Liverpool FC Forum

[AB's Red Army]

United have now leapfrogged us on the table and it hurts like hell to see that happen when we got off to a decent start this season and now we are stumbling..

They're two points ahead with us having a game in hand. Hardly a crisis considering the positions we have been in before.

We're also ahead of Chelsea, but I failed to notice that in your post. I forgot, you didn't mention it to suit your argument.

forget about europe and the cups put the new young talent in those comps and give those guys a go to learn and experience the demands of being liverpool so they are ready for the future damn waste putting them in the reserves week after week

This is not football manager.

Had it not been for European success, players like Fernando Torres would not be at this club. European success brings a hell of a lot more than Premiership success in terms of marketing,player appeal,etc.. Of course we rate it higher than the Premiership [some of us].

Europe also brings a vast amount of money, which is always necessary for this club.

I don't care about the Carling Cup, and my feelings for the FA Cup are not that different. However I remember us being knocked out to Burnley and Benitez was lambasted for not appreciating  English tradition in football.

[cpc4eva]

United have now leapfrogged us on the table and it hurts like hell to see that happen when we got off to a decent start this season and now we are stumbling..

They're two points ahead with us having a game in hand. Hardly a crisis considering the positions we have been in before.

We're also ahead of Chelsea, but I failed to notice that in your post. I forgot, you didn't mention it to suit your argument.

forget about europe and the cups put the new young talent in those comps and give those guys a go to learn and experience the demands of being liverpool so they are ready for the future damn waste putting them in the reserves week after week

This is not football manager.

Had it not been for European success, players like Fernando Torres would not be at this club. European success brings a hell of a lot more than Premiership success in terms of marketing,player appeal,etc.. Of course we rate it higher than the Premiership [some of us].

Europe also brings a vast amount of money, which is always necessary for this club.

I don't care about the Carling Cup, and my feelings for the FA Cup are not that different. However I remember us being knocked out to Burnley and Benitez was lambasted for not appreciating  English tradition in football.

i dont disagree with anything you wrote your spot on....

as for chelsea now sir special one is gone and the internal ramifications it will have upon the club i dont rate them so i didnt mention them.

yer no crisis as you point out but that is atm drop points in next 2 league games then there will alot of cause for concern....

we are a proud club and when we get to the front on the pack we strive to stay there ok we havnt done that for 17 seasons now so i cant rely on our recent past for that but it sickens me to see us drop points to the lesser likes on a regular continual basis giving us slim hope of ever winning the title ever again

not all due to rotation but team selection changes the likes we have seen arent producing results we all want....


sure without europe we dont get the players like torres but id rather see us put our best team out each week in the league and forget the cups this season - win the league and we are guaranteed a spot in europe next season and we wont have waste our players to play a couple of extra games to qualify for the group stages

[Emerald Red]

Funny how this sh*t never appears when we win, ain't it?

Exactly, Lando.

And worse still, we f*cking drew! DREW!


Anyway, I wonder if we actually do see the sight of Rafa lifting Big Ears once again this season, or the Prem trophy, all the detractors and moaners on this thread will praise him once again, declaring him a genius and wanting to have his babies.

Post critical comments on this thread if you dare. They may be brought back up at later dates to haunt you.

[112-1077774096]

Funny how this sh*t never appears when we win, ain't it?

Exactly, Lando.

And worse still, we f*cking drew! DREW!


Anyway, I wonder if we actually do see the sight of Rafa lifting Big Ears once again this season, or the Prem trophy, all the detractors and moaners on this thread will praise him once again, declaring him a genius and wanting to have his babies.

Post critical comments on this thread if you dare. They may be brought back up at later dates to haunt you.

i am amazed the lengths that some people will go to just to make excuses for rafa, i would respect some of you a hell of a lot more if you were honest about the situation, it doesn't make you less of a fan to be honest guys.

really deep down i know you think its rubbish, how could any sane man think its all ok.

"oh its ok, its early doors" or "well there are reasons why we have dropped 4 points in 2 games" or "in rafa we trust" i hear some of you say, 4 points is 4 points whether its now or later in the season, do you all really want a battle on the last day for 1st or 4th (depending how the season pans out) ruing the lost 4 points from this week, then they will matter you say, well they matter now because if we had them now they wouldn't be an issue come next may.

oh and feel free to bring them up at the ed of the season, even if we win the league the fact remains that we dropped these 4 points against weak opposition and nothing will ever change that

[Ciggy]

It's disheartening when we finally get a set of players with a genuine shot at the title, only to see them on the bench the last two prem games.

I don't care about the CL this season but it seems as though its Rafa's priority again looking at the team that played in Porto. I don't care about the FA cup. I dont care about the Carling cup.

I want the title.

If our squad is fuckin knackered in April I don't care. In fact, if our players are not exhausted in April then we haven't been doing it right.

I have no interest in players who are 'fresh' at the end of the season when we are 20 points behind the leaders again.

Its not a dress rehearsal. The team that will win the title is doing it NOW. Not next Spring with fresh players.

