Liverpool FC Forum

[Leonmc0708]

I have just stumbled on this article on the Sky Sports/Chelsea TV website, and I was at first alarmed to have read about such an outburst from Xabi.

Alonso pleads for signings
By Mark Buckingham -  Created on 4 Oct 2005

Xabi Alonso admits Liverpool desperately need to sign new players in January to end their 'uncomfortable position'.

Liverpool's 4-1 hammering at the hands of Chelsea on Sunday leaves the club trailing the Premiership champions by 17 points, less than a quarter of the way into the new campaign.

After finishing a mammoth 37 points behind The Blues last season, Liverpool's hopes of reducing that deficit are already looking slim.

Alonso believes the only way The Reds can hope to close the gap is by bringing in fresh faces when the transfer window reopens in the New Year.

Reds boss Rafa Benitez's frustrated attempts to sign a centre half or right winger over the summer have exposed the frailties within his squad.

Sami Hyypia played against Chelsea with a stomach bug, while there is still no-one to provide quality service to Peter Crouch from the right flank.

Spanish midfielder Alonso accepts the European champions are struggling but feels they will have to grit their teeth and get on with it until January.

"It was so disappointing for us and a painful defeat," said Alonso, in reference to the Chelsea game.

"The difference between the teams is how comfortably they defend. They play well on the counter-attack and win a lot of games because other teams make mistakes.

"We are trying to use all the options we have at the moment but you can see we still need a little more.

"All we can do is wait until the transfer window opens again in January.

"Until then, we must start winning as soon as possible because we are not in a comfortable position."

----------------------------------------------------

However on reading the article I noticed that it actually contains only the following quotes:

"It was so disappointing for us and a painful defeat"

Well that's fair enough I thought. In fact, thats exactly how I felt, hurt and extremely dissapointed.

"The difference between the teams is how comfortably they defend. They play well on the counter-attack and win a lot of games because other teams make mistakes."

Again, I thought that was fair comment. They did look pretty comfortable against us during the league game. I thought about wether this was down to their class or our lack of bite up front, and I concluded it was a bit of both.

"We are trying to use all the options we have at the moment but you can see we still need a little more."

Wether we are trying all our options is something I am not sure on. Zenden for me would be worth a shot at left midfield, and I stil lreckon our best right winger at the club is Potter (Gerrard would be the option, but he is NOT a right winger) and up front, Crouch seems to be the only option at present.

"All we can do is wait until the transfer window opens again in January."

In terms of buying players this is true.

"Until then, we must start winning as soon as possible because we are not in a comfortable position."

No we are not, fair comment.

However not once does Xabi mention being overly alarmed, worried, in a crisis, or a getting a hammering, and nor does he mention that the only way that we are going to stop the "alarming slump" is to buy ten new players in the transfer window ! !

What the fuck is the point of me posting this topic I hear you ask ?

Well, the point is that this is a typical over reaction to one bad result and or defeat. In this instance it is the journalists and lazy hacks who think that the season is over and we are so far behind it is not true.

On this forum, there have been countless threads about how players are not good enough and people sending imaginary letters to Rafa to spell out their disguist at the state of affairs.

Well I ask you one question, where were you on the 26th May?

Ask yourself one question, have the signings and results since the Champions League Final improved or gone backwards?

As far as I can see, the results have improved on last season when we lost to Birmingham twice, lost at home to Man Utd and lost away at Boro. Okay the goals have not flowed as we would all have liked, but we are in a better place to improve on.

It is so much easier to improve a team that does not leak too many goals, but draws games and needs to score more, than it is to stop a team heamoraghing goals and get them to turn the results around. Its a good starting point.

All is not lost, and the over reaction brigade will still do the same when we give someone a hiding (which I beleive will happen when the teams clicks very soon) and say that we are going to win the World Cup.

Rafa won the European Cup last season with a pretty average group of players, imagine what he can do once he gets in a team of players he selected himself and he really wants to work with.......

[drummerphil]

LEON GREAT POST MATE,I for one have been critical of the system we play because we dont have the players able to play it.4-4-2 for me is urgently needed.

[daddyo]

Good post dude.

Absolute sensationalist, journalistic bo_llo_x!!

These di(kheads will write ANYTHING that they think will get their article read.

Before the game I watched an interview with Rafa on Skysports news, They asked various questions culminating in the ' are Chelski afraid of Liverpool?' question.
Rafa's response was to say 'dunno, maybe.'

