Brilliant Rafa Quote Re: Everton

[Depth_Charge]

Everton - they are a small club with a small club mentality. They suffocated the game and were happy to do so - their performance reminded me of everything that was bad about us when Ged was nearing the end of his reign. Dreadfully negative football - it's difficult to score against teams that play that way - you need a bit of luck sometimes to open the game up, we didn't get it.

Releasing a video of their 3-0 win against us says it all. Everything that's been said since Rafa's comment has just cemented the fact that they even think of themselves as a small club - Rafa hit a nerve and truth hurts...

Even if he didn't mean it as a direct slur on Everton, I prefer to think that he knew what he was saying.

[FatTony]

A big club sells shirts worldwide. A big club has a significant international fanbase, members of which turn up in numbers to home games from all corners of the planet.

Success is not necessarily a key to being a big club, but of course it helps. LFC is a significant sporting name worldwide, something which has been compounded with a huge amount of success this century, as well as last.

There are very few clubs that have significant support to any extent around the world, these being Real Madrid, Barca, Man Utd, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Inter, AC Milan and of course Liverpool.

They say most LFC fans at Anfield are not from Liverpool, a nonsense, however there are a percentage that have travelled from all over the world to see their beloved reds. Everton fans say this, yet complain when Benitez declares them a smaller club. An international fanbase makes a club big, as much as money and success.

If Everton want to be a big club, they need to win something (1995 was a long time ago), they need to embrace fans from around the country and the world, you cannot be a big club when the fanbase is from a small catchment area. They need to turn up at places like Anfield and move outside of their goal area (a tactic adopted by small visiting clubs). Everton had injuries, as too did LFC(Kewell, Sissoko and Garcia) but a big club has a big squad, and a big club should never use injuries as an excuse (Jose has something to learn there).

Everton are not a big club, not these days. It seems the truth hurts.

[Dhav]

Everton - they are a small club with a small club mentality. They suffocated the game and were happy to do so - their performance reminded me of everything that was bad about us when Ged was nearing the end of his reign. Dreadfully negative football - it's difficult to score against teams that play that way - you need a bit of luck sometimes to open the game up, we didn't get it.

Releasing a video of their 3-0 win against us says it all. Everything that's been said since Rafa's comment has just cemented the fact that they even think of themselves as a small club - Rafa hit a nerve and truth hurts...

Even if he didn't mean it as a direct slur on Everton, I prefer to think that he knew what he was saying.

Mate, what have they been saying since Rafa came out with his comments? It's been a variation on the same theme - namely that they are not a small club becasue they got 4 points off us. Proof positive that the only thing that they're bothered about is beating us. Forget European qualification, forget winning trophies, 4 points off Liverpool is a good season. What ambition from a supposed "big club".

Even this "People's Club" nonsense that they revel in is affirmation of their status as a small club. They're just too thick to realise it.

[Shaggy]

This the Bitters' match report in the Echo....:whatever:

You couldn't make it up. This Dominic King sounds like a right c**t.

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0400evertonfc/tm_headline=liverpool-0%2D-everton-0-%2Decho%2D%26method=full%26objectid=18577738%26page=1%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

LISTEN . . . Can you hear that? Somewhere across the other side of Stanley Park today, the sound of toys being thrown out of a pram are still clearly audible.

But while Rafael Benitez tries to regain his composure after stamping his feet like a spoilt toddler that naughty Everton did not lie down and let Liverpool win, do not expect to detect the noise of champagne corks still popping inside Goodison Park.

Of course, taking a point from the 205th round of English football's oldest local squabble was a superb achievement for David Moyes and his players. Yet it is not the be all and end all of a campaign that continues to grow in promise. Far from it.

If the Blues were to call time on the season now and feel they had done enough by winning once and drawing once with their local rivals, Benitez's ludicrous claim that Everton are a "small team" might have the slightest shred of credibility.


Small team? How many clubs would pay double a king's ransom to have nine league titles, five FA cups and a European Cup Winners' Cup proudly displayed on their list of honours? Three-quarters of the Premiership, and many more besides.


Anyone thinking that Everton will now put their feet up and relax will be as misguided as the tantrum-throwing Spaniard, who would do well to concentrate on the failings of his own players rather than pick holes in the tactics of the opposition.


For Everton, this is where the season must really start to take shape. Had Liverpool run riot as they threatened to in the first 10 minutes, it might have been hard to bounce back from a demoralising defeat soon after a calamitous exit from the FA Cup.


