Neil was joined by Rob Gutmann, Sachin Nakrani,Jim Boardman, Nick O’Prey, Paul Cope, Sean Rogers and Kristian Walsh after Liverpool’s 6-0 demolition of Newcastle United.
PODCAST: SIX FOR GOLD
by The Anfield Wrap | Apr 29, 2013 | Podcast | 17 comments
Did Gerrard nick your girlfriend or what Neil. You really seem to have a grudge against the fellow.
In fairness, Neil wasn’t criticising gerrard – was just saying that he had a quiet game, which was positive given liverpool still went on to win well. Personally, and as I said, I thought gerrard played well doing a job for the team in terms of pressing Newcastle when they had the ball just inside their own half.
As a regular listener you’d know that Neil has a problem with Stevie every week
I haven’t got a problem with Gerrard. There’s an ongoing debate to be had about legs in centre mid, especialy off the ball, and Gerrard is part of that midfield and therefore that debate. It’s a reasonable conversation being had by the support that I try to reflect. Sometimes there is no one in the room who will raise it so I lead on it. Other times, if, say, Mike Nevin or Ben Johnson is in, then I don’t. Just seems more pronounced because it is Gerrard and people are understandably reluctant to treat him like any other player. As he is and has been brilliant.
Yeah and it’s definitely a point worth making, but of all the games this season that debate is least relevant after that match. Gerrard wasn’t the destructive force of nature like he has been at St Jame’s in seasons gone by because he didn’t have to be (my favourite was when geordies were booing him when England failed to qualify for the Euros then he just leathered in a 30 yarder to shut them up). Sturridge, Coutinho, Henderson and Lucas were given license to run riot against maybe the most clueless side I’ve seen this season and did they ever.
Newcastle did this weird thing when they were down of paying lip service to keeping a high line with acres in behind as if they were making an effort while putting no pressure on the ball whatsoever. Just a load of black and white shirts in the middle of the pitch with red ones jogging their way on through at goal to tap it past the keeper like a real life scumbag goal when you play Fifa. But if Lucas didn’t have all day to play it where and when he wanted he’d have been passing it sideways to Gerrard giving him an option in space, who’d then find Coutinho like Alonso used to do for him. That, along with the usual horrendous setpiece defending, is one of the things I’m expecting from the derby next weekend.
After a decade of carrying the hopes and dreams of LFC on his back (singlehandedly for a year when Owen was dicking everyone around before Xabi, then Torres up with him a few years later, then Suarez becoming the talisman when he was out with his groin for effectively a year), he would have been criticised for being detrimental by intruding on the next generation’s day to shine had he have been needlessly proactive in trying to rip Newcastle apart further when we were doing a fine job of it with him just sitting. I for one appreciated Gerrard’s understated, selfless performance anyway.
Listening to the first 10 mins of the podcast i thought of something i wanted to write on here. Then it got covered. I don’t think it’s too wrong to make a point that’s already been made though.
I’ve commented on here before that some of these results we’ve had can’t all be coincidences. Yes, Newcastle were poor but rarely in the last 20 years have i seen us demolish so many lower half teams so convincingly. Just maybe, we’re doing something right.
We’ve just suffered from a little inconsistency. At the start of the season there was all the talk – what will show we’ve improved, how many points would an improvement be etc etc. Well, we’ve already scored 20 more goals and have a better goal difference by 18. We’ve 2 more points than the total last year with 9 to play for. I can see us getting 7 more at least. No manager was going to walk into Liverpool and clean up so I’m quite positive about the season. Especially considering we had a poor start, as you might expect. Ifs and buts are stupid but if we’d continued our good run and beaten a poor Villa at Anfield or taken just one of our 50 odd chances last week against Reading or not had a tool for a linesman against Everton then we’d be in the race for the CL places. I think the way we’ve progressed this season shows enough that we can be confident to win those games like Reading and Southampton.
I know our classic mantra is one player here and one player there and we can challenge next season so I’m gonna stop short of saying but I think we can. Certainly challenge for the CL. We’ve got a lot of players that you feel are actually quite good. We’ve got a lot of young lads who’ve showed some potential. Rodgers seems liked by the players (even if half the fans are trying their best to destabilise him). The owners seem more clued up than the last 2 lots even if some fans are still desperate for them to fail so they can say I told you so. Things seem in the early stages of something ok / good to me. All we’re missing is for the ‘best fans in the league’, lol, to get behind the club. I’m happyish.
Spot on, Robin. We are the cream of the mid-table fodder now, but I can’t remember blattering the dross like Rodger’s side has this season since the times of Barnes, Aldo and Beardo.
