Despite the disappointing home draw with Stoke last Saturday, Liverpool legend John Barnes is still confident that Liverpool can finish in the top four this season.
Speaking on Soccer AM, Barnes - who scored 108 goals for Liverpool during his Anfield career - said:
"I never expected them [Liverpool] to be in the running for the title; I expected them to be in the running for the Champions League, which I think they still are.
"That fourth place is still up for grabs, expecially because of the inconsistency of Chelsea and Arsenal, so I think that Liverpool are sitll in the running for 4th place.
Barnes won the League Cup with Liverpool in 1995, and he's hopeful that Kenny Dalglish's team can win the competition this year:
"Once upon a time, teams like Man United were playing weakened sides in the Carling Cup, but now they recognise that, if you're not going to win the league, it's important to give your fans something to cheer about.
"If Liverpool can win the Carling Cup it would be absolutely fantastic".
Jaimie Kanwar
Speaking on Soccer AM, Barnes - who scored 108 goals for Liverpool during his Anfield career - said:
"I never expected them [Liverpool] to be in the running for the title; I expected them to be in the running for the Champions League, which I think they still are.
"That fourth place is still up for grabs, expecially because of the inconsistency of Chelsea and Arsenal, so I think that Liverpool are sitll in the running for 4th place.
Barnes won the League Cup with Liverpool in 1995, and he's hopeful that Kenny Dalglish's team can win the competition this year:
"Once upon a time, teams like Man United were playing weakened sides in the Carling Cup, but now they recognise that, if you're not going to win the league, it's important to give your fans something to cheer about.
"If Liverpool can win the Carling Cup it would be absolutely fantastic".
Jaimie Kanwar
We need a striker and a couple of midfield players who can cross a ball .Downing , henderson and adam are shite.
ReplyDeleteYep win a trophy , gain back the confidence then try for top 4. That all I hope for LFC this year.
ReplyDeleteThe problem for me is that Dalglish seems to be prioritising the cups over the League, hence the most effective attacker this season (Bellamy) being rested for league games while starting cup games.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject, we clearly are in contention for a top 4 place still. Everybody will continue to drop points, so a lead of a few points is by no means insurmountable.
It's just a shambles that 4th place is the limit of the clubs ambitions by the halfway stage of the campaign, yet again :-(
No mention of Kuyt, who's been worse than any of them?
ReplyDeleteCan you be a little more precise than 'shite'.
ReplyDeleteOn another issue, is Henry going to be charged for his use of foul language towards a fan? Is that any different from a one finger salute which cost Luis Suarez a one match ban?
I also see that Mancini has been at it again with his imaginary red card.
Any charge pending?
Finally, I see players from other clubs are continuing to surround referees with impunity. No wonder LFC fans are p****d off with theFA.
Firstly Barnes saying a top four is still on you know it has no chance.Liverpool are not a big club anymore and are on a serious downward spiral from the glory days.Liverpool were 125/1 before christmas to win the league which is the longest odds in their history.We are not progressing as a club even after spending a fortune under Dalglish.Time is here to look forward with a young manager with fresh ideas.Spending over 100,000,000 million is not work in progress considering who he bought.The owners will feel that their money has not been well spent and the very minimum is Champions league next season.
ReplyDeleteoh guys ive been spending so much time watching transdfers..suarez n jose enrique r only good signing...carroll needs more game and il keep my hope but henderson is inexperience adam is good against only mediocre team..
ReplyDeleteSo basicly kenny needs to be buying stars not poor english players or linked to very poor leageue players....
I cant believe all this contact comolli hass and all this money we cant get stars???
Damn that sucks we always sold our top players..alonso mascherano torres garcia hyypia meireles lucky gerrard n reina stayed..damn give us a break plz..
