themanupstairs

If anyone can do a last minute ad hoc job for Spain at the World Cup it would be Rafa.

I wouldn't be mad at him if he went to the World Cup and returned to us in pre-season.

IMO he's worth to us half of what the club is worth (Rafa being the other half).

110M for Lascelles or seriously fuck off.

Rich man's Colback

Joe Allen is exactly this!

Too much focus on selecting players deemed versatile has ironically enough left the squad looking very unbalanced.

This is a superb post and sums it up perfectly. There's nothing there apart from Kane, Vardy and Sterling. Everything else is pish.

Gutted at the loss but overall proud of the campaign.

 

Our gameplan went out of the window with Salah. Madrid defenders placed themselves at least 20 feet in front and started controlling the game.

 

Karius - feel for him. But there is no way he should start for LFC next season.

 

Having said that, even if the above two incidents did not happen, I think Madrid would have found a way to win. They found a way to win at champions of France, Germany, and Italy. They have too much European nous, too much firepower in the bench. Their midfield was at a whole different level compared to ours.

Hard luck man. It was a brilliant campaign and run to the final but maybe not yet up there with the very best. The front 3 look incredible, now it's time to work on the rest behind them. Some promising transfers so it's all looking good.

On Ramos, find it weird people are discussing the Salah incident at length, but practically ignoring him elbowing Karius minutes before the first goal.

Probably because he was actually pushed by Van Dijk into Karius (took me a few replays to spot).

there's no way he's gonna actively try and dislocate someone's shoulder. It was the other shoulder anyway, not the locked one. This is getting blown out of proportion in such a ridiculous way.

Yup 100%. Ramos is a dickhead there's no doubt about that, but he didn't do much wrong in this incident. Unfortunate for the player and the team but that's about it.

Before offering my opinion (that no one in their right mind should care about), I'd like to say the following:

- I've hated Liverpool since the first 4-3. I was a bairn at the time and I took it to heart how much they (and their fans) celebrated taking the title away from us.

- I've pretty much hated every edition of Liverpool apart from Rafa's (honest) and sort of kind of this lot.

- The current Liverpool side are quite fantastic going forward, and quite mediocre in midfield, defence and at GK. Despite that I'll not take anything away from their somewhat successful season.

- Sergio Ramos is a quality defender but an absolute prick.

Now to be honest, I was in two minds about Liverpool winning last night. Most of my good friends are Liverpool supporters and I wanted them to enjoy it, but on the other hand the wife is hardcore Real so there was only one winner in the end.

Liverpool, despite blowing some sides away in the competition this year, were a bit lucky to get to this final in the first place IMO. The return games against City and Roma to be exact. Certain decisions went their way at key moments that could've halted their run had the refereeing been better/different. Real were also lucky to scrape past Bayern and Juve in their second legs.

Onto the game, we were all expecting a glorious goal fest which didn't really materialize. Real looked quite nervous at the start and rightly so as the favorites facing one of the most dangerous forward lines (and this year's best player). The injury to Salah was purely accidental IMO. Ramos had no qualms about stay touch tight to him but the incident itself wasn't malicious at all. He actually releases the arm as they both start to tumble (could have hurt himself as well). The incident on Karius is debatable because Ramos is clearly pushed by Van Dijk first before he's anywhere near the GK.

There wasn't much good football played. Real created more chances, and defended well across all their lines. Liverpool were very good in defence and quite ordinary in midfield and attack. Karius obviously had his worst footballing nightmares all come true in one match. Not sure how psychologically strong he is but that might be him finished at the top level of the game.

One thing I wasn't surprised by at all was that without Salah, Liverpool had no gameplan apart from the high press. Apart from the goal and A. Arnold's early chance, they barely threatened the goal. Firmino and Lallana barely touched the ball. Henderson passed sideways and into nonthreatening positions as he only knows how. Wijnaldum tried to make a dribble or two but, like Liverpool's midfield, looked a step below in quality compared to Casemiro, Kroos and Modric (none of whom had a particularly good game).

All in all, I quite enjoyed that. From Liverpool's perspective the events were tragic but they didn't lose because of any Ramos/refereeing malice as most of them are crying about this morning. Maybe Klopp will finally decide to be ruthless and address his glaring goalkeeping problems. He also has to add to Keita in midfield. I wonder if anyone will come in for Salah this summer. For their (and football's) sake, I hope not.

It'll be Roberto Di Matteo or Avram Grant.

Livermore on the standby list.  Must be Southgate's beak supplier.

Well we know that he would drop whatever he was doing and join the squad if called upon. Jake is reliable that way.

