Liverpool FC Forum

by **Lucky** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:46 am

Another good win. 21 goals and only one conceded in recent five games, we are really in a good form now.
Just keep the momentum running and when we pass the huge test next week, I can see the trophies smiling at us

by **LegBarnes** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:52 am

LittleHobo wrote:
redtrader74 wrote:
peewee wrote:so maybe some of you would like to prove your points to me rather than demanding that i prove mine, i have explained why we were poor and you have explained why we were poor, difference of opinion, just mine seems more logical.

blip my *rse, bad management cost us earlier in the season, just as it has the last few seasons and every season rafa suddenly wakes up and realises wat needs to be done, and if you trawl back through the forum you will see me saying exactly what has happened here to start getting results.

but hey, peewee knows nothing about football

now i am enjoying watching you all make out it was something other than what it actually was

Nothing has changed from the start of the season to now in respect of Rafas selection and set-up, we are rotating just as much, the figures bear that out. The selections are no less bemusing, see the Newcastle line up. Torres has played in all but 2 games IIRC, and has had a few really poor preformances, (I remember the Porto away game, he was awful) so there are games that he will be a passenger.

Player wise, Gerrard has picked up his form in the last 6 games, in a recent interview he said his form at the start of the season was poor, and that recently he has found it. Babel has got to know his teamates a little better, and therefore his performanaces have improved, Kewell is also back and done well in the games he has played, adding much needed balance. The defence has been as solid as all season. We were not rubbish earlier, the current best defensive record has been built up even during our blip.

We had a blip, a period where injuries, new players and poor form resulted in a FEW DRAWS, and 2 losses in the CL. We seem to have come out of it atm, and are playing well.

a real dull pointless post

yeah well i wouldnt say the team is playing near to 50% of what they can play and we just won 21 goals in 5 games god man can u just think of how good we are when we play near to 100% its scary it really is looking good !

by **Ciggy** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:42 am

Well in redmen,

teams are looking scared of us now, and it seems Rafa's game plan has changed a bit instead of worrying what other teams will do we are doing what we are good at just playing our own game and let them worry about us.

Anyone hear that tw@t on the phone in?
Ripped Rafa to bits and all of our players, saying babels shite, kuyts shite and we will never win the league with rafa.

Defo a bitter on a windup.

Oh and p.s. they are getting worried down the east lancs :;):

http://www.redcafe.net/showthread.php?t=178190

by **Scottbot** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:19 am

Ciggy wrote:teams are looking scared of us now, and it seems Rafa's game plan has changed a bit instead of worrying what other teams will do we are doing what we are good at just playing our own game and let them worry about us.

Hey Lynds, again i'm not sure about this "instead of worrying what other teams will do we are doing what we are good at just playing our own game and let them worry about us." - A few posters have said the same thing but i'm not quite sure how they have come to this conclusion? Just look at the Newcastle game last weekend, we played a very un-balanced formation that probably shouldn't have worked but it did. There is no doubt in my mind it was set up especially for Newcastle.

by **Lucky** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:58 am

From .tv

Liverpool expect Jamie Carragher to shake off the hip injury he sustained against Bolton yesterday in time for next week's trip to Reading.
Carragher was substituted six minutes into the second half after failing to overcome the effects of a collision with Pepe Reina before the break which led to Nicolas Anelka's contender for miss of the season.

Rookie defender Jack Hobbs deputised alongside Sami Hyypia for the rest of the game but manager Rafael Benitez is confident Carragher will be ready for next weekend.

"Carra took a knock in the ribs when he collided with Pepe but I do not think it was that serious," he said. "I'd expect him to be fit for the Reading game."

Steve Finnan is also expected to be fit for Saturday's match after missing the 4-0 victory over Bolton with a calf problem.

Good news for us, we cannot afford to miss Carragher at the moment, especially with the two huge games coming next week.

by **mistyred** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:00 am

Sat on the Kop yesterday for the game block 306 the place was buzzing Torres is such a good player, Campo was knackered by the second half, all round was a good performance.

