Rafa - is he any good? ;)

[CAD]

I don't really care. Rafa is hardly the Messiah. Let's be honest about this. We need new blood.

[tomasjj]

I don't really care. Rafa is hardly the Messiah. Let's be honest about this. We need new blood.

Fickle and impatient.

One should think you belonged to the sky generation, not the hippie generation.

[Robster007]

I don't really care. Rafa is hardly the Messiah. Let's be honest about this. We need new blood.

If Manyoo had decided that after fergie won nothing for 5-6 years they wouldn't be where they are today.

[MindGuerrillas]

People may say that we're underachieving but are we really? We are routinely finishing 3rd or 4th which is exactly where we should be finishing - we will this year too IMO. The problem we have is that people's expectations are unrealistically high. Expecting to finish first or second is madness. Getting massively depressed about it when we don't is even worse.

As hard as it is, we just have to accept that it is 2008 not 1988 and we are no longer the top club in the country. We are though the third or fourth best team in the country, we have the 3rd or 4th best squad, income and spending and therefore finish 3rd or 4th. Expecting to compete with the likes of United is just unrealistic and setting ourselves up for a massive fall. If we are to ever compete with them we need either a huge injection of cash to buy the multiple £15-30m players that they have or we need to be very patient as Arsenal have been with Wenger over recent seasons and allow the manager time to find and bring though his own youth players.

Painful as it may be we are not in the same league as United, Chelsea or Arsenal and we have done very well in recent years to finish third twice. We're starting to get as delusional as Newcastle fans, expecting title challenges every year when there are no facts to suggest that we should. Some fans need a serious reality check.

Rant over

[CAD]

Fickle and impatient.

One should think you belonged to the sky generation, not the hippie generation.

4 years. Funding is not the problem. Look at Wenger. Look at the players Rafa has bought. I doubt he will ever win no.19. I'm just saying that it wouldn't be the end of the world if we got a new manager

Sky generation

[carlton]

I don't really care. Rafa is hardly the Messiah. Let's be honest about this. We need new blood.

Surely those sort of sentiments may best be left until the end of the season. If we win a trophy like the CL would you still want new blood?

[CAD]

Surely those sort of sentiments may best be left until the end of the season. If we win a trophy like the CL would you still want new blood?

Not sure. I'm just happy that nobody will ask me to make that kind of decision

I think I would look for a more rebellious profil for LFC. Somebody who tinkers less and tries to win every game through positive football. When I look at the Arsenal team I know that it's not all about money and that it can be done.

Rafa has a very negative approach sometimes. Too cautious. I don't really like the football he makes LFC play.

[carlton]

Not sure. I'm just happy that nobody will ask me to make that kind of decision

I think I would look for a more rebellious profil for LFC. Somebody who tinkers less and tries to win every game through positive football. When I look at the Arsenal team I know that it's not all about money and that it can be done.

Rafa has a very negative approach sometimes. Too cautious. I don't really like the football he makes LFC play.

Im not sure if we have the cattle to play fast free flowing football. Wingers arent good enough or maybe consistent enough and Torres needs the support and creativity crouch and kuyt cannot provide (at the moment anyway. If we could get some pace and skill in attack things would be different (hopefully). His Valencia teams played some great football so he is capable of it.

[The_weatherman]

People may say that we're underachieving but are we really? We are routinely finishing 3rd or 4th which is exactly where we should be finishing - we will this year too IMO. The problem we have is that people's expectations are unrealistically high. Expecting to finish first or second is madness. Getting massively depressed about it when we don't is even worse.

As hard as it is, we just have to accept that it is 2008 not 1988 and we are no longer the top club in the country. We are though the third or fourth best team in the country, we have the 3rd or 4th best squad, income and spending and therefore finish 3rd or 4th. Expecting to compete with the likes of United is just unrealistic and setting ourselves up for a massive fall. If we are to ever compete with them we need either a huge injection of cash to buy the multiple £15-30m players that they have or we need to be very patient as Arsenal have been with Wenger over recent seasons and allow the manager time to find and bring though his own youth players.

Painful as it may be we are not in the same league as United, Chelsea or Arsenal and we have done very well in recent years to finish third twice. We're starting to get as delusional as Newcastle fans, expecting title challenges every year when there are no facts to suggest that we should. Some fans need a serious reality check.

Rant over

Spot on. And if we look at the big picture Rafa has done very well in refreshing the whole club, the youths and reserves as well and hopefully we'll reap the dividends from that in the future.

[carlton]

Spot on. And if we look at the big picture Rafa has done very well in refreshing the whole club, the youths and reserves as well and hopefully we'll reap the dividends from that in the future.

Yep, Man U have been able to buy 30 million pound players for a while now, chelsea have moneybags and even arsenal could take a 10 million pound punt on walcott. Its possible for us to spend big this summer but rafa will need to sell someone like alonso in addition to the carson and riise types.

[tomasjj]

People may say that we're underachieving but are we really? We are routinely finishing 3rd or 4th which is exactly where we should be finishing - we will this year too IMO. The problem we have is that people's expectations are unrealistically high. Expecting to finish first or second is madness. Getting massively depressed about it when we don't is even worse.

