Liverpool News 24/7
Archive for November, 2009Wednesday Nov 25Posted by: Antoine Zammit 1 Comment »
Wed 25th Nov 2009 Liverpool News, Rumours and RantsUnfortunately a victory was not enough yesterday to secure a place in the Champions League Knock out stage. On a personal note, I am currently on board a cruise ship so this feature will appear a little later than normal for the next few days. First things first, Rafa is not going to be sacked more… Here is some info on the Europa League more… Aurelio too wants the cup more… This is how Hungarians feel about our young prodigy Krisztian Nemeth more… In case you missed it, on the official Arsenal site Arsene Wenger offered sympathy for unlucky Liverpool more… Here is something to ponder, does Arsene sympathise with Rafa because of this?
Arsene | Baryern Munich | Champions League | Europa League | Fabio Aurelio | Kris | Krisztian Nemeth | Kroenke | UEFA Cup | Vidic
Wednesday Nov 25Posted by: Julian Lee 5 Comments »
Europa League Qualification!So our Champions’ League dream is over for another year! Our campaign has been fairly indicative of our entire season. Individual errors have hurt us badly. Of our poor results, only the Fiorentina reverse was deserved. We should have emerged with more than a single point from our 2 games against Lyon. An injury time winner at Anfield from Delgado, and a last minute equaliser by Lisandro have ultimately condemned us to the Europa League. A club like Liverpool should never have been in the position of having to rely on other results going our way to keep alive our chances of progression, but that is where we found ourselves last night. It did not go our way, and no amount of changes made by Rafa in Hungary would have lead to a goal in Florence. Giving Aquilani more game time would not have increased his chances of scoring for Lyon and may have lead to us conceding an equaliser as Rafa would have withdrawn Stevie G earlier. This is not a time for recriminations. We must move on, and back players and staff alike. We are club that do not do negativity. The Champions’ League door may have shut firmly but the Europa League door is now open and hopefully we can get all the away to Hamburg and lift the trophy. We are club whose business is winning silverware, and we have been lacking that crucial ingredient for too long now. Before we can think about Hamburg, we have the small concern of a derby with the Bitter Blues on Sunday. If ever Rafa needed a result, it’s this weekend. Beat Everton and he will keep the fans on side. Fail and the tide will keep ebbing away. Loyal fans like myself will stay but I am afraid that there will be fewer and fewer who share my ideals. YNWA Julian
Wednesday Nov 25Posted by: irfaan 10 Comments »
Reality Check – Liverpool’s Record In EuropeLiverpool’s Record In Europe:
Graeme Souness: 1991/92 – UEFA Cup 4th round (lost to Genoa) 1992/93 – Cup Winners Cup 2nd round (lost to Spartak Moscow) 1993/94 – Not in Europe Roy Evans: 1994/95 – Not in Europe 1995/96 – UEFA Cup 2nd round (lost to Brondby) 1996/97 – Cup Winners Cup semi final (lost to PSG) 1997/98 – UEFA Cup 2nd round (lost to Strasbourg) Gerard Houllier: 1998/99 – UEFA Cup 2nd round (lost to Celta Vigo) 1999/00 – Not in Europe 2000/01 – WON UEFA CUP 2001/02 – Champions League Quarter Final (lost to Leverkusen) 2002/03 – UEFA Cup 5th round (lost to Celtic) 2003/04 – UEFA Cup 4th round (lost to Marseille) Rafael Benitez: 2004/05 – WON CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2005/06 – Champions League 1st knockout phase (lost to Benfica) 2006/07 – Champions League Final (lost to AC Milan) 2007/08 – Champions League Semi Final (lost to Chelsea) 2008/09 – Champions League Quarter Final (lost to Chelsea) 2009/10 – Champions League Group Stage (knocked out by Fiorentina and Lyon) Have a good, long look at the above records. Look at what we’ve achieved under Benitez. Before he came to the club we’d only ever progressed passed the Group Stage once. Since the ban after Heysel, we’d only once got past the group stage. Read that again: only ONCE had we got past the Group Stage. Now have a look at our record in the competition since he’s been at the club: We’ve reached two Finals, winning one of them. We’ve reached a semi final and another quarter final, each time losing to the richest team in Europe with a squad put together with no expense spared; in complete contrast to the budget Rafa’s had to work to. In this season of poor form, injuries and having the financial rug pulled from underneath the manager, meaning he couldn’t replace the striker he lost in January etc – we’ve dropped out in the Group stages for the first time in his tenure. Now people want him sacked for it? Absolute fucking madness! Because of what Rafael Benitez has done to this club, you’ve now become like spoilt little brats. He’s given you something you couldn’t have dreamt about 5 years ago, but now you want more. Greed, greed and more greed. Take a step back, look at who we’re competing with, and try to realise the size of the task we’ve got. We’ve massively overachieved over the past few years, mainly due to his brilliant signings (although they are ignored so people can criticise free transfers like Voronin – also ignoring the fact he’s only still at the club as the money Rafa had lined up for a new striker was taken out of his pocket in the summer). In The League, we’re now competing with Chelsea, United, Man City and Tottenham; all of whom have assembled a more expensive squad than our own and have a higher wage bill