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Big 4? now it's just the big 2; Steve Howard's weekly scouse bashing
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Topic Started: Dec 11 2009, 10:32 AM (118 Views)
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reebokmecca
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Dec 11 2009, 10:32 AM
Post #1
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Belief. Passion. England.
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THE blind faith with which Liverpool fans continue to support Rafa Benitez looks increasingly irrational.
It now smacks of stubbornness, two fingers up to the rest of the world and a blatant refusal to accept the inevitable. That Benitez's time on Merseyside is up (anywhere else, especially in his native Spain, he would have been sacked long ago). Most neutral observers who hadn't already arrived at this conclusion before Liverpool's tame display against Fiorentina on Wednesday have now done so. It was Liverpool's chance to go out of the Champions League with a bit of style. To show some fight and pride.
They failed.
Benitez greeted their exit with yet another defiant claim that Liverpool's season had just started.
It hadn't. It had just ended.
They will try and rev up Sunday's meeting with Arsenal at Anfield as a pivotal clash between two enduring members of the Big Four.
Except the Big Four has now become the Big Two.
Or the Big Three if Manchester City take advantage of a very generous fixture list between now and their visit to Anfield on February 20.
Benitez bangs on about Liverpool's leaking of late goals being the core reason for their failure to make the Champions League last 16. That's a cop-out and he knows it. It's as if it were some form of terrible bad luck rather than poor defending, a failure to concentrate for the full 90 minutes and, maybe, a lack of fitness.
And the fact they are not a very good team.
They have, after all, managed just two wins in their last nine games, three in their last 14. While a meagre seven points is their lowest tally in all the years they have been competing in the Champions League.
It was not as if they were in some sort of Group of Death.
That was Group F with Barcelona, Inter Milan, Russian champs Rubin Kazan and Dynamo Kiev.
Or Group C (Real Madrid, AC Milan and Marseille). Or Group A (Bordeaux, Bayern Munich and Juventus). Or even Group B (Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Wolfsburg and Besiktas).
No, Liverpool got Fiorentina, Lyon and Debrecen. And never managed to score more than one goal in any of their six matches. Not even against the hopeless Hungarians, who let in eight against Lyon and nine against Fiorentina.
Benitez has also moaned long and hard about Liverpool's injuries. Yet compared to United, Chelsea and Arsenal, they have almost had a clean bill of health. United's ability to win 3-1 at Wolfsburg with 13 players out is a particularly poor reflection on Benitez's squad-building at Anfield. As Liverpool laboured away again in the first half on Wednesday, the only time the Anfield crowd became animated was when Fernando Torres warmed up on the touchline. He got a standing ovation. But not even that sort of bowing and scraping will keep either him or Javier Mascherano at the club at the end of the season.
As for Alberto Aquilani's much-delayed first start, well, if you like careful placing of the ball either sideways or backwards then he's your man.
At £20million, probably not.
Meanwhile, much is being written about Sunday's opponents Arsenal, and the latest group of talented youngsters at the club. But they didn't do them much good against Manchester City and Olympiakos. No goals, four conceded and a number of good opportunities missed.
And how young ARE Arsenal exactly with a team that often includes Almunia(32), Sagna(26), Gallas(32), Eboue(26), Silvestre(32), Rosicky(29), Arshavin(28), Eduardo and Van Persie(both 26)?
All this talk about the kids is a bit of a smokescreen. An attempt to provide a Feelgood Factor for the future while covering up the inadequacies of the present.
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"Ashley Young didn't have time to play long balls when he was taking their left-back Gael Clichy to the cleaners." Martin O'Neill
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rollingstone
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Dec 11 2009, 12:24 PM
Post #2
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It's been a big two for a while now, and is only called the big 4 because the same 4 english clubs get into the CL every year. This should change next year if Tot/City get 4th, then the league will be seen as the big 2 + the standard 4
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Phil
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Dec 11 2009, 12:28 PM
Post #3
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There the big 2 this season, but last season they werent the top 2 were they
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AntMcfc
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Dec 11 2009, 12:55 PM
Post #4
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Good article, someone finally finding the truth.
