Liverpool FC Forum

[banana]

I have been waiting for this to unfold. This was always going to happen after the Leveraged Buy Out performed by the Americans. You fools are targeting the wrong people. Not even the Great Bill Shankly could have operated under these conditions. The situation is dire. And you want to sack the best manager in the world? Talking about not understanding the root causes of the problem we face. What i fear most is loosing even more of the fantastic staff and squad we had last year. Loosing Alonso, and don't forget our best fullback since Steve Nicol, Arbaloa was devastating. We had a brilliant first 11 and our strenght was in the middle controlling games and putting pressure on our opponents all over the pitch for 90 minutes. We had a good scoring midfielder and a good ball winner. We had a playmaker and a fantastic striker. This should have been added to. Not blown apart. You fools should now this by now. Things won't improve if you force Benitez out. Making the same mistake that Newcastle made last season when they tragically forced Big Sam to leave the ship. Well they paid the price in the end didn't they? Anyone thinking they could have survived if they kept Sam?

I remember all to well the Barry transfer saga. I tried to reason with you back then. Tried to make you understand. I got slated. Lets have a recap of the month of may 2008;

Banana said;
Replacing him with Barry or any other player is a big risk. We have the best midfield in the world. Lets keep it that way.

As a footballer Alonso is among the 5 best midfielders I have seen at Liverpool since the early 1980's.

I rate him alongside Steve McMahon, Ray Houghton, a young Ronnie Whelan and Graeme Souness.

Selling him would be a big gamble and almost unbelievable. People say Alonso hasn't been this or that lately. I think that is . The reason he stood out so clearly in the first season or so was only because the rest of the players around him was . Now we don't need Xabi to be everywhere and touch the ball all the time as we have a much better and more capable squad. So that changes things completely. I say this; SELLING XABI IS A MISTAKE FORCED UPON BENITEZ BY THE AMERICANS

They have no transfer money for him and he must sell his most valuable players to survive.

My prediction is that if we swap Barry for Alonso we will suffer big time.

I look forward to talking about this in 8 months time if Alonso is swapped for Bary. Just as I doubted both Morientes and Kuyt, I do indeed doubt Barry.

--------
Boy did I get slaughtered by saying this. And when I tried to say that Arbeloa was our bast fullback since Nicol I got the same beating. Well now you take notice. I guess it is right saying that you don't know what you got until it's gone?

Liverpool has just started to drop. The drop will be painful There is no medicine against this. We are out of Europe, out of the league.

We will not rise until the boardroom is cleansed of the virus and parasites residing there. You all know this to be truth.

Attacking Benitez for buying Aquilani. WTF? A fit Aquilani,or similar quality, is way out of our League. We were lucky to get him in the bargain basement. Same as Macherano. You all want Benitez to beat Man U, Chealsea, Arsenal with half their funds, with an old outdated stadium? Hello, this is the world calling.

Now it is time to make a stand and be counted for.

[Dalglish]

Superb post.

I've been mourning the loss of Alonso and anyone with a hole in their could tell he would be incredibly difficult to replace.

Whilst I appreciate that the owners may well have forced Benitez to sell Alonso, the damage was already done with Xabi the season before when Rafa made it crystal clear he wanted Barry and would be more than willing to offload Xabi to get him (remeber Stevie G speaking in glowing terms about Barry and some would say unnerving the player ?). O'Neil blew his top which isn't difficult I know as he has a short fuse but he had a point tbh..........

Alonso responded in the best possible way by performing where it matters, on the pitch and for me was our best player last season.

The sale of Arbeloa was a mistake IMO. We spend £17 Million on a replacement and sell for £2 Million. Do you really believe Johnson is £15 million a better player than Arbeloa, an ever present last season and solid defensively ? The sums just don't add up on this exchange and whilst Johnson has settled quickly and well and offers more going forward haven't we lost something defensively ?


