Liverpool FC Forum

[Kopite-Jud]

there was people out there available for Transfer, Owen- Free, Saviola- went benfica for a few mil? both proven but he sells Keane and buys Ngog, no offence to the lad but i hand on heart think im better

[PabloAimar]

I'd go as far as saying diouf was a better buy at 10m

You might not be a Kuyt fan but that's dumb comment.

Hey, diouf could run faster than 2mph and occasionally find a team mate with a pass. That makes him a god in kuyt's world.

[LFC ANIME]

there was people out there available for Transfer, Owen- Free, Saviola- went benfica for a few mil? both proven but he sells Keane and buys Ngog, no offence to the lad but i hand on heart think im better

During Jan 09 Defoe was available. SWP, Milner was available 2008 summer and linked strongly to us. Countless list goes on. Snooze you lose eh. 

[Kharhaz]

I'd go as far as saying diouf was a better buy at 10m

You might not be a Kuyt fan but that's dumb comment.

Hey, diouf could run faster than 2mph and occasionally find a team mate with a pass. That makes him a god in kuyt's world.

Kuyt is one of the few footballers out there who actually put in an effort to earn his wage. He may not be the best player in the world, and on many occasions is the first name on peoples lips when they are looking for a scapegoat. He is an honest hard working player. Yes at times we all know he is contributing nothing to the team creatively, but hell, he is not the only one guilty of that this season is he?

[akumaface]

I was gutted that we lost but the effort was there. I stayed up and watched the game till it was 5:30am in the morning.... At the end, we lost from the first leg and I really like our lineup last night as Mascherano played as well as he can out of position. Even for Lucas and Aquilani both played really well. The only player that didn't performed up to standard was Gerrard. He was virtually invisible other than couple of nice passes as well as his yellow card. El Zhar has proven he is not good enough but why play him....What happened to Riera? If we have him, we can still sub Aquilani but then we would be able to move babel up front and have Riera play on the left. Even though it was not a glorious cup but still, being able playing in something meaningful game late of the season would be better than watching us fighting for 7th....

[mart]

Course we could have had the likes of Bellamy, Crouch and Keane sitting on our bench tonight.

No we could not have had that. The players didnt accept beeing a back up and we simply dont have the money to have them on the bench. If we could have had bellamy crouch and keane on the bench, they or players of similar value would be there. But they are not.

[Owzat]

I'd go as far as saying diouf was a better buy at 10m

You might not be a Kuyt fan but that's dumb comment.

Hey, diouf could run faster than 2mph and occasionally find a team mate with a pass. That makes him a god in kuyt's world.

Kuyt is one of the few footballers out there who actually put in an effort to earn his wage. He may not be the best player in the world, and on many occasions is the first name on peoples lips when they are looking for a scapegoat. He is an honest hard working player. Yes at times we all know he is contributing nothing to the team creatively, but hell, he is not the only one guilty of that this season is he?

Kuyt's contributed more than a lot who escape criticism, and does a lot more than anyone will dare give him credit for. He does create, his passing and first touch is often better than the slatings he gets on here, but he is now a hate object for some on here and I'm sick of it.

It doesn't even come down to criticising him for single or multiple incidents in a game, like Johnson has been blamed for his part in the Madrid goal, but it's the usual lines trotted out as if they are written in stone, gospel. Babel may have danced up and down the wing like some want Kuyt to, but with what end product?!?!? Next to none would be close and at the right end of things. Considering the effort he puts in I'm surprised he can move at all. He could barely do anything right as the game got deeper into the second half because we started playing hoofball and he had no chance then. When your striker isn't speedy gonzalez then why keep hoofing it long or playing the ball into spaces when he is up against a defender who is quicker than him?!?!? I haven't heard any criticism of that particular ploy and the perpetrators of it.

