Liverpool FC Forum

[zarababe]

The spine of the team was very good under Houllier.

Was it - who was it then?

[Ben Patrick]

The spine of the team was very good under Houllier.

Was it - who was it then?

Dudek wasnt great but wasnt sh!te either
Hyypia and Henchoz - very decent and able centre halves
Hamann and Gary Mac in the middle with Danny Murphy, - who would walk into our team ahead of Lucas even now.
With Owen and Heskey upfront

Seems strong enough to me.

I havent included Gerrard as he was on the right alot of the time.

[account deleted by request]

EDIT Ben beat me to it 

[Ben Patrick]

Hyypia, Henchoz : Gerrard , Hamann :  Owen, Heskey.

Also the difference in the striking options is massive.

Owen, Heskey Fowler and Litmanen

Torres, Ngog, Kuyt & babel

[zarababe]

The spine of the team was very good under Houllier.

Was it - who was it then?

Dudek wasnt great but wasnt sh!te either
Hyypia and Henchoz - very decent and able centre halves
Hamann and Gary Mac in the middle with Danny Murphy, - who would walk into our team ahead of Lucas even now.
With Owen and Heskey upfront

Seems strong enough to me.

I havent included Gerrard as he was on the right alot of the time.

Right and so with that spine we won the European Cup under Rafa.. without a recognised striker?

Owen engineered the move to Real Madrid's Bench - right? Before the first season under Rafa began.

Dudek was not in the class of Reina - but ok

Hypia was brill - but the wrong side of 25 - but grt and Rafa honoured him

Henchoz.. good player but no loss

and yes the others were good - Hamman grt with his legs still intact

But to compare that 'spine' to the current one is rather a mis-match with the excpetion of sammi and Didi

[Ben Patrick]

Zara i am not saying those players should still be here.
There are individual reasons why they are not, Owen deciding he wanted to move on Sami and Hamann retiring etc.

But you asked me to compare the spine of the teams and i am saying the spine of Houlliers team was really strong.
Better centre half pairing than what we have now.
Better balance in midfield and better options in attack.

If you disagree fair enough but thats what i feel.

[account deleted by request]

You can argue about money all you want, but the real truth is that the more players Rafa has bought the less trophies we have won, the worse we have done in Europe and the worse we have done in the domestic cups.

[jacdaniel]

Dosenna lifts the lid on Rafa

Former Liverpool defender Andrea Dossena has given Juventus an insight into what they can expect if they recruit Rafael Benitez as their next manager.

Speculation of the Spaniard trading Merseyside for Turin has been rife since January with Bianconeri chiefs believed to be keen to install him as a long-term successor to Alberto Zaccheroni, who replaced Ciro Ferrara later that month.

Napoli full-back Dossena, who left Anfield during the last transfer window after a frustrating 18-month spell, has revealed that the Kop boss is an obsessive tactician who spends countless hours on perfecting dead ball scenarios.

He said: "Benitez loves dialogue and he works hard on tactics. In the car park, on the plane, Benitez never wastes a moment. He uses every second to give an indication and explain positions on the pitch.

"He uses the blackboard and plenty of videos. He is a maniac when it comes to analysing the play. He always dedicates plenty on free-kicks and corners. In England it's always good to take advantage of situations where the ball is inactive."

Dosena, 28, also confessed that he never saw Benitez lose his cool but claims that a former Reds team mate told him that the mild-mannered Spaniard fumed following his side's Champions League group stage defeat to Fiorentina last September.

He added: "He is always clear and gets straight to the point in the dressing room, but balanced too. He always uses a calm approach, and there was never an episode where he raised his voice.

"It happened once, but I was not there. My former team-mates told me that Benitez went berserk in Florence after Liverpool lost in the Champions League."


Well, for all the people that claim Rafa is bad at man management... Dosenna doesnt seem to unhappy and he never played etc.

[zarababe]

Zara i am not saying those players should still be here.
There are individual reasons why they are not, Owen deciding he wanted to move on Sami and Hamann retiring etc.

But you asked me to compare the spine of the teams and i am saying the spine of Houlliers team was really strong.
Better centre half pairing than what we have now.
Better balance in midfield and better options in attack.

If you disagree fair enough but thats what i feel.

Anno ben - but on comparing spines - Rafa's is stronger. You could argue that we still havn't won enuff.. but the goal posts have moved and there are bigger spenders in the field - we can't compete.

But with the 2/3 class players we all agree we need - all is not lost matey 

[Kharhaz]

"He always dedicates plenty on free-kicks and corners. In England it's always good to take advantage of situations where the ball is inactive."

He does? If this is true then we really are in trouble as this is one of the worst aspects of our game. Very rarely do we take advantage of a set piece.

