What do we really expect?

I've been reading a lot of topics about stuff like this and it does wind me up, for some reason people out there think it's our Devinne right to win the prem just because Rafa spent allot of money.
I agree we haven't been playing well this season but every team has bad patches look at man utd's start, Chelsea just before and after Jose went, spurs, i could go on but the fact is it happens and it will happen in future seasons. we have to deserve the right to win the league the players the managers the coaches the fans all of us.
Now look at the situation as it really is
6 points of top
in all comps
unbeaten
but i think a intresting point is we have always been great after Christmas when other teams feel a bit tired, i feel there is still allot to look forward to this season.
But ya know even if we win nothing this year i still;l think Rafa should be here to carry on his plan. its a fact a team needs time to gel and these lads will
with Rafa in charge i have more faith in us winning the prem  than i have under any manager i have seen come through the door (first was souness)
I know you cant please everyone and they will always be someone who wants Rafa out! but is there a better manager out there!

I don't think we have a divine right to win anything.

Also, I don't think Benitez has actually spent that much money.  I read somewhere it was £60 million net since he arrived.   He's had 4 summers with us so is this an enormous amount of money?  I would imagine that is the figure of money we earned from our two European campaigns that landed us in the final.

I take great confidence from our position in our league especially as we have been performing poorly - and we can only imagine where we would be if we start playing well.

 What do we really expect? of course to win Premiership...i think all of  u agree with this...
personal advice to Rafa for the Ravalution is u should looking for NEW RIGHT HANDS or an Assistant Manager to manage liverpool attack...   

I feel there are too many fans that think that a very good manager should take the club smoothly upwards and consistency get better and better.  But it doesn't work like this every club has ups and downs and its important to look at the bigger picture and measure performances over a longer time scale.  

I expect him to grow some cajone's and make things right with Pako! Too bad it wont happen.
I admit i was caught in the drift by the media and fans that this was Liverpool's year, now i see the big picture.
I would just like to see us contending for the title right down to the wire.
I think most would agree that they would have taken this current position we are in now at the begining of the season.

It is normal for a top-flight club to start the Premiership season expecting to win the title, especially after having a good run at it for two years straight coming forth and third, winning the Champions league and getting to the Final two years later.

I don't seen anything wrong with the improvement in the squad being translated to a right to win the League. Actually, a top-flight club the starts the season not thinking ''This is our year to win the Premiership'' has lost focus.

We played really well last season. but then we had that bad patch where we went nine games or more without a win and that made the difference, not necessarily because the other sides had better players. So we could have won the Premiership last season, but the bad patch. We were going at it also this season, then came the draws (bad patch?). So the Manager must do something to avoid too many bad patches. Scums have had over 50 unbeaten runs, and we're better than the scums.

So people are bound to become restless and agitated when it looks like we're dropping points we could have easily picked.

We can still win the Premiership this season. We are still in contention. 'It ain't over till the fat lady sings''

We can still win the Premiership this season. We are still in contention. 'It ain't over till the fat lady sings''

I'm glad to see I'm not the only person who believes we can still win the league.

We're only six points off the top, better than we have been at this stage in the last three seasons, and ever since Rafa arrived we have been much better in the second half of the season (thanks to the much criticised rotation poilicy IMO). I'm definitely not giving up hope yet, and I stick by my prediction I made near the start of the season. If we remain only six points off the top come the new year I believe we will win the league.

we could win the league this season, nothing is impossible, but the chances we will are slim IMO

the 'other' three already had better, more expensive and experienced squads and then they flexed their financial muscles and spent again

their respective boards probably realised their rivals were gonna strengthen, especially with our takeover, and decided they needed to take it up another level.

football is business, big business.
big businesses need to make big money, and they've invested heavily.

we havent spent as heavily. full stop.