Is the lack of a squad Rafa's fault? Of course it is, whether he has had to fund the purchases out of sales or wherever, he's spent £20.3m on a flop striker, £8m on a frozen out LM, £7m on a flop LB, £17.5m on an overpriced RB and spent £20m on a CM he's reluctant to play - and that's just in the past two seasons. How many of the signings that Rafa made last season or this have cemented their places in the starting XI? None from last season, one from this. That isn't a clever record for near £40m spent both seasons, regardless where the money came from. He sold some starters and bought some non-starters with the money, that may seem a clever excuse to some but it's a very transparent one. It's not a defence at all, it's attempting to cloud the issue which is what he does with the money. If you have £40m and waste it then it is unforgivable, if you don't have money to waste then you can't afford to - Rafa wastes it.

[Owzat]

I'll sum this depressing season up :

- we spent £37.5m on a defender who can't defend and a creative midfielder Rafa won't play
- we're STILL not beating the likes of pompey, Fulham, brum, Wolves, Blackburn, Stoke in games we should be winning
- some of us got excited about an increasingly weak European competiton we dropped into and the final of which will be contested by teams 10th and 12th in their respective leagues
- some are getting excited about signing a young player from a league one side
- some are clinging on to hopes that three teams will slip up and let us into fourth - what next, praying UEFA give us a CL spot?
- we're debating whether or not we want to lose to Chelsea to deny the mancs their 19th league title.
- this is a fourth season in a row without a (proper) trophy
- we've lost exactly one third of our games played so far this season

Some may add "Rafa is still our manager", I'll leave that as a final thought option

[teamleader1]

I'll sum this depressing season up :

- we spent £37.5m on a defender who can't defend and a creative midfielder Rafa won't play
- we're STILL not beating the likes of pompey, Fulham, brum, Wolves, Blackburn, Stoke in games we should be winning
- some of us got excited about an increasingly weak European competiton we dropped into and the final of which will be contested by teams 10th and 12th in their respective leagues
- some are getting excited about signing a young player from a league one side
- some are clinging on to hopes that three teams will slip up and let us into fourth - what next, praying UEFA give us a CL spot?
- we're debating whether or not we want to lose to Chelsea to deny the mancs their 19th league title.
- this is a fourth season in a row without a (proper) trophy
- we've lost exactly one third of our games played so far this season

Some may add "Rafa is still our manager", I'll leave that as a final thought option

My biggest fear is that Rafa is still in charge next season!

I find it an insult that he can come out with statements like 'we need 4/5 new players'
Its something that a newly appointed manager, or one that's been working on a shoe string might say
Rafa is neither of these!

In Rafa we trust?
Don't make me fkn laugh

[Scottbot]

Course we could have had the likes of Bellamy, Crouch and Keane sitting on our bench tonight.

No we could not have had that. The players didnt accept beeing a back up and we simply dont have the money to have them on the bench. If we could have had bellamy crouch and keane on the bench, they or players of similar value would be there. But they are not.

Of course we couldn't have had them all on the bench. The original comment was slightly tongue in cheek to counter all those who conveniently lay the state of our bench at the feet of twit and tw.at. However, we could quite easily have had one of those lads sitting on our bench last night and that, perhaps, would have been enough.

[boodiddy1]

I'll sum this depressing season up :

- we spent £37.5m on a defender who can't defend and a creative midfielder Rafa won't play
- we're STILL not beating the likes of pompey, Fulham, brum, Wolves, Blackburn, Stoke in games we should be winning
- some of us got excited about an increasingly weak European competiton we dropped into and the final of which will be contested by teams 10th and 12th in their respective leagues
- some are getting excited about signing a young player from a league one side
- some are clinging on to hopes that three teams will slip up and let us into fourth - what next, praying UEFA give us a CL spot?
- we're debating whether or not we want to lose to Chelsea to deny the mancs their 19th league title.
- this is a fourth season in a row without a (proper) trophy
- we've lost exactly one third of our games played so far this season

Some may add "Rafa is still our manager", I'll leave that as a final thought option

Perfectly put! Chew on that. The pro's will blame the yanks , the anti's will rafa. Personally, its a bit of both, but ultimately, i feel rafa has lost it with his tactics, purchases, people skills etc.

