Commentary on the games through the season....

[Clem]

agreed.

modern commentators do my head in.   e.g. clive tysdeley, john motson, jonathan pearce, john champion, etc, etc.  It's all endless spewing....often of data.

and it is often personal and casting aspersions.

oh for the days of barry davies, peter jones, gerald sinstadt, brian moore, etc.

Brian Moore was fantastic, what a great voice as well as good impersonal commentary.  Alan Green is the one who makes my blood boil - who does he think he is? Judgemental, arrogant and opinionated.  Like some Refs, such people have ben seduced by their agents that they are celebrities themselves, not a service industry to a celebrated sport!

[Tes]

Brian Moore was fantastic, what a great voice as well as good impersonal commentary.  Alan Green is the one who makes my blood boil - who does he think he is? Judgemental, arrogant and opinionated.  Like some Refs, such people have ben seduced by their agents that they are celebrities themselves, not a service industry to a celebrated sport!

Agree with every word, Clem. Modern commentators want to be the star. Tydelsey thinks he's a comedian. He is, but not in the way he thinks.
People like Peter Jones, Brian Moore etc were pros in every sense. The commentary was about the listener/viewer, not the commentator and you could here their sheer love of the sport come through in their commentaries and the emotions they displayed. Alan Green sounds like a disgruntled punter.
Jimmy Armfield is another I loved as a co-commentator. Factual, knowledgeable, impartial. No agenda, no 'hey look at me' cr@p.
 

[Juan]

Agree with every word, Clem. Modern commentators want to be the star. Tydelsey thinks he's a comedian. He is, but not in the way he thinks.
People like Peter Jones, Brian Moore etc were pros in every sense. The commentary was about the listener/viewer, not the commentator and you could here their sheer love of the sport come through in their commentaries and the emotions they displayed. Alan Green sounds like a disgruntled punter.
Jimmy Armfield is another I loved as a co-commentator. Factual, knowledgeable, impartial. No agenda, no 'hey look at me' cr@p.

Completely agree.  Some commentators nowadays almost seem to want to take any deflected glory they can from being in football circles.

What kills me the most though is listening to a commentator and knowing they are either a closet or full blown United fan. For me Andy Gray tries to hide his love for United but cant, it oozes out of him no matter what game he is working on. At this stage I reckon he would choose United over Everton.

And why channels employ people like Lou Macari to commentate i dont understand either. Ive heard him do a few Liverpool games and he rarely attempts to leave his anti Liverpool bias to one side. Its blatant.

In the modern era of football I cant think of one commentator that I like. As youve all rightly said its the old school guys that were and still are streets ahead of the rest.

I have to say one program I do like to catch a bit of now and then is soccer Saturday normally with Jeff Stelling, Phil Thompson, Matt Le Tiss, Paul Merson and Charlie Nicholas. Merson and Le Tiss both seem as thick as planks but there is a good chemistry between the lot. Charlie Nicholas hates Liverpool or at least hated Rafa, Merson loves United and Thommo is just Thommo, hearing him praise United and attempt to be sincere is humorous.

[the dude abides]

@ clem.....agreed brian moore was a good commentator.  Tho we do not agree on Alan Green.  My fave double act is alan on the mic, and his friend and co-commentator beside him, jimmy armfield.  I love the pair of them.  And you can hear the respect that the pair have for each other.  If it is a rubbish game, or someone has dropped a clanger, they will tell you.

@ Juan......the bias in modern day commentary/analyse is down to a lack of professionalism in the modern era.  In bygone days, football analysis was something that journalists spent their time on. 

But in modern times, you merely employ some rent-a-gubshite who has just finished his playing career, and who typically couldn't add 2 and 2 together.  Look at Merson or Collymore....or McCoist.......or Houghton, etc, etc.  Thirty years ago these lads would have tried to open a pub, after their careers ended.

[Tes]

But in modern times, you merely employ some rent-a-gubs***e who has just finished his playing career, and who typically couldn't add 2 and 2 together.  Look at Merson or Collymore....or McCoist.......or Houghton, etc, etc.  Thirty years ago these lads would have tried to open a pub, after their careers ended.

Some of them would have problems opening a door.

[the dude abides]

Some of them would have problems opening a door.

 

they have so much money now, these ex players.......never needing to work again.

I wish they would push off and leave the analyse to a separate industry (i.e. those with analytical skills, journalism skills, and people who do not have to kow-tow to their mates in the footballing profession).

[Tes]

they have so much money now, these ex players.......never needing to work again.

I wish they would push off and leave the analyse to a separate industry (i.e. those with analytical skills, journalism skills, and people who do not have to kow-tow to their mates in the footballing profession).

Their punditry shows why they could never be coaches or managers. Unfortunately, it also means they have to be pundits.

[the dude abides]

Their punditry shows why they could never be coaches or managers. Unfortunately, it also means they have to be pundits.

true.

and very few players would ever be any good at mgt.  I saw that over and over again, during my time playing.  Even the verybest players did not have the first clue as to why a team's approach worked or didn't work.  Sure, they all thought they knew and aired their views quite freely.  But the vast majority of players know fek all about mgt.