[112-1077774096]

The team that will win the title is doing it NOW. Not next Spring with fresh players.

[Big Niall]

Yet again we are giving up on the title at the start of the season to be fresh at the end of it (even then chelsea looked a lot fitter than us in extra time last season).

Rafa will NEVER win the league as he either can't learn from his mistakes or refuses to admit them.

Not playing our number 1 striker for the second league game running (and so early in the season) is stupid.

We might win cup competitions but the English league is beyond Rafa and his stupid rotation policy.

I know some here never criticise any manager (even GH when he was here) but the truth must be said.

[Rockthekop]

Rafa was right, we had a team good enough to win those games but they didn't perform,  the players are to blame for those poor results.  We have no God given right to waltz onto the pitch and take 3pts for granted.  We didn't play well enough to deserve 3pts against Portsmouth, Porto and or even Birmingham since we couldn't break down their stubborn defence.  We are fortunate we are still unbeaten.    I think though that Rafa must start Torres in every premiership game bar injuries or fatigue.  We cant afford to rotate our best players every other week.  Start with Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Gerrard, Pennant, Torres and rotate the rest.

[whatahitson]

as I have said before Raffa is one Stubburn man. How many times does he have to rotate the squad before he realises that it just doesnt work. Granted it may work every now and then but not every game. The players just dont gel.

If we win the league this season it will be because of other teams mistakes but he wont see it that way, he will just carry on with rotation believing that his policy worked.

I am one frustrated liverpool fan

[Sabre]

If we win the league this season it will be because of other teams mistakes but he wont see it that way, he will just carry on with rotation believing that his policy worked.

If he wins the league after so many years, if he has won the champions league, and the FA cup in 4 years, if he has been able to keep the most important players happy at the club and bring some important players that preffer Liverpool rather than Chelsea, excuse me, but I wouldn't blame him if he thought he's right and the journos who write about him clueless and obsolete.

Talking of excuses, it would be excuses to explain a win in the regularity competition saying the other teams are poor.

[dawson99]

maybe yossi could bring a bit more to the game, we need something different when the game gets stale. moving risse left wing and pusing babel behind the striker(s) would be an ideas well. i guess things are just starting to look a lil stagnant and these 'smaller' teams know how to stop us

[Ace Ventura]

I have stayed off here for a couple of days cos i was so frustrated and new it would be a bit depressing on here.
I have to say i totally agree with peewee and ciggy on this one. I think our fans make excuses for Rafa at times, this week being one of them. I was unhappy with the Portsmouth team selection, as i think that with the good start we had had if we would of won there it would of really got confidence levels up so much and then the next few league games were/are on paper very winnable.
Trouble is he rested key players that allowed the hard earned confidence and attacking verve that we had been showing to slowly disappear, and by the end of the game we were fortunate to take a point.
Ignoring Porto (because Europe should not be a priority this season), onto Birmingham at home, a decent line up, Gerrard back but again Torres substitute. Why ? A baffling decision when we have a Carling cup game midweek, surely then would be the time to play fringe players.
People might say Torres is one player the team played poorly etc, and thats obviously correct. But Torres is the only striker we have with pace, he streteches the game and makes the opposing defenders have to worry about far more. Two league games running we have allowed the opposing defenders the time to get settled into the match before bringing on Torres and expecting him to change a game, when all the other players around him and the fans have become frustrated and looked short on ideas.
United wouldnt do that, they would go out and muller them for 20 minutes, usually resulting in the defence cracking and a couple of early goals....game over.
Rafa is handing the initiative back to the opposition, and making changes when its too late.
There will be loads of people saying that despite these two draws we will still go above united if we win the game in hand, and that Chelsea have already lost 2.
But so what ? We should of won these games and forced United and Chelsea to feel the pressure of chasing a side in form, which nobody likes.
I genuinley think that unless Rafa gets his head out of his @rse and takes these games one at a time (not worrying about fitness come the end of the season) we are going to waste a golden oppprtunity to win the league.

For the fans to say the players on the pitch should of been good enough to win the Birmingham game is making an excuse for the manager. My point and plenty of other fans is this....why gamble ? We have played 6 league games, players will easily be fresh enough, get the best players on the pitch win the game and then take them off if your that bothered about there physical condition.

[Big Niall]

We all want the league, after 18 years it will have been a long enough wait.

Does Rafa not realise that the league is the number 1 priority, not a cup competition (including even the champions league).

He is fu*king up in this regard. I'm furious that he doesn't play our best players every league game.

[Lando_Griffin]

I'll say again - the idiocy on this board is quite baffling at times.

To think that half of the gimps on here are actually employed by some poor sap to work in an office is even worse.

Dear oh dear.

[dawson99]

I'll say again - the idiocy on this board is quite baffling at times.

To think that half of the gimps on here are actually employed by some poor sap to work in an office is even worse.

Dear oh dear.

we need to names to back up things lando 

i think what most people are saying is that some things have gone wrong, and its the gaffer who decides these things. wed just like to see the best 11 play (altho who knows, maybe torres has a knock or something, but u saw from when he came on already we were better, if hed started, who knows...)