Now, surely, Everton must have the confidence and belief to build on a display that was crammed with spirit and tenacity by mounting a sustained challenge on the top six. A place in next year's UEFA Cup is certainly attainable for this group.


Some may quibble that Moyes lacks strength in depth, meaning Everton will be undone by a shortage of bodies on the run-in. But, for the first time all year, the squad is nearly at full strength - only James McFadden is significantly injured.


Added to that, there is a determination in the ranks to ensure the platform they have given themselves is not wasted. After all, what would be the use of holding Liverpool if they fail to follow up against Blackburn Rovers next Saturday?

Last year, Everton's ambitions unravelled in spectacular fashion when they lost at Anfield on March 25 and won only one of their final seven games, while four matches passed without a victory following September's drubbing at Goodison Park.

Take a look at the fixtures on the horizon now and the Toffees could not wish for a better opportunity to press on. Blackburn, Watford and Sheffield United are on the agenda - games where maximum points must be the only thing on the agenda.

Moyes must know, though, his squad could not be in much better heart. Once they had weathered the early storm, the defence only had to deal with a succession of balls hoisted to the ineffective Peter Crouch.

So, for a defender with more than a decade of experience in the top flight under his belt, this played right into the hands of the outstanding Alan Stubbs, who marshalled Everton's rearguard with tremendous authority.

Not for the first time since returning 'home' last January, this teak-tough son of Kirkby didn't put a foot wrong. Every challenge was made with precision timing, no passes were wasted and he was never threatened by Craig Bellamy's searing pace.

Alongside him, it was no surprise to see Joseph Yobo enjoy his best performance of the season. When he has an experienced head alongside him, he exudes class and moves effortlessly through the gears. This led to Bellamy's impact being negligible.

Then there was Joleon Lescott. It is difficult to keep finding new ways of praising this 24-year-old, so perhaps the highest endorsement he can be given is that he will fulfil David Weir's claim of becoming an Everton great if he maintains this progress.


Whether asked to play in the centre or at left-back, it doesn't make the slightest difference to Lescott. Jermaine Pennant was the latest right winger to find the door to opportunities down this flank slammed shut.


A word, too, for Tony Hibbert and Tim Howard, both of whom played their parts. Hibbert's display, in particular,was all the moremeritorious considering it was his first taste of top flight combat in 16weeks.


With so many playing so well, it should come as no surprise that Everton have the fifth best defensive record - they have conceded just 23 in 25 matches - in the Premiership. Howard, meanwhile, has kept five clean sheets in his last seven matches.


Don't be fooled, however, into thinking this was simply a rearguard action.

It was to be expected that Liverpool would have more possession, but they hardly did much with it thanks to the breathless efforts of the midfield.

Everton, on the other hand, had the best chance of the game - if only Andrew Johnson had managed a session in front of goal at Bellefield in the run-up to the game, while they could have been two up in the first half had Leon Osman and Hibbert not directed excellent openings straight at Pepe Reina.

The foundations are in place to see Everton become an established member of the top six once again, as few could dispute there is an outstanding spine to the team or disagree with Moyes' statement that he has "four, five, six players" who would not look out of place in the top four sides.

With the right investment in personnel over the summer,the next stepwill be so much easier to take and ensure the days of shuffling around in mid-table are banished

Now, if DIC are looking for a club with a proud history and potential in which to invest ...

[Neil Young]

All of the Top 4 will have games this season where they drop points in performances like this.

"When you are a top side, when you have genuine title ambitions, then you must win the games that matter, and this one mattered more than most."

That can be applied to any game you don't win - 2 weeks ago, 'to have genuine title ambitions', we had to beat the another Big 3 team; We did that, and now it's games like this. It's a truism that to have title ambitions you have to not drop points, and our Home record is still that of a team with 'genuine title ambitions', even if our Away one isn't.

Well said. Some people feel they just have to say something, anything, that all too often passes for an insight but upon the most cursory investigation usually turns out to be either asinine, banal or both.

I'm thinking about journalists and "experts" but I suppose it applies to others too.

[The Glove]

How does the song go? 'We dont care what the red ****e say'? Proven liars as well now then.

[Neil Young]

How does the song go? 'We dont care what the red ****e say'? Proven liars as well now then.

Short and to the point as always.

[Beachy]

TEAMtalk's James Marshment explains why Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez was spot-on in his assessment of Everton as a 'small team' this weekend.

Rafa Benitez has caused something of a stir this weekend by calling Everton a 'small team'.

So why all the fuss? Benitez is only stating what everyone in football, (minus deluded Everton supporters) already knows to be the truth.