This side can really turn the screw if they get an early goal, the longer it goes, the more we suffer. If the opposition scores first, we really aren’t that great due to the lack of spirit in the squad. Rodgers needs to buy captains, not those he’s worked with at low level clubs to fix this. Summer transfers are going to be very interesting if we get money from Carroll and Suarez.
Well said Robin, well said
“The owners seem more clued up than the last 2 lots even if some fans are still desperate for them to fail so they can say I told you so.”
What now? No, not ‘spot on’ or ‘well said’. If I was a journo writing about Thatcher I’d call you ‘divisive’ around about now with this type of OTT fanbase-wedging needle. I’m not on the likes of Twitter so I can’t say whether “half the fans are trying their best to destabilise [Rodgers]” for certain. I doubt it, but I don’t know for sure.
What I think I can assert is that no fan in their right mind wants LFC “to fail so they can say I told you so”. Maybe someone has got a load of money on Liverpool not qualifying for the Champions League in the next few years, I dunno? I suppose you think people were pulling for Hicks and Gillett to turn out to be mercilessly greedy arseholes and for us to not be able to sign Silva, Barry and Jovetic in 2009 with CL-accumulated money that should have been there. Everyone can appreciate that FSG are trying to do the right things as they see fit, but when they don’t they’re allowed to be criticised constructively. It’ll be fine – they’re big boys. Honest.
Setting the bar for competency in the running and ownership of LFC at H+G is like comparing manager standards to Hodgson. ‘Anonymity during Suarez/Evragate, mind-numbing Jen Chang silliness, asking a Rounders expert on who they should have spend a load of money in Football, that deadline day which gave Rodgers a hell of a fighting chance first half of this season, etc, etc. Whatever, at least we’re not a day off administration!’
Thankfully TAW’s indulgence in a bit of critical thinking, the negative nellies, has been therapeutic and stopped me from having a breakdown through some of the stupid shit that’s done and said, that you’d just have everyone let slide (e.g. I’m pretty sure John Gibbons getting the mexican standoff between pyro, club values and the long-term sanity of supporters off his chest on air stopped me from bursting).
If we don’t maintain feasible standards (/VALUES!) for the club to live up to, no one will. The media are too busy beating the club over the head for not having tore up Suarez’s contract yet…
In fairness, I didn’t really understand a lot of that reply but I think I got the gist of it. I’m not surprised to hear you’re not on Twitter if you haven’t noticed that. We’ve still got a large section fans who feel aggrieved that kenny was sacked and Rafa didn’t replace him. It’s led to a resentment of both Rodgers and FSG. knowing you read the comments on here I’m surprised you don’t know that.
I compared FSG to the last 2 owners, not Hicks & Gillett. Owners which we’ve had for the past 22 years. When did we last win the league again?
Alex Ferguson said last week that Utd’s success was partially a result of the owners getting the business side of the club right. You can’t win the league without plenty of money coming into the club. I believe FSG are trying to bring money in and stop it going out wastefully. If you want success that’s now a requirement, like it or not. Oh, but when they tried to cash in on the emerging U.S market for future revenue the LFC fans didn’t like that. Thought it’d brought embarrassment on the club.
You can stick your head in the sand if you want or plead ignorance but the rise in social media has made me realise how embarrassing LFC fans are. That includes some scousers as well. Hicks & Gillett were an extreme example of bad ownership and the fans were right to step in and every respect to the people who were instrumental in saving the club. They’re not the bastions of the club though now, here on in. They’re there to cautiously observe. Don’t forget that and get ideas above your station.
My point is, people need to stop looking to the past, unite and get behind the club. Stop worrying about the personality of the manager or the hobbies of Ian Ayre. I couldn’t care less if Ayre goes doggin at weekends with Rodgers in his sidecar. It’s all about how they do their job (which has room for improvement, for sure). My feeling is that’s something that LFC fans need reminding of. They’ve lost their way.
Robin baby are you single. Brilliant analysis of the current situation. I could go for a pint with you for sure.
Interesting. Obviously there was the David Brent jibes after Being: Liverpool but interviews with TAW/Redmen/etc have shown that in a casual environment Brendan’s a good lad with ideas. This notion of ‘resentment’ and wanting to see the whole enterprise go tits up for the sake of proving a point boils my blood. You’d hear so and so’s knobhead mate wants us to lose the next game so Rafa gets the bullet during H+G, but they were one-off idiots and I thought we’d leave this backwards, warped line of thinking in 2010 where it belongs. Unless I’m just massively misreading flippant bits of hyperbole things are worse than I thought.
