Saturday, October 28, 2006

Either F365 Mediawatch Is Cursed Or....

How Quickly Things Change


Story posted on F365 at 7.35am October 27: 'Roeder Backing Dyer To Shine'.

Story posted on F365 at 9.11am October 27: 'Roeder Hopes Dyer Is Free Of Injury'.

What are the chances Dyer has been ruled out before you get to this bit of the page?

Newcastle midfielder Kieron Dyer's injury jinx has struck once again after a freak training ground accident ruled him out for at least two weeks.

The 27-year-old, who returned to action as a substitute in Wednesday's 3-0 Carling Cup victory over Portsmouth after six months on the sidelines, damaged his left eye in training on Friday morning.

He was taken straight to see a specialist and has been told to stay out of contact training for a fortnight.


God, how unlucky is he?

Friday, October 27, 2006

Outburst From Board Member Uncalled For

I'm sure every Liverpool fans are pretty much aware of the outbust from one of the seven board members. It was on 'The Mirror' and apparently CEO Rick Parry and Chairman David Moores were livid. I too was taken aback by the attack because the board have always conducted themselves well over the years and suddenly this unnamed person just came out and blast Benitez and his team away. Losing to the Mancs might sparked some frustration, but this is unacceptable.

"We have paid too many inflated prices and inflated wages for players who are not doing the job,"

"When it comes to any manager, the view of the board has always been to let them get on with it. We do not believe in interfering.

"But the day will come when we may not be that way inclined any more. We have always been very respectful of any manager we appoint. The view has always been the same one, the right one - that the manager must stand or fall by his efforts.

"But one thing that we can't hide is that we have to be in the Champions League every season and if we do not qualify it will be a major problem.

"The budget we have set up is still in balance if we do not get into the Champions League. But if we are to make investment in the team we are talking about �20m of income we need to have every season."

"We were looking to do something in the league. We thought it would be this year and it's not going to happen now.

"Normally, by the time you get to October, you'd expect the manager to know his best team and stick with it but there are no signs of that happening now. I don't think he could tell you what his best team is."


But Liverpool CEO have released statement on his view on this matter and stated that he has faith in Benitez and his team.

"We understand the expectations at Liverpool but we are clearly moving in the right direction under Rafael Benitez,"

"We unquestionably have a better squad than we did last year so it is not about making judgments at this stage. There are no trophies handed out at the end of October, with the exception of the Community Shield which we have already won. You can only judge our performance over the course of a full season.

"We all knew there was a sizeable job to do when Rafa was appointed and that is why we have never laid down any timescales or imposed unrealistic pressures. What is important is continuous year on year improvement.

"The wins in Istanbul and Cardiff were great achievements which we celebrated together. Some of the early results in the league have not gone as well as we would have wanted which is why we have a collective responsibility to pull together and work even harder to improve things on the pitch."


Rafael Benitez?

"No comment."


When we are down, the press get on our back, the fans write into football websites to call for the head of Benitez and now we have a board member who's supposed to be behind the team, speaks out with no apparent reason. I call for all you supporters to stand for our beloved team and not let all these tribulation faze you. As a Liverpool fan I've seen worst and we're going through a rough path, I'm not denying. But where will they be without you lot?

Walk on, with hope in your heart.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Reds Survived Comeback

Carling Cup

LIVERPOOL 4 - 3 Reading

Scorers:
LIV - Fowler (44min), Riise (45min), Paletta (49min), Crouch (77min);
REA - Bikey (75min), Lita (80min), Long (84min);



A thrilling 7 goals thriller that's not shown on the Satellite Cable TV over here in Singapore. All I had is the YouTube video (on the post below) and of course through SportsCentre.

It's nice to see them back to winning ways despite conceding more goals. Liverpool seemed to have killed the game off when Crouch scored with a cool finish. But the resurgence of Reading seemed to have coincided with Rafa's decision to blood the youths by bringing on James Smith and Danny Guthrie. Perhaps inexperience in the side made us vulnerable and conceded late goals. But they managed to hold on to a slender 1 goal lead and will now face Coca Cola Championship side Birmingham City, whom will want to forget about the previous meeting with the Reds, which ended up with a 7-0 demolision.

Fowler wore the Liverpool captain's armband for the first time since 2001 and led by example by scoring an brilliant goal. The finish was calm, composed and exquisite. Only a player blessed with technique will be able to execute that with such perfection.

