In defence of Houllier

[hawkeye]

Pat Nevin's making a good case for the defence on 5live at the moment..

Anyone else listening?

No what did he say?

I listened,the jist of what  he said, it was unrealistic for a new manager to take over a club and not experience some problems

[tarzansbrother]

Yeah and he played Ashley Young as Centre half for the last 10 minutes against Sunderland.

Do you really think he told Young to go play there?
it dosent look good either way

Exactly. Who knows whats going on in our biggest game of the season. Under pressure he fukin lost it. Richard Dunne who he fucked off in the last few games was suddenly our saviour up front. I personally think Ashley Young is doing what he pleases.

[ozzjim]

Yeah and he played Ashley Young as Centre half for the last 10 minutes against Sunderland.

Love the complete sillyness of this post. The team pushed forward to get an equaliser, using the two big men to get knock downs. Young is creator, and often drops deep to instigate the play. Last season in the Uefa cup when losing he was playing the same position to get the ball forward and try and create with others in front of him.

Houlier is a really tough one. I really like the bloke for some reason, maybe it is the calm and the thinking, but for me he lacks an attack dog to do his shouting. He knows football and how top clubs should be run better than anyone else we could get though, and clearly has a handle on the issues behind the scenes that are not in place to make us successful. I also think his strategy of getting fullbacks in straight away shows recognition of the weakness in the modern game of not having good players in those roles.

However it is clear some players are simply not going to take to him, and that is hard to accept when they are paid so much money, it is like the kids thinking they know better, or Roy Keane storming out of the world cup for Ireland because of the training not being as he liked. I just think those that are being a barrier too him have too much ear in the dressing room it would appear, so need to be moved on as soon as possible.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Take a look back to MONs last season how many times did i read on these pages that he was living in the past, that football had past him by, that he only picks his favourites. If you think Houllier has put some players of side look at his predecessor and his spat with NRC and Luke Young then buying players such as Beye and never playing him (how much did that cost us or Randy). I can well imagine when Houllier came he panicked a little when he saw how backward we were and maybe his efforts to modernize put some players noses out of joint. All supposition i know but who knows. What i do know is this, whoever took over managing the squad had an herculian job ahead of him,  we were at the start of a decline, Randy had decided that too many players were getting too much money for doing nothing and it had to stop, we had very expensive average players on our books. This is going to be a painfull excersize, a total restructure is under way but if we are to be successful it has to be done.

I can't argue with a word of that Robbo. And all these years I've had you down as a miserable bugger. Please accept my sincere apologies.

[dave.woodhall]

Yeah and he played Ashley Young as Centre half for the last 10 minutes against Sunderland.

Do you really think he told Young to go play there?
it dosent look good either way

Exactly. Who knows whats going on in our biggest game of the season. Under pressure he fukin lost it. Richard Dunne who he fucked off in the last few games was suddenly our saviour up front. I personally think Ashley Young is doing what he pleases.

Manchester United won the Champions League doing just that. A goal down, two minutes to go, throw everybody forward and hope something happens.

[tarzansbrother]

Yeah and he played Ashley Young as Centre half for the last 10 minutes against Sunderland.

Do you really think he told Young to go play there?
it dosent look good either way

Exactly. Who knows whats going on in our biggest game of the season. Under pressure he fukin lost it. Richard Dunne who he fucked off in the last few games was suddenly our saviour up front. I personally think Ashley Young is doing what he pleases.

Manchester United won the Champions League doing just that. A goal down, two minutes to go, throw everybody forward and hope something happens.

Correct. But didnt they have 2 strikers up front. We had Dunne and Collins, who by the way where fukin rubbish for the whole half.

[ozzjim]

They had Bruce and Pallister in the box, oh and the keeper.

[tarzansbrother]

They had Bruce and Pallister in the box, oh and the keeper.

Sheringham and solkjear. We had Dunne and Collins.

[dave.woodhall]

They had Bruce and Pallister in the box, oh and the keeper.

