Are Liverpool now favourites to win the Premier League?

L-r d wrote:I believe that Carragher is gonna have an awful season and Gerrard knows his last ever world cup is around the corner his eye will be on that.

Could be Rio's last WC as well so be sure for him to be playing with only one eye as well

Luis wrote:

L-r d wrote:I believe that Carragher is gonna have an awful season and Gerrard knows his last ever world cup is around the corner his eye will be on that.

Could be Rio's last WC as well so be sure for him to be playing with only one eye as well

Rio's game is not about energy and running you dope

Luis wrote:

L-r d wrote:I believe that Carragher is gonna have an awful season and Gerrard knows his last ever world cup is around the corner his eye will be on that.

Could be Rio's last WC as well so be sure for him to be playing with only one eye as well

Rio could be there in 2014! Although admittedly its touch and go.

How old was Baresi in 94?

Stimulus Package wrote:

EM La Liga wrote:

Stimulus Package wrote:

EM La Liga wrote:

Stimulus Package wrote:Henry had Pires and Bergkamp to support him.

Who did Sheva have, consistently over a number of seasons?

he had better players than Bergkamp and Pires around him.

Such as?

Rui Costa/Rivaldo/Pirlo/Kaka/Seedorf shall I carry on?

Please do. But focus on the relevance of the position played by Bergkamp and Pires and Henry's particular strengths and weaknesses, and likewise Shevchenko's.

Sheva has never been the type of player to feed off a partner beside him so having the likes of Kaka, Seedorf, Pirlo and co picking out his movement actually suited him far better.

You are onto a loser with this one mate. Sheva had plenty of help

The 'Golden generation's' last shot - they need to hit the target this time, Bukakkes won't do it anymore.

Luis wrote:

L-r d wrote:I believe that Carragher is gonna have an awful season and Gerrard knows his last ever world cup is around the corner his eye will be on that.

Could be Rio's last WC as well so be sure for him to be playing with only one eye as well

Relax guys the way this national team is run these players have two or three more WC's left in them

L-r d wrote:

Luis wrote:

L-r d wrote:I believe that Carragher is gonna have an awful season and Gerrard knows his last ever world cup is around the corner his eye will be on that.

Could be Rio's last WC as well so be sure for him to be playing with only one eye as well

Rio's game is not about energy and running you dope

Gerrard doesn't give a shit about England you moron, he's a scouser, he pretends to so the press don't give him stick like they give Carra but Jamie doesn't give a fuck as he admits Liverpool have always come above England for him in his autobiography.

Yes liverpool are massive favourites, anything less than the title this year from Rafa and he should be shown the door

Rosicky wrote:Yes liverpool are massive favourites, anything less than the title this year from Rafa and he should be shown the door

This IS their year

COTR #2 wrote:Sheva has never been the type of player to feed off a partner beside him so having the likes of Kaka, Seedorf, Pirlo and co picking out his movement actually suited him far better.

You are onto a loser with this one mate. Sheva had plenty of help

I'm merely asking the question 'mate', but it is nice to see you can't live without commenting on what I get up to.

Rosicky wrote:Yes liverpool are massive favourites, anything less than the title this year from Rafa and he should be shown the door

Rafa to be sacked by May 2010?

Luis wrote:

L-r d wrote:

Luis wrote:

L-r d wrote:I believe that Carragher is gonna have an awful season and Gerrard knows his last ever world cup is around the corner his eye will be on that.

Could be Rio's last WC as well so be sure for him to be playing with only one eye as well

Rio's game is not about energy and running you dope

Gerrard doesn't give a shit about England you moron, he's a scouser, he pretends to so the press don't give him stick like they give Carra but Jamie doesn't give a fuck as he admits Liverpool have always come above England for him in his autobiography.

You are misinformed. Carragher is nothing to do with this conversation. Alonso wants out. Masch half wants out. Torres has no suitable back up. Gerrard's eyes on the WC. kUYT will go back to being shite. Reira will continue to be shite. IMO i don't see how Pool can win the premiership. But i am a little biased but less so than you.

Stimulus Package wrote:

COTR #2 wrote:Sheva has never been the type of player to feed off a partner beside him so having the likes of Kaka, Seedorf, Pirlo and co picking out his movement actually suited him far better.

You are onto a loser with this one mate. Sheva had plenty of help

I'm merely asking the question 'mate', but it is nice to see you can't live without commenting on what I get up to.

So paranoid


We should now all ask Sainty for his permission before replying to a post

No, just you.

Permission to post Sainty ?

DENIED

I wasn't sure which option you would go for

It seems you took the easy way out

No surprises there Sainty

No, I illustrated that you couldn't abide by your own shit idea.

Stimulus Package wrote:No, I illustrated that you couldn't abide by your own shit idea.

I offer you a cure for your raging paranoia and this is the thanks I get

That's the last time you get my help

I think Liverpool are favorites and can win the league next season, but that will only happen if we keep are key players, and it look like that isnt going to happen, alonso has said that he would like to join real madrid but if we can keep him and masherano, then we are favorites

Alonso wants to go to Madrid?

When did this happen?!?!?

