can i just ask people who remember kennys first stint as manager did he baffle most people regularly with his team selections/subs ? this is NOT an 'im not sure kenny is the right manager thread', if anything i think rival fans go on about how we won't criticise him because of who he is and i (slightly) fear it might work the opposite way. despite my pisstake he has to go if we lose to rangers comment i firmly believe he's proved to be the right manager and maybe some of us expect too much too soon because the fairy tale come thru of winning the league in his first full season back as manager would be so sweet, but he took over when we were 4 points off relegation, genuine danger of going down, his third league match in he played glen johnson at left back and played poulsen. i was bricking it, we HAMMERED wolves, arsenal away this season 'suarez on the bench, balls' was the facebook status i set, 0 0 written all over it he brought on suarez and meireles and we win 2 0. today i thought henderson for bellamy was one of the greatest wtf subs ever, we didnt win so its hard to defend it but i often remember thinking 'what drugs is rafa on' on european nights in his early days and we'd wipe the floor with whoever we played. according to a friend of mine who would remember he left ian rush on the bench for an f a cup final v everton ? ffs a 4 year old child would know better, but he came off the bench and scored two. was this type thing a regular occurance back then and should we be fairly relaxed because its kenny even if we kinda think 'wtf' when we see whos starting/on the bench
exactly.its absolutely pointless as a 27 year old to wonder did kenny make baffling selections or substitutions 20 odd years ago and if they paid off or not. absolute waste of time, why should any fan of our club ask someone who would know our managers previous record of handling situations better than he anything, absolutely ridiculous of me isnt it
im lost, if you think im a wum, im not. ask lally 445 or travis , im genuinely asking. and if i hadnt posted the ridiculous joke comment last tuesday or wednesday whenever i think you'd have replied with a proper answer
EVERY manager makes strange selections and subs. (Even Whiskeynose often does it) No matter what team he picks or what subs he brings on, someone will disagree. Its all about opinions....and The Kings is the only one that matters. We can be baffled by them, question them, disagree, or whatever but Kenny is infinitely wiser and more experienced than any of us wether we are barstoolers or regular match goers. So for any of us to pretend we know better is laughable. Ive often been surprised by his team choices, but I wouldnt swap him for any other manager in the world.
...... So 22 years on your saying a 4 year old child would have known to start Rush in the cup final? A player who had suffered from serious illness and injury all that season? I presume instead of Aldridge who scored after 4 minutes and after the previous cup final was burning to exorcise the demons of his penalty miss? Yes Kenny got that all wrong by leaving Rush on the bench and then to bring him on against the team he terrorized more than any. My head is done in by some of the posts on this site lately, you'd swear Bellamy was playing like Messi yesterday the way people were going on about him being substituted And yes to be honest he did make some strange decisions in terms of selections in his first spell. I remember the night he had 7 full backs in the starting line up away to Arsenal and we lost 3-0, but doesn't every manager take gambles in terms of selection to try and get an edge? Show me one who doesn't and i'll show you one sitting on his arse on the unemployment line
I see this has gone swimmingly, i really wasn't suggesting that any manager has never baffled people with certain decisions, they've all done it. and i certainly wouldnt want any manager in the world ahead of kenny, i thought the first and third substitutions he made yesterday were bloody stupid and just wanted to know if some of his decisions the first time around were and if they worked out or not. obviously his record from his first spell, and so far this time speak for themselves so if im honest i was hoping someone would say 'he baffled the hell out of me loads of times first time he managed us, we usually hammered whoever we played', because thats exactly how i felt about benitez on plenty of european nights early on in his liverpool career. apologies to anyone who thinks this is the most ridiculous thread ever, i thought it was worth discussing
Not being smart but did you see the game, we hit the woodwork 4 times norwich's keeper made at least 3 top drawer save's,we created chance after chance even on a small amount of possesion early in the second half and the subs he brought on made a difference any luck we would have being out of sight at half time.
