Liverpool v Inter post match joy thread

[Craig_H]

Everyone has been banging on about how it's been the players' fault, because they've not performed and havent looked like they cared...

Tonight, they cared - and performed.

Let's allow differing opinions, eh?

Anyway, i'm fecked after that journey back and i've got work in 6 hours so i'll leave you to jump on any opinion that isnt a carbon copy of yours. Goodnight.

[Ron_Mexico]

Everyone has been banging on about how it's been the players' fault, because they've not performed and havent looked like they cared...

Tonight, they cared - and performed.

Let's allow differing opinions, eh?

Anyway, i'm fecked after that journey back and i've got work in 6 hours so i'll leave you to jump on any opinion that isnt a carbon copy of yours. Goodnight.

you're quite the forum diva, i'll put that last line down to DJS needing her rest

i think it is telling that on the night of a fantastic win all you can come out with is the same tired rafa-bashing ****. why not take one night off and enjoy your team winning- or do you prefer us to lose so you can come on here and moan? i really can't tell

of course i allow for differing opinions, i just don't see how tonight proves you right. please forgive me for trying to discuss it with you

i know what you're saying- against the smaller teams, when the occasion isn't motivating in itself, rafa can't get the players going

my argument is that rafa probably doesn't alter his approach much, no matter the opposition and that the players, being highly paid professionals, shouldn't need a ra-ra speech to get them going

we are both speculating. perhaps the team was just going through a really bad patch, as teams do when you play alot of games- you go stale for a stretch, lose confidence and faith in yourself and your teammates, and need an event-such as losing to barnsley at home, to give you a kick up the arse and snap you out of the funk. it just so happens our bad patch was long and painful this season, compounded by off the field turmoil and uncertainty. for the managers part you can scream at them, you can try to change the team by dropping players to wake them up, or you can stick to your guns and keep the faith in your methods hoping the players will respond. i think rafa has gone with the last option, time will only tell if it is a success, but if tonight is anything to go by it looks like we are starting to emerge from our slump and the confidence taken from beating inter will be invaluable for the next couple of weeks. the key is to build on this win

apologies if that is as muddled as i think it is, i'm quite tired myself and its only 11pm here

[Diego]

[QUOTE=DJS;958544]I think the difference was that, unlike barnsley and luton (etc), the players were up for it tonight, bit game, no need for rafa to motivate them, they all wanted it.[/QUOTE]

does that say more about rafa or certain players?

[Guest]

Everyone has been banging on about how it's been the players' fault, because they've not performed and havent looked like they cared...

Tonight, they cared - and performed.

Let's allow differing opinions, eh?

Anyway, i'm fecked after that journey back and i've got work in 6 hours so i'll leave you to jump on any opinion that isnt a carbon copy of yours. Goodnight.

As if they didn't care in the league or against Barnsley. Your arguments are going thin DJS.

And this performance also dispels the myth that Rafa has lost the dressing room.

[AFII]

Benitez is haunted by ghost of success
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE KNOCK-OUT ROUND LIVERPOOL 2 INTER MILAN 0
Oliver Holt Chief Sports Writer 20/02/2008

Every year, it seems, Rafael Benitez is told he has to get to the Champions League Final to keep his job.

The funny thing is that two years out of three, to general acclaim and astonishment, he managed it.

This season, it's the same again. Benitez's love affair with the competition is like a beautiful curse. He keeps getting to the final, so suddenly nothing apart from getting to the final will do.

Rarely can a manager have won so much so soon and been scorned so quickly by so many. From outside the city, at least. Now, after masterminding yet another European miracle, Rafa may be about to do it all over again. Let's not forget Sir Alex Ferguson has sustained a 21-year career at Manchester United on less success than Benitez in Europe. And yet when Inter arrived at Anfield last night, Benitez was once more rumoured to be drinking in his usual spot in the Last Chance Saloon.

In need of another magic trick like the Miracle of Istanbul or the victories over teams such as Juventus and Barcelona that were also supposed to have been beyond his reach.

There was even writing on walls at the club's training ground critical of the Liverpool boss and his team selections.