Sheringham and solkjear. We had Dunne and Collins.

Who had as much chance of scoring as anyone.

[Risso]

Manchester United won the Champions League doing just that. A goal down, two minutes to go, throw everybody forward and hope something happens.

Not really the same.  They forced two corners, one of which Schmeichel went up for.  They scored from both of them.

Much more relevant was the fact that United sent on two forwards, Sheringham and Solskjaer, with enough time for both of them to make an impact.  They of course scored the goals.  Bit different from sending two midfielders on a minute from time.

[ozzjim]

Cause we have 2 forwards in our squad of that quality. Oh no, sorry, Martin didn't do forwards.

[tarzansbrother]

They had Bruce and Pallister in the box, oh and the keeper.

Sheringham and solkjear. We had Dunne and Collins.

Who had as much chance of scoring as anyone.

Dave your fuking kidding yourself. It was a circus for the last 10 minutes. Yes we had 10 men but i want a man who can react under pressure and Gerrard Houllier aint that bloke. Collins and Dunne aint hit a barn door this season and were fuking shocking for the 2nd half. Your telling me that Young,Gabby,Fonz wouldnt have had more chance to score in the last few minutes? We could have had Pires but he was still climbing out of his wheel chair.

[Shrek]

Yeah and he played Ashley Young as Centre half for the last 10 minutes against Sunderland.

Do you really think he told Young to go play there?
it dosent look good either way

Exactly. Who knows whats going on in our biggest game of the season. Under pressure he fukin lost it. Richard Dunne who he fucked off in the last few games was suddenly our saviour up front. I personally think Ashley Young is doing what he pleases.

Manchester United won the Champions League doing just that. A goal down, two minutes to go, throw everybody forward and hope something happens.

Sam Allidyce's teams play that way every week.

But it was pathetic having 'one of our strikers' telling Freidel to go away and taking a free kick in our own half.

[dave.woodhall]

They had Bruce and Pallister in the box, oh and the keeper.

Sheringham and solkjear. We had Dunne and Collins.

Who had as much chance of scoring as anyone.

Dave your fuking kidding yourself. It was a circus for the last 10 minutes. Yes we had 10 men but i want a man who can react under pressure and Gerrard Houllier aint that bloke. Collins and Dunne aint hit a barn door this season and were fuking shocking for the 2nd half. Your telling me that Young,Gabby,Fonz wouldnt have had more chance to score in the last few minutes? We could have had Pires but he was still climbing out of his wheel chair.

The only goal of that game. Remind me who it was scored by and his goalscoring record.

[tarzansbrother]

They had Bruce and Pallister in the box, oh and the keeper.

Sheringham and solkjear. We had Dunne and Collins.

Who had as much chance of scoring as anyone.

Dave your fuking kidding yourself. It was a circus for the last 10 minutes. Yes we had 10 men but i want a man who can react under pressure and Gerrard Houllier aint that bloke. Collins and Dunne aint hit a barn door this season and were fuking shocking for the 2nd half. Your telling me that Young,Gabby,Fonz wouldnt have had more chance to score in the last few minutes? We could have had Pires but he was still climbing out of his wheel chair.

The only goal of that game. Remind me who it was scored by and his goalscoring record.

They had Bruce and Pallister in the box, oh and the keeper.

Sheringham and solkjear. We had Dunne and Collins.

Who had as much chance of scoring as anyone.

Dave your fuking kidding yourself. It was a circus for the last 10 minutes. Yes we had 10 men but i want a man who can react under pressure and Gerrard Houllier aint that bloke. Collins and Dunne aint hit a barn door this season and were fuking shocking for the 2nd half. Your telling me that Young,Gabby,Fonz wouldnt have had more chance to score in the last few minutes? We could have had Pires but he was still climbing out of his wheel chair.

The only goal of that game. Remind me who it was scored by and his goalscoring record.

?, They had 3 strikers on the pitch at that time as well.