Benitez was lampooned by the press. Most fans loved him and still do. Those that wanted him gone weren’t long changing their tune when they seen what replaced him. Hodgson appointed after input from Gerrard and Carragher. Benitez was not always backed in transfer market.
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No, that was the managers fault. It was his job to keep them from behaving like headless chickens. Rodgers got carried away with the emotion of it all. His has found his spiritual home in Celtic. Good luck to him.
Buck looked a broken man after the Balotelli signing
Bit inconsistent there. The wins were because of Suarez but the losses were down to Rodgers. Anyway, delighted Liverpool got rid of him, albeit for a very decent replacement.
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Maybe this is the only matter where TFK isn’t exactly representative of broader society but Benitez was fairly loathed by Liverpool fans on here
Klopp is very charismatic, passionate, eccentric and candid is his interviews and press conferences. He is a media dream. He’s also self-depreciating and self-critical so a lot of the time he will address the problems before the journalists get to ask him the questions. Maybe it’s all a really good act but he gives the impression that he’s being completely honest with the media and that he just wants to be everybody’s friend.
Rodgers on the other hand had a strict routine and his repeated positive soundbites made him sound somewhat insincere towards the end and he looked like he was starting to doubt himself. I’ve read that his off camera / off mic persona is completely different to the Rodgers that we see and hear in the media. I do think he’s a good guy and at one stage he had Liverpool playing the best football I had ever seen them playing when Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling were in full flow. I’d like to see him drop the facade a little bit though (maybe he has, I haven’t seen much of him with Celtic)
Surprised Rodgers hasn’t picked up another job tbh, the job he did at that large Welsh club showed he could do it at a lower level.
I agree that Top 4 is about where they are at - Rodgers had finished 6th with 22 less points than the season before, he crashed out of the CL and was on course to finish well outside top 4 again- He wasn’t hounded out by anyone.
Finally - Name names.
Defoe was outstanding again v the pool
he seems to be play very well also with Januzaj
I think ill say it again but he is probably the best english attacking player with Rashford currently playing football
the man’s movement and work ethic are sensational
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Talksport devoting their morning phone in to Giroud’s celebration last night.
Could never understand the stick he got after all he’d achieved. I still think the vast majority hold him in high regard.
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i agreed with you last week on clattenberg and im agreeing with you on Liverpool also
if there is any team who will slide i think it is them
their defense is suspect and they have players who seem to do awfully stupid things at times, Mane seems a complete eejit
going forward they play some lovely stuff
i think they’ll get top 4, BUT right now united look more likely
that game in a few weeks is massive actually
they play a very up tempo game, ure wondering if a few injuries could fk them over completely
id say next summer when klopp buys a decent keeper, cemter half, midfileder and center forward and then has the whol summer with them to work on the S/C needed for such a game they’ll go close
he’s not in the bundesliga now where they get a month off, u cant play this game in the EPL week on week with a squad like that
he looks rattled also, he’s a nice guy, i think he’ll go down as a nice guy who’ll go close but never do it
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Good point on the Bundesliga. What is it? A 16-team league and do they even have a League Cup in Germany? That month off in the winter allows for complete recovery before the second half of the season.
That said, fatigue and/or squad size won’t really be a valid excuse for Liverpool given they’re not involved in European competition and will probably play around 10-15 games less than usual. He was also happy to sell the likes of Skrtel, Allen, Benteke, Ibe and other squad players and he seems to have made the strategic decision to reduce the squad size while playing a high tempo, hard pressing game. So it’s not necessarily bad luck if they fall away - it’s the path they’ve chosen.
They used to have it as a pre-season tournament but only for top 8 teams or something. The they had just 4 teams in it in similar competition pre-season but not sure if that was still the equivalent of the league cup or who got to play in it. Games were 60 minutes or something like that. They’ve nothing now I don’t think.
Agreed, he’s left them a bit short and you can see it in their performances over Christmas. Granted they’ve lost some depth to injury with Gomez, Ojo and Ings out with long term injuries but he should not have left Allen and possibly Skrtel go. I don’t think he had an option with Benteke and Ibe given the crazy money that was offered for them.
Just catching up on the Giroud celebration “controversy”. Sometimes Arsenal get unwarranted criticism (and it is a big deal to draw level after being 3-0 down) but he came across as a right eejit by pushing team-mates away to go off and do his pre-planned celebration when others were rushing back with the ball to get the game restarted.
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Is there a gif of the said celebration that you could kindly post?
Haven’t been able to find one. He ran over to the side where the away fans are at Bournemouth, pushed Gabriel away to get enough room for himself and did scorpion kick type movements with both feet, presumably to mark his goal at the weekend. Then he moved a bit closer to the fans and did a bit of gurning and fist pumping. Monreal and Chamberlain were behind him and roaring at him to get the fuck back to restart the game and push for another goal.
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@Lazarus and @myboyblue will be on now talking about that being French flair or something retarded to that affect.