Everton have long lived in the shadow of their more illustrious rivals, bar for their golden era of the 1980s under Howard Kendall when they had, admittedly, as good a club side this country has seen in modern times.

Even then though, their League championship triumphs in 1985 and 1987 and their European Cup Winners Cup triumph in 1985 were probably overshadowed by Liverpool's Double in 1986.

But Kevin Ratcliffe, Neville Southall and Co are now long forgotten and David Moyes' current class of 2007 are just not in the same league as either their predecessors or Rafa's Reds.

True, Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta are a touch of class on their day and it surely won't be too long before some of Europe's big guns come calling for these two supremely-talented midfielders.

And if there is a more suited player in the English game to assume Paul Scholes' eventual mantle at Manchester United than Cahill, then I have yet to see him...

But let's not wander too far away from the fact of the matter here: Everton are the second-best team in Liverpool so therefore as a 'small-minded' (if not a 'small') club, would regard a point at Anfield as a great result. That, coupled together with a 3-0 victory over the Reds back in September, probably means that for Everton supporters, the 2006/07 campaign will be regarded as a successful season.

Everton fans might count Benitez's comments as that of a bitter manager, frustrated by his side's inability to crack a defence expertly marshalled by Alan Stubbs, Joseph Yobo and the ever-improving Joleon Lescott.

And whilst there is an element of truth in that assessment, you can't help but admiring Benitez's honesty in stating what all football fans were thinking. No-one wants to watch a side sticking 10 men behind the ball and showing no ambition to gain anything more than a dreary point. Everton went to Anfield with 'small ideas', 'small-minded tactics' that befit everything associated with a 'small team' with a 'small mentality'.

So was Benitez wrong to say what he did? No, because it was the truth. The fact that he touched a nerve in every bitter Everton supporter nationwide is not his fault.

I mean, it must be hard being an Evertonian. No-one wants to watch their most bitter rivals collect trophy after trophy over the years and even rain on their parade when they were in fact themselves quite good.

As a supporter of a team who have fallen on far harder times than the likes of Everton, I'm easy ammunition for any bitter Toffees. And I admit, if my team went to Anfield, we'd be lucky to get away with a 5-0 stuffing. And if we collected a point, then I suppose I too would be celebrating. But that's the point that Everton are missing. It was a great point for them because for a 'small team' living on past glories (and recent qualification for the preliminary stages of the Champions League does not count!) a draw at Anfield is to be savoured.

Rafa's frustration was that when Chelsea came to Anfield recently, they didn't come looking for a point. They came looking for three. Big team equals big mentality. As a result, Liverpool were able to play their natural game and collect a victory that was possible because they weren't facing 11 men with the sole intention of suffocating the life out of what should have been a decent game.

Therefore, who can say Rafa was wrong? Small team, small expectations, big point.

[Maestro]

How does the song go? 'We dont care what the red ****e say'? Proven liars as well now then.

So you think that they're obsessed with us? Check this out:

http://www.bluekipper.com/shanties/s...s_red****e.htm

You've got to laugh....

[Shaggy]

So you think that they're obsessed with us? Check this out:

http://www.bluekipper.com/shanties/s...s_red****e.htm

You've got to laugh....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA! That is unbelievable, really unbelievable. :whatever:

[Maestro]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA! That is unbelievable, really unbelievable. :whatever:

I do believe that they have more songs about Liverpool than we do!
And how DARE they try and thieve our "Blame it on Traore" song as their own -

[Shaggy]

I do believe that they have more songs about Liverpool than we do!
And how DARE they try and thieve our "Blame it on Traore" song as their own -

It’s pathetic isn’t it. Truly pathetic. That page is HUGE, packed with hundreds of songs about us. I’ve never seen anything more laughable and pitiful.

In fairness to the small time ******s though, I think the “blame it on….” chant is theirs originally. They used to sing it about Earl Barrett….”don’t blame it on Southall, don’t blame it on Watson, don’t blame it on Hinchliffe, BLAME IT ON BARRETT!”. Quite good, for them.

[sean_lfc]

Can't believe this whole non-story is still an issue. Absolutely pathetic, very boring and toys-chucked-out-of-pram-****. Aw well, this is what people love, journos making an issue, fans in turn having heated debates on forums about triviality...internet bonanza

[Maestro]

I liked this one though:

His name is Heskey,
he is a showgirl...
with grass in his hair
and his arse up in the air!!! etc etc

[Mumsafan]

I liked this one though:

His name is Heskey,
he is a showgirl...
with grass in his hair
and his arse up in the air!!! etc etc

This could keep us entertained all week. Far more than their football could.