Liverpool FC Forum

[account deleted by request]

So all of a sudden , when the team was announced, some of you thought "don't think that 11 is good enough to beat Barnsley"

Maybe another way to look at it is...... who would you say have been our best players this season

Reina, Gerrard,Mascherano,Torres would probably top that list?

Who have been our worst players

Kuyt, Riise, Alonso, Finnan, Kewell ?

Then look at who Rafa brought in to cover for our missing "star players"

Reina          -  Itandje (poor goalkeeper who hs shown nothing up to now)
Mascherano - Alonso (playing terrible at the moment)
Gerrard       - Lucas (young lad, bit unfair to blame him)
Torres        - Dirk (the hitman) Kyut

Then you hear people say we lost because their goalkeeper had a great game. We didn't, we lost because we let in 2 goals against another lower division team.

Then we have the problem of lack of pace in the side.(especially up front) So what does Rafa do? Takes off the only player we have with genuine pace on the field, and replaces him with a player who has struggled with his form and lack of pace since he came back.

I would be willing to bet that the team that took the field is the slowest team in the prem. I am pretty sure I could beat at least 5 of them. Hyypia, Alonso, Kyut, Crouch and Carra.

So having picked players who are out of form ,so slow they couldn't catch a cold and with a goalkeeper that wouldn't get on most 3rd division teams, maybe its not so surprising we lost after all.

[kazza]

So all of a sudden , when the team was announced, some of you thought "don't think that 11 is good enough to beat Barnsley"

its more to do with the build up to the game, if it was a  CL game or a top 3 team game Rafa would spend 6 weeks thinking about how to play the game and what team to use, Rafa's mind was not on this game, it was set on the CL game.

he did not study the other team as much as he should of and he did not account for the extra 50% effort that the other team will put in as they are a lower team. it would have been.

" this team will do" " go and have a run lads , thats all we need to do to win this game".

Rafa Benitez has warned his players against complacency when they face Barnsley in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday.



The Spaniard saw his side fall behind twice against non-league minnows Havant & Waterlooville in the previous round before finally exerting their dominance on proceedings to run out 5-2 winners.


Benitez is hoping that the experience will have made his players aware that anything can happen in cup football and that complete focus will be required if they are to dispose of their Championship opponents and safely progress to the quarter-finals of the competition.



Danger


"We have some experience of how difficult these games can be. Everybody says we will beat Barnsley but we must be careful and do the right things," he said.


"Against Havant & Waterlooville we were thinking about scoring goals and we conceded. If you concede the first goal against whoever you are playing, you will start to get anxious.


"We knew of the dangers before that game but it still happened.


"Clearly this is a cup final for them, so we must be careful and give them a lot of respect. If we score first everything will be okay."



Risk


While acknowledging that the club will do be doing everything they can to lift the FA Cup this season, Benitez admits that he may chose to rest Fernando Torres, Sami Hyypia, Alvaro Arbeloa and Fabio Aurelio in order to keep the recently returned quartet fresh for Tuesday night's UEFA Champions League clash with Internazionale.


"You need to make sure you have the right team and the right players for both games," he said.


"Playing some players might be a risk, so we have analyse each one and decide because of the Inter game.



Passion


"We are thinking about both games but we are talking about just one. We are very positive and we want to make the most of both these opportunities, but first it is important to think about Barnsley.


"The passion of this competition is fantastic and for some teams it is the most important game of their lives.


"Sometimes you see smaller teams whose players have more passion and commitment, and that is what creates upsets."

[Seano Kop]

Kewell can't have been our worst.... you need game time to be our worst

[Big Niall]

Is LFC without its two best players no better than Barnsely?

yes

Unforutnately the rest of the players can't be backed to beat anybody. Most of them were assembled by Rafa.

I don't blame Rafa for resting those two players in an FA cup game (not league though) when an important CL game is coming up. however the fact that the remainder couldnt' beat barnsely is embaressing.

I want him sacked for league results - nothing else.

Oh, Tommy Smith has earned the right to say whatever he wants about LFC

[Bammo]

Is LFC without its two best players no better than Barnsely?

yes

of course we're better than them. It was one game (which we could have scored 15). You can't judge teams on one performance or it gets ridiculous.

An example: Huddersfield beat Birmingham 2-1. Birmingham drew 1-1 with Arsenal the week later. Does that mean Huddersfield are as good as Arsenal? In fact Arsenal only drew 1-1 with us so are Barnsley better than them too? Wenger better watch out

We'd beat Barnsley 9 times out of 10. It was a cup game, they fluked a win.

[stmichael]

Tommy Smith? Liverpool legend definitely, but I don't think much of his weekly column in the Echo.

Here's what Tommy "wise after the event" Smith would probably have written if Gerrard had been injured by some Barnsley yard-dog trying to make a name for himself....

".....what on earth was Rafa thinking of picking Gerrard for this game when we play Inter in just 3 days time? Surely a midfield of Alonso and Lucas is good enough to beat no-hopers like Barnsley? If he doesn't think they're good enough to do that then why are they at the club....blah, blah....."