I mean, lads are going to away games and having a ball getting behind the team. Obviously every week on the pod the lads discuss performance and commenters will compare points tallies, signings, etc. because we’re football nerds on the internet and it’s what we do. It goes without saying I’m not naive in thinking there’s no emotion into opinions on recent LFC. I for one, wasn’t best pleased actual Liverpool Football Club actually sacked the Kenny Dalglish and had qualms over bringing in a young promising manager to play lovely-looking, progressive football as a replacement as opposed to an experienced manager who’d play more immediate winning football short term, but that doesn’t ever stop me supporting the club or willing Brendan to eventually win the first league title of my lifetime.
I just find the idea of being placed in a little box and labelled with a certain agenda for praising/critiquing a certain manager’s, player’s, official’s performance 2 and a half years after being rid of H+G quite maddening, frankly.
Just on your revenue point, Although I’d prefer a more experienced, safer pair of hands in running the club than Ian Ayre, his pedigree on the business side of things can’t be argued and he’s done an excellent job on *gasp* the work he has expertise for which is increasing revenue streams. Stating the bleeding obvious, but I come from the not even remotely unique viewpoint that the big football clubs have an ultimate goal above all else of getting an elite team that wins things and then a lot of the perks of that primary objective follow on top of that. That’s not to say you shouldn’t be doing all those extra things for an advantage if you’re team isn’t where it aspires to be and has been in the past like LFC. But likewise it’s not either/or and you don’t have to give your new manager short shrift over one relatively cheap player going into an already difficult season.
Every big business in the world is going to want a piece of Man Utd because you know at least every other year there is going to be images of them beamed all over the world as champions. Similiarly, Barca can pay Messi’s wages off the back of the frightening number of people revolving through the doors of their museum/stadium tour and exiting through the club store (as cynical as Vatican City, that place) which they wouldn’t be able to do if they didn’t have many of the best players in the world and weren’t experiencing an era of unprecedented success on the pitch for them. Liverpool had financial superiority over their peers when they were dominating on the field of play.
Hopefully I haven’t rambled on past the point of coherence.
I think I agree with you but one thing I was getting at earlier regarding the owners is it’s clear that LFC have that same corporate potential as the biggest in the world. I despise it but it’s equally clear to me that when the ‘chilled out’ David Moores took over and the Premier League came into effect, we started our decline from the top and Utd started their rise to the top. I’d be happy to sell my soul if means us winning the league or more days out like Istanbul. The alternative is 9 months of misery every year. I’ll just join Amnesty Int and do yoga to get a bit of my soul back but for success i’ll happily have Chevrolet tattooed on my balls.
I don’t comprehend a word of this.Are you for or against?
Robin Crimes has a lot of good points here.But just remember I got slagged off for saying that playing Sterling was too many games too soon.That Henderson was a good player with great potential;that Allen looked like a waste of space;that Downing should be shipped out.
O.K. Not all correct but we call it the way we see it.Do you think that Rodgers reads these pages and takes some of our comments on board.If he does I for one would be a little disappointed.He should be sorting these things out for himself given the money he’s being paid.
But the real proof will be this weeks game against Everton.
I’m beginning to get a little bit optimistic.Say it quietly and Robin don’t you start kicking me all over the place!
But let’s hope.
Jesus Brian, have you been spiked with Ecstasy! Good man. Things aren’t perfect but there are shoots of recovery. It could fall flat or it could be the start of a pleasant journey. Let’s embrace it together whatever it brings.
P.s The club have to monitor public opinion. The TAW podcast would be high up on their list to listen to as would following influential figures on Twitter. So, it’s possible Rodgers has read the comments sometime. Would David Brent listen in? Exactly, and so would I if I were the manager. Unfortunately mate, he’s not gonna be basing his team selection and tactics on me and you so you don’t need to be worrying yourself there. I think he’s more than just soundbites. I think deep down he has a conviction and a will to succeed. It’s a vital element.
Lots of mentions of Coutinho, Hendo, Gerrard, Sturridge and no mention of Daniel Agger. Not the goal, the defending. He made 8 clearances, more than anyone else on the pitch. He was a key player on the day, I want to put this on record.
Also someone said we could give a few teams a spanking next season. We gave a few teams a spanking this season, we have had a cracking amount of high scoring games.
Id give gerrard a pre season at centre back, cud kill two birds with one tactical switch and get a beast defensive mid in to go with lucas, gerrard sprayin it from the back and is better than people think in the air, cud work boss cos hes still got plenty of pace to play at the back and we can get more legs in the middle