So, just like this time last year, when Liverpool faced Barcelona days after Craig Bellamy had threatened John Arne Riise with a golf club, Benitez calmly set about achieving the impossible.

Up against a team that had Toldo, Figo, Vieira, Crespo, Maniche and Suazo sitting on one of the most expensive benches of all time, Benitez opted for all out attack.

For the first 45 minutes, it was like a siege. The runaway Serie A leaders looked ordinary as Liverpool tore into them.

So much for the idea Benitez has lost the dressing room. The reality may be Benitez never won the dressing room in the first place. He doesn't particularly care about currying favour with the players but they showed last night they desperately wanted to win.

Their urgency and relentlessness created few clear cut chances, partly because their delivery from dead balls was almost uniformly abysmal. But it did unnerve their opponents to the point where Marco Materazzi was sent off for a second bookable offence after just half an hour.

If the game had provided nothing else, it's always a pleasure witnessing the displeasure of the man who provoked Zinedine Zidane into getting sent off in the 2006 World Cup Final.

Where Inter deserve great credit was for their defending. Chivu and Cordoba were immense at the heart of their backline.

Liverpool kept Inter pinned in their half after the interval, too, and just before an hour had elapsed, Torres and Hyypia missed the home team's first clear chances in quick succession.

Benitez grew increasingly animated on the touchline as the Kop continued to roar his name. Of American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, men who have already undermined Benitez and are now supposed to be preparing to sack him, there was no sign.

Liverpool were denied a clear penalty midway through the second half when Vieira handled.

When Liverpool played Inter in the European Cup in 1965 a bent official robbed them of aggregate victory in the second leg. In the first leg at Anfield, Liverpool overwhelmed Inter's feared side and raised hopes they would become the first English team to win the competition.

Bill Shankly was building his legend on Merseyside in those years. Benitez may not be his equal but it would be nice to see him given the time to weave a little more magic in the footsteps of the father of the club - Kuyt and Gerrard may have earned him that.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...9520-20325385/

[Ron_Mexico]

Benitez is haunted by ghost of success
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE KNOCK-OUT ROUND LIVERPOOL 2 INTER MILAN 0
Oliver Holt Chief Sports Writer 20/02/2008

Every year, it seems, Rafael Benitez is told he has to get to the Champions League Final to keep his job.

The funny thing is that two years out of three, to general acclaim and astonishment, he managed it.

This season, it's the same again. Benitez's love affair with the competition is like a beautiful curse. He keeps getting to the final, so suddenly nothing apart from getting to the final will do.

Rarely can a manager have won so much so soon and been scorned so quickly by so many. From outside the city, at least. Now, after masterminding yet another European miracle, Rafa may be about to do it all over again. Let's not forget Sir Alex Ferguson has sustained a 21-year career at Manchester United on less success than Benitez in Europe. And yet when Inter arrived at Anfield last night, Benitez was once more rumoured to be drinking in his usual spot in the Last Chance Saloon.

In need of another magic trick like the Miracle of Istanbul or the victories over teams such as Juventus and Barcelona that were also supposed to have been beyond his reach.

There was even writing on walls at the club's training ground critical of the Liverpool boss and his team selections.

So, just like this time last year, when Liverpool faced Barcelona days after Craig Bellamy had threatened John Arne Riise with a golf club, Benitez calmly set about achieving the impossible.

Up against a team that had Toldo, Figo, Vieira, Crespo, Maniche and Suazo sitting on one of the most expensive benches of all time, Benitez opted for all out attack.

For the first 45 minutes, it was like a siege. The runaway Serie A leaders looked ordinary as Liverpool tore into them.

So much for the idea Benitez has lost the dressing room. The reality may be Benitez never won the dressing room in the first place. He doesn't particularly care about currying favour with the players but they showed last night they desperately wanted to win.

Their urgency and relentlessness created few clear cut chances, partly because their delivery from dead balls was almost uniformly abysmal. But it did unnerve their opponents to the point where Marco Materazzi was sent off for a second bookable offence after just half an hour.