Riise's goal was pretty weird. He tried a pot shot at the 'keeper and he saved it, but unfortunately the rebound found it's way back to Riise who took his second chance well, bottom right corner of the net. Paletta headed in the corner from Pennnt brilliantly. It shows that we're training hard at our set pieces as it has been rare that we score from set plays while the previous 4 games notched up 3 goals from corners.

I will not be surpised to see Robbie Fowler in the starting eleven against unbeaten Aston Villa this weekend. But judging by Rafa's selection policy, it seemed Kuyt and Crouch to be the more probable partnership.

As some of you know, Dirk Kuyt's ailing father will be in the stands watching him and I'm sure Dirky wouldn't want to disappoint his dad. We have hungry strikers, but the rest of the team needs to buck up with their ideas and start to stand up and be counted. "Give yourself a chance to be heroes." Now is the time.

(Credits to GettyImages for the picture)

Watch Our Goals



Those were nice goals, especially Fowler and Crouch's one. I'm dying to see how we conceded that much amount of goals though. The defence still leaking left, right and centre. Good to see Fowler back as captain and scoring a wonderful chip, a reminsce of his old self, who scored bucket loads of goals for fun and with calmness and composure.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

You Have Diving, Shirt Pulling, Elbowing....

Now you have a brand new way of fouling people which is biting, or in Jermaine Defoe and Tottenham's case, 'nibbling'. I'm sure some of you might be aware the incident over the weekend in the game between West Ham and Spurs. Apparently Jermaine Defoe was tackled from behind by Javier Mascherano and in a fit of anger, the Spurs striker turned around and bit Mascherano in the arm!




Hahaha, funniest thing I've seen for weeks. Maybe after the 'Lasagne Gate', Martin Jol ordered his players not to eat raw meat and Defoe just got hungry....*chew*

Monday, October 23, 2006

Football 365's View On Chelsea

Again, not written by me but some bloke on the forums. It's sh*t funny but accurate at the same time because this is the sterotype you get on F365.


Petr Cech – only looks good because of the defense

Carlo Cudicni – money grabbing b*stard, only looks good because of the defense

Paulo Ferreira – José’s boot boy, sh*t

Ricardo Carvalho – totally sh*t, silly hair

John Terry – only looks good because of Makalele, 6th best defender in England., useless immobile thug, should play basketball, The Queen Elizabeth II turned quicker, chav b*stard

Ashley Cole – cashley c**t, formerly best left back in the world now sh*te and nowhere near as good as the best defender in the world now playing in N5, everything that is wrong with the world is summed up in him, his bird is a pig my missus is nicer

Michael Essien – utter thug deserves to have his legs broken, 26 million? 'avin a laugh!

Claude Makalele – old man, water carrier, slow overrated, Gilberto is far better

Frank Lampard – fat frw*nk, overrated, only looks good because of Makalele, only scores deflections ever, 2nd best player in the world?!?! Ha ha ha , Gerrard >>>Lampard, fat slow only got in West Ham team because of his dad, super goals, single handedly cost England the world cup we would’ve won it if it wasn’t for Lumpard, makes Gerrard play poorly for England, fat b*stard

Arjen Robben : the only player ever to dive ever in English football, overrated, runs funny

Joe Cole : downs syndrome, Jose has ruined him

Dider Drogba: utter sh*te, diving b*stard, big , girl silly, how much!?, dedicates goals to dead people but its really a PR stunt

Michael Ballack – money grabbing b*stard, is past it now anyway, slow and lumbering mercenary

Andrei Shevchenko – as of June the 1st 2006 became, over the hill, dodgy knees, biggest waster of money ever, Romans prize toy, only scored goals at Milan because of the midfield, overrated

Shaun Wright Phillips – who ? ruined by Chelsea, despite being brilliant every time he plays, was born to play for Arsenal how could Chelsea do this to him chav lotto b*stards

Manager : Jose Mourinho - owes everything to one offside descion, my nan could win the premier league with that money, Alan Ball is better in the transfer market, utter classless c**t who I hate, ruins players, has single handedly ruined English football

Owner : Roman Abramovich - murderer. resonsible for the deaths of many poor russian disabled kids. has utterely ruined football for everyone in the whole world, ugly wife who is about to bankrupt him so chelsea are doomed chav b*stards


Pretty accuratly sums up Chelsea with a bit of twists and sarcasm. No offense for that, because it's written by a Chelsea fan...

