Rafa's best/worst signings so far

[G_Man]

No, they are facts but you are dismissing Crouch's contribution to our improved form. It is your opinion that Crouch did not contribute to our improvement. It is not a fact.

[El Jefecito]

Ok then .... let's ignore all the facts and just take one Rafa soundbite as gospel.

Rafa or Rosco? I know who my money is on. And it's not you

[Rosco]

No, they are facts but you are dismissing Crouch's contribution to our improved form. It is your opinion that Crouch did not contribute to our improvement. It is not a fact.

I've never actually said that, in fact when I did post in a thread on this very topic I acknowledged he made a contribution.

Might be worth getting your accusations in order before levelling them at me.

[G_Man]

OK what are we arguing for then. You admit Crouch made a contribution to our improved form this season.

So why are you still bashing him?

[rnm]

there are bad signings in retrospect and bad signings that were obvious

without being a smart arse, who would have said that moro was a bad signing at the time?

my personal faves are reina and momo

i have no worsts cos i am a sad **** that believes in the liverpool way of clap clapping our boys in red, no matter how sad sack ****e they turn out to be

[Rosco]

OK what are we arguing for then. You admit Crouch made a contribution to our improved form this season.

So why are you still bashing him?

Because some people seem to think a striker that missed 92% of the chances provided to him is the main reason we improved, which is just utterly ridiculous given the large amount of much more influential factors.

[andyinswinton]

I just think Crouch was overpriced. He we had bought him for £3 million or so then I'd think he was a decent signing. I still don't think to this day that he is worth what we paid for him.

[El Jefecito]

Who do you think is Rafa's best/worst signing since he arrived at Liverpool?

In my opinion:

BEST: Momo Sissoko
WORST: Josémi

Check back in a year but I think you will find that:
Best: Pennant
Worst: Nunez

[Ryan]

Nobody said he had NOTHING to do with our improvement, just that he had nowhere near the impact that some claim. If I wanted to be facetious I could argue that Crouch scored less , missed more chances and gave the ball away more than the striker he replaced (ALL FACTS). But I won't . There were a lot more pressing reasons as to why we improved.

Firstly we had an injury plagued 04/05, so we weren't quite as bad as it looks. It's also worth remembering that Rafa practically gave up on fourth spot by resting his players for CL matches.

Reasons why we improved between 04/05 and 05/06

1. The best defensive season we've had in 19 years. We conceded roughly 40% less goals than we did in the league in 04/05.

2. A new Golden Gloves winning goalkeeper in Pepe Reina.

3. A stronger all round squad. At times in 04/05 we started with Potter , Welsh , Pellegrino , Josemi etc.

4. Gerrard and Alonso we're fit all season long. In 04/05 they both missed three months plus.

5. Benitez's change of tactics, the main difference being he played two up front in 05/06.

6. Momo Sissoko, beat Arsenal on his own at Anfield ( a small bit of help from Luis) and put in a lot of impressive performances in his Premiership season. It's no coincidence that our dip in form coincided with his eye injury.

7. Harry Kewell also had a bit of an effect too, we finally had some balance in the midfield with him hugging the left touchline and we were a better team for it. He was the only thing we had resembling a winger in 05/06.


It annoys me when I see people claim Crouch is the main reason we improved because it's a huge direspect to a fantastic midfield and the best defence we've had for 19 years.

The sad thing is that nobody has the abaility to counter this argument. All you get is some limp dullard giving it the 'Yeah but Rafa likes him' line.

The points above are incontrovertible fact. Deal with it.

[Peter Delvechio]

And he forgot to mention that the much maligned Cisse didn't snap his leg until the end of the season this year. Unlike the previous season when he hardly played.

The result was a player who played mainly on the right wing and still got 19 goals.

Whetever you think of him, the fact that our record signing was fit may have also helped in improving our points haul last season.