manpe

Cech's head injury and Terry's knockout against Arsenal.

You miss the point. In hindsight he didn't do badly (most people think that it was actually Steve Clarke and Henk ten Cate pulling the strings), but at that time the appointment was beyond absurd. He was an obscure name who noone had ever heard about before, not at least in the sense of being a successful European manager, while we were supposed to be a growing powerhouse. Before Chelsea he worked only at Israeli teams. Benitez however is exactly the opposite, he may be hated among the fans but in general he's held in much higher regard than Grant ever was and has a much more vast trophy cabinet and experience baggage. Think of it this way: Mourinho --> Grant, Di Matteo --> Benitez. Robbie is a fans' favourite but in managerial sense it wasn't as massive of a downgrade, if it even was a downgrade (still up for debate, many believe Robbie wasn't the right man for the job). Appointing Benitez had a sentimental backlash but Grant was just a total bukkake in the face. I don't know how this is even a contest.

Man this is my favourite picture. Look at Frank's and Ivan's hair, they absolutely don't give a shit.

I can remember only Derby against who he scored 4 goals. I doubt they had better defense than Deportivo. Who else?

Yeah I remember things weren't rosey, it all culminated with the "eggs and omelettes" speech after which shortly he was sacked. He was clearly implying that he'd been supplied with "class 3" eggs to make a shit omelette. Roman was tired of Mourinho having so much power so he gave him a reality check, which ended badly for him. For example the signing of Sheva screwed him even worse than Torres is screwing our managers now, because Sheva was and still is actually a friend of Roman. Then there were Ballack, Anelka and Malouda who I don't think were Mourinho signings. Roman was regaining control of the team and for that Jose had to go.

Yeah, I found it funny But I wasn't surprised, we were playing a South American side after all.

Avram I'm gonna rebel a bit and substantiate my choice with carefully chosen academic words: Suddenly seeing Grant at the sideline instead of Mourinho was like a dickslap on the cheek every single week.

I was gonna do the exact same thing, but as you already did it, I'll just quote you.

I think the lesson is not to underestimate a less reputable team, something that should be banged into the players heads, not the fans.

I'm gonna stop you right there. Can you please, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE not turn this into another Mikel debate? If I see another thread derailed by it I'm gonna shoot myself and everybody else in the head!

It's because it's the formation Torres thrived in in Liverpool

That one was a bit more difficult than the second one, but it's still inexcusable how he didn't convert at least one of them.

5:45? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f23tNQFVfk

Ok, I will search for highlights, maybe it's there.

Which one? I slept in first ~10 minutes so I might have missed it. I need to fuel my anger.

You mean Drogba v Bayern or Torres v Curintia? That's not a real question, is it?

"Apart from that miss", you make it sound like that miss was no big deal. It was everything, it was the make or break moment for Torres in that game. Had he scored that, we wouldn't be talking half the shit we are right now about him. Actually had he scored that and we went on to win, he'd likely be lauded as a hero. That miss WAS his whole performance, nothing else matters. For example Drogba was generally quite invisible against Bayern, even crap I would say, but thanks to his goal and penalty he was voted greatest player in Chelsea history. Had he not scored and had Robben converted that penalty, he wouldn't get anywhere near the plaudits he's getting now. Goals and taking your chances, even if it's "only" one 100% chance in game, are the only things that matter for strikers, not some fucking runs.

How come Paulo casually creeps on so many pictures? Attention whore

He gained his "confidence" in the first game he scored (Nords) and it carried onto next 2 games. Hence it lasted only 2 games.

There goes his "confidence" again, which lasted for a whopping 2 games. Will be a long time till we'll see him taking a penalty again or not hiding from the goal in general. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYdCdGv94dM Somebody needs to make a proper compilation of his career lowlights. A low quality top 5 doesn't do him justice.

Brazilians really wanted to win this game, must be something personal. Even Ramires went aggressive at one point. And now Piazon, who had fuck all to do with anything, is having a word.

Sure, I have nothing against that, but I didn't miss anything. I'm not talking only to you, I'm talking to everyone.

Fair enough, you can have that opinion. When Liverpool lost in 2005 I remember people saying otherwise, and it also doesn't help that we had to be the ones to cut European winning streak short in this competition. The longest streak was 5 years (1995-1999; 2007-2011), we would have made it 6. Not a big deal, but would still have been nice continuation to "History Makers FC", which we are now in a negative sense.

What? That's even worse. But I get the feeling you disagree with what I said. Could you then please say that you don't think we failed in the Super Cup, in Champions League group stage and in Club World Cup? We defended our European champion status honorably?

Not sure what you meant by that. Could you elaborate?