Liverpool FC Forum

by **Sir Roger** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:29 am

club_Levis wrote:
jedwards wrote:???
Benitez has been talking so much about his beloved squad ( many average players), on how good it is, that to enable him to overcome the challenge from top clubs, to win the league! A squad that it is so strong in depth and competitive in all departments, that it had cost hundreds of Million pounds, large in number, big wage bills, BUT it hardly used up to its full capacity, and above all it does not depends on any particular player to carry it forward!! as always Benitez claims!, furthermore, he was not worried at all for the sell of Keane, because he has top replacements strikers to do a better job than Keane!!.

Well now we are hearing the main reason for losing top spot, it simply down to absence of Torres!!!!!!!!.

Any decent above average manager would have made arrangement for pre-season plans to have enough decent strikers to cover his NO.1 striker in case of injuries. Not in case of the clever Benitez. In summer, he went and sold Crouch, and in Mid-season he went and sold Crouch replacement in Keane. Now the whole team and the club are paying for his stupid mistakes and bad style of management, which it has deprived the club from any significant achievements for the passed three seasons, and not even this season!.

By using the same logic Rafa where would:

Chelsea be had they played most of the season with Essien and Cavarlho...

or better still Arsenal with Rosicky, Fabregas and Adebayor?

...Every team has a share of luck as well as injuries...

what a lame excuse!!!!

With respect
Bad luck can only be used as an excuse for a short while
Team selections, formations, tactics etc have a much more powerful influence on results and positions in the league
Someone said you make your own luck
If thats the case Rafa has made his.
And by the way I think we were still top of the league up until Keane was booted out?

by **GYBS** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:35 am

What has keane got to do with anything ? he is a spurs player and in his own words "he is back home"

by **bigmick** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:45 am

In fairness to the manager, this "using Torres's absense as an excuse" has been kind of siezed upon and I'm not sure it's a fair reflection on what he actually said. Yes I think he royally fecked up by selling Keane without having a viable replacement, but that's not the same thing as what's been said quite repeatedly.

In the interview which I saw a clip of, he was directly asked "do you think things might have been different if Fernando Torres had been fit all season?" Now to me there is only one answer, of course they could and would. That's essentially what the manager said in answer to the question, adding "but we can't change things now" at the end. I don't think with the greatest respect that is making an excuse, I think it's a simple statement of fact.

Also, while I think it is entirely legitimate to criticise him for selling Keane without having a replacement, to say that in five seasons he's had plenty of time to ensure players like Torres are covered is incorrect as well. Torres is quite possibly the best striker in the World today when fit, certainly in the top three I would have thought, so having a ready made step in is never going to be easy.

Yes it has badly affected us having Torres injured. Yes it has had more of an effect because we have a squad which has been IMHO not assembled with sufficient skill and judgement. No though, the manager wasn't making excuses IMHO, and also it's worth pointing out that any team would miss Torres at least a little bit.

by **Sir Roger** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:06 pm

GYBS wrote:What has keane got to do with anything ? he is a spurs player and in his own words "he is back home"

Because he used to play for us until he was unceremoniously shi.t on, and did the business last night!

But forget Keane for the moment
What about the other part of the post?

by **GYBS** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:36 pm

I forgot keane a while ago where as yourself cant seem to .

by **Sabre** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:45 pm

GYBS wrote:I forgot keane a while ago where as yourself cant seem to .

You can't blame him of that though GYBS, I remember Keane every fúcking time I see the team sheet.

It's natural to miss a quality man in your team when Torres is injured.

I would like to be as confident with Ngog playing instead of Keane, but I can't.

That said, I don't know the whole story and I won't slag Rafa for it, but when I analyse the fact that we had Keane, now we haven't and no replacement came, we are a weaker team. And that in a season that we were doing very well hurts a lot mate.

by **GYBS** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:06 pm

The thing is we had keane and was in the team plenty of times and 80% of that time he didnt deliver . He was nowhere near a quality replacement for Torres.

by **oreilly** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:53 pm

The thing is we had keane and was in the team plenty of times and 80% of that time he didnt deliver . He was nowhere near a quality replacement for Torres.

