Liverpool FC Forum

by **66-1112520797** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:25 pm

Are you totally and honestly satisfied with Rafa purchases ?

Before i go on ,this is not a knock at , it is not a negative doom and gloom opinon.(Well i dont think so ).

It is a pure and honest question to which i would like a pure and honest feedback.

I personally do have my doubts it seems to ME Rafa has bought quantity over quality, The transfer market doesnt seem to offer an abundance of good quality players.
Im just not sure that we have made enough quality signings to fight for a top three finnish at the end of the season.
To me Zenden and Crouch are good squad players but they havent (yet) improved the team,ok Crouch does bring something different up front, Zenden for me doesnt offer anything really in terms of pace and flair for a winger .( God i would love a John Barnes type of player out there).Then there is the opposite wing where nothing has really changed,maybe though, Flo has returned to action so heres hoping but still.
I doubt there is hardly a Liverpool fan out there who thought we would bring in the likes of Zenden and Crouch ?
I shall reserve any judgement or comments for Reina as i havent seen him play,Sissoko though is the one buy i do think can help the team.
This is just a brief summary on the higher profile players brought in and im not sure whether they will help the Reds in there quest to finnish in a much improved position to last.
To me aswell the likes of Spurs ,Newcastle,Villa ,Bolton and maybe Charlton will be breathing down our necks a lot heavier.
It just makes me wonder that maybe the chasing pack is more likely to be gaining ground on us than we are on the likes of the Chelsea,ManU and Arsenal.

I wish i was more academic in my writing skills to put the point across in a more detailed/indepth way.
Please dont take this as negative comment, more though a pondering thought from a fellow Liverpool fan.

by **drummerphil** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:26 pm

too early to say yet,ask me at christmas

by **66-1120597113** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:48 pm

Bamaga man wrote:Are you totally and honestly satisfied with Rafa purchases ?

Before i go on ,this is not a knock at , it is not a negative doom and gloom opinon.(Well i dont think so ).

It is a pure and honest question to which i would like a pure and honest feedback.

I personally do have my doubts it seems to ME Rafa has bought quantity over quality, The transfer market doesnt seem to offer an abundance of good quality players.
Im just not sure that we have made enough quality signings to fight for a top three finnish at the end of the season.
To me Zenden and Crouch are good squad players but they havent (yet) improved the team,ok Crouch does bring something different up front, Zenden for me doesnt offer anything really in terms of pace and flair for a winger .( God i would love a John Barnes type of player out there).Then there is the opposite wing where nothing has really changed,maybe though, Flo has returned to action so heres hoping but still.
I doubt there is hardly a Liverpool fan out there who thought we would bring in the likes of Zenden and Crouch ?
I shall reserve any judgement or comments for Reina as i havent seen him play,Sissoko though is the one buy i do think can help the team.
This is just a brief summary on the higher profile players brought in and im not sure whether they will help the Reds in there quest to finnish in a much improved position to last.
To me aswell the likes of Spurs ,Newcastle,Villa ,Bolton and maybe Charlton will be breathing down our necks a lot heavier.
It just makes me wonder that maybe the chasing pack is more likely to be gaining ground on us than we are on the likes of the Chelsea,ManU and Arsenal.

I wish i was more academic in my writing skills to put the point across in a more detailed/indepth way.
Please dont take this as negative comment, more though a pondering thought from a fellow Liverpool fan.

