Liverpool FC Forum

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:redblood he doesn't like the fact that my wealth of football knowledge is constantly proven right.

start of the season I said "we'll never win league under Benitez"

recently in the match threads near enough everything I've predicted is coming true. Even the Barnsley game...I said we have to be professional about this because it's not going to be a walk over. Plus he believes everything he hears and reads.

well i dont want to get into a whos got the bigger d.ick debate    but as for we will never win the league under rafa! so far so good for your prediction BUT there is still time for you to be wrong my friend.. and im sure you hope you are 

LFC2007 wrote:

RedBlood wrote:LFC2007 i might be wrong but im not sure you get on with GBJH??

He is the definition of an idiot, unfortunately.

Henpecking him wont work!

His posts are like dirty art
Leave the kid alone!!!

Number 9 wrote:

LFC2007 wrote:

RedBlood wrote:LFC2007 i might be wrong but im not sure you get on with GBJH??

He is the definition of an idiot, unfortunately.

Henpecking him wont work!

His posts are like dirty art
Leave the kid alone!!!

RedBlood wrote:

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:redblood he doesn't like the fact that my wealth of football knowledge is constantly proven right.

start of the season I said "we'll never win league under Benitez"

recently in the match threads near enough everything I've predicted is coming true. Even the Barnsley game...I said we have to be professional about this because it's not going to be a walk over. Plus he believes everything he hears and reads.

well i dont want to get into a whos got the bigger d.ick debate    but as for we will never win the league under rafa! so far so good for your prediction BUT there is still time for you to be wrong my friend.. and im sure you hope you are 

bigmick wrote:WARNING-SCROLL DOWN. THIS IS QUITE A LONG POST!!!



This one has been doing the rounds for a couple of days now and it's stirred up quite a lot of emotion. On the one hand, people who I suppose can't reconcile how we keep going quite well in Europe but can't seem to get it together in the league, are starting to think that perhaps we aren't giving it our all domestically. On the other, people dismiss the theory as total b0ll0cks, we do try our best it's just circumstances or lack of quality or other reasons which have contributed to our relative failure.

I think we do try to win the league, Rafa does want to win the league. I think he wants to win every competition we enter, even including the Carling Cup. Those who suggest that saying otherwise is ridiculous are in this most basic sense, correct.

Surely though, the issue here is priority. Now if we were to reach the FA Cup final and the Champions League final in the same season, I remember from when we used to actually do stuff like that there's only a few days in between the matches. Now if Rafa was going to style/rotate/rest in either of the games, I would have thought it would be fairly sensible to do so in the FA Cup final. My suspicion is FWIW that he would probably play the same team in both games anyway, but you take my point. I don't think too many people on here would have any bother with that. Similarly, if we reached the Carling Cup final and the FA Cup final, if Lee Peltier was going to get a game in either, it'd be the Carling Cup all the way.


So no problems so far. We can conclude from that that the FA Cup is third in our priorities, the Carling Cup fourth. Some might say the Carling Cup is an irrelevance, but it isn't if you're out of everything else and get to the semi's. The crux of course is which one out of the Champions League and the Premiership is the number one priority.

My suspicion is, infact I'd be absolutely staggered if it wasn't the case, that Rafa thinks we have got more chance of winning the Champions league than we have the Premiership. Why? Because it is so, and Rafa isn't an idiot. Not only is it easier to win, but because it's a Cup competition even if you don't win it you can end up looking quite good (last year for example) and even if you feck it up a bit (the year we got done by Benfica) people forget about it fairly quickly.

Given we qualify practically automatically, we really only need to get out of the group for people to think "well that wasn't too bad". Getting out of the group is a bit like getting out of bed after a night on the p!ss, not always straightforward and potentially a bit of a pain in the erse, but you always seem to manage it in the end. Then you've got a two legger in the last sixteen with Twenty Enscheden, Dukla Prague, Lokomotiv Leipzig, Legia Warsaw, Red Star Belgrade, Nice (which of course is pronounced Neece which is just as well as it sounds cooler and there is no long term future in a football team named after a biscuit), Trabzonspor, IFK Gothenburg, Anderlecht or one of those outfits. (In truth the only reason I put that last bit was to give a mention to Locomotiv Leipzig, I always liked that name). Anyway it's one of those teams which before the advent of digital television you'd have had to listen to the Away leg on the radio and it would have sounded like the commentator was doing it through a telephone, with a piece of Town Centre public toilet bog roll over the mouthpiece. Having got past all that it's all up and anything could happen. Added in you've got the "Anfield factor", so once we get to the point where we're playing someone good, or we've fecked it up against someone rubbish and we really could do with winning a game, the crowd turn up and suck it into the net. Job done. 


In the League of course it's not so complicated, but not so simple either. You can't really slip under the radar in the league, if you ain't good enough you get shot down. Rafa thinks our best chance of winning a major trophy (discounting the domestic Cups) is the Champions league, and I agree with him. 'Course it's imperative that we come in the top four in the league, but as John says, first is everything and second is something else (or whatever the feck it is).

So do we prioritise the Champions League in terms of team selection and preparation? I think we slightly do yes if I'm honest. I think if Rafa knew from the owners and fans that we would be more than happy to forgive him a Champions league debacle (which would probably be not getting out of the group I guess) in return for a proper tilt at the league, then his team selections would be different. Put it this way, when he was resting blokes after six games this season it certainly as it turned out hasn't done an awaful lot for our league run in. I suppose charitably if you believe and sign up to "delayed gazelle" you might say it's going to help us finish six points and not three in front of Everton, but it's in the Champions League where if there is any benefit (and there isn't frankly so don't hold your breath:D) that we're most likely to see it.

So there you go. My conclusion, the Champions League is his number one priority, but I don't really blame him as that's our best chance of winning a big trophy. Next season though, I hope he is prepared to put our Champions League hopes in jeapordy in order to get as high as possible in the League.


*If you continued reading to this point and you are bored, you are an idiot. Not because it's a particularly good read, but because you should just have stopped reading it earlier on.

i know its early but........................

RedBlood wrote:

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:redblood he doesn't like the fact that my wealth of football knowledge is constantly proven right.

start of the season I said "we'll never win league under Benitez"

recently in the match threads near enough everything I've predicted is coming true. Even the Barnsley game...I said we have to be professional about this because it's not going to be a walk over. Plus he believes everything he hears and reads.

well i dont want to get into a whos got the bigger d.ick debate    but as for we will never win the league under rafa! so far so good for your prediction BUT there is still time for you to be wrong my friend.. and im sure you hope you are