Liverpool FC Forum

[roberto green]

Just a quick one.I know we have had a poor first half of a season and maybe that doesn't reflect the player Glen Johnson could go on to become for us, he is really good at going at the opposition and taking there defenders on but on the downside the oppositions wingers seem to beat Johnson with almost ease at times.

So compare that with Arbeloa who didn't have it as much in his locker to get forward and create goals but was disciplined and was one of our most consistent performers over the past 2 seasons and for what we bought him for was an excellent piece of business.

I do believe if we had Arbeloa this season we would of conceded less goals, even though Johnson is really good going forward I feel it is always more important for a full back to defend and that's why my vote goes to Arbeloa.

Who would you rather have in the team now?

Neither!......one will never be good enough to wear the red shirt.......and the other is overated, and overvalued. FFS why do we have to settle for 2nd best all the time?.......because Rafa aint got the brains to spot real talent....and neither have our useless scouts!.

Apart from the exception of

Maschereno...

oh and maybe Reina....

Maybe Agger too?...

How about Torres?..

can we put Alonso in this category too?..

and don't forget Sissoko who we bought and made a huge profit on like Alonso?...


= You win some you lose some but he hasn't done too bad

Reina, Alonso (bad sell), Benayoun and Torres... very good signings

Agger, Mascherano, Sissoko (bad sell) ... decent signings

Now how many players did he sign again ?

Thing is, any manager at a top club given the money is bound to make good buys... To determines whether the manager is any good in the market though, the two main things to look at have got to be :

- trophies won with given players
- percentage of successful buys

Unfortunately, Rafa falls short but that doesnt mean he didnt sign any good players...

or indeed he hasn't won much silverware?

[aCe']

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooot ?

[bigmick]

Roberto's lucky he's not Norwegian, his feet wouldn't touch the ground.

[Benny The Noon]

Now thats confused me ?!

[NANNY RED]

Roberto's lucky he's not Norwegian, his feet wouldn't touch the ground.

Its good that hes on stilts then

[Number 9]

Roberto's lucky he's not Norwegian, his feet wouldn't touch the ground.

Mick is missing Heimdall! 

[Benny The Noon]

Ah right i get the meaning now

[aCe']

Ah right i get the meaning now

i still dont.... Roberto hast said anything even slightly controversial.. why would anyone want to have a go at him or hang him ?

[Benny The Noon]

Russian doll posting

[aCe']

aaaaaaaaaaah.. sorry im a bit slow... woof was nice enough to edit my post i just noticed...

[roberto green]

Waht have I done apart from answering ace's post with an answer I can't even understand.WTF was I going on about, I was going to say I was drunk but it was only 12:47.

By the way I'm the good guy (aswell as the good looking guy) of this forum

[ConnO'var]

For me it was a close call but I went with Arby in the end.

He may not be as good as Glen going forward but I think, overall he was better for the team balance and IMO, was a shade better defensively. I don't think Kuyt's dip in form is coincidental either. With Glen marauding down the wing, Kuyt has not yet figured out what to do with himself.

Overall, Glen is the better player, IMO..... probably not quite 14 million quid better than Arby..... but not in our team, with the way we set-up.

I won't say I'd take Arby back in a heartbeat..... it was very, very close..... but I would have him back.

I thought that we paid over the odds to get Glen back then. If you ask me now, if he's worth the 17 million selling price, I'd have to grudgingly say yes.... but again, not with us.

[Octsky]

i dont know about having Johnson in the team and we started conceding more goals.
but what i know is, since the joker Skertel start playing, we start conceding.
btw, Rafa bought Johnson so that we can break teams down having another man going forward, not because Johnson is the new Rob Jones.

[slickrick]

if he wanted to break teams down why didn't he buy a quality winger rather than a full back, watched man city tonight with petrov and bellamy on the wings, that's what's needed, two fast direct wingers to break down teams

[Sabre]

I agree Made in Uk and Bigmick in this discussion.

If I was Del Bosque and I could nationalise English players, I'd make Gerrard and Johnson Spaniards.

His quality is so evident, that he's not only better than Arbeloa, but I'd also preffer him over Ramos or any Spanish RB of the last two decades.

It's not an exageration, I really mean that. Real quality in that player. In both legs. With accomplished technique. With physical power. Rare union of attributes.

Football is context. And we have seen doubts about quality players when the context of the team didn't work in the past.

Put Johnson in last season team and that would have been the difference to win the league. I really mean it.

Of course I understand some of the complains. He's costed us a significant amount of money. We are conceding goals. We are underperforming blatantly. It's somehow normal to expect criticism to one of the players of the back four when you have that context.

And yes, I have seen Johnson's mistakes. As I saw the stray passes of Alonso. But quality is quality.

In a team with confidence, a player like Johnson is twice as effective as he is now.

In a team that concedes a lot of goals and many of them come from set pieces, you'll see doubts in RB and LB when you have to take instict decissions about conceding a corner, doing a tackle, and things like that, no matter who you play in RB. I think that no matter what RB we'd play this season, we would had the same problems, or worse.

For me one of the main problems has been Lucas, alongside not having Gerrard and Torres together as much time as last season (I mean, I know it's Rafa's fault, I'm talking about the secondary reasons *cough*)