Neil, Kris Walsh and Paul Cope get on the Liverpool pre-season rollercoaster.
Direct link to PODCAST: PESSIMISM/OPTIMISM
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It could be that I missed the optimism part (I had to fast-forward quite a bit) but I, for one, found this podcast quite ‘miserable’ in every respect. I recommend a 2nd viewing of the Celtic match; that will hopefully disabuse some of the notion that we didn’t create enough goal-scoring chances.
I also do not really understand the continued agonizing over Lucas Leiva. The lad is back to normal. You can’t expect him magically to be back at his best.
Also, terribly unfair to be THAT critical of Aspas. My two cents, anyway.
I think it was probably a fair reflection of the mood of Liverpool fans. Apologies, just about to put the podcast on. With Liverpool I try and take an optimistic approach otherwise I stop enjoying it. It eats away at me.
I spent Saturday morning discussing how we were gonna be dark horses and would get that 4th place but by Saturday night I was completely disillusioned, and so were my mates. Why?
The Celtic game was more than a friendly. It was a realisation of what’s to come, again. I definitely like the direction the club seems to be going in. I hate to be backing something described this way but it’s ‘sensible’.
That team though, doesn’t have the depth to be beating Arsenal and Spurs. It needs a couple of decent buys to take it to the next level. Not potential but proven players. I completely accept that’s easier said that done, and I genuinely believe we would have put the cash up for both / either Mkhitaryan and / or Costa but the reality is – no-one like that has come in.
My primary concern is for the team but it’s an important milestone for FSG. Were they to buy 2 big players you could look at the squad and applaud what they’re trying to build. It’s all reliant on first getting into and then consolidating a CL place though.
If we don’t get that and the net spend is around zero, then you have to look at their tenure and wonder what has the priority – balancing the books or getting into the CL.
My opinion is there is money to spend but it won’t be spent on players like Dempsey just because the fans are saying he’s amazing. I think we’re struggling to find the right quality. I don’t want to end up with another Downing for £20m but leaving us ill equipped to challenge for 4th, again, will lead to tensions. It would be a shame too. Just when things were looking harmonious with praise for Henry and Rodgers over Suarez.
Firstly, Neil, I applaud your commitment but if you are feeling that shite, perhaps you should hand the baton over to someone else as it doesn’t make for pleasant listening. It made me feel hung over and grumpy too :(
I’m with you GrkStav, although I’ll admit I am a bit of an optimist. I personally think it is great that you guys can’t work out where anyone in our team plays as long as they don’t seem to be getting in each other’s way, which they don’t seem to be. Because if you can’t work it out then hopefully the other team can’t either, which I thought was the whole point of Rodger’s philosophy.
I haven’t watched much La Liga, but can you tell me where any of Barcelona’s midfielders play in the way you were trying describe our midfield? Rodgers is an unabashed fan of the Barcelona system, so it is not surprising that we are fluid in the final (two) third(s). Everyone always counters with that kind of system only works if you have players of the quality of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi, but I don’t get how anyone can know that. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t (maybe they are not that good out of that system). It seems to me the most important thing is everyone being on the same page. Besides, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alberto fitting into that midfield too and giving us a different range of passing when required.
I think you are right about the Celtic game giving us a bit of a wake-up call, but I think it was the players, not the fans, who needed it in order to regain a bit of that sharpness (the fans need all the optimism they can get after last season). I think our movement and passing was very promising regardless of who we were playing. We created more than enough chances, and just that we weren’t quite up to speed with how sharp you need to be to take those chances, which isn’t surprising given that it was our first proper hit out in preseason.
All in all, cheer up fellas, the season hasn’t started yet so I don’t see how you can be down about it already. You need to hang out with Rob a bit more and try to catch some of his first game of the season optimism!
“Mingolet a gamble” just give up talking about football Neil.
The club appears to be treading water, offloading players on CL level wages, and bringing in cheaper options that may or may not perform at a similar level. The accountants are probably the happiest people so far. The books must be looking very good. We won’t know about the new players until at least Christmas.
We have something like £20m extra per year from a new TV deal, the largest club and kit sponsorship in the club’s history, and a packed ground almost every game. The money is rolling in.
There are several players on the books that have higher asset value than we paid out, more book-keeping goodness in the assets column.
FSG appear to be more interested in make the club look good on paper like a good business that pushing the club up a level with serious player investment (if any top level players can be persuaded to join an upper midtable side aiming for the big time again). That in itself is no bad thing, better to be very stable than face doing a Leeds or Rangers. But the more I see, the more I believe FSG are priming the club for sale. Global economies are turning around and the rich are already buying unrelated companies with their spare equity. Will we be seeing an oil oligarch linked to the club in the near future?
Should the club fail to land a top player or two, someone to get excited about like Coutinho, I think the fans are going to be very pessimistic this season, particularly with the stadium stagnation. The mega rich clubs aren’t likely to fall that far despite all changes at the top, Spurs are looking very strong again, leaving just Arsenal as a club to catch. That’s only 5th place (I’m assuming the Bitters aren’t going to keep punching about their weight with the management change).
Where’s Rob Gutmann when you need him?
Hear hear. Way too serious and hungover guys
Just to counter some of the bashing–I thought it was a pretty realistic assessment of our situation. Hopefully we can continue to improve this window, and hopefully the more skeptical of us can be proven wrong. But I’m tired of backlash against any kind of criticism of the squad/management–and that was a really shaky performance against Celtic, I’m not having it that we completely dominated that game. Stronger side for sure, but it looked a little too scripted (it felt like a loss by the 65th minute to me..) to just say we dominated and were unlucky. Good episode.
I’ve found Kristian quite negative recently… And he used to be one of my favourites on the podcast. Where’s Rob? He’s brilliant when not going on about FSG.
I want to see if Neil can go a whole podcast without mentioning Henderson :-)