Art wrote:

Give me a break, I said if he was a well spoken foreigner that didn't look like a freak he wouldn't be seen as such a joke that he is now. Not exactly accusing you of being part of the Hitler youth here. What accusation of racism?

He didn't have a shit first season, he slightly improved on Dalglish. Maybe not ground breaking, but just because he didn't get CL doesn't make it a failure. In his second season he almost won the league. Third season he did fuck up badly, but then he was without his two best players. Then again when Sterling is by far your best player, it's not a good team.

Transfers and player treatment at Liverpool has always been a shitshow, I doubt it has to do with Rodgers specifically. Also his/Liverpool's treatment of Suarez made him stay and they managed to sell him for the double the asking price the season after. If it was Arsenal our jokers would have sold him at the first insistence.

I'm not claiming he is some sort of world class manager here, but he clearly is a good manager and has gotten closer to wining the league than our guy(recently) with a worse team. If all it took to win the league was a world class striker then 11-12 must have been one of Wenger's worst performance with having RvP and barely getting top four.

But by your own admission, they had Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling leading that attack whereas we had effectively van Persie on his own leading our attack in 11/12. A more apt comparison would be 07/08 when we came 4 points of the title with Diaby and Eboue on the wings and Almunia in goal, largely thanks to the individual efforts of Fabregas. You could spin some yarn about Wenger doing a good job in 07/08 but the fact is, he made some terrible decisions that year (more than any other) which cost us the league and set us back five years.

Similarly Rodgers did the same, for all the talk about him coming close to the title, he managed a team that conceded 50 goals that season. He also proceeded to employ some baffling tactics the following season, particularly with the use of Can and a few others, employ management pyschobabble in his teams talks and the culmination of this was a 6-1 trashing at the hands of Stoke. Even if you give him some lee-way with the transfers, that's pretty poor.

Art wrote:

Give me a break, I said if he was a well spoken foreigner that didn't look like a freak he wouldn't be seen as such a joke that he is now. Not exactly accusing you of being part of the Hitler youth here. What accusation of racism?

Why the mention of "well-spoken foreigners"? I made fun of AVB when he was at Chelsea and Spurs, pretty sure that's also the case for everybody else here. Nobody gives a fuck about his passport, people make fun of your boy because he has more David Brent characteristics than David Brent himself.

He didn't have a shit first season, he slightly improved on Dalglish. Maybe not ground breaking, but just because he didn't get CL doesn't make it a failure. In his second season he almost won the league. Third season he did fuck up badly, but then he was without his two best players. Then again when Sterling is by far your best player, it's not a good team.

Transfers and player treatment at Liverpool has always been a shitshow, I doubt it has to do with Rodgers specifically. Also his/Liverpool's treatment of Suarez made him stay and they managed to sell him for the double the asking price the season after. If it was Arsenal our jokers would have sold him at the first insistence.

I'm not claiming he is some sort of world class manager here, but he clearly is a good manager and has gotten closer to wining the league than our guy(recently) with a worse team. If all it took to win the league was a world class striker then 11-12 must have been one of Wenger's worst performance with having RvP and barely getting top four.

Suárez had a much better season in 13/14 than RVP did in 11/12, also Liverpool provided a better supporting cast and only had one competition to play in for most of the season, completely useless comparison. But if you insist, they managed to finish 2nd whereas we got 3rd, nice job there.

And sure, let's just blame Liverpool for being perennial scum and not the man in charge who's taken to that environment like a blob-faced duck to water. At the same time you're somehow trying to give him credit for not selling him earlier. Is that you Brendan?

jones wrote:

Why the mention of "well-spoken foreigners"? I made fun of AVB when he was at Chelsea and Spurs, pretty sure that's also the case for everybody else here. Nobody gives a fuck about his passport, people make fun of your boy because he has more David Brent characteristics than David Brent himself.

Because I think people prefer foreign coaches and players in England? I'm not talking with regard to this board specifically, but the general footballing culture at the top level.

Suárez had a much better season in 13/14 than RVP did in 11/12, also Liverpool provided a better supporting cast and only had one competition to play in for most of the season, completely useless comparison. But if you insist, they managed to finish 2nd whereas we got 3rd, nice job there.

And sure, let's just blame Liverpool for being perennial scum and not the man in charge who's taken to that environment like a blob-faced duck to water. At the same time you're somehow trying to give him credit for not selling him earlier. Is that you Brendan?

Rodgers doesn't deserve any credit for Suarez and Sturridge suddenly tearing the league up by getting the best out of them? Just happened on its own and would have happened regardless I guess.

