manc-mag

Best losing the ball up front is containable. Obertan losing the ball on the wing is containable. B Arfa losing the ball by trying to pick it up and dribble the second he takes up possession in the freer role presents problems of an entirely different nature. Theres no resemblance between B Arfa and Obertan in this sense. I don't have any major issue with what you say about using him over Best, I simply think when it gets down to that level of debate it's not that worth getting het up about to begin with because it'd mean playing him out of position anyway. I don't expect him to set the world alight in Best's position. It will be a shame for you when he does end up being started every game and doesn't win every game singlehanded because your entire patter will be up in smoke btw. The same could be said for david silva which granted play for a better team. . Jesus fucking Christ alive.

Best losing the ball up front is containable. Obertan losing the ball on the wing is containable. B Arfa losing the ball by trying to pick it up and dribble the second he takes up possession in the freer role presents problems of an entirely different nature. Theres no resemblance between B Arfa and Obertan in this sense. I don't have any major issue with what you say about using him over Best, I simply think when it gets down to that level of debate it's not that worth getting het up about to begin with because it'd mean playing him out of position anyway. I don't expect him to set the world alight in Best's position. It will be a shame for you when he does end up being started every game and doesn't win every game singlehanded because your entire patter will be up in smoke btw.

A Liverpool fan leaves in pieces.

If people completely fail to see that Pardew's entire approach (and results yielded so far) is to try and build from a defensive base and a harrying game when not in possession then they have no grasp of football at all. B Arfa is potentially our technically most gifted player going forward from an attacking mid/link up striker position but Pardew sees that as less important (overall) than having two diligent/regimented banks of four that can try and hit two more advanced strikers. As a containing shape that has proved to be worthwhile in loads of games this season- he knows fine well we're not brilliant and he doesnt want to lose games after only 5 minutes in, so that's why he goes with it. The Toon are past masters at losing games before they've started so that alone has been a huge improvement. B Arfa would be an automatic starter in a stronger team. At the moment he's being thrown on to try and step us up a gear as an impact sub at strategic times when the game is poised. He'll become an automatic starter in any event when Ba goes to the ACN, albeit out of position so people need to stop getting so menstrual.

As back up for Best.

aye.

In essence, I think LFC's whole demanding of 'respect' about anything and everything associated with LFC boils down to some sort of collective compensating for the league passing them by for 20 years. Hark back to past glories etc etc so that they feel like they still 'matter'. The problem is it's basically irrelevant to the rest of football though. As much as I detest Man U (and I do far more than LFC), a Man U fan can just say: "put your Premiership winners medals on the table" to basically any club.

Brilliantly summarised.

Oh and DutchRed (OP) doesn't like us. Nice of you to put on a positive front whilst in this thread, eh? I think it's great that you put the effort in to answer and I'm very grateful for that. Just didn't like the abuse of Dalglish. Perhaps a bit naive on my behalf to put that question in, it's predictable as every set of fans seem to dislike him. Why are you particularly arsed about people's opinions of Dalglish? When asked as a stand-alone question (and you get genuinely offended by honest answers), it just suggests that your reason for asking is because you think people should be fawning over him, which is massively sad. Just because LFC worship him, why do you imagine other clubs would feel the same way? I won't force anyone to like Dalglish. But a 'retard', an 'arsehole' or even a 'c*nt' is a bit disrespectful. You would probably react the same if Liverpool supporters(or anyone on that behalf) called Sir Bobby Robson such things. And I was a bit surprised too with the hatred for Dalglish at Newcastle. It was him who guided your team to the Champions League for the first time, it was him who guided your team to the FA Cup final for the first time in a quarter of a century and brought in some great players too. But that's not a problem, just something that surprised me. Disrespectful? That thead is absolutely shot through with the same word, it's embarrasing tbf and just goes to show how massively over-precious you are as a club about him. He's clearly not 'retarded'. If he was actually retarded that would obviously be horrendously disrespectful. As for 'arsehole' and 'cunt', well those are matters of opinion and he's a very unlikeable man on a personal level, I'm sure that's a not uncommon view amongst English football fans generally. He's got an horrendous persecution complex and moans a lot, so many non-LFC fans think he's a pain in the arse. I know I do. He's come back and spent a fortune for you but so far hasn't done anything of particular note. If he does then perhaps you'll get the 'respectful' answers you're clearly looking for. What he's achieved in the past is a simple matter of fact but it's historical now and a matter of record (not opinions).. more to the point though it doesn't assist you at the present moment, which is all that matters and (I'm guessing) is what you get so touchy about being away from the top table. He's a throwback to when you were the top team in the game, but just because he's back now doesn't mean you're back to where you were or particularly likely to get back there.

Oh and DutchRed (OP) doesn't like us. Nice of you to put on a positive front whilst in this thread, eh? I think it's great that you put the effort in to answer and I'm very grateful for that. Just didn't like the abuse of Dalglish. Perhaps a bit naive on my behalf to put that question in, it's predictable as every set of fans seem to dislike him. Why are you particularly arsed about people's opinions of Dalglish? When asked as a stand-alone question (and you get genuinely offended by honest answers), it just suggests that your reason for asking is because you think people should be fawning over him, which is massively sad. Just because LFC worship him, why do you imagine other clubs would feel the same way?