Apart from arsenal, (which incidently, looks like we are seeing arsene wengers long term plan coming to fruition)
man u and chelsea have added tevez, pizzaro, alex, nani ,malouda, anderson etc to their already very strong squads.

with all this in mind, i can realistically see us coming 4th this year.
in fact it wouldnt surprise me at all, but 2nd or third are definite possibilities too.

we could win the league this season, nothing is impossible, but the chances we will are slim IMO

the 'other' three already had better, more expensive and experienced squads and then they flexed their financial muscles and spent again

their respective boards probably realised their rivals were gonna strengthen, especially with our takeover, and decided they needed to take it up another level.

football is business, big business.
big businesses need to make big money, and they've invested heavily.

we havent spent as heavily. full stop.

Apart from arsenal, (which incidently, looks like we are seeing arsene wengers long term plan coming to fruition)
man u and chelsea have added tevez, pizzaro, alex, nani ,malouda, anderson etc to their already very strong squads.

with all this in mind, I can realistically see us coming 4th this year.
in fact it wouldnt surprise me at all, but 2nd or third are definite possibilities too.

We didn't have Babel and Torres last season and we still got to the finals of the Champions league, we already have a good team and the addition of Torres, Babel, Benayun and Veronin (judging by his last outing) can only strengthen the squad. We can still win it, regardless of how much more money the others spent. You miss the part where we spent about 26 million on Torres and he was sidelined for almost 2 months. That goes to tell you that the players are human beings, not robots; injuries, exhaustion and too many yellow cards often take their toll on a player.

We can still win it. 

ok just to reiterate my point ,

your right we can still win it, and dont get me wrong i'd love us to win, but im just bein realistic,
i just dont think we will win it.

not this year anyway.

the other teams have much more talent.

winning a few cups / knock-out competions does not give you the right to challenge in this league.

not yet anyway...

and i have faith in rafa as his plan is slowly starting to take shape. :

January will be THE key month for us - on and off the field.

We will NEED to off load some players to raise some funds as well as paying for the Masch contract (GBP 16M).

If we get genuine quality in to compensate for JAR departure (has to go) and cover for Carra (playing loads of games and will need a rest soon) - then we have a genuine chance of the title.

My only concern actually isn't financial - IT IS ABOUT US - at home the fans are NOT HELPING the players to settle...  We need go get behind them EVERY player needs our support while he is still wearing that LFC shirt... yes even when the chips are down. The library silence has a totally negative effect on our players. When we sing, we lift them and they have confidence...

Reds to win the Prem title - almost lost faith in that a couple of weeks back when Torres and Xabi got injured - but now with Torres firing again... and Xabi and Agger about to return... literally anything could happen... and that "anything" includes winning the Prem title!

KEEP THE FAITH. IN RAFA WE TRUST. COME ON YOU REDS.

WHAT DO WE REALLY EXPECT?- to wins teams like Birmingham at home and push us closer to utd and arsenal in the race for the title.

I expect nothing.

I hope for everything.

At the moment we are still in contention for everything but you wouldn't believe it given some of the comments above and on other threads.

I expect nothing.

I hope for everything.

At the moment we are still in contention for everything but you wouldn't believe it given some of the comments above and on other threads.

Well said Oldred, quite agree with you.

The problem with Rafa is he over analyzed and too tactical at times to the extend that opposition teams could to an extend read our game. Football is a simple game, as the past Liverpool legends will tell us. How many times we have set out to the continent and destroyed teams and brought back trophies. In recent years, 2005 CL final would be a testimony to what I've mentioned and that's the closest that we can match the past Liverpool teams because we were just playing a simple brand of football, attack and keep it tight at the back. We were ruthless then but yet gave the opposition the utmost respect.

The biggest problem at the moment is the players, particularly between the midfield and the strikers do not gel fully, if Rafa can work on that fast then we will be truly handful.

So, in summary I'd only expect the midfielders and forwards to have better understanding and that itself would suffice for the moment.

At the moment we are still in contention for everything but you wouldn't believe it given some of the comments above and on other threads.

It seems some people have forgotten that we have just had two cracking games, just because we've had an international break. As I said before personally I am still confident we can win the league this season, and I'm almost certain we'll win something. Unfortunately it seems that whatever we do isn't gonna be enough for some people.

