Liverpool FC Forum

by **sithlord** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:30 am

Does any of this sound familiar?

Main attacking ploy is long ball to big target man (Heskey/Crouch)

Put almost everybody behind the ball to protect a vulnerable defence

Try to nick a goal and then exploit the extra space in attack

When we go behind against a decent team, throw extra men forward leaving our dodgy defence open and get pasted

by **The_Rock** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:33 am

Have to agree with u....master.......

The thing which pi$$es me..is rafa keeps saying we have a better team than last season. Then why is our fottball so inferior to last season ?

by **red37** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:44 am

you have to say one thing...

progress under gerard houllier-- we came closer to the prem title than we did before, or indeed since. we garnered the uefa cup, f.a cup and the league cup in ONE season..not forgetting the super cup and a further league cup triumph etc..

(given the fact too, that he had to first 'tidy-up' after evans).

then, we know the rest.....gerard houllier IMO was on course with his 5 year 'plan'....IF you assess his record 3 years in...

where did it go wrong then?..simple... gerard houllier fell ill.

who can say for certain that we wouldnt have already been premier league champions at least once in the 4 years since houllier reached his zenith? and had he stayed of course... i cant..

but, fates step in and dictated that GH should spend as little time as, economically acceptable, in terms of HIS LIFE...'putting in 110% anymore'...sadly, rightly so.

then, thommo was handed the reigns..and for the sake of repeating that which is already in PRINT...ill stop there.

id say then, that the benchmark to START assessing a new manager can realistically only begin...from about this point. 3 years in.

some never get that long..(look at del bosque?, who imo did nothing wrong... why?? ), i thought he could have been as effective as bob paisley for real madrid............... some get twice as long to work miracles.
---------------------------------------------------------

again, to reiterate, this happened (our peak, under GH) after 3 years or so into his tenure, so its fair to say. we owe rafa benitez at least the same amount of rope before the spears are poisoned.

one more point................

gerard houllier became labelled as 'boring' in his negative tactics/selection. in fact the guy was lambasted every time he opened his mouth..in the end.

but you have to argue his case... UNTIL illness intervened at least.

fwiw. though chelsea turned up the power yesterday, and however painful it sounds 'deserved' to win..... they themselves are no where near the team 'most' people imagine them to be. almost, id say 'boring? stifling? long ball?..etc) too right.. even a scruffy dog can have his day!...

and for as much as i can remember seeing, so were valencia MORE than once...YES with better players deployed and YES very effective.. but the difference with valencia cf during their prime, was the ability to switch between INCISIVE and STIFLING both one vis a vie the other... and quickly.

contain then counter attack?... very much the rafa way

in summary..no we are NOT back to the negative days of GH..(at least understand why that was the case though)

what we ARE up against is our own impatience... look when rafa arrived, we were all excited because we'd got rid of boring ged and thommo....we all thought we were going to sign canizares, ayala, aimar and vicente overnight! well we did?...
then, rafa benitez has several headaches to contend with not least the 'jumping ship' of one of the clubs main strikers?? the decimation of his first 11...etc new language...etc..
on top of and despite all that, he only goes and wins the european cup ffs!....NOT 3 years in... HIS FIRST GO with liverpool fc, and what was left of it.
there is the problem staring us in the face.....
if liverpool football club were NOT european champions currently....(aside from yesterday) most of us would have been happy with a draw with man.utd...a point away at 'boro.. we would have been made up with coming from behind at st. andrews...........admit it....................

trouble is, we all now think rafa is on page 60 odd of his 'manual of LFC...and how to work miracles' book.....
(he told me, its only 87 pages long):D.....'in this moment'!!

well he aint...get used to it. what he's shown me imo is enough to know (with the ingredients he has) btw.. that he IS the man to do it... when and how he does it is out of our hands im afraid... and our only input to IF he does it, has to be by supporting the man.

f.uck chelsea, forget them. time,experience, wisdom and money will peg them back...(morgan? right time?)...

its the other 2 we should be aiming for...and for me thats not too big an ask.

by **red37** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:53 am

tell you what though.....i regret the day we let danny murphy go

in my book the lad was on course to rise out the flames 'a pheonix' bit like jamie carragher... sad miss.

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