The tea room pundits, the media and Dave Whelan all agree that Liverpool are in pretty dire straits at the moment. Defeat is one thing, but against Latics? Your common or garden Latics fan might not have that after all we did have some say in the game and I don’t remember anyone advocating mass suicide after we beat Chelsea in at least, if not more convincing fashion.
Yes, Liverpool were poor on Monday night, but things are probably a bit more deep seated than that, as SimonW let us know as he dropped in to comment on our match report for the game. His comment was so heart felt that I felt it deserves a wider audience so with is permission it’s repeated in it’s entirety below.
Good article in some respects but in others? Don’t talk rubbish – we KNEW you’d do the usual ‘in yer face’ getting at us and pathetic niggling – foul, foul, foul crap that little sides ALWAYS do against the bigger sides – What we didn’t bank on was our manager converting a man tougher than ALL of your midfield who would have snapped Mcarthy AND Boyce in two with the first challenges IF put in his right position (Mascherano) into our right-back and leaving our REAL right-back onto the bench. As to ‘accidentally’ bumping into us coming out of the game? It’s probably just as well you didn’t accidentally bump into me or any of my group who went as you’d probably have an ahem ‘accidental’ visit to the dentists now for teeth replacements such was our mood the other night!!!
In all seriousness though – Regarding the game – you may think that only Torres looked dangerous for us but I could have sworn Aquilani set up a second half bombardment of the sort Alonso ALWAYS used to for us and you couldn’t get NEAR him never mind take the ball from him as he was class, ran the game and showed EXACTLY what we were missing in the middle when he came on; Babel also had your backline at sixes and sevens EVERY time he ran at them whilst Johnson pinned down your ENTIRE right side on his own after coming on – which just goes to show the team and tactics we ENDED with are the ones we should have started with since Kuyt, Lucas, Gerrard and Insua were ALL worse than useless for us.
Aquilani in particular showed just WHY we’ve gone to pot this season as his passing is EXACTLY like Alonso’s; Said passing, which is of course THE missing link and the main reason WHY our team in the 4-2-3-1 formation that worked so well last season has just died on it’s feet this time out. So WHY Aquilani’s still on the bench rather than integrated into the team, partnering Mascherano in the middle for us as he damn well SHOULD have been (according to Rafa’s plan) is a mystery to me; I agree with you though that Gerrard was utterly diabolical and maybe now you KNOW why he’s not played in central midfield anymore for Liverpool OR England as displays like THAT tend to happen when he does go there now.
But to the game? We started with the wrong side and were outplayed after 10 mins – Despite looking awful and playing worse Torres STILL could have had 4 goals IF he had his shooting boots on – in that sense you were VERY lucky as he had 3 very good and 1 good chances and missed the lot. You looked good with N’Zogbia, Boyce, Mcarthy and Diame although your defence was STILL for all it’s hanging on admirably enough of a mess to give Torres THREE gilt-edged chances (volleyed against the post in the first half, fired over from point blank range and sidefooted wide from VERY close in the second) all of which he missed along with another more difficult one that went begging as well from a header.
It was just one of those nights – on another night he’d have had a hat-trick and Rodallega would have had but a consolation but on Monday? Your number came up – ours didn’t (again) and you took the win so well done. Wigan Football Club deserve all the wins they can get and I certainly prefer them to that Clog merchant Allardyce’s lot as they TRY and play football unlike Blackburn who set out to injure, hack and hoof and treat goals/good play as a lucky bonus which is pathetic.
As to our club? you want to know what was wrong with Liverpool in your article? 2 words THE OWNERS – YOUR owner articulated it VERY well – they’ve ’sucked the heart out of’ our club and they HAVE – things won’t change on OR off the pitch until they are GONE – Because of them – we’ve NEVER seen what Rafa’ would have been like with the SAME amount of money EVERY season that the other Top 4 get regularly from half-decent owners – we’ve NEVER seen what he’d be like if he could BUILD a squad up instead of having to sell our best to fund the privilege of those w*nkers owning us and we’ve NEVER seen how he would have spent the rest of the Alonso money last season to reinforce our team PROPERLY as he would of done – he bought one player, had plans for more and then?
He was left with nothing as they spent ALL the money remaining in our transfer pot on debt – just as they’ve done for FOUR transfer windows now and it shows in the teams lack of heart, the managers refusal to fight TO hard for Fourth Place and the fans increasing refusal to go to our games now (empty seats are becoming common at Anfield and unsold tickets away from it for our games). It will stay that way until either our owners are ousted or someone does the decent thing and hires a hitman to ahem ‘remove’ them if you know what I mean.
I await the day we get our club back – it will be the day those who took it are thrown OUT of our club – until then? You’ll probably see more of what happened on Monday to Liverpool – A LOT more. Enjoy your victory – you deserved it – It’s just a shame our team didn’t bother trying – didn’t even WANT to; We all know why as well – even your owner knows why – although most of our former players are to cowardly to say it compared to him at the moment and THAT hurts most of all.