Super Reds keep up the good work lads!!!!.

by **66-1112520797** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:01 am

Sabre wrote:Looking with my telescope, I can see dozens of sailors jumping off the antirotation ship bad Bob

No way, not convinced yet. Like Micks said I'll reserve judgement until the end of the season. If we MUCH closer than 21 points to the champions or better still win the farking thing, I'll happily state that Rafa may of got his methods right.

So as it stands I'm comfortably sitting on the 'anti-rotational' ship. I still dont quite understand how Rafa deems a CB partnership as consistent i.e when fit Agger and Carra play 95 % of the time. But elsewhere on the pitch where other partnerships are arguably and equally as important dont get the same consistency. Our strikers and CM are often rotated drasatically compared to our cb's.

After some great performances and great results I am not getting carried away with rotation, I aint that naive.

I'd put it down mostly to the likes of Gerrard finding form aswell as the ever impressive Torres producing match winning and class performances, than "freshness" and rotation. Add ontop of that Kewell coming back who also makes us look soo much dangerous. Once Kewell is fit I cant see him being rotated in and out of the side as Rafa likes, Rafa rates him and like Gerrard and Carra could find his self in the side more often than not.

RM still will be rotated I reckon, benayoun, Babael and Pennant eventually battling it out. So for me regarding rotation, the only major rotating we saw today from Rafa was the addition of Lucas who did really well. In hindsight it seemed a comfotable move with the ever ageing carthorses of Gary Speed and Campo.

Cant really add Crouch as a major rotaion, more of a sensible one as Kuyt is useless and althgough he scored a flukey goal against Newcastle, a goal that would of only gave the fella confidence, he hasnt started a game since :laugh:

Work out rotation, but even the "pro's" couldnt fathom Rafa's thinking sometimes they just agree with it.

Anyay I'm off to watch the second half, great result BTW.

by **NANNY RED** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:13 pm

redtrader74 wrote:
Scottbot wrote:
peewee wrote:we have started to play our football and not to counter the other team and we are reaping the rewards for that and playing some quality football

Really not sure sure what you mean by this mate or how how you know that is the case?

It does strike me that you have backed yourself into a corner somewhat because your attacks on Bentiez's management have been sustained, full of strong words and quite harsh (in my opinion) at times. Now that things are looking up (for what it's worth i still don't believe we will win the title) you're copping flak and don't really have anywhere to go with the criticism. I would suggest a bit of credit where it's due. We're winning football matches, some of them comfortably and the manager deserves some praise. It's not simply a case of Rafa making a mess of it before and now he's realised he was going about it all the wrong way and, HAY PRESTO!!! we're winning football games again, "told you".

If poeple really want to know why we are winning football matches again i'd say it's pretty simple.

- We look solid at the back, we're not conceding, and more importantly, not conceding the first goal.

- Our wing play has improved considerably with Kewell's return and both Yossi and Babel are playing well.

- Our best striker is fit and firing.

- Our Captain is back in the form of his life.

- Carra is back on song.

Is the manager doing anything different? Not for me, business as usual in my eyes. We're winning games because PLAYERS are PLAYING BETTER.

Exacly Scott lad good post . Only thing i disagree with is your not confident we will win the league . Were still unbeaten and still in touch with the top . As far as im concerned if we come out of the Xmas period still in touch we will win it . I think we have had our bad patch of not playing well and you know for a fact every team has one . But we are still unbeaten and that will do for me

by **stmichael** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:25 pm

Another really good display yesterday and it's good to see us putting teams to the sword that we should be beating in recent weeks. That's 21 goals in 5 games now and only 1 conceded. We also have the equal best goal difference in the League now along with Arsenal. In the past we would probably have sat back against teams like Bolton and not attacked them from the start but over the last few games we have gone at teams from the off and really put them on the back foot. Yesterday was another prime example. With a little bit more composure infront of goal, the score could have been anything.

Once again, Gerrard and Torres will quite rightly take the plaudits as both of them were superb. Gerrard, although sitting deep was passing the ball about and kept his discipline and this allowed us to dominate the midfield. That's 8 goals in 9 games for the skipper which any striker would be delighted with and long may it continue. Torres was once again top drawer. He must be a nightmare to try and defend against because he is so fast and strong its difficult to get anywhere near him. The finish for the goal was class.

