Liverpool 2010/11 Season Thread

[ExtremePabs]

Not a great start from us we do need to strengthen. I agree Tuncay as a backup striker would be worthwhile not sure about Milner but I'd take it as we need numbers.

Babel was useless yet again! I just dont see where he fits in at Liverpool, I will be very surprised if he is still here next season.

[nakamura]

Remind me again the 1st choice strikers Liverpool can boost ? , you finished 2nd under old ROY , but still won nothing .
Look at the Bench and the Front Team squad, and Liverpool aren't title contenders . Oh that's right singing a injured replacement Alberto Aquilani is going to make all the difference, for a player with an established injury problem , Roma must be laughing all the way to the bank

Sorry people but i agree fully here. Rafa has hit his limit. Liverpool have a pretty weak overall squad. Take out Gerrard or Torres and nothing is left.
Kuyt and Babel are reasonable players but not leaders to take a game by the scruff of the neck like the others. Aquilani is another in the line of youngsters who never materialised.

Liverpool, no higher than third.

[Steakman]

Sorry people but i agree fully here. Rafa has hit his limit. Liverpool have a pretty weak overall squad. Take out Gerrard or Torres and nothing is left.
Kuyt and Babel are reasonable players but not leaders to take a game by the scruff of the neck like the others. Aquilani is another in the line of youngsters who never materialised.

Liverpool, no higher than third.

Give the lad a chance (aquilani)! He hasn't even kicked a ball in the p'ship yet. Loving all this writing off the title after 1 game, in which a very decent spurs team gained a well deserved win, we were poor, babel was embarrasing, but seriously as someone has already pointed out none of the big 4 won at white hart lane last season.

Take 2 key players out of most major squads and they will struggle, this has been discussed again and again, kuyt and babel don't need to be leaders, that's what gerrard and carragher are for!

As far as i'm aware this is a Liverpool fans thread for us to talk about the team we support, not a bunch of Sun readers spouting the same rubbish day in day out, i don't care what people think about Rafa, he's taken the team forward leaps and bounds, to come on here after week 1 dismissing title credability whether it turns out to be true or not is simply pathetic. Get a life.

[Supergoal]

Sorry people but i agree fully here. Rafa has hit his limit. Liverpool have a pretty weak overall squad. Take out Gerrard or Torres and nothing is left.
Kuyt and Babel are reasonable players but not leaders to take a game by the scruff of the neck like the others. Aquilani is another in the line of youngsters who never materialised.

Liverpool, no higher than third.

How do you come to that conclusion? Our squad is relatively unchanged from last season apart from the obvious two players going out, but in my opinion, we've brought in two equal, if not better players as replacements.
Judging by last season's progress I'd say we did pretty well.

So based on that alone, how can you say that we have a pretty weak overall squad?

Most of us would agree the poor start to the season, including the pre-season matches, were down to poor form from the players, and not a weak squad.

[nakamura]

Liverpool overachieved last season. There is just too much reliance on gerrard and torres and has been for a while. Chelsea have the strongest squad i feel this season to cope with the premier league, Champs league and so on.

The thread title is liverpool season thread. So are we all ten year old talking about how much we want to be gerrard or are we adults discussing the teams realistic chances of success? Get a life yourself steakman.

Im a neutral fan, i dont follow a particular team which enables me to see past the bias. I dont hate liverpool, in fact love to see gerrard pick a PL medal. But im not blind to the squad and the managers clear failings.

[Team Andromeda]

Liverpool overachieved last season. There is just too much reliance on gerrard and torres and has been for a while. Chelsea have the strongest squad i feel this season to cope with the premier league, Champs league and so on.

The thread title is liverpool season thread. So are we all ten year old talking about how much we want to be gerrard or are we adults discussing the teams realistic chances of success? Get a life yourself steakman.

Im a neutral fan, i dont follow a particular team which enables me to see past the bias. I dont hate liverpool, in fact love to see gerrard pick a PL medal. But im not blind to the squad and the managers clear failings.

Nice post , I think some people don't understand the concept of a Forum , where people have debates and different views .
I too would love to see Liverpool lift the title , but under Rafa and with that squad , there's no chance imo .

[ExtremePabs]

I am a huge Liverpool fan and without Torres and Gerrard you are right we are nowhere near a title winning side. Its a shame we lost Xabi but he wanted to go so theres no point trying to keep him. I have my doubts about his replacement mainly due to his injury record as I think he looks pretty talented certainly a little more forward thinking than Xabi.
Rafa has taken a long time to get a squad together that he is happy with and he has made mistakes on the way but they are certainly getting there. I dont think we will win the league this season as much as I want us too but I think it will be close. Three of the top four sides are weaker than last season (Us, Manure, Gooners) and if I am honest I can't see the title going anywhere other than Chelsea but its early days and theres no need to unduly panic yet. In fact if Rafa was allowed the rest of his sales money of the last year around the 20 million mark I think he could bring in a back up CB and a backup striker then we would look a lot healthier.
One last thing I dont really get why everyone gets on Lucas's back yes he is no Xabi or Mad Masch but he is a solid squad player and he is still young he has time to come good.

[abigsmurf]

Obviously not a good start for Liverpool but Chelsea went full pelt at the weekend and despite 9 attempts on target, only managed a winner in injury time, Man U's opening game didn't set the world alight either, a better team could've ripped them apart (although you'd easily argue they wouldn't play like that against a better side).

