk, nature. I've no problem with Rafa spending 3m or less on a prospect, a risk signing, or a 'job' player, but I feel that we'll need to spend serious dough on one new wide midfielder to really progress.

 

In theory the player I've seen Joaquin be is the type of 'world class' performer that you could slot into our midfield and he'd the extra dimension that could compensate for the loss of, say, Gerard or Alonso.

[Case]

I think you're right, and that's why I feel that the next midfield signing ( a wide man presumably) has to be of a top, low risk, nature. I've no problem with Rafa spending 3m or less on a prospect, a risk signing, or a 'job' player, but I feel that we'll need to spend serious dough on one new wide midfielder to really progress.

 

In theory the player I've seen Joaquin be is the type of 'world class' performer that you could slot into our midfield and he'd the extra dimension that could compensate for the loss of, say, Gerard or Alonso.

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I think we'd all love Joaquin here next month. In The Mirror today (ok, ok..) he has apparently stated that he doesn't want to move till after the World Cup - presumably becuase at Betis he's guaranteed a game every week and he knows what dirty full-backs to avoid, whereas in England he isn't and he doesn't. I hope he IS the player, but I doubt it - at least yet. All that is assuming of course that he wants to move here at all. I don't think Chelsea are an option seeing as they already have 73 wide players.

 

I agree though that the right-mid needs to be top notch, a "Name" player as you put it. This effectively allows Steve, Xabi, Momo, Didi and Garcia to ALL play centrally, back or advanced and be rested, too. VERY important considering we started our programme in July.

 

Maybe Benfica signing that Brazilian is a sign of a deal done. Maybe not. Some people have mentioned Pennant who, while not a "Name" is a good player and eligible in Europe.

 

Whatever happens our midfield is now VERY strong. Almost as strong as Chelsea's stronger than ManU's (by a fair bit) and Arsenal's (by some distance). I'd strengthen it further by giving Didi another 18 months

[Benitez]

Whaaaaaaaaakeen is going to Newcastle

 

 

Anyway, is he a Rafa type of player? Sometimes he looks a bit lethargic, and not so much a team player.

 

But then again, I don't see him play week in week out, but what I have seen of him, he doesn't as yet fit into the 'world class' performer bracket.

[David Hodgson]

Whaaaaaaaaakeen is going to Newcastle 

Anyway, is he a Rafa type of player? Sometimes he looks a bit lethargic, and not so much a team player.

 

But then again, I don't see him play week in week out, but what I have seen of him, he doesn't as yet fit into the 'world class' performer bracket.

1130288[/snapback]

 

I've only seen him a handful of times and he looked Duff/Robben level to me, which is good enough. The kind of money talked about him commanding suggests that he's a top player, whatever our personal opinions on him may be.

 

Still, as you say, he's bound to choose Newcastle ahead of us.

[fyds]

If this has to be repeated, then so be it. I am getting more amazed by the week at the quality of the current side. No Liverpool team since '88 has had me regularly gasping with admiration at their football, but I'm finding myself more awestruck by the week.

 

It's not just that we systematically took Newcastle apart yesterday, it's the stylish and relentless way we went about it. The years are well and truly being rolled back.

 

All the things you want to see are back. The triangles, the link-up play, the tricks..it's all part of our game at the moment. It helps having the best midfield in the country. In great midfields does greatness lie.

1128282[/snapback]

Sack Parry..