gerrards form and everton substitution

[kewellnthegang]

exactly, saying a decision is "lucky" is giving Rafa no credit what so ever.

[Skillz]

Stevie was our best player and you don't take off your best player if he isn't injured or tired.
It was a decision based on what the team needed long term more than what the team needed in that game IMO.

Rafa showed who is the boss and he needed to do that at that time. It's Rafa's team not Gerrard's team.

I don't know if I would have said that we would have been unlucky if we had lost the game. That totally depends on how the goal is scored and how we had played, if we had dominated the game or not.

Except Rafa did, and I agree he was best on the pitch, if not he was certainly playing his best game for a long time. Unfortunately he got carried away and tried to win the game everytime he touched the ball. Rafa wanted something else and took the gamble.

We dominated from then on and Lucas scored the winner in my eyes. If I kept my own records, Lucas scored a winner against the Blue****e on his debut appearance.

It's only fair

[bobbyfallon]

regardless off the substitution - how ****in sweet was it to beat the

blue****e in injury time in their own back garden...

[NICKZS]

When the Liverpool boss hauled off his skipper in the Merseyside derby, Reds fans saw the move as a humiliating mistake.

When Steven Gerrard was surprisingly hauled off by Rafa Benitez in the recent Merseyside derby and replaced by the inexperienced Brazilian Lucas Leiva, fans and pundits across the globe were aghast at what was perceived to be a humiliating mistake.

This did not appease the masses, though, and the knives came out for Rafa.

This withering retort from Rafa was greeted with venom by fans and pundits alike

It’s no understatement to suggest that the substitution of Gerrard is arguably Rafa’s most unpopular decision to date.

I hate generalisation like this. For every fan saying they thought the move was "humiliating", I knew three who thought it was inspired - and made all the better as we were able to take off our best player (our perceived "one man team") and still beat the blue****e.

I thought the decision was entirely vindicated by the fact that we won, never mind played better football after Stevie went off, and was a great indicator to how much strength of depth Rafa has installed into the club.

[Neil Young]

regardless off the substitution - how ****in sweet was it to beat the

blue****e in injury time in their own back garden...

...and, even better, without really deserving to.

[The Glove]

Everything we did against Everton went thru Gerrard. So Everton just put their pressure on him. By taking Gerrard off it made the rest of the team step up and when your playing against 10 men, its easier for them to mark one player than to mark 3/4. Gerrard going off, stretched the game into our favour. I dont thin it had anything to do with showing someone who is boss.

[mersey86]

A similar situation occurred in 2002, when after an insipid first-half performance in the Champions League against FC Basle, Gerrard was criticised publicly by Gerard Houllier. Liverpool were 3-0 down at half-time, and Houllier replaced Gerrard for the second half with Salif Diao.

the ultimate put down

We came back and drew 3-3 in that game I think. Oh, how I miss the way Salif could come on and change a game.

[Morph]

Slightly unrelated but surely stevie was worth the player of month award for november, I mean agbonlahor, really

[Joe Le Toff]

Id be the first to admit that i thought and said that it was the wrong decision to take him off in the derby, despite the fact we won. I thought at the time Rafa was engaging in a pissing contest of sorts and i didnt think that was the time and place to do it. Also, as Stevie himself has admitted, he is an "arm round the shoulder" type of player who doesnt react well to decisions like the one Rafa made.

But credit where credit is due to both parties, because from Rafas side it looks more and more like an inspired decision to make as Stevie has been outstanding ever since thne and back to the old Gerrard that we know, and kudos to Gerrard also for taking the kick up the arse and coming back stronger and playing at the level we all know he can.

Another example that proves Benitez is a manager straight out of the top drawer.

[Skillz]

Anyone objectively watching the game could see why he was taken off, regardles of the fact he was BOG. He was trying too hard to win it himself.

Best sub of the year, for me.

[Sir Bob]

Rafa's decision to replace SG in the Derby was of course a very strange one. SG was our best player that day and to take off your best player at such a time defied belief for most fans. Even though we won, I still think it was the wrong decision. I think we won despite the change, not because of it.

[Skillz]

Big balls. That's Rafa.

[Alpha]

Rafa's decision to replace SG in the Derby was of course a very strange one. SG was our best player that day and to take off your best player at such a time defied belief for most fans. Even though we won, I still think it was the wrong decision. I think we won despite the change, not because of it.

We can only make assertions based on facts.

Nobody can be sure it was the Everton substitution that inspired Gerrard's return to form. Gerrard is a class act and may have returned to form anyway.

But equally, nobody can claim that we would have beaten Everton anyway if Gerrard had stayed on. Because he didn't.

All we know for sure is that Lucas did replace Gerrard and was instumental in our victory. And for that, Benitez should be granted nothing less than the credit he deserves.

[magicalbarnes]

He didn't seem too happy about being taken off Vs Reading. Rafa tried his best to console him and pat him on the back but Gerrard didn't want to know.

[Sir Bob]

I think that whilst the decision to take SG off yesterday looked weird, it was probably a wise one. I think Rafa thought yesterday was one of those games were we could have played all week and we still wouldn't have won. Sure we didn't play well but also everything ran against us as well.

Like it or not, and I for 1 don't, but Tuesday is a bigger match because of the financial implications. Reading between the lines from the Hicks/Rafa bickering, its seems Rafa's t/fer budget will heavily depend on CL qualification and quite simply, Rafa desperately needs the extra cash to spend.

A fit SG is as ever crucial to the team and it would have been typical of our luck yesterday if SG had got crocked in a game Rafa felt was already lost.