Liverpool FC Forum

[account deleted by request]

Wasn't he on 30k because he got a few millions when we bought him and therefore it was agreed that his salary would be lower for some time?

I didnt know that mate - if true, it puts things into perspective.

I'm not 100% sure either, but I thought I read it somewhere just after we bought him.

Yeah , I read that somewhere to mate.

[tubby]

In any case it is a good move from Rafa to offer him a new contract. Hopefully he will sign it and get back to what he does best.

[Effes]

Just heard Rafa talking about Mascha on Radio City - he says what he's quoted as saying in the
papers.

[tubby]

I hope Masch signs the contract. If he refuses it could cause some unrest and we don't want that this early in the season.

[sworth26]

It would only be improved terms anyway so why wouldn't he sign?  I would imagine they may put in a similar 1 year option beyond 2013 but he would be mad not to sign, regardless of where he wants to be

[stmichael]

Oh my God, a really good article about us:

Reaction to Liverpool loss blown out of proportion - it's a fact

By Rory Smith Last updated: August 19th, 2009
1 Comment Comment on this article

Rafa Benitez, famously, likes facts. He keeps detailed lists of them in his pocket, for use on a variety of social occasions. He is most probably aware, then, of the old truism – first outlined by that noted philosopher, Homer Simpson – that you can prove anything with facts.

Take the fact of Liverpool’s opening day defeat to Tottenham. According to misspelled sports analysis firm Bettorlogic, losing at White Hart Lane has left Benitez’s side’s title dreams in tatters. Apparently, over the last six seasons, only two of the Big Four have ever lost on the opening day. Fact. Neither of those sides – Manchester United in 2004 and Liverpool a season previously – went on to win the league that year. Fact.

“Rafa Benitez’s side will have to quickly get their act together to stay in the hunt for the title,” intones Bettorlogic’s CEO Mike Falconer, in his company’s press release. “If it’s not already too late.”

To watch, listen to and read many of the obituaries drawn up in the name of Liverpool’s title challenge, even that bizarre extrapolation of a conclusion from arbitrary, coincidental statistics may be a mite optimistic.

To many, it is already far, far too late. Liverpool’s flat performance at White Hart Lane, it seems, has left them with just 37 games to claw back an all but unbridgeable three-point deficit on all their main rivals and nigh on extinguished their hopes of winning the league.
Rafa Benitez should not have sold Xabi Alonso, his only creative midfielder. Instead of wasting £40 million on Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani, he should have bolstered his squad, in case injury hits Fernando Torres or Steven Gerrard. Should that happen, Liverpool would struggle to qualify for the UEFA Cup, let alone the Champions League. All, after one game, facts.
It is doomsday punditry of the worst kind, and Benitez clearly has little time for it. Asked yesterday if he thought the critics had a point, the Spaniard genially enquired as to who the prime culprits were. Jamie Redknapp, for one, came the reply. A wry smile, a Hispanic shrug of the shoulders. “It’s easy to criticise on television,” he said. “They’ve never managed a team that’s lost a game.”

It is unfair to single out Redknapp, but he is certainly one of the worst offenders of a breed of pundits who now litter our TV screens, airwaves, websites and newspapers, using the word “literally” when they mean “figuratively,” jerking their knees under both definitions and proving anything they want with facts.

The problem with such an approach is that it relies upon leaving out other facts. Facts like Alonso wanting to leave, informing Benitez that he would be returning home in May and going so far as handing in a formal transfer request in three months later.

Contrary to Tony Gale’s incredible assertion during the match at White Hart Lane that “Benitez never fancied Alonso,”   not only did the Liverpool manager buy the Basque and turn him into one of the best midfielders in the world, he also sought to keep him until it became clear his appeals were falling on deaf ears.

Or the fact that Benitez has been roundly criticised for five years for buying squad players, yet the minute he chooses to add two thoroughbred options to his squad, he is informed he needed quantity rather than quality. Given the financial constraints placed upon his transfer activity by Liverpool’s owners – Benitez is operating a barter economy in a capitalist world, spending only what he raises – quality in quantity was simply not an option.

That, of course, has given free rein to critics wishing to advance that most specious of arguments when it comes to Benitez’s side, the over-reliance on Torres and Gerrard. Leaving aside the irony that, if it were true, it therefore contradicts the criticism of selling Alonso, it is also bunkum.

Yes, Liverpool are weaker without their two best players. But taking Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie out of Arsenal’s side would have much the same effect. Even Chelsea and Manchester United would find life harder without Frank Lampard, Didier Dropba, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand.