[Clem]

really interesting points fellas.  Is anyone else disappointed in the slow decline of Jocky's 'analysis'?  He seems stuck into a parodic version of what he started like in TV. He was full of insight and wit when he started, now he states the most obvious and banal opinions on MoTD. Shame.  Jimmy Armfield is awesome isn't he?  Can't be doing with the celeb-struck Green but for me Aldo is the best of all.  I agree that tyldesley can be a tool, but he was great in Istanbul.  Merson is the worst of all, the guy despises all things liverpool.

[the dude abides]

clem, I have always disliked hansen's punditry......the same garbage every game....very limited vocabulary.  It is always black or white with such a poor vocab.  A great game or a dire game.  No, Alan, life is full of grey....it doesn't have to be brilliant or dire.

same with lawrenson and shearer......how in under goodness do they get away, week after week, year after year, with this immature mundane pile of rubbish.

[Ageing Stick Insect]

Good solid performance tonight in a very cold Anfield. -5C at kick-off and ice reported inside press box. Babel and Ngog both played some good stuff and Raul and Johnson also played well. Congrats to Pepe for 100th clean sheet. Nice to hear Kop sing Houllier's name during game.

Have we turned a corner? Maybe, but it needs a couple of away wins before that can be said. Very encouraging all the same. We're playing some nice one-touch football with crisp passing. Light years away from early season.

[barticus]

Good result and good that it was without our 'one man team' gerrard and torres...upto the dizzying heights of 8th...
Might make those 2 think and up their game...
hadn't realised that Torres had new baby thoughts on his mind, we might see a different Fernando now..
all talk of a weak squad from Roy seems to have gone quiet...
playing babel in his favoured position produces dividends shocker...
and interesting to see that Cole doesn't get an instant shoe in to the team...cos let's face it so far he's been pretty tepid...

so now let's see what we can do away from home..

[Martinmarx]

Good result indeed tho it has to be said te quality of the game was quite poor to be honest. We continue to be disorganised defensively, something a better team than Villa would've punished us for.

Skrtel was shockingly poor, or maybe just playing to his true leve. He continued to make unforced errors throughout the game.

Also though Kuijt had a poor game where his first touch let him down continously.

Lucas, on the other hand, actually had one of his better games in a red shirt. A reason for this may have been the awayteam's non-existant center midfield.

Ngog took his goal well and set Maxi up nicely for our 3rd. Other than that he' very often a very slow and inconsisten performer.

Babel probably need  few starts before he can be fairly judged. Took his goal very nicely tho. His decisionmaking isn't his strongest aspect of his game tho.

All in all this win could set us up nicely for a very good run that could see our season get back on track. Take a look at the upcoming 9 games.

Newcy (a)
Fulham (h)
Blackpool (a)
Wolves (h)
Bolton (h)
Blackburn (a)
Everton (h)
Wolves (a)
Stoke (h)

That's 27 points at stake. I'm gonna stick my neck out and claim at least 23 of them are possible if not likely. If we dmanag to go on such a patch we'll be in the run for 4th with a shout going into the last 3rd of the season. For instance, Spurs ain't that good on the road. During their upcoming 9 games they'll play away from WHL 5 times and 4 times at home of which 2 of those homegames are against Chelsea and ManU. City too have 5 awaygames in their upcoming 9 games altho a slightly easier schedule than spurs.

I for one haven't given up on 4th just yet (which I had by this time last year despite "guarantees" we'd ge it).

[Juan]

Agreed ASI and Bart good performance especially as you pointed out that we are missing some of the big guns.

And even though it was a wretched Villa performance they still turned us over last year and on their day are capable of beating anyone (except Man United because they always capitulate against them).

So it seems a couple of things are being ironed out at the moment and shocker Babel gets that run up front ( be it one game) that he was promised before Christmas. Glen Johnson was super in defense and attack. I would love to see him deployed further up the field because he glides past players effortlessly. He could be a 10 goal a season man from midfield because he creates chances for himself as well as others.

Dude will probably start shouting I told you all so at me when I say this  but Lucas and Miereles do seem to step up when Gerrards not playing. Is it time to partner Gerrard up front with Torres again? For me I dont think so, I believe its time for Gerrard and Raul to form that central midfield partnership but Lucas does at times make a case.

Ngog seems to be maturing too. Does he deserve a run in the side? When the likes of Gerrard and Torres come back is it a case of they have to force their way into the squad when the others play well like last night or do they just assume their normal position in the starting line-up.

Last night showed the big Greek is a very able replacement for Carragher and even offers an attacking threat at corners where Jamie wouldnt. Is it time Carras weened out of the team. At this stage I'd consider him a squad player and if we are seriously to challenge going forward we need someone like Shawcross to come in and take Carras place. I'm not sure Roy has the b*lls to make that call and will leave Jamie in there playing until he decides to call time on his automatic selection himself.

I think the one thing we can see from the results against Chelsea, West Ham, Villa etc is that Roy is very capable of getting his teams to play at home. For any top 4 club though predominantly winning most home games is a given. Can Roy transform the team into one whose away form is equally as good as its home? Well to be consistent top 4 contenders or dare to say challenging for the league away form has to be on par with home. I'm not sure Roys track record or away results to date show hes capable of that.

[Tes]

Even if we do take a lead he still has us scampering back into our defensive shells too quickly.