Comments on: More on the missing picture http://archive.anfieldroad.com/news-archive/201007113755/more-on-the-missing-picture.html/ The Archives. Liverpool FC. 18 titles. 5 European Cups. Unofficial Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:03:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jim Boardman http://archive.anfieldroad.com/news-archive/201007113755/more-on-the-missing-picture.html/comment-page-1/#comment-8714 Jim Boardman Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:34:26 +0000 http://www.anfieldroad.com/?p=3755#comment-8714 If Rafa hadn't left I think I'd spend more time responding to inaccuracies in the comments, alongside what are of course just different opinions that we're all entitled to. Harry - I'd be interested in your definition of what "come close to challenging for the title" actually means. You talk about "the team's failure to mount a challenge during his 5 years in charge". He was in charge for 6 years not 5. He won the Champions League in the first season, he finished one point off 2nd with a record points total for the club - and the FA Cup in his second season. His third season he got us to another Champions League final. In his fourth season it was "only" the semi-final of the CL and "only" 4th in the league. His 5th season he mounted what few people would class as anything other than a title challenge as he broke the club's points total again - 86 points. That is how many points Chelsea needed to win the league last season. His 6th season was the bad one, was enough of what went wrong in that single season enough to justify getting rid of him? He didn't win the league in the 6 years, but he did challenge for it. You don't think he did, and you suggest that as a result of that it was "brave and correct" for Purslow to sack him. You don't think other circumstances were the cause of the "failure" in the league. So what can we expect from the new manager? Because if your argument is right, we should expect him to win the league in his first season - no excuses whatsoever, no blaming of 'circumstances', just a guaranteed league title coming back to Anfield. Your argument is that he had to be sacked because he didn't do as well in the league as he should have done in the circumstances he was in. That someone else will almost certainly do better than Rafa did and that Roy Hodgson fits the bill to do better than Rafa did. Personally I think that's a crazy expectation to have, and one that will put more pressure on the new manager than he deserves, but I can't see how you can have any other expectation if you feel it was right to sack the manager for his league record over the course of his reign. EDIT: As I said at the start of this comment, if Rafa was still here there'd be a lot more merit in going over all these points in more detail but he has gone now. It's difficult to discuss expectations without referring back to Rafa and without knowing what kind of budget and freedom to buy, sell and keep players the club gives to Hodgson. If Rafa hadn’t left I think I’d spend more time responding to inaccuracies in the comments, alongside what are of course just different opinions that we’re all entitled to.

Harry – I’d be interested in your definition of what “come close to challenging for the title” actually means. You talk about “the team’s failure to mount a challenge during his 5 years in charge”. He was in charge for 6 years not 5.

He won the Champions League in the first season, he finished one point off 2nd with a record points total for the club – and the FA Cup in his second season. His third season he got us to another Champions League final. In his fourth season it was “only” the semi-final of the CL and “only” 4th in the league. His 5th season he mounted what few people would class as anything other than a title challenge as he broke the club’s points total again – 86 points. That is how many points Chelsea needed to win the league last season. His 6th season was the bad one, was enough of what went wrong in that single season enough to justify getting rid of him?

He didn’t win the league in the 6 years, but he did challenge for it.

You don’t think he did, and you suggest that as a result of that it was “brave and correct” for Purslow to sack him. You don’t think other circumstances were the cause of the “failure” in the league.

So what can we expect from the new manager? Because if your argument is right, we should expect him to win the league in his first season – no excuses whatsoever, no blaming of ‘circumstances’, just a guaranteed league title coming back to Anfield.

Your argument is that he had to be sacked because he didn’t do as well in the league as he should have done in the circumstances he was in. That someone else will almost certainly do better than Rafa did and that Roy Hodgson fits the bill to do better than Rafa did.

Personally I think that’s a crazy expectation to have, and one that will put more pressure on the new manager than he deserves, but I can’t see how you can have any other expectation if you feel it was right to sack the manager for his league record over the course of his reign.

EDIT: As I said at the start of this comment, if Rafa was still here there’d be a lot more merit in going over all these points in more detail but he has gone now. It’s difficult to discuss expectations without referring back to Rafa and without knowing what kind of budget and freedom to buy, sell and keep players the club gives to Hodgson.

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