In Wake Of A Crisis

We often avoid the problems. This is something I'm doing today 'cause I'm too tired to talk about the match last night, the crisis and the full analysis on how sh*t Liverpool has been for the past 2 months. I'll provide you with some entertainment. Today, we have a list of really weird footballer's names. I compliled a list from the F365 Forums and some will make you giggle like little girls, honest!

  • Harry Daft
  • Segar B*stard
  • Johnny Moustache
  • Danny Invincible
  • Jermaine McSporran
  • Milan Fukal
  • Norman Conquest
  • Digital Takawira
  • Quim
  • Marian Suchancok
  • Peter Trousers
  • Junior Agogo
  • Bongo Christ
  • Roberto Lopez Ufarte - You Fart!
  • Dean Windass - I ALWAYS laughed at his name when I was younger, like 9 years old.
  • Kim Bum Suk - HAHA
  • Rafael Scheidt - Pronounce 'sh*t'
  • Wolfgang Wolf - He used to manage Wolfsberg. Honest!
  • Danny Sh*ttu
  • Stefan Kuntz
  • Nw*nko Kanu
  • Frank Aw*nka - Oei w*nker!
Any more to add on? Drop a comment!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

We Are Not Good Enough

English Premiership

Man. Utd 2 - 0 LIVERPOOL

Scorers:
MANU - Scholes (39min), Ferdinand (68min);



It's depressing to watch. And it's even more depressing and painful to type this post. I'm typing this with a heavy heart and all I can say is we need to stop deluding ourselves and take a good look at the team we love. We are not good enough and we're terrible. Just terrible. Where was the passion, where were the players and where was the Liverpool spirit. Everything gone up the smoke, the title, the confidence and the morale. It's even more painful that this last blow was struck by none other than Man U, our biggest arch rival. It was a killing blow and be honest with you, we will be struggling to get the 4th spot come end of season.

I don't really know where to start off because we're just terrible from front to back. There isn't even a single positive I can harness out of a completely inept Liverpool performance and all we can hope and pray is that we will take this harsh lesson and learn from it. But have we learnt ANYTHING after the 3-0 defeat to Everton and 1-0 to Chelsea? Players preached week in week out we need to improve but have we? Seriously, at least that 4-1 defeat to Chelsea last season was more bearable to watch because the players put in effort while we saw absolutely f*ck all from this bunch today.

We settled down well early in the game but the new Man Utd team is a completly different one from those of the previous few seasons. They showed much hunger and determination, winning lots of second ball and attacked with pace and tenacity while Liverpool sloppily passed the ball around and then surrendering possesion. Kuyt was never in the game because there wasn't support from anyone.

The defining moment came when Mark Gonzalez found Dirk Kuyt at the back post, unmarked. But I'm sure every Liverpool fans went 'as usual, b*llocks' seeing Kuyt heading the ball straight into the hands of van der Sar. It's becoming a serious problem when we had the chance to score but failed to put it away. We were not clinical and it's really a serious problem.

From that moment on it was all one way traffic till the final whistle, with United strolling in their own ground without any troubles from the Liverpool front line. They passed the ball well, kept the ball well and found lots of spaces. It was not long before they punish the sorry Liverpool defence, who were leaking goals left right and centre for most part of this seaso. Bordeaux didn't score because they're pretty crap at finishing just like us.

The Paul Scholes goal reminded me of the defence you faced when playing against an amateur opponent on FIFA 07. Paul Scholes left totally unmarked right in the middle of the penalty box without anyone picking him up and leaving a player of his calibre there is suicidal. He scored and you can sense there is no way back for the demoralised Liverpool team.

There was no fighting spirit from anyone of the players, from Gerrard to Reina. Everyone looked a shadow of their former self and is it any wonder they are chasing the United shadows as well. There was no passion and drive from anyone and nobody put up a performance worthy of more than a 6/10. It's like watching 11 empty shells running around with no sense or purpose, lacked ideas and imaginations. Nevermind about creating chances, we can't even defend.

Rio Ferdinand once again killed the game off with a wonderful strike. Don't take the credit away from him, but yet again, terrible defending. Where was Riise when Ferdinand was lurking at the back post? No one was around and everyone ball watching.

