Liverpool FC Forum

Seano Kop wrote:actually, then there was 1. Arsenal and Chelsea will suffer because of the african cup of nations

Seano Kop wrote:actually, then there was 1. Arsenal and Chelsea will suffer because of the african cup of nations

The_Rock wrote:

Emerald Red wrote:

The_Rock wrote:

LittleHobo wrote:he fukked it with the ryan babel and lucas signings

i like babel and lucas but are we really in a position to spend 17 odd million on youngsters for the future when we have massive problems out wide

we really needed one world class winger instead of 2 promising kids for the future....both i rate but we are still crying out for the winger

Agreed about babel.......IMO he is not even potential...just a massively over-rated player (similar to cisse)...

Well every manager is allowed 1 or 2 costly mistakes..

Well, that's very harsh, and IMO very, very wrong. Way off the mark there.

There's nothing i like more than to be proved wrong in the case of babel..... I would love it if he was the next henry...but from what i have seen him here and in his ajax days (yes....i have seen him play for ajax...on TV of course),  he is just a forward version of sissoko. His short passing is "sissoko" bad...and he can't dribble past people but he keeps doing that.

Like i said i hope i am wrong...but rafa got it massively wrong with babel if he thought he is gonna solve our wing problem.

mungi wrote:...  title hopes are gone. this was the last straw. im heartbroken...

burjennio wrote:Last night was a painful experience, i dont think it can be sugarcoated by saying we dominated the game or they got lucky from a bad clearance - everything about the performance from a Lfc point of view, from the selection and the tactics right down to the players contributions was off.

451 at home to Wigan is a bizzare formation. Yes other strikers may be misfiring but IIRC playing 2 up front recently had saw demolitions of Marseille, Bolton, Portsmouth and Besiktas, perhaps Rafa was trying to give a makeshift defence some extra protection with the extra holding midfielder, nevertheless, it didnt work. if Gerrard was playing an advanced free role, why was he dropping deeper than Alonso? a support striker should be doing exactly what it says on the tin, not coming deep and isolating the striker, which leads to the dreaded Gerrard 50yard long ball of doom

Harry Kewell was to be blunt, God Awful. It seems that the days of him blurring past fullbacks are long gone. Every time he received the ball he STOPPED RUNNING!!!! either trying to cut inside or hold up play. A friend of mine commented that he was playing like John Barnes in his last season - no forward momentum and continuously passing the ball backwards or giving it away. Maschas distribution was very poor, he tackles like a legend, but passes like Ray Charles. maybe we're seeing why the Yanks are stalling over the £17m. Saying that I still think he's awesome, and the best around in that role.
The back 4 could be described as nervous at best, clearly not comfortable with the patched up Centre Half pairing and that showed in there positioning and distribution when Wigan gained what little momentum they achieved in the match - as for the goal, it may have hit Mascherano and fallen to the "prolific" Titus Bramble but it was a really poor clearance from the captian- it seemed to happen very similarly to the 1st Besiktas goal in Turkey and was a mess sadly of our own making

I know that the pro-anti Rafa debate will be more fierce than ever after this but to put in my 2 cents worth in, while believing that Rafa is still the right man for the job I believe that the sand is running to the bottom of the hour glass and that he's gonna have to change things around in a big way in the 2nd half of the season to keep his job. The we must give him time arguement isnt gonna wash if we finish in 4th place this year, thats a regression despite the 40 odd million dished out on players in the summer. Liverpool are the most successful club in England and irrespective of Champions League Glory in 05, a succession of 3rd and 4th place finishes isn't good enough - as Shanks himself said, it's the league thats our bread and butter and its high time we were on top of it again.

Looking at the season as it has unfolded so far It seems to me that Rafa may be causing himself more problems than the opposition does - We've all said our thing on the transfer outburst and the rotation policy but sometimes when I watch a game and I keep coming back to something Ciggy said in one of the pre match threads a few months ago, something along the lines of "lets not worry about tactics and nulifying the opposition, lets just go out there and tw@t them!" Watching the City game on Sunday and the Wigan game last night It was like a premonition coming true. City were there for the taking from about 10minutes in when they showed they had no interest in going for the win, same last night, sometimes you just gotta throw caution to the wind and believe in your own ability instead of worrying about that of the other team - Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea dont do it, why should we?

As for the transfer window, I cant see anyone being available who will greatly improve the team, so more of Rafas "squad players" that everyone on here loves so much. Personally, id love to see another Pellegrino or Kronkamp 

So all to wrap it all together we must say that the title race for us is over (time to start a thread called "lets get behind Arsenal") so for the next half of the season I would like to see the shackles off, the younger players we have invested so heavily in getting a run in the 1st team (Babel, Lucus, Insua and yes, Leto) and the other strikers either finding there shooting boots or being dropped and then sold, get a fluid team together going into the Inter game at the end of Feb and we will see either the final curtain on the Benitez tenure or a glorious new chapter in his reign

Come in Rafa, we believe in you 

JohnBull wrote:The coming transfer window will show if there is any future for Raffa at Anfield.
The Yanks are not stupid (prycks but NOT stupid) and they will be relying on advisers before investing anymore under Raffa. There are loads of rumours going around at the moment, Risse & Kuyt going to Valencia in a swop deal, Berbatov coming to us in a £20m deal involving Crouchy, some deal for Kompany (which would be good) but it will be a question as to if the Yanks put their hands into their pockets.
They will only do this if there is still faith in Raffa's ability and like it or not the results are not stacking up for the man.
This season was potentially the best chance we've had in nearly two decades to win the Prem but what was once "fortress Anfield" is again becoming a joke. When some muppet like Steve Bruce can out-think our management it is time to reconsider our options and I'm sure the Yanks are thinking like that.
Twenty thousand of us can march from the Sandon and it won't make twopence worth of difference, the game today is ALL about results. No doubt they are looking at City where Sven has made a massive difference (I'm still rubbing my eyes when I see their position !) in only half a season.