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Vardy’s Mum
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Dec 11 2009, 02:10 PM
Post #5
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I'll tear your throat out
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Bollocks article by one of these cunts with a memory of a goldfish who was probably bumming Arsenal a couple of weeks back and Liverpool all of last season.
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Phil
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Dec 11 2009, 02:12 PM
Post #6
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- trigglebeef
- Dec 11 2009, 02:10 PM
Bollocks article by one of these cunts with a memory of a goldfish who was probably bumming Arsenal a couple of weeks back and Liverpool all of last season.
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reebokmecca
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Dec 11 2009, 02:18 PM
Post #7
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Belief. Passion. England.
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- trigglebeef
- Dec 11 2009, 02:10 PM
Bollocks article by one of these cunts with a memory of a goldfish who was probably bumming Arsenal a couple of weeks back and Liverpool all of last season. Steve Howard from The Sun. Gets on the bandwaggon quite a lot. Part about Arsenal was pretty inaccurate but i find it hard to argue the part about Liverpool.
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"Ashley Young didn't have time to play long balls when he was taking their left-back Gael Clichy to the cleaners." Martin O'Neill
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Stryke
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Dec 11 2009, 02:50 PM
Post #8
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If the ages of those players he mentioned are correct (and it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't considering how lazy so many journalists seem to be) are the rest of the team/squad significantly younger on average?
I'm curious to see what the average ages of the top teams are actually. But like the aforementioned journalists i'm too lazy to work it out for myself
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reebokmecca
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Dec 11 2009, 02:52 PM
Post #9
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Belief. Passion. England.
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- Stryke
- Dec 11 2009, 02:50 PM
If the ages of those players he mentioned are correct (and it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't considering how lazy so many journalists seem to be) are the rest of the team/squad significantly younger on average? I'm curious to see what the average ages of the top teams are actually. But like the aforementioned journalists i'm too lazy to work it out for myself i know Hull City have an average age of 27.48 years and Arsenal have the youngest at 22.06 years
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"Ashley Young didn't have time to play long balls when he was taking their left-back Gael Clichy to the cleaners." Martin O'Neill
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Stryke
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Dec 11 2009, 02:59 PM
Post #10
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- reebokmecca
- Dec 11 2009, 02:52 PM
- Stryke
- Dec 11 2009, 02:50 PM
If the ages of those players he mentioned are correct (and it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't considering how lazy so many journalists seem to be) are the rest of the team/squad significantly younger on average? I'm curious to see what the average ages of the top teams are actually. But like the aforementioned journalists i'm too lazy to work it out for myself
i know Hull City have an average age of 27.48 years and Arsenal have the youngest at 22.06 years thanks, wheres that info from mate?
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reebokmecca
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Dec 11 2009, 03:04 PM
Post #11
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Belief. Passion. England.
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- Stryke
- Dec 11 2009, 02:59 PM
- reebokmecca
- Dec 11 2009, 02:52 PM
- Stryke
- Dec 11 2009, 02:50 PM
If the ages of those players he mentioned are correct (and it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't considering how lazy so many journalists seem to be) are the rest of the team/squad significantly younger on average? I'm curious to see what the average ages of the top teams are actually. But like the aforementioned journalists i'm too lazy to work it out for myself
i know Hull City have an average age of 27.48 years and Arsenal have the youngest at 22.06 years
thanks, wheres that info from mate? my mate told me the Hull one and it just stuck for some reason. I typed it in to google just to check and he was bang on the money and then it also said Arsenal were the youngest. Although it's not telling me from which season and it was posted by an American so now i'm actually questioning it.
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"Ashley Young didn't have time to play long balls when he was taking their left-back Gael Clichy to the cleaners." Martin O'Neill
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