And Ngog is

? Ngog could only dream of becoming half the player Keane is...... Keane is quality, he needs a manager who trusts him and plays to his strengths........Our game is built around Torres.....I find it amazing to think how our master tactician couldn't get the most out of Robbie Keane, who over the last few years consistently produced.

Even if Benitez didnt want Keane, he bit his noise off despite his face. And WE all paid the price.

by **Rockthekop** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:54 pm

Who needs Keane, Rafa knows what he's doing.

We have two of the Prem best strikers, Kuyt and N`Gog

by **oreilly** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:59 pm

For years Iv watched post match talks between ex players and panelists.....Iv felt dejected because we might have won the game .... but we would still be slagged off.

One panelist recently ( wont name who he is cause his reputation alone would discredit my post ) said his son was a liverpool fan, he admired and loved how liverpool used to play football. Argued that if a player like arbeloa, ngog, kuyt , pennant etc could play for such a great team such as us it was a shame. For godsake, Id prefer to watch a local lad play instead of the average players like Lucas Pezzina Levia.......seems you get on the team sheet if you have a nice exotic name........Benitez cant spot talent. Yet is capable of destroying Talent, classic example Robbie Keane

I will be the happiest lad in the world if Benitez did prove me wrong and win us that epl next year but I dont see it happening.

by **GYBS** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:01 pm

Maybe those local lads just arent good enough .

by **dawson99** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:03 pm

oreilly wrote:
The thing is we had keane and was in the team plenty of times and 80% of that time he didnt deliver . He was nowhere near a quality replacement for Torres.

And Ngog is ? Ngog could only dream of becoming half the player Keane is...... Keane is quality, he needs a manager who trusts him and plays to his strengths........Our game is built around Torres.....I find it amazing to think how our master tactician couldn't get the most out of Robbie Keane, who over the last few years consistently produced.

Even if Benitez didnt want Keane, he bit his noise off despite his face. And WE all paid the price.

maybe he sodl him so we wouldnt pay the price, as if we sold him in the summer we would have had to pay spurs the full amount and wouldnt have got half of it back

by **oreilly** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:03 pm

Granted, but is lucas, pennant, arbeloa, kuyt

Im not from Liverpool ( WISH I WAS ) so i don't have a bias view........ but at least the locals would try their heart out ( in theory) to beat middlesborugh considering they grew up so close to manchester and realised that UTD are going to equal our record of titles!

by **Bad Bob** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:06 pm

dawson99 wrote:
oreilly wrote:
The thing is we had keane and was in the team plenty of times and 80% of that time he didnt deliver . He was nowhere near a quality replacement for Torres.

And Ngog is ? Ngog could only dream of becoming half the player Keane is...... Keane is quality, he needs a manager who trusts him and plays to his strengths........Our game is built around Torres.....I find it amazing to think how our master tactician couldn't get the most out of Robbie Keane, who over the last few years consistently produced.

Even if Benitez didnt want Keane, he bit his noise off despite his face. And WE all paid the price.

maybe he sodl him so we wouldnt pay the price, as if we sold him in the summer we would have had to pay spurs the full amount and wouldnt have got half of it back

Maybe putting transfer fee concerns ahead of footballing concerns in the midst of a title challenge is still incredibly poor policy?

by **oreilly** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:07 pm

maybe he sodl him so we wouldnt pay the price, as if we sold him in the summer we would have had to pay spurs the full amount and wouldnt have got half of it back

Keane is a 8 out of 10 player. Maybe not a Torres or Gerrard. He certaintly deserved to be given a chance and people should have played to his strength, Rafa's arrogance and stubborn attitude towards forbidding any player to play with their natural flair as opposed to his maths of football is ruining liverpools rep worldwide, no neutral likes to watch us!

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