Liverpool FC Forum

s@int wrote:

Benny The Noon wrote:The manager — Tony Cascarino

A few weeks ago I felt that Rafael Benítez deserved the chance to turn Liverpool around. Now, I’m not so sure — because I’m starting to doubt he can. His mistakes are a big reason Liverpool are in this mess and I’m not convinced he has the crisis-management skills to improve the situation.

Benítez has built a squad that is not good enough to challenge and  not determined enough to overachieve despite its limitations.

There aren’t enough strong characters. The team look a soft touch. Contrast the mild noises coming out of Anfield with the unrest and impatience at Chelsea when they wobbled last season. Liverpool are tame — and I think that’s how Benítez likes it.

He has taken a firm grip of the club, becoming a dominant figure. The Spanish influence, loyal to Benítez, runs deep, from the academy upwards. He gets an easy ride, especially because he and the fans can blame the owners for their supposed lack of investment. But that reassuring obedience is now a problem because he needs the players to show some fight and fury and it’s simply not there.

Lack of money is a weak excuse.  Benítez inherited a very good team from Gérard Houllier, not one that needed radical transformation.   Despite the supposed shortage of funds, he was able to bring in a world-class player such as Fernando Torres.

The problem isn’t lack of money, it’s that Benítez has bought and sold poorly. Andriy Voronin, David Ngog, scratchchin.gif Lucas Leiva, Emiliano Insúa — all are average Barclays Premier League players, not Liverpool quality. And now Benítez is relying on them.

Tactically, Liverpool concede far too many goals from set-pieces and used to be too defensive. Benítez tried to be more attacking, bought Glen Johnson and encouraged the full backs to bomb forward — but now the defence is shaky.

He became so fond of the idea of Steven Gerrard playing behind Torres that he neglected to buy a decent striker doh.gif as a back-up to the Spain forward. And yet, in Peter Crouch and Robbie Keane, he had two — both sold for no good reason. brow.gif

In one summer, Liverpool have gone from outstanding to poor, from title contenders to mid-table nothingness. I’m sceptical that Benítez can do anything about it.

I usually think Cascarino is a waste of space, but for once I think he has got it spot on.

s@int wrote:Benítez has built a squad that is not good enough to challenge and  not determined enough to overachieve despite its limitations.

This is the biggest reason for me ...... Benitez prefers players not to play with their "heart"...but the "head". Maybe this works in a tactical league like italy. But here in england....i guess we need a bit of both to really succeed. Because when there situations where the whole team is having an off-day, sometimes playing with the "heart" can get us thru. (Disclaimer...i know Kuyt plays with his "heart" almost every match...but.....hmmmm.....i don't really know how to counter this arguement if someone raises it... )

Unless he changes his philosophy or we get an awesome set of players who don't really have to play with their "heart" to win matches......It will be hard to win the league with benitez at the helm.

bavlondon wrote:However I do think that after 5 years the fact that we can only rely on 2 players for goals 1 of which was already here before Rafa is shocking and perhaps for that alone he needs to go.

stmichael wrote:

shawnk wrote:FACT 9

According to a reliable football TV program:

No. of players that the following clubs bought in since 2004:

LFC 48
Manure 20

that's because united already had a really strong squad in place. they only need to go out and buy 2-3 players every season to improve on what they've already got. they are also in the fortunate position where they can gamble on players with big fees and if they don't work out they can just sell them on and replace them with another one. by comparison, our squad at that time was probably the worst in living memory, even worse than what we have now.

aCe' wrote:Oh by the way.. worth mentioning that ManUtd went on to win the league in 2006.. having finished the previous season just 1 point ahead of us, and having spent much less in the off season in terms of net and gross transfers... They also lost the likes of Van Nistelrooy and Howard in the summer...

s@int wrote:

aCe' wrote:Oh by the way.. worth mentioning that ManUtd went on to win the league in 2006.. having finished the previous season just 1 point ahead of us, and having spent much less in the off season in terms of net and gross transfers... They also lost the likes of Van Nistelrooy and Howard in the summer...

2007 mate. We went from 82 points to 68 points while the mancs went from 83points to 89 points...... progress eh?

bigmick wrote:

Lando_Griffin wrote:

Ciggy wrote:Barry and Lando I like you both but seriously guys you are wrong here seriously.

The reason Xabi Alonso no longer plays for us is because of Rafa's persuit of Gazfeckinbaz, as much as it hurts its the truth.

And the reason Alberto Aqualini is here is because Rafa bought him and he is a crock, that could turn out a gem but he needs playing time so I would like to see him on the pitch instead of Lucas 50 pence head Leiva.

Don't you think that Rafa wants him out there, too? After all the grief he's been given over it , I think he probably wants Alberto out there more than the player does himself.

As for Alonso, we all know that Rafa p*ssed him off, but that was as much down to the owners' unwillingness to provide funds in my opinion. Of course, we'll never actually know unless Rafa publishes his autobiography...

I must confess I haven't seen or read much "grief" that's been given to the manager over the Aquilani signing, although people are obviously frustrated that he hasn't played. Probably more significant, I think anyway, has been the decision to try and go with the Lucas/masherano axis in central midfield. Obviously recently we haven't had a great deal of choice with Gerrard being injured, but I do feel it was an error earlier in the season.

