It's not a matter of squad depth and/or buying another player or being the 'last piece of the jigsaw' or as certain idiot radio/tv presenters who are former players (ahem Paul Merson, Cough Alan Brazil) put it being 2 or 3 top class players short of the league title.
No, what is wrong with us - What is always wrong with us is our mentality - Consider; Since 1990 when we last won the league, there's been at least FIVE occasions when we've started so well you could only see us winning the league in 1990/1991 (started with 9 straight league wins), 1996/1997 (when we started like a house on fire and were actually top at Christmas), 2001/2002 (when we right in contention until a horrible period in December), 2002/2003 (when we got to and remained top until that awful winless period began in Mid-November) and last season (when until the Portsmouth game no one got near us). After those starts though a horrible combination of injuries, loss of confidence due to unlucky defeats and/or loss of form combined to rob us of our momentum and we never looked like the same team.
It's also a fact that had 2005/2006 started in October (after which we had TWO runs of 10 straight Premier League wins in a row) OR had we won just FOUR more games last season then we could have won either of those league titles quite comfortably WHATEVER the other three did. Why didn't we? One word - Mentality.
United I am ashamed to say have it, Chelsea have it (although they bought it) and Arsenal until 2004 (ironically their invincible year) had it; WE have not - the It of which I speak? That dead eyed certainty that a home banker win IS going to be OUR win, the knowledge that we WILL win a game no matter what, that NONE of our title rivals are safe no matter how many points we are behind them (ala us in 81/82 or United in 2002/2003 not much difference is there? Both came from more than 10 points back to win the league BOTH under the 3 points for a win rule - so it can be done). That is what Liverpool are missing and haven't had since the very start of the 1990's and when we get that back? THEN and only then will we reclaim the league title. The best way to do it of course is for Rafa' to just let the team play as he does in the CL where we DO have that dead eyed certainty of which I speak (we're the best English team IN EUROPE by a mile and have been since 2001). But for some reason he hasn't done that until now - the other way of claiming back what I call 'the aura' is to fill the team with captains and/or strong minded individuals who can think for themselves and who KNOW how to win the game or there own whatever the position.
Rafa' now appears to be doing this - will it work? Who knows? But the fact we lost less games than United last season and were victories over Chelsea (twice), Arsenal (twice), Villa (H) and Spurs (H) from winning the league (any 4 would have done it). Suggests it IS working - Maybe the player we needed this season wasn't the FINAL piece of the jigsaw as certain idiots elsewhere have put it but the RIGHT PIECES and in a creative defender whose strong and quick from the start of the season (Agger) and an inside forward to strike fear into those trying to close down Torres, Babel and Gerrard (Keane of course) Maybe we've found the RIGHT PIECES - Barry? Maybe he'd be good, maybe not but Alonso's form or lack of it last year wasn't our problem - Our DEFENCE was - we started games well plenty of times but how often did we show the necessary professionalism/MENTALITY/aura to finish the game and the foes off? Not often enough as the table shows. We need to remedy that this year and maybe the likes of Keane and Agger playing a BIG part will help with that. The other thing we need is the fans treating EVERY league game like a CL big night to start scaring EVERYONE who comes to Fortress Anfield again and a bit of humility (i.e. one game at a time rather than 'win it Rafa or else').
Seriously, do some of the idiots who post on here and say title challenge or else, win it or else - He's had long enough etc and all the other crap they spout seriously BELIEVE that WHEN we won the league as of right, year in - year out (and despite only being 30 I've seen us win EIGHT league titles so YES it DID happen, and it will again) think that the managers got that kind of crap from idiot know-all fans? Of course not, they simply said we'll take it one match at a time and last season is history now let's worry about THIS year - So before you go getting all jealous of the Manc filth and their idiot fans boasting and bragging about last year - REMEMBER - that's history now and it's about time we made some more of that or our record will be it (history) if we carry on turning on our own - "A divided house cannot stand alone"; You should ALL remember that and re the Mancs "those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know" - If they talk to much, let them - it just shows them up as idiots - YOU don't want that do you? So let them be ridiculed - and who knows? Maybe it'll be US ridiculing them - if we're humble, professional and above all CONSISTENT enough this year, you never know..........................
PS To the West Ham fan - read the stats above - there's already TWO occasions when despite the odds stacked against us we've come within 2 wins (over Chelsea in 05/06) or 4 wins (take your pick from all our wonderous draws last year) of winning the damn thing AND we already have FA Cup and CL winners medals AND runners up medals since Rafa' got here - not so bad a record when you look it like that is it? A Hammer giving US advice on managers? As if LOL........
PPS The United fan; You may have the best defence but WE have the best goalie - he's won the Golden Gloves in the past THREE seasons and thus is indisputably better than VDS and Skrtel and Agger are younger that means they WILL be better than Rio and Vidic (who only have 2/3 seasons left as a top level partnership) it's a matter of time that's all.
As to Dossena - I scarce think you can knock an ITALIAN (you know - they invented defending almost?) as worse than a Frenchman (Evra) after the pathetic French showing in Euro 2008. Although I'll give you Degen as he's almost wholly untried yet.
Funny how you never mentioned midfield though isn't it? You want to compare Babel to Nani? Babel got 11 goals last year - How many did Nani get? Mascherano is FAR better than Hargreaves in the holding role and Gerrards the closest thing in the PL to what Scholes WAS; Carrick and Alonso I'd say is a draw although the Spaniard is by far the better passer and should we get Barry, he scores far more than Carrick as well. The only CLEAR advantage you have here is Ronaldo and he's hardly going to be that on crutches for 3 months is he? Either way, we'll now finally look at your other missing area; This is my favourite area;
Upfront: You also missed THIS area; Although I can guess why as with TORRES - We have a player who is better than ALL of yours upfront (Rooney, Tevez AND Saha), with Keane we have at least the equal of Tevez and when played upfront consistently Kuyt is also his equal (you don't remember his first season with 17 League goals do you? and last year he got 11). Incidentally WHEN Babel's played upfront consistently as he will be soon, we might just have another Ronaldo on our hand's which will be fun. Saha's a good bench option for you (as Crouch was for us last year and Kuyt will be prob') but he's always injured. As to Rooney; He's better than our other strikers but he's not better than Torres and Keane can score almost as many which should make next year interesting to say the least. So no, you DON'T have it over us in any way anymore except one and that's mentality and Who knows? we may even fix that this year, which should make things interesting to say the least.............................
