Liverpool FC Forum

[mattylfc]

I dont think Garcia has had many good games playing as a second striker.  I think he generally plays better from RM and personally i would only play him at home.  Garcia rises to the occasion at anfield and has more opportunities going forward.
Away from home he is too careless when the team needs someone to make the ball stick and take some pressure off the defense.

[Lando_Griffin]

Its a joke.  Where are all those saying in Rafa we trust.  He got it all wrong once again and Im sick of the excuses.  Our title campaign is over, we have no chance in the CL so lets all look forward to the FA and Carling cup.  Great.

Remember last season when many thought our lack of potency up front was due to Cisse and Morenties.  Well people neither of them are around anymore yet we still aint scoring goals or ever actually look dangerous.  Put Henry in the side and he would struggle.  Our attacking play is poor, and has no real quality.  We struggle to string 5 passes together and the service to the front men is abyssmal at times.  Arsenal went to Old Trafford needing to win and outplayed Utd even without Henry.  They went 1 up but it wasnt negative.  We went to Old Trafford needing to win and Rafa decided to put out a side trying not to get beat.  People might not want to admit it but our style of football compared to Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea is a joke.  We are way behind!!! Why does Rafa keep making these subs at the 50 min mark, whats the point.  Im so damn frustrated.  All those that thought the draw away to Sheff UTD was ok, what do u think now.

Another thing, Rafa's record against the big 3 is shocking.

It is a joke. Also, Garcia was absolute today, why on earth is he still a Liverpool player. Granted, he has scored some vital goals, but he is way too inconsistent for us.

Agreed.  Moves break down cos Garcia and his antics.

He would never make it a top side in Spain just cos his so much of a liability.  Garcia could be a great player if he just understood the basics. i.e. keeping the ball is vital!!!

Funny that, 'cos I could have sworn we signed him from Barcelona! 

Not to mention the fact he's a regular for Spain.

Stop talking b*llocks.

[mattylfc]

Can i just say Lando, i look forward to your replies the most. Although sometimes a bit harsh, you never fail to entertain me, you just say it as you see it.

[JBG]

A very poor performance yesterday, I don't know what game Rafa was watching when he said that we were "improving". The reality is that we were outplayed for most of the match and Darren Fletcher looked more like Steven Gerrard and vice versa. It was disheartening as I genuinely think we are a better team than UTD and this could be reflected yet before the end of the season.

However, I refuse to get the wobbles. I don't think Rafa has suddenly become a bad manager overnight, nor is rotation anything new this season: he was rotating in 2004/05 when even half the first team squad were injured. I am very confident that we will be posting here in February wondering what all the fuss was about back in October.

However, I think its just about to get worse before it gets better. I see Reading taking us in the League Cup, as Rafa will only play two or three first teamers that night. However, I'd put my house on us beating Villa in the next league match: they are due a defeat (as in they are playing above themselves) and our current poor form cannot continue forever.

Personally while I can see the logic in Rafa's arguement for rotation, I think "less is more", particularly at the start of the season. My own view is that we should start the first 8 or 9 league games with pretty much our strongest 11, then start rotating once we have put a fair amount of points on the board. It is easier for players to come in when the team is doing well, rather than bring 4 or 5 players in after an indifferent performance. This would still serve to keep the top players fresh coming into the second half of the season. However, Rafa knows more than I do.

I think we can still do things this season. The season is a marathon, not a sprint. We were in a similar position last year: losing to Palace in October was a disaster but we then won something like 10 on the trot. We can do the same again. Look at it this way, we already have some of the hardest games of the season out of the way: Everton, UTD, Chelsea and Bolton away are banana slips for any team, whereas Chelsea and UTD haven't played any difficult fixtures away from home yet. We have a decent run in and will play UTD and Chelsea at home in the second half of the season. While I think we are out of the title race I think we will get in among the top 3, as UTD and Arsenal will take more points from Chelsea this year than last.

If we are still losing games in November I'll hold my hands up and admit we have a major problem, but I have faith in Rafa and I think this could be a memorable season yet.

[Lando_Griffin]

Can i just say Lando, i look forward to your replies the most. Although sometimes a bit harsh, you never fail to entertain me, you just say it as you see it.

Yes - you can say that!

[dawson99]

Rafa hasnt suddenly become a bad manager overnight. I think a big thing of it is that cheatski arsenal and manure are all hitting form. the gooners always play really attractive football and as for us... i dont know when i last saw us play a game which was nice to watch and that i thought we would win.