The league is increasingly decided by 0-0/1-1 draws against lower sides as more and more teams go to Liverpool, Chelsea and Man U and park the bus. Spurs have been a very attack minded team and do get the big results occasionally (they just aren't up to scratch defensively).

tldr: early days yet.

[SharkSkin-Man]

I keep hearing people saying we've failed to strengthen...what imaginary money are people wanting us to spend here? Apparently the transfer budget for this summer is £0.00. All purchases to be paid for by sales and we've only got £2m left from the money raised so far.

[Malavon]

Three of the top four sides are weaker than last season (Us, Manure, Gooners)

That isn't actually true though. Toure was replaced by Vermaelen (and although it's only one game he looked excellent vs Everton) and Adebayor is "replaced" by the return of Rosicky and Eduardo, neither of which played last season (apart from a couple of unimportant games for Eduardo late in the season). Then theres the fact that the young team is now one year more experienced, whereas for other teams (Chelsea) being a year older is more of a negative thing.

In theory Arsenal should stronger this season.

What I find amusing though is that after Arsenal's convincing win few said we were title challengers, but after Liverpools convincing defeat the majority are saying they are no longer title challengers. The fact is, it's one game and you can't possibly predict how the rest of the season will pan out based on that alone.

[EJG1980]

Quite right, just look at last season; Newcastle get a draw away at the champions and Boro beat a team who were looking to crack the top four () in Spurs. Great opening day results but it didn't exactly reflect the seasons they ended up having.

It seems though that the only result that counts these days is the most recent one.

[ExtremePabs]

That isn't actually true though. Toure was replaced by Vermaelen (and although it's only one game he looked excellent vs Everton) and Adebayor is "replaced" by the return of Rosicky and Eduardo, neither of which played last season (apart from a couple of unimportant games for Eduardo late in the season). Then theres the fact that the young team is now one year more experienced, whereas for other teams (Chelsea) being a year older is more of a negative thing.

In theory Arsenal should stronger this season.

What I find amusing though is that after Arsenal's convincing win few said we were title challengers, but after Liverpools convincing defeat the majority are saying they are no longer title challengers. The fact is, it's one game and you can't possibly predict how the rest of the season will pan out based on that alone.

Vermaelen imho is far weaker than Toure and Eduardo and Rosicky (all season wasn't it, great player though) who all did miss large chunks of last season will miss large chunks of the season too. Adebayer was a good player for you Eduardo is still potential (imho) therefore weaker. Re the rest of the swap in swap out Africans etc that arsenal seem to have maybe your right time will tell.

To put it another way Manure have some great players who genuinely frighten other teams (Rooney, Berbatov, Owen) as do Chelsea (Lamps, Drogba and Essien) and Liverpool (Torres, Gerrard) and Arsenal have (Eboue, Bendtner,Fabregas, Song??) and potentially two long term crocks to come back (Eduardo and Rosicky) who may or may not hit the ground running.

[neoboy259]

Vermaelen imho is far weaker than Toure and Eduardo and Rosicky (all season wasn't it, great player though) who all did miss large chunks of last season will miss large chunks of the season too. Adebayer was a good player for you Eduardo is still potential (imho) therefore weaker. Re the rest of the swap in swap out Africans etc that arsenal seem to have maybe your right time will tell.

To put it another way Manure have some great players who genuinely frighten other teams (Rooney, Berbatov, Owen) as do Chelsea (Lamps, Drogba and Essien) and Liverpool (Torres, Gerrard) and Arsenal have (Eboue, Bendtner,Fabregas, Song??) and potentially two long term crocks to come back (Eduardo and Rosicky) who may or may not hit the ground running.

You dont think teams are frightened of Van Persie, Walcott, or Arshavin?

Good shout on Eboue, Bender and Song tho!

[ExtremePabs]

You dont think teams are frightened of Van Persie, Walcott, or Arshavin?

Good shout on Eboue, Bender and Song tho!

Van Persie (only when he loses it and starts kicking people) and Walcott (he is the new Tony Daley!) - NO as for Arshavin he needs a few more games first I think. Does look good so far though! and he certainly caused Liverpool some problems however he may suffer from 2nd season syndrome.

[Steakman]

it wasn't directly aimed at you nakamura but you were not exactly discussing, you said 'Liverpool no higher than third', that's a statement not a discussion and one aimed to draw a reaction.

I just don't get how people assume this crap after one game nor how benitez has failed at his job , as far as i'm concerned we have the most competitive league in the world, to achieve 2nd place ahead of the mighty Chelsea (who i agree do look very strong this season again) is no failure in my eyes. I'd also take the squad we have now over any we have had since the premier league began and that's down to Rafa.

I thought Arsenal were immense at the weekend, Van Persie is going to be one hell of a player this year imo, but will they struggle against certain teams, will Man U be able to cope without Ronaldo, will Chelsea be able to adapt to a new playing style under a new manager or will Citeh surprise everyone and rip the league to shreds?

I don't know because only 1 bloody game has been played!

From reading the comments on from the slaters or fence sitters or whoever i am genuinely interested in who would be a good, albeit realistic, replacement for Rafa if the decision were in your capable hands? - there's your discussion for you.