JOhn henry poor luck if u read this bro buy cavani and hazard!!!
yeah of course bellamy and maxi are for cups and his shitty stars are for leagues carrol hendo adam
ReplyDeleteUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
get types like hazard higauin ramirez cavani...
not bent not defoe etc or sinclair wtf
The lads on here still screaming out for a winger and a striker without attacking KD are slightly hypercritical. Kenny has been backed like a king but has spent atrociously. If Kenny came to me with a transfer begging bowl I'd send him packing with the words "wasn't 1oo odd million enough. You my friend are high maintenance, now get out there and make it work"
ReplyDeleteAs for Barnesy (my footballing hero) what else was he going to say. 24 goals in 21 games tells a completely different story though. WE ARE A CUP TEAM ONCE AGAIN, LET NO ONE TELL YOU ANY DIFFERENT.
Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
ReplyDeleteHave a tissue
Sadly, its just the way it is for us now. Hard for those who followed the club in the 70s/80s but its just the way it is. We're like Villa/Forest, who were once upon a time top dogs but accepted a good while ago that they aren't anymore. We haven't been top dogs for two decades and don't see that changing anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteBarnesy, please come out of retirement as you'd be better still in your old age than any of the current options in the squad and probably any other wide player we have had since Shaggy Macca left.
ReplyDeleteUntil we start being more clinical in front of goal, fourth spot is the best we can hope for. If you think about all the home draws and the numerous chances we have missed in those games. Sunderland, Man city, Norwich, Swansea, Man united and Blackburn have all escaped from Anfield with a point they didn't deserve. If we had taken the 3 points from these games we would be challenging for the title, but we didn't and that leaves us chasing fourth.
ReplyDeleteIm starting to miss ngog ffs thats how bad our goal ratio is,we have to sign a good striker and a winger is also very important.
ReplyDeletei dont agree, i just think losing suarez has pretty much ruined our chance of top four and we obviously never planned to be without him, reagrdless of missed chances we had a lot lot more with him playing, it was a matter of before he was going to be putting away most of them.
ReplyDeletetop four was always the realistic target to start with, as it would attract better talent and money etc.
wat were you expecting ?? considering we look doomed for half the season last year. new owners ? etc etc
because hazard higauin ramirez cavani would all jump at the chance to play for us??...............get in the real world
ReplyDeleteok burt, hows ernie??
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I was expecting for this season was improvement, which we have. I'm pleased with the way we have dominated games and the number of chances we create. The only thing letting us down is our finishing, anybody who watch us regularly will say the same. Carroll has 2 league goals, Kuyt has none, Henderson 1, Downing none and Adam one and a few deflected/own goals. Dalglish is doing a good job and given time all the players mentioned will improve but, with the owners declaring that we need to be in the champions league do they have that time.
ReplyDeleteThe team just needs to be more attacking! Now Stevie is back and looking fit, we need to get someone who can tackle alongside him, let him attack and play Johnson wide right, Downing on the left. Carroll and Bellamy up front til Suarez returns. Kelly in at right back. Unless we are playing a top 6 club, we should not be playing one striker. We could have lost some of those home games but still taken more points if we had won the others. Taking out the Man Utd and City games, that we were unlucky not to win, the other five games could have had three wins and two defeats and we would still be joint 4th. Doesn't matter if you lose a couple more if you win the rest. We just have to take more risks. Carroll and Suarez should have started those games that we drew. They should be a strike partnership by now.
ReplyDeleteNot having Lucas available has been a real problem, unless we put Gerrard at defensive midfield, we have no one who is good enough to play that position in a 4-4-2, which is what we should be playing at home to teams in the bottom half of the table.
ReplyDeleteWe need three wingers in this transfer window as priority, then two defensive players to mould: A CB And A DM. And lastly A creative attacking midfielder and A Forward: So 7 players and to sell on:
ReplyDeleteD Kuyt should be sold for £7-£10M
M Rodriguez should be sold for £2-£5M
J Cole Should be sold for £3-£5M
A Aquilani should be sold for £12-£15M
D Ayala should be sold for £1-£3M
1st and Foremost Wingers: Width: speed,pace,skill,quality,class,Cutting edge and good delivery.
