Liverpool FC Forum

[jevan123]

i disagree with nifty nick i would rather have babel or riera instead of that rubbish aurelio or even benayoun than that donkey

[tubby]

Are you Petar?

[bigmick]

He's certainly a wum, well he's winding me up anyway.

[Rockthekop]

A decent signing, you probably won't get any better for the money. 

He's no John Barnes but definitely better than what we had.

He's a very up and down player but for the money you can't expect too much.

[Judge]

have to play riera against madrid me thinks

[GYBS]

He will play against them . someone will have to watch Ramos as he is there big danger man . On the point of reira i wonder if those people who were classing him as top quality and up there with guys like carra and masher think the same now ? the guy is decent but nowhere near as good as some have suggested in the past .

[Scottbot]

He will play against them . someone will have to watch Ramos as he is there big danger man . On the point of reira i wonder if those people who were classing him as top quality and up there with guys like carra and masher think the same now ? the guy is decent but nowhere near as good as some have suggested in the past .

I don't think many people claimed he was as good as that Gybs.

[GYBS]

you would be surprised scott - plenty people where putting him in the same category as masher etc when people wanted the squad rated . some even higher than mash and just before the likes of torres and gerrard

[RedBlood]

i think hes a very good player on his day but id prefer him as a second choice left winger, it will be a big test against ramos i didnt even know city had signed him dont get must info over here

[red_guy]

He's a very good player but his weakness is pace. If he got the pace of Ronaldo, he would be a top quality player for us.

[stmichael]

He's starting to concern me a bit if I'm honest.

Don't get me wrong I like him, but when he first came he started off as a winger who stayed wide and ran at his fullback. He gave us a balance that we hadn't seen since Kewell was fully fit in 2005/6. Now he seems to be playing deeper and closer to the central midfield.

I just hope he keeps his shape more against Madrid. Sergio Ramos is good going forward but isn't the best defensively and I think Riera can get at him.

[Owzat]

He's starting to concern me a bit if I'm honest.

Be fair and apply your board issues theory or "wider picture" to apply to the player and not just the manager. How can he possibly perform when he knows the manager is going to take him off after 60+ mins? I'm guessing it would be the owners' fault or Parry's that Rafa substitutes Riera so often, of course all Rafa's decisions are influenced by background goings on.

Babel plays cr ap because he is not happy at not starting, same excuse for Benayoun. Lucas is cr ap because fans on here slate him and booed him. Dossena is cr ap because Rafa didn't get his first 99 choices of LB, thus forcing him to pay £7m for Dossena. And Keane was cr ap because he was subbed "on the hour" (according to one member on here)

Point being, if we all dreamed up mitigating circumstances for everything we discuss on here, then there'd be no point discussing it. The reality is we discuss players, matches and the manager based on actual events rather than underlying factors. Trying to explain why we played badly is part of it, but some rationales simply end up trying to paint a "worst case scenario" (for the manager) when in fact he's not in the worst position, he has money and a good squad - if not the best.

So is it Riera's fault, Rafa's or the owners' ? And how much of the other concerns listed are down to him or what the manager tells him to do?

[loopyliverpool]

Whatever the facts are clear, the team yesterday had five players you would keep: Reina, Carragher, Skertel, Masscherano and Torres, the rest would struggle to get into any other premier league team, including Reira who didn't cover himself at City on his previous sojourn there.

[akumaface]

To me, I think I would sell Mascherano out of the list above as he should get a very decent fees back. We need to sell him out of necessaties so that we will have money to buy a class player in other weaker position such as right wing or left wing. Right now, right wing is the bigger concern. I like Mascherano but he is a luxury we have but can we still do good with Xabi and Gerrard. As it had shown in recent games, Beni and Aurelio can both be cover as center Midfield. If we can get someone like Pato (AC milan), I would sell Mascherano. I think I would even sell Carra if we can demand a good fees. I think the best pairing would be Skrtel and Agger. Anyway, I might get slated for this but it make sense in the summer. It is now proven that more likely you need a massive transfer budget to win the EPL. Mau U and Chelsea had dominated the past couple of years. So unless we sell our club to some Arab multi billionaire, our chance is slim. I'm sorry to say this and this is against my philosophy as I don't like the idea of money buys champion. But i think this is true especially in the EPL. In the perfect scenerio, I prefer a salary cap as it is really now getting out of whack. Just count the number of players Man U and Chelsea has that is over 10 million pound.

[loopyliverpool]

Pato from Milan!! Funny man. If Kaka was going to cost City £100m Pato is going to be there or there abouts! Top top player but we don't have that kind of money, not if we sold five Masscherano's!