Rafa Benitez tells Xabi Alonso: Step things up

[AFII]

Your very right. Those lazy cunts do need a kick up the arse! The person that should be doing such kicking of the arses is RAFA BENITEZ! The reason those useless ****s are playing week in week out and not giving a toss is because benitez sends the team out with the wrong mentality nearly every game. No idea's, no imagination, no ruthlessness in front of goal and no spine!

Players like Gerrard are taking the piss, week-in, week-out because benitez isn't strong enough to take them to one side and say "listen ere lad, pull your socks up up or **** off. you play for THIS club and when you do you play with 100% commitment, pride and passion along with the ability to win things.

The thing is with players like Gerrard now. people are falling out of Love with him and other players.

You ask every liverpool fan in just this country alone and i reckon nearly half of them now would take 30million for his overpriced, overrated bonce and thats a local lad!

If Benitez can't get the best out of his players then he's not doing his job. If he is getting the best from his squad and it's just that they're **** then they're his signings and the blame falls at his door again!

Same as the players Rafa Lad- either grow some balls and kicking some arse or leave. As everyone says on here NO ONE is bigger than this club weather it be benitez or the ****ing heir to the thrown of jupiter. if you can't do the job, leave the post!

The bottom line is as you said that no one is bigger than the club and that counts to everyone, the players and the staff. If Rafa can't motivate the players then it's his job to get in someone who can. If the players isn't working their socks off in every game then they can **** off and close the door behind them.

That is the minimum that you expect a player to do, give 100% week in week out.

[akjs123]

Some interesting stats for the league for those who bash Kuyt and blame Rafa for playing him.
League Games Kuyt Starts Points
Till Nov end 13 9 27
December onwards: 11 5 16

I wonder how much is Kuyt to blame for our poor form.

Some more stats for Crouch lovers (in all competitions)
Crouch had 15 starts and scored 8 goals. Out of these 4 were in 3 CL games in which Liverpool scored 16 goals(Kuyt scored 3 in those games). 2 more were scored in FA cup games against Luton and H&W. The other 2 were goals he scored in the league were vs Aston Villa and Sunderland (both recently).

[AFII]

Kuyt makes us stronger in defense and Crouch in attack. It's a choice Rafa will have to make.

I think a big reason to why Kuyt have played very much is because Agger is out injured and that means that the rest of the players must protect the back four more. Mascherano playing instead of Xabi is another point that proves that.

We played more attacking football at the start of the season with Agger in the team.

[Woobus]

Players like Gerrard are taking the piss, week-in, week-out because benitez isn't strong enough to take them to one side and say "listen ere lad, pull your socks up up or **** off. you play for THIS club and when you do you play with 100% commitment, pride and passion along with the ability to win things.

I think this is mainly down to the boardroom fighting, look at the season Fergi told everyone he would be retiring at the end of the season. Fergi himself came out and said that he lost control of the dressing room and the players didnt try as hard as he knew they could.
If this is happening at Liverpool then the players need to take a hard look at themselves and stop acting like overgrown spoiled kids.

[Kenneth]

Kuyt makes us stronger in defense and Crouch in attack. It's a choice Rafa will have to make.

I think a big reason to why Kuyt have played very much is because Agger is out injured and that means that the rest of the players must protect the back four more. Mascherano playing instead of Xabi is another point that proves that.

We played more attacking football at the start of the season with Agger in the team.

This agger stuff is bollocks and irrelevant imo. Could equally be said that the lack of agger means we need to compensate with better distribution in midfield.

[bobbyfallon]

so basically to sum up this thread...

kuyt = ****e
crouch = ****e

on the ****e scale kuyt is more ****e than crouch.

so crouch should start.

that about right ???

[Johnny]

so basically to sum up this thread...

kuyt = ****e
crouch = ****e

on the ****e scale kuyt is more ****e than crouch.

so crouch should start.

that about right ???

[Dhav]

so basically to sum up this thread...

kuyt = ****e
crouch = ****e

on the ****e scale kuyt is more ****e than crouch.

so crouch should start.

that about right ???

I think that sums it up pretty accurately and succinctly

[JCase]

I agree 0% to this post

The important thing is to get the players to perform as a team and to be able to do that then you need 11 players on the pitch with a good attitude so it's very much down to that.

Do you see any player at Arsenal or Man U with a bad attitude?

AF, I would take ability over attitude under the current circimstances. What's the point of having a striker operate in his own half?

Kuyt started with bags of promise but its all gone pear shaped. When present with gilt edge chances, instead of a simple placement into goal, he blasts the ball often into row Z. I don't understand Rafa's persistence in playing him. Assuming that Crouch and Rafa had a falling out and this has resulted in Rafa maginalising Crouch in favour of Kuyt, then its not on. Why cut your nose to spite your face?

The manager's job is to motivate the players and the buck has to stop with the manager.

I really thought that we would be close this year and I'm gutted that we are 17 points off the pace, behind the bitters and registering our first league win in '08 against the mighty Sunderland.

