Mails: I’m getting sick of Klopp’s schtick
Sick of Klopp’s b*llocks (so to speak)…
Is any other Liverpool fan out there sick of the b*llocks that seems to gush from our managers mouths more readily than oil from a BP pipeline in the Atlantic?
Cut it out, stop treating us like morons and tell it like it is.
“We were sh*te at the back, sh*te in midfield and sh*te up front.”
Appreciate it’s not a massively insightful foray into the nuts and bolts of the performance but it’s easier to swallow than the rest of the intangible b*llocks we’ve had to listen to since god knows when.
Krys LFC
…And some Liverpool optimism to balance the moaning
Amongst all the doom and gloom following defeat to Burnley and the need to be more clinical at both ends of the pitch, I’d like to offer a little perspective to my fellow Reds:
– Top four is still a realistic objective for most clubs, including Liverpool (there simple isn’t enough data to predict anything right now)
– Liverpool are currently 2.7m in profit for the summer transfer window (with potential additional sales of Ilori, Lucas, Ballotelli, Markovic et al likely to boost this further)
– The main stand is open for business in 19 days and looks impressive. With a good first season of sales I’d expect the Anfield Road project to increase in size and ambition
– The quality of our squad, especially in forward and attacking midfield, is better than it has been for some time (yes, maybe a player or two would strengthen but equally we should wait for the right player to become available)
– The age of our squad is younger than ever
– We have a decent looking keeper back in a month or so
So, while our ability to turn a profit isn’t going to win titles, the fact that we’re in a significantly more secure financial state than just 6 years ago puts us in a strong position to sign the right type of players when they become available. And the fact we have an awesome manager to develop new talent (even the haters gotta love Kloppo) is icing on the cake.
Nothing to see here, we’re in good shape thanking you most kindly.
Bungle02
Loaning out Sakho would be a stupid call
Media outlets are reporting that Liverpool are considering sending Mamadou Sakho out on loan to regain fitness and presumably to chastise him for his unsatisfactory professionalism. I really think this is a step too far.
Klopp sent him home from the US, which was surely embarrassing for him. Shipping him off on-loan is just piling on, and might not have the desired effect. Instead of motivating him, it might just make him feel victimized and alienated. I understand Klopp wanting to make an example of someone to try to toughen up the squad, but surely there are better candidates?
He was a key player in our squad last year and we are thin as Kate Moss in defense. How can we afford to jettison a potential starting CB from the squad, especially given Saturday’s fiasco? Can’t he just play with the reserves for a bit? Wouldn’t this help him gain fitness and act as something of a admonition without having to disqualify him from squad contention? Isn’t that a better idea than shipping him off on loan somewhere only inevitably then to have to call him back when someone get’s hurt, thus invalidating the whole exercise by showing that he is, in fact, too important not to be in the squad? Or is Klopp then going to be too proud to admit his mistake and leave us struggling while paying a starting CB to play elsewhere? And isn’t it a bit premature to assume that Matip is going to fit straight into the team and perform when a) we haven’t seen him in a competitive PL game and b) he has so far shown a worrying proclivity toward injury?
I like Jurgen Klopp but, a bit like Rafa Benitez, I worry that he has a willfulness and stubbornness to him that will lead us into difficult situations. I think this is a poor decision, and it worries me that he may, for all his promise, end up cocking up some things while fixing others by being too idealistic without being realistic. I hope I am wrong.
Eamonn (CDM is the moon to Jordan Henderson), Istanbul
Have to respect Pep on Hart issue
I do feel for Joe Hart and think if most other managers had cast him aside in the same way, it would be very odd / a disgrace etc. However, we have hired Guardiola to play football his way, and if Joe can’t fit in with that and is unlikely to learn what he has to, to fit in, then the manager has to try and move him on.
Hart is too talented to be bullshitted and left rotting on the bench with a phantom carrot being dangled in front of him. Guardiola is being honest and fair, at the risk of annoying the fans / being seen to be kicking a fans favourite in the balls to make a statement.
I disagree though, that Hart is in decline or not good enough for a top side. We don’t need to try and invent a justification based on lying to ourselves about that. His skill set doesn’t fit Guardiola’s very specific mould, so the fairest call is to man up about it, and let him leave.
Respect to Guardiola for that.