than ourselves. Aston Villa and Arsenal aren’t far behind. Man City and Tottenham have been underacheiving due to poor management and underperforming players in recent years; ourselves and Arsenal have been overachieving – mainly due to good management. United and Chelsea are doing what’s expected of them. Not only do people expect us to win The League with the 5th most expensive squad and 5th highest wage bill, but they also expect us to win The European Cup as well. Not asking much are you? “But we’re Liverpool” Not anymore we’re not. Not as you once knew it. We haven’t been for over 20 years. Were we “Liverpool” throughout the past 15 years before Rafa came to the club, when we didn’t have a sniff of the league and were regularly knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the early rounds? If we’d even qualified for Europe at all. The current media frenzy surrounding our manager has whipped up the hysteria so much that everyone you speak to seems to view Rafa Benitez as a figure of ridicule. Fans of every other club are in on the act, but it’s not even close to listening to our own fans buying into it and being caught up in the media storm. Nobody seems to have a mind of their own anymore and are taken in by the media machine, sometimes without even realising. Look at the hysterical reaction to him bringing on Aquilani last night. Hysteria over a time wasting substitution in a game we’d just won! You’re disappointed we went out last night because of the high expectations our manager has set over his previous 5 years at the club. Before that it was deemed as a massive success to even qualify for the Group Stages, never mind qualify from them. Under Roy Evans we broke the British transfer record. Under Houllier we spent big money on players. So while Benitez has spent around the £20m on Torres, Keane, Aquilani and Johnson, the bar has been raised to a completely different level by the likes of Chelsea, Man City, Man United etc. We’ve been left behind financially due 20 years of mis-management, but it’s been made ten times worse over the past few years due to the leeches we now have as owners of our club that are slowly bleeding us dry. Do you really think Rafa wanted to go into this season with one striker? Do you really think he wanted to sign an aging Greek centre half for £1.5m instead of Michael Turner for £4m? Do you really believe he didn’t want to sign David Villa or David Silva in the summer? In January Chelsea will go out and spend big money on new players. Man City will go out and spend big money on new players. Man United will go out and spend big money on new players. Meanwhile, we’ll just be hoping and preying that the players we have to sell don’t go to one of the above! It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee for a lot of fans; time to wake up to the real issue and realise why we aren’t going to be winning League Titles or European Cups for the foreseeable future. The reason is not Rafael Benitez. (Source:www.redandwhitekop.cpm)
Tuesday Nov 24Posted by: Michael Owen 8 Comments »
Hamburg’s callingWe’re out of the Champions League after a disappointing night for Liverpool fans around the globe. One good thing to pick from the game was the win with a clean sheet, always nice to see even if the result over in Italy didn’t go our way. Anyway, we’re Liverpool F.C, we move on in the face of adversity. We’re now thrown into a competition which many of our supporters, including myself, have great memories of, even though it did have a different name. The Europa League, as it’s called now is a great chance to bring in some silverware this season, something we’ve been lacking for too long now. Regardless of what you may think about the team, the owners and the manger it’s time go get behind those 11 men on the pitch in their battle in the Europa League and domestic competitions. Everyone from the man who cuts the grass up to the manager needs to know we are behind them going forward into the rest of the season. We’re not a club that does negativity, let’s not start now. Remember Dortmund? M. Owen
Tuesday Nov 24Posted by: Antoine Zammit 2 Comments »
Europa league awaitsUnfortunately we did not make it to the Champions League knock-out stage. We did beat Debrecen thanks to a David N’Gog goal however we were not convincing enough in the game. Fiorentina beat Lyon 1-0 which means that we will now finish in 3rd place no matter what the score of our final game is. YNWA -Antoine antoine@empireofthekop.com www.empireofthekop.com
Tuesday Nov 24Posted by: James Barlow 4 Comments »
I LOVE RAFA!I love Rafa, but sometimes his starting team really screws with my head. We know he has brought some dummies, but we all know, only Arsehole Wenger has an eye for foreigners, who can play in a Premiership team. My point here is, Masc and Lucas both playing from the start. In my opinion they are both defensive, but more worrying, is the fact they do not produce enough goals, 5-10 would be good from midfield per season. (Goal). Now Aquilani is fit he should be starting, but if not fully fit maybe bring Gerrard back a bit and have Babel playing central up front or slightly behind the striker. I’m not saying Lucas is shit, because he is not, he is still settling and is improving, but it should be either him or Masc playing, not both, ( not enough goals). Rant over – YNWA ENJOY THE GAME AND FINGERS CROSSED.
|
|
||||||||||
HOME ADVERTISING ABOUT US CONTACT US LINKS SEARCH SOCIAL MEDIA The Empire of The Kop, copyright © 2013 All Rights Reserved |