Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

anyone else care to opine that sturridge is a very good signing for 12m

thought it was undisclosed

I don't have any idea how he and Suarez will interact xp, so all I can say is he might be. He certainly won't make Liverpool any worse - as imago points out on the Rodgers thread, the platform to build on is there (the Villa debacle apart, and tbf they were good that day).

The question is whether they need a big improvement to compete, or only a little one. If it's the latter, and it might be because WBA, Stoke and Arsenal are the only times this year when we haven't looked able to compete, then Sturridge and the returning Lucas could on their own go a long way towards bridging the gap.

Top four is unlikely, but the gap somehow isn't actually that big and so I wouldn't completely rule it out this season.

ah ffs whats the matter with you

You wanted more bile?

reading and villa and southampton and fuckin anyone will claim that 'bar one or three matches we competed, everyone competes, but you can't go from that very low bar to 'we might make top four'. There's a big gap between 'not being shamed in more than three or so games' and even grabbing a UEFA cup place, and that gap is dwarved by the further leap needed to creditably claim you're in the hunt for fourth spot.

A very unklata post imo.

Nonsense. Liverpool aren't competing in terms of 'ooh, we could've got a draw there with a bit of luck' and 'pity that rearguard action didn't quite come off'. They're beating the teams below them fairly easily now, and coming up short against the higher sides mostly due to the absence of one easily-identifiable factor. Sturridge might plug that gap, in which case the games against the top sides start to look very different. I'd expect the record against the top half to improve more than I'd expect the record against the bottom half to deteriorate, put it that way.

The gap's only about half-a-dozen points, that's doable. It won't be if Spurs stay in form and Chelsea/City don't screw up too much, but even those aren't a given.

Two factors: one-man frontline, and lack of bite in midfield. Studge, Lucas and Ince potentially change things quite a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctWS52IA_JY

Three of Liverpool's next four games are against United, Arsenal and City, that gap's likely to get wider before it gets narrower.

Good chance to drag those three backwards, I say

Aside from that they've got a surprisingly straightforward run of games from February onward, if you overlook Rafa's triumphant return to Anfield.

nonsense, he sez

teams wot lfc aint beat this season:

West brom, man city. Arsenal, sunderland, man utd, stoke x 2, everton, swansea x 2, newcastle, chelsea, spurs, villa.

I don't see where your post is comin from tbh, teams all around you are beating you, many teams below you are taking points from you. Form is good right now, but only compared to previously, and you're not goin charging up that table unless qpr and fulham play you every week, and underperform at that.

Form's not that good, we took a proper schooling from Stoke only a week ago. I'm saying the window *may* enable that big step up via a shrewd signing or two, because that may be all that's needed to turn a team who can do defence & possession into a team who can do defence & possession & strength & goals. Think of them like Dembele coming back.

lordderak (Liverpool) says...

I like the fact that the article points out our inability to beat anyone above us so far, a cold hard fact yes but the games do tell a different story I'm afraid. City at Anfield got an undeserved point after a poor back pass, I wont even comment on the Utd game at Anfield as it's well regarded as daylight Robbery at this stage after some awful referee decisions. We got what we deserved against Arsenal and had a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out at Everton. How would you Analyse Utd's season? Yes they are top but have been beaten at home by Spurs and away at Norwich, both of these sides are below them, Chelsea just lost to the worst team in the league. The league is all over the place and to be honest you can never bank on anyone winning in any game at this stage such has been the nature of it so far. Yeah Liverpool haven't beaten anyone above them yet, but teams below them have beaten the top 2 sides in Utd (Norwich) and City (Sunderland) So you can see how that analysis is always flawed.

u are this guy today, i'm worried bout u boo

is it more likely that three new signings transform a team from midtable into cl hopefuls or that a team almost wholly reliant on one player gets found out over an entire season?

Do I need three or four more? Yes, I think so.

eh

xpost, nobody is making big claims for anything and that large body of text you found from fuck knows where is at least 75 per cent otm. they played man u and city off the park, utterly, city at least claimed a draw due to one massive defensive fuck-up, but in man u's case the wild red card decision saw them sneak a win despite being passed off the park, fairly sure even here that was the general consenus, and most pundits disagreed with the red. either way the 10 men did very well.

plus whatever about the overall picture, liverpool are improving as the season goes on. tbh this sudden and wild rage at ismael's fairly sanguine points from a fan of spurs is as good a sign of improvement as there is.

it's wild rage from a fan of ismael, tbph.

