same here, hate themOriginally Posted by charliepanayi
same here, hate them
If I was like Cloud I don't think I would have taken that test.
Changed to stop Jessweeee♪ from going insane. Is that better?
And according to the BBC website, Yossi Benayoun has gone the other way. Hmm. Interesting. I like him as a player, but I can't help draw comparisons between him and Bellamy and Pennant - someone who did well for a smaller club but didn't reproduce that form for LFC. Mind you, Pennant became immense in the last third of the season, and has kept that up in pre-season. He has to be picked for England. He HAS to be.
On a similar vein, good on you for quitting England, Carra. smurf me, being picked behind Wes Brown is just a straight out insult.
Benayoun's a useful option for Liverpool, and I'd rather have him in my squad than Craig Bellamy. What's more, this gives me another reason to hate West Ham, and that's got to be a good thing. I don't see them going down next season, but as long as they suffer a bit I'll be pretty happy.
"The most important and recognize player in the history of the country."
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I were as great as Paulo Wanchope.
It sure is fantastic to see Everton keeping up our tradition of "let's be linked to about 50 good players who are supposed to be minutes away from signing for us, only to suddenly sign for someone else when it emerges we were too cheap to pay the asking price and end up with about 2 signings all summer."
Also: Thank you Cz for reminding me of another reason to dislike West Ham!
Not my words Carol, the words of Top Gear magazine.
And apparently we're close to Ryan Babel, too. A long time transfer target of Arsenal, it would seem. Well, I trust Wenger and Benitez's judgment.
Not sure if all the transfers we're making (you should see the absolute ARMY of youth players Rafa has signed. I think he's signed something like 7 or 8 in this summer alone, and he signed 4 or 5 back in January. It's insane!) is going to be helpful. Leto, Leiva, Voronin and Torres are the first teamers, and with Benayoun and Babel to follow, and apparently a left back, we'll be filled to the rafters with newcomers once again. United only made one first team transfer last season, Carrick, (two if you count that Polish keeper from West Brom whose name I can't spell...Kuzscak?) and look at how well they did, whereas we made a fair few and didn't gel as a team until October/November. Having thought about this sort of thing in more depth, perhaps it does not look so bad for Arsenal after all. I don't know.
We have offloaded a fair few players too don't forget and realistically, to compete with Chelsea and Man Utd we needed to strengthen in almost every area of the team. Personally, I've never been more excited about watching a Liverpool team in action. Chelsea filled their team to the rafters two years running and won the title...two years running. It's a massive relief for me to see us bringing in such high calibre players in areas of the team that have needed improvement for years. Torres represents the type of player we have been missing since Michael Owen left (though I don't like to speak too soon).
I think Rafa has built a very good squad now and I think next season, we will see the transfer activity calm down. I guess you can't bring about a new era without making significant changes. With the crop of players we had last season, we were never going to challenge for the Premiership because we were still carrying so much dead weight, we still are to be fair and I think there will be a few more players headed out the door fairly soon but they are tempered by the strength, depth and variety we now have in key positions. I would agree though that some of the signings seem like overkill, Voronin has had me baffled since the day we signed him, I just don't see what he adds to our forward line. He will struggle to find a set position in the team just like Smicer, Kewell, Litmanen and any number of other Attacking Midfield come Striker's we've bought in the past. Versatility isn't necessarily always a useful asset in a player.
His youth policy excites me too and right now, these players are unlikely to have a significant impact on the first team. Rafa has reiterated a number of times how he wants to produce an elite crop of youngsters so he can cherry pick them into the first team during coming seasons, like a certain Mr. Wenger. I'm not sure I'll ever be buying a shirt with "Amoo" on the back though...
Next season will be thoroughly entertaining. More talent coming to the Premiership than there is leaving, as far as I'm concerned, and this should make for some really great football.
More than happy with our recruits already... if we get Tévez, it'll be the biggest bonus I could think of. I've been wanting us to sign him since the first time I saw him play (and effectively run the game).
It's fun to look at this...
...............................................VDS/Foster/Kuzscak
Neville/O'Shea/Bardsley.........Ferdinand/Brown/Piques.....Vidic/Evans/Silvestre......Evra/Heinze/Silvestre
Ronaldo/Eagles/Park.........Hargreaves/Carrick/Fletcher........Scholes/Anderson.....Giggs/Nani/Richardson
...................................Soljskaer/Saha/Smith........Rooney/Rossi
Possibly to become...
...............................................VDS/Foster/Kuzscak
Neville/O'Shea.....Ferdinand/Brown.....Vidic/Evans/Silvestre......Evra/Silvestre
Ronaldo/Park.........Hargreaves/Carrick/Fletcher........Scholes/Anderson.....Giggs/Nani
...................................Soljskaer/Saha/Tevez........Rooney/Rossi
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
You're not the only ones who can boast such an impressive squad, you know...
...............................................Cech/Cudicini
Ferreira/Johnson.........Terry/Ben Haim....Carvahlo/Alex......A. Cole/Bridge
J. Cole/SWP.........Lampard/Mikel/Sidwell........Makelele/Essien/Ballack.....Robben/Malouda
...................................Drogba/Pizarro........Shevchenko/Kalou
Methinks they can push you all the way. Now, for my own personal gratification, let's see the greatest club of all time's 07-08 offerings.