I understand ur thoughts mate! All fans of all teams will be wondering the same at this early stage of the season,will our signings do the job???
All i can say that in bringing in Sissoko,he is going to be a long term replacement for Hamman.(we hope)
The other 2 u mentioned,Crouch and Zenden are 2 good signings when its obvious we are gonna play 4 5 1 a lot this season,Zenden being a decent left winger and a good crosser of the ball should fit in well.like every new player he will take time to get used to playing under a new manager and in a new squad hopefully be a success for us!
Crouch is ideal in this system also because of his height,he also has a great eye for goal as well.If he'd been able to play the other day against boro i reckon he'd have scored a few,i guess we'll never know that now.I think rafa will play the 4 5 1 away and i hope he doesnt neglect the 4 4 2 either!
Overall i think he wants to build a good steady squad,rather than a team of individual superstars.The main thing is that the team gel and play with confidence as a unit.
And i think its a bit too early to be worrying about these signings,we need to give it time and see!!
Bare in mind the transfer window is still open for another 2 weeks and ya never know wot could happen between now and then.

by **red37** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 5:40 pm

[quote]I doubt there is hardly a Liverpool fan out there who thought we would bring in the likes of Zenden and Crouch ?

thats why we aint rafa :bowdown

i hear all your saying, but we must have belief.

by **Jari's mullet** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:07 pm

Zenden is a good crosser of the ball, Crouch will be a good target man although I am not too sure about his skills on the ground, from all the press reports we are led to believe that for a big man he has a good touch, I haven't seen it yet myself, but then again I haven't seen much of him. Lets hope he can do a job for us, he can't be any worse than Morientes was in his 1st season. I think 4-5-1 will suit both Morientes and crouch better this season.

Too early to question the signing s at the moment, but I think what marks Rafa apart is that he is ruthless enough to put his hands up if a signing is not working out and will do something about it, Nunez being the prime example.

Always Believe!

by **oOShrimpyOo** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:13 pm

i totally agree with you Bamaga man...

zenden is NOT a quality left winger and never has been, hes an average winger who does an average job in that position.

crouch i will give a chance because i do think hes quite good. Hes more technical than alot of our players, and he will work hard (good old english players), so i will reserve my judgment on him.

sissoko i think is also very good, settled quickly and one of our best signings, along with reina, definitely looks a solid keeper.

Speaking about rafas total signings im not completely satisfied. hes signed alot of garbage, and to be quite honest my local sunday side players would do a better job than some of them...examples josemi - what a waste of space, pellegrino - another waste of space, morientes - hes never gonna make it in the prem.

Athough one signing that im very pleased with is good old xabi alonso, what a player.

i think at the moment the quality signings vs the flops is on par for rafa. lets see what he does before the transfer window closes though.

by **H_K_LFC** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:19 pm

a trust rafa's signings....riena,sissoko r lookin qualty.....zenden was a gd signing for free and a wud give crouch and nando till christmas 2 c

by **JC_81** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:34 pm

I think it's far too early to make any serious judgements on the players Rafa has brought in this summer. In my opinion however, Crouch and Zenden will be good squad players at least, and Reina and Sissoko have the potential to be stars. Plus I think our signings are far from over, I expect at least 2 more faces for the first team squad before the window closes.

As for Rafa's ability in the transfer market, I think he's very astute. He prefers not to go for big names (costing big money) which doesn't please some fans, and inevitably there's a risk that these lesser known players he buys are not good enough. However I certainly feel that over time this will prove to be the best transfer policy. He will gradually find us the players we need, at the same time not breaking the bank. Inevitably there will be the odd Pellegrino or Nunez along the way, but I'm willing to put up with that.

Wenger has been the best manager in England by far in the transfer market over the last number of years by using a similar policy. But in the early days for every Petit, Anelka and Vieira he unearthed, there was a Grimandi, Wreh and Diawara. Even the best managers can't get it right every time. IMO Rafa is better than most.

by **neil** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:36 pm

Even the best managers have got to "kiss alot of frogs" (s.hit! lets expect a Houllier gag) Wenger is clearly the most consistent at the moment, however I feel Benitez could be catching up. We cannot really seriously speak of Nunez as a bona-fide Rafa signing as obviously he was thrown into a cash deal for Owen and the boss made the best of a bad lot. Reina IMO looks commanding and quite superb, Crouch is possibly the best at what he does, Alonso....well we'll leave that there, Sissoko has potential(again) and Rafa is obviously very keen on him, there's Nando who may have had a slow start but I for one still like seeing his name in the lineup. I'm obviously fairly happy.

by **murphy0151** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:45 pm

Bamaga man wrote:Are you totally and honestly satisfied with Rafa purchases ?