Rafa has to put in a settled team for the remainder of the season and go on a run to finish 4th.

What a shambles.

[Jacko]

so basically to sum up this thread...

kuyt = ****e
crouch = ****e

on the ****e scale kuyt is more ****e than crouch.

so crouch should start.

that about right ???

God-damn you should have taught me maths

[bobbyfallon]

God-damn you should have taught me maths

you want to see some of the things i have looked up online .................................................. ........... for biology purposes

[Joe Le Toff]

I think the issue here is that Rafa likes one of his strikers to drop back and help the midfield when we dont have the ball, effectively making us a 4-5-1.
For that job Dirk is the man as he'll run all day and cover the pitch doing it.

The trouble is, is that is not what youre looking for from your strikers, and when he is in forward positions his game is shockingly bad.
No disrespect to Dirk because i like the lad, but as player he has no first touch, no pace off the mark, limited vision, and gets himself into positions where he can do no damage to the opposition whatsoever. If he was the kind of player who ran the channels and had some sort of end product be it a telling pass or a good finish then i could see the case for persevering with him when hes not playing well, but the truth is that he offers us nothing in an attacking sense and just simply isnt a top level footballer in any shape or form.

I just dont see what alternative there is other than to move him on as we've seen all of what he has to offer and it falls short of whats required. I genuinely thought that he would push on this season after an average first season albeit a settling in one, but hes got worse and i dont think theres any way back.

For the record, i dont think Crouch is the long term answer either but hes a better option than Dirk and he must be wondering what he has to do to get a run of games.
IMO, Crouch should be given a run of games in an attempt to form a partnership with Torres because from what ive seen of them together that looks the most promising, certainly for this season anyway.

For the record, I have a feeling that Rafa would take a grafter with limited ability over skill with a lesser work rate every time

[Jacko]

AF, I would take ability over attitude under the current circimstances. What's the point of having a striker operate in his own half?

Kuyt started with bags of promise but its all gone pear shaped. When present with gilt edge chances, instead of a simple placement into goal, he blasts the ball often into row Z. I don't understand Rafa's persistence in playing him. Assuming that Crouch and Rafa had a falling out and this has resulted in Rafa maginalising Crouch in favour of Kuyt, then its not on. Why cut your nose to spite your face?

The manager's job is to motivate the players and the buck has to stop with the manager.

I really thought that we would be close this year and I'm gutted that we are 17 points off the pace, behind the bitters and registering our first league win in '08 against the mighty Sunderland.

Rafa has to put in a settled team for the remainder of the season and go on a run to finish 4th.

What a shambles.

I remember when the notorius "Mex" once said to me. Football- a simple game complicated by idiots (he actually said stupid *******s but you get the drift). And never has a truer word been spoken. Fair enough the games changed with the speed of it and all but lets be honest- the basics are the same. Keep the ball and score goals and committment and passion etc go into your performance whatever.

All this bull**** about tactics does my head in- we need a striker to defend and a different one to score. get the midfielders passing, get the strikers scoring and the defenders defending and the goalkeeper saving. Everything else WILL NOT work without the basics and while we fail to do these then we won't be winning anything.

Here's my idea and given im not a champion league winning manager but still just a thought. Benitez, Mourinho whoever it is in charge come the summer. Just buy 2 more strikers that do nothing but score goals. Main aim- goalscorer. Then get two wide men two assist these two people. Just a thought or maybe we can go back two having one fantastic forward one decent one and two that run around like cunts and don't do anything productive!

[carheex]

No, the players ****ed up by not working their socks off. Not much Rafa can do about that. He can of course bench them but we don't have a good enough squad to do that.

The players should get a big kick in the ass and some of them should be sold as soon as possible because they have showed that they don't care about the red shirt.

Couldn't agree more (what am I saying?!!? this is AFII) - managers take far too much of the blame and are treated as scapegoats for things way outside of their control. It's the players that have been letting us down. VERY few can hold their heads high this season. Gerrard, Torres, Reina, Mascherano, and possibly Crouch have done thier part but the others should give at least of their wages back and donate them to the fans trying to buy the club. That way, the fans would have to pay less and the players would be "happy" and playing better because the existing owners could be ousted.

[Shaggy]

so basically to sum up this thread...

kuyt = ****e
crouch = ****e

on the ****e scale kuyt is more ****e than crouch.

so crouch should start.

that about right ???

I think that sums it up pretty accurately and succinctly

Sorry to keep banging on about this but Peter Crouch is absolutely not "****e".

Perhaps those of you who think he is “****e” ought to ask Fabio Capello, a wonderful, highly-decorated manager, just why the **** he has picked Crouch despite the fact he’s hardly played any football this season.

Rafa Benitez rated Peter Crouch highly enough to buy him, against almost everybody else’s “better judgement”.

Sven Goran Eriksson picked him almost continually from 2005 onwards.

We’ll ignore McClaren.

And now Capello. A string of top, top class managers think Peter Crouch is ace. Now, I’m all for people having their own mind and their own opinions, but this really should tell you people something FFS.