I've picked up this post from lrd in the Liverpool thread to illustrate my take on this thread's title question:

L-r d wrote:Well i did a predicting search.

...

one predicting thread this was said.

COTR #2 wrote:

Super Madrid wrote:I think Benitez has wasted too much time and money for his team to only be at this level. with that said you never know if someone like Lucas will step up their game or Babel gets a breakthrough.their team currently is around third or fourth but with luck i can see them competing like Arsenal did last year and unlike them i think Liverpool wouldnt bottle it.

A lot depends on how good dossena is and what rafa decides to do at right back

If dossena is as good as he looks in pre season and rafa plays arbeloa in the majority of games at right back instead of forcing carragher there I'm confident the defence will be pretty damn good this season and this was by far our main weakness last season.

The extra creativity keane should add against chelsea and united should also help to turn the games that normal finish 0-0 (or 1-0 with a jammy united set piece) into more wins for us.

I'm pretty optmisitic, especially with ronaldo Fc out for a while and due at least 6 months of booing by his own fans on his return

COTR is doing what many people are - assuming that the team's strengths will stay the same as the previous season, and the weaknesses will be addressed in the transfer window (or better luck with injuries) so the "obvious way is up".

For example, some arguments used by those picking Liverpool as favourites is "well, Liverpool came close last year and that was with Torres and Gerrard unfit for a lot of time, and Man. Utd. have lost Ronaldo, and Benitez has stopped rotating, etc. etc. so Liverpool must be favourites".

It doesn't quite work like that. Who knows - something else might go wrong this season? The defense could be really poor, Torres could be out for even longer than the sporadic spells he had last time, Benitez may get a couple of key team selections wrong, etc.

Basically, too many people are forgetting the fact that things change every season. You can't just assume all things will continue as the previous season. Just because Ronaldo left, Man. Utd. don't "lose 42 goals". The team will change, the style of play will change, the goals will come from elsewhere. Maybe with a more coherent and (for Ferguson) comfortable 4-4-2, they can dominate games all through and don't even need the jammy 1-0 "get out of jail" goals he used to come up with.

Take Arsenal as another example: in 2007-2008 they were really in the title race for 2/3rds of the season, then faded away. So some Arsenal fans and Wenger thought "alright, we're close...just a couple of improvements and we should be even better next year". But no, the team regressed and was nowhere near the top all year long last year. Even with no additions, you'd expect them to maintain the title challenge, but it didn't happen because of various factors - injuries to Cesc, Adebayor unable to repeat his form, etc. Maybe theirs is not a perfect example because they didn't replace Hleb and Flamini, so some regression was probably to be expected...but I hope my basic point gets across.

Anyway, I've typed a lot to basically say my answer is "no, I don't think Liverpool are favourites as of now". I still go with Man. Utd. at this point in the transfer window and before any of the pre-season friendlies.

I'm particularly curious to see what Chelsea will do in the market, because atm their squad seems to be a mix of players that aren't really setup for a particular system or style of play. Ancelotti has work to do.

Whilst you're correct, from a purely speculative stance, Liverpool do appear to have the best chance - given the clear as daylight weakening of Utd and the fact that Chelsea will have to settle into the style of a new manager.

Ancelotti could ruin chelsea.

Or alternatively, he could make them brilliant again, like under Mourinho.

In terms of making predictions, obviously we can only go on what we know and fair enough, at the end of the day that's what this is all about - making a prediction. But far too many people are taking it as a given that Liverpool are now massive favourites.

if too many people didn't think Liverpool were favourites, then they wouldn;t be favourites kas

The difference with us and that Arsenal team that 'faded away' is that we have much more quality than they had and more players who are willing to give everything for the shirt. I always felt that Arsenal team wasn't quite good enough and badly lacking leaders.

Luis wrote:The difference with us and that Arsenal team that 'faded away' is that we have much more quality than they had and more players who are willing to give everything for the shirt. I always felt that Arsenal team wasn't quite good enough and badly lacking leaders.

Are you serious? I think the squad that we had was much better. You were lucky that you didn't have the injuries we did.

The problem with Arsenal is that we're a mentally fragile side where results are mainly based on confidence adding to the fact you have a more tactically astute manager than ourselves.

Sounding a bit of a cliche now and I now people like Saints will add their opinions to this but if Eduardo hadn't gotten injured I do think we would have won the title.

You are right though in the sense that we lack leaders.

Trying to get a balanced opinion from luis is like trying to get a jew to lend you a fiver, or get a black man to walk like a human.

Ray Parlour wrote:Sounding a bit of a cliche now and I now people like Saints will add their opinions to this but if Eduardo hadn't gotten injured I do think we would have won the title.

You mean the player that hadn't scored in something like 10 games prior to getting injured?

Seriously, your season fell apart because your players couldn't take being beaten. When they lost 4-0 in the FA Cup they lost their self-belief, and Eduardo wouldn't have made any difference to that.

I'm not sure about that. You have stats to back that up?

Couldn't take getting beaten. We had already lost in the league, CL and got hammered by Spurs in the CC, each time we had responded. With regards to the united defeat we had to prioritise as injuries were mounting.

We were already mentally fragile and Eduardo's injury just distabilised the team.