Id like to see a new guy breathe some life into this glorious club.

[jacdaniel]

Thought the lads played well last night.  We were better for 95 minutes or so.  It just wasn't meant to be.
Remember the travel to Madrid, the (perfect) disallowed Yossi goal over there.  Add that to the fact that they should have had a player sent off in extra time.  I know it wasn't much contact but it was more than Babel did to that Benfica C*nt.

ultimately the bench is what cost us.  you need a squad to win a tight match over 120 minutes.  El Zhar and Degen did sh.ite when they came on and arent good enough.  Paecho didnt get enough time to make a difference and he's to inexperienced for that kind of game.

Were the hell was Gerrard in extra time?  He should have been getting on the ball and making things happen. 

They're all right in saying we need 4 or 5 good players.  But hopefully we don't have to sell to fund that.

[Sir Roger]

This wasnt about last night. Its been slowly coming to the boil since Istanbul.
Some may claim the CL and FA cup wins as proof of Rafas ability as a manager, but we all got carried away with this "on the canvas to get up and knock the opponent out" mentality. It happened first against Milan and then West Ham, and I'll admit it felt great that we were seen as a team that could take a good hiding only to come back and win the fight.
Looking back I believe we were wrong to applaud and approve of this mentality. Yes we should feel happy that we won the cups, but the writing was on the wall for what was to come regarding Rafa's way of thinking.
The final in Athens was the thing that really hit home to me. Ive said on several occassions on this forum that I believe Rafa fu'cked up royally in that final with his team selection, tactics and formation against basically the same side we beat two seasons earlier. Milans pensioners were terrified of Bellamies pace and Crouchs height but what did Rafa go and do? Start with neither and made changes when it was too late. Chasing the game instead of starting with your strongest team and then maybe easing off when youve done the damage. Unfortunately the pattern was set there for what we have now. As he has gone on he has become more stubborn and has developed a seige mentality with regards to his selections and substitutions. He is predictable in his formations and tactics so that the lowest of teams know how to stifle or even beat us now. His substitutions come at around the same time with much the same result.
I believe that Gerrard in particular has seen right through the spin and has played like someone who is so frustrated and pi'ssed off that he cant perform as he should. He was anonymous last night and it looks like everything has finally caught up with him. He will be looking forward to the peace and tranquility of the world cup playing for a manager who talks and engages with the players.
It gives me no pleasure to be knocked out of a cup we were dumped into and the likes of Fulham could win. Neither does it give me any pleasure whatsoever that the last home game of the season is now a virtual relegation battle for fourth. I had visions of walking into Anfield on sunday to watch us play our nearest rivals for a possible top two finish. Now Im walking in hoping we dont hand that purple nose tw@t his crowning glory to have finally "knocked us off our Fu*king perch".
There can be no doubt this is one of the most disappointing, fearful and doubtful times to have ever been a Red.
I personally cant wait for the season to finish, but at this moment I cant see any light at the end of the tunell if we continue as we are.

[bigmick]

All of the above I agree with mate (well just about all), but I can't agree that last night we went out with a whimper. I actually found myself asking during the game why on earth we couldn't show the same amount of passion, drive and attacking intent in much more of our matches. How on Earth could we not have a shot over there, but have about six in the first five minutes at Anfield?

Last night we did well, we won the match and we gave it everything. I can't agree that we just went out without a fight.

The arguments which are raging on on other threads about whose fault it is that we haven't got a stronger bench etc have been done to death and I can't really be bothered to get into it again.

[Big Niall]

Benitez has spent a fortune to put this squad together. Oh well, we nearly got as far as Fulham. Maybe we might qualify for this loser cup again next year.

That is the level of LFC now, I'm well used to us losing. With Benitez in charge you better get used to it.