No worries mate. I didnt realise you were comparing now to back then. I remember he made some strange buys but I honestly dont recall his team selections/subs. I just get annoyed when we have a result like yesterdays and suddenly people start posting stuff like "Kenny shouldve done this/that etc".
bit of luck and the game could have been over after about 20 mins. we were a million miles the better team im not contesting this fact. i just thought the first substitution yesterday looked crazy, we'll never know if we'd have won or not if it hadnt happened, and as you say we should have won that match anyway. my opinion (respected and all as it is around here ) is that we're a million miles better off kenny doing something like that than a different manager. those of you who don't think it was too bad don't think it was too bad, those of us who thought it was stupid have said so yesterday and today and will shut our mouths from now on because we know we have the right manager. just imagine it was houllier or benitez, the press would go on about how they 'cost liverpool 2 points, settled for a draw at home,' and other such rubbish. if it was hodgson the language out of most of our fans (or anyone who thought the substitution was stupid) would leave a lot to be desired. as it is its just looked at as one little incident in a long season and no one will be bringing it up in a few weeks, which is correct
fair enough. i find it annoying too when people seem to wait til after the match to say player x should have started or been brought on earlier, in my experience they're usually the same ones who never say what team they want to see play before the match so if we don't win they're free to say whatever the manager did, he shouldn't have
come on now trucker you post on tlw, no way in hell you thought my ridiculous comment before the rangers match was a serious one
What baffled about yesterday's selection? That team had enough to see off a mediocre Norwich side but couldn't finish.That's not Kennys fault.The only selection that warrants a mention is Carrolls exclusion which is rather strange.I'm worried about the Carroll signing but would still want to see him get a run of games.Having said that we should have still beaten Norwich with what we had on the pitch.A couple of shooting drills on the training ground are in order.
i was delighted with the team he picked yesterday, i found the subtitutions odd, the reason selections was in the thread title was because of what a couple of older liverpool fans have told me and i was interested in peoples opinions on here about it. i do agree though not taking our chances yesterday is what cost us, on another day suarez would have had a hat trick, we should have hammered them and by the time the first sub was made it should have been game over
Fantana's recollection of the most puzzling team selection of Kennys reign of being the 3 nil at Highbury is indeed correct although my memory would have said 6 defenders instead of 7 full backs (Burrows, Nicol, Hysen, Ablett, Venison & Gillespie - maybe Staunton not sure). I still have that match on VHS somewhere. Kenny went through a phase of playing Barry Venison and Nigel Spackman in the middle of the field which irked a lot of the support at the time. Yes Whelan, McMahon and Molby were all out injured for long periods but my recollection of it is that Venison and Spackman were played at times when there was the option of one of those 3. The most controversial aspect of his first time in charge was the situation with Aldridge. Most people felt at the time that selling Aldridge was a mistake but it seemd that Kenny couldnt keep Rush and Aldo happy by rotating them, Beardsley was un droppable at the time. The purchase of one Ronny Rosenthal also raised eyebrows amongst most fans. And on yesterdays game it was a freak of a result. Another day we'd have won 6 nothing so I dont think his team selection yesterday warrants criticism. Maybe Carroll could have come on 10 minutes earlier and Enrique pushed on earlier but if the header in the first minute goes on, then today people are on here saying we'll finish ahead of the mancs.
thanks for the reply. should have won that game yesterday and i suppose im as guilty as anyone i wouldnt have cared about substitutions on the day at all if we had, which we should have. todays results do make our 2 points dropped yesterday not look half as bad, it might sound knee jerk but we are only 5 points off second place. btw id be delighted with a champions league place i just believe we CAN do better
Here's my tuppence Erik , There is not one person here who can judge Kenny's substitutions , none of us are managers, it's baffling to the eyes of the fan but not to the people who see them everyday in training and knows when there shut off point for when they can't make anymore input to the team. He was right to bring on Henderson because that kid has got great energy, Didn't see anything wrong with his subs to be honest. We were just all frustrated with the team which made it baffling. @trucker ... PT says Hi and wants to know when your coming round to his
fair enough kevin, i know he is far better qualified than any of us, like you say baffling in the eyes of the fan sometimes, i just wondered about his first spell as our manager and after not a great start to the thread ive enjoyed the last few replies