They are not a mediocre side. They're in the European Cup quarter final, having already played us and the mancs, and have a solid recent European record. They're not amateurs you know. Their league season may not be great, but it's never going to look great compared to the big 2. And our own league looks a joke this year, given that the winner was known before Christmas.
.........
We parked the bus plenty of times in Europe with Houllier and Benitez, as you see below.
Houllier:
Sep 2000: v R Bucharest 0-0
Feb 2001: v Roma 0-1
Mar 2001: v Porto 0-0
Apr 2001: v Barcelona 0-0
Sep 2001: v Dortmund 0-0
Apr 2002: v B Leverkusen 1-0
Sep 2002: v Valencia 0-2
Mar 2003: v Celtic 0-2
Sep 2003: v Ljubljana 1-1
Nov 2003: v S Bucharest 1-0
Mar 2004: v Marseille 1-2
Benitez:
Aug 2004: v Graz 0-1
Sep 2004: v Olympiakos 0-1
Nov 2004: v Monaco 0-1
Apr 2005: v Juventus 0-0
Apr 2005: v Chelsea 0-0
Aug 2005: v CSKA Sofia 0-1
Sep 2005: v Chelsea 0-0
Nov 2005: v Betis 0-0
Dec 2005: v Chelsea 0-0
Feb 2006: v Benfica 0-1
Sep 2006: v PSV 0-0
Apr 2007: v Chelsea 0-1
Sep 2007: v Porto 1-1
Oct 2007: v Besiktas 1-2
Aug 2008: v Liege 0-0
Oct 2008: v A Madrid 1-1
Nov 2008: v Marseille 1-0
Sep 2009: v Fiorentina 0-2
Mar 2010: v Lille 0-1
Apr 2010: v Benfica 1-2
Apr 2010: v A Madrid 0-1
Dortmund was great, Istanbul was wonderful. But I'm a Liverpool fan so I don't have a short memory. There was 10 years of regular bus parking and dour, functional football above from the pair of them and if we're honest, it wasn't much fun to watch, even the few times it was effective. Today we win 5-0 and 7-0 away in Europe, go 3 up in half an hour. A different world to the above, and have 20 shots per game home and away. So at least we entertain, if the results go wrong. We'll have plenty more chances to score goals in the quarter final, assuming everyone stays on the pitch.
I can't be arsed going through the history books to be honest and looking for a good result to counter a poor one and vice versa. You've just picked a load of poor results out. I can counter it and pick a load of great ones out too but I can't be arsed mate. Its irrelevant right now.
You have a short memory in my opinion because even though we were defensively sound at times, we weren't negative and we certainly weren't boring. I find it a little insulting that you're calling our teams under Rafa negative, or that we parked the bus under him, when that man gave me some of the best nights I've ever experienced as a red.
I agree with you that he focused on defence at times. He had game plans, especially away from home in Europe. But we still had a flair about us. We were still able and tried to win games.
Atletico madrid are defensively sound. They're solid. But they still attack. They're great at going forward.
The juventus teams over the years have been the same.
Even Chelsea last season when they won the league. They were so hard to beat, very difficult to break down, but they were very good going forward too.
You have to find the right balance. Defence is as important as attack. There isn't anything wrong with being defensive and it's not a criticism but all I'm saying is man united and mourinho take it to a whole new level.
They're a massive club, absolutely huge, probably the second biggest in the world behind Real Madrid, and they've just played sevilla in the knock out rounds and parked the bus in both legs. You wouldn't get either houllier or Rafa doing that. And if you did, then I stand by what I say, I wouldn't be F***ing happy even if we got through. I'm a match goer and I couldn't get behind it.
And it's a difference of opinion on sevilla. They aren't what they were a couple of seasons ago. It's like parking the bus against Leicester and saying they won the league two seasons ago you know.
Sevilla aren't a top team by any means and if you haven't watched them that much this season then even our two games against them should tell you that. They might have got two draws but we all know it was our school boy comical defending that gifted them those points. The same way we've gifted Bournemouth and sh*te like that points too.