I'm happy to mnake my stand and support the club and Benitez but it's time others within the club were more honest and admit they could have handled players like Alonso better thanb they have done  

Walk on.............

[The_Rock]

If you want to start a thread seeking justice for Benitez.... you gotta come up with more credible points.

And you want to sack the best manager in the world?

You are saying Benitez is the best manager in the world ? I don't even think Sabre would say tat.

and don't forget our best fullback since Steve Nicol, Arbaloa was devastating.

 

I don't quite share your optimism about Arbeloa but i really did think he was solid. But benitez didn't think so. Remember Benitez signed a few players on long term big deal last season (Kuyt being the prime example, along with all his assistants). But he didn't offer the same to Mascherano and Arbeloa. So Arbeloa left. And now mascherano wants to go to Barcelona. So you wanna blame the owners for this ?

[Sabre]

I appreciate the support to the manager in difficult times and certainly we cannot say you jump into bandwagons Banana.

What I don't like of your post Banana, is the bringing back of old discussions, I just complained about that recently. Because at the end of the day we end up discussing who's right, who's wrong, and I don't like that discussion.

I think it's no news I've defended Alonso a lot here, but I think that he wasn't that irreplaceable as you may think. My point is that if we had a Hamman like when he played in the club, Alonso going wouldn't have been a disaster, we would have lost some sheer quality in the distribution, some hollywood passes, a player that defended the CB more than people thought, but we would have answered that with a sober player that would have done the job.

Of course, Lucas doesn't do the job. And if you add to that we don't have Torres and Gerrard, then disaster happens.

I think Rafa should have thought in the worst case scenario. He made a bet, and the bet was wrong.

But I'm certainly amongst those who still trust him.

[Reg]

Count me in.

The CB situation has been dire with both Agger and Skrtl injured leaving Carra who is past his prime struggling to cope. With Fabio injured the back 4 was blown wide open. Carra cant cover all those positions. We should have kept Sami not Arby for another year.

And thats before we talk about the midfield.

Y'know, I wish anyone who wants to walk under a bus would actually go out there and do it rather than just post how sad they are.

The team has issues.... most are injury related, some are due not having the 'right players' due lack of funds described in the first (excellent) post, and others created as a consequence of the jorneymen we bought to cover the cracks (whats the point of having Voronin?). Others are simply bad luck - The Greek for example and Fabio's injury playing at home with the kids.

Lets focus on getting G&H out.
Yes it hurts but we have to get thru the pain to come out the other side and if H&G are forced out by not qualifying for CL then thats ok with me - we havent won teh UEFA cup for a bit.

[heimdall]

Count me in.

The CB situation has been dire with both Agger and Skrtl injured leaving Carra who is past his prime struggling to cope. With Fabio injured the back 4 was blown wide open. Carra cant cover all those positions. We should have kept Sami not Arby for another year.

And thats before we talk about the midfield.

Y'know, I wish anyone who wants to walk under a bus would actually go out there and do it rather than just post how sad they are.

The team has issues.... most are injury related, some are due not having the 'right players' due lack of funds described in the first (excellent) post, and others created as a consequence of the jorneymen we bought to cover the cracks (whats the point of having Voronin?). Others are simply bad luck - The Greek for example and Fabio's injury playing at home with the kids.

Lets focus on getting G&H out.
Yes it hurts but we have to get thru the pain to come out the other side and if H&G are forced out by not qualifying for CL then thats ok with me - we havent won teh UEFA cup for a bit.

Sorry but do you not see any of those points as being at least slightly Rafa's fault, are you really so blinded by your love for him?

If we don't have enough cover in the squad then that has to be Rafa's fault, ffs he's had more money to spend than most clubs in the prem except Manure and the chavs yet our squad looks when you compare it even to Spurs.

Would the best manager in the world continue playing Lucas and Mascha in the middle when it clearly doesn't work, I highly doubt it.  Would the best manager in the world take off the one player who could have won us the game last night, again I doubt it.
I guess maybe you guys really are the true fans, of Rafa that is, in the true sense of the word, i.e fanatics, blinded to any rhyme, reason or common sense.

