Stoke

Come off it Fred, Liverpool should be challenging for the title, and any defeat is an indication that Rodgers should be sacked.

Apparently.

To be honest, we were awful, but considering the state of flux we're in, I don't think there have been too many performances like that, where there are little to no positives to be taken. Most of the times we've dropped points you would be able to say we played well enough.

In my opinion, there are very few Liverpool fans (on the internet, at any rate) who have any real perspective in terms of what level we're at. I have a lot of friends who are United fans; they're at a level where they're challenging for most trophies that they're involved in, so every defeat seems like a disaster to them and there is a full, no holds barred post mortem every time they don't win.

Incredibly, a lot of our fans treat us the same way, failing to realize that we're actually going to drop a lot of points, because since we last dined at the top of the table (2009) we were ripped apart by horrid owners, seen some woeful mismanagement and awful transfers and finally decided to employ Rodgers and put the long-term first while we recuperate.

Unfortunately, that reality just isn't good enough for a lot of our fans. They don't look at the league table and say "You know, looking at what's gone on at various clubs over the past 4 years, we don't really have any business expecting to out-perform clubs like United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Everton etc", for our fans it seems that we're Liverpool and we have a divine right to be dining at the head of the table. Anyone who can't deliver that straight away just isn't up to it for these people.

I'm not impressed with today's performance, our players were atrocious. But, considering everything that's gone on at the club, if you said to me that there'd be a few games where we'd put in irredeemable performances, I'd say it was understandable. If you went one further and said one of our worst performances would be at Stoke, it wouldn't surprise me one jot.

I'm just sick of the ridiculous expectations and, worse, the fans who think there was some magic solution we could have used in the summer that would have seen us waltz into the top four. They actually seem to revel in defeats such as today and post tripe that, more or less, amounts to the jumping up and down screeching "I TOLD YOU SO! I TOLD YOU SO!"

Rodgers should be given every chance to overhaul our woefully overvalued squad. He's trying to instill a brave style of play on us, and performances like today don't indicate any massive faults in him, they emphasise the size of his task. Rodgers always wants us to play progressively, but today the players resorted to falling into Stoke's cycle of kick and rush, because the players we have aren't good enough or brave enough to seek the ball and keep their heads in every situation. Not all teams will play as relentlessly or effectively at Stoke, but it still underlines how far we have to go.

I'm absolutely sozzled at the moment, by the way, but I'm nearly positive that I'll stand by all of that^^^ when I wake up.

Goodnight.

I signed in to tell you Dr that i wholeheartedly agree with that essay you have just written

Great post DR

I agree with you doc. When you wake up form it into an article!

great post Dr ( from a neutral-ish ) I think its the modern day football forum fan, they are to reactionist and have little to no patience all clubs have there share of fans like this and its a lot more noticeable on forums

Good one Dr. Sometimes we perform so well, it just lift those expectations, well, to crush down to earth again. The squad at the moment is not capable of Top 4 consistency, simple as that. I feel another 7 players that almost should hit the ground running is needed. Hopefully our owners will back us up, we're in need of big investment in the club, another 100million needed.

No. I disagree. We are LFC and we deserve better than this. You see what happened at Chelsea or City? That's what I want for us. There. I said it.

Truetored

Lets get that straight - wise investment of £100m is needed! We had 100m before and it was pîssed up the wall!

Jaywalker

Then we don't need fans like you.

Excellent post Dr Seven, please continue imbibing, you know it does you good. JimmyTheRed