Champions Again!

[Smacktalks]

Bring on the champions league final!

[bigpoppn]

ManU VS Chelsea right?

I'm going with Chelsea.

[Aero]

me too.

its bad enough they are so close on par with liverpools league titles now, dont want them closing the European championships gap too.

esp on a season where the only things liverpool got were -

reina - golden glove award for most clean sheets

torres - record for most goals scored in prem in 1st season for a foreigner

lmao its pitiful really. most clean sheets and 2nd highest top goal scorer, only to finish 4th, miles behind utd... doesnt really add up does it?

[bigpoppn]

When's the final btw?

[Smacktalks]

The final's next Wednesday, 21st May.

I dunno what's up with Liverpool, surely it's got to be down to Rafa's squad rotation?

If Torres had played for the majority of matches Rafa dropped him, then I think you'd of been right up there.

[Aero]

i think its fair to say rafa gave up on squad rotation to the most part after a while, by the end of the season there was alot of players rarely rotated, to me, a little bit of rotation is fine, it rests players, some players are better against different teams (i.e hyypia i great, very tactical, but if he's up against a fast team, he's fucked, so play sum1 else), injuries (obviously) and it throws in a bit of an element of suprize, makes it harder for the oppossition to get their tactics right..

as such, a few decent signings, stick to this lesser rotation system and it's on.

i'm also hoping utd winning the league for the 17th time is that kick up the arse we need to protect our wee 18 league record. to think back in 91 we where on 18 league wins and ytd where on like... 7? wtf happened.

[Trips]

I'll tell you what happened Aero,

While all you scouse fans were arsing about because your past award records are so good, United got to not giving a fuck about the past and looking to the future.

I mean seriously, do you think any United fan really cares if we surpass 18 league titles or 5 european titles. We really, really dont care. We just want to win trophies now. That is I find the major chip on the shoulder of every Liverpool fan, that fact that you all think were bothered about the past, or maybe it's just because that's all you have got to cling to?

[Smacktalks]

I agree with Trips, i'm not arsed about surpassing Liverpool's trophy records, it's just about winning trophies each year for me.

The whole trophy thing is just something the media go on about to sell papers.

[Aero]

fuck off, i know its about winning at the time, lets face it i only remember 1 champions league win so whislt we won it 5 times is all well and good, it is all about the here and now, but when ur team sets records? thats even better trust me, if utd win the leage next 2 year running, making 19 leagues vs liverpools 18, that 19th win will feel all the sweeter.

[Trips]

The point that you have now mentioned those records in 3 seperate replies pretty much says it all.

Oh and also I'd like to raise a point with the theory that if Torres had played the majority of the season then Liverpool could have been up there. There is no doubting he is a world class striker but a friend of mine made a good point, with so many strikers suffering from being thrown into the deepend at Liverpool (i.e Morientes, Luis Garcia, Cisse, Baros...infact the only strikers career so far that hasn't been ruined by a move to Liverpool is Peter Crouch), then did nobody consider the possibility that Benitez was just breaking him gradually into the team and pushing him in training to climatize the players with him before they got on the pitch for a real match. I mean, he sparingly used Torres at first and I thought it was rotation, but he also did it to Babel who hardly featured the first third of the season.

I was already aware of how good Babel is from Holland games and his performances for Ajax in Europe, but I was really suprised when players like Pennant and Aurelio were pipping him to the strating line-up at the beginning of the season.

Just a thought.

[Aero]

garcia wasnt brought in as a striker,

rafa didnt like cisse and never gave him a chance, rarely played him as a striker and he got his leg broke,

morientes mayb, but i think he was just a bit shit in the premiership, couldnt adapt to it just, but perhaps ur on to something

baros... either ur right or he's shit.

my guess is he didnt throw torres into the deep end because he had kuyt and vorronin, giving them a chance, but rafa is a smart man really, so you may have a theory there.... altho, in typing this, mayb torres is the reason him and his no.2 fell out!?!?!

crouch is wasted at liverpool really.

i think rafa's problem with babbel is he's not a natural winger, he's confessed he would rather babbel plays in the center but he rarely had the option to do that and, from the few times he'd been pushed into the centre, sometimes as a lone striker, i can see why. yes he's fast, one hell of a finish, but his crosses aren't always that great, i'm hoping her gets to play more centrally next season, him, torres and gerard could be lethal.

also, 4th time in mentioning history, but i'm mayb so hung up on it as my dad grew up through the glory days, saw all 5 euro cups lifted etc, told stories about shankley, walked to an f.a. cup final in his bare feet... i dunno why tho, but point is, it was all these stories that made me fall in love with the team... plus we've won fuck all in comparisson to back then so i have to hold on to the legend until we start competing lol.