It doesn't matter whether he likes us or not, we don't have a divine right to be liked. Theres plenty of clubs I don't like for a variety of reasons. You're right though, the thing that comes across most is their incredulity and the total affront taken by them that anyone could dislike Kenny Dalglish. Staggering delusion. This is the standard response of almost all fans of clubs that get the media arse licking Liverpool do though. They get smoke blown up their arses so much/are so over represented on BBC/Sky that they're bewildered when in actual fact it becomes apparent that lots of ordinary football fans just think they're cock ends/nowhere near as worth talking about as they think they are. Add Man U to that list (obviously), although clearly they have more right to be talked about seeing as they've dominated English football for the last 20 years. I'm not surprised when I hear fans saying they hate the Toon. I dont have the likes of Alan Hansen/Phil Thompson/Alan Green etc etc conning me into thinking we 'matter' in the way they do. When they don't.

No agents fees with Stevie though and he'd play just for the love of the club and a few bottles of rub-on-tan. Seriously though, I've seen youtube of both these players and Stevie has the edge.

If we did buy him (and he scores) I'd honestly be willing to take a punt on Stevie. He's 34 like, so no five year deals, obviously.

More good stuff from AH.

100% spot on. They're giving the very top teams games (Chelsea, Man C, Man U) when they're expected to act the part as one of the traditional 'big boys' and straining every sinew, but they're incapable of it on a regular basis against the 'lesser' clubs because in actual fact they're not one of the top teams. Those are the games Man U pretty much never fail to win and that's what makes you a top side, not just showing up against Man C on your day at home as Liverpool have. We need to play our game as though we're setting up away from home against one of the standard battlers iyam, not get overawed because it's Liverpool because that'd be paying them way too much respect and just playing into their hands. Don't give them any time or space and we'll see how many 'special' players they've got. Was my first paragraph disagreeable like nah I was just keeping it on the game mate. Fwiw I find them repellent but I think they've actually become more of a joke this season if anything. Man U taking their league record away from them and then the whole Suarez thing (aftermath), I think people are just taking a step back and basically saying: 'are you even fucking serious anymore'?

Think it's 21 in 28 starts if you include his West Ham stats which is the most prolific strike rate in the premier league apparently. When you consider the teams as well....one that half this forum thinks should be relegated and one which actually got relegated.

Shearer and Cole's starts were both in 'great' Newcastle teams as well if you recall. Sherarer more so than Cole perhaps in that more money had been lavished, but Cole's team still finished 3rd. Ba's tally has come in a team and under manager regarded as little more than shit by many on here. For the record he's not in anywhere like the same class as Shearer, but then neither has any striker been since the Prem began, and that wasn't the question anyway. Yeah I had him in mind. Mentality wise though he couldn't have done what Shearer did the season he won the league with Blackburn. Literally nobody has had that much impact in the most difficult position on the pitch since the advent of the Prem. Also I think it only really become a 'debate' at all because of his injury and his signing for us. If he'd not had that injury and signed for (say Man U) nobody would even bother making the argument for him having a rival. I know that's if's and buts but Shearer was just that good.

I think this. Although I reckon it'll be Best to start with and then Shola replacing him after a couple of games (probably from the bench first and then keeping his place for the next game)

100% spot on. They're giving the very top teams games (Chelsea, Man C, Man U) when they're expected to act the part as one of the traditional 'big boys' and straining every sinew, but they're incapable of it on a regular basis against the 'lesser' clubs because in actual fact they're not one of the top teams. Those are the games Man U pretty much never fail to win and that's what makes you a top side, not just showing up against Man C on your day at home as Liverpool have. We need to play our game as though we're setting up away from home against one of the standard battlers iyam, not get overawed because it's Liverpool because that'd be paying them way too much respect and just playing into their hands. Don't give them any time or space and we'll see how many 'special' players they've got.

Shearer and Cole's starts were both in 'great' Newcastle teams as well if you recall. Sherarer more so than Cole perhaps in that more money had been lavished, but Cole's team still finished 3rd. Ba's tally has come in a team and under manager regarded as little more than shit by many on here. For the record he's not in anywhere like the same class as Shearer, but then neither has any striker been since the Prem began, and that wasn't the question anyway.

If we do manage to get him can we please finally stop asking where the Carroll cash went?!

Superb!

Liverpool's home record this season is nowt to shout about-if we can make that a factor in our game too and not lose the psychological battle of it being 'Anfield' then anything's possible.

I'm 'happy' with any team that shows real passion for the shirt. I'm 'disappointed' when we don't capitalise on the easier fixtures that come our way. I've been supporting Newcastle long enough to know we don't win 3 Prem games on the spin very often even when we are at full strength though. That's not even opinion, there's plenty of league tables to back it up. I've also still got enough 'happiness' left in me from the start of the season where we were winning 'easy' games we'd ordinarily piss up the wall to think the manager deserves to be allowed to carry some good will forward when he's faced with an injury and no cover in a defence that people routinely said was sub-standard to start with, in a team which they were predicting were going to get relegated little over 12 months ago, which has since made transfer 'profits' of tens of millions of pounds while the likes of you squeal about not replacing our best players. If you can't see that, against that background, if a manager who has got us up to 7th place at the turn of the year doesn't deserve some credit there is literally no point in responding to you.

Of course we 'should', but unless you've been watching a different Premiership football club to me for the lions share of the last 14 years (SBR's tenure being the exception) you'll know we almost never do. That's the reality. But now someone with less resources than any of those relatively moneyed predecessors 'should' be doing that at exactly the same time his already wafer thin defence has a gaping hole shot through the middle of it. If you think the Toon have been winning 3 Prem games on the spin routinely over the same period you're mistaken. It's just more evidence of the false memory syndrome that is absolutely rampant on this board.