The Liverpool Thread

[Guest]

The champions league is flawed in the fact it allows teams to be considered European Champions when they might not have won a title in there own league.  I'd still prefer old european cup knockout system but would never ever be allowed again.

 

Problem with that is, the UEFA Cup would then become the stronger competition because while Man U, Barca, Milan, etc. played in the Champions League, Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Valencia, Inter, Roma, etc. would be in the UEFA.

[midds]

Liverpool weren't even the best team in Liverpool when they won the fucking thing.

[Dave]

I was thinking the other night whether it would be a reasonable idea to prevent teams who qualified for Europe from entering the League Cup. Would free up a bit of the schedule, increase the chances of smaller clubs winning it (and getting into the UEFA Cup and progressing from there) and reduce the number of virtual reserve teams taking part.

 

Thoughts?

[Guest]

Liverpool weren't even the best team in Liverpool when they on the f***ing thing.

 

Football must have taken a gap-year that 12 month period for Greece & Liverpool to hold the continental titles. Definitely a freak period.

[Guest]

I was thinking the other night whether it would be a reasonable idea to prevent teams who qualified for Europe from entering the League Cup. Would free up a bit of the schedule, increase the chances of smaller clubs winning it (and getting into the UEFA Cup and progressing from there) and reduce the number of virtual reserve teams taking part.

 

Thoughts?

 

I like the idea, but would take a bit of the prestige away if we won it with no big clubs in it.

[Dave]

I was thinking the other night whether it would be a reasonable idea to prevent teams who qualified for Europe from entering the League Cup. Would free up a bit of the schedule, increase the chances of smaller clubs winning it (and getting into the UEFA Cup and progressing from there) and reduce the number of virtual reserve teams taking part.

 

Thoughts?

 

I like the idea, but would take a bit of the prestige away if we won it with no big clubs in it.

 

They generally treat it with disdain anyway though, and hardly anyone describes it as prestigious now.

 

Also, it could have a positive effect on the FA Cup as the only domestic cup they'd be in.

[Parky]

I was thinking the other night whether it would be a reasonable idea to prevent teams who qualified for Europe from entering the League Cup. Would free up a bit of the schedule, increase the chances of smaller clubs winning it (and getting into the UEFA Cup and progressing from there) and reduce the number of virtual reserve teams taking part.

 

Thoughts?

 

Totally agree. Often mulled that.

[Guest neesy111]

I was thinking the other night whether it would be a reasonable idea to prevent teams who qualified for Europe from entering the League Cup. Would free up a bit of the schedule, increase the chances of smaller clubs winning it (and getting into the UEFA Cup and progressing from there) and reduce the number of virtual reserve teams taking part.

 

Thoughts?

 

I like the idea, but would take a bit of the prestige away if we won it with no big clubs in it.

 

That is my concern.  Could you then class it as a major trophy then ala Anglo-Italian cup.

[Guest]

I was thinking the other night whether it would be a reasonable idea to prevent teams who qualified for Europe from entering the League Cup. Would free up a bit of the schedule, increase the chances of smaller clubs winning it (and getting into the UEFA Cup and progressing from there) and reduce the number of virtual reserve teams taking part.

 

Thoughts?

 

I like the idea, but would take a bit of the prestige away if we won it with no big clubs in it.

 

They generally treat it with disdain anyway though, and hardly anyone describes it as prestigious now.

 

Also, it could have a positive effect on the FA Cup as the only domestic cup they'd be in.

 

The FA Cup is generally still won by one of the top 4 clubs though apart from the occasional year anyway, and the Carling Cup is increasing in importance as well over the past 5 years. Birmingham beat 2 sides who'd qualified for Europe on the way to winning it this season, might as well just leave it. I'm sure if we'd played a full strength side against Arsenal we'd have stood a chance of winning so our own choice that we didn't get through.

[Ronaldo]

The Carling Cup is there to be won for clubs like ours. We just haven't been good enough or brave enought to make a decent fist of it in recent years. It's mostly down to management.

[BlueStar]

I was thinking the other night whether it would be a reasonable idea to prevent teams who qualified for Europe from entering the League Cup. Would free up a bit of the schedule, increase the chances of smaller clubs winning it (and getting into the UEFA Cup and progressing from there) and reduce the number of virtual reserve teams taking part.

 

Thoughts?

 

Would that mean that the winners of the competition wouldn't be allowed to defend it the following season?

[Guest neesy111]

The Carling Cup is there to be won for clubs like ours. We just haven't been good enough or brave enought to make a decent fist of it in recent years. It's mostly down to management.

 

Tbf, quite a few on here didn't even want us to have a go of it in both cups.  Which is totally wrong imo.

[Dave]

I was thinking the other night whether it would be a reasonable idea to prevent teams who qualified for Europe from entering the League Cup. Would free up a bit of the schedule, increase the chances of smaller clubs winning it (and getting into the UEFA Cup and progressing from there) and reduce the number of virtual reserve teams taking part.

 

Thoughts?