The next bulletin after that screamed 'Rafa says Chelski are afraid!!'
What he said was 'maybe'.

It's all in the same vein as what they viewed the defeat. they chose to ignore the performance and concentrate on the scoreline.

But i suppose   'Chelski maul Euro Champs!' sounds a lot better than 'Breakaway goals hand Chelski victory.'

[metalhead]

well said leon

nothing is lost yet!

[andy_g]

this is footballl journalism all over - its just too feckin sensationalist. these days a sports journalist can't write without hyperbole - if a player suggests something he is pleading, if he's a little disappointed he's devastated or heartbroken.

they're turning football into some kind of soap opera which maybe they think will keep us stupid fans excited and interested. it puts me off no end actually.

and why oh why do we always need a picture of some feckin hack's gurning face above his trite little article these days? you're a journalist, mate. not victoria bloody beckham. get over yourself.

[rafazredz]

we do need new players

[kazza]

The 4-1 loss will mean nothing if we were to win 30 straight matches in the league and win the title, in that sense it is still all to play for. It will be interesting to see how the team bounces back.

The only concern I have is that we started off four games without letting in a goal, we then let in two and in the last match let in four. I am sure that Hypia being sick is a legitimate reason he played poorly, but that illistrates my point. We should have been more aggressive in the transfer market. Having no cover for a sick Sami Hypia is not good, especially when a central defender WAS a priority.

I do not blame Raffa, I wish the board would have paid extra to get one of the countless defenders we must have been looking at. Looking for steals is what you do when you have a full squad, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and pay the higher price. Had we got a good right winger and central defender in the summer, I wonder how much better we would be now. Let's hope they learned their lesson for the Jan window.

[H_K_LFC]

we do need a CB and RM urgently

[LiverpoolMadman]

we do need a CB and RM urgently

agrees and after we got these players ... we need to sell players that not fit to EPL ...

[Leonmc0708]

we do need a CB and RM urgently

Are you actually aware of the concept the "TRANSFER WINDOW" ?

It means that we either:

1) Wait for the right players at the right price to come along

2) Compromise and buy sub standard players at inflated prices and hope they fit in

3) Panic buy distinctly average players for extorsionate prices

Rafa is a man for the first option, and you really do have to take your hat off to him for that. People have claimed he was ruining the club, he is safeguarding its future by refusing to pay more than what his team see as the right price, or compromising on quality to get the number s up.

Build it and he will come .......

[scally sally]

fair enough - but in the meantime if the team doesn't start winning things & start challenging for honours on a regular basis, Rafa's stature or pulling power in the EPL will continue to decline as will the clubs...- by which time the right players at any price may never come.

[A.B.]

Newcastle finished 13th in the season and got the likes of Owen,Luque,Emre and Parker in the summer. Those are hardly average players and with the right manager they could play a lot better than they are[their back four is still a weak link].

My point is that Benitez can get the players he wants, its a matter of money. Milito,Simao and other of our targets wanted to join however the clubs they were under contract with made things difficult.

Real Zaragoza raised Milito's price tag to an ureasonable amount and doubled his wages I believe in order to get him to stay.

Benfica cancelled the Simao deal when he was on the plane comming from Liverpool

[drummerphil]

Whatever happens,.... in January new players will still be signing for the 5 times and current European champions that must have a lot of pulling power in itself.I bet this time come January 1st are transfer deals will have been sorted and in the bag,i bet behind the scenes alot of deals are being sorted out now,so we dont look like its been a last minute thing again and lose out.

[scally sally]

Porto were European champions - what happened to them ? everything that got them there was dismantled let alone attract fresh faces to improve...the previous 4 WAFAS don't enter the equation when signing a current day footballer...all very nice look at in hallways on the way to the dressing room or to shake habds with yesterdays heros...but do you think Ronaldhino or Joaquin would even think about joining a club that relied on historical stats from a decade or two ago as opposed to a realistic plan for the future to be at least in the top half of the premiership and with a view to getting into european competition on regular basis taken as a given. if things don't progress this year, & that means at least retaining WAFA 's trophy plus a top 4 finish or a another domestic trophy, liverpool will suffer the fate of Spurs in the transfer market...ie top players will have other more lucrative and attractive teams on their lists before their agent makes up their greedy little minds for them... & whats more is that the situation will only get worse before it gets better. fact.

[daddyo]

we do need new players

No S_HITdude!!

How the fook d'ya work that out then?