Reasons to be optimistic coming into 2nd half of season

[Concrete John]

I think we're actually pretty evenly matched as sides at the moment , so I'd be thinking possibly a 1-1 draw, dependent on which Villa side shows up.

[Mister E]

The thing about the L''The Mighty Reds YNWA' game is that I suspect their CB will do rather better against Benteke than others have recently.
Whereas against Chelsea, I can see our Christian beating up on their defenders something rotten!

[Concrete John]

The problem is that against some clubs/players a striker like Benteke gets unfairly penalised.  I noticed this a lot with Carew and John Terry, where the adultress racist would appeal for a foul everytime Big John came near him.  And he usually got it! 

[Mazrim]

I reckon Benteke will give Skrtel nightmares. Don't rate him at all.

[OCD]

John Terry must hate playing against Gabby. He's always got too much pace and power for him. I don't know how long before Terry's back though.

[Lambert and Payne]

We always cause Chelsea problems, Benteke and Gabby would tear their defence apart. I'm more confident about Chelsea than the Liverpool game

[ozzjim]

I reckon Benteke will give Skrtel nightmares. Don't rate him at all.

Same here. Not a fan of Agger either.

[PaulWinch again]

I rate Agger highly, don't rate Skrtel at all.

[PeterWithesShin]

What exactly does Agger do do do?

[D.boy]

Pushes pineapple, shakes the tree!!!!

[JUAN PABLO]

Pushes pineapple, shakes the tree!!!!

Do you really know the words?     

[Mister E]

I reckon Benteke will give Skrtel nightmares. Don't rate him at all.

No, but both their first-choice CB are pretty rugged; whcih was my point (having said that, he beasted Huth and Shawcross last week so maybe I'm just wrong!).

[Astral Weeks]

Threads like this worry me a little. Not because I disagree with the sentiments but because of the raised expectations that it reflects. It's still a young, developing side and there will be setbacks along the way.

Now I've got that out of the way, for the majority of us with the patience and good sense to see what is going on it's going to be a really enjoyable journey.

Agreed. There's still a lot of hard work to do, and I think we're still a million miles away from where PL wants to be. That said, I'm beginning to feel a tiny bit excited about where this side might go, and the ways in which they might develop. And I get the impression that PL is the last bloke to get complacent.

PL played at Dortmund of course, and it's no surprise that he's following the Dortmund model as a manager, i.e. buying promising players at bargain prices and promoting youngsters from within the club structure. It's an approach that's worked a treat for them, let's hope it can do the same here.

[fredm]

I think the next transfer window will be important in that I believe PL will have a couple of players lined up and hope that RL will back him.  Then, hopefully, we can move out of the bottom third of the table and if we do it would not surprise me to see a few of the younger players (eg Williams etc) be given some game time to see how they adjust so he knows what will be required next summer.

[LeeB]

I think the manager has shown in startling fashion that he is capable of spending money well and managing his squad financially, and as a result the chairman will repay that by backing him strongly.