Well we can agree to disagree on the respective quality of their team and ours in 11-12. Suffice to say I think we had a good team and I think Liverpool's team outside of Suarez and Sturridge was shit. But they were a Gerrard slip away from winning it and finished 2 points behind City, whereas we finished 19 points behind City and Utd. If no Champion League is worth an extra 20point in the league, then we are really missing out on missing out on it.

And I wasn't giving Brenden credit for not selling Suarez earlier because as I said in my post, it has more to do with the way the club behaves than with the man himself. So I was giving Liverpool credit.

Also Brendan's inspirational quotes have gotten me through very dark times, only natural for me to show some respect to his genius.

I don't really understand the terms of reference here.

Why would anyone accept that Brendan Rodgers' stint at Liverpool shows that he is every bit as talented as Arsène Wenger, and at the same time that Guus Hiddink, who's got a bag of Dutch league titles, has come in successfully as caretaker for Chelsea before and won them the FA Cup, and has coached two nations to their best ever World Cup performances, is an "absolute disaster"?

How would you rate Rodgers against the other Premier League managers I mentioned?

Art wrote:

Also Brendan's inspirational quotes have gotten me through very dark times, only natural for me to show some respect to his genius.

Which ones?

Art wrote:

Because I think people prefer foreign coaches and players in England? I'm not talking with regard to this board specifically, but the general footballing culture at the top level.

I've heard this notion a few times and I think it's nonsense. Pretty sure people would appreciate English managers and players more if they stopped being shit given how every single half competent twat is already hyped to the good heavens after a string of good performances/results.

Also Brendan's inspirational quotes have gotten me through very dark times, only natural for me to show some respect to his genius.

That explains a lot. Good on you mate, don't think I can begin to imagine how dark your times were if Rodgers' inspirational quotes led you out of them

I noted the fear in Van Gaal's eyes at yesterday's press conference - a José on the loose means a ready replacement.
The Manc, who has always despised José admitted, that he'd suffer him at United.
Shows how they're turning on Van Gaal now.
Mou and Man U would surely be the most dispicable force in football.

Mourinho and Manchester United … we'd have to start questing for horcruxes immediately.

I could see Mourinho getting sacked from United in a similar fashion. He would probably manage to do some good first, but it increasingly looks like van Gaal has lost the dressing room over there for the same reasons Mourinho lost his players at Chelsea. They both have the same ego, the same weaknesses. Mourinho blamed the physios and the players. Van Gaal literally blamed the chef at the training ground earlier this year. They both obsess over criticism from pundits, whether it's Redknapp or Scholes. Mourinho sold off a lot of capital in Lukaku and De Bruyne. Van Gaal told Hernandez he had a ”1 percent chance” to start under him and swiftly shipped him out. The same Hernandez has scored almost as many goals as the entire United team this season.

There are the same outdated tactics too. Mourinho keeps living off his three-man midfield that he introduced 10 years ago in Chelsea (a formation which had been used for like 30 years in the rest of Europe at the time) but it's not an advantage anymore when everyone in England plays that way. Meanwhile his team is slow and cumbersome in a league where everyone knows how to run and counterattack quickly. I've never seen a league winner getting ripped open so frequently by lower-table opposition.

Van Gaal keeps banging on about exploiting space in front of the defence; it's why he persists with a Rooney who can't run anymore, why he packs the midfield with possession drones who'd rather give the ball back to Smalling than carry it forward. He's completely uninterested in his strikers getting in behind. Again, this doesn't make sense in a league where there are two central midfielders guarding the defence at almost any given time.

If I were United I would stay far away from Mourinho. I would get Ancelotti, and I would do it this January.

That is quite honestly the best post I've seen on the football forum section of this site.

Well done Klaus, I'm a big fan.

It's a copy paste job, I've seen every single one of those words on the net across various articles.

Guus in, interim

Sicario wrote:

That is quite honestly the best post I've seen on the football forum section of this site.

Well done Klaus, I'm a big fan.

Negro, Please.

Burnwinter wrote:

Art wrote:

Also Brendan's inspirational quotes have gotten me through very dark times, only natural for me to show some respect to his genius.

Which ones?

The one about being able to live without water for days but not without hope for a second. I realised I hadn't drank any water for ages just as I was losing hope.

Not sure if serious.

No.

Moving on, apparently Mourinho rejected a Roma approach. Wouldn't surprise me if he takes on the Milan job now that they have a new billionaire investor, could get credit for turning int around.

Rumour has it ( as mentioned on FF on the BBC) that his people have already spoken to United.
I reckon he's desperate to stay in England.

Can't wait to read about him bursting into tears again when Utd reject him, again.

Art wrote:

Burnwinter wrote:

Which ones?

The one about being able to live without water for days but not without hope for a second. I realised I hadn't drank any water for ages just as I was losing hope.

Hehe. I approve this post.