KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Are we just a Cup team?

To answer the original question, based on this season, the answer would be a clear 'yes'. Our record in the cups couldn't be any better, and let's be honest, our record in the league could hardly (realistically) be any worse (although it was under Hodgson).

Hodgson aside, our previous two managers, Benitez and Houllier both built reasonable league success (when I say "reasonable success" I mean, they improved gradually, leading to title charges and finishing as runners-up, before declining) on the back of success in the cups. Houllier won the cup treble, with that season pushing on for Champion's League qualification for the first time. We improved in the league then, until his final season before departure. Similarly with Rafa, we won the Champion's League in his first season, and also got to the Carling Cup Final (which is often forgotten), losing to Chelsea after extra time. We followed that up with the FA Cup win the following year, and continued to improve and get closer in the league, finishing as runners-up before a disappointing season, which was to be his last.

We don't know what next season is going to hold, and we all know that this season in the league has been nowhere near good enough, but success in the cups is better than no success, and it could provide a foundation on which to build success in the league.

I don't know if Kenny will be the man to attempt that next season or not. If he is, he'll have my full backing, if he's not, his replacement will have my full backing. If Kenny is to be given another season, I think most would agree that 4th spot will be an absolute minimum for next season.

The trouble is, that was his target THIS season. What if he wins another domestic pot next year? would you give him another year and overlook what he has been tasked to achieve?

Absolutely not. At the start of this season, as far as I'm concerned, top 4 was the aim - that's not to say that I thought failure to achieve 4th would automatically warrant the sack. If we don't achieve that by the end of next season though, 2 and a half seasons will have passed, which I don't think anybody could argue is good enough without reaching that top 4 milestone. Cup or no cup.

I hear what your saying about 2 and a half seasons we should know and failure to reach the top four but what after one and a half seasons which we are at now and you can see we have'nt improved, we are not going forward, we are falliing nearly 15 points behind a Club like Newcastle United also behind Everton, further away from top four than ever before and no real plan about how we are going to be any better next season, surely that has to be grounds for a sacking given the obscene amount of money he has wasted...

Does anybody else think that the FA Cup has been devalued over the years or is it just me getting older and more cynical?

There was a time when the FA Cup final was shown on ITV and BBC and was the only live football you would see each season apart from Home Internationals. Back then the build up would start at 11 in the morning and each channel had a line up of special features that would keep us glued to the box for the 4 hours up to kick off.

Now that live games are 10 a penny the FA does not give a toss about its own cup as the Premier League is way way in front in terms of popularity and now is in danger of overtaking the Cup in terms of history.

They scrapped replays, let Man U opt out of it one year, allowed other top flight games to be played on the same day and now they have changed the kick off time to 1715.

Give it another 20 years and they will have moved it to a Thursday afternoon in October, play it in another country and have the result of a draw at 90 minutes settled on the views of Roy Keane and Denis Smith.

the time your refering to was back in the 80's and before the kids had xbox or poker was the in thing.

Football has a set time to capture it biggest audience, hence the 5:15pm kick off

All trophies are good to win KP, I would rate it above the league cup. But yes it has been incredibly diluted in terms of value. The top sides don't even play their best teams until they are in semis cause they think they'll win it. And even then if they have league or champs to think about immediately after they often don't. It was still pretty big when rafa first came. But the last few years, it has meant less and less and less in my opinion.

it is the cup you think about at the start of season as important if you are not in europe or cannot see yourself make top 6

People should quit complaining - could b e a no cup team like everton...

I suppose it's a case of whether you see the glass as being half full or half empty.