Here’s to the day we get our heart back at Anfield – It’ll be worth celebrating then as it will mean the twin horrors are GONE from us – I’ll celebrate ONLY then and NOT before though, as nothing’s worth celebrating until that day and God, do we REALLY need it to come soon. Well done for Monday Wigan – you’re on the up now – Shame I can’t say the same for my club………………………
So there you have it, one of Uncle Dave’s rants hits the mark… stopped clocks and all that.
I think Simon needs to decide which stand point he is taking….at the start we were just a bunch of fouling cheats and at the end we at least tried to play football….seems a bit of a contradiction to me?
It’s the same old story really since we came into this league..we never beat a team, they always beat themselves!
Of the two managers Roberto got his tactics spot on….you could see the team playing with their brains just as much as with their feet. Alot of preparation and planning went into that performance.
Simon should realise before playing the “how hard done by are we” card that one of their players cost more than our entire squad! They may not be able to keep up with the Premier League big boys now, both financially and on the pitch, but who cares….get a few relegation battles under your belt, then you’ll have summert to scrike about… I reckon it would be good character building for them.
I didn’t say you were a bunch of fouling cheats; I was referring to a comment by the publisher on another thread about your team getting in our faces and said that you used tactics that we SHOULD have been ready for – In general though you DID try to play football and that was the gist of what I meant. That you mixed the two if you like as we SHOULD have done. As to tactics spot on – don’t forget you STILL could have lost by several goals if Torres had his shooting boots on – For all your admirable defending we STILL created at least FIVE clear cut chances for him and Gerrard (who had just one of them)so yes, in a sense we DID best ourselves as had those chances gone in – I doubt you’d have bested us.
– We missed them all though, so in the end that didn’t matter did it?
As to your rubbish about ”not keeping up with the Premier League big boys’; Please – heard it all before – will no doubt hear it again; We were MUCH worse than this in the early 1990′s and came but 4 points from the League title last season – we’re STILL mostly the same side so whose to say we CAN’T do something like that again. We ARE one of the aforementioned ‘big boys’ possibly the biggest if you look at trophies won – else why does EVERY club in Britain and EVERY section of the media delight in our current troubles? If no-one was that bothered about us we’d not be newsworthy right? And please stop this ‘Premier League’ tag as if its that different to Trophies we’ve already won;
The fact is the Premier League is just the English Top Division under another name and we’ve won THAT more than any other club bar one – If that ISN’T true then HOW can Utd have won 18 titles since HALF of them are Divison 1 League Titles? Either the Premier League and Divison 1 are equal or they’re not but if they ARE then NO-ONE can use that Premier League crap against us ever again as insult. Also whose to say we WON’T be bought out at the end of the season and stage a comeback to leave all English football in our wake? If Chelsea can do it with Abramovich why not us when we’re at least their equal in size?
No the REAL reason for my lament at the end re ‘hard done by’ was because relegation battles could be EXACTLY what we end up facing IF we continue under our current owners – Yes, we HAVE spent tons of money and yes our starting team DOES cost more than your entire squad in the case of some players but that doesn’t alter the fact we’ve gone FOUR transfer windows now not buying ANYONE, had to sell to buy AND had to use free transfers to bolster our ranks – ALL whilst the media and our own fans are heaping on Rafa’ the expectation that we become THE top club in the English League and thus in Britain – given what Chelsea, United and now City have spent which however much we’ve used DWARFS our spending – HOW exactly are we meant to do that when like last season our manager spends not a quarter of his budget on one player and then? Finds said budget gone and spent on debt with the threat of being sacked IF he goes to the press and gives our so-called ‘owners’ both barrels as he damn well should do?
It’s dealing with all that AND an owner whose family are so arrogant they swear at and insult our fans down the internet as well as lying openly in press conferences about supporting our manager and who have seen PLENTY of offers to buy the club that would have made them a decent profit but who have refused them ALL due to their untrammeled greed and it’s dealing with the fact that IF they do this AGAIN this year and the bank recall their loan then our team COULD go into administration and/or have a fire sale under our noses IMMEDIATELY after one of our most successful recent seasons in 20 years that I was upset about;
Say what you will about Whelan (and believe me I’ve had PLENTY to say down the years) but he ascertained our situation perfectly with what he said about the pieces of utter garbage that own us and he’s NEVER Insulted your fans, had a fire sale of ALL your players OR put the club in administration has he? Until he does some or ALL of the above – you’ve no right to have a go at me about what I said as that’s EXACTLY what Liverpool FC face now thanks to nothing but the very owners who are MEANT to look after them along with the greed of that idiot David Moores.
Most of all though? My post was a (roundabout) way of saying well done on your win – you’ve never beaten us AT ALL before so the feat deserves credit and I certainly prefer your team to the ‘hack it and hoof’ mob at Ewood Park under Fat Sam. Well done and keep it up…………………….