Besides which, Liverpool finished second last season, just four points off United, in a season when Torres and Gerrard only started 14 league games together. Still, you can prove anything with facts.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport....-a-fact

[Bad Bob]

Contrary to Tony Gale’s incredible assertion during the match at White Hart Lane that “Benitez never fancied Alonso,”   not only did the Liverpool manager buy the Basque and turn him into one of the best midfielders in the world, he also sought to keep him until it became clear his appeals were falling on deaf ears.

Or the fact that Benitez has been roundly criticised for five years for buying squad players, yet the minute he chooses to add two thoroughbred options to his squad, he is informed he needed quantity rather than quality. Given the financial constraints placed upon his transfer activity by Liverpool’s owners – Benitez is operating a barter economy in a capitalist world, spending only what he raises – quality in quantity was simply not an option.

[GYBS]

sssshhh keep that post away from the media and some posters world war 3 will start

[stmichael]

Only Fools Write Off Liverpool Now...



All reports of Liverpool's defeat to Aston Villa have two things in common - all mention Xabi Alonso and all make Brad Friedel the man of the match. Come on fellas, you can't have it both ways. Either Liverpool were missing a creative presence in midfield or they were thwarted by a goalkeeper in ridiculously good fettle.


The truth is that the Xabi stick is a very convenient weapon to wield at Rafa Benitez, but this particular defeat to Aston Villa owed nothing to the Spaniard's absence. Liverpool had 68% possession and 19 attempts on goal (11 of them on target) - this is not a side struggling to create chances, but a team who either scuffed those chances or saw them clawed away by the inspired Friedel.


Neither can this defeat be laid at the door of negative tactics because Liverpool were on the front foot from the opening whistle and Villa barely left their own half in the opening 15 minutes. Had that goalmouth scramble ended in the goal their early endeavours deserved then it could easily have been a repeat of the 5-0 drubbing of last season.


'Liverpool were woeful and Villa wonderful,' writes Phil Thomas in The Sun. Absolute piffle, Phil. Villa set themselves up to defend for their lives but were breached time and time again, only for Friedel to save them. With a different goalkeeper, Liverpool would have been out of sight long before they decided to gift them three goals.


And they were gifts - Lucas can barely take the blame for scoring the own goal (anyone who has never scored an own goal or at least notched a near-miss has not defended enough set-pieces) but he can take the blame for giving away a needless free-kick.


Slack defending at a corner cost them the second, sending pundits into incandescent 'zonal marking' related rage. It was nothing to do with zonal (Liverpool's defensive record tells you that's not the problem), but everything to do with really rubbish defending. We saw similar from Everton against Arsenal and that was man-to-man marking.


The third gift was the most generous. At 2-1 and in the ascendance, Liverpool looked nailed on for at least a point. Quite what Steven Gerrard thought he was doing with a ridiculous slide through Nigel Reo-Coker only he will know, but the penalty ended the game as a contest.


That's the story of the game - missed chances and three individual errors. Against Tottenham on the opening weekend of the season, Liverpool were outplayed. They were not even close to being outplayed by Villa, who were understandably happy to be handed victory on a platter.


'Reds have now lost as many games as they did in WHOLE of last season' screams the headline in the Daily Mirror. And? We all agreed at the end of last season that drawn games were the problem for Liverpool. Turn just three of those 11 draws into wins and that's six points right there. It's hardly ideal to start with two defeats out of three games, but neither is it a crisis.


Have we learned nothing in the last 12 months? Man United started last season with four points from their first three games and we all know how that story ends. This is not to say that Liverpool will do the same - I didn't tip them at the start of the season and I'm not tipping them now - but to write them off now with just a point less is plain daft.


Sarah Winterburn

http://football365.com/story/0,17033,13320_5512476,00.html

A woman talking sense. Who'd have thought it?  

[bigmick]

It's not sense Mike, it's Tompkinesque b0ll0ks. 19 attemtps on goal, 11 on target? Half of them were masherano's from about 35 yards which Freidel caught. Babel had three I think at the end which were nearer the corner flag than the goal.

No, she is talking b0ll0cks alright. Hopefully the manager, coaches and players aren't buying into any of this "we actually played quite well" nonsense otherwise we really do have problems. Best to tell it like it was, and it was sh!t.

[tubby]

Thanks Mick. I feel better now that I can get back to being depressed again. Shooo shoo posative articles and tompkins.

[Dazzer]

chill dude



30k after tax a week, how does he survive?[/quote]
I love bag !

[Sir Roger]

Only Fools Write Off Liverpool Now...



