Do you still have faith?

[willa1975]

Even if you gave him £300m like the Russian gave the self effacing sociopath cunt, he'd still come up with silly formations and other tactical oddities that defy sense and logic.

If he ever decides to set his team up to attack, rather than worry about the opposition then he might get somewhere.

Reckon I'll be waiting for another 17 years for that to happen though.

You pretty much summed up my opinion. Rafa ****ed it up again. There's no excuse for the sort of **** he's pulled out of God knows where against the likes of Reading and Wigan.

We're playing ****ing Wigan at Anfield, and he goes and plays a single striker...what the ****? I don't care who the opposition is, unless you've got the likes of Ronaldinho and Messi on the wings, playing one striker is a defensive tactic. That's what you do when your main objective is to stop the opponent, and maybe nick a 1-0 win. It's not what you do at home against ****ing Wigan!

It makes no ****ing sense to me why Rafa fielded that team, and why he didn't make changes earlier. Anyone with eyes could see that it wasn't working...sure, we had tons of possession but no end product, and Pennant, for one, was doing absolutely nothing. We made a hero out of Titus ****ing Bramble of all people.

We've got a considerably better team than the one that finished with 82 points two seasons ago. Yet, here we are, locked in heated battle with the likes of Man City, Portsmouth, Everton and Villa for 4th place.

I felt that, before the season, finishing within 10 points of the top would be satisfactory. We're now 12 points off the pace, 9 if we win our game in hand, and we've got Arsenal, United and Chelsea all away during the second half of the season. Barring a drastic turnaround, or winning the Champions' League, I can't see G&H keeping Rafa around, and I won't blame them for sacking him if we're 15-20 points off the top at the end of the season.

[Bob]

It's clear to me we as fans love Rafa as a person, that's not in doubt...

However that shouldn't cloud your judgement of how good a job he's doing as manager and IMO that is clearly not as flawless as some would have you think.

Personally I think it's quite a complex decision and not one to make half-way through a season, but I have my (serious) concerns/doubts to Rafa's selection and proirity for the league. Ultimately in my heart of heart I think he already knows he has one foot out the door.

Any finish below forth and he'd walk before he was sacked (and 5th would NOT surprise me at all, what with the fact that Man City will plug for that spot with all they have).

[Guest]

It's clear to me we as fans love Rafa as a person, that's not in doubt...

However that shouldn't cloud your judgement of how good a job he's doing as manager and IMO that is clearly not as flawless as some would have you think.

Personally I think it's quite a complex decision and not one to make half-way through a season, but I have my (serious) concerns/doubts to Rafa's selection and proirity for the league. Ultimately in my heart of heart I think he already knows he has one foot out the door.

Any finish below forth and he'd walk before he was sacked (and 5th would NOT surprise me at all, what with the fact that Man City will plug for that spot with all they have).

I don't agree Bob. Do you really think that Rafa thinks his team is 100% ready to challenge for the league right now ? We're still lagging behind compared to Manure who are also progressing and that's what make it difficult.

Rafa has a point in his PC. When playing under pressure, it's quite difficult to express themselves and when we fans start to get on their back it doesn't help. If we had more points and were sitting comfortably with the big boys, a draw would have been easier to swallow. The fact we're playing catch up and people want to see us challenge makes it unbearable that we're 12 points behind.

Rafa will always try to find excuses (and any manager in his place would have done so). I just don't see how he got it wrong last night.

[carlton]

A decent striker and 2 wingers will cost around 50-60 million pounds can anyone honestly think they will stump up that sort of cash plus the money for Masher if he ends of staying? Personally I think they should put the money up. G said that they didnt expect a title this year so Rafa has a get out of jail card but if they dont support him with cash whats the point particularly when they have also acknowledged the squad is not at the level of the top 2? I think we will finish 3rd or 4th and that Citeh et al will fall of the pace, its a long season. We were 2-3 fantastic saves away from winning the last 2 games but the frustrating thing is the other top sides all struggled at various times during the busy period but won when they had to.

[Guest]

A decent striker and 2 wingers will cost around 50-60 million pounds can anyone honestly think they will stump up that sort of cash plus the money for Masher if he ends of staying? Personally I think they should put the money up. G said that they didnt expect a title this year so Rafa has a get out of jail card but if they dont support him with cash whats the point particularly when they have also acknowledged the squad is not at the level of the top 2? I think we will finish 3rd or 4th and that Citeh et al will fall of the pace, its a long season. We were 2-3 fantastic saves away from winning the last 2 games but the frustrating thing is the other top sides all struggled at various times during the busy period but won when they had to.

I don't know but the motives for investment was that the team would benefit of the money to challenge in the transfer market.

The problem is, other clubs are also spending it and more. Look at Man. City. We don't need as much money but as you said, we need a left winger, a right winger, a left back, a central defender (Hobbs could do the job though) and another forward and these cost money.

The equation is simple for me. If we want to go the last step right now, instead of progressing steadily, we need to steal a march on our rivals.

Any other manager will have the same problems.

