Liverpool FC Forum

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:03 pm**

bunglemark2 wrote:
Dundalk wrote:
TomG wrote:By the way, it seems Benfica´s goalkeeper is heading for the hospital with a serious injury on the head...

Sorry to hear that Tom

From Dirkie boy falling on him ?

Apparently.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:05 pm**

john craig wrote:
bunglemark2 wrote:
Dundalk wrote:
TomG wrote:By the way, it seems Benfica´s goalkeeper is heading for the hospital with a serious injury on the head...

Sorry to hear that Tom

From Dirkie boy falling on him ?

Aye, Dirk's @rse squashed his face.

It was a.rse to head ,

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:07 pm**

TomG wrote:
bunglemark2 wrote:
Dundalk wrote:
TomG wrote:By the way, it seems Benfica´s goalkeeper is heading for the hospital with a serious injury on the head...

Sorry to hear that Tom

From Dirkie boy falling on him ?

Apparently.

Hope he makes a full recovery. How long do you reckon you will hold onto Di Maria for mate? He looks like a promising player.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:09 pm**

I just hopethis result and performance has a similar effect as the 4-0 against Madrid last season. We just need to win every game till the end of the season now.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:09 pm**

Kharhaz wrote:
Igor Zidane wrote:Sh!te that . Thought Benitez got it wrong with there goal . He's obviously not training them properley in the art of defending free kicks with a wall . Silly fool , clueless . Made up the yanks were here aswell to see how sh!te he is as a manager , will hopefully extend his contract so he can keep deflecting the attention away from them .

When rafa wants to win a game, the team go out with the intention of winning that game. It showed tonight. And a good few times, when rafa has the sole intention of winning games you can see it thorughout the team. However, on so so many occasions, especially in the premiership he is happy with a draw. For so long all we have asked is that rafa makes a go of it in the premiership, but always european football is his priority. Sacrificing 2 points in premier league game to ensure players are fit for europe. This is why rafa frustrates people. Especially me. The performance tonight shows we can play well, it shows as a team we can attack and make the opposition look average. But the difference is attitude from rafa.

Sarcasm works if its directed correctly. Despite the birmingham result im pretty sure over 90% of supporters expected us to do well tonight, considering the laws of averages in which rafa has created for himself.

What I would say is that we don't win every game where we go out all guns blazing. Spurs and Villa both beat us at the start of the season when we were clearly commiting too many forward, especially the Villa game. Basically we don't have enough quality going forward to play like that every week and win major trophies, plenty of teams would pick us off if we tried. Ultimately it comes down to quality.

Fair play to us tonight though, you have to say Benitez got the tactics right on the night and at times we were awesome, that third goal was special, as was Torres' finish for the fourth.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:12 pm**

Kharhaz wrote:
Igor Zidane wrote:Sh!te that . Thought Benitez got it wrong with there goal . He's obviously not training them properley in the art of defending free kicks with a wall . Silly fool , clueless . Made up the yanks were here aswell to see how sh!te he is as a manager , will hopefully extend his contract so he can keep deflecting the attention away from them .

When rafa wants to win a game, the team go out with the intention of winning that game. It showed tonight. And a good few times, when rafa has the sole intention of winning games you can see it thorughout the team. However, on so so many occasions, especially in the premiership he is happy with a draw. For so long all we have asked is that rafa makes a go of it in the premiership, but always european football is his priority. Sacrificing 2 points in premier league game to ensure players are fit for europe. This is why rafa frustrates people. Especially me. The performance tonight shows we can play well, it shows as a team we can attack and make the opposition look average. But the difference is attitude from rafa.

Sarcasm works if its directed correctly. Despite the birmingham result im pretty sure over 90% of supporters expected us to do well tonight, considering the laws of averages in which rafa has created for himself.

Are you seriously telling me that Rafa tells the team not to win or to it put more accuratley not to lose . He puts the team out there ,so it is then up to the team to perform . Now that team (not Rafa) should get all the plaudits coming to them for that performance . Just like that team(not just Rafa) should shoulder the critisism for some of the sh!te they've played this season .

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:13 pm**

Double post soz.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:23 pm**

Spot on, he got the job done tonight so he deserves some credit.

Cheer up lads, utd out and we are still in Europe with a good chance of winning this.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:25 pm**

s@int wrote:I just hopethis result and performance has a similar effect as the 4-0 against Madrid last season. We just need to win every game till the end of the season now.

That's what I was thinking too S@int.

The difference in attack of the team tonight was amazing. The movement on the breaks were very fluid at times.

