PS Mr Lerner

[Rancid custard]

I think the first post pretty much summed it up for me. I'll give GH a bit of credit for his audacity/foolish bravery to field a weaker team and even suggest we weren't going to win either way (I mean really, it takes a huge pair of bollocks to do that) but beyond that fuck him. What a slap in the face.

Maybe the club could email us the team sheet so we can decide whether to bother turning up or not, maybe even make a theme evening around it - Squad numbers attached to raffle prizes and everyone's a winner when Gerrard spins the tombola and pulls out a name for his team sheet.

[Chris Smith]

How many people slating Young and Downing in recent months have complained about them being rested last night I wonder?

I haven't really slated either. However, I think even those that had would recognise that they both played excellently against Blackburn. It would therefore be madness, when they appeared to be in top form, to rest them for our biggest game of the season.

And therein lies the difference. To you, as a fan, it is the biggest game of the season. To the manager and owner it is secondary to ensuring we don't get relegated. We've all seen the accounts and can be left in no doubt that going down would be very difficult to deal with, we just cannot afford to take the risk.

[Chris Jameson]

I wonder if next season we can opt out of the cup competitions so we can concentrate on making 12th spot in the league?

[Dave Cooper please]

Gabby has been playing there regularly,

And has been mostly, in the opinion of most people I speak to, shite.

[Clampy]

I've had Steeler's Wheel 'Stuck in the Middle with you' in my head most of the day, in particular the lines 'Trying to make some sense of it all, but i can see it makes no sense at all'.

Pretty much sums up what i think of last night.

[cdbearsfan]

 

How many people slating Young and Downing in recent months have complained about them being rested last night I wonder?

I haven't really slated either. However, I think even those that had would recognise that they both played excellently against Blackburn. It would therefore be madness, when they appeared to be in top form, to rest them for our biggest game of the season.

And therein lies the difference. To you, as a fan, it is the biggest game of the season. To the manager and owner it is secondary to ensuring we don't get relegated. We've all seen the accounts and can be left in no doubt that going down would be very difficult to deal with, we just cannot afford to take the risk.

But yesterday's performance does not 'ensure' that we don't get relegated. Baggies were in the top six when they decided to give up on the League Cup and play their reserves in the Quarter-Finals. They're in the shit now.

[ozzjim]

I have read through the last few pages, and Chris is right and rather than spend time writing out my opinion on the whole thing again, he is arguing the same position I would so I will simply use a lot of words to agree with him.

[Chris Smith]

Gabby has been playing there regularly,

And has been mostly, in the opinion of most people I speak to, shite.

That's a different argument though, this is about him playing a weakened side when Gabby is mostly a first choice. The only selections I saw as particularly contentious were Herd and Bradley.

[JUAN PABLO]

Be interesting how many fans turn up , If we get a home draw in the 3rd round next season.

[Chris Smith]

But yesterday's performance does not 'ensure' that we don't get relegated.

Of course it doesn't but in his judgement it gives us a better chance than if the players had all played 90 minutes last night.

[cdbearsfan]

In my judgement we would've been better persevering with the team that had only lost one of the last nine or so games and had a thumping four-one win at the week-end.

We're not going down anyway. If Houllier is that much of a scaredy-pants I doubt he'll be able to motivate us to a huge number of future glories.

[ozzjim]

I would prefer us to be safe in the league, regardless of the result at Bolton, and within a chance in the FA cup when stronger next season, than up shit creek with our financials in the championship and with no possibility of even competing in either cup for the next 5-10 years.

[Clampy]

But yesterday's performance does not 'ensure' that we don't get relegated.

Of course it doesn't but in his judgement it gives us a better chance than if the players had all played 90 minutes last night.

The thing is though Chris, if we had played our full strength side last night and lost, we would have only had to play another 2 games this month anyway.

[Pete3206]

I didn't see Reading's team sheet, but I wonder if their manager believed that his team stood no chance at Goodison Park.

Houllier's defeatist attitude is pathetic.

[5ft811st2 Durham]

   Ok, so I can see both sides of the argument here and I didnt spend money going to city last night but I did spend 60quid going to see us beat blackburn at the weekend. I saw one of the best displays from our boys in a long time, controlled, passing, incisive football. Just like I argued would come when you were all calling for GH to be sacked three months back. In all honestly, do you believe that without cuellar, collins, makoun and bent we stood a really decent chance of getting a result last night? Honestly? I dont.
   We have notably collapsed in the last 10minutes several times this season and are 3days away from going to one of the fittest, physically strongest teams in the PL. Relegation is still a possibility but so is europe and with the run in we have, I think the latter is more likely if we are smart with how we handle the rest of the season.
   Yes its the cup, and yes, ive got all my ticket stubs in my top drawer in the hope that we got to wembley but circumstances went against us last night.
   I criticised MON heavily for not rotating as im sure did others, so im not going to be hypocritical enough to critise GH for rotating....several players were individually very good last night and deserved their chance. I just hope the decision is vinidicated and Ashley/Downing combine for an 85th min winner at the weekend.
   Ill be looking out for a few names on the post match thread....

I think you're deluding yourself about the Blackburn game because Blackburn are utter garbage and let us play in the same way that we let Man City play last night..

It may be more relevant to point to recent games against Man City  Fulham and Blackpool and we didn't play well in any of those.


In my view we will never achieve anything with Houllier as manager and any progress we are alleged to have made in recent weeks is just an illusion