Liverpool FC Forum

by **simolonge** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 12:59 pm

on rafael Benitez's apparent suicidal decision not to bring in a replacement for Robbie Keane that we where apparently desperate for.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we aint done all that bad since.

I would argue his sale has resulted in more plyers playing better.

The decision to get £15m for the player looks like a masterstroke.

by **Festy** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:03 pm

How can you call it a 'suicidal decision' when you can't think of any negatives in it ? Poor post that. :angry:

by **Dundalk** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:14 pm

I think he meant that at the time everyone reckoned it was a bad move and would result it coming back to bite him.

Keane didn't fit into the team the way it was laid out and it was best for all that he moved on. The Gerrard Torres partnership has worked really well and we have cored a lot of goals but we need to sign another forward if only for backup because I don't think Ngog is good enough - yet

by **Festy** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:28 pm

Alonso's poor form last season influenced Rafa's decision to buy Robbie at first place imo. I reckon Rafa was considering dropping Gerrard back in the midfield with Mascha and playing Robbie in the hole to partner Torres. But things didn't go that way. Alonso got his form back, Robbie never was in any kind of form and Gerrard - Torres partnership took a (or many) step forward. Hence Robbie became useless and was sold as quickly as possible due to his age and price we paid. We would never have got 15M if we kept Robbie for whole season with his poor form.

by **Owzat** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:40 pm

Well we can't possibly judge what difference a quality striker might have made had Rafa signed him in January because he didn't. We have had a good run of results since Keane left, but who knows if a striker of quality on the bench mightn't have made a difference in the citeh or boro games in which we scored just one goal and won neither.

I am fairly confident in believing most fans on here had reservations about signing Keane in the first place, 28 years old and the price tag was silly money. I think the feelings were more mixed in the relevant thread(s) when he was being sold, plenty repeatedly stated they thought he would come good, his confidence was dented by Rafa's use of him* etc, but this is fairly old news and been done already

*do we really want a striker who relies heavily on confidence and his confidence is so easily knocked?

by **heimdall** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:44 pm

Lets remember that in all likelihood January was the month we lost the prem and that was the month of the rant against Whiskey nose and the whole Keane debacle, how on earth can it be called a master stroke to leave yourself in a position where you are completely reliant on one player (who has had an injury plagued season), Torres. :no

Although Rafa has been everything right lately, and earning praise even from me, I'm still extremely :censored:

off with him for hitting the self destruct button in January. :angry:

by **simolonge** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:51 pm

heimdall wrote:Lets remember that in all likelihood January was the month we lost the prem and that was the month of the rant against Whiskey nose and the whole Keane debacle, how on earth can it be called a master stroke to leave yourself in a position where you are completely reliant on one player (who has had an injury plagued season), Torres.

Although Rafa has been everything right lately, and earning praise even from me, I'm still extremely off with him for hitting the self destruct button in January.

Dont take this the wrong way mate, but where the funk are you from ?

by **heimdall** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:53 pm

simolonge wrote:
heimdall wrote:Lets remember that in all likelihood January was the month we lost the prem and that was the month of the rant against Whiskey nose and the whole Keane debacle, how on earth can it be called a master stroke to leave yourself in a position where you are completely reliant on one player (who has had an injury plagued season), Torres.

Although Rafa has been everything right lately, and earning praise even from me, I'm still extremely off with him for hitting the self destruct button in January.

Dont take this the wrong way mate, but where the funk are you from ?

Can't see the relevance but I'm a Norwegian who has grown up in the UK.

by **tonyeh** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:08 pm

There was no "masterstroke" in selling Keane. There was no "masterstroke" in how Keane was managed when he was here either.

And your argument that "...his sale has resulted in more plyers playing better" is completely without merit.

Liverpool are "playing better", because they've gone into a more attacking style of play, with far more support from the midfield area. I said this after the Madrid and Utd wins. They look a different team from the draws against minnows earlier in the season, where the midfield were simply hoofing the ball up to our lone striker and hoping for the best outcome. Now, we are attacking as a team, following through on the ball and it's paying off with goals.

It seems that Benitez has reeled in his ultra-cautious, conservative approach and allowed the lads to attack all out. Even our fullbacks are getting up the field now.

Jamie even had a pop at goal the other night, if I remember rightly.

The problem, however, is that Liverpool are forgetting to defend too.

I like the more attacking style Liverpool have adopted, I've been moaning about it since early in the season. But I'd instruct the back four to stay where they are and watch for the counter...something they just didn't do on Tuesday night.

No, getting rid of Keane hasn't "helped" Liverpool one iota.