If the game had provided nothing else, it's always a pleasure witnessing the displeasure of the man who provoked Zinedine Zidane into getting sent off in the 2006 World Cup Final.

Where Inter deserve great credit was for their defending. Chivu and Cordoba were immense at the heart of their backline.

Liverpool kept Inter pinned in their half after the interval, too, and just before an hour had elapsed, Torres and Hyypia missed the home team's first clear chances in quick succession.

Benitez grew increasingly animated on the touchline as the Kop continued to roar his name. Of American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, men who have already undermined Benitez and are now supposed to be preparing to sack him, there was no sign.

Liverpool were denied a clear penalty midway through the second half when Vieira handled.

When Liverpool played Inter in the European Cup in 1965 a bent official robbed them of aggregate victory in the second leg. In the first leg at Anfield, Liverpool overwhelmed Inter's feared side and raised hopes they would become the first English team to win the competition.

Bill Shankly was building his legend on Merseyside in those years. Benitez may not be his equal but it would be nice to see him given the time to weave a little more magic in the footsteps of the father of the club - Kuyt and Gerrard may have earned him that.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...9520-20325385/

[AFII]

Benfica is still the only team that have beaten a team managed by Rafa in Europe over two legs the last five years.

He won the UEFA Cup with Valencia 2003-04, The CL with us 2004-05, lost against Benfica in the last 16 2005-06, took us to the final 2006-07, we will have to wait and see what the result will be the 2007-08 season.

[Shaggy]

Benfica is still the only team that have beaten a team managed by Rafa in Europe over two legs the last five years.

He won the UEFA Cup with Valencia 2003-04, The CL with us 2004-05, lost against Benfica in the last 16 2005-06, took us to the final 2006-07, we will have to wait and see what the result will be the 2007-08 season.

He is unquestionably the master of European football in my eyes.

European football is more like chess, and he is Kasparaov.

The Premiership isn't anything like chess, sadly.

[Jack D Rips]

For unavoidable reasons I missed the match last night, however having listened to Dunphy, Souness, Giles & Houghton I am actually wondering if we really won the match at all.

I have come to expect negativity from them where Liverpool are concerned but their comments last night take the biscuit.

Again I expect it from Dunphy but according to Houghton we were very poor and only broke the deadlock against 10 men because of a flukey first goal. He also says we showed little imagination and that our set pieces were very poor.

His final dig was at Rafa for not bringing Crouch on earlier when Matarazzi had been sent off

[Shaggy]

Sorry to 'disrespect' a former a player, but Ray Houghton is a ****ing cunt. All he EVER does is criticise us.

[Craig_H]

Rafa's european pedigree is without question, he is untouchable.

[blacky]

Sorry to 'disrespect' a former a player, but Ray Houghton is a ****ing cunt. All he EVER does is criticise us.

Can't ****in stand the cunt , a liverpool and ireland legend and he still makes my blood boil. The whole set up on RTE is designed to ridicule LFC and Rafa. Dunphy never stops getting the digs in, according to him every team we have beat in europe are rubbish (Juve, Barca, Inter ffs). Souness is very much pro liverpool but anti Rafa. Giles talks sense and is a fan of the club and rafa but is just baffled by rafa's policy's and our inconsistcy. It's hard work watching these guys for the night.

[Frank Leroux]

Hey, my first 'multi-quote'

He is unquestionably the master of European football in my eyes.

European football is more like chess, and he is Kasparaov.

The Premiership isn't anything like chess, sadly.

...it's more draughts than chess. Or skittles...

Sorry to 'disrespect' a former a player, but Ray Houghton is a ****ing cunt. All he EVER does is criticise us.

I put up with 'moaning' Jim Beglin on ITV last night so as to avoid 'should've/could've' Ray Houghton.....gives the impression (both of them) that they have very little useful knowledge of the game....

[Frank Leroux]

Rafa's european pedigree is without question, he is untouchable.

[rage]

in the cold light of day, chuffed to bits with the result. still why the **** are our set pieces crap and we still didn't create any or enough clear cut openings.