 

Would that mean that the winners of the competition wouldn't be allowed to defend it the following season?

 

Suppose so. Variety FTW.

[Colocho]

The Carling Cup is there to be won for clubs like ours. We just haven't been good enough or brave enought to make a decent fist of it in recent years. It's mostly down to management.

 

Tbf, quite a few on here didn't even want us to have a go of it in both cups.  Which is totally wrong imo.

 

Totally wrong? As a newly-promoted side our priority is staying up.

 

Next season however, we should try and win it.

[biggs]

Getting back to the thread in question and I think it's the only time I want sunderland to win a match this season tbh.

[wacko]

VI, come sort Wacko out will you?

 

And you're probably the weakest team to win that competition since it became the Champions League. How a side with Dudek, Riise, Traore, Finnan, Smicer, Kewell, Baros, Pongolle, etc. won that is ridiculous.

 

Which makes the achievement even greater.

 

If the sides we beat were so much "better", why didn't they beat us?

 

Were you disgusted that Porto and Monaco beat Real and Man Utd to reach the 2004 final, or just in 2005 because it was Liverpool?

 

The champions league is flawed in the fact it allows teams to be considered European Champions when they might not have won a title in there own league.  I'd still prefer old european cup knockout system but would never ever be allowed again.

 

Because everyone would rather watch Total Network Solutions and Young Boys Bern than Real Madrid and Arsenal.

 

Fair enough if you think the CL/EC should only be for league champions, but let's not pretend the current format doesn't contain much better sides than the old one.

[Parky]

Who are Braga anyway? 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

We got pretty fair in the Champions League with a lot of average players too, TBF.

[Beren]

To those suggesting we "had a go" at the cups this season - you did see the fit players remaining on the pitch at the end of the Everton game, right??

 

The only mistake we did make in the cups was trying to salvage something against Stevenage by throwing Tiote on as a sub and losing Tiote for the next three games.

[JH]

To those suggesting we "had a go" at the cups this season - you did see the fit players remaining on the pitch at the end of the Everton game, right??

 

The only mistake we did make in the cups was trying to salvage something against Stevenage by throwing Tiote on as a sub and losing Tiote for the next three games.

 

It was bad. And so it probably couldn't have been any worse if we'd given it a go in the cups - what's your point?

[Neil]

Not this again.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Dalglish didn't really buy success at Blackburn because at that time all the clubs around them during that era (i.e. the ones challenging) like ourselves, man Utd, Liverpool etc were all spending similar ammounts. I remember reading a few years back how Jack Walker wasn't really a sugar daddy as such. More like Sky were - to most clubs. That and fans spending more and more money on their respective clubs. He won the title on merit and didn't buy it as such because he was just spending similar to what their then rivals were spending. What he did was assemble a very strong well ballance side throughout with Flowers, Hendry, Batty and Shearer a title winning spine equiverlent to your Cech, Terry, Essien and Drogba spine that won the title last season.

 

Only Chelsea lately and possibly Man City in the future if they win anything have or will buy success.

 

I remember when we were buying Barton for a world record fee for a defender and Shearer and the media saying how we were not only being bankrolled by a sugar daddy in Sir John Hall but also trying to buy success yet those players were bought from money generated by the club through us lot and TV money and we weren't even the top spenders back then, Man Utd were and later on Chelsea under Vialli. Boro once spent more than us. When we won the first division titlle back in '93 I think West Ham and Derby spend more than we did.

 

Back in those days all top-flight clubs were spending fortunes as were many first dividison clubs. Birmingham spent 1.5m on Ricky Otto for fuck sake (IIRC)

[Guest Howaythetoon]

By the way that's why I would never begrudge Man Utd their success because they do it via the funds the club generates from TV and its fans. In many ways they are a model club, one Chelsea and Man City could only ever dream of becoming. Clubs like those need to be bankrolled to achieve long-term sustainable success because in reality they are not truly big clubs. We are neither but we have the potential to be.

[wacko]

We got pretty fair in the Champions League with a lot of average players too, TBF.

 

It's do-able if you're organised and concentrating on the CL. What a lot of people fail to consider is that the strongest teams are usually fighting on two fronts: league and CL. It's a rare and special side that can compete seriously in both, especially when nominally lesser teams are concentrating 100% on the CL. More often than not, league leaders that reach the CL final are walking their domestic league and can afford to rest players and devote more time to CL preparation.

 

Saying that the 2005 Liverpool side was shit because we were so far behind Chelsea in the league is to totally miss that very important point. We were only aiming for 4th place in the league so we could concentrate resources on the CL. Milan were playing exactly the same game.

 

When we played Chelsea in the 2005 semis, they were 30-odd points ahead in the league but knackered and injury-hit from their balls-out league push, while we were at full strength and fitness, but had sacrificed league points to concentrate on the CL.

[Wullie]

We've had a shitty attitude to cup competitions for a long time, from top to bottom. Weak sides, sub-par performances, fans only too happy to see us binned out to "concentrate" on another fruitless league campaign.