Liverpool FC Forum

[dawson99]

well i just got this from bbc sport:

Benitez demands cash for signings 

Benitez spent £5.8m in the January transfer window
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez says he must be allowed to strengthen his squad following the Champions League defeat by Benfica.
The Spaniard, who is reported to be the subject of interest from Inter Milan and Real Madrid, said: "We need to work harder in terms of looking for players.

"It is important to strengthen... and buy new players.

"We will start working now. The scouting department is working for improving the team."

Benitez only spent £5.8m in the January transfer window, which was the fee for Brondby defender Daniel Agger.

He signed Robbie Fowler on a free transfer from Manchester City and brought Jan Kromkamp in from Villarreal in a swap deal for Josemi.

However, several English newspapers have reported that the former Valencia boss has asked for a summer transfer budget of £30m.

Benitez denied there was any tension between him and the Liverpool board on the eve of the Benfica match.

"I don't have any problems with the board, the chief executive or the chairman," he said.

"If we win this game it could make things easier financially."

A top-quality striker is likely to be Benitez's priority. Liverpool failed to find the net in their last four Champions League matches.

he knwos what the problem is but he cant say it as it will ruin the confidence. why talk of strikers when the windows not open?

[Ace Ventura]

he knwos what the problem is but he cant say it as it will ruin the confidence. why talk of strikers when the windows not open?

I think that is exactly right, he is a clever man and imo will do all he can to get the right type of forwards in come the summer.
I suppose if he does criticise the strikers it will not actually do any good for confidence.
A blind man could tell the manager thats where we need players, Rafa will sort it out.
He is a manager that learns from his mistakes.

[stmichael]

Just about calmed down after the game last night. I didn't come on here when i got back from the game because to be honest, I knew exactly what it was going to be, e.g finger pointing and i couldn't be ar$ed with all the doom and gloom. The morning after the night before I'll try and put my view on the game as I saw it.

Despite what Gerrard, Benitez or the knee-jerkers say, we were defeated by a better side last night. They defended superbly, making a series of fantastic blocks, passed the ball, moved quite brilliantly and finished their chances with fantastic aplomb. We were outhought quite comprehensively by Koeman's side and they deserved their victory. Good luck to them. It's fine saying that we created umpteen chances but at the highest level it's about taking your chances. They had three shots, scored twice and hit the bar with the other one. If we were still playing now we still wouldn't have scored.

I agree that those who missed those chances must shoulder the blame for this defeat. In games of this magnitude they cannot be missed and they were. Unacceptable. Losing Hyypia was indeed an immeasurable blow. It cost us the goal, but there were enough chances in the first half to make this irrelevant. Crouch and Garcia carry levels of expectation. Djimi Traore does not. It is they, along with Kewell and Morientes, who let us down spectatularly.

But it is too simplistic to blame the forwards absolutely. Great sides create more than 3 chances. They create ten until one goes in. We're not doing that. The likes of Crouch and Morientes are getting one chance a game, and with the pressure they are under misses are understandable. Fowler aside, we don't have a poacher, a striker, we have forward players. This, we know, must be rectified in the summer, and until then there is no point crying about it

But tactically going forward things need to be adressed, perhaps the entrie set-up of the team and our route to goal, if we are to continue our obvious progress. It became so desperate last night that by the end of the game I had no idea who was playing where and Gerrard was back to his old routine of running around like a headless chicken trying to do about three people's jobs at once.

It was a depressing night. The Champions of Europe did not do themselves justice and because of that we are no longer Champions of Europe, simply incumbents. It's time for taking stock, and assessing where we need to go to get it back, whether that be a mini-rebuild or a tweak here and there I don't know, but I'm pretty sure Rafa does.

[JC_81]

Despite what Gerrard, Benitez or the knee-jerkers say, we were defeated by a better side last night. They defended superbly, making a series of fantastic blocks, passed the ball, moved quite brilliantly and finished their chances with fantastic aplomb. We were outhought quite comprehensively by Koeman's side and they deserved their victory. Good luck to them. It's fine saying that we created umpteen chances but at the highest level it's about taking your chances. They had three shots, scored twice and hit the bar with the other one. If we were still playing now we still wouldn't have scored.

To be honest St Mike, I can't agree with that at all.  Benfica the better side over 2 legs?  They scored 3 out of the 4 chances they had over 2 legs.  You might say that's impressive or you might say it's lucky.  I think it's more the latter.  Luck evens itself and lets be honest we had the rub of the green more than our fair share in last year's competition, just as Benfica have had this season.  No one is going to convince me that they were a better team than even the mancs over their 2 games. 

'Out-thought quite comprehensively by Koeman's side?'  Were you watching the same game mate?  We didn't take our chances, we were opening them up for fun for the whole 1st half, so clearly they weren't out-thinking us too well there were they?  They were hanging on by a thread and on another night we'd have been 3-0 up at the half hour mark.

A lot of us criticised Mourinho's tactics against Barce, but lets be honest, Benitez got it wrong last night.  Not playing a holding midfielder ahead of Traore was criminal, Alonso wasn't at the game in a more advanced role.  So it was far from us being beaten by a better team (Benfica are extremely poor imo), we beat ourselves quite rightly as the title of this thread states.