All reports of Liverpool's defeat to Aston Villa have two things in common - all mention Xabi Alonso and all make Brad Friedel the man of the match. Come on fellas, you can't have it both ways. Either Liverpool were missing a creative presence in midfield or they were thwarted by a goalkeeper in ridiculously good fettle.


The truth is that the Xabi stick is a very convenient weapon to wield at Rafa Benitez, but this particular defeat to Aston Villa owed nothing to the Spaniard's absence. Liverpool had 68% possession and 19 attempts on goal (11 of them on target) - this is not a side struggling to create chances, but a team who either scuffed those chances or saw them clawed away by the inspired Friedel.


Neither can this defeat be laid at the door of negative tactics because Liverpool were on the front foot from the opening whistle and Villa barely left their own half in the opening 15 minutes. Had that goalmouth scramble ended in the goal their early endeavours deserved then it could easily have been a repeat of the 5-0 drubbing of last season.


'Liverpool were woeful and Villa wonderful,' writes Phil Thomas in The Sun. Absolute piffle, Phil. Villa set themselves up to defend for their lives but were breached time and time again, only for Friedel to save them. With a different goalkeeper, Liverpool would have been out of sight long before they decided to gift them three goals.


And they were gifts - Lucas can barely take the blame for scoring the own goal (anyone who has never scored an own goal or at least notched a near-miss has not defended enough set-pieces) but he can take the blame for giving away a needless free-kick.


Slack defending at a corner cost them the second, sending pundits into incandescent 'zonal marking' related rage. It was nothing to do with zonal (Liverpool's defensive record tells you that's not the problem), but everything to do with really rubbish defending. We saw similar from Everton against Arsenal and that was man-to-man marking.


The third gift was the most generous. At 2-1 and in the ascendance, Liverpool looked nailed on for at least a point. Quite what Steven Gerrard thought he was doing with a ridiculous slide through Nigel Reo-Coker only he will know, but the penalty ended the game as a contest.


That's the story of the game - missed chances and three individual errors. Against Tottenham on the opening weekend of the season, Liverpool were outplayed. They were not even close to being outplayed by Villa, who were understandably happy to be handed victory on a platter.


'Reds have now lost as many games as they did in WHOLE of last season' screams the headline in the Daily Mirror. And? We all agreed at the end of last season that drawn games were the problem for Liverpool. Turn just three of those 11 draws into wins and that's six points right there. It's hardly ideal to start with two defeats out of three games, but neither is it a crisis.


Have we learned nothing in the last 12 months? Man United started last season with four points from their first three games and we all know how that story ends. This is not to say that Liverpool will do the same - I didn't tip them at the start of the season and I'm not tipping them now - but to write them off now with just a point less is plain daft.


Sarah Winterburn

http://football365.com/story/0,17033,13320_5512476,00.html

A woman talking sense. Who'd have thought it?  

Boll0cks
Thats a nom de plume if ever Ive heard one
And why the feck is he quoting the s*n!!

Spoke some sense though

[Ciggy]

Heard it all now, some journo has just blamed Rafa for selling Anelka  Seriously WTF? How clueless are these b@stards.
Rafa is right he gets the blame for Global Warming, I dont know why the man hasnt walked out by now.

Then another journo started to slag off Carra and then sh!t himself because Carra's dad walked into the press office after the manc game and said thats your headlines fecked for tommorrow you gang of kunts.

He said I know your watching Phil, sorry for slagging Jamie off, but he is getting old and his career is coming to an end.

Not one mention of City, and their 8 draws after spending nearly 300 million.
Talked about us for 30 mins. Said Torres and Gerrard will be sold when the banks want the money back for us not qualifying for the CL next season. Is the season over then?

And the yanks want MON they are impressed by his team and methods with such little income 

[lakes10]

I see a report the other day with King Kenny, he was saying that Rafa has the most power at any football club in the prem and other managers can only dream of such power.

Kenny is one of my Heroes but i can not see him being the only manager in the prem with such power, i not sure if it was just the spin the repoprter was putting on it.

yes we have a problem at the club right now and yes some fans are saying we should look for a new manager but they should do so only on the forums, when it looks to the outside worls that the club is falling apart the press love it, you just know there are newspapers out there that would love to see this club go down.

Right now they are picking up on the unrest of the players with Rafa and they are loving it, the more or players look unhappy when the get subbed the more the press look into how they are getting on with Rafa and more things they blame him for.

soon they will report that he started ww2.

what i am not happy about is seeing other liverpool fans postimng on open forums saying that rafa should be sacked, yes i have said it but only on liverpool forum.....not on open football forum and newspaper sites and phone ins.