rgk_lfc

Give him some time. He is a quality player, and this is a Liverpool fan speaking. He doesn't have any outstanding attributes but has a number of attributes at a good to a very good level. There will always be space for a player like him in a CL squad. He may not be in the starting eleven of a fully fit and fresh Newcastle squad but through the season when injuries mount, a player like him is valuable. Everton over the last two years has not been an ideal environment for a youngster to develop with a revolving door of coaches and managers. Howe is also the first counterpressing coach he is under. He will be fine in the long run.

Not as much as Tierney. Hooper, I remember only two or three games. Tierney is definitely way more than 5. See, that itself says something. I remember the referees.

Thank you. Tierney might very well be the worst of the lot. Again, I repeat, I don't think he is biased against Liverpool. He is just poor at the basics of refereeing due to the reasons you mentioned. I am betting in three years' time, fans of every club in the PL will have a long list of grievances against him. The FA and PL will protect him to the end. And when it is totally unbearable for him to set foot in any football ground in the country, promote him to becoming the head of the referees association or Director of VAR.

I grew up in India in the 80s and 90s. Every overseas cricket tour, whether it is Australia, England, Pakistan, or Sharjah was accompanied by weeks of complaining about dogawful officiating. I am betting it was the same for fans of those countries when they toured India. Nowadays, there is hardly a discussion on that aspect. Because the trust in the refereeing process has increased so much. Say what you want about ICC, but umpiring is something they have improved brilliantly. And if you thought Newcastle and Liverpool fans were rabid, passionate, and biased - I invite you to visit the subcontinent during a cricket game . ICC are no saints, but they have no issues bringing transparency to the game. With the FA and PL, the feeling I am getting is they don't like criticisms, and as you rightly point out, don't want accountability for their actions. Coming back to the discussion, I am not that neutral or level-headed in this matter. Obviously, my views will be different from yours on specific incidents, biases, etc. But I have no qualms in saying that we will finish outside of the CL places because that is where we deserve to be, irrespective of what I think about the officiating. Having said that, I strongly believe, once we fix our midfield, we will be right in the mix competing for the three CL places next season with Chelsea, Man United, Newcastle, Arsenal, and potentially Spurs and Villa. I say three because City will obviously take one.

I am not the most neutral observer on these matters, mate. I try to stay away from such discussions and butt in the football forum only when I can add insights without annoying a decent number of you . I am betting if Villa was the threat to your CL place and we were in 10th position, quite a few of you would be annoyed at the offside goal and red card not given to Mings. I can honestly say one thing, Tierney is a horrible referee. I don't think he is biased like most LFC fans. He is incompetent. And the PL and FA would rather cover it up than work on such referees to improve them. Outside of football, I follow cricket and admire how they have adopted technology more sensibly to improve the standard of refereeing. Football is a more fluid game with too many things happening outside of the referee's field of vision, I get that. But I am wondering why somehow the premier league's adoption of technology gives me the impression that things have not improved. Again my perception only which could be a result of my inbuilt bias. It may be because I watched the world cup as a neutral or it could be the slower pace of the game helping the referees, but overall I was happy about the refereeing there. Sensible decisions were made. Why the PL cannot do it is a mystery to me.

Ownership matters a lot. For Southampton, all the foundations of their impressive way of doing things were done by Nicola Cortese under the ownership of Markus Liebherr. Unfortunately, Liebherr passed away in 2010 and his daughter took over the club reluctantly. His daughter continued the tradition but did not have the same vision or commitment as her dad. So while Southampton was impressive from 2010 onwards, behind the scenes, people started to leave culminating in Cortese leaving around 2014. After that Poch left and it has been a gentle way down culminating in this season. Unless Tony Bloom sells, I believe Brighton will be fine. He seems really committed to their way of doing things. Yes, they might get one or two transfers wrong and in the process might get relegated. But I think in 10 years' time, they will be established as a top-level club unless Bloom sells or loses interest.

Kelleher's contract is not up. He is too good to be backup and needs regular game time. I will be surprised if we will sell Gomez. English, still young, lost his way a bit but a lot to work with there. Unless we are buying another defender which I doubt given our main focus will be on midfield.

Difficult to root against a Carlo Ancellotti team

Yup. That is like deserves multiple punches from Mane bad performance.

Ancelotti is a freaking don, isn't he. Man management plus tactics plus no unnecessary shenanigans or fights or no preaching any footballing philosophy. Also credit to Sobhani for even asking that question.