As hard as it is, we just have to accept that it is 2008 not 1988 and we are no longer the top club in the country. We are though the third or fourth best team in the country, we have the 3rd or 4th best squad, income and spending and therefore finish 3rd or 4th. Expecting to compete with the likes of United is just unrealistic and setting ourselves up for a massive fall. If we are to ever compete with them we need either a huge injection of cash to buy the multiple £15-30m players that they have or we need to be very patient as Arsenal have been with Wenger over recent seasons and allow the manager time to find and bring though his own youth players.

Painful as it may be we are not in the same league as United, Chelsea or Arsenal and we have done very well in recent years to finish third twice. We're starting to get as delusional as Newcastle fans, expecting title challenges every year when there are no facts to suggest that we should. Some fans need a serious reality check.

Rant over

Great post that.
People expect too much, too soon.

[Skillz]

Great post that.
People expect too much, too soon.

It was a great post by Mindguerillas and I hope our supporters get into the reality of our situation sooner rather than later.

IT'S A BIG ****EN HILL WE ARE TRYING TO CLIMB

[Jazzmaster]

People may say that we're underachieving but are we really? We are routinely finishing 3rd or 4th which is exactly where we should be finishing - we will this year too IMO. The problem we have is that people's expectations are unrealistically high. Expecting to finish first or second is madness. Getting massively depressed about it when we don't is even worse.

As hard as it is, we just have to accept that it is 2008 not 1988 and we are no longer the top club in the country. We are though the third or fourth best team in the country, we have the 3rd or 4th best squad, income and spending and therefore finish 3rd or 4th. Expecting to compete with the likes of United is just unrealistic and setting ourselves up for a massive fall. If we are to ever compete with them we need either a huge injection of cash to buy the multiple £15-30m players that they have or we need to be very patient as Arsenal have been with Wenger over recent seasons and allow the manager time to find and bring though his own youth players.

Painful as it may be we are not in the same league as United, Chelsea or Arsenal and we have done very well in recent years to finish third twice. We're starting to get as delusional as Newcastle fans, expecting title challenges every year when there are no facts to suggest that we should. Some fans need a serious reality check.

Rant over

Im sorry but thats a load. You are completely ignoring the facts that we all have seen played out on the pitch this season. For many of our matches we have been painful to watch. Players playing out of position, lacking confidence, appaling lack of goal threat apart from the obvious players. In fact im hard pushed to find a player that has improved under rafa's regime, defenders aside.

Now Im not for a minute suggesting that we should be finishing 1st or 2nd with our currrent crop of players, but there is no way anybody would have thought that we would be in a 4th place dogfight come the beginning of february. We have players capable of obtaining a much higher points tally but that simply isnt happening under rafa benitez and it most likely never will unless he makes some radical changes to his selection policy.

Its not delusional to demand high standards from our players when we have payed good money to buy them but said high standards must be imposed and taught by the management team and at the moment it doesnt seem to be happening.

As this point in time its make or break for benitez and rightly so. He has shown us nothing to suggest that he is capable of winning the league and indeed there has been a disimprovement this season which was evident long before Klinsmanngate arose. There have been 3 top performances this season: Derby home, Chelsea home and Marseille Away. There have been some bizarre team selections which have not only cost us points but served to lower the confidence of some of the players. That simply isnt good enough to warrant blind faith in an underachieveing premierleague manager.

[L10]

People may say that we're underachieving but are we really? We are routinely finishing 3rd or 4th which is exactly where we should be finishing - we will this year too IMO. The problem we have is that people's expectations are unrealistically high. Expecting to finish first or second is madness. Getting massively depressed about it when we don't is even worse.

As hard as it is, we just have to accept that it is 2008 not 1988 and we are no longer the top club in the country. We are though the third or fourth best team in the country, we have the 3rd or 4th best squad, income and spending and therefore finish 3rd or 4th. Expecting to compete with the likes of United is just unrealistic and setting ourselves up for a massive fall. If we are to ever compete with them we need either a huge injection of cash to buy the multiple £15-30m players that they have or we need to be very patient as Arsenal have been with Wenger over recent seasons and allow the manager time to find and bring though his own youth players.

Painful as it may be we are not in the same league as United, Chelsea or Arsenal and we have done very well in recent years to finish third twice. We're starting to get as delusional as Newcastle fans, expecting title challenges every year when there are no facts to suggest that we should. Some fans need a serious reality check.

Rant over

I apologize for bumping this again.
One of the most shortest and well put comments made on here.I myself fall in to the expect too much position.Maybe because I'm a scouser and think LFC are the be all end all of footy.That mentality has been drilled in to my head since I can recall.
At this moment in time though we will have to be humble with what we have.
anyways great post

[Manofthebog]

4 years. Funding is not the problem. Look at Wenger. Look at the players Rafa has bought. I doubt he will ever win no.19. I'm just saying that it wouldn't be the end of the world if we got a new manager

Sky generation

sorry to be picky, but remind me, how many years has Wenger been manager at Arsenal.

Then how many years was it until he won the league/anything major, say like the Champions League.

Then, how many times you can remember Arsenal fans calling for him to be sacked.

Again, not being picky like.