Before i go on ,this is not a knock at , it is not a negative doom and gloom opinon.(Well i dont think so ).

It is a pure and honest question to which i would like a pure and honest feedback.

I personally do have my doubts it seems to ME Rafa has bought quantity over quality, The transfer market doesnt seem to offer an abundance of good quality players.
Im just not sure that we have made enough quality signings to fight for a top three finnish at the end of the season.
To me Zenden and Crouch are good squad players but they havent (yet) improved the team,ok Crouch does bring something different up front, Zenden for me doesnt offer anything really in terms of pace and flair for a winger .( God i would love a John Barnes type of player out there).Then there is the opposite wing where nothing has really changed,maybe though, Flo has returned to action so heres hoping but still.
I doubt there is hardly a Liverpool fan out there who thought we would bring in the likes of Zenden and Crouch ?
I shall reserve any judgement or comments for Reina as i havent seen him play,Sissoko though is the one buy i do think can help the team.
This is just a brief summary on the higher profile players brought in and im not sure whether they will help the Reds in there quest to finnish in a much improved position to last.
To me aswell the likes of Spurs ,Newcastle,Villa ,Bolton and maybe Charlton will be breathing down our necks a lot heavier.
It just makes me wonder that maybe the chasing pack is more likely to be gaining ground on us than we are on the likes of the Chelsea,ManU and Arsenal.

I wish i was more academic in my writing skills to put the point across in a more detailed/indepth way.
Please dont take this as negative comment, more though a pondering thought from a fellow Liverpool fan.

I know I reckon we call for his head.

TUT TUT

by **The Ace1983** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:52 pm

Old Chinese Proverb -

"Even the greatest stones will be weak when they lie on sand"

What's that got to do with the price of eggs, I hear you type? Well, what it means to a football manager is this; What's the point in shelling out loads on a couple of superstars, when we don't have a full squad with adequate cover. A fine example of this is the Real Madrid team after Hierro and Makalele left. Astounding going forward where the players were worth hundreds of millions, but they had a non-existant defence and it cost them. Rafa has looked at our squad and got rid of the rubbish. No more Biscan't, no more Diouf, So long Cheyrou and adios Antonio Nunez. He has replaced them with players that he thinks have potential (Gonzales, Barragan, Sissoko, Hobbs), good records (Reina) and Premiership experience (Zenden and Crouch). He has added dimensions and he's always looking to progress. I would have loved to see SWP or Aimar turn up this summer, but that would have meant probably selling Stevie or not buying four of the above players at least.

I think that Rafa sees this season as the real start. Qualify for Europe, make up ground on the big boys and get into the habit of winning. I've said this before and I'll say it again, This is Liverpool and we don't do quick fixes. We are not Leeds who spent big and collapsed, we are not Real Madrid who have all of the glamour and none of the guts. We are the European Champions, we've got what it takes and when we need to spend £20m on a single player we will, but we don't need to now.

by **Liverpool 4 EVA** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:17 pm

Bamaga man wrote:Are you totally and honestly satisfied with Rafa purchases ?

Before i go on ,this is not a knock at , it is not a negative doom and gloom opinon.(Well i dont think so ).

It is a pure and honest question to which i would like a pure and honest feedback.

