Liverpool FC Forum

[Owzat]

The reason he takes the LM off first, more often than not, is because his tactics are so rigid and inflexible as are his tactics. He's unlikely to take off Torres, Gerrard or Kuyt and taking off Lucas or Mascherano would mean changing formation or bringing on a CM/DM and that's Spearing or Aquilani. So that only really leaves the LM, probably why he also takes off the LB as often as he does. Any change to the defence would be unusual for any manager unless one player was having a shocker. So we are a predictable, one tactic team and most sides can set themselves up to counter his tic-tacs and exploit weaknesses.

That said, what substitutions are there he can make that can change the match? Assuming Benayoun starts, are the likes of Riera, Babel, N'Gog, El Zhar and Spearing going to change the game? It is doubtful he'd bring on Aquilani, probably not give him more than 20 mins anyway, so could he change it and wouldn't (most) people like to see him on at the start and Lucas on the bench? Kuyt gets a lot of stick but scores useful goals and sets them up too, maybe not that much but as much as players like Benayoun who don't get stick. He's just one player who gets constant stick when the side plays badly, those criticising him making out he is the cause of our problems when last season he was key in our success and there are, believe it or not, (usually) TEN other players on the pitch and I don't see them contributing much most games. We haven't failed to score more than one goal in cup games this season because of Kuyt, it's about time a few stopped blaming him and Lucas and started realising the rest of the team has as much if not more to answer for (as supposedly better players, they should be performing much better more often)

[arcininefirstblast]

[Fowler_E7]

In rafa we frust...

If we r going to sack rafa, i hope we can sign hector cuper becoz his team reached CL final in two successive season before rafa became thier manager. rafa also won la liga with that team....   

And they played far better football under Cuper as well

thats completely not true

[lakes10]

do you think Rafa has been set a points target over the next 6 games?

[bigmick]

do you think Rafa has been set a points target over the next 6 games?

He's already reached it mate, it was three.

[lakes10]

do you think Rafa has been set a points target over the next 6 games?

He's already reached it mate, it was three.

lol, well if we play like that i think you are right.

[NANNY RED]

do you think Rafa has been set a points target over the next 6 games?

No . Next question.

Oh i forgot to ask you an all Lakes , did your news room souces tell you why Johnson was wearing that thing on his hand

[lakes10]

do you think Rafa has been set a points target over the next 6 games?

No . Next question.

Oh i forgot to ask you an all Lakes , did your news room souces tell you why Johnson was wearing that thing on his hand

pmsl..................No

I think he hopes everyone likes it so he can start selling them to bring money into the clb.

[NANNY RED]

do you think Rafa has been set a points target over the next 6 games?

No . Next question.

Oh i forgot to ask you an all Lakes , did your news room souces tell you why Johnson was wearing that thing on his hand

pmsl..................No

I think he hopes everyone likes it so he can start selling them to bring money into the clb.

Well i know an im not fecking tellin you

[Sabre]

Well, some journos were quick to translate Pennant, currently struggling with Real Zaragoza, when he talked about our manager.

For some reason, I haven't seen those Alonso's words, currently praised in fúcking Real Madrid, and I would like to make a couple of questions from these words.

I'll translate the questions and the answers.

Here's the real thing for the ones who trust more babelfish than my translation 

http://www.marca.com/2009....05.html

Alonso on Liverpool

Q. Are you suffering with Liverpool's season?

Of course, I love that club a lot, the team, everybody, because it meant a lot to me. I don't like them struggling, let's see if they get better in the next matches.

Q Steven Gerrard, when the team started to struggle, said that people at Angield would realise now how important was Xabi Alonso, what do you have to say about that?

He's a great friend of mine and we've shared a lot of things these five years. I miss him too, so I miss the other team mates. You always tend to miss that player who's already gone, but you don't have to give it too much importance.

QAnd what about Rafa Benitez, do you see him strong to get away from this situation?



He's got a lof of support, and I don't think there are doubts about his manager position. Liverpool are a very special club and I don't think his job is in danger whatsoever

P. You had to adapt aswell to a new system, to another game plan, did it take you a lot to change the chip (change the chip=adapt to a new situation)?

