Will Rafa win the league with Liverpool?

[Rashid]

If we blank out our cup games, I have seen nothing from Rafa to suggest he will win the league. Can someone else come on here and tell me we have done alright in the league since he has been? It's not just the 5tf, 3rd, 3rd finishes we have been miles behind.

However, he deserves time as he has won 1 CL and got us to another final, he has also made some good signings.

So how long does he get? I think this being his 4th season, it is reasonable to expect a league challenge (not winning it) but to challenge this season right until Easter at least.

[Kenneth]

I must have imagined the Riise at LM complaints.

You're being petty now, you know where this is going. Another back and forth pointless argument which doesn't end. I'm off this thread.

No, could never happen. Not with DJ, surely.

[Sarb]

Rashid, if we finish fourth and well behind first place then Rafa should go. No point hanging around. If he continues to rotate over the next 5 months then he's got to go. If he learns his lesson then fair enough

[The Glove]

What if he continues to rotate but we are right up there? Should he go then?

[Shaggy]

If we blank out our cup games, I have seen nothing from Rafa to suggest he will win the league. Can someone else come on here and tell me we have done alright in the league since he has been? It's not just the 5tf, 3rd, 3rd finishes we have been miles behind.

However, he deserves time as he has won 1 CL and got us to another final, he has also made some good signings.

So how long does he get? I think this being his 4th season, it is reasonable to expect a league challenge (not winning it) but to challenge this season right until Easter at least.

Is it me or is it a touch strange that you vanish off the face of the internet while we were winning, yet return as soon as we get into a bit of a winless streak?

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

What if he continues to rotate but we are right up there? Should he go then?

The fact that people are getting twitchy is just madness.

He will be judged on results like every manager.

This is a big season for him, he's had three years to build the side he wants.

You can virtually count the number of players left from the Houllier era on one hand.

The problem I have with his roation system is the players he rotates and the games he chooses to do it in.

The weekend is a perfect example. Why was Torres on the bench? the midweek game is Reading in the league cup, not Arsenal away in the league.

Or maybe Rafa thought Kuyt and Voronin would be more effective against Brum than Torres and another. If that's the case then it's a worrying development.

[Revo]

The fact that people are getting twitchy is just madness.

He will be judged on results like every manager.

This is a big season for him, he's had three years to build the side he wants.

You can virtually count the number of players left from the Houllier era on one hand.

The problem I have with his roation system is the players he rotates and the games he chooses to do it in.

The weekend is a perfect example. Why was Torres on the bench? the midweek game is Reading in the league cup, not Arsenal away in the league.

Or maybe Rafa thought Kuyt and Voronin would be more effective against Brum than Torres and another. If that's the case then it's a worrying development.

****ing hell niall mate theres few on here that gives the manager **** more than me but to get rid of him ffs.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

****ing hell niall mate theres few on here that gives the manager **** more than me but to get rid of him ffs.

I'm certainly not one of them.

As a club we don't sack managers after 2-3 years, unless they are as bad as Souness was for example.

It's one of the reasons we've been at the top,or near it, for nearly 50 years.

But Rafa has to go close to the league this season, no more excuses.

[lfcruleus]

I love this place, 2 weeks ago we were gonna walk the league, now we are sacking Rafa, the soap opera that is Est1892, nice one Revo you owe me a new keyboard as i spat my tea on this one lol

[Red_hot]

I love this place, 2 weeks ago we were gonna walk the league, now we are sacking Rafa,

[Red Chilli]

The title of the thread is different from the question in the friggin poll


MODS: Come on sort this farce out

Sorry, but it bugs me when the poll and the thread are completely different

And breathe

Right, "yes" Rafa will win the League title with Liverpool

But Rafa will not win us the league, unless he brings himself on in the name of rotation and scores the goal which secures the result which wins us the league

Frickin stupid poll/thread combination

[sean_lfc]

Every result that doesn't go our way this season will be blamed on poor team selection, guaranteed.

Torres and Voronin start, we don't win: "I think Crouch was more suited to this game than Voronin"

Torres and Crouch start, we don't win: "I think we lacked someone who can link up with the midfield, Crouch just stood there and waited for the ball"

Alonso and Gerrard start in the middle: "We weren't strong enough defensively, Mascherano would have done better than Alonso"

Gerrard and Mascherano start: "We definitely missed Alonso, our passing wasn't good enough"

There will always be a good player missing from the team because our squad is so deep, and you can bet he will be mentioned if we don't win.

So true

I think it's more the fact of people not turning up for games than it is rotation and I agree with Polo and Diego on this one.

