Liverpool FC Forum

Bamaga man wrote:So its a genius signing because he is FREE ?

Bamaga man wrote:Skill level? Sorry do you mean Zenden?

ALONSO_14 wrote:i agree completely lakes, ive started to doubt rafa for the first time after hearing these cisse rumours and if hes sold rafa will become a villain and will be on his way to becoming the next foolier, terrible working the transfer market, destroying our club

Calm down man- jesus, one minute Benitez is a god the next people are doubting him because some rag of a paper needs a story. The papers in this country are full of it and need to write for us to be shocked into buying it. If he was to go then i'd expect Benitez had some masterplan up his sleeve- but i don't doubt his ability as our manager at all yet. If we were to lose against Sunderland then i may start worrying but we're only one game into what's going to be a very competitve season.

tommycockles wrote:

ALONSO_14 wrote:i agree completely lakes, ive started to doubt rafa for the first time after hearing these cisse rumours and if hes sold rafa will become a villain and will be on his way to becoming the next foolier, terrible working the transfer market, destroying our club

Calm down man- jesus, one minute Benitez is a god the next people are doubting him because some rag of a paper needs a story. The papers in this country are full of it and need to write for us to be shocked into buying it. If he was to go then i'd expect Benitez had some masterplan up his sleeve- but i don't doubt his ability as our manager at all yet. If we were to lose against Sunderland then i may start worrying but we're only one game into what's going to be a very competitve season.

drummerphil wrote:dont real madrid still owes us money for owen anyway

yes, to the tune of £4M. Poor b@stard still have the cheek to flip Owen back to us for a profit 

lakes10 wrote:Benítez ready to clear decks at Anfield to bring home Owen
From Matt Dickinson, Chief Football Correspondent in Copenhagen



MICHAEL OWEN’S return to Liverpool was looking imminent last night after his former club made official contact with Real Madrid. The transfer, expected to be for about £12 million, is likely to be financed by the departure from Anfield of Djibril Cissé and Milan Baros.
Owen, whose wife, Louise, is pregnant with their second child, had feared that he might have to wait until the deadline on August 31 to be rescued from Spain, but his transfer gathered pace as Liverpool set about making room for the England forward, who was a half-time substitute as England crashed to their heaviest defeat in 25 years with a 4-1 defeat by Denmark in Copenhagen that Sven-Göran Eriksson, the head coach, described as “a disaster”.



Baros is expected to join Aston Villa for £6.5 million in the next few days, while Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, is also ready to sell Cissé. Gérard Houllier, the Lyons manager, has registered an interest and has money to spend after the £26 million transfer of Michael Essien to Chelsea. Newcastle United are also looking for a forward, although they can give up the chase for Owen as he prepares to return to Anfield.

Eriksson will be happy to have Owen playing regularly for an English club and he is in need of reasons to be cheerful. Even the diplomatic Swede was forced to berate his team’s failings after they collapsed in the second half against a Denmark team struggling to qualify for the World Cup finals.

England conceded three goals in a seven-minute spell, with David James suffering the worst of the abuse from the travelling supporters behind his goal. “I feel sorry for the fans,” Eriksson said. “If we play like that again, we may not even go to the World Cup. I am angry and disappointed. I am not going to try to defend it because I simply can’t defend it.” Much the same was being said of his team in the second half.

“You expect to lose some games but you don’t expect to lose like that,” he said. “It was surprising and hopefully it will be impossible to play that badly again. But on the second half, there is a basis for 11 changes. It was clear what I had to say in the dressing-room. If you lose your temper you can lose your brain but it was important to tell the squad that the second half was a disaster and the reasons why.”

This was not the first time that England have been exposed in a friendly and after the previous occasion — the 3-1 defeat at home by Australia — they bounced back to overwhelm Turkey. They will need a similar transformation if they are not to give heart to Wales and Northern Ireland, their hosts at the beginning of next month, when they resume their World Cup qualifiers.

It was some consolation to Eriksson, if not to the away fans, that the collapse would probably not have happened had he persevered with his strongest team rather than introduce James and Glen Johnson, whose reputations suffered the most damage. England’s first-half performance was far from flawless, but at 0-0, there was no fear of embarrassment.

While there was no difficulty in establishing the individual mistakes that contributed to the second-half rout, blame can be scattered around, with Eriksson also culpable. If the head coach shows an indifference to these matches, as Eriksson has, that attitude is likely to spread to his players. James attributed his mistakes to a lack of pre-match preparation although he declined to respond to the mocking of the fans. “There were a lot of choice words which were not necessarily needed but I will never criticise supporters for saying what they think,” he said.

It was hardly the start to the World Cup season that the Football Association had hoped for, particularly coming 24 hours after Eriksson and David Beckham had talked of their high hopes for next summer. Last night, the captain was singing a very different tune.

“There are no excuses,” he said. “It is always embarrassing when you let any team score three quick goals against you but it is even worse when you are in front of 5,000 fans who have travelled all this way. Now we have to perform in the games that matter.”

Results in friendly matches have proved misleading before under Eriksson. England will return on September 3 to Wales — scene of their previous 4-1 defeat, in 1980 — under pressure to consign this second-half performance to the past.