£165,600,000 versus £83,000,000 The real reason the derby is uncompetitive

[Badge1878]

I've had a bad day...even ten hours on the ale hasn't helped my mood after another non show from the Blues today.

An early start in the Brick and a wander across the Park. In fairness I like what they've done with our old place, I'd have closed it years ago if I'd had my way but they kept on buying houses around the girders and they have one ugly big stand with every mutant that the Devil could create infiltrating it. Eyes bulging and scarfs aloft I'm sure the mutants objected to us being present - it wasn't welcoming.

That third tier though! Like the Top Balconcy but in the clouds - I'd have had vertigo if I was up there.

Fortunately I was in more familiar surroundings of the Anney Road. Nice touch with the Seamus banner at kick off - but I left the Pit gutted (again.)

in my post match reflective and drunken conversations I've met the bad, the stupid, the bad and in fairness some decent lads. I know we were horrible to watch today, we couldn't pass to a Blue shirt and we thought standing off the opposition was the order of the da

But for the mad and the stupid, don't tell me that Liverpool have a chance to win the League this year. I'd thought I'd had a bad day if the beauts I spoke to were serious in town. Somehow just laughing in their face wa inappropriate given another insipid display today.

Somewhere in our Blues there is a good side, one that is hard working and difficult to beat - I've seen it - I just need that team to turn up at Anfield again. Just have a go, Liverpool ain't great but took us to school today - fed up of our pathetic performances there.

Even 20+ pints today ain't numbed how bad I feel about today. Again. If I was any good and could lose a few stone I'd have a right go - somehow a Rooney instead of. Calvert- Lewis makes a lot of sense. That's the difference.

Good night

 

[Khalekan]

The above figures are the respective wage bills at Liverpool and Everton. Their wage bill is almost exactly twice as big as ours. Ours is a couple of million bigger than West Ham and Stoke.

Do we expect Stoke to win at a club paying almost £166 million annually? No. Why expect it of Everton?

We fondly cling to the idea that the two Merseyside clubs are equals in stature and importance. They're not. Liverpool are a far bigger and better resourced outfit than we are and tough though it is for us to admit it they will remain so. We need to stop obsessing about them and start to accept reality.

I imagine Swansea have an even bigger wage differential.

Didn't stop them winning at The Pit.

 

[rbm]

I imagine Swansea have an even bigger wage differential.

Didn't stop them winning at The Pit.

and how often have hey won there?

 

[Khalekan]

and how often have hey won there?

I dunno.

You are the one spouting that we can't win there because of the massive difference in the wage bill between us and them.

Yet Swansea were able to do it a few weeks ago.

That fact sort of negates your point.

 

[cadex]

Squad depth is a factor, so is team selection and winning mentality. Look at yesterday's starting XI and name me one proper leader? Baines and Jagielka are haunted by derbies gone by, Williams is an overpaid hack who doesn't give a toss about the shirt, Lukaku wants out. Then you have Koeman who also bottles it with his team selection. We really didn't give ourselves a chance against a side that was there for the taking. Schneiderlin was a big loss.

 

[degsy]

The above figures are the respective wage bills at Liverpool and Everton. Their wage bill is almost exactly twice as big as ours. Ours is a couple of million bigger than West Ham and Stoke.

Do we expect Stoke to win at a club paying almost £166 million annually? No. Why expect it of Everton?

We fondly cling to the idea that the two Merseyside clubs are equals in stature and importance. They're not. Liverpool are a far bigger and better resourced outfit than we are and tough though it is for us to admit it they will remain so. We need to stop obsessing about them and start to accept reality.

Yeah mate - It's all to do with the size of your wage bill, has been for years. You could pick any season out of the last 15 and the Table would more or less match up with the wages Except...

The rs have regularly been turned over by teams 'beneath' them...so have all the other usual suspects, maybe not to the same degree - but that's for the stattos to argue about.
We our selves have done City over more than a few times - Every game it was all down to City being poor...they in effect let us win by not trying too hard. Maybe we should have that rule like they have in Horse Racing
So, Every time the rs lose to say the Swansea's of this world, it was all down to them having one of those games...(I mean everybody has one or two of those per season don't they)
What happens when the rs BEAT somebody with a higher wage bill...and they do - All down to Chelsea having a bad day at the office.

No mate; you're confusing cause with effect (or some such)
Over a season it does 'tend' to go that way
But in a one off, like yesterday, wages are well down the list of things against us.