[Reg]

Keane didnt work out, apart from that name a single high value attacker we've bought. Dont say Babel as 11 mio is not expensive and he's not an attacker.

I'm not blinded by love for Rafa, maybe I'm just less emotional than some of you lot, maybe more business orientated and less willing to expect miracles.

Maybe if I was under that kind of pressure at work from the company owners I couldnt work efficiently nor my staff. Add fan pressure and I'm sure I couldnt.

Rafas climbing a vertical mountain and you expect him to run up it?

[Roger Red Hat]

Would the best manager in the world continue playing Lucas and Mascha in the middle when it clearly doesn't work, I highly doubt it. 

ok then Mr fecking 'big letters', who else is he gonna play in those positions? If you haven't noticed we don't seem to be busting at the seams with talent in the middle of the park do we? Rafa has not got much option really.

[heimdall]

Would the best manager in the world continue playing Lucas and Mascha in the middle when it clearly doesn't work, I highly doubt it. 

ok then Mr fecking 'big letters', who else is he gonna play in those positions? If you haven't noticed we don't seem to be busting at the seams with talent in the middle of the park do we? Rafa has not got much option really.

Well until Stevie got injured he should have played CM, in fact when he did we were scoring for fun. I'd actually try to play Babel or Bennayoun there, just to give a bit of energy to the midfield, I'm not 100% sure it woudl work but anythign is better than the partnership of a technically woefull Lucas and a p1ssed off unhappy Argie.

Anyway does anybody want to try defending Rafa for taking off Bennayoun and putting on Voronin with a few minutes to go?

BTW what do you mean Mr Big letters???

[RobinHood6969]

I'd actually try to play Babel or Bennayoun there, just to give a bit of energy to the midfield, I'm not 100% sure it woudl work but anythign is better than the partnership of a technically woefull Lucas and a p1ssed off unhappy Argie.

Well i'd prefer Playin Pepe Reina as a centre midfielder than Babel... Are you serious mate? Babel as Centre midfielder and that too to provide some energy?

[heimdall]

I'd actually try to play Babel or Bennayoun there, just to give a bit of energy to the midfield, I'm not 100% sure it woudl work but anythign is better than the partnership of a technically woefull Lucas and a p1ssed off unhappy Argie.

Well i'd prefer Playin Pepe Reina as a centre midfielder than Babel... Are you serious mate? Babel as Centre midfielder and that too to provide some energy?

as I said I'm not 100% sure it would work,Bennayoun would probably be a much better option but you have to agree that Lucas and Mascha just isn't working, and with Stevie now out for heaven knows how long what other options do we have after 5 years of Rafa's, "Best manager in the world" squad building?

[Roger Red Hat]

BTW what do you mean Mr Big letters???

I think it kinda mean 'Mr smarty-pants with all the answers'



got it off some TV programme once

[Trewyn]

What if we had Simao, Barry and Silva? Hypothetically, would it have made a difference to the score and tactical arrangements/substitutions?

[heimdall]

BTW what do you mean Mr Big letters???

I think it kinda mean 'Mr smarty-pants with all the answers'



got it off some TV programme once

Oh OK fair enough, I thought it was some new way of telling me to feck off 

[made in UK]

I'd actually try to play Babel or Bennayoun there, just to give a bit of energy to the midfield, I'm not 100% sure it woudl work but anythign is better than the partnership of a technically woefull Lucas and a p1ssed off unhappy Argie.

Well i'd prefer Playin Pepe Reina as a centre midfielder than Babel... Are you serious mate? Babel as Centre midfielder and that too to provide some energy?

Yep, I'd prefer Pepe in midfield to Babel and I'm being serious.

Babel in c.midfield would be like Torville & Dean on water, defying the laws of physics is not something we need to be contemplating at the moment.