Liverpool FC Forum

Greavesie wrote:I'd have a Rafa sing song. No reason why not, I'd sing Fowler's name if he came back. Little Luis as well. If Torres left I'd probably sing his name as well, depending on who he went to of course. So why not Rafa?

Benny The Noon wrote:

Greavesie wrote:I'd have a Rafa sing song. No reason why not, I'd sing Fowler's name if he came back. Little Luis as well. If Torres left I'd probably sing his name as well, depending on who he went to of course. So why not Rafa?

Not when he is the opposing manager mate

Greavesie wrote:

Benny The Noon wrote:

Greavesie wrote:I'd have a Rafa sing song. No reason why not, I'd sing Fowler's name if he came back. Little Luis as well. If Torres left I'd probably sing his name as well, depending on who he went to of course. So why not Rafa?

Not when he is the opposing manager mate

but it's ok when its an oppo player?

I'd welcome Rafa back at Anfield, he hasn't took a shot at us since he left (bar his spat with Hodgy), he's said many nice things and respects us, he deserves the same back IMO. Liverpool comes first but I for one would welcome him back

Support and appreciation are two different things

Bad Bob wrote:

bavlondon wrote:Although I was upset at coming 7th it was plain to see it was always on the cards. Years of having to shop with a 1 in 1 out policy meant that we were never able to build strength in depth and with so much money going on the interest we missed out quite a few quality players who had we got we might not had go through so many others.

See, this is where I disagree.  IN MY OPINION, 7th wasn't always and inevitably on the cards.  We made heavy work out of just about everything last season and had a very disappointing campaign on all fronts but there was no inevitability to it.  We had enough quality in the squad to get higher than 7th in the league, get further than the Group Stages of the CL and get past the likes of Reading in the FA Cup.  Financial restraints were of course there, a sell before you buy policy was of course a hindrance but we still had a squad that could and should have achieved much more than it did.  We were unlikely outsiders to win the league, I'll grant you, but we should have been right in the mix for the CL places and good bets for going further in the various cups than we did.  To suggest otherwise, IN MY OPINION, is to make untenable excuses for a season of sustained under-performance.

bavlondon wrote:

Bad Bob wrote:

bavlondon wrote:Although I was upset at coming 7th it was plain to see it was always on the cards. Years of having to shop with a 1 in 1 out policy meant that we were never able to build strength in depth and with so much money going on the interest we missed out quite a few quality players who had we got we might not had go through so many others.

See, this is where I disagree.  IN MY OPINION, 7th wasn't always and inevitably on the cards.  We made heavy work out of just about everything last season and had a very disappointing campaign on all fronts but there was no inevitability to it.  We had enough quality in the squad to get higher than 7th in the league, get further than the Group Stages of the CL and get past the likes of Reading in the FA Cup.  Financial restraints were of course there, a sell before you buy policy was of course a hindrance but we still had a squad that could and should have achieved much more than it did.  We were unlikely outsiders to win the league, I'll grant you, but we should have been right in the mix for the CL places and good bets for going further in the various cups than we did.  To suggest otherwise, IN MY OPINION, is to make untenable excuses for a season of sustained under-performance.

Inevitable in the sense that we were not keeping pace with the teams around us in terms of spending so we were always going to fall behind.

Benny The Noon wrote:

Bad Bob wrote:

worcester_red wrote:but it is true that it's only after Hamann came on that the game changed isn't it and it's also true that that change was forced on Rafa. It's also a fact that in the final 2 years later Rafa fecked up by not playing Crouch.

You know, one of the things that makes me laugh most when I read stuff like this (which crops up way more than you'd imagine around here) is the failure to account for the big picture.  'The critical Hamann switch was forced on him,' 'we got lucky that Milan switched off,' 'Rafa dropped a bollo.ck by leaving Crouch on the bench' etc. etc. gets trotted out like we were whisked through a worm hole into two Champions League finals and poor, bumbling Benitez found himself out of his depth.  It would be nice if people could acknowledge that, in each case, we had to play a fair few games to make it to these finals, beating a few good teams along the way.  Either Rafa's got a horseshoe the size of the Arc de Triomphe up his backside or he's by and large a bl.oody good tactician when it comes to the cut and thrust of European cup football.

The year is 2007 and little bluenose Duncan is talking to his bluenose Dad.

SON “Dad, my mates in school told me that Liverpool won the European Cup for the 5th time in 2005 – are they right dad?

DAD “Yes SON , it’s true, but they were dead lucky SON , all the way through the tournament”

SON “Why dad?”

DAD “Well in the group stages …..”

SON “What dad, did they have a team from Azerbaijan, Israel, and Ireland in their group?”

DAD “Well no, they had Monaco, Deportivo la Coruna, and Olympiakos”

SON “Well they still sound like 3 easy teams to me dad”

DAD “Actually Monaco reached the final the year before, Olympiakos had won their league 7 times out of the previous 8 seaSON s, and Deportivo finished above the galacticos of Real Madrid in their league”.

