Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 12:07 pm  

Wilde 3 wrote:

Just as a comparison:

AVB
Played 27 Won 13 Drawn 7 Lost 6
Average Points Per Game - 1.7
Average Goals Per Game - 1.74
Average Goals Against Per Game - 1.18
League Position (when sacked) 5th (3 points behind 4th)

Di Matteo

Played 10 Won 4 Drawn 3 Lost 3
Average Points Per Game - 1.5
Average Goals Per Game - 1.6
Average Goals Against Per Game - 1.3
League Position - 6th (5 points off 4th)


Liverpool would do well with AVB - realtively young squad that he can influence and get them to play his way, something the old guard at Chelsea resisted

A very selective comparison.

Chelsea had just lost to West Brom. They'd won 3 of their last 12 league games. They were 3-1 down to Napoli in the CL. They drew 1-1 with Birmingham in the FA Cup at home.

Di Matteo lost 3 games, but 2 of those were sandwiched around the FA Cup Final and the other was away at Citeh.

Villas Boas had pretty clearly lost the dressing room. We were virtually out of Europe, looking vulnerable in the FA Cup and dying in the league. Di Matteo came in, turned the CL form around, took Chelsea to an FA Cup final win against Liverpool and a CL final.

Even looking beyond the results, AVB acted like a complete fool in getting rid of Alex and Anelka. He was acting like Kenny Dalglish to any interviewer and generally getting most things wrong.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 4:25 pm  

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 4:32 pm  

flipper wrote:

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 4:45 pm  

flipper wrote:

brilliant !

maybe they wanted someone whose name rhymes with Dalgleish ?

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 5:21 pm  

Martinez has been given permission to speak to Liverpool according to Sky.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 5:41 pm  

Cibaman wrote:

How do you think the sacking will afffect the relationship between the fans and the owners? Will they forgive them for sacking Dalglish?

Depends on the fan. The way I saw the sacking was like this: the club underachieved, the points total was really poor and we were miles off the 'top 4' finish we wanted. Some of our fans have turned and said "where's the stadium?", as if you can pluck one out of the air. They've also began to criticise them for the lack of direction and personnel making decisions. For me, FSG know a lot more about running a sporting club than the majority of our fans, so I'm hoping they have a plan and they're looking to kick start things immediately. They never came here promising billions and they never claimed to be footballing geniuses, but they do have the right view for the club IMO.

A lot of the reaction will depend on the appointment, the majority of our fans won't view Martinez as a Dalglish upgrade, just like Hodgson on Rafa. I like Martinez but he's not ready yet.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 5:50 pm  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

No, no, no, no, no, NO!!! He achieved little but spending huge amounts of money on dozens of awful players, lucking a European cup and blowing what should have been a nailed-on title in a very poor league in 6 years last time 'round - how the hell could that justify giving him another go? We'd be better off reinstating Dalglish again frankly.

How can you contradict yourself in the same sentence so embarrassingly?

Dozens of awful players...but should have waltzed a nailed-on league? We 'lost the league' to a side that finished in the CL final, but I guess the league must have been poor if United were playing that badly.

I'd love to know how you fluke a Champions League as well. It's the hardest competition to win in club football, yet some people want to call ours a 'fluke'

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 6:14 pm  

Roddy B wrote:

I'd love to know how you fluke a Champions League as well. It's the hardest competition to win in club football, yet some people want to call ours a 'fluke'

You qualified from the group with a last gasp stunner from gerrard. You then won the semi with a ghost goal that never was, then we all know the inexplicable events that unfolded in the final which was eventually won, suprise suprise on penalties with the keeper at the time (dudek?) about 5 metres off his final for every milan penalty.

You can't fluke a champions league win, but you certainly made a good go of it and enjoyed more good fortune than most throughout that campaign.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 6:30 pm  

The behaviour of LFC fans towards Martinez is quite disgusting. Who else do they think they can realistically get to manage a mid-table premier league table? It's a natural progression for Roberto, who will get them playing great football.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Thu May 17, 2012 6:34 pm  

citywolf wrote:

Martinez has been given permission to speak to Liverpool according to Sky.

Liverpool are saying he's just one of a number to be interviewed.

Clever ploy by Whelan to go public about it. Puts pressure on FSG to speed things up. And the reaction of the Liverpool fans might make FSG and/or Martinez think twice about offering or accepting the job.