Can they still win it?

So they lost their first game...away..against a low ranked team! Can they still win it?

Yes we can and we might

I hope we do (chins)

Bolton beat Man United 2 weeks ago. Man City did the same back in August.

Well i told everyone who thought man utd were gonna win it, to bet heavily on them after bolton, cos the odds are gonna never be so good. From 13/8 it's now 4/5

Does anybody, bar Pool fans, believe that Liverpool can win it???

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:Does anybody, bar Pool fans, believe that Liverpool can win it???

I think they have a chance, yes.

Yeah, if they go out of the CL, then even more so.

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:Does anybody, bar Pool fans, believe that Liverpool can win it???

I believe anyone but Arsenal can win it. But I don't believe Liverpool will win it.

yeah lpool can definately win it.

It wasn't meant as a dig at Liverpool but the constant tinkering doesn't make for a team that will pick up all the "easy" points

I thought this thread was about Arsenal

Confusing isnt it Luis.

Luis wrote:I thought this thread was about Arsenal

I think you are right actually

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:It wasn't meant as a dig at Liverpool but the constant tinkering doesn't make for a team that will pick up all the "easy" points

Historically under rafa our form has been excellent in the second half of seasons. If this holds true again then we will be right up there.

Saturday's team selection was outrageous but will definitely benefit us come tuesday which is obviously a far more important game. We were also astonishingly unlucky at the weekend

No.

They were never going to win it.

They always were going to slip up, and this is probably not going to be the end of this particular blip.

So yeah, i'm sticking my neck out on this one but I think i'll be proved right.

COTR wrote:

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:It wasn't meant as a dig at Liverpool but the constant tinkering doesn't make for a team that will pick up all the "easy" points

Historically under rafa our form has been excellent in the second half of seasons. If this holds true again then we will be right up there.

Saturday's team selection was outrageous but will definitely benefit us come tuesday which is obviously a far more important game. We were also astonishingly unlucky at the weekend

I agree.

I was astonished to hear on Saturday (on 606/Radio 5) several Liverpool fans saying they'd have taken three points at Reading over a win at Marseille, and Alan Green talking as if the Reading game was OBVIOUSLY much more important and every Liverpool fan would agree!!

I can see that the Premiership is important, maybe even the absolute priority for Liverpool now, but to completely sacrifice the European dream at this stage of the season, in a competition where they've made two of the last three finals?!? Football's about glory, excitement, the roller-coaster ride through the whole season, not just the week-in week-out three-point grind. It would surely be far more of a hammer-blow to any fan with a heart to be kicked out of the CL at this stage than to slip up once in the PL.

Or do fans disagree?

I agree with Allez. I read someone on here (GR-09 I think) suggesting last week that the Reading game was much more important than the Marseille game, and I was surprised to read that.

Besides from the glamour of the Champions League and the excitement it provides the fans, its the case that Benitez's career at Liverpool so far has been centred around the Champions League, and that the team he has built has therefore been defined on its Champions League performances, and for Liverpool to drop out of the Champions League so early in the season would leave a sort of void in the season which could prove disheartening to begin with. Then if Liverpool did start to falter in the League, or if they went through a bad patch having dropped out of the Champions League, then I imagine the team, but Benitez in particular, might quickly find themselves under a lot of pressure.

Results so far in the league suggest that the top four are closer to each other than they have been before this season, and that all four could challenge for the title. For me, whilst I think Liverpool could come close, I think theyre least likely to win the league just because they seem the most inconsistent and the least likely to go on a long winning run. Benitez sometimes plays defensively away from home, and then whilst its fine to rotate in principle, its not fine when your replacements arent up to standard - and Liverpool could still do with some extra quality on the wings and in attack.

I think Man Utd and Chelsea are probably justly the slight favourites, because they are the two teams who have challenged most recently and they have the bigger squads. But I certainly think Arsenal can win the league. Their first eleven is on a par, in my view, with any of the other teams in the league. And I think theyre just as likely as anyone to go on an excellent run. I do think they need to buy in January, especially with Toure gone - Senderos seems very limited and Djourou isnt excelling at Birmingham - and whilst Wenger has spent a couple of seasons changing and rebuilding and blooding the young players, he seems to be properly going for things this season, suggesting that this season they wont settle for less than the title, and so he should be proactive and spend when money needs to be spent. It would be inexcusable to rely on Senderos or Djourou , for instance, and end up losing the title because of it, when there are clear signs that neither may be up to standard.

Allez les rouges wrote:

I agree.

I was astonished to hear on Saturday (on 606/Radio 5) several Liverpool fans saying they'd have taken three points at Reading over a win at Marseille, and Alan Green talking as if the Reading game was OBVIOUSLY much more important and every Liverpool fan would agree!!

I can see that the Premiership is important, maybe even the absolute priority for Liverpool now, but to completely sacrifice the European dream at this stage of the season, in a competition where they've made two of the last three finals?!? Football's about glory, excitement, the roller-coaster ride through the whole season, not just the week-in week-out three-point grind. It would surely be far more of a hammer-blow to any fan with a heart to be kicked out of the CL at this stage than to slip up once in the PL.

Or do fans disagree?

Well this is of course spot on. Where benitez got it wrong on saturday was changing the entire shape of a winning team. I am not sure what brainwave came into his head when he decided on a 4-3-3 with momo, mascha, voro and crouch all together but it sure as hell was strange. If he had just played as normal with a rotated team and our usual shape we would have been fine because we actually dominated most of the game.

Anyone who says saturday's game is more important is not really thinking straight. We are still comfortably in the title race so the after effects of losing are not really that great. If you compare this to the after effects of losing against marseille then it's obvious which match has more meaning.

Our squad is good enough to cope with both competitions but benitez simply got his tactics wrong on sat, combined with horrible luck

GR09 and Luis were arguing this out in the match thread.

It comes down to the simple fact that qualifying for the last 16 is worth at least £10m. You get £3m for qualifying, roughly £2m per game and then the additional TV deal - and that's minimum - it could be worth a lot more.

I still stick with what I have been saying all season, only now it looks more certain... ManU will win it. They are looking good, and now have an excellent depth in the squad.

Arsenal will find it difficult to keep up, the moment they had a few injuries they slipped. I think we will see them surrender the leadership as early as end of this month.

Chelsea, the change in coach makes it difficult for them. While Grant has got decent results so far, I am not sure whether he will be able to make that step up in performances that is required to win the EPL from ManU.

Liverpool, way too inconsistent. I just don't see them winning it this season. Maybe next season if Rafa is still around and the new players are more settled in.

But all these will finish in the top 4 again, which is not good for football.

bluenine wrote:
Arsenal will find it difficult to keep up, the moment they had a few injuries they slipped. I think we will see them surrender the leadership as early as end of this month.

What happened when Liverpool, Utd and Chelsea had their bad injury patches

They dropped points again today by drawing, are they still in it?

poor performance by them

Good lord are these threads going to come up every single time pool lose or draw, they were funny at 1st but its just getting tiring now.