We just dont have the motivation it looks like. Maybe players now know that even if they do play well they will be subebd for the next game so whats the point?

Good players should play, bad players shouldnt, its as simple as that.

Crouch scores=Crouch plays

Gerrard head messed up = he dont play

Let people know that they are playing for the shirt, that should be more than enough.

[puroresu]

Its a joke.  Where are all those saying in Rafa we trust.  He got it all wrong once again and Im sick of the excuses.  Our title campaign is over, we have no chance in the CL so lets all look forward to the FA and Carling cup.  Great.

Remember last season when many thought our lack of potency up front was due to Cisse and Morenties.  Well people neither of them are around anymore yet we still aint scoring goals or ever actually look dangerous.  Put Henry in the side and he would struggle.  Our attacking play is poor, and has no real quality.  We struggle to string 5 passes together and the service to the front men is abyssmal at times.  Arsenal went to Old Trafford needing to win and outplayed Utd even without Henry.  They went 1 up but it wasnt negative.  We went to Old Trafford needing to win and Rafa decided to put out a side trying not to get beat.  People might not want to admit it but our style of football compared to Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea is a joke.  We are way behind!!! Why does Rafa keep making these subs at the 50 min mark, whats the point.  Im so damn frustrated.  All those that thought the draw away to Sheff UTD was ok, what do u think now.

Another thing, Rafa's record against the big 3 is shocking.

It is a joke. Also, Garcia was absolute today, why on earth is he still a Liverpool player. Granted, he has scored some vital goals, but he is way too inconsistent for us.

Agreed.  Moves break down cos Garcia and his antics.

He would never make it a top side in Spain just cos his so much of a liability.  Garcia could be a great player if he just understood the basics. i.e. keeping the ball is vital!!!

Funny that, 'cos I could have sworn we signed him from Barcelona! 

Not to mention the fact he's a regular for Spain.

Stop talking b*llocks.

He didnt exactly set the world on fire at Barca and how he starts for a spain is beyond me considering the talent they have.

[Lando_Griffin]

Its a joke.  Where are all those saying in Rafa we trust.  He got it all wrong once again and Im sick of the excuses.  Our title campaign is over, we have no chance in the CL so lets all look forward to the FA and Carling cup.  Great.

Remember last season when many thought our lack of potency up front was due to Cisse and Morenties.  Well people neither of them are around anymore yet we still aint scoring goals or ever actually look dangerous.  Put Henry in the side and he would struggle.  Our attacking play is poor, and has no real quality.  We struggle to string 5 passes together and the service to the front men is abyssmal at times.  Arsenal went to Old Trafford needing to win and outplayed Utd even without Henry.  They went 1 up but it wasnt negative.  We went to Old Trafford needing to win and Rafa decided to put out a side trying not to get beat.  People might not want to admit it but our style of football compared to Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea is a joke.  We are way behind!!! Why does Rafa keep making these subs at the 50 min mark, whats the point.  Im so damn frustrated.  All those that thought the draw away to Sheff UTD was ok, what do u think now.

Another thing, Rafa's record against the big 3 is shocking.

It is a joke. Also, Garcia was absolute today, why on earth is he still a Liverpool player. Granted, he has scored some vital goals, but he is way too inconsistent for us.

Agreed.  Moves break down cos Garcia and his antics.

He would never make it a top side in Spain just cos his so much of a liability.  Garcia could be a great player if he just understood the basics. i.e. keeping the ball is vital!!!

Funny that, 'cos I could have sworn we signed him from Barcelona! 

Not to mention the fact he's a regular for Spain.

Stop talking b*llocks.

He didnt exactly set the world on fire at Barca and how he starts for a spain is beyond me considering the talent they have.

But he DID play for Barca, and he DOES play for Spain.

I think it's an English thing, tbh. As a nation, we can't see beyond goals and tackles. There's more to the game, folks.

Garcia is a diamond - as he keeps proving.

[dawson99]

Im with Lando on the Garcia thing. But Garcia was the wrong choice for yesterday.

We can still get back Bruno from loan right?

{im getting real confued now about the different threads all merging into one}

[bunglemark2]

All in all, I was embarassed to listen to the game yesterday. Going to Old Trafford and expecting to defend from the front with a single striker up against 4 defenders.....don't make me laugh....what kind of a tactic is that ?? EXPECTING to lose or at worst to settle for a draw from the first minute ? Where's the "we can beat anybody" mindset ? It was pathetic.....I would happily sacrifice a half-decent performance in the CL and to go out with credit, for a run at contending for the Premiership.....we're nowhere near that right now and every year we get further behind.