If Liverpool can harness that and use it in their remaining games, then thet're still in with a shout for 4th.

Why Benitez didn't let them play like that for the whole season, I can only wonder.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:35 pm**

Cracking performance tonight from the lads. A typical Rafa performance in Europe, we pressed the ball all over the pitch, played to a good tempo and we were absolutely fantastic on the break, real economy football with 2/3 passes then GOAL!

Vital we got though so far as our league hopes go as well i think because there was a real danger the wind would have completely gone out of our sails for the run-in had the boys lost tonight. The fact they could all be playing for a spot in a European final should have everyone fully up for the last 5 games.

How much more solid did we looked with Agger at Left Back?

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:38 pm**

Igor Zidane wrote:Are you seriously telling me that Rafa tells the team not to win or to it put more accuratley not to lose . He puts the team out there ,so it is then up to the team to perform . Now that team (not Rafa) should get all the plaudits coming to them for that performance . Just like that team(not just Rafa) should shoulder the critisism for some of the sh!te they've played this season .

I have no doubt that in the premier league, in many matches away from home his priority is a clean sheet. Keep it tight at the back. A draw is ok a win better. The best way I can look at it is, take the birmingham result. We were all pretty miffed, but post match looking on the BBC web site with rafas video interview he looked happy, satisfied. So yes he does set out "not to lose".

Also this season I have blamed the players. A couple of games rafa has picked a good strong lineup and the players havent performed.

When the players get there confidence back and start playing well, rafa changes the players again and resets the whole thing.

Some sort of consistency from rafa would be a start. Rafa has to put the league as his priority. He hasnt done that. United are close to overtaking us so this season, based also on the fact we gave a good ending to last season, I expected us to make a fight of it this season. We havent. Yes bad luck and under par performances from the players havent helped, but also, when the players do hit form, dropping them hasnt helped either. Benayoun and Babel are prime examples.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:38 pm**

Scottbot wrote:How much more solid did we looked with Agger at Left Back?

Agree all, but Insua gets forward more tha Agger did tonight which leaves those gaps behind him.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:41 pm**

Kharhaz wrote:
Igor Zidane wrote:Are you seriously telling me that Rafa tells the team not to win or to it put more accuratley not to lose . He puts the team out there ,so it is then up to the team to perform . Now that team (not Rafa) should get all the plaudits coming to them for that performance . Just like that team(not just Rafa) should shoulder the critisism for some of the sh!te they've played this season .

I have no doubt that in the premier league, in many matches away from home his priority is a clean sheet. Keep it tight at the back. A draw is ok a win better. The best way I can look at it is, take the birmingham result. We were all pretty miffed, but post match looking on the BBC web site with rafas video interview he looked happy, satisfied. So yes he does set out "not to lose".

Also this season I have blamed the players. A couple of games rafa has picked a good strong lineup and the players havent performed.

When the players get there confidence back and start playing well, rafa changes the players again and resets the whole thing.

Some sort of consistency from rafa would be a start. Rafa has to put the league as his priority. He hasnt done that. United are close to overtaking us so this season, based also on the fact we gave a good ending to last season, I expected us to make a fight of it this season. We havent. Yes bad luck and under par performances from the players havent helped, but also, when the players do hit form, dropping them hasnt helped either. Benayoun and Babel are prime examples.

I thought the rotation thing was over , ask BIGMICK he say's it is . When did he drop Benayoun and Babel when they were playing well ?

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:45 pm**

Igor Zidane wrote:When did he drop Benayoun and Babel when they were playing well ?

During the season. Benayoun played well for a few games, scored a couple of goals then was on the bench. Then Babel. Played a few games, found some kind of form and same again. Just read through each match thread this season. Questions are constantly asked. Is <add player here> injured?

It makes no sense as to why he does it. As most of the time they are not injured, just rafa tinkering.

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:52 pm**

I think Rafa's approach to many games is one of don't take any chances, don't make any mistakes and hopefully we will get a goal and keep a clean sheet. Against the "big" sides I think this works quite well as they come out and allow us to hit them on the counter, against "small" teams who are quite happy to sit back for the draw, we often struggle as the players aren't adventurous enough to force the game. Certainly in Europe it works a treat, but in the League we often look stilted and lack fluency as its pretty rare that we get behind teams as they sit deeper.

Tonight I thought we got the balance pretty much spot on, although we still have problems playing the ball out of defense the higher line playing at home gives us more chance of winning the second ball when we hoof it, than when we just sit back. Which is why imo we have problems away from home.

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