Wigan Post Match

[disco]

There is still 18 matches left for us isn't it ? And it's never been in our make up to throw in the towel half way through the season.

Just being realistic.

We literally have to all 18 games now to have a chance, may be 17-1 at a push. And if we win all 3 away games against the top 3 I'll eat my own cock.

On the plus side, we should see some attacking football for a while until we give up .

[Red Chilli]

He spent £225m

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai...ansfers120.xml

Yes, but how much did he spend BEFORE he won the title? I'll just add it up from your link

[JohnDoe]

Nevermind, someone else came in before me.

[Owen20]

Is this Rafa's fault?

With the money he has spent, trying to catch up the other teams, is this his fault?

If it is, call for his sacking. Go on.

Excuse me, but where in my post did I say that it was Rafa's fault??!!

FFS man! Get a grip!

No-one can criticize or question any of Rafa's decisions around you, without you going all defensive!

I love Rafa, and I think he's the man for the job, although after tonight, I have to be honest, I' am starting to wonder about our title credentials under him.

Maybe you need to take the blinkers off when it comes to your own views!

Jeez mate!

[Owen20]

If my uncle had tits he'd be my auntie

[Red Chilli]

He spent £225m, with £141m in his first season.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai...ansfers120.xml

Not by my calculations:

From your link (ignoring the June/July signings which were made when he was already a title winner...)

Jan Jiri Jarosik CSKA Moscow £4.83m
July Ricardo Carvalho Porto £19.85m
July Didier Drogba Marseille £24m
July Tiago Benfica £8m
July Mateja Kezman PSV Eindhoven £5m
July Paulo Ferreira Porto £13.2m
July Arjen Robben PSV Eindhoven £12m

Comes to 86.88 million.

Time to put the 300 million figure to bed me thinks

[Lee]

Anyone know what Rafa said post match?

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez was a frustrated man after seeing his side held to a 1-1 draw at Anfield by struggling Wigan.

Titus Bramble's late equaliser means The Reds slip below Manchester City to fifth in the table, 12 points back of league leaders Arsenal.

It had all looked so good for Benitez and the home fans when Fernando Torres opened the scoring in the 49th minute.

However, their inability to improve on such a slender lead came back to haunt them when Bramble rammed home from the edge of the area with 10 minutes to play.

Chances

"It was frustrating," the Spaniard admitted after seeing his side held to a draw for the second successive match.

"When you have chances you need to take them and finish these types of games. They had just one chance in the second half and get a draw.

"We tried to play wide and create the space for Torres and I thought we were creating enough for scoring a second goal and finish the game."

The Spaniard added: "Sometimes you need a bit of luck."

Title hopes

Despite the sizeable gap to top spot after a second successive league draw, Benitez unsurprisingly refused to rule his team out of the title race just yet.

Instead the former Valencia boss maintained his policy of looking ahead to the next game - an FA Cup third tie away at Luton Town on Sunday.

"You know that we need to do nearly everything perfect," he admitted.

"If you lose points like today, it is more difficult.

"I think we need now to think about the FA Cup now and then think about the next game. The season is very long."

[kurtangle01]

So why pick up on me Kurt ??? How did this come to that point ?

I've never said that you've said so, but you've picked up on me for whatever reason.

To my eyes, we're progressing steadily but others are too. We should steal a march on the clubs above us by outspending us for the best players. If not, it will take more time, but Rafa will get there if he's given time.

I'll say it, bar the result, we were very good today.

The reason I responded to you is because you slated some fans for having a go. Whether you think it's right or wrong it's up to them to decide. They pay their money and are entitled to their opinion.

If I hadn't gave the match a miss tonight would I have booed? No because it's not my way. I get frustrated but I can put things into perspective pretty quickly.

Not everyone's like that though and I wouldn't blame the guy next to me for booing. Our home form has been reasonably poor this season, we can count ourselves forunate that we've been better on the road this year, and perhaps the performance tonight was the straw that broke the camels back for some people.

I don't want Rafa to go, I don't want Mourinho, I don't want Klinsmann, I don't like seeing fans booing but I can understand it sometimes...What I want is for Rafa and the team to progress and do well for the remainder of the season and then hopefully he gets a decent warchest in the summer and we take it from there.

Apart from a couple of cup runs and a fight for fourth it really is time to start planning for next season in terms of the league and try to focus on where we're going wrong so that we can hopefully mount a serious challenge next year.

[YNWA_IRE]

If you look at our football, it's clear we're progressing.

How can you say that? We are battling for 4th again this season, how is this progress from when Rafa first came in?

[shadow]

Rafa is the best. If the americans do sack him, I'll never ever look back at this club again. It will confirm my worst fears, that we're just a normal club. We used to give time to our managers.

God, you are an irritating little cunt

[5aq1b]

Was listening to Talksport a few days ago where a caller had a decent point, stating that managers are sacked willy nilly these days, and that's only because of the money involved in todays game. No manager is ever given a decent length of time, or more importantly, never given the time to ride out the storm, and tbh, this is probably the first time that Rafa has come under some serious criticism.

Anyway, he went on to state that (although it was many years ago), Fergie was one game away from the sack, and was basically given TEN years before he won the league title. I'm confident that given time AND BACKING, that Rafa can bring us no.19, and for those who say sack Rafa, who else is big and good enough for the job? Jose? ****OFF, he is a classless cunt. I'd rather have Roy Evans back than a poof who ended a Referee's career, brought out his team 5 minutes late for the second half, and unfairly criticised the St John's ambulance service with their (speedy) treatment of Nappy head. ****off Jose - he is not LFC material

[Guest]

Progressing from what?

From where Houllier left us? Well I certainly hope so, we couldn't get much worse at that point.
But if you think we've progressed in the last 2 seasons I'd have to challenge you on that.

Chelsea have the money and Man Utd have the money. We haven't spent nowhere near what they spent. We won the CL and been to the final last year. Isn't it progress ??

And we're consistently improving in the league. Don't show me stats as I don't think it says the whole story.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

"I think we need now to think about the FA Cup now and then think about the next game. The season is very long."

Just like he did with the Reading game.

Wish he would be honest and just say; "We're ****in the league off, lets see if we can get to Wembley and Moscow now."

[MrMichael]

Not by my calculations:

From your link (ignoring the June/July signings which were made when he was already a title winner...)



Comes to 86.88 million.

Time to put the 300 million figure to bed me thinks

Point taken, BUT £87m is still an unprecedented amount to spend in your first 3 months at a club. He also took over a team that Ranieri has just spent easily as much again on, some of whom weren't half bad players themselves.....

[desertscouser]

That's what we call supporters.

It was f**king freezing at Anfield tonight and we were dished out sh!te by the players. I didn't boo the players off the pitch because I was too disgusted with the performance...couldn't even be arsed to boo. But you have to understand, not everyone lives in the perfect world you live in where we all love each other. The majority of the kop booed the players off the pitch...same kopites who chanted Rafa's name for long periods of the game.