I've acknowledged form is good! I think rodgers is doing ok, not great but steady. I really, really think that talk of fourth based on the past 5-6 weeks of improved results is like replacing a methadone clinic's doses with the real shit for no reason whatsoever. Progress is happening! Don't spoil it ffs, it has to be recognised that for fans or rodgers or anyone to start thinking of a final league position now that (imo, obv) is far beyond them is not only damaging, but is the most needless, cliched and self-inflicted type of damage that could be done right now.

The shite posted is shite of the 'if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle' and both yourself and IK seem to be fitting your mum's sister for a strapon (tho you seemed to share my view on where lfc were atm last night!)

i mean, genuinely, if matt mentioned spurs and second in the same way i'd be twice as quick and twice as harsh, we have, as a board, got to give the tough love, remembering that it's love

and both yourself and IK seem to be fitting your mum's sister for a strapon

Can I just ask for clarification of this?

This isn't that kind of website

I never mentioned 4th, is the thing. Nobody is getting particularly carried away as far as I can see, well, almost nobody.

Also your views on methadone merit inspection.

spurs would be looking p good now if we'd not been so wobbly at the start. Callin top four at expense of utd.

― Randy Carol (darraghmac), Monday, October 8, 2012 10:39 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The shite posted is shite of the 'if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle' and both yourself and IK seem to be fitting your mum's sister for a strapon

equal parts lol and o_O and really not knowing what to do with that

Joe Cole has gone back to his spiritual home. I predict two seasons of mediocrity and injury with occasional flashes of brilliance.

+ Chamakh loan. That is a depressing transfer window

can't understand why Sam wd want Joe Cole when he's already got £10 million rated left winger *snigger* Matt Jarvis *cough cough*

I must have wiped all impressions of Matt Jarvis from my mind cos when I saw the Hammers on MOTD this week my initial thought was "Since when does Danny Dyer play on the left for West Ham?!!!"

dunno but I found the traditional signing picture

http://www.whufc.com/javaImages/e8/be/0,,12562~10993384,00.jpg

Dyer was born in Canning Town, to Antony and Christine Dyer. He was a international football player for England fo a short while.(née Meakin).[3]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A_sXdpCCIAAjsYC.jpg

aw they grow up so fast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctWS52IA_JY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSZkoE7TkR0

lampard actually was pretty unconvincing until he went to chelsea as i recall, certainly £11m felt way steep

qpr nobody mark perry also featured in that england yoof call-up storrie talks about smugly there

is there no dutch phrase for "once in a lifetime opportunity"

How is it that some of these elite youth disappear completely, while plenty who never get a sniff at that age go on to have long careers somewhere in the pro game?

I think luck, attitude, health, diet, growth, contacts, choice of club, etc. are all factors. It takes a lot to get to a point where you earn proper wages and many chuck it before that. Many others are shown the door because the clubs can't support the cost of keeping everyone on for another year to see who makes it.

The best footballer at my school ended up a policeman, the second best became a forklift driver and occasional drug dealer. Lesser players became professional footballers.

Lampard wasn't even that impressive in his early seasons at Chelsea, it was only when Mourinho joined that he really took off. None of that generation of West Ham kids were that great when they moved on, except maybe Ferdinand - certainly not Carrick or Defoe. The young Joe Cole is being preposterously overrated in retrospect by the kind of people with the requisite level of bovine stupidity to write something like this.

I mean BEFORE they moved on.

come on, if anybody's gonna give Cole a free role and tell him to express himself it's gonna be Big Sam

hopefully cashley will also be signed and perhaps the dream team of coles will finally happen

this dream:
Target 2006 - World Cup qualification banter starts here

Speaking of elite youth, Pato has waddled off back to Brasil

gonna perform a cover of the leaving of liverpool here, i'm not slagging them or rodgers at all but really i have to not argue about them at 2.30 am anymore, it's 2013 ffs

moving on

lampard actually was pretty unconvincing until he went to chelsea as i recall, certainly £11m felt way steep

― r|t|c, Friday, 4 January 2013 13:03 (2 days ago)

Lampard wasn't even that impressive in his early seasons at Chelsea, it was only when Mourinho joined that he really took off. (Matt)

iirc his goalscoring record was extremely impressive at west ham in the few seasons before his move, and at the time i thought it was a great signing, if a little expensive