We wont finish fourth. We are way too inconsistent game to game and within games. In the Arsenal game, the Xhaka tackle woke us up and we played brilliantly after that. In the Leeds game, we were not that great in the first 30 minutes till we got a lucky break for the first goal. When we are in the zone, we are capable of blowing teams away as we have shown in spurts this season. But we have not been able to maintain that level and I don't see any reason for that to change. Regarding TAA, Klopp has deployed him as a hybrid RB, midfielder in the last two games with Robertson, VVD, and Konate acting as 3 central defenders. Pep developed this tactic earlier this season I believe. Sample size is low but TAA has been very good in this role. Check out most of his positioning in this video against Arsenal. Irrespective of where we finish this season, I feel confident of us being in the mix for CL qualification next season after some of our performances in the second half of the season. Fix our midfield over the summer, better luck with injuries to key players like Jota and Diaz, and we should be competing for the top four again.

Alan Pardew has been brushing up on his Spanish as West Ham prepare for their first big European jaunt for seven years. And in a bid to make new Argentinian signings Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez feel at home, Pardew has set his staff a Spanish test for the end of this week. 'I have been speaking Spanish this week,' Pardew revealed proudly. 'It all went down well with the lads and all the staff have a little test on a few football terms!' https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/pardew-sets-spanish-test-2313362

Well, Pardew claimed he did as he "helped" Mascherano and Tevez settle in London through his knowledge of Spanish. The fact that they couldn't wait to get away from him, suggests otherwise, or at least he was as bad at Spanish communication as at English.

One very basic thing we can look for is how many of the PFM's are multi-lingual. Because language and communication are key to managing a diverse squad. I know their stock is low, but Rodgers can speak fluently in Spanish, French, and English. Potter can speak multiple European languages. I can't talk about Howe, but given his obsession with Spanish football tactics and training methods, I would be surprised if he cannot speak Spanish at a basic. Not surprised the most progressive British coaches are multi-lingual. Most of the great European coaches can speak around four languages. I know there are some advantages as some of the mainland languages are related and easier to pick up if you know one. But still. For example, Pep and Xabi Alonso can speak Spanish, Italian, German, and English. And they put effort into being fluent in German before they went to Germany. Alonso was answering questions in English at 21 at press conferences which he picked up in a month or two. What does it have to do with football coaching? It indicates how much they value the communication of ideas and how much effort they are willing to put in. In comparison, most of the PFMs can barely speak English. If you take a college-level English essay assignment and hand it to several managers, I am sure Mourinho, Rafa, and Ancelotti will turn in a significantly more articulate English essay than Gerrard and Lampard. I bet "Good ebening" Emery turns in a better essay than PFMs. I know some of you will retort by saying that Pardew can speak Spanish. But I am sure he is as obnoxious in Spanish as in English.

It is all relative, isn't it? After they failed at their first job, Rafa and Pako spent their money traveling economy to various clubs in Europe to learn more about coaching and tactics. They spent quite a bit of time arranging cones at AC Milan to absorb the knowledge of training sessions from Arrigo Sacchi. They spent time at Ajax and Feyenoord to understand their youth training philosophy. I believe Howe and his team spent time in Madrid to learn more about tactics at Atletico. I may be wrong but he spent time in the Netherlands too. After quitting Dortmund, Klopp's "break" was in Portugal (Porto, Benfica, and other smaller clubs), absorbing their football culture and approach to youth development. Before taking up the Barca job, Pep traveled to Argentina to meet with Bielsa to discuss tactics, refine his thoughts, etc. Rafa started coaching his daughter's Under 8 football team when he was fired from Inter. It became an issue as parents and other coaches started complaining, and he was asked to step aside. Yes, Gerrard and Lampard work hard. I don't think they have the managerial acumen at the highest level, but I also don't think they have the humility and commitment to the craft which is needed to be successful at the highest level. There are different layers of working hard which I highly doubt they have. There is a huge chasm between working harder than us and spending every waking minute obsessing about how to improve by 0.0001%. I would be dazed if Gerrard or Lampard spent their time away from management working alongside coaches in AZ Alkmaar or Rotterdam, learning more about fitness management, attacking patterns, etc.

This is the part I don't like about him. The folks he surrounds himself with, like Owen Brown, aren't exactly the most distinguished scouts. Rafa's record is good, but you can't beat specialized folks running the footballing side of things. As much as I respect the guy, I don't want to go back to the one person who controls everything model. The way most clubs operate nowadays with Ashworth, Edwards, and their type being in charge of transfers, scouting, and having youth setup independent of the manager makes a lot of sense. It took us three to four years after he left to wean ourselves of his legacy and move in a different direction, as he practically had control of everything. When Klopp, Howe, or Pep leave, the disruption to other aspects of the club will be minimal.