Tommy Smith would get more respect from me if he didn't trot out the same old cliches that all 60's and 70's ex-pro's seem to.

[Ola Mr Benitez]

I didn't have a problem with the team put out on Saturday.  Still dont.  My worry is more about Benitez' ability to motivate his team.  Not just a "slightly" weakened 11 but even when all of our big guns are on the pitch.

You should in my opinion always play your best team, but lets face it, a team with confidence that is expecting to win virtually every game it plays would be easier to slip in a couple of players who don't normally get a look in for games against poor sides from the league below us.

Confidnece is zero
Motivation is zero

That is the problem, the Liverpool first 11 is a great collection of players.

Reina
Finnan
Carra
Agger
Gerrard
Alonso
Mashca
Kewell
Torres
Crouch

Thats your team... play it!

[Big Niall]

Is LFC without its two best players no better than Barnsely?

yes

of course we're better than them. It was one game (which we could have scored 15). You can't judge teams on one performance or it gets ridiculous.

An example: Huddersfield beat Birmingham 2-1. Birmingham drew 1-1 with Arsenal the week later. Does that mean Huddersfield are as good as Arsenal? In fact Arsenal only drew 1-1 with us so are Barnsley better than them too? Wenger better watch out

We'd beat Barnsley 9 times out of 10. It was a cup game, they fluked a win.

fair enough - I agree we would (I was exagerating a bit!)

However, I think there's very few premiership teams I'd feel confident of beating without those two.

We are an average premiership team with two class players that MIGHT be able to drag us up to fourth.

[JoeTerp]

Thats your team... play it!

Gerrard on the right (you know he will throw a fit)

No Arbeloa (he has been our best defender)

Agger hasn't been fit for almost the whole season

Kewell is terrible

Why not play Babel, he was our best player last game?, he is the freaking next Henry, haven't you heard?

[bunglemark2]

So, let me get this right....if two players are missing (Gerrard, who it's fair to say has been inconsistent to say the least this season; Mascherano, granted a quality player, but can't carry the side on his wee shoulders), then those players who step off the bench are not good enough in LFC's terms, to replace them ?? Give me a break people....

[The_Rock]

I didn't have a problem with the team put out on Saturday.  Still dont.  My worry is more about Benitez' ability to motivate his team.  Not just a "slightly" weakened 11 but even when all of our big guns are on the pitch.

I said long ago that rafa can't motivate and that he is just a coach not a manager.....and the pro-rafa guides berated me for that.... They keep mentioning how could he have won the league title in spain if he can't motivate (but they didn't mention the fact that real madrid were going to a crisis then....they were managed by carlos quiroz for god's sake)...

But as the season progresses.....it is indeed becoming more evident. It does look like rafa is being found out...

[Torres25]

By the same token, the CURRENT manager of Liverpool Football club should never wash dirty laundry about the club in public... don't you think?


no i dont..whats ur point.............2 wrongs dont make a right m8


& wasnt he comparing rafa 2 shanks not long ago...........makes u think doesnt it?

[MR C]

i can't believe he did that,its not the liverpool way and it bring ridicule from other fans....but hey signs with s.o.s is somehow the liverpool way.....very strange logic.

[LegBarnes]

Like everyone I'm gutted over the result BUT with Inter coming up just a few days later I do understand in this instance Rafa wanting to rest some key players , the team he put out looked more than capable (on paper at least) of beating Barnsley. I raised an eyebrow at the central pairing but generally was satisfied we had enough quality to win the game, think my prediction was 2-0 (shows what i know).

Not posting this in defence of Rafa, but if I'm angry with anyone over yesterdays result it's the players that took to the field and failed to deliver.

I dont he dont respect what the fans want and we want i hope to challange for every comp we still in i meen come on lets get the facts right FA cup is sorry was the only one we really had a chance to win.

[account deleted by request]

18/02/2008 19:52
Whelan The Latest To Slam Benitez
Former Liverpool midfielder Ronnie Whelan has become the latest ex-Reds star to go public with his criticism of manager Rafa Benitez following the club’s humiliation at the hands of Barnsley in the FA Cup.
Whelan, who won six league titles and two FA Cups during his time at the club, insists that Benitez is to blame rather than the club’s American owners.

"To get beaten by Barnsley - I don't know what's going on.  The performances on the pitch have been absolutely abysmal" Whelan told RTE radio.

"Okay, you say 'now and again there's a cup upset, it's a one-off' but it's not really a one-off at the moment with Liverpool.

"They struggled against a team six leagues below in the round before, who no-one had ever heard of.  They struggled against Luton; they're having a lot of struggles at the moment.

"They have no chance of winning the league.  And I think the manager is under a lot of pressure now.

"He spent an awful lot of money on an awful lot of players and they haven't been very good signings" Whelan added.

"And people are shouting, 'get rid of the Americans'.  The Americans have backed the manager to the hilt.  They gave him £46million or something to spend in the summer.

"He's spent nearly £140/150million and he still cannot get close to Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea.  The players he signed I don't think are good enough.  After all the money he's spent they're still further behind than they were last year.

"So then you have to start looking at the manager who is buying the players and picking the team."