[onizukaeikichi]

baros looks so much more of a threat than morientes to be honest, at least he is capable of putting the ball into the back of the net, chances goes begging whenever it is presented to mori

[stmichael]

i don't really like talking about the past but the club's arrogance in the transfer market last summer really came back to haunt us last night. as was bound to happen, the guy who should have been playing on the right for us last night scored the goal which basically put us out and the centre half who should have been signed so that he wasn't cuptied (and wasn't) meant that we ended up with bambi on ice in the centre of defence in the biggest match of the season.

[JC_81]

i don't really like talking about the past but the club's arrogance in the transfer market last summer really came back to haunt us last night. as was bound to happen, the guy who should have been playing on the right for us last night scored the goal which basically put us out and the centre half who should have been signed so that he wasn't cuptied (and wasn't) meant that we ended up with bambi on ice in the centre of defence in the biggest match of the season.

Agree on the Agger front, more efforts should have been made to sign him in the summer.

As for Simao, yeah it's just our luck he ends up scoring the crucial game in the tie to eliminate us.  To be honest though I'm glad we didn't sign him.  Apart from a great strike, he offers little else and wouldn't even be an improvement on playing Garcia on the right imo.  Much like Garcia he's lightweight and drifts in and out of games.  In the games I've seen him against the scum and then us I've yet to see him put a decent cross into the box.  He's not the answer to our right mid situation.

[dawson99]

we need to score goals, its that simple. and it will be sorted out. ive got more faith than ever because the jigsaw puzzle is nearing completion

[stmichael]

evryone is banging on about the strikers not scoring but imo the quality of supply was pi$$ poor last night. i can't remember one decent ball that kewell or garcia crossed the entire game. the quality i'm talking about is the kind of ball joe cole put in for crouch against uruguay or the one that finnan put in for him against manure. all the balls we put into the box were coming from deep positions and as a result nobody could really attack them.

[JBG]

Also remember that last night Hyppia and Riise were injured, 2 important players. Sissoko would probably also have started had he been fit.

It may have been a different result with those players, as Warnock was very poor on a night we needed the full backs to push up.

However, thats football and there's no point crying over spilled milk.

[Red @ Heart]

glad u liked it, personally i thought it was a rubbish game. we had 8 shots on target in the first 15, carragher should have got  ahat trick but in the end u scored 2 great goals and we scored none so well done i suppose lol

dawson you are a sore loser lol, IT was a good game yes we did slaughter them in the firt 30 mins or so but come on give credit where its due, Benfica played a very good defensive game and hit us twice on the counter, in all honesty they deserved to go through. If our strikers put the chances away in the first half we could have eon by 3 or 4 goals easily.

[dawson99]

u say there defense was class but also our strikers werent?
come on... i am a sore loser of course, but benfica were no way superior to us last night (apart from 2 superb goals i admit) the fact is that as this thread says, they did not beat us, we beat ourselves.
anyone who says it was a great game is deluded. it was depressing as i could see from the get go that we werent gonna score, the body language just wasnt there for over half the team.
i do tho give credit to benfica and wish them all the best in the tournament but they wont be as lucky in the next round to get someone as poor attacking wise as us. When did we last score a goal in the champions leage? 4 games ago?

[stmichael]

Also remember that last night Hyppia and Riise were injured, 2 important players. Sissoko would probably also have started had he been fit.

It may have been a different result with those players, as Warnock was very poor on a night we needed the full backs to push up.

However, thats football and there's no point crying over spilled milk.

Spot on JBG.

Warnock's bound to be a bit rusty, it must be difficult when you're in and out of the team. Now that JAR is out for a few games i'd play Warnock left back for a run of games and then judge if he can cut it.

Losing JAR and Hyypia was a big blow before the game because the left side of our defense (Warnock and Traore) was seriously lacking in confidence. It didn't help either that Kewell was at his lazy worst offering no protection.

With JAR in the side we'd have been more dangerous with his forays into the final third, and Hyypia's distribution was missed.

It was just a bad night and we have to move on - I still think we're moving forward, we just have to take the necessary steps.

[Muppley]

If our strikers put the chances away in the first half we could have eon by 3 or 4 goals easily.

...and how many times have we heard that this season?

The number of games hasn't helped, i know that, but we are talking professional players in a big "SHKWAD" :wink:

An earlier post said words to the effect we should trust RB coz he can see where the weaknesses r and he will wait till the summer to announce these because he doesn't want to kick the player's confidence before the end of season. 

That I can understand, but going by the last 2 transfer window shopping trips I'm not really filled with confidence, there was more window shopping than actual spending.

[lcaetano]

So it was far from us being beaten by a better team (Benfica are extremely poor imo), we beat ourselves quite rightly as the title of this thread states.

The truth is that kind of thinking was what made us win in Lisbon and in Liverpool.

I know how much you all hate ManUtd, but you could have learnt something with their defeat.

Thanks!

(After last night Simão=£20m)