Not the chip, no, but you have to know how every player plays and provide what the team needs. In Liverpool everything was more automatised because we spent a lot of time playing together. Here we don't have that, but it's understandable we don't have it yet. You get that playing and training, we're in that process and I'm finding myself better and better

The actual translation of the "He's got lot of support", could be he's very backed. Obviously Alonso doesn't mean backed by newkit, the manager's reputation in a negative record right now here, but it made me wonder,

what are the words heard in the kop about the manager?

Does anybody think that Alonso means the support of people at the club?

Perhaps Igor or those most close to the games know a bit of this. From here I can't know.

[Sabre]

The other side of the spanish report is of course John Toshack.

I find John's position interesting these days. He writes every week in a San Sebastian local paper and he's been critic with Benitez far before than some of our fellow reds here lost the patience with the manager.

These days he's still very critic, he obviously never liked Rafa, but he's very respectful towards him, he's not saying he should be sácked, he simply says his job might be in serious danger. I like how he talks about Rafa now, without sticking the boot in the ribs.

BTW, Toshack always thought, and I think I commented here already, that Dalglish might have been signed as more than a sidekick, but as a possible alternative in the inmediate future of the club. Let's see if he was right on that one.

[lakes10]

Well, some journos were quick to translate Pennant, currently struggling with Real Zaragoza, when he talked about our manager.

For some reason, I haven't seen those Alonso's words, currently praised in fúcking Real Madrid, and I would like to make a couple of questions from these words.

I'll translate the questions and the answers.

Here's the real thing for the ones who trust more babelfish than my translation 

http://www.marca.com/2009....05.html

Alonso on Liverpool

Q. Are you suffering with Liverpool's season?

Of course, I love that club a lot, the team, everybody, because it meant a lot to me. I don't like them struggling, let's see if they get better in the next matches.

Q Steven Gerrard, when the team started to struggle, said that people at Angield would realise now how important was Xabi Alonso, what do you have to say about that?

He's a great friend of mine and we've shared a lot of things these five years. I miss him too, so I miss the other team mates. You always tend to miss that player who's already gone, but you don't have to give it too much importance.

QAnd what about Rafa Benitez, do you see him strong to get away from this situation?



He's got a lof of support, and I don't think there are doubts about his manager position. Liverpool are a very special club and I don't think his job is in danger whatsoever

P. You had to adapt aswell to a new system, to another game plan, did it take you a lot to change the chip (change the chip=adapt to a new situation)?

Not the chip, no, but you have to know how every player plays and provide what the team needs. In Liverpool everything was more automatised because we spent a lot of time playing together. Here we don't have that, but it's understandable we don't have it yet. You get that playing and training, we're in that process and I'm finding myself better and better

The actual translation of the "He's got lot of support", could be he's very backed. Obviously Alonso doesn't mean backed by newkit, the manager's reputation in a negative record right now here, but it made me wonder,

what are the words heard in the kop about the manager?

Does anybody think that Alonso means the support of people at the club?

Perhaps Igor or those most close to the games know a bit of this. From here I can't know.

I think he is saying that Rafa has the backing of the fans, he knows the fans hate the owners and the last thinig the owners need right now is for another resone to be hated.........but he has been awayfrom the club a long time now and has only been back for a few games, he has not been here when the results are bad and the team is being gtting boos

[teamleader1]

do you think Rafa has been set a points target over the next 6 games?

Yer

4 

[lakes10]

3 points seem a must after todays game.

[bigmick]

3 points seem a must after todays game.

Well obviously Chelsea beating Fulham was an excellent result for us (I never thought I'd hear myself say that). Birmingham winning was a bit of a blow, but it does now look like Sunderland and Stoke are falling by the wayside a bit so we ought to be able to get above them Ok.

On the downside of course, Mancini is proving to be a bit of an inspiration and looks like he knows what he's doing, which isn't that surprising I guess since he won the title three years on the bounce with Inter Milan and won the Italian Cup with three different teams. They've now won both games over Christmas, while Spurs are also looking like they aren't just going to go away without a good reason either.

I simply cannot believe that Birmingham can carry on as they are (although it has to be said they have been excellently managed so far), but Villa probably will go on for a bit. As I said earlier we probably can't afford to lose this one otherwise we are really in the sh!t.