Football (Soccer)

Originally posted by §P0oONY
Nothing can be done about it? Erm... Wage caps.... Lots of other sports have them. That's one thing we can learn from the Americans. Let the players make their fortunes from sponsership deals.

Originally posted by Liberator
Liverpool has been having trouble ever since we got the American owners who are completely ruining LFC.

Money is a real problem in football right now, It's a shame too that such a focus has been shifted on it. You think they'd lower the ticket prices with all the mega-profit they get to from those ads, shirt sales, ect.

I don't understand it, I just don't.

Yes, it's Liverpool's American owners' fault that they've not won their own league since 1989/1990.

Let's be real, Liverpool are ruining themselves by playing shit. Rafa has spent a combined sum of 38 million on Robbie Keane and Glen Johnson. If he bought better players they wouldn't be in this mess.

-AC

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
Yes, it's Liverpool's American owners' fault that they've not won their own league since 1989/1990.

Let's be real, Liverpool are ruining themselves by playing shit. Rafa has spent a combined sum of 38 million on Robbie Keane and Glen Johnson. If he bought better players they wouldn't be in this mess.

-AC

I totally agree, he buys players who don´t fit into the system if there is a system🙂

Looks like Rafa may be on his way out. According to rumours. Wouldn'r suprise me.

Maybe The Special One will take over, he has showed some inclination towards returning to the English game.

Originally posted by §P0oONY
Looks like Rafa may be on his way out. According to rumours. Wouldn'r suprise me.

Maybe The Special One will take over, he has showed some inclination towards returning to the English game.

Oh no, oh god no. Not him. I respect him as a manager for he is very successful but I hate his personality, he does not belong on Liverpool.

And AC, I wasn't meaning to put the blame entirely on the new American owners, but they are a reason for a lot of the clubs failures. Rafa hasn't been smart either, getting rid of Xabi Alonso was a massive mistake.

Hehehe, I like the guy's personality and his tallent as a manager isn't questionable, if he deceideed to come to Newcastle I'd take him in a heartbeat (even though I really like our current man). I am just purely speculating about his Liverpool move though, Rafa isn't even out the door yet, The only job I know he's shown interest in is Sir Alex's, although he may have shown interest in others like Real, I can't say I've really read much.

Originally posted by §P0oONY
Looks like Rafa may be on his way out. According to rumours. Wouldn'r suprise me.

Maybe The Special One will take over, he has showed some inclination towards returning to the English game.

The special one would be good, after the way Inter kicked Chelsea out you gotta say he has an excellent strategic mind.

Woulnd´t surprise me if they took Barcelona out as well.

I ewouldn't be suprised but at the smae time I don't really see it happening. Inter haven't had the best run of form in their domestic league while Barca have really been on fire recently. I know statistics don't mean much but I believe Barca are a better side. And let's not forget that Guardiola is a pretty fine manager too.

Should've played Van Persie from the start.

As soon as he came on he made a crazy impact. I just wish we had him for the past five months.

You can't fault Gomes' saves though.

-AC

Yeah, I agree. I guess Wenger didn't think he was fit enough to start.

Result is a bit of a win/lose scenario for me really. Makes the title race less intersting but makes the 4th place fight more interesting.

It's never nice to lose a derby, but I do so knowing that we were at fault for the second goal so no excuses can be made.

It's not an excuse to say that we're missing SIX first team regulars and we still had the run of play. It IS a big deal when you're missing Gallas, Arshavin, Song, Van Persie (For the most part), Ramsey AND Fabregas. Fabregas alone is one of the best midfielders in the world, but throw the rest in there and yeah, it sucks.

Yet again, injuries cost us to lose our legs, but there's nothing you can do about that.

It just wasn't to be tonight, and we paid for the mistakes, but were not rewarded for playing the better football. Just the way football goes some times.

I do maintain that it's going to be madly difficult to win the league unless we get a more reliable goalkeeper. I do maintain that fact. Our last, best keeper was Lehmann and we made history with him between the posts.

This season is a marked improvement, Arshavin and Vermaelen were two more pieces of the puzzle. We need a goalkeeper though. Definitely.

-AC

There is always next year... Oh wait... no... that's going to be a Magpie year. Maybe sometime after Newcastle go on their twenty year undefeated spell due to start next season.

I kid, I kid... I can hope though.

Arsenal have got a much better shout next season than this one if they make a couple of signings. They've had their faults this season but they have made some real progression.

I don't think our defense needs fixing, I think we need better back-up players.

The need for a centre-mid is gone what with Song becoming a brilliant player.

If we get Chamakh on a free, that's a bonus. We NEED a very reliable, and consistently great keeper. Almunia isn't shit, but he proved his issues time and time again this season. He can't keep getting away with making such terrible mistakes by pulling off some critical saves.

My choices would be Lloris, Asenjo or Akinfeev. Realistically anyway, because Buffon or Julio Cesar aren't going anywhere.

Taking nothing away from the quality with which Rose hit his strike, but that's not something a COMPETENT keeper, not even a great one, has to make a reflex save for. Terrible positioning.

-AC

Almunia is the kind of keeper that a side like Arsenal should have on the bench. He's simply not got the class needed for a club of Arsenal's size.

That's one thing Newcastle isn't lacking. Harper is in my honest opinion the best English keeper out there.

The keeper they have below Harper is f*cking awesome as well if I remember rightly.

-AC

Yeah at the start of this season a lot of people wanted Krul to be first choice keeper. I think Harper has more than proved himself though.

I like the guy, he had to play second fiddle to Given for so long.

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
Should've played Van Persie from the start.

As soon as he came on he made a crazy impact. I just wish we had him for the past five months.

You can't fault Gomes' saves though.

-AC

Hard to say without knowing the state of his injury and fitness, but he is one of the best strikers in the world at the moment and Arsenal missed him, I know they arn´t a one man team like Man U but a striker of that class can make the difference in close games.

Danny Rose´s goal was amazing, to hit the ball that straight like a bullet, out of the the air on the volley is Zidane territory.

For those who missed the goal, here it is from a nice angle if you look closely you can see the ball bob and weave like guided missile. (ufortunately there´s an annoying jock commentating .)

YouTube video

How can he hit it straight and also have it bob and weave? I don't think you thought that through.

Even then, Almunia almost got it. It wasn't place in an area where the keeper couldn't have got to it.

The fact that he didn't just proves we need a new keeper.

It was a brilliant volley, but it wasn't Zidane territory. Zidane's against Leverkusen and Van Persie's against Charlton were two unstoppable volleys, regardless.

The more I watch it, the more I get annoyed with Almunia.

It's true what Andy Gray said; he'll never score a better goal and I'd be surprised if he goes anywhere with his career. He didn't do much besides that. It's just one of those really good goals in the right moment that'll get shown in Premiership Highlights.

-AC

More troubles for Liverpool, looks like the yank owners are going to be selling the club.

Ayiiii yii yi...