...............................................Reina/Carson
Finnan/Arbeloa.....Carragher/Paletta.....Agger/Hyypia.....Riise/Aurelio
Pennant/Benayoun.........Mascherano/Alonso/Sissoko........Gerrard/Leiva.....Babel/Kewell/Gonzalez
...................................Torres/Voronin.......Kuyt/Crouch
You know, I actually think we're superior to United in goal, at right back and the two central midfield posi<b></b>tions. Marginally, I will grant you. And yes, they pretty much obliterate us elsewhere, but hey, none too shabby.I think we're only definitely better than Chelsea at right-back (although it's rumoured they want Alves and/or Chimbonda
) and maybe in one of the central midfield posi<b></b>tions (the left one), and we're probably better on that right strike posi<b></b>tion. I think if we can have a good August, September and October, we can be at least be within shouting distance of United and Chelsea when May rolls around, and that will have to be what we aim for. 9 points or less when the season ends = Mission Accomplished; good season.
So why don't you score goals? Torres isn't going to boost your goal tally (not even with assists) as much as Tévez will boost ours (should he sign up). Rooney, Tévez, Saha, Rossi (who has excelled on loan at Italy and is being headhunted by the Milans), Soljskaer in there for supersubability... would put them streets ahead of Kuyt and an Prem-untested Voronin & Torres. I actually think Crouch is extremely useful, though.
Disagree there, although might agree if you include backups. Nev's not past it yet, but I wouldn't say Bardsley is there enough to be the best backup at the moment. Certainly O'Shea isn't the best either, but he's a good utility.at right back
I rate Scholes ahead of Gerrard/Alonso, and Hargreaves I'd say is about par with Hargreaves. Carrick is the more unassuming type who is hard to rate because he's not an impact player, you never notice his passes. Not sure on Anderson... can only find out (a la Voronin/Torres).and the two central midfield posi<b></b>tions.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
In goal = goalkeepingSo why don't you score goals? Torres isn't going to boost your goal tally (not even with assists) as much as Tévez will boost ours (should he sign up). Rooney, Tévez, Saha, Rossi (who has excelled on loan at Italy and is being headhunted by the Milans), Soljskaer in there for supersubability... would put them streets ahead of Kuyt and an Prem-untested Voronin & Torres. I actually think Crouch is extremely useful, though.
NoHargreaves I'd say is about par with Hargreaves.
For me, Finnan has the best right-back in the Premier League over the past two or three seasons. Before then, I would have said it was Gary Neville. While still having the ability on a level similar to Finnan's, he seems to be missing half the season suffering from injuries and as such lacks Finnan's consistency. He's like Darren Anderton, Jamie Redknapp et al. Look at Finnan's assist count and tell me he is not the best. As for backups, well, yeah.Disagree there, although might agree if you include backups. Nev's not past it yet, but I wouldn't say Bardsley is there enough to be the best backup at the moment. Certainly O'Shea isn't the best either, but he's a good utility.at right back
Well I rate Gerrard ahead of Scholes, absolutely I do. Mascherano and Hargreaves (I assume that is what you meantI rate Scholes ahead of Gerrard/Alonso, and Hargreaves I'd say is about par with Hargreaves. Carrick is the more unassuming type who is hard to rate because he's not an impact player, you never notice his passes. Not sure on Anderson... can only find out (a la Voronin/Torres).and the two central midfield posi<b></b>tions.) are probably equals, although we've yet to see how the United man will perform in the premiership. Alonso and Carrick are similar sorts of players, and I prefer Alonso to Carrick myself. Sissoko vs Fletcher...should be no contest, although Fletcher has been improving so who knows about the future? Anderson is the same as Leiva - unproven young Brazilian talent who did good in a different league, so we have to see how they will do in the Premiership before judging.
Strikers, though, yeah, what Dan said - I meant keepers. I'd say Reina is ahead of VDS, seeing as how he's kept the most clean sheets in the premiership for I think it is two years running. He certainly did in 05-06, anyway. Carson and Foster are at the same level. As far as strikers go, I 100% agree. United thrash us. Rooney + Tevez = holy christ.
EDIT: Actually, I don't 100% agree. Torres will add to our goal count. He's Bellamy's replacement, and he can hardly score less goals than Bellamy did!
I'm still not convinced by Man Utd's attacking line up. Rooney and Tevez are very similar players - they both like to drop back and control the game and neither is a target man, or even a player that likes to play off the last defender. Utd will always get goals from the midfield, but I still think they miss a van Nistelrooy-type player. Even though his link-up play wasn't great, he was guaranteed to net 25 a season.
Who the smurf is Gelson Fernandes? :-\
Thing is, we're no longer a team that plays that way. The way that United seems to be moving towards is one goalkeeper, four defenders and then what is being touted as a "floating six" which are all capable of moving between forward and midfield positions - ie, a team that doesn't rely on a single player netting 20+ goals in a season (although I should point out that Rooney had a 'bad' season last season and still netted 23 goals).
The fact that we scored so many goals last season with so few coming from Saha shows this quite well.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
re: Heinze. Don't want him; Riise is better and younger. That injury took a huge toll on him.
And I don't want to give Man United money, especially when we've got the money they paid for Hargreaves.(Bayern Munich used that money to buy Ribery from Marseille, and Marseille used a large chunk of money to buy Cisse from us)
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