The club has lacked this for last 4-5 years and to provide some quality service to Carroll,Suarez and Bellamy.1:D J Hoillet Of Blackburn: Should be brought to club for £6-£10M (RW)2:N Dyer Of Swansea: Should be brought to club for £5-£8M (RW)
3:D Capel Of Sporting Clube de Portugal: Should be brought to club for £8-£16M (LW)
4: Chris Samba Of Blackburn, Hummels Of B Dortmund Or Vertonghen Of Ajax: One of these Centre backs needs to be brought to club for £8-£15M (CB)
5: C Tiote Of Newcastle, M'Villa Of Rennes,M Sissoko Of Toulouse Or B Matuidi Of PSG: One Of these Strong, Tough, Dominative,Combatitive Enforcers to the club to compete with LUCAS and Spearing for £12-£20M (DM)
6: Valbuena Of Marseille, Willian Of Shakhtar Donesk, C Eriksen Of Ajax, M Gotze Of B Dortmund, Lucas Of Sao Paulo Or Coutinho Of Inter Milan, One Of these players should be brought to club for £15-£30M. (AM)
7: Higuain Of Real Madrid should be brought to club for £25-32M. (FD)
So Henry needs to sort out King Kenny and Commoli with a war chest of £74-£135M, Then these seven players need to be brought to club in order to change club from top 4-8 team, into a top 1-3 team.
look it isn't completely over for us but my friends were saying yeah top 2 and top 4 at the least at the start of the season to be honest i don't think we can consider finishing top 4 with our sub par squad and i think i am the only fan who hates Kenny dalglish (as manager not player ) hes just not fired because hes the king and fans love him hes already spent do much on players who with there form barley make wigans 1st squad i think he has no idea who to buy and sell we need a striker suarez cant do everything a cb and a winger and midfielder
ReplyDeletelook it isn't completely over for us but my friends were saying yeah top 2 and top 4 at the least at the start of the season to be honest i don't think we can consider finishing top 4 with our sub par squad and i think i am the only fan who hates Kenny dalglish (as manager not player ) hes just not fired because hes the king and fans love him hes already spent do much on players who with there form barley make wigans 1st squad i think he has no idea who to buy and sell we need a striker suarez cant do everything a cb and a winger and midfielder
ReplyDeleteI never set a target of league positioning, as there's no way of knowing what other teams are going to do in any given season.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the season, I said that ideally the team should always target a minimum final haul of 82 points to keep us around the title contenders, but that a improvement on Daglish's 1.7ppg from his 6months last year to 2ppg (76 points) this year would be an acceptable level of progress - even after all the money that had been spent (such standards would have us in 4th on just 42 points atm, which shows they were not overly ambitious).
The previous owners have nothing to do with this season, as Dalglish was provided with the backing to undo the mistakes of the last year. As such, he should be compared to standards from before then, rather than just be compared to managers who were sacked for underperforming.
(btw, we are currently only on pace for the same 63 pts that Benitez delivered in his final season - that is not improvement as far as I'm concerned, nor should it be acceptable)
Dalglish is delivering less points per game than he did last season, and the same amount as Benitez did in his final season. For which most of us were severely underwhelmed and the manager was sacked.
ReplyDeleteIf Hodgson was as bad as we all made out, with the money spent over the last year, surely Dalglish has to deliver far better results to be considered as doing a 'good job'??
With 7 draws at home, we should not be far behind Tottenham, to be honest. Top 4 would have been a good result at the start of the season but with City struggling, Man Utd there for the taking, as far as i am concerned, Tottenham riding high, Chelsea and Arsenal having a nightmare, we are wasting a chance to challenge. We've drawn at home to Sunderland, manager since sacked, Blackburn, manager on borrowed time, Swansea, recently promoted, Norwich, recently promoted, and Stoke. Let the Manchester draws go, but there are 10 points dropped. We can go all out against those teams, lose one of those games, even two, and win the others and we have 4 points more and are on terms with Chelsea, we are too negative. Stoke play one up front, We should be playing 442 and have Enrique and Johnson pretty much playing in midfield. At no stage did we truly attack that game and that is the worry for me.
ReplyDeleteOh, and we beat QPR 1-0. Manger since sacked and they had a good chance to equalise near the end. We shouldn't be relying on teams to have a go at us for us to be able to create chances.
ReplyDelete