Will Rafa & the team be watching the 7-2 Masterclass?

[csirl]

Liverpool boot room hacked to pieces and replaced by Spanish speaking mercenaries.

Excellent underage players are thrown to the wind and don't get the chance. Players win Youth FA cups but hardly get a look in.

While the current regime has big faults, if the boot room was still there, Liverpool would probably be in League 1. Times have changed, coaching techniques have moved on. You wont stay in the Premiership with a bunch of local lads who came throught the youth set-up coached by a bunch of old style tea drinking boot room types.

Liverpool has 3 big problems as follows:

1. The system is wrong - need to revert to a 4-4-2. Too reliant on 1 striker at the point of attack. Striker is injured, has a bad day, marked well etc., game over - you get a draw or lose with the fans moaning about not being able to convert chances. Need to have 2 strikers up front.

2. The entire professional scouting staff need to be dismissed. The amount of money they have spent on rubbish players recommended by these people is criminal. People keep on pointing to Torres as justification for keeping these scouts, but one swallow doesnt make a summer. Too many busts.

3. Most importantly - ownership issues. Having two 50% owners who regularly disagree is the worst case scenario for a sports team. Disharmony amd instability at ownership level ALWAYS manifests itself on the field. Its amazing how teams can miraculously turn around their fortunes once an ownership issue is resolved.

 

[VOR]

While the current regime has big faults, if the boot room was still there, Liverpool would probably be in League 1. Times have changed, coaching techniques have moved on. You wont stay in the Premiership with a bunch of local lads who came throught the youth set-up coached by a bunch of old style tea drinking boot room types

I was not only speaking of local lads. I was thinking of players such as Dean Bouzanis & Danny Ayala who have played in the Youth Cup and have had only limited opportunities for the first team. Also, take Plessis and Pacheco in the reserves. Nemeth is another who springs to mind as a player with huge potential.

Insua was given the opportunity at the expense of Warnock. Poor decision in my book.

The boot room learned to develop and change during the 50s -90s. Who said it would not have done so again? Cleaning it out with the excpetion of Sammy Lee (God help us!) was crazy IMO. Even worse was bringing in the new management on mad contracts.

 

[csirl]

I was thinking of players such as Dean Bouzanis & Danny Ayala who have played in the Youth Cup and have had only limited opportunities for the first team.

You also have Spanish U21 player Mikael San Jose, on loan to Athletico Bilbao and regarded as one of the best young defenders (or defenders of any age) in the Spanish league this season.

Insua was given the opportunity at the expense of Warnock. Poor decision in my book.

To be honest, is there much difference between them? Both in contention to go to the World Cup as squad members. At the moment both would be regarded as "average" Premiership players, but in Insua's defence, he is younger and in his first year as a regular starter so there is the chance that he will improve over the next couple of seasons. Warnock is as good as he's ever going to be, so more upside with Insua.

 

[carpedeum]

As a United fan I was pleased they beat a weak Liverpool team while not playng well either. The work rates of Park, Fletcher and Rooney made the difference.

However, last night I watched Barca v Zaragoza live on Sky. Messi gave what I think was the best individual performance I have seen since George Best. He was unplayable, took his three goals brilliantly and his play leading to the penalty was dazzling - my eleven year old just leapt up laughing as he said "Messi is unstoppable. He is a genius. The defender had to foul him!". Messi then gave the penalty to Ibrahamovich - who was having a nightmare trying to score.

Why he is better than Maradona is his team ethic and the way he bounces back up when fouled. No prima donna diving, moodiness or gesticulating. Perfect roll model for kids. Like Rooney, you get the impression he woul play for nothing! He has scored 12 goals in his last five games and two hatricks in the past 8 days! He's still only 22!

Mark April 10 in the diary - Barca v Real at the Bernabeu.

We can add Messi to Pele, Best, Cruyff, Maradona.

 

[VOR]

We can add Messi to Pele, Best, Cruyff, Maradona.

I watched that match also and could not believe how good he was. Unplayable. That's the only word for it.

Last week he went down the right and cut inside. This week, as if for the hell of it, he roamed the park and took two of his goals down the inside left channel.