[zarababe]

Dosenna lifts the lid on Rafa

Former Liverpool defender Andrea Dossena has given Juventus an insight into what they can expect if they recruit Rafael Benitez as their next manager.

Speculation of the Spaniard trading Merseyside for Turin has been rife since January with Bianconeri chiefs believed to be keen to install him as a long-term successor to Alberto Zaccheroni, who replaced Ciro Ferrara later that month.

Napoli full-back Dossena, who left Anfield during the last transfer window after a frustrating 18-month spell, has revealed that the Kop boss is an obsessive tactician who spends countless hours on perfecting dead ball scenarios.

He said: "Benitez loves dialogue and he works hard on tactics. In the car park, on the plane, Benitez never wastes a moment. He uses every second to give an indication and explain positions on the pitch.

"He uses the blackboard and plenty of videos. He is a maniac when it comes to analysing the play. He always dedicates plenty on free-kicks and corners. In England it's always good to take advantage of situations where the ball is inactive."

Dosena, 28, also confessed that he never saw Benitez lose his cool but claims that a former Reds team mate told him that the mild-mannered Spaniard fumed following his side's Champions League group stage defeat to Fiorentina last September.

He added: "He is always clear and gets straight to the point in the dressing room, but balanced too. He always uses a calm approach, and there was never an episode where he raised his voice.

"It happened once, but I was not there. My former team-mates told me that Benitez went berserk in Florence after Liverpool lost in the Champions League."


Well, for all the people that claim Rafa is bad at man management... Dosenna doesnt seem to unhappy and he never played etc.

The ones who claim it had axes to grind.

Ask Toress, Reina and Masch to name a few... he's made them better players.. its all part of the anti-rafa clamour, from which ever quarter it comes

[maguskwt]

Houllier won lots of trophies, and it was 9 out of 11 of his team which won the Champions League.

So does that mean if Porto prince Jose came here next season and won the title with 9 out of 11 Rafa players it would be Rafa's title?

you won't get an answer for that. If the team loses, it's the manager's fault, if the team wins it's because of the squad he inherited...

[Ben Patrick]

Zara i am not saying those players should still be here.
There are individual reasons why they are not, Owen deciding he wanted to move on Sami and Hamann retiring etc.

But you asked me to compare the spine of the teams and i am saying the spine of Houlliers team was really strong.
Better centre half pairing than what we have now.
Better balance in midfield and better options in attack.

If you disagree fair enough but thats what i feel.

Anno ben - but on comparing spines - Rafa's is stronger. You could argue that we still havn't won enuff.. but the goal posts have moved and there are bigger spenders in the field - we can't compete.

But with the 2/3 class players we all agree we need - all is not lost matey 

I think they are pretty similar to be honest.

What i dont think we have done under Rafa is got ourselves into positions to win trophies.
I think we need to get in the habit of winning things. Players like Torres and Mascherano havent won a thing for us and we are not getting knocked out of the cups by good sides alot of the time.
The Barnsley and Reading FA cup ko's were shocking.

I would even be happy with a league cup. It gets the players back in the habit of winning things.

And i disagree about not being able to compete.
Its just an excuse to defend him as far as i am concerned.

[zarababe]

Zara i am not saying those players should still be here.
There are individual reasons why they are not, Owen deciding he wanted to move on Sami and Hamann retiring etc.

But you asked me to compare the spine of the teams and i am saying the spine of Houlliers team was really strong.
Better centre half pairing than what we have now.
Better balance in midfield and better options in attack.

If you disagree fair enough but thats what i feel.

Anno ben - but on comparing spines - Rafa's is stronger. You could argue that we still havn't won enuff.. but the goal posts have moved and there are bigger spenders in the field - we can't compete.

But with the 2/3 class players we all agree we need - all is not lost matey 

I think they are pretty similar to be honest.

What i dont think we have done under Rafa is got ourselves into positions to win trophies.
I think we need to get in the habit of winning things. Players like Torres and Mascherano havent won a thing for us and we are not getting knocked out of the cups by good sides alot of the time.
The Barnsley and Reading FA cup ko's were shocking.

I would even be happy with a league cup. It gets the players back in the habit of winning things.

And i disagree about not being able to compete.
Its just an excuse to defend him as far as i am concerned.

OK -so we should be able to spend around 50m on D Villa 

[Ben Patrick]

Why do we have to spend 50 million on one player to compete ?
I am not saying its easy but we have a good side and are not far off.
The manager has had enough money each season to bring in some players - nothing like city or chelsea but still enough to transform the whole squad from what he inherited.
If he cant compete for trophies in that situation then bring someone in who can.
Its not good enough to just say well we cant compete so we will make do.
Aston Villa made the semi's of the FA cup and the final of the league cup and to me we have a far better team.
So something is not right.