Liverpool FC Forum

by **metalhead** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:04 pm

sarcasm smilie must be there somewhere :lookaround

by **Ben Patrick** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:16 pm

maguskwt wrote:
metalhead wrote:Rafa is faultless, he is God, the one, the untouchable, the Messiah..

At last you realize!

i used to have a bird that i thought was unbelievable.
Things started off great but then went sour.
When things ended it hurt like hell.

I look back now and think to myself how did i ever feel like that about someone i now know wasnt right for me.

You will get to that point about Rafa once we get a manager in that is good enough.
Of that i am sure.

by **metalhead** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:19 pm

Ben Patrick wrote:i used to have a bird that i thought was unbelievable.
Things started off great but then went sour.
When things ended it hurt like hell.

I look back now and think to myself how did i ever feel like that about someone i now know wasnt right for me.

have you consulted professional help for this?

joking

by **Ben Patrick** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:24 pm

metalhead wrote:
Ben Patrick wrote:i used to have a bird that i thought was unbelievable.
Things started off great but then went sour.
When things ended it hurt like hell.

I look back now and think to myself how did i ever feel like that about someone i now know wasnt right for me.

have you consulted professional help for this?

joking

costing me a fortune the therapy mate :sniffle

by **SouthCoastShankly** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:29 pm

RED BEERGOGGLES wrote:Rafael Benitez to Man City ....its a banker
Man City Owners want Benitez

HA HA

Can't see it happening...

Solely on the fact that as of next season the new UEFA break-even rule will kick in. This will curb the likes of Man City, Real Madrid and Chelsea spending obscene amounts of money.

Benitez will no longer have the luxury of transfer fund ultimatums.

Although I do admit it would be intersting to see him there...

by **burjennio** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:39 pm

age of the Inter and Milan 1st teams last game

AC MILAN vs ROMA

C. Abbiati 33
I. Abate 24
A. Nesta 34
D. Bonera 29
L. Antonini 28
G. Gattuso 32
M. Ambrosini 33
A. Pirlo 31
K. Boateng 23
Robinho 26
Z. Ibrahimovic 29

INTER vs MAZEMBE

Julio Cesar, 31
Chivu, 30
Maicon, 29
Cordoba, 34
Zanetti, 58 (ish)
Lucio, 32
Motta, 28
Cambiasso, 30
Eto'o, 29
Milito, 31
Pandev, 27

Its pretty close, I find it suprising that AC Milans oldies appear to be in midfield these days whereas its Inter Milan that have the grandpas at the back. I still dont buy for a second that a team that was able to win a treble 6 months ago is now "past it" though. Could their motivation be lower? Sure. Could the Benitez tactics of a high energy pressing game have not suited an aging squad? Absolutely. The big observation I take from these two things though is that motivation and tactics are definitely areas the manager earns his stripes. Ive already mentioned in previous posts I believe that tactically Rafa approached this job totally the wrong way in that he was never going to be able to conivnce a group of seasoned campaigners that had just won every trophy available to them that his was a better way than the game they had played under Mourinho. Motivation however is something I believe any manager who came into that job was going to be able to struggle with, how do you motivate a team that has nothing left to win? In this I believe Rafa was right to ask for a couple of fresh faces to be brough in to shake up the rest of the side and make sure key players knew they would be playing for their places and not able to coast, as well as have a few players ready to step in if a few injuries arose, which of course we now know did end up happening.

So my take on this is that a combination of mistakes on the part of Benitez as well as the unwillingness of the board to add to an aging squad combined to create the debacle that ended up being Rafas tenure at Inter. The truth is a manager with the CV of Rafa doesnt become a bad manager overnight, or in the space of 1.5 seasons. Sometimes a manager needs to freshen up his ideas however and evolve, he also perhaps has to reflect on the mistakes he has made and grow from them. I hope that now that he is unemployed he can take the opportunity to do this and come back stronger than ever a few months down the line. In all probability it wont be at Liverpool (sorry guys) but Rafael Benitez has done too much to get this club back to where it belongs for me not to be appreciative of his efforts and so I wish him all the success in the world in the future (providing its not in the Premier League!)

by **7_Kewell** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 6:28 pm

was at NUJ's xmas drinks this afternoon and asked a couple of sports writers about the chances of Rafa coming back to Liverpool.

The question has already been put to NESV and....

Officially they won’t be drawn on the subject. However, off the record, they’ve said there’s ‘”absolutely no chance” Rafa will return. They want to move the club forward and bringing back an old manager isn’t part of their plans.

by **Dirty Barry** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 6:58 pm

Rafa is only good if you give him shed loads of money and don't mind him wasting about half of it.

by **Emerald Red** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:07 pm

Dirty Barry wrote:Rafa is only good if you give him shed loads of money and don't mind him wasting about half of it.

