KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum The truth is hard to swallow!

Hi guys,
I am not starting this thread as a wind up but because I feel it is a topic that could be interesting and well debated. Please do not sling insults at one another as i would not like this thread locked.

We are slowly slipping, with every season we are finding ourselves lower and lower on the league table and we are accepting it as fans with the excuse that it takes time to build a team eetc etc. However, as City and Chelsea have proven recently, it doesn't take that much time when you have a decent manager and proper funding. I don't agree with the way these clubs are run but that is how the game is nowadays and what is necessary to compete at top level.

Not only have they won the league recently but are constantly in the top 4 spots and constantly playing CL football, which is what we are striving towards. These excuses we are being fed via the LFC press office and owners that we are building a young, new team and that we have our own philosophy are rubbish. We are doing this because we are financially constrained to doing it. If they had the money to spend, they would and if we had a top class manager we would also perform.

If you look at Inter as an example, before Mourinho they did regularly compete in Serie A but in Europe they were nowhere. Inter was known as a side that would pass the group stage and then drop out right afterwards. With a top class manager they managed to win it! Secondly, look at Porto, again a side without huge finances, but with a great manager when Mourinho was in charge, they managed to win the CL too! So the impact a great manager has is undeniable.

Mourinho did not spend more than 3 years as manager of any one club, he was a Porto for 2, at Inter for 2 and at Chelski for 3 years...and manaed to win the CL with 2 of those clubs and league titles with all 3. That is what a great manager does,he didn't need time to build his team or install his philosophy! He looked at who he had, added 2 or 3 players and made his team play to their qualities!

BR is doing the oppposite, instead of having the team play to their strengths, he is changing the way they play, and of course, we are suffering as a result. If he wants to change the way the team play, that's fine but then he has to do that over a period of 6-7 years, bringing in 1 or 2 new players each season and slowly shifting emphasis. However BR has come in and said: "Right, we are changing things as of this moment" and of course the team will underperform then as players get used to the new system. This is where I have a problem, he is sacrificing results for a change of playing style instead of balancing results and a shift in style. In football, results are all that matters and BR's lack of understanding for that fact often has me fuming. I see no point in us playing pretty football if we don't get the results and the fact is that we are not getting them.

I do understand that he believes this style will bring success in the future but he must then find a way to balance between success at the moment and success in the future and very slowly bring in a new playing style. WHat he must not do is exactly what he has done, come in like the Lone Ranger and start dictating that as of tomoorow we play a different style.

It has left us hoping that we make the Europa league next season!

To be fair on Buck, he hasn't had the squads that any of Jose's teams have had, and he really hasn't had any proper time with a decent scouting set up to make his mark. His buys haven't been to bad at all, but he needs to be given the chance to make his own team a bit more.

I don't think that the Porto squad or the Inter squad that Jose had were that much stronger than the squad we had when BR came in. I know that Inter had a few big names but they were all pretty old players but he did manage to build his team to play to Diego Milito's strengths which made all the difference.

As far as the Porto squad he had:
GK Vítor Baía
RB 22 Paulo Ferreira
CB 2 Jorge Costa (c)
CB 4 Ricardo Carvalho
LB 8 Nuno Valente
DM 6 Costinha
RM 23 Pedro Mendes
LM 18 Maniche
AM 10 Deco
CF 11 Derlei
CF 19 Carlos Alberto
Substitutes:
GK 1 Nuno
DF 5 Ricardo Costa
DF 17 José Bosingwa
MF 3 Pedro Emanuel
MF 15 Dmitri Alenichev
FW 9 Edgaras Jankauskas
FW 77 Benni McCarthy
Manager:
José Mourinho


It's hardly a list of world beaters or any stronger than the squad we had when BR came in.

City and Chelsea have both had over 1 billion invested in their clubs over the last few years, we are light years away from that.

Agreed, however Porto and Inter did not invest billions yet within 2 years with Mareen at the helm they won the league title and champions league...It says a lot about what a quality manager brings to a club.

But Inter had good reliable players in every position, and they had a winning mentality, having won the league many times in succession. Plus they had more than one experienced striker.

As for Porto, they were a winning team i their own country, plus they were very undercover. They had so many excellent players that went under the radar until Jose got hole of them.

I'm not taking anything away from Jose, but those teams were much better than what Rodgers has.

Fair enough, I don't agree about about the Porto squad. I just feel that Jose got the maximum out of them whereas Br is failing to do so out of our squad, mainly because he is forcing them to play a style that doesn't naturally suit them.

But fair enough.

We are not getting Mourinho, his salary is 10m a year, very few managers would have the balls to take the job, Brendan Rodgers put his career at risk joining us, he could have stayed at Swansea where PL survival would suffice, I think he deserves 2 seasons barring an absolute disaster.

But if he gets it right, which I think he can, then things will be looking good. I believe that if he's given support in the market, and he's able to bring in players that suit his style more, things will start looking better and we can judge him a bit better.

BR didn't take a risk coming to us, our owners took a huge risk appointing a manager with no proven track record.

But then he was probably the cheapest avaiable.

The club will continue to go backwards whilst we are being run by owners who are more interested in baseball.