Liverpool FC Forum

[ruskiy playmaker]

Nah you didn't offend me or anyone else mate. It's probably one of those occasions where you can count yourself a bit unlucky for getting pinged. There's been numerous head high over reactions since the game which have gone unnoticed, it's your first foul and the boring old ref wants to have a word in your shell-like  .

Okay, promise I'll behave.

But, I just don't understand how people can blame Rafa for the results when it's pretty obvious that the owners caused all of this.  I don't remember anyone complaining about his managing abilities when we were getting decent results at the beginning of the season.  What do people expect Rafa to do with the players who are so low on confidence? 

I think that in the end it all comes down to the lack of funds.  So many times we fail to finish teams off not because of Rafa's tactics but because we don't have enough quality players.  I will not blame Rafa until I see him fail with a proper budget, like they have at Man U and Chelsea.

[NJD83]

Kuyt & Kewell must give one hell of a blow job!!!!!!

[SouthCoastShankly]

I really didn't see the point in that half hearted protest last night. Its clear the fans are split on who the most at fault out of Rafa and the Americans. Yeah they're public relations is clearly sh!t but you can argue this situation would never of come about if Rafa hadn't of been an idiot and gone public over the transfer funds row.

I'm a Rafa fan but this season has really shown a different side to our manager. The fact of the matter is Rafa is underperforming as a manager as much as any of the team members are as players.

His team selection defies believe recently - How do you explain week after week dropping Crouch for the likes of Kuyt and Voronin? How is Aurelio a better option than Riise at left back?

Then we come onto the transfer fund saga. To me it seems like Rafa wants an Abramovich who will give him endless cash in the pursuit of a super team of stars. £46m is more than anyone expected to be spent this season.

I truly believe that it isn't the board who will be the reason Rafa will no longer be our manager its Rafa himself, his selection and rotation policy alone is reason.

[ruskiy playmaker]

I really didn't see the point in that half hearted protest last night. Its clear the fans are split on who the most at fault out of Rafa and the Americans. Yeah they're public relations is clearly sh!t but you can argue this situation would never of come about if Rafa hadn't of been an idiot and gone public over the transfer funds row.

I'm a Rafa fan but this season has really shown a different side to our manager. The fact of the matter is Rafa is underperforming as a manager as much as any of the team members are as players.

His team selection defies believe recently - How do you explain week after week dropping Crouch for the likes of Kuyt and Voronin? How is Aurelio a better option than Riise at left back?

Then we come onto the transfer fund saga. To me it seems like Rafa wants an Abramovich who will give him endless cash in the pursuit of a super team of stars. £46m is more than anyone expected to be spent this season.

I truly believe that it isn't the board who will be the reason Rafa will no longer be our manager its Rafa himself, his selection and rotation policy alone is reason.

What do you expect Rafa to do when he found out that he and the fans were lied to by the owners?  Remember how they promised to give him full support including the funds. 
Would you have liked to find out later when it was too late, that the owner had lied to us about so many things.  By coming out publicly about the funds Rafa has shown us what their true plans are for this club.

[agoodmentality]

For about 3 mins last night we actually played "with a high tempo and a good mentality",, it was early in the second half, it culminated in Arbeloa shooting over the bar, stevie g was made up with the play, you could see him clapping his hands in encouragement to the rest of the lads, to carry it on. It reminded me of our play in the CL when the chips are down,  it all stems from pressure all over the pitch and full backs overlapping[B].
Sorry everyone but Finnan is Fin-ished, makes Arbeloa look good,,,,
what i'd love to see is Alves, Cicinhio, Glen Johnson(yes), Micha Richards, (i could go on) on the right side. on the left just look what Petrov has done at Man Shitty, Evra , Bridge/Cole, Clichy. They all overlap and cause problems.
Is it the manager who dictates wether the full back overlaps'?? sometimes I think they are told to stay behind their winger, thus keeping our shape, yet other times i think they just don't have the balls or energy.
What do you reckon??

[Sean]

Wouldn't be at all surprised if we go on and win the champions league.

[puroresu]

Nah you didn't offend me or anyone else mate. It's probably one of those occasions where you can count yourself a bit unlucky for getting pinged. There's been numerous head high over reactions since the game which have gone unnoticed, it's your first foul and the boring old ref wants to have a word in your shell-like  .

Okay, promise I'll behave.

But, I just don't understand how people can blame Rafa for the results when it's pretty obvious that the owners caused all of this.  I don't remember anyone complaining about his managing abilities when we were getting decent results at the beginning of the season.  What do people expect Rafa to do with the players who are so low on confidence? 

I think that in the end it all comes down to the lack of funds.  So many times we fail to finish teams off not because of Rafa's tactics but because we don't have enough quality players.  I will not blame Rafa until I see him fail with a proper budget, like they have at Man U and Chelsea.