[Revo]

Rafa put out a team in a formation that should have won.The team ****ed up.

your in denial mate. i repeat again, 1 up top with wide men that couldent stretch a lazzy band, at home, against a relagation team is not aggressive enough to go and get the league.

[Guest]

your in denial mate. i repeat again, 1 up top with wide men that couldent stretch a lazzy band, at home, against a relagation team is not aggressive enough to go and get the league.

It was an attacking formation Revo, sorry to disagree. Kewell, Pennant, Stevie and Torres bombing forward should have been enough to win this match. Arsenal play with one upfront and even Kuyt when he plays drops deep. Tevez and Rooney at United do it in turn but they still attack. It's all in the movement.

We lack the killer instinct and we've paid for a fluke goal (for me it was). Rafa tried to move the ball around quickly and create spaces and in a sense we did that, but we couldn't score 2 goals which would have killed the game.

[5times]

yes, if rafa we trust

[Guest]

With that I'm gonna resume my holidays.

Chin up everyone of us and please let's look forward and move on as regards last night.

[IrishPaul]

I voted 'Unsure' because like Revo said the tactics last night just baffled me

Fair enough Kirkland had a good game (as do all our ex keepers against us ) and Bramble hit the ball very sweetly (although SG should've skyed the ****in ball in the first place) but we should be batterin' teams like Wigan at Anfield

We were at home against Wigan and he played Torres up front on his own FFS!! When I saw the team I thought it looked like a very attack minded set up TBH but Alonso was non exsistant, SG kept going back into midfield leaving Torres on his own, Pennant tried but judging by his first touch last night still needs a few games to get back into the swing of things.

It seems to me that the ****in' players don't really know what the **** they are supposed to be doing and exactly where they're supposed to be cos the tactics and team keep changing every game!!

Now anyone that knows me will know that I've always been supportive of Rafa and I do realise that the players are also at fault for ****in' fannying about at 1-0 and not taking chances but I am genuinely starting to get really pissed off with our constant underacheivement in the Premier League.


BUT I am a Liverpool supporter through and through and until it is mathematically impossible for us to win the league I will always have faith and be behind the team but it is genuinely ****in' hard lately

[JCase]

I`m worried that our fans think we have a divine right to win the league when we can`t compete in the transfer market.
Our team could do with Berbatov and Anelka.Where do you think they`ll go to.

Where did Ronaldo,Malouda and others go to????


Rafa made no mistakes today,Morres and Parry dug this hole.

Point is even if we had Malouda etc, rafa would make some bizarre tactical change that defies logic. He is too defensive and has not come to grips with the demands of the premiership. Love the guy to bits but I don't think he can deliver the title. Yes, he delivered twice in the La Liga but the EPL and Spansih league are different.

Genius in Europe, granted. I would still like for him to be give 1 more season to see what he can do but I am not optimistic.

Lets face it, our league aspiration is over and its only 3 Jan.

[Howard_lfc]

I know there are threads about Rafa's future, but I wanted to see in simple, numerical terms where this site stands on the future of Rafa Benitez.

Simple question. Is he still the man for the job? Not "let's see where we are in the summer". Do you, TODAY, think he has a long-term future as LFC manager.

Simple answer. No.

[Fan65]

In the last two games the team have outplayed the opposition regardless of 4-4-2, 4-5-1 etc and that against 9-1. They have created chance after chance after chance but for some excellent defending/keeping and for some poor finishing even by Torres we should have won both games and won them well.

So how can you not have faith in Rafa ?, he's tactically won both games but for that strange enigma in front of goal we come away with two points instead of six.

It could have been sooooooo different.

But then again if my auntie had nadgers she'd be my uncle....

Rafa is still the man.

[AFII]

I wonder if Crouch, Kuyt or Voronin would have done any better than Gerrard?

The answer is probably no and Rafa don't use Babel as a striker so the argument that Rafa should have played 4-4-2 is a no starter IMO. He tried that against Birmingham and we almost didn't create anything.

The truth is that we only have one good enough striker, Torres, and that limits Rafa's options a lot.

G&H must back Rafa 100% in the transfer market or sack him and even if they sack him they would need to back the new manager 100%.

It's time to show what ambitions you have G&H. It's time to splash the cash big time. We can't wait and fall even further behind.

Rafa of course also need to sell a few players but he also need to be backed for his first choice targets in every window or else it won't be any #19 whatever manager we have.

It's time you let the manager build his team so he has a realistic chance to win the title.

[Howard_lfc]

In the last two games the team have outplayed the opposition regardless of 4-4-2, 4-5-1 etc and that against 9-1. They have created chance after chance after chance but for some excellent defending/keeping and for some poor finishing even by Torres we should have won both games and won them well.

So how can you not have faith in Rafa ?, he's tactically won both games but for that strange enigma in front of goal we come away with two points instead of six.

It could have been sooooooo different.

But then again if my auntie had nadgers she'd be my uncle....

Rafa is still the man.

No he hasn't. In both last night and against City - the opposition manager got what they played for; we never. So who won the game, tactically?
Rafa was outdone last night by Steve Bruce - along with his big fat head. Again.