From then on you'll expect a normal side to at least kick into gear and try some luck. But the morale sapping second goal seemed to have K.Oed Liverpool for good and they're just walking around playing the time out. It was the longest 20 minutes in my life and I couldn't bare to continue watching Alonso/Gerrard misplacing a pass or Garcia trying to do one of his fanciful tricks that fooled nobody but his fellow team mates.

What's the problem now? I can't tell, because it looked like the problems have snowballed into one giant one and it's rolling down the ice mountain, gathering pace. Even as an optimist, I must speak with some objectiveness and I will announced that we're not okay and we're in a crisis. Don't call it a knee jerk reaction, but that's the truth and it's staring us in the face. 11th place and trailing United 11 points and only less than a quater of the season gone? It's embarassing.

We can find lots of excuses like players being off form and such. One of the major contribution will have to be our fixture list, which has been terribly unkind to us. As I've said in pre-season, we have a tough run in ALL the way till Christmas. Oh god and we're only half way there. It's a rocky start and it looked like the Liverpool wagon's wheels had fell off and it's struggling to even move on.

And what else can we hope for? There's always a light at the end of the tunnel. But I fear this tunnel will be a long one and I hope all you Liverpool fans can continue to endure this, for we have endured this for the last however long. It's really sad to say all this because we're sort of the long suffering fans who had seen some glimpse of hope here and there, but still got the disappointment every single season without fail. We delude ourselves into thinking 'this is our year', but we get disappointed every time. But what can we do? Hope for the best I guess..

Now it's really up to Rafa to really figure this out and to get his squad back on their feet. We cannot afford to lose all the motivation and drive by October and then crawling our way to the finish line. Finishing 4th this season must now be THE priority no matter what they say about us still having a chance. We have to be realistic and 4th is the best we can hope for, sadly.

About United Then....

You guys were brilliant. It pains me to say this, but it's a fact and we can't hide. We got outclassed and outplayed in every singe aspect of the game. Even if we have the better midfielders, we failed to dominate and well done to you, Red Devils. My money are on you for the title because there's one important thing I see in you. The hunger and drive that makes players like Giggs and Solksjaer to look world class even though they're almost over the hill. We can't predict the future, but it's all looking good for the Red Devils...

Liverpool And Schumacher....Make Or Break...

It's seldom we tie up Formula One racing together with football because there's totally no link between. But today we might be able to say that the fate of both Liverpool and Schumacher are somehow or other tied together, it's the make or break day for both. The German F1 driver will be driving round the circuits for one last time before he retires. He might be trailing Spaniard Fernando Alonso, but could his last race really be a coup de grace? A comeback might be on hand.

Liverpool meanwhile trails the rivals as well. Tonight's match against Manchester United might be the most important match thus far because this is really make or break. There might be the 'Big 4' teams in England competing at the top, but when it comes to tradition and history, no other teams can touch the two giants of English football. The meeting of Man Utd and Liverpool will be certainly a passionate one, spurred on by rivalry and the past. The eiptome of English football on show at Old Trafford.

The rise of Man U in the early 90s led to the eventual downfall of Liverpool and failed to wake up from the slumber until in recent times. FA Cups and Champions Cup aside, the Premier League title has eluded Liverpool for more than a decade and season after season, optimist fans love to say 'this is our season' and for the previous 15 times, it was all false dawn, false hopes.

This season we had to built on our domestic successes last year and to reform from a defensive minded team into a one that attacks with pace and tenacity, something we lacked so much over the years. The FA Cup was the icing on cake for a wonderful 05/06 season in which we finished third, a point below Man U. The reason we finished below them is simple, because of the game at Old Trafford, where we lost focus and concentration and conceded a late, late goal to Rubberlips Ferdinand. Now you can see the importance of this game already. One game that made the ultimate difference.

It might sound weird that our season is determined only after less than 10 games, but to be realistic, this is it. We cannot afford to drop any more points and a draw is something we must aim for at the VERY least. A loss will mark the end of our already faltering title charge and it will just be another of those season where it promised much, delivered little.

But rest assured my fellow fans, no matter what the outcome of tonight's match, we will come back strong and we know what this Liverpool team are capable of. Never write them off in any sort of circumstances. The spirit of Anfield, Istanbul and Cardiff never dies and hopefully, just like how Schumi is feeling now, we have nothing to lose and we will have to try and have a go at Manchester United, knowing that we are Liverpool and in football, everything is possible.

Will it all ends tonight? Or is it just a spark of the next dawn?