As I said before personally I am still confident we can win the league this season, and I'm almost certain we'll win something. Unfortunately it seems that whatever we do isn't gonna be enough for some people

there is every chance we will win something, most likely one of the cups though.

we are not quite up there yet with regards to winning the toughest league in the world.

its all good and well to be optimistic, but lets be realistic guys.
we are very much still a work in progress and Rafa is only just starting to put his plan into effect.

lets give him a chance - but we will not win the league this year !

there is every chance we will win something, most likely one of the cups though.

we are not quite up there yet with regards to winning the toughest league in the world.

its all good and well to be optimistic, but lets be realistic guys.
we are very much still a work in progress and Rafa is only just starting to put his plan into effect.

lets give him a chance - but we will not win the league this year !

If we do - yo must climb up a lampost naked as the open topped double decker bus with Prem cup onboard goes by Lime Street station.

Deal?

Come on - let's want it badly - "next season" syndrome is for other clubs... not this one. We CAN do it - AND WILL.

We will be calling it "mañana syndrome" at LFC soon... ;0)

After thinking our chance had gone, I now have a slight hope that if we can keep on the heels of the arse and manure up to xmas, we can maybe haul them in, in the new year. Just a possability but hope all the same. I think to achieve this, we have to play with a more positive approach and a more settled side for five or six games at least.

I don't expect anything apart from passion and hard work for the red shirt.

If there is quality players on the pitch and you add passion and hard work. Then there's always a chance we can be challenging for anything we play for.

Last season after 12 games we had 17 points, a quarter of the 68 points we finished on.

The season before we had 22 points at the same stage, again roughly a quarter of the 82 we ended up with.

This season we are on 24 points after 12 games, if we stay true to form and this turns out to be a quarter of our final tally, personally I will be a very happy man.

I'm sorry but I really can't understand the point all the doom & gloom merchants are trying to make. I don't think anyone is gonna argue that every year we get better as the season goes on, and we've had our best start in the league under Rafa. To me this indicates that unless something goes terribly wrong we are going to also have our best finish in the league, maybe not quite good enough to win it but certainly a lot closer than we have been.

The point raised to 'prove' what a bad position we're in tends to be the fact that we've put in poor performances, and I'm not gonna deny that, but again I don't see that as a reason for us not being successful this season. We're not gonna play poorly for the whole season, if we can average two points a game whilst we are playing badly imagine what we'll do when we're on form?

As I've said in numerous threads, if we keep within six points of the top come Christmas, something which isn't looking unrealistic, I believe we can go on & win the league this season.

We must win at places like Newcastle to really -deserve- to be in the title race.

...but here we are again, wondering if SG and/or PC...and or a host of others (thankfully Torres not amongst them) will return injured this time round...

Saturday morning is as big as any other game this season - we need to stay the pace while others (Arsenal for sure, Chavski in Jan and Manure when Tevez and Rooney have their first training ground bust-up...) will trip and stumble...

As I've said in numerous threads, if we keep within six points of the top come Christmas, something which isn't looking unrealistic, I believe we can go on & win the league this season.

Be nice if we were top at Christmas though.  If we could kick on from the last two games with the same team (subject to Agger's, Xabi's & Yossi's fitness) I could see it happening.  Newcastle should give us an indication if I am, as usual, being blindly optimistic or if there is cause to get genuinely excited.

Last season after 12 games we had 17 points, a quarter of the 68 points we finished on.

The season before we had 22 points at the same stage, again roughly a quarter of the 82 we ended up with.

This season we are on 24 points after 12 games, if we stay true to form and this turns out to be a quarter of our final tally, personally I will be a very happy man.

I'm sorry but I really can't understand the point all the doom & gloom merchants are trying to make. I don't think anyone is gonna argue that every year we get better as the season goes on, and we've had our best start in the league under Rafa. To me this indicates that unless something goes terribly wrong we are going to also have our best finish in the league, maybe not quite good enough to win it but certainly a lot closer than we have been.

The point raised to 'prove' what a bad position we're in tends to be the fact that we've put in poor performances, and I'm not gonna deny that, but again I don't see that as a reason for us not being successful this season. We're not gonna play poorly for the whole season, if we can average two points a game whilst we are playing badly imagine what we'll do when we're on form?