Funnily enough I did say so about six pages back. That was the point of the thread, "what was the one thing above all others you would have done different given hindsight and the rest". Very inflammatory I know but there it is.

To answer the question about "why is it incredible really", it's incredible to me that such an innocent topic can provoke some of the responses we've seen from the keyboard gangsters. .

Ciggy wrote:

Lando_Griffin wrote:I didn't say it wasn't Rafa's fault - but you can't deny that, had the owners given him the money for Barry, Alonso would never have been unsettled.

As for the signing of Aquilani, if you can't trust a World-leading doctor, who can you trust?

Lando Cmon mate Rafa was feckin p!ssed at Xabi when he stayed at home for the birth of his son, he said as much on TV. And the constant whoring of Xabi who would pay the most money for him was nothing more than a disgrace. You are aware he was going to sell him to Arsenal arnt you?

He was intregal in Rafas plans since he arrived since he has gone we look a shadow of our former selves and its because the player that made us tick since rafas arrival was sold.

The only person responsible for Xabi Alonsos exit is rafa benitez.

Onto Aqualini lando you have to be kidding mate, we could have taken Rafael Van Der Vaart, Wesley Snijder, or Diarah from Madrid when we sold Alonso, ok not as good as him but not injured and are better players than Lucas 50 pence head Leiva.

To sign an injured player for Alonso for 20 million going into December then its no doctors fault its rafas fault sorry.
And the fella has had 20 minutes of football and hasnt been seen since?
He wont start in the derby cause its kick anything that moves, next up Blackburn he wont start cause they are another kick anything but the ball, next up Arsenal he wont start that game either.

So Lando I know Rafa is the manager and I could be completly wrong if I am tell me why?

Lando_Griffin wrote:

bigmick wrote:

Lando_Griffin wrote:

Ciggy wrote:Barry and Lando I like you both but seriously guys you are wrong here seriously.

The reason Xabi Alonso no longer plays for us is because of Rafa's persuit of Gazfeckinbaz, as much as it hurts its the truth.

And the reason Alberto Aqualini is here is because Rafa bought him and he is a crock, that could turn out a gem but he needs playing time so I would like to see him on the pitch instead of Lucas 50 pence head Leiva.

Don't you think that Rafa wants him out there, too? After all the grief he's been given over it , I think he probably wants Alberto out there more than the player does himself.

As for Alonso, we all know that Rafa p*ssed him off, but that was as much down to the owners' unwillingness to provide funds in my opinion. Of course, we'll never actually know unless Rafa publishes his autobiography...

I must confess I haven't seen or read much "grief" that's been given to the manager over the Aquilani signing, although people are obviously frustrated that he hasn't played. Probably more significant, I think anyway, has been the decision to try and go with the Lucas/masherano axis in central midfield. Obviously recently we haven't had a great deal of choice with Gerrard being injured, but I do feel it was an error earlier in the season.

Funnily enough I did say so about six pages back. That was the point of the thread, "what was the one thing above all others you would have done different given hindsight and the rest". Very inflammatory I know but there it is.

To answer the question about "why is it incredible really", it's incredible to me that such an innocent topic can provoke some of the responses we've seen from the keyboard gangsters. .

I've been called allsorts by some of the c...s on here over the years, I'd love to see em do it in real life I'll tell you that much.

How black is your kettle, Mr Capone?

s@int wrote:FACT 1

Who are these Key players ?

Gerrard and Torres both started againt Spurs. Villa, Chelsea, all of which we lost

Torres started against Fulham which we lost.

So there is only the Sunderland game which we lost where both our key players were missing.

Reina, Kuyt, Lucas and Benayoun have played in all 13 league games
Mascherano and Carra  have played in 12 of our 13 games

League apperances

Player                  PL           
Dirk Kuyt              13       
Yossi Benayoun     13     
Jamie Carragher     12     
Jose Reina            13
Emiliano Insúa       12
Lucas Leiva          13
Javier Masch        12
Glen Johnson        11
Steven Gerrard     10
Martin Skrtel        10
Ryan Babel            9
Fernando Torres   10

FACT 2 

Maybe if we had bought Barry (or at least someone fit) we may not have missed Alonso so much. 

FACT3

See 2 above 

FACT 4

I agree mate some of our performances have been very poor 

FACT 5

Last season we finished second.  Arsenal, Chelsea and the mancs have spent LESS THAN US IN THE SUMMER gross, while Arsenal and the mancs have spent LESS THAN US IN THE SUMMER net as well. 

FACT 6

So were Valencia and Owen at the mancs. Its a fact mate, that money is tight and prices are high at the moment for everyone (barring City)

FACT 7 maybe if we had offloaded Dossena and Babel we could have afforded a decent CB? Or maybe if Rafa hadn't dropped Hyypia out of the CL squad last season for Deggan he might have been a little more interested in staying? Treat players like chess pieces and sometimes it bites you in the a$$.

FACT 8

Every club and every manager has to accept second best. Thats why they prioritize in the areas they are weakest.