[67-1161385641]

I'm disappointed, really disappointed and incredibly annoyed, but not just with the result (even though it was terrible) but with the manner in which we lost. We didn't play well, we didn't turn up, well we did for the first five minutes before allowing United to settle into the match and then we just turned off and shut down.

I also felt disappointed that our big players who you'd expect to perform fail to even show any interest in match, I was more disappointed with Gerrard, not because there is high expectation on him to perform, but because he failed to drive the team forward and offer the players any sort of direction, when you're in a derby match and your one nil down, you expect your skipper to rally the troops and march on forward to victory and he just didn't do that.

Reina almost got caught when he had to rush out of the box to try and defend his goal because the defence lapsed concentration.

That wasn't the only problem, we lacked cohesion in all areas of the pitch, we lacked controlled aggression, bar Sissoko who got stuck in and could have been sent off had he put another foot wrong. We lost the midfield battle with Gerrard, Sissoko and Alonso you'd expect us to win the midfield battle, but we lost and that isolated Kuyt quite a bit, Garcia's wastefulness and us failing to convert our chances was a big problem. Another problem was we didn't know how to use the ball properly and as a result didn't pass it well; United won the pass battle on the pitch as well.

We've been written off from the title, but I'm not writing us off of anything, not yet. Maybe I'm stupid and blind, and perhaps we're not ready to be champions just yet, but I can remember a few seasons where a team was 12/10/15 etc points behind the league leader/leaders and the team came back and won. It doesn't happen very often, but you just never know, did anyone at half time 3-0 down in Istanbul a fight chance? No, they didn't, I and most were hoping we didn't let in another three.

I have hope, but our big players need to start putting in the performances and it's time for Benitez to come to some conclusion on his best team and stick with it.

2-0 to united hurts, hell it's a bad result, some will say "it was at Old Trafford, it's never easy to get a result there". This is true, but what makes me sad and deeply disappointed is the fact we didn't treat it like a derby match, like a rivalry match, it was almost half hearted and that hurts more than the result.

[account deleted by request]

Its a joke.  Where are all those saying in Rafa we trust.  He got it all wrong once again and Im sick of the excuses.  Our title campaign is over, we have no chance in the CL so lets all look forward to the FA and Carling cup.  Great.

Remember last season when many thought our lack of potency up front was due to Cisse and Morenties.  Well people neither of them are around anymore yet we still aint scoring goals or ever actually look dangerous.  Put Henry in the side and he would struggle.  Our attacking play is poor, and has no real quality.  We struggle to string 5 passes together and the service to the front men is abyssmal at times.  Arsenal went to Old Trafford needing to win and outplayed Utd even without Henry.  They went 1 up but it wasnt negative.  We went to Old Trafford needing to win and Rafa decided to put out a side trying not to get beat.  People might not want to admit it but our style of football compared to Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea is a joke.  We are way behind!!! Why does Rafa keep making these subs at the 50 min mark, whats the point.  Im so damn frustrated.  All those that thought the draw away to Sheff UTD was ok, what do u think now.

Another thing, Rafa's record against the big 3 is shocking.

It is a joke. Also, Garcia was absolute today, why on earth is he still a Liverpool player. Granted, he has scored some vital goals, but he is way too inconsistent for us.

Agreed.  Moves break down cos Garcia and his antics.

He would never make it a top side in Spain just cos his so much of a liability.  Garcia could be a great player if he just understood the basics. i.e. keeping the ball is vital!!!

Funny that, 'cos I could have sworn we signed him from Barcelona! 

Not to mention the fact he's a regular for Spain.

Stop talking b*llocks.

He didnt exactly set the world on fire at Barca and how he starts for a spain is beyond me considering the talent they have.

It seems obvious to me that Rafa tried to set Liverpool up in a similar way to the team he put out against Chelsea in the semi- final last season. Gonzales instead of the injured Kewell and the more mobile Kuyt instead of Crouch. The rest of the team was the same! Did anyone moan about Garcia playing in the semi?

I think Rafa went for a team that would play it tight and for a special player like Garcia to unlock the Mancs defence as he did Chelsea's last year.

The players including Garcia played cr*p that doesnt mean the wrong players were selected, the wrong tactics used, that we should sell our best players or Rafa should be sacked.

Rotation, confidence,motivation,training are all reasonable reasons that could explain our poor form, but don't blame Rafa for picking Garcia.