I personally do have my doubts it seems to ME Rafa has bought quantity over quality, The transfer market doesnt seem to offer an abundance of good quality players.
Im just not sure that we have made enough quality signings to fight for a top three finnish at the end of the season.
To me Zenden and Crouch are good squad players but they havent (yet) improved the team,ok Crouch does bring something different up front, Zenden for me doesnt offer anything really in terms of pace and flair for a winger .( God i would love a John Barnes type of player out there).Then there is the opposite wing where nothing has really changed,maybe though, Flo has returned to action so heres hoping but still.
I doubt there is hardly a Liverpool fan out there who thought we would bring in the likes of Zenden and Crouch ?
I shall reserve any judgement or comments for Reina as i havent seen him play,Sissoko though is the one buy i do think can help the team.
This is just a brief summary on the higher profile players brought in and im not sure whether they will help the Reds in there quest to finnish in a much improved position to last.
To me aswell the likes of Spurs ,Newcastle,Villa ,Bolton and maybe Charlton will be breathing down our necks a lot heavier.
It just makes me wonder that maybe the chasing pack is more likely to be gaining ground on us than we are on the likes of the Chelsea,ManU and Arsenal.

I wish i was more academic in my writing skills to put the point across in a more detailed/indepth way.
Please dont take this as negative comment, more though a pondering thought from a fellow Liverpool fan.

I understand what you are saying, but I trust Rafael 100%

I don't think ANYONE can question Rafa, just take a look at his recent record....in the last 4 years he's won 2 league titles, and won the Champions league with a comletely new team after winning the UEFA cup the previous year.

That is already an OUTSTANDING record, if you also take in to account he's never had copious amounts of money to buy world stars, it makes his achievement even more outstanding.

At valencia and now Liverpool, he never had a lot of money to play with anyway, and has almost always bought relatively unknown players that improved greatly under his guidance.

Of course he'll make mistakes along the way, no manager, in fact no human being is perfect apart from me :cool:

, so let's give him a chance.

Rafa's young record speaks for itself.

It's too early, let's decide at the end of the season if his purchases have been good or not. I think some of you will be surprised with the performance of some of rafa's new purchases, and no doubt some of you will be eating some delicious humble pie and celebrating Liverpool's success at the same time....

Cheers! :cool:

by **zarababe** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:42 pm

The Ace1983 wrote:Old Chinese Proverb -

"Even the greatest stones will be weak when they lie on sand"

.. You could have attributed that to Yoda, Ace

Far too early to be questioning the Bosses choice of signings. As he would say he has at least two players for the majoriy of positions, who can come in and do a reasonable job, there is the chance to rotate and all must pull there weight.

I think the time to assess wil be at least half way thru the season .. Yes ?

by **drummerphil** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:45 pm

i agree, hiya zara sweetheart :;):

by **66-1120597113** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:04 pm

john craig wrote:I think it's far too early to make any serious judgements on the players Rafa has brought in this summer. In my opinion however, Crouch and Zenden will be good squad players at least, and Reina and Sissoko have the potential to be stars. Plus I think our signings are far from over, I expect at least 2 more faces for the first team squad before the window closes.

As for Rafa's ability in the transfer market, I think he's very astute. He prefers not to go for big names (costing big money) which doesn't please some fans, and inevitably there's a risk that these lesser known players he buys are not good enough. However I certainly feel that over time this will prove to be the best transfer policy. He will gradually find us the players we need, at the same time not breaking the bank. Inevitably there will be the odd Pellegrino or Nunez along the way, but I'm willing to put up with that.

Wenger has been the best manager in England by far in the transfer market over the last number of years by using a similar policy. But in the early days for every Petit, Anelka and Vieira he unearthed, there was a Grimandi, Wreh and Diawara. Even the best managers can't get it right every time. IMO Rafa is better than most.

Sense Mister Craig :nod

A lot of impatient people make me more patient!!
People seem to think cause we won the champions league we will be as good as the Shankly days!!
A lot of hard work to be done at our great club yet,and under Raffa this will take place!! In time we will build and better the squad,see whos up for it and not!! It will take about 2 yrs from now to see if Raffa is as good as we all feel and hope,but until then i trust him 100%!
Dont worry y'all Raffa is the special one!

Liverpool FC Forum

Do you wonder ?

Who is online