 

[ilikecheese]

Squad depth and wages do not explain why we wilt like delicate flowers in this fixture every year.

 

[rbm]

Yeah mate - It's all to do with the size of your wage bill, has been for years. You could pick any season out of the last 15 and the Table would more or less match up with the wages Except...

The rs have regularly been turned over by teams 'beneath' them...so have all the other usual suspects, maybe not to the same degree - but that's for the stattos to argue about.
We our selves have done City over more than a few times - Every game it was all down to City being poor...they in effect let us win by not trying too hard. Maybe we should have that rule like they have in Horse Racing
So, Every time the rs lose to say the Swansea's of this world, it was all down to them having one of those games...(I mean everybody has one or two of those per season don't they)
What happens when the rs BEAT somebody with a higher wage bill...and they do - All down to Chelsea having a bad day at the office.

No mate; you're confusing cause with effect (or some such)
Over a season it does 'tend' to go that way
But in a one off, like yesterday, wages are well down the list of things against us.

I'm not saying its he only issue but it is a huge elephant in the room which we tend to avoid when analysing the performance of our team as against them.

I agree we have a hang up about them. Tell truth I couldn't watch yesterday because I just knew what would happen. its like Groundhog Day.

However the strength and depth that a vastly bigger wage bill can buy does impact. EG Man U have regularly outspent the RS in he past 25 years and have regularly beaten them. It is a huge indicator of how a rivalry will go.

We were without first teamers today and it showed?

 

[VentureBrosEFC]

It's not an excuse mate but it does explain the long term trend. We have the 7th biggest wage bill an are 7th. Not so much a coincidence as a working out of cause and effect.

You may need to brush up on this concept. Unless you feel Leicester were representative of sub atomic particles last year and our 04/05 team.

 

[TheBigIguana]

I agree that we are behind them but accept reality? Absolutely not. Our goal should be to push ourselves on to that level so that the reality is we are consistently better than them

 

[John23]

The above figures are the respective wage bills at Liverpool and Everton. Their wage bill is almost exactly twice as big as ours. Ours is a couple of million bigger than West Ham and Stoke.

Do we expect Stoke to win at a club paying almost £166 million annually? No. Why expect it of Everton?

We fondly cling to the idea that the two Merseyside clubs are equals in stature and importance. They're not. Liverpool are a far bigger and better resourced outfit than we are and tough though it is for us to admit it they will remain so. We need to stop obsessing about them and start to accept reality.

By starting this thread mate. Your kind of obsessing about them. We will get them eventually just not today lid

 

[CrustySack]

We fondly cling to the idea that the two Merseyside clubs are equals in stature and importance. They're not. Liverpool are a far bigger and better resourced outfit than we are and tough though it is for us to admit it they will remain so. We need to stop obsessing about them and start to accept reality.

No they wont. Nothing stays the same mate, and a shift is long overdue, but it is coming.

 

[Eggs]

...Lucas earns more than Gueye but it doesn't mean he's a better footballer.

 

[Boss_Blue]

Kill me now.

 

[brieverton]

Agree with the OP that the wage differential does have a statistical significance over time.


We all, well most of us, accept we are not going to win every game, but I refuse to accept the surrender mentality we employ as a default in games like these.

And I still maintain the difference in quality between our team and theirs isn't great. Where they are streets ahead is in the areas of mental toughness and expectation.

We played like we expected nothing other than defeat yesterday and doing that you get what you deserve more often than not.

I could like going there with parking the bus if we were effective at it. I couldn't understand folk saying they wouldn't take a draw when what unfolded was sickeningly predictable.

But there is something more profoundly wrong with our mental approach away at the Top 6. Granted there are big differences and we are well behind but our overall record is now so shocking that we are almost throwing games from kick off.

We are allowed to compete physically, to frustrate, harass, keep possession, create chances, score goals, be cynical, and do what needs to be done to win - just once in a while - at these games.

I want to win every time but I'd probably accept the odd win in every 5 or 6 at the pit and elsewhere with a couple of draws thrown in.

We are not as bad as no win since 1999 there and they are not as good. Better than us yes, but not to the degree of that disgraceful and embarrassing statistic.

I can't accept and don't understand why a group of supremely well paid players including many experienced internationals just can't get their bloody act together often enough over 95 minutes in just some of these games.

I like Munster Rugby's call to arms - "Stand Up and Fight". At the moment our attitude seems to be "Lie Down and Surrender".