Joe has a big personality and a fair bit of influence. The last thing Guardiola needs, especially if the wheels fall off at any point this season, is someone like Joe banding up with some other disgrunted players and undermining him in the dressing room. Loaning him out is basically an admission that either Guardiola could change his ways re: sweeper keepers, or that he might bomb and be replaced with a more Hart-friendly manager. Neither are messages that City or the manager want to emit. Neither at this point seem likely.
So Joe has to go. No point moaning about it. City are a club that are as loyal to their players as any other ‘big’ team, the owners have a vision and have been putting it together consistently for a good few years now.
Previously, I’ve been a bit shocked at some of the calls we have made, how we have treated first Hughes, then Mancini, but really, I was showing my ‘small club’ mentality there. City want to be and are a huge club, operated to a clear strategy. Don’t fit in with that, and you are politely invited to go and find another place to continue your career. While someone is at City and fits with the vision, they are treated well.
It doesn’t get sugar coated, City can be a little cold these days, but every call is well thought out and based on a clear plan. I was sad in the past that we weren’t a homely, friendly, soft touch anymore; but I have to hand it to the board – they are fair but tough and have the best interests of the club and fans at heart.
Guardiola has impressed me. He seems to be everything everyone says he is. Not overrated, a very intelligent guy. City are not playing tiki taka either. City are playing Guardiola football, adapted to the players we have and the league we are in. It’s exciting and great to watch.
Can he do it on a rainy day in Stoke? You bet he can. And some.
Ben (feeling chastised) MCFC
Leicester are so one-dimensional
I know it is not popular to point such things out given what they did, and I do genuinely like Ranieri, but Leicester are (and were) so one dimensional. If you leave space in behind they will exploit it and they are fantastic on the counter-attack but they will really struggle to break teams down as managers now fully respect their attributes. Close/minimise the space in behind, let them have the ball, show them out wide and they will have trouble scoring.
During Saturday’s game I was thinking they should put Musa on for Vardy and shift Mahrez inside, with a free role, to mix it up a bit. But Ranieri left Vardy on, who has been average the last two games, and didn’t really change the shape at all. I have said it previously in the comments section (come join us, it’s a human zoo), if they don’t get a plan B they will end up lower mid-table this season. Musa looks a great signing, but he’s more of the same in that he has similar attributes to Vardy. Leicester should also buy a player akin to Benteke, who would give them something different and give other teams more of a problem should the counter-attacking strategy be…well…countered.
I’m not trying to be the grinch that stole xmas, and they deserved it no doubt, but it looks like this season will highlight how much of an embarrassment last season’s league win was for other teams who should have done/known better (United included of course). That they are an average team (IMO – and United were below average last year in terms of performances) and rallied together to win the league makes it a hell of a feat. But they sailed on a fair wind, nobody gave them enough respect (I suppose ironically I still don’t), everyone got caught up in the hype and romance and Ranieri played the underdog card perfectly.
It will never be matched. Not just because they were a team who went from relegation fodder to champions in a year; but because they were a team of mostly average players who were well organised and massively overachieved whilst others around them massively underachieved. If they were to play any previous title-winning team they would lose – imagine a 90s/00s United, Arsenal or Chelsea league-winning team against them for example; they’d be breaking out the deckchairs, newspapers and cigars.
Now that’s a true underdog story, as I prepare to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge spanners from the Leicester faithful. Figuratively of course, not literally (I hope) – looks over shoulder nervously for Jamie Vardy.
Garey Vance
Glenn Whelan did a punch (I mean, the footage does show that)
I don’t live in England, so don’t get to watch MOTD and other highlights programmes. So I was wondering whether anyone made anything at all of the punch Glenn Whelan threw at Sergio Aguero at the weekend. (Because let’s face it, if it isn’t highlighted on TV or that twitter, the FA doesn’t react).
I’ve seen debates highlighting that fact that bad fouls and late challenges routinely go unpunished in the area if the player who’s fouled scores, but surely a full swinging punch to the back of the head (clearly visible there, in two replays) is worth some kind of retrospective punishment?
It’s good to see Stoke players shrugging off their Pulis past and living up to the much vaunted clean, free-flowing Mark Hughes-style of play, anyway.
Wilson
Why Pardew should go
Some numbers relating to Alan Pardew:
*Crystal Palace’s Premier League form in 2016: LLLLLDLLDLLDWDDLLWDLL – P21 W2 D6 L15 – 12 points from 63.
*Crystal Palace’s remaining fixtures before the transfer window closes: Blackpool (H), AFC Bournemouth (A).