The thing is, people say 'play the same 11 players in every (premiership) game' or something to that effect, and the fact of the matter is, on paper that's all very fine and dandy, however in the real world there are many other factors the manager has to decide upon, such as current form, opposition, morale, etc. etc.

I think there is no problem, especially not so early on in the season. Rotation will always be blamed when things go wrong, but the question is, how can it? How can you know that 'playing Gerrard and Torres in every game' will result in an automatic 3 points? As others have pointed out and with which I fully agree is that Gerrard's been piss-poor the past 2 games. Unfortunately Xabi's injured and so is Agger.
And we should have beaten Birmingham either way, Torres' omission shows more about the squad than rotation.

Ah whatever, Rafa will win us the league and he is building a squad that will be dominant for an extended period of time, I wouldn't want anyone else in charge.

[Dhav]

Yeah but he has to rotate intelligently.

Away at pompey was a stupid piece of rotation, the following game was the 1st of a SIX game group, in which we're the best team and will easily qualify.

[Dhav]

I'm certainly not one of them.

As a club we don't sack managers after 2-3 years, unless they are as bad as Souness was for example.

It's one of the reasons we've been at the top,or near it, for nearly 50 years.

But Rafa has to go close to the league this season, no more excuses.

If we're miles behind again this season, he'll have some very difficult questions to answer that's for sure.

Regardless of whether we win the league or not I don't want him to go, because I think bringing in someone else will set us a couple of years behind again - whoever comes in will inevitably have different ideas to Rafa. There is a visible increase in quality in the team and squad this year IMO, and we have the potential to go close, even if we may fall a little short. He deserves a chance to bear the fruit of his labour. But that's why he has to prove we're making progress, because if we're still miles behind despite the money he's spent and the quality he has brought and has at his disposal then you really do have to start questioning his methods and approach.

[breffniboy]

I never cease to be amazed at the polarised views of fans. A few weeks ago I was shaking my head at the gibbering fools jumping the gun and trying to work out our projected points total by the end of November and how far ahead we'd be, now there's a Rafa backlash already after a few below par performances.

It's way too early for hinting at that sort of development or discussing Rafa's future. However, I have concerns over the manager's ability in domestic football. Quite simply, Birmingham will NOT keep a clean away sheet at any of the other title contenders this season and for them to do it so comfortably at Liverpool raises alarm bells for me. Rafa is three years in, it's his squad and he's spent the money, there's nowhere to hide any more.

I think in our desperation to win the league again we've agreed to ignore the evidence on the pitch every week and have somewhat lost touch with the type of football this club is supposed to play, the brand we're famous for, our heritage. First Houllier and now Rafa have come here and reduced the game to a rigid nuts and bolts type of science where they try to win games primarily by not losing them. As long as results stay good we don't seem to mind too much but when we get performances as sterile as the three in the past 8 days, then we're all up in arms.

IMHO we're a very functional, well organised, disciplined machine at our best. Priority number one is clean sheets and stopping the opposition but the art of scoring, creating, playing with verve, fluency and spark are areas we seem to neglect. We huff and puff alot but we never seem to produce flowing football against teams with no ambition because it's just too easy for them to set up camp and dig in for a draw against us. Rafa can spend all the money he likes on good players but if he slots them into as flawed a footballing philosophy as this then he will never win us the league. Intemperate, grossly disrespectful and over the line though the remarks were, we weren't described as "**** on a stick" for no reason - there is a kernel of truth in the description sometimes.

I posted a few times over the summer about how my biggest wish for this year was to see evidence that Rafa had shifted his style somewhat. The new signings seemed to indicate that he would do this but it's new faces and same system as far as I can see. I don't even care about rotation, that's just a media obsession, it's his cautious approach and favouring of a systematic, turgid pattern of play that is costing us. The boss doesn't seem to have the moral courage to open up and play football like Scum or Arsenal do...the risk he won't take is conceding the first goal through leaving the back door open while we're attacking.

I think fans should be willing to discuss this - not call for Rafa's head or anything because he IS the best manager we've had since Kenny. He's superb in Europe because it's a competition that rewards caginess and the non-concedance of away goals especially. The league is a different animal entirely and I'm concerned that after three years Rafa still doesn't "get it." I still believe he could win us the title but only if he realises that after three years of this approach getting us absolutely nowhere in the league that he has to change it somehow. By all means stick with it for Europe but if it leaves you blunt and impotent at home against as ordinary a team as Birmingham then something has to give. We've had years of peformances like this under Rafa against average to poor opposition so it's not a knee-jerk reaction.

We all know Birmingham will get stuffed at Emirates and Old Trafford and there's the rub if we're serious about challenging for the title.