Lucas is impressing me more and more everytime I see him. His passing is quality and he hardly ever gives the ball away. For me he has to stay in the team for Reading next week.

Babel showed at the end there a strikers instinct by following in a shot and whenever we were upfront he was in box. Infact I think he's turning into the new David Fairclough as he seems to score everytime he comes off the bench recently.

Onwards and upwards.

by **woof woof !** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:34 pm

A great result , could so easily have been much more than four. The team is playing significantly better. Still room for improvement though, there were a few occasions when some players were eagerly and ambitiously going for goal when a short pass to an unmarked team mate was the better option. Kewell and Benayoun in particular seemed determined to score.

by **woof woof !** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:49 pm

europian-kings wrote:slightly off topic a little but look at this messgae i just got from rafa fan1

"Listen, u fuker You may think that you're the European kings, but you're not. You're ! You were the European Kings back in the 70's/80's, but not anymore, I don't care about your fluke in 05. WE were first to enter Europe, and we were first to win the cup in 68, we are the true kings! We were the pioners, we are the most famous, we are the greatest.

17 years without a PL title...".

hmmmmm......a manc in disguise.....wat an idiot lol.......

I've asked for his account to be deleted. In the meantime if a WUM sends you a pm just disable their ability to send you any more in your messenger.

by **Judge** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:50 pm

took 4-nil at betfred

by **Gracias King Rafa** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:55 pm

At least Rafa saw the funny side of the collision between Reina & Carra :
"I think Pepe is going to kill Carra or finish his career one day"

by **account deleted by request** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:20 pm

Bamaga man wrote:
Sabre wrote:Looking with my telescope, I can see dozens of sailors jumping off the antirotation ship bad Bob

No way, not convinced yet. Like Micks said I'll reserve judgement until the end of the season. If we MUCH closer than 21 points to the champions or better still win the farking thing, I'll happily state that Rafa may of got his methods right.

So as it stands I'm comfortably sitting on the 'anti-rotational' ship. I still dont quite understand how Rafa deems a CB partnership as consistent i.e when fit Agger and Carra play 95 % of the time. But elsewhere on the pitch where other partnerships are arguably and equally as important dont get the same consistency. Our strikers and CM are often rotated drasatically compared to our cb's.

After some great performances and great results I am not getting carried away with rotation, I aint that naive.

I'd put it down mostly to the likes of Gerrard finding form aswell as the ever impressive Torres producing match winning and class performances, than "freshness" and rotation. Add ontop of that Kewell coming back who also makes us look soo much dangerous. Once Kewell is fit I cant see him being rotated in and out of the side as Rafa likes, Rafa rates him and like Gerrard and Carra could find his self in the side more often than not.

RM still will be rotated I reckon, benayoun, Babael and Pennant eventually battling it out. So for me regarding rotation, the only major rotating we saw today from Rafa was the addition of Lucas who did really well. In hindsight it seemed a comfotable move with the ever ageing carthorses of Gary Speed and Campo.

Cant really add Crouch as a major rotaion, more of a sensible one as Kuyt is useless and althgough he scored a flukey goal against Newcastle, a goal that would of only gave the fella confidence, he hasnt started a game since Work out rotation, but even the "pro's" couldnt fathom Rafa's thinking sometimes they just agree with it.

Anyay I'm off to watch the second half, great result BTW.

The centre backs along with the GK do much less running than the rest of the team. Rafa rotates players to keep them fresh, so he rotates the players that have to work the hardest and run the furthest more.

Either that, or the fact that Agger is injured and we haven't got a decent backup keeper

by **JC_81** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 5:17 pm

Great performance yesterday. As everyone will agree, Torres and Gerrard in that form are unplayable.

I think some of us are overanalyzing why we are looking so good recently. Put simply - confidence.

Rafa is still rotating and changing the formation about and it is still the same squad of players. Perhaps the only difference is that a run in the team for Torres has coincided with a sh.it-load of goals. This guy is something special. But overall, confidence is the key. Now we have it, Rafa's main job is to keep it going.

Liverpool FC Forum

LIVERPOOL VS BOLTON - build up

Who is online