What's gone wrong this season?

[JPK]

1)Rafa sent out a bad message underestimating Pompey and Birmingham.
2)Throwing in the towel at Reading was another loser message.
3)Having a squad of world class players,ok players and mediocre players will always lead to players bitching and losing confidence in each other.
4)Negativity such as 11 defending corners,one up front at home.
5)Constantly keeping faith in underachieving players and not being ruthless and moving the duds on.
6)Owners then brought added pressure.

I blame some players who are just crap and who are blessed to wear the famous shirt and I also blame Rafa for being cautious and signing these duds.
Love the guy and he has made awesome signings too so he is not too bad!

[El Jefecito]

1)Rafa sent out a bad message underestimating Pompey and Birmingham.
2)Throwing in the towel at Reading was another loser message.
3)Having a squad of world class players,ok players and mediocre players will always lead to players bitching and losing confidence in each other.
4)Negativity such as 11 defending corners,one up front at home.
5)Constantly keeping faith in underachieving players and not being ruthless and moving the duds on.
6)Owners then brought added pressure.

I blame some players who are just crap and who are blessed to wear the famous shirt and I also blame Rafa for being cautious and signing these duds.
Love the guy and he has made awesome signings too so he is not too bad!

To be fair Rafa does usually move the crap along pretty quickly.

A fair few players have let us down this season, carra has been so so, Finnan is way off his best, voronin and kuyt are adding nothing, crouch has been useless in general play, leto hasn't provided what we hoped we would be getting on the LW and Kewell hasn't either.

To me it's almost like we've been playing without a LW and one of our strikers.

[Biff]

All the other 19 Prem teams have improved...collectively we have not

[JPK]

To be fair Rafa does usually move the crap along pretty quickly.

A fair few players have let us down this season, carra has been so so, Finnan is way off his best, voronin and kuyt are adding nothing, crouch has been useless in general play, leto hasn't provided what we hoped we would be getting on the LW and Kewell hasn't either.

To me it's almost like we've been playing without a LW and one of our strikers.

I agree he does move them on but I would say there is too many to do at once so he will gradually do it.Right now we remind me of the Mancs a few years back.Super core but with that a bunch of squad players ie Butt,Phillis Neville,Fortune,Forlan,O'Shea,Fletcher to name a few.
They suffered for it and since then have been more consistent with their transfer strategy and have a very balanced squad.
We are 3or4 top players off being realistic challengers.

Rafa is a top manager and if he wins a league with the likes of Riise,Kewell,Pennant,Crow,Crouch and Kuyt then he is better than I imagined.
A manager is only as good as his players.

[mersey86]

In order

1) Rafa being undermined (sorry cannot be excluded in this discussion IMO)
2) Agger and Alonso being injured
3) 3 strikers out of form along with many others
4) Pako leaving and not being replaced properly
5) Chelsea paying the Ref
6) not getting the rub of the green

Of the top of my head but i would of forgotten something

Well said. People try to dismiss #1, but it has destroyed our season. I think Agger being out has been very significant as we've had to change our style of play to an extent. I'd switch 3 and 4 and omit 5 and 6. The strikers lack of form has also coincided to an extent woith the turmoil behind the scenes.
Had Hicks and Gillet not stirred the pot I expect we'd be rubbing our hands at the prospect of a title race right now.

[El Jefecito]

I agree he does move them on but I would say there is too many to do at once so he will gradually do it.Right now we remind me of the Mancs a few years back.Super core but with that a bunch of squad players ie Butt,Phillis Neville,Fortune,Forlan,O'Shea,Fletcher to name a few.
They suffered for it and since then have been more consistent with their transfer strategy and have a very balanced squad.
We are 3or4 top players off being realistic challengers.

Rafa is a top manager and if he wins a league with the likes of Riise,Kewell,Pennant,Crow,Crouch and Kuyt then he is better than I imagined.
A manager is only as good as his players.

True, the only quibble I would have is that instead of buying 8 7m players that he should have gone for two or 3 20m players. He could of then built out the squad once we had the class on board.

[JPK]

True, the only quibble I would have is that instead of buying 8 7m players that he should have gone for two or 3 20m players. He could of then built out the squad once we had the class on board.

Agree with quality over quantity alright.All the teams that won the Premiership have had top wingers.Beckham/Giggs/Ronaldo-Pires/Overmars/Ljungberg-Duff/Robben/Cole and even Wilcox and Ripley did a decent job.
We have none like that.

[El Jefecito]

Agree with quality over quantity alright.All the teams that won the Premiership have had top wingers.Beckham/Giggs/Ronaldo-Pires/Overmars/ljungberg-Duff/Robben/Cole and even Wilcox and Ripley did a decent job.
We have none like that.

We'd be getting many more goals from wide set pieces and corners if we had someone who was strong in the air and who attacked the ball. Admittedly our wingers aren't up to much, but a central striker would seem the best way to get a quick return.

[Red Chilli]

What's gone wrong?

1) We don't score enough goals
2) We let too many goals in
3) We're awful to watch
4) Rafa has a thing about playing 2 defensive midfielders

[El Jefecito]

What's gone wrong?