SON “Jeez dad, that sounds like quite a difficult group then”.

DAD “yeh I suppose your right SON , but they were still lucky – it took a mishit shot by Gerrard against Olympiakos to get through”.

SON “oh is that the goal were your hero Andy Gray goes berserk shouting “you beauty, you beauty, what a hit SON , what a hit!!!!”

DAD “yes SON it is”

SON “oh ok. Well what happened in the last 16 dad, who did they draw?”

DAD “Bayer Leverkusen”

SON “Bayer who?”

DAD “Exactly SON , but they had beaten Real Madrid 3-0 at home, and won their group that included Dinamo Kiev and Roma too.”

SON “bloody hell dad, they sound good”.

DAD “yes, I suppose you’re right SON ”

SON “so did they win on away goals or something”

DAD ”errrrr, no, they won both legs 3-1 each”

SON “oh – well who next then dad”

DAD “Juventus”

SON “How the f#ck did they get past them Dad?”

DAD “Well they did – they won 2-1 at home, and cruised to a 0-0 away draw without Juve having hardly any chances”.

SON “were Juve sh#t at that time – had all their decent players gone or something?”

DAD “well actually they still had players like Del Piero, Nedved, Ibrahimovic, Thuram, and Buffon in the side. And they won Serie A a few weeks later.”

SON “wow, they beat the Italian champions elect – which easy team did they get in the semi then?”

DAD “Chelsea”

SON “Chelsea – for f#cks sake – what a easy draw – they’ve won nothing, Everton have won more than them”.

DAD “well that seaSON they won the Premiership and League Cup but the Red didn’t let them score in 180 minutes of football”

SON “Jesus Christ – so Liverpool beat the English Champions elect too”

DAD “yes SON , they bloody well did”.

SON “so after all that I suppose all the good teams had been knocked out”

DAD “not quite SON , AC Milan awaited them in the final”

SON “no way – aren’t they the 2nd most successful team in the competition’s history”.

DAD “yes SON they are”

SON “so were Liverpool lucky because Milan had all their good players out with injuries”

DAD “no – they had Shevchenko, Crespo, Maldini, Nesta, Cafu, Kaka, Stam, Dida, Gattuso, Pirlo, and Seedorf”.

SON “your ‘avin a laff”

DAD “it gets worse SON , Milan were cruising 3-0 up at half-time”.

SON “what happened, did they have 3 men sent off in the second half – how did Liverpool get back into the game?”

DAD “no, Milan had no men sent off, the Red scored 3 goals in 6 minutes”

SON “against the best defence in Europe”

DAD “yes!!!, against the best defence in Europe”

SON “so what happened next - extra time?”

DAD “yes SON , and Dudek made the luckiest save ever to stop a Shevchenko shot from a yard”

SON “why was it lucky dad – did it hit him on the , nose, shoulder or something”

DAD “no SON , his hand”

SON “well aren’t goalies meant to save shots with their hands”

DAD “yeah but that’s besides the point”

SON “then what”

DAD “penalties!”

SON “English teams are at penalties”

DAD “not this f#ckin time they weren’t – they only missed one. And that’s how Liverpool became the luckiest team to win the European Cup”.

SON “but I bet when they brought the cup home there was hardly anyone to watch as all Liverpool fans live anywhere but Liverpool you say. How many was there, 5,,000 or so?”

DAD “1 million people lined the streets”.

SON ”so let’s get this straight dad – Liverpool had 3 good teams in their group, they then knocked out a team who had beaten Real Madrid 3-0, they then knocked out the future Serie A champions, then knocked out the future Premiership champions, before coming back from 3-0 down to beat the 2nd most successful club in Europe. And then the whole population of Liverpool came out to welcome them home!!!!

DAD “that about sums it up SON ”

SON “dad?”

DAD “yes SON ”

SON “can I have a Liverpool shirt for my birthday next week, and can you stop calling me Duncan – I’m Stevie from now on”

quality post everytime I read it 

rocky29 wrote:lazio havent been top of seria A since the mid 90"s what does that tell you about rafa.

errrr... what does that have to do with Rafa? 

maguskwt wrote:

rocky29 wrote:lazio havent been top of seria A since the mid 90"s what does that tell you about rafa.

errrr... what does that have to do with Rafa? 

It's not about being the best in the league, it's about everyone being worse than you 

rocky29 wrote:lazio havent been top of seria A since the mid 90"s what does that tell you about rafa.

jacdaniel wrote:

rocky29 wrote:lazio havent been top of seria A since the mid 90"s what does that tell you about rafa.

Not much.

It does tell me that Lazio have improved a lot though.

jacdaniel wrote:How can Lazio's league position tell us anything about Rafa?
They're clearly playing quite well at the moment but they haven't had many difficult fixtures yet.