*Crystal Palace’s 7 fixtures straight after the transfer window closes: Middlesbrough (A), Stoke City (H), Sunderland (A), Everton (A), West Ham United (H), Leicester City (A), Liverpool (H).
As I see it, within their next 8 Premier League games – taking us to the end of October, in case you’re wondering why I’ve chosen that number, the Eagles have a run of games that look like they could reap a reasonable amount of points. However, in the team’s current form, with the incumbent manager, there is a genuine possibility that we could have precisely 0 points; even worse, we could face Leicester City having accrued 2 points from 8 games, and you know what that means.
At the risk of being a Captain Obvious, something clearly needs to be done to change this form around and incredibly quickly. Ordinarily, this would be the point where the chairman told the manager to shape up or ship out. The performance the Eagles put in against Tottenham Hotspur was an improvement on last week, but in another Captain Obvious moment, we need some goals and we need some wins.
If our current manager cannot inspire the players to victory against a League Two club and/or against a Premier League club we will likely be in direct competition with for places at the end of the season, then what is there to suggest he can lead them to enough points to even stay up, never mind to midtable mediocrity or higher?
I want him to turn it around, I really do, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have some doubts at this point. While “Crystal Palace are f###ed” may have been a bit extreme (I said the same every week when Colin was our manager), we do look to be in a spot of bother, and as I and others have said before, a lot of other managers have been sacked for less extreme poor runs.
What Pardew has now are two games before the international break to get something vaguely resembling good form, to propel the team into that run of fixtures. Should he not, they do look like there are prospects for a decent new manager bounce. You know, like when he took over, and we took 31 points from 54 (18 games). It just seems like an interesting piece of timing.
I’d also like to suggest that if a Crystal Palace version of Arsene Knows Best starts up, it should be called either Pardew Reckons It Could Kick Start, or Pardew’s Every Notion Is Sense.
The literary Ed Quoththeraven
Fondly remembered former players
Graham Simons’ email yesterday got me thinking about former players and how they’re remembered by their fans.
Graham says he’d rather see a player with limited talent that gives it his all, over a terrifically talented player that doesn’t. I think all of us can think of such a player who we remember fondly – as a Spurs fan, one of mine is Steffen Freund. He was effective and hard-working, but also slightly comical – he had little nous to his game, he looked funny when he ran (he either had a fat arse or he stuck it out so it looked fat), and a severe allergy to both shooting and goal-scoring, which the fans teased him about. He’s still in the Spurs Hall of Fame though, and for good reason.
He also had some killer hairdos when he was younger, including this mullet and this monstrosity.
I actually had a completely different point about former players that I wanted to make, but I got sidetracked. Still, check out those haircuts!
Ohio Joe
Another Carlisle icon
I’d like to echo Max, CPFC’s appreciation of the Bobby Robson article from Mediawatch and share his anticipation for the icon series book. My old man will also be getting it for a belated xmas/bday present whether he likes it or not.
Here’s a Carlisle related player for the series which will also please Wor Keith. I’ll give you his name in the form of my brothers best ever pun…
*Holds half a greek flatbread to his chin and asks ‘who am I?’
Nik (Pitta Beard-sley) NUFC
(MC – Storey has 16 to write by the end of September. Please buy the book, but don’t expect nominations to be taken on board. He’s in the panic stage)
#Blessed
A Rooney injury wouldn’t be a blessing in disguise. It would just flat-out be a blessing.
Chris MUFC
It was on last week
I’m sorry but I just can’t take it anymore. Whatever happened to the good ol’ days of Monday Night Football?
What used to get me going through a hard day’s work was the thought of sitting in front of the telly with my beer and half time snacks and relaxing as I watch Monday Night Football. With Fridays it’s different because first of all you dress down and the thought of the looming weekend gets you excited.
You can imagine my horror at not having any decent ball to watch yesterday. I’m a traditionalist and I like things to remain the way they are. I concur with Micki Attridge who doesn’t like spoilers before watching MOTD or any other football highlights. I like the suspense of not knowing the score and my pet peeve is the commentator revealing the latest scores of other matches going on.
The worst culprit is a certain American television station that keeps live scores at the top of the screen while you’re watching another game. Stop it. Anyway, at first I was excited to watch my team last Friday night but the novelty has worn off. Kindly bring back Monday Night Football.
Keg Baridi, Nairobi, Kenya