Love Rafa the manager and respect Rafa the person even more. But this is an important aspect that is going to deny him jobs. Everywhere he goes he demands 100% control. Even if signs the contract to a club with a DOF, within six months it becomes either back him or back me. And more than often, this gets played out in the press, and one of them has to leave. This happens almost everywhere he goes including Everton. I am betting this is an important reason why someone like Marsch is getting more interviews than him.

He is physically done. He is getting injuries constantly, and his pressing and running stats are significantly lower than in previous seasons. A unique player in his prime, but any premier league club taking him on is a considerable risk.

I was not being critical of you or your fanbase for being nervous when Howe was hired. Even though his Bournemouth body of work was phenomenal, it is only natural that there will be trepidations when he is being linked to the most important job for the club you love. My comment on opinion on Howe being lukewarm on here at best was way before he was being linked to your job and you had Steve Bruce. Again, not a criticism but more of an evidence of how managers successes are viewed by other fanbases and ownership. Which is fair enough, as we don't know the context under which Howe achieved his success at Bournemouth which is more important than the points he got or did not get. Maybe wilderness was the wrong choice of words, but given his body of work, he deserved a chance at an upper tier premier league club which he was not getting. Of course, he would have gotten a job at lower level PL clubs or Scottish league. A lot of it is timing. Michael Edwards had Howe top on his list to replace Klopp, by the way. If you had not taken a chance on him and credit to your management for doing so, there is a good chance that Howe would be below Gerrard, Lampard and couple of random foreign managers in the upper tier PL job list. Folks like Howe and Potter don't have the old boys ex-players network or reputation to propel them. They also dont have clubs like Valencia, Sevilla, RB, Dortmund, etc which provide a good platform for managers to put themselves in the shopping window. So I don't blame Potter one bit for taking the chance, however poisoned the chalice might be.

I think Potter is quality. I wouldn't be surprised if we take a look at him post-Klopp if he is still available. Plenty of great managers including Rafa and Klopp and others have relegation on their CVs. I would not be surprised if he bounces back given the right setting. I can see Potter doing well at places like the RB franchises, Dortmund, etc.

The reputation of a manager in football is very volatile. It only takes one wrong transfer or a couple of injuries to key players for a club like Brighton to slide, and immediately the envious looks from some of the more established clubs disappear. As much of a basket case Chelsea are, I don't blame him for accepting the job. Look at Eddie Howe. I posted here the summer before you were taken over that Eddie's achievements at Bournemouth is one of English football's great stories. There was not a lot of enthusiasm toward him at that time on here. I don't know the details of your managerial search, but my impression is that if Unai Emery had shown a strong interest in the Newcastle job, there is a good job Eddie Howe might still be in the managerial wilderness. Correct me if I am wrong.

Some interesting developments at LFC. FSG had put the club for sale earlier this season. When the original club was up for sale was announced, our CEO Mike Gordon announced his departure. Members of our background team had also indicated they wanted to leave. John Henry has backtracked and said they are now only looking for minor investment partners. All of a sudden, Mike Gordon announced his return. Gordon, Edwards, and Klopp were the original transfer committee trifecta. Now the rumors are most of our analytics and scouting team will remain. Our DOF, Julian Ward, will leave after this summer transfer window. We are looking for a new DOF. Some unconfirmed rumors of Michael Edwards returning. Strong links in the media to Markus Krosche, current DOF of E. Frankfurt and former Leipzig sporting director. A lot of positive news and rumors about our background setup this week.

Agreed. Milner is another example. My only minor counterpoint is that the demands on JWP under Howe's counter-pressing system will be higher than those on Speed and Lee. JWP has consistently covered the highest distance in the premier league in the last few years. So the miles on his body has been way higher than other players.

He is a very good footballer who is underrated due to his setpiece and loyalty to Southampton. Since 2014-2015, he has missed only 11 games due to injury. I think he has played every minute of Southampton's PL games for four seasons or something like that. While that is massively impressive, players like that often deteriorate rapidly once they hit their late 20s or early 30s. There is that risk with JWP due to the mileage. We are facing the same with Fabinho this season.

I am fairly confident they will try and get Poch back. I also read some reports that Simeone is stepping down at the end of the season and Luis Enrique and Poch are the top of the list at Atletico Madrid. Again these are from random reports.