I think not taking Shelvey or Wilshere is a huge mistake. I'd disagree if he took Wilshere over Shelvey but at least one creative influence in the middle would have been a sensible option. From a biased fan point of view i'd have Lascelles in over pretty much all of those centre backs but their really isn't much of a logical debate not to take Shelvey. Him and Vardy would have been an incredible combination and there's absolutely no one in the middle of that pitch that's going to be able to break down an organised team.

 

I think what's most worrying is how it was leaked Shelvey wasn't even in consideration. Surely there's something a miss when he's dominated games against top teams and isn't even being considered never mind picked.

 

Pleased to see Pope, Alexander-Arnold and Loftus-Cheek being included though.

They'll probably play a combined total of 3 minutes and that'll be it.

Lallana and Welbeck

Midfield and defence are pitiful. No experience at GK. Won't get past the second round.

He's like a massive blanket that smothers anything and anyone that goes near him. Absolute supremacy out there in midfield today.

Great result and it sounds like a quality performance, albeit against a shocking Chelsea side.

 

Forget them, we were brilliant.

Oh yes we were. Could have been 3 or 4 up at HT were it not for Courtois.

He will re-sign before the month is out.

 

Papers will be gutted. Mackems will be devastated.

 

Most important hyphen in forum history.

The annoying thing if he does go is some PFM wanker will get a chunk of cash to  spend.

 

Doesn't matter to me because if Rafa leaves, I'm officially out and not bothered anymore. Might even be a nice feeling moving on with my life without this constant shit fest

It depends on how and why he leaves, but aye. Totally my sentiment as well.

You know we want Alan to stay at the club for a very long time, but who knows what will happen?

 

If Real Madrid want Alan Pardew then I’m sure we wouldn’t stand in his way.

 

You know, everyone wants to get to the best point they can in their career, but at the moment I know Alan’s very happy here and he’s not thinking about anything else other than being here, we’re not thinking about anything else than him being here, and if something comes up because we’re very successful then what can we do about it?

 

We’d have to cross that bridge at the time.

Imagine sitting in your mam's kitchen, half-drunk warm pint in hand, staring out the window thinking about nothing else other than Pardew being there

I remain baffled as to why Chris Coleman thought that Sunderland was a good career choice

Because he's thick as pigshit. He's a League 1 manager anyway so they might as well stick with him.

Took me a good half hour to realise they were officially down until I checked who Bolton played next. This is just fantastic

Second half today he looked like the best holding midfielder in Europe. Sensational form since West Ham away. Rafa will know if he can produce the same next season or not. Wouldn't be surprised if he was sold in summer with his stock high. Maybe we can recoup at least half of the 28M we paid for him.

This keeps getting better and better! Every week I expect them to start pulling up the table, but nope...

Glorious

Shelvey;

 

 

“Rafa is very tactical.

 

“He’s a very detailed coach, yesterday he kept the four midfielders after training to do a passing thing where you’re looking over your shoulder to see if the opponent is coming.

 

“It was weird, he was using bibs up in the air and you had to shout out the colour of the bibs. It was something I’d never done before but you can tell it’s paying off.

 

“He pushes us every day. He’s always on to us in training about stepping up a gear, and you’d think being on 38 points it would come down a notch, but the tackles are still flying in and everyone still wants to win, which is good.

 

“I think he has been good for my career. He’s made me understand the game a lot better, and tactically. I owe that to him.”

He's looking to improve peripheral vision for our midfielders to give them more space and time on the ball. Brilliant stuff as he just gets better and better.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5613665/Newcastle-boss-Benitez-anxious-Chelsea-loanee-Kenedy-priced-permanent-move.html

 

Kenedy has been linked with Bayern Munich this week, and Benitez said: 'He has the the level to play in a top team, yes. But he is in a top side already! If we can get two or three with experience or more quality, he will be even better.'

That is incredible from Rafa. He knows we aren't Bayern but also knows the massive potential of what he's involved in.

Gone by Christmas/February/Easter of last year. Rancid football, tells our players to sit back. Sick of him now.

Once we are mathematically safe, can we put a dunce avatar on a few of the telling-it-how-it-is posters?

We'll never get to see the avatars in action because they've all gone eerily quiet for some unbeknownst reason?

Oh the reason is beknownst alright

Think he rotates a lot in the mid season so he can play the strongest side down the backend. 

 

Someone like Ayozr Who has been fit pretty much all season has only started 21 or so games.  Only handful have started 25 or more games. Lascelles, Yedlin and Ritchie. Shelvey and Diamé have both started less than 20 PL games so far.

Yup