1) We don't score enough goals
2) We let too many goals in
3) We're awful to watch
4) Rafa has a thing about playing 2 defensive midfielders

Would you call Gerrard a defensive midfielder? He' pretty much played every game.

[desertscouser]

In short, on the pitch we've been very very poor.

-Our squad lacks quality in depth.
-We have no width...again
-Very few flair players. Only 2 real match winners in Torres and Gerrard.
-Our emphasis is always on defending rather than attacking.
We concentrate on nullifying threats from other sides rather than focusing on taking the game to them. Rafa is far too negative.
-Rotation is fine if our squad players are any good. Kuyt, Voronin, Riise, Pennant, Kewell and Sissoko are not good enough and never will be.
-Players off form. Finnan's loss of form has been alarming this season. He looks finished which is shocking considering he has been one of our most consistent players for years. Carra, Momo, Arbeloa and Kuyt have all had poor seasons, especially the latter who probably wouldn't get into any of the premiership's top 10 sides let alone be regular. Alonso has struggled since returning from injury.
-Agger's injury.


Rafa's a legend in the CL, the absolute best there is. But in the premiership he's failed. 4 years without a title challenge is nowhere near good enough. I think he should be given till the end of the season to see if he can turn us around. If by the end of the season we continue as we're doing now, turning in poor performance after poor performance and there's a sense that he's lost the dressing room then maybe we should consider replacing him.

Ironically, the one factor which may save him at the end of the season is the off field upheaval. No doubt it's had an effect on him personally as well as the team's morale and that could be used as an excuse for the team's poor performance and thus give hm more time at the helm.

[Jazzmaster]

In short, on the pitch we've been very very poor.

-Our squad lacks quality in depth.
-We have no width...again
-Very few flair players. Only 2 real match winners in Torres and Gerrard.
-Our emphasis is always on defending rather than attacking.
We concentrate on nullifying threats from other sides rather than focusing on taking the game to them. Rafa is far too negative.
-Rotation is fine if our squad players are any good. Kuyt, Voronin, Riise, Pennant, Kewell and Sissoko are not good enough and never will be.
-Players off form. Finnan's loss of form has been alarming this season. He looks finished which is shocking considering he has been one of our most consistent players for years. Carra, Momo, Arbeloa and Kuyt have all had poor seasons, especially the latter who probably wouldn't get into any of the premiership's top 10 sides let alone be regular. Alonso has struggled since returning from injury.
-Agger's injury.


Rafa's a legend in the CL, the absolute best there is. But in the premiership he's failed. 4 years without a title challenge is nowhere near good enough. I think he should be given till the end of the season to see if he can turn us around. If by the end of the season we continue as we're doing now, turning in poor performance after poor performance and there's a sense that he's lost the dressing room then maybe we should consider replacing him.

Ironically, the one factor which may save him at the end of the season is the off field upheaval. No doubt it's had an effect on him personally as well as the team's morale and that could be used as an excuse for the team's poor performance and thus give hm more time at the helm.

I think that if we dont finish 4th in the league then he will have to be replaced. To finish outside the top 4 would be such a glaring failure given that we have spend quite bit of money and have a lot more quality compared to the teams around us like Citeh, Everton and Villa. The rest of the season will decide Benitez fate I hope. If he does well and turns things around then by all means another season with him in charge may be beneficial and create stability whereas if we continue in the slump we are in then he has to go to prevent further damage being done to the club/players.

[mersey86]

I think that if we dont finish 4th in the league then he will have to be replaced. To finish outside the top 4 would be such a glaring failure given that we have spend quite bit of money and have a lot more quality compared to the teams around us like Citeh, Everton and Villa. The rest of the season will decide Benitez fate I hope. If he does well and turns things around then by all means another season with him in charge may be beneficial and create stability whereas if we continue in the slump we are in then he has to go to prevent further damage being done to the club/players.

Our club has been so messed up by the Americans. I can understand some frustration at recent performances, but before these Yanks stirred up the pot things were looking great. I am certain that we will be taking a huge step backwards if we let Rafa go. He has built Liverpool up so that they have a better youth structure, a stronger squad (with some outstanding young players - Reina, Agger, Torres, Masher, Babel all being good for many years to come), and a good standing in international football again after our Champions League displays. All he needs (and all we want now) is the league. Some of us are so desperate for it that we are looking to throw out the baby with the bathwater. It would be a mistake ... and the fact that many Liverpool fans would endorse that mistake makes me very sad.

[CAD]

Personally I don't think some of the players are half as good as we'd like to think. Also we are too narrow. Only Pennant plays anything like a winger but he has zero goal threat. Also we have one decent striker and three bit part players.

However for me the main barrier to us getting results in the PL is Rafa's tactics. You play your best formation and your best players and you let the opposition worry about you. Football isn't chess.

Spot on

The squad is nowhere near strong enough for heavy rotation. That is the very essence of our problems.

[bigfooty]

Our club has been so messed up by the Americans. I can understand some frustration at recent performances, but before these Yanks stirred up the pot things were looking great.

Just so wrong though. We've had two good runs, one was long before this stuff came out in the public, one was straight after it. Apart from that it's been very inconsistent.