xavier

Who will win the title? Man United. Who will claim that last Champions League place? Arsenal Will we finish in the Europa positions? Yes. Will Newcastle finally go down? Yes. Is it too late for West Brom? Yes.

And so am i. Its topped a great week for me.

Erm what?

Nothing said about Roooooooooooooooonnnnneyyyyyy's magical disappearing act from the other day, in the papers. On a more serious note, am i the only one whose a bit disappointed of all the hate about Liverpool, Everton, Red, Blue instillted in young kids by the parents? We already have a lot to worry about in this world. Six year olds hating other six year olds shouldnt be happening.

Shoot!

Long term, yes. I'd say the ideal reserve setup brings continuously a pool of players who can be sold for a profit, providing on its way a select few who can actually play for the side regularly. United's for example. We had nothing of that sort four years back. So with a short term objective of improving on what we had a number of youth players were brought in to improve the system. Long term, yes.. some of them were probably expected to progress enough to be sold and we have that to be fair. We might have not found a Gerrard in there but we've got El Zhar, Hobbs, Insua, Hammill, Nemeth, Dalla Valle, Kelly, Darby, San Jose, Gulacsi, Mihaylov and a few others who fall into the 'Might make it at Liverpool or atleast are good enough to be sold for some money' category. We already have made decent money off Carson and Guthrie. I'd say decent progress has been made at the reserve level but a lot of others problems need to be resolved. I still dont see why that has to be a weapon to slate the manager with. A lot of the 73 mentioned were bought in for the reserve league. Hardly cost us a lot of money and we look to make a profit off the same. Not a bad thing.

Riera upfront? He's a winger whose done better than a decent job this year. He's been poor of late granted. at the Ngog comment. He's a 19 year old striker whose a regular in the France U 21 squad. He wasnt brought in as a first teamer and still scored a goal with his FIRST LEAGUE START of the season. Till date, he's started 1 league game. You speak of him as if he's a regular. Mikeo: As i said before, a lot of the 73 players were brought for the reserves. Surely, there's a difference?

He's bought in a lot of players for the reserves and U 18. They're not exactly trainees but both English and foreign players to revamp what was a youth system with really poor players. Since then we've won the FA youth cup twice and the reserve league once. Here too he's had a problem with not having complete control over the youth system, both with regards to players..playing techniques..and training. (Remember he's been the manager of the Castilla, so he probably knows what he's doing with regards to young players) Its something that other managers just expect but Rafa's had to fight for it. Parry got in Piet Hamburg jus because he was his sons mate. Bloody shame whats happening behind the scenes for us... we're a laughing stock.

Think last summer's transfer window coupled with some unlucky injuries as suspensions to Torres,Gerrard, Alonso and Arbeloa killed this season for us. Rafa is to blame for getting the wrong players/players who didnt settle to the club last summer but some of the arguments put forward like his 'stubbornness' or 'zonal marking' are just plain dumb. And the anti-Rafa sentiment is still easily a minority. There was a poll on one of the liverpool forums which had over 500 votes on whether Rafa deserves to stay and over 85% of fans agreed that he did. Most of the people calling phone ins are numpties anyway. Good to see that atleast you're having a good season, Mikeo. Well no..but still congrats anyway.

I'd be gutted if he leaves.

Haha true.

I'd be estatic too, if my team stopped our city rivals from going top of the league.

Eh?

What about This Article? Btw, when did Rafa say that refs win you the title and not playing well? A good post here, IMO. Link

There's an underrated player.

But we're luckypool.

Except he didnt. --------- I just dont know what Rafa said wrong the other day. It was spot on. Also, the Mancs dont need extra motivation to win the league. They're the champions with a fantastic, experienced side who've won a lot and a manager who knows what he's doing. Dont think Rafa's speech adds anything to their game, if anything it makes the ref 'notice' things that they otherwise failed to. I dont think it will but if Rafa's 'rant' makes the Mancs get one less decision from the ref's than what they otherwise would have, i'm happy. Mascherano was brought into the picture because its a fact. Even against Chelsea, Rooney didnt get booked for dissent when he was having wild goes at the ref many times. You see players get booked for taking free kicks early and celebrating an important goal a little extra but stuff like these from the Mancs goes unnoticed, unsurprisingly by the media too who are just scared of Ferguson not wanting to talk to them anymore.

Havent been here too often but i wish you a wonderful festive season. Yes, you too Reg. Have a good one.

I prefer the touch of a woman, to be honest.

How would you compare these chants to 'The baby's not yers' that Gerrard gets?

If anything, it was your player who was asking the ref to book Skrtel in the first half just because Felliaini was given one.

The term 'thinking evertonian' is completely lost on you, isn't it.

Nah its definitely the weather. :gay:

Just itching to get some banter and then the match started....well maybe the itching is because of the weather. Dont think its anywhere as straightforward as some posts i read after yesterday and Hull suggest. Everyone seems to try their best during the derby and you have a very strong team. The football may not be very classy, but Yakubu upfront with Osman and Cahill supporting him have the ability to score against most opposition. Your defense seems to have faltered this season, but its a tried and tested one and the concentration levels being up there because its a derby could well mean that the mistakes are cut out. Plus, Moyes has always been a decent man manager. From our side, even though we've got the results our performances havent been great except for in defense where Carra, Skrtel, Pepe and Arbeloa have been brilliant this season. Keane hasnt settled into Gerrard's role from last season and the partnership with Torres hasnt clicked. But then, he has the quality and the experience to merge in any team, so i'm not worried. Riera has started very well for us and will need to be defended against. Kuyt's just a battering ram who'll run all day no matter the score or the quality of football. Very honest player if not the greatest. The first goal will settle this one. I dont expect us to lose, but if you guys score first its an uphill battle for us. And if we do, then we'll be in our element playing on the counter. There.