HJ

How can anyone watch the game last night and think Gabby played in the hole?

He certainly wasn't playing on the wing - just because he pops up wide doesnt make him a winger.

You must be the only person in the world who thinks he wasn't playing on the wing last night (first 70 mins). Seriously I'm not just having a go here, it's absurd that you think he wasn't told to play on the wing last night.

How can anyone watch the game last night and think Gabby played in the hole?

He kind of did for a period towards the end of the game, but I'd argue it wasnt playing in the hole; more uptop alongside Delfouneso.

Yeah he was moved when we did the subs (to play up top, not in the hole), I was just talking of this:

It didnt really strike me as though playing Gabby on the left (Downing?), he was popping up all over the place, his first missed shot was him drifting in from the left, but he also popped up all over the pitch. Houllier wants to play a 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 like the majority of teams finding success at the moment, and Gabby was in the hole with JC the target man?

How can anyone watch the game last night and think Gabby played in the hole?

MON spent £100m+ and took a team that had finished 6th the season before he arrived to 6th.

What the hell? 6th-10th-16th is where we had finished, it doesn't take a genius to see where that was heading to before Randy/MON.

Petrov was the worst player on the pitch, let alone our team, by a country mile!!

Derbyshire was comfortably worse than Petrov, didn't even hit the ball when he had a sitter.

Is there anyone who understands why Houlier plays Gabby on the left and Downing in the hole? Its bizzare

Gabby always ends up on the left anyway. That's the problem with playing him up front alone or as the main striker, I'm not sure he would work with Delfouneso up front. Gabby should have scored in the first minute, then Houllier would have been a genius.

It's completely different when Gabby plays striker, when he's on the wing he needs to track back and when he's up top he can wait for a break at the half way line like he did when we got the Downing chance. And strikers are supposed to run the channels nowadays if they capable.

Clark was excellent after the early slip up, motm. Fonz needs to play more.

wow Fonz almost

Wow, I've never seen Houllier look on the pitch looking so interested as he was there checking out that naked guy

That was going wide even, ha

YESSSSSSSSSSSS

I like Petrov but he should have been off there instead of NRC, he's had a mare

**** sake move Gabby up front NOW, the 0-0 isn't on anymore!

cocksucking ****

Derbyshire is **** terrible and Bentley is all fart no shit, they aren't going to score. Albrighton/Gabby are going to win this for us, just play Gabby up front

What if the new manager comes in and half the first team get injured and the other half dont like him and are pining after the old manager?

Well one positive thing here is that when Houllier gets replaced, not one of the players will be pining after him

Letting GMac deal with any upset players rings a bell. It's what Roy Evans had to do for Houllier at Liverpool. link

Despite his image as a taskmaster, Houllier hated confrontation. During their ill-fated partnership, Houllier left the delivery of bad news to Evans. The pair had agreed to jointly inform McAteer that he was being dropped. “I went to tell Jason the news and had to do it by myself because Gérard was nowhere to be seen,” Evans said. “It’s a shitty job at the best of times.” Evans subsequently found Houllier having a cosy chat with some of the club’s hierarchy, and when asked why he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, the Frenchman claimed to have forgotten. For a man who focused on every small detail, it was a strange excuse.

Also, players were not allowed to show their disappointment in front of the new manager. “He didn’t like having to deal with players expressing anger or frustration,” Evans explained. “He thought it showed a lack of respect for management and he had to be the dominant character. My own view is that you want to see players hurt when they’re dropped or when they’re substituted. Any self-respecting professional should be.”

Clearly it’s about getting a balance. A manager needs to be the boss, in total control. And players need to know their place. But there has to be some kind of dialogue, a willingness to hear ideas. And a manager needs to understand that disappointment at being omitted from the team, or at being substituted, is normal. There is of course an unacceptable level of dissent that any player can show towards his manager, but that’s not the same as merely expressing frustration. Good players should be keyed up, wanting to play. Robbie Fowler accused Houllier of buying meek characters who would gladly accept his decisions, but again this is about getting a balance. If players disrespect the manager and undermine his decisions, then that is working against the team. However, you need players with some kind of character and backbone.

Unique Methods

Gérard Houllier was the first Liverpool manager to employ rotation with fitness in mind, although in his case it was limited mainly to the strikers. Before Houllier arrived, team selection was based on form, and fitness, on the day. Now it was about trying to plan for a long season. In particular, Robbie Fowler suffered with the notion of rotation, given that he was dropped — or ‘rested’ — after scoring goals, and tended to sit out more matches than he started. But maybe that was more about him coming to terms with no longer being the first choice striker at the club; any manager will always have in his mind the identities of his preferred players, and Fowler was now third-choice.

Houllier’s main ethos was about the team, and equality. His philosophy on this was sound: “To me, the team is more important than any individual member of the squad, and the players have to realise that and accept that my priority is to pick a side with the best possible chance of winning each match.”

He wanted the players to bond: “I want camaraderie. Players have to get on well, be friends.” But that was clearly not the case — at least in his later years at the club. “I won’t let anybody raise a finger against the togetherness of the team otherwise I chop it immediately,” he said. El Hadji Diouf had another take on it. “The squad was not close-knit. The French were on one side, the English on the other and the Czechs on the other. [it must have been a triangular room he was referring to...] The players had enemies among themselves and Houllier never got the respect of any of them.” French defender Djimi Traoré had a slightly different view on Houllier: “He was much appreciated by the Englishmen and I can see why. But a lot of the French players didn’t have a chance to play and express themselves. We had to work twice as hard to play.” Of course, a number of English players resented Houllier too. Even allowing for the grudges that can build up at a club when disgruntled players are out of the first team, it doesn’t paint the picture of a unified club.

Is there anybody with any conections in getting some flags and banners done up in support for the Board and Houllier in time for the Sunderland game? We need to drown out the boo boys and give Houllier some support..

We need to make these players understand that the club will always come 1st in the eyes of us fans..

I challenge you to wave such flag - when were 0-2 down.

A white flag will be coming out the dugout at 0-1 anyway

Waving a flag would take effort

Thank god they have Jo on, we might get away with 5-0 or something

Friedel doesn't give a **** anymore either.

Man City fans ole'ing our pointless sideways passing in the middle.

Embarrassing.

Petrov didn't track him

What's going on there? He's their most important player

He had just one crossing opportunity in the game.. And the cross was better than anything I've ever seen from Luke Young. Looking forward to seeing him a bit more.

Not troubled much by Albion and if NRC had done his job on the post, we'd have had a clean sheet. Nice to see Cuellar back and we looked much more solid. Downing and Albrighton joint MOM for me. That 4-2-3-1 with Hogg and NRC mopping up and Abrighton, Downing and Young attacking with Heskey up front works well. Let's see what happens against Wigan tomorrow.

Bit harsh on Nigel!! He almost did his hamstring trying to stop that. Fault was the inability of our defence to jump for that ball allowing Sharnar a free header..

NRC stepped away from the post when the corner came in, it was moronic from him and he would have prevented the goal if he had just stood there like he was supposed to.

By the way, what did Cuellar do?

My stream cut off the last 5 minutes or so.

Let a diagonal ball go over his head to a winger because he read it wrong. Ended up a corner they scored from