Yes, because he was always given shed loads of money through his career, wasn't he?

by **roberto green** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:08 pm

Dirty Barry wrote:Rafa is only good if you give him shed loads of money and don't mind him wasting about half of it

He is also only good if you want to win the champions league with a team of misfits :no

by **Masch79** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:48 pm

Dirty Barry wrote:Rafa is only good if you give him shed loads of money and don't mind him wasting about half of it.

Oh dear

by **sully0182** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:04 pm

rafa just got the sack from inter

by **Thommo's perm** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:10 pm

Ben Patrick wrote:
maguskwt wrote:
metalhead wrote:Rafa is faultless, he is God, the one, the untouchable, the Messiah..

At last you realize!

i used to have a bird that i thought was unbelievable.
Things started off great but then went sour.
When things ended it hurt like hell.

I look back now and think to myself how did i ever feel like that about someone i now know wasnt right for me.

You will get to that point about Rafa once we get a manager in that is good enough.
Of that i am sure.

Is this you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JnpuG_HA9M&feature=fvw

by **Thommo's perm** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:13 pm

sully0182 wrote:rafa just got the sack from inter

Yes it is confirmed. El Magnifico is on for another many million pounds payout.
Some cynics might say hes doing this on purpose to become so rich he can retire before hes 50?
I wonder...
:shifty

by **PabloAimar** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:21 pm

I'd take him back. I believe that in a harmonic working environment, he could complete the job he started and continue improving us (as he did between 2004 - 2009) until we eventually win the title

Re: Andy Gray’s statement during coverage of the Villa game that the squad GH left RB was certainly better than the squad RB left RH (and also an alarming number of people on this forum who seem to regard RB as a complete failure [having taken us to 2 champions’ league finals, won one, an FA cup and 4 points short of the premier league title on a shoe string budget working for 2 cowboys and 2 successive bellend Chief Execs] and GH as a legend. Fair enough, we must be nice as he became ill managing us but he was still as much as a disaster for most of his tenure as RB was for the last year of his – with RB working under much more difficult circumstances it has to be said)

Squad comparison.........

Goalkeepers

Dudek vs Reina… RB (no contest)
Kirkland vs Cavalieri… RB (at least diego’s back worked)

Defenders

Hyypia vs Skrtel… GH (no contest)
Finnan vs Johnson… RB (GJ overpriced, but still offers as standard what SF could only dream of)
Riise vs Insua… GH (criminal that our only fit left back was 21)
Carra ’04 vs Carra ’10… RB (lets be honest, who was JC before RB turned up and turned him into a proper centre-back?)
Henchoz vs Agger… RB (no contest)
Traore vs Kyriakos… RB (no contest)

Midfielders

Murphy vs Aquilani… DRAW (could pick either. A fit AA every time but not always possible – although I don’t think he’s been injured this season so far has he?)
Gerrard ’04 vs Gerrard ’10… GH (hands down)
Biscan vs Lucas… RB (LL has already surpassed the standard IB was at his peak, and will only improve. PS. IB’s best games came under RB)
Kewell vs Benayoun… RB (Kewell was a crock – and I know what you’re thinking, but Aquilani is nowhere near as notorious for successive unrelated injuries)
Hamann vs Mascherano… DRAW (purely because it was inevitable that JM wanted to leave – but £15m would be available for a replacement. I’d take £15m over eine aging Kaiser)
Smicer vs Riera… RB (forget his goal in Istanbul, what did VS ever actually do besides fall over the ball?)
Cheyrou vs Maxi… RB (BC’s best games came under RB)
Diao vs Spearing… RB x2 (f*ck me)
Welsh vs El Zhar/Plessis… DRAW (whatever)

Attackers

Owen vs Torres… RB (judas’s contract was allowed to run down by GH, besides… El f*cking Nino)
Heskey vs Kuyt… RB (and I hate DK – that tells you something)
Diouf vs Babel… RB (and they said Rafa was cracking up?!)
Baros vs Ngog… DRAW (Baros better at the time but Ngog will develop into a better player and has a higher relative market value than Baros did at the time)
Cisse vs Jovanovic… DRAW (personally, I’d pick the one with 2 structurally sound legs intact but we have to be objective here – MJ hasn’t proven anything yet)
Le Tallec vs Pacheco… RB (based on potential and relative market value)
Pongolle vs Eccleston… GH (based on the transfer fees FSP has since commanded which we lost out on)
Neil Mellor vs ? ? ? ... GH

GH wins = 5 (-1 more for Diao)
RB wins = 15
DRAW = 5

…. So even if GH scraped a last minute winner in most of them draws, RB still wins by a mile! GH’s last few wins (fringe attackers) are also a bit cheap. RB left much a much better youth team behind too.

OK, that’s what I’ve spend time looking at and concluding. Could somebody please give me some justification for those believing GH left a better squad than RB?

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