I went to last night's game expecting the 10 man defence, the congested midfield, pretty much the way it went, (apart from the donkey scoring). When I saw the selection I was once again mystified. Why are we afraid of second rate teams ? Why don't we go out to win from the off ?

Seen some amazing sights this season, the first LFC team to throw in the towel during the game, the first LFC teams to throw in the towel before the game, I'm even starting to look upon the Roy Evans' Spice Boys as a high point of the last 17 years.

Then again the coming of Torres has brought back memories of when we had great forwards, this lad is special, just wish we could get the service to him.

burjennio wrote:Last night was a painful experience, i dont think it can be sugarcoated by saying we dominated the game or they got lucky from a bad clearance - everything about the performance from a Lfc point of view, from the selection and the tactics right down to the players contributions was off.

451 at home to Wigan is a bizzare formation. Yes other strikers may be misfiring but IIRC playing 2 up front recently had saw demolitions of Marseille, Bolton, Portsmouth and Besiktas, perhaps Rafa was trying to give a makeshift defence some extra protection with the extra holding midfielder, nevertheless, it didnt work. if Gerrard was playing an advanced free role, why was he dropping deeper than Alonso? a support striker should be doing exactly what it says on the tin, not coming deep and isolating the striker, which leads to the dreaded Gerrard 50yard long ball of doom

Harry Kewell was to be blunt, God Awful. It seems that the days of him blurring past fullbacks are long gone. Every time he received the ball he STOPPED RUNNING!!!! either trying to cut inside or hold up play. A friend of mine commented that he was playing like John Barnes in his last season - no forward momentum and continuously passing the ball backwards or giving it away. Maschas distribution was very poor, he tackles like a legend, but passes like Ray Charles. maybe we're seeing why the Yanks are stalling over the £17m. Saying that I still think he's awesome, and the best around in that role.
The back 4 could be described as nervous at best, clearly not comfortable with the patched up Centre Half pairing and that showed in there positioning and distribution when Wigan gained what little momentum they achieved in the match - as for the goal, it may have hit Mascherano and fallen to the "prolific" Titus Bramble but it was a really poor clearance from the captian- it seemed to happen very similarly to the 1st Besiktas goal in Turkey and was a mess sadly of our own making

I know that the pro-anti Rafa debate will be more fierce than ever after this but to put in my 2 cents worth in, while believing that Rafa is still the right man for the job I believe that the sand is running to the bottom of the hour glass and that he's gonna have to change things around in a big way in the 2nd half of the season to keep his job. The we must give him time arguement isnt gonna wash if we finish in 4th place this year, thats a regression despite the 40 odd million dished out on players in the summer. Liverpool are the most successful club in England and irrespective of Champions League Glory in 05, a succession of 3rd and 4th place finishes isn't good enough - as Shanks himself said, it's the league thats our bread and butter and its high time we were on top of it again.

Looking at the season as it has unfolded so far It seems to me that Rafa may be causing himself more problems than the opposition does - We've all said our thing on the transfer outburst and the rotation policy but sometimes when I watch a game and I keep coming back to something Ciggy said in one of the pre match threads a few months ago, something along the lines of "lets not worry about tactics and nulifying the opposition, lets just go out there and tw@t them!" Watching the City game on Sunday and the Wigan game last night It was like a premonition coming true. City were there for the taking from about 10minutes in when they showed they had no interest in going for the win, same last night, sometimes you just gotta throw caution to the wind and believe in your own ability instead of worrying about that of the other team - Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea dont do it, why should we?

As for the transfer window, I cant see anyone being available who will greatly improve the team, so more of Rafas "squad players" that everyone on here loves so much. Personally, id love to see another Pellegrino or Kronkamp 

So all to wrap it all together we must say that the title race for us is over (time to start a thread called "lets get behind Arsenal") so for the next half of the season I would like to see the shackles off, the younger players we have invested so heavily in getting a run in the 1st team (Babel, Lucus, Insua and yes, Leto) and the other strikers either finding there shooting boots or being dropped and then sold, get a fluid team together going into the Inter game at the end of Feb and we will see either the final curtain on the Benitez tenure or a glorious new chapter in his reign

Come in Rafa, we believe in you 

mramo wrote:

Emerald Red wrote:

mramo wrote:As much as I admire Rafa. I think its time for him to "rotate" himself out of the club & find someone like Klinsmann or Mourhino who can break it at this high level.

Question 1: What drugs are you on?

Question 2: Where can I get them?

Klinsmann? LOL

Christ almighty, the spanners do come out of the woodwork on bad days, don't they!

No offense, like, but stop talking cack.

1. Im on anti-rotation drugs
2. What makes you think youre worthy?

And finally, youre not the only one to have an opinion on here that we all have to agree to - no offence but 'Emerald' only comes in one visible colour, and definately not Red.