As I've said in numerous threads, if we keep within six points of the top come Christmas, something which isn't looking unrealistic, I believe we can go on & win the league this season.

good post Eddie C...the stats speak for themselves. We are going in the right direction

I feel that the other 3 (ManU, Chelsea and Arsenal) will at some point have 'wobbles', either hit by injuries or loss of form etc and will drop points. If we can stay with them for now and then have a great run near the end it will be very close

'This season we are on 24 points after 12 games, if we stay true to form and this turns out to be a quarter of our final tally, personally I will be a very happy man'



96 points at the end of the season anyone? 

We are optimistic because we have reason to be...the sceptics/cynics are expecting us to brush aside "lowly" opponents effortlessly, conquering all and sundry. A bit of an exaggeration maybe, but given our position at this stage we still have every chance of being champions. But it would be fair to say that it is the performances on our way to our 24 points/near champions league exit that has left a bitter after taste.

If we win the league, these last 12 games will simply be a means to an end, something we look back on and say "...its because we started better than we have in ages..." so we should look at it for what it is.

Its quiet optimism that keeps me sane. Don't get me wrong, I was as annoyed as the next fan at dropping points in the prem and losing against the Turks and French, but I always knew that sooner or later we would find our stride and start producing the kind of displays that makes us title contenders. Once the emotion subsides and I look at our league position it is encouraging. We want to dominate European Football again and we want to start at home, but in order to mount a sustainable challenge, the right structures must be in place...and these take time to build. It could start this season...and I hope it does. If we look around though, we'll see that we are headed in the right direction.

Walk on...

but in order to mount a sustainable challenge, the right structures must be in place...and these take time to build.

couldn't agree more

We are optimistic because we have reason to be...the sceptics/cynics are expecting us to brush aside "lowly" opponents effortlessly, conquering all and sundry. A bit of an exaggeration maybe, but given our position at this stage we still have every chance of being champions. But it would be fair to say that it is the performances on our way to our 24 points/near champions league exit that has left a bitter after taste.

If we win the league, these last 12 games will simply be a means to an end, something we look back on and say "...its because we started better than we have in ages..." so we should look at it for what it is.

Its quiet optimism that keeps me sane. Don't get me wrong, I was as annoyed as the next fan at dropping points in the prem and losing against the Turks and French, but I always knew that sooner or later we would find our stride and start producing the kind of displays that makes us title contenders. Once the emotion subsides and I look at our league position it is encouraging. We want to dominate European Football again and we want to start at home, but in order to mount a sustainable challenge, the right structures must be in place...and these take time to build. It could start this season...and I hope it does. If we look around though, we'll see that we are headed in the right direction.

Walk on...

This gets my vote for post of the year. Great stuff......

We are optimistic because we have reason to be...the sceptics/cynics are expecting us to brush aside "lowly" opponents effortlessly, conquering all and sundry. A bit of an exaggeration maybe, but given our position at this stage we still have every chance of being champions. But it would be fair to say that it is the performances on our way to our 24 points/near champions league exit that has left a bitter after taste.

If we win the league, these last 12 games will simply be a means to an end, something we look back on and say "...its because we started better than we have in ages..." so we should look at it for what it is.

Its quiet optimism that keeps me sane. Don't get me wrong, I was as annoyed as the next fan at dropping points in the prem and losing against the Turks and French, but I always knew that sooner or later we would find our stride and start producing the kind of displays that makes us title contenders. Once the emotion subsides and I look at our league position it is encouraging. We want to dominate European Football again and we want to start at home, but in order to mount a sustainable challenge, the right structures must be in place...and these take time to build. It could start this season...and I hope it does. If we look around though, we'll see that we are headed in the right direction.

Walk on...

Well said Saffi 7. Couldn't agree more with that. Especially with what I've highlighted. It explains exactly how I feel about things.

We are headed in the right direction and we are making progress. So no one can expect more than that, surely? It takes a lot of hard graft to win the league and I firmly believe at this moment we are in a very good position in general to keep working hard and to keep improving. Maybe one of the best for many years. We can only get better as the season progresses. I hope...