Our change in playing style has.

by **akumaface** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:15 pm

I didn't think Keane made any difference at all TBH. He wasn't what we needed to begin with. The only thing that makes me feel better is Berbatov had cost more to Man Scum but score less.

Keane didn't have much impact when he was here (maybe couple games) and can't see the direct link with our players playing better. True that some other players like Beni got more time but it was because he had played better and thus resulted in Rafa having more trust in him. As for Ngog, i think he still need times but he had shown better quality than the beginning of the season. He had shown some burst of speed that I didn't know he has. His touch also improving. Just hope Rafa will bring him along nicely. Anyway, it is difficult to say if this hypothesis is true or not but psychological, the elimination of the Keane distraction might have helped.

by **DrPepe** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:15 pm

tonyeh wrote:There was no "masterstroke" in selling Keane. There was no "masterstroke" in how Keane was managed when he was here either.

And your argument that "...his sale has resulted in more plyers playing better" is completely without merit.

Liverpool are "playing better", because they've gone into a more attacking style of play, with far more support from the midfield area. I said this after the Madrid and Utd wins. They look a different team from the draws against minnows earlier in the season, where the midfield were simply hoofing the ball up to our lone striker and hoping for the best outcome. Now, we are attacking as a team, following through on the ball and it's paying off with goals.

It seems that Benitez has reeled in his ultra-cautious, conservative approach and allowed the lads to attack all out. Even our fullbacks are getting up the field now.

Jamie even had a pop at goal the other night, if I remember rightly.

The problem, however, is that Liverpool are forgetting to defend too.

I like the more attacking style Liverpool have adopted, I've been moaning about it since early in the season. But I'd instruct the back four to stay where they are and watch for the counter...something they just didn't do on Tuesday night.

No, getting rid of Keane hasn't "helped" Liverpool one iota.

Our change in playing style has.

getting rid of keane stopped the disruptive media storm dead in it's tracks - in that sense it was a "masterstroke"

But I'd instruct the back four to stay where they are and watch for the counter...something they just didn't do on Tuesday night.

i'm not sure this is how a football team functions though - if you want to press and attack a team you need to get morie bodies forward.

3 out of 4 goals were caused by sloppy individual mistakes

the only goal that came from not having enough people in defense was their counter from a corner. For sure the balance was wrong for that goal, but would you suggest we kept our back 4 in defence for that set - piece . we had to take a risk because we wanted to win the game.

by **only me** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:40 pm

heimdall wrote:Lets remember that in all likelihood January was the month we lost the prem and that was the month of the rant against Whiskey nose and the whole Keane debacle, how on earth can it be called a master stroke to leave yourself in a position where you are completely reliant on one player (who has had an injury plagued season), Torres.

Although Rafa has been everything right lately, and earning praise even from me, I'm still extremely off with him for hitting the self destruct button in January.

excellent post - the decision to do nothing on January was a terrible one - he couldn't have known we would have a superb spell of wins but he did know he was settling for a short tight lineup - he was afraid to take that leap by going for more quality players.

Rafa players selection skills are par at best - i insist he needs someone at his side that will focuse on talent scouting and players pick for the next years.

by **burjennio** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:41 pm

back 4 has to move in relation to the shape of the team! Im not having a pop but Im assuming you havnt played too many competitive football matches before, A team has to push up and down the pitch as a unit, whether its attacking or defending, if you dont you'd leave huge gaps of open field for the opposition to exploit and if they are of any standard your side would get creamed.

by **GYBS** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:46 pm

Keane arrived in august - contributed to a minimal level when we were grinding out results but not playing that well - but we had constant negative media about him and rafa on a daily basis - he left to go "home" in his words and since then we have carried on as if he was never here . Him arriving contributed nothing of anything note worthy and him leaving has done the same . Its as if keane was never here and no one in the club is complaining about him keane but keane himself threw a fair amount of teddies out of the cot for a player who was and never has been worth 10 mil let alone ten mil . In a footballing sense buying keane was a poor signing and getting rid of him quick and early was a good desicion .

by **tonyeh** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:07 pm

burjennio wrote:back 4 has to move in relation to the shape of the team! Im not having a pop but Im assuming you havnt played too many competitive football matches before, A team has to push up and down the pitch as a unit, whether its attacking or defending, if you dont you'd leave huge gaps of open field for the opposition to exploit and if they are of any standard your side would get creamed.

I'm not suggesting they stay rooted to the spot. Of course they have to move with the attack.

But we were caught seriously off guard the other night and Pepe had nobody in front of him.

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