Its not just lack of funds. Rafa has spent money.  His bought certain players that are just not good enough.  Believe it or not u can find good players for less than £10 million.  Our side should be good enough to beat the teams like Wigan, Birmingham, Spurs and Villa at home.  Rafa has made mistakes with team selections and is not infallible.

[bigmick]

Is it the manager who dictates wether the full back overlaps'?? sometimes I think they are told to stay behind their winger, thus keeping our shape, yet other times i think they just don't have the balls or energy.
What do you reckon??

Like so much in football, it depends. It's really quite difficult to convince yourself it is the case when a team is playing as poorly as we are at the moment, but the difference between our most most fluent performances and the ones we are are seeing right now is really a very small one.

The lack of confidence in yourself and your team manifests itself in many different ways. You get players just needing an extra touch before passing the ball for fear of losing posession (Lucas alone seems immune to this illness at the moment), you get players less able to anticipate the flow of the ball as it stops and starts with a steccato rhythm, and you get players less inclined to commit forwards for fear the ball will be lost cheaply and they'll be left exposed. They snatch at chances, miskick clearances and all manner of other small things which added together lead to insecurity and lack of fluency.

The fullbacks overlapping falls firmly into this bracket I'm afraid, although it would be fair to say that Aston Villa set up very cleverly away from home which does make it difficult to load up out wide. It seems to me that they are prepared to pull Ashley Young back and inside when they don't have the ball, but should either of the opposition full-backs become overly brave they push Agbonlahor over to his flank in behind and look for the out ball into the space. The danger from there is you get pulled around, and with Carew holding his position centrally it is potentially goal threatening. It's clever and utilizes the young strikers pace very effectively. Pinning back the opposition back four means they are able through work rate and organization to manage the other six outfield players very effectively with their remaining eight. Their coach is a good deal shrewder than he is given credit for IMHO.

FWIW each time I see Agbonlahor he impresses me more and I think he would do well at a big club. Given that and my record of picking out prospects over the years, we should wait a year or two for his inevitable loss of form and transfer to West Brom, where we will be able to pick him up for next to feck all     

[club_Levis]

I really didn't see the point in that half hearted protest last night. Its clear the fans are split on who the most at fault out of Rafa and the Americans. Yeah they're public relations is clearly sh!t but you can argue this situation would never of come about if Rafa hadn't of been an idiot and gone public over the transfer funds row.

I'm a Rafa fan but this season has really shown a different side to our manager. The fact of the matter is Rafa is underperforming as a manager as much as any of the team members are as players.

His team selection defies believe recently - How do you explain week after week dropping Crouch for the likes of Kuyt and Voronin? How is Aurelio a better option than Riise at left back?

Then we come onto the transfer fund saga. To me it seems like Rafa wants an Abramovich who will give him endless cash in the pursuit of a super team of stars. £46m is more than anyone expected to be spent this season.

I truly believe that it isn't the board who will be the reason Rafa will no longer be our manager its Rafa himself, his selection and rotation policy alone is reason.

What do you expect Rafa to do when he found out that he and the fans were lied to by the owners?  Remember how they promised to give him full support including the funds. 
Would you have liked to find out later when it was too late, that the owner had lied to us about so many things.  By coming out publicly about the funds Rafa has shown us what their true plans are for this club.

Rafa wanted money for Torres and was given, Money for Skrtel and owners duly agreed..So where was it stated that he wanted a certain player and G & H refused. Kaladze? they simply told him you should sell part of the dross you have bought to finance other moves.Face it Rafa has got lot of flaws  especially in the transfer market that explains why the team is struggling. You might shout as much as you want to the Yanks but dont pick the team. They didnt buy Kuyt,bring in Voronin, stick to the disinterested Kewell, tinker with the team etc. The boss should take the blame...

[Big Niall]

The owners are entitled to look for a new manager if they want to , the paid hundreds of millions for the club FFS!

They should not have gone public with klinnsman, but Benitez started the whole "public" side of the argument.

Does anyone doubt that Benitez was talking with LFC when GH was still manager?

[Big Niall]

To be behind Everton and only ahead of Man City and Villa on goal difference is terrible.

Benitez should go .

Good in cups but terrible in the league.

Does anyone here believe that after four years in charge the club is closer to winning the league?

Benitez will NEVER win the league. He is too stubborn to drop Kuyt FFS.

Crouch might regret scoring that goal as having Benitez as manager doesn't seem to be in his interest.

[metalhead]

Gerrard - drama affects us
Reds skipper admits players struggling to deal with speculation
Last updated: 22nd January 2008

Gerrard: Admits players find it hard to focus on football

It is not just this week, it has been going on for some time and it is certainly not helping the players.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard admits continuing off-field speculation about the club is making it difficult for the side to concentrate on football.



Uncertainty over the Reds' ownership and the position of manager Rafael Benitez have made for recurring headlines.


Form on the pitch has also been disappointing and the Reds needed a late Peter Crouch equaliser to earn a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa at Anfield.


"It is not just this week, it has been going on for some time and it is certainly not helping the players," Gerrard said.


"I have got to be careful what I say about the situation but it is certainly not helping the team.


"We know what is going on, but as players you have got a job to do on the pitch.



Impossible


"You try to put what is going on off the pitch to the back of your mind but sometimes it is impossible, when it is every day."


The result leaves Liverpool outside the Champions League places but Villa boss Martin O'Neill still believes they must be favourites to claim the fourth spot.


Everton, Liverpool, Villa and Manchester City are separated by just two points in positions four to seven in the table.


O'Neill said: "Liverpool are the strongest of the four sides going for fourth spot. We do not have a big enough squad and we would need a lot of luck to contest fourth spot."


Managers chief Richard Bevan has also added his support to the Liverpool boss and claims the club's owners of undermining manager Benitez.


Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers' Association, believes the matter has been badly handled and feels clubs need to improve their lines of communication between from boardroom to training ground.






Bevan told Sky Sports News: "Clubs and their owners must act in a professional and business-like manner.


"Certainly what happened to Rafael Benitez undermined the club and certainly undermined him professionally and personally. It was surprising to hear the comments from the owner.


"But we also have to realise it is a massive multi-million pound business.


"It is really about making sure all the stake-holders properly communicate their views, sit round the table and build medium to long-term plans.


"If we were to focus on communication the game would be better off and many issues behind the scenes would be kept behind the scenes."


------------------------
SOURCE



hmm... Gerrard is admiting it.

[bigmick]

The owners are entitled to look for a new manager if they want to , the paid hundreds of millions for the club FFS!

They should not have gone public with klinnsman, but Benitez started the whole "public" side of the argument.

Does anyone doubt that Benitez was talking with LFC when GH was still manager?

Well if they do doubt that Rafa spoke to the club while Houllier was still the manager they would be naive Niall for sure. That said, I'm not sure the issue is the owners speaking to Klinnsman (although he would have been a bizarre choice as coach for us) but more that Hicks thought it was reasonable to advertise the fact in the media just when the furore was dying down.

For me there are a couple of givens out of the whole episode.

1. The new owners are vermin and need to be drummed out of the club at the earliest possible opportunity. I don't particularly care that we don't know too much about DIC. In this instance, it's better the devil you don't know.

2. Rafa's performance as manager this season has been below what could be reasonably be expected given the quality of the players at his disposal.

3. We have some players at the club who fairly obviously aren't good enough to play for a top four team, never mind one that has pretensions of challenging for the League title.

[ruskiy playmaker]

Nah you didn't offend me or anyone else mate. It's probably one of those occasions where you can count yourself a bit unlucky for getting pinged. There's been numerous head high over reactions since the game which have gone unnoticed, it's your first foul and the boring old ref wants to have a word in your shell-like  .

Okay, promise I'll behave.

But, I just don't understand how people can blame Rafa for the results when it's pretty obvious that the owners caused all of this.  I don't remember anyone complaining about his managing abilities when we were getting decent results at the beginning of the season.  What do people expect Rafa to do with the players who are so low on confidence? 

I think that in the end it all comes down to the lack of funds.  So many times we fail to finish teams off not because of Rafa's tactics but because we don't have enough quality players.  I will not blame Rafa until I see him fail with a proper budget, like they have at Man U and Chelsea.

Its not just lack of funds. Rafa has spent money.  His bought certain players that are just not good enough.  Believe it or not u can find good players for less than £10 million.  Our side should be good enough to beat the teams like Wigan, Birmingham, Spurs and Villa at home.  Rafa has made mistakes with team selections and is not infallible.

So Rafa has made a some mistakes, but show me a manager who hasn't.  Fergie and especially Mourinho have made some pretty horrible signings and with much bigger budgets (some examples Veron,Forlan,Schevchenko...).  Mourinho has made a lot of tactical mistakes too but he could correct them because he had a great squad to work with.  But Rafa can't do that because the quality of the squad is not good enough.   

As I said before don't be quick to judge Rafa, wait and see what he can do with proper funds first.  That is the only way to know if he's good enough to win us the league.

[Dutchsky]

kewell
kuit

playing 9 men from the start

Well if it wasnt for Kuyt, the first goal wouldn't even been scored.

Don't scapegoat players.

The whole team isn't doing well; this brings down the overall level of play from all players in the squad. And the problem with the owners and all rumours about, aint helping too.

Even Messi, Ronaldinho and Kaka wouldn't do well in a team that is out of shape.