In defence of Rafa.....gulp...

[Joe Le Toff]

Not in the league it doesnt its no better than Houlliers

[Sarb]

The jury is out on what he does in the league. Without doubt though he's a top class manager in Europe. I'd even go as far as to say he could probably win Spain the World Cup and European Cup because he does well in one-off European games.

If his summer shopping list contains the likes of Valencia though, I don't think we'll be any closer to winning the league next season

[MrMichael]

FFS, this thread shouldnt even exist- Rafa's record speaks for itself

"In defence of Rafa"????? There's absolutely no need

Without Rafa we wouldn't have been playing that game yesterday. Without Rafa we wouldn't have players like Torres and Mascherano at the club. His European record is second to absolutely no-one, and there was no shame at all in that performance last night. As for the league, we're overdue a genuine shot at the title, certainly, but saying we'll never win the league with Rafa is nonsense - we have no divine right to challenge; we're competing with teams that spend tens of millions on every single player in their side, and until we can compete on a level playing field where that's concerned we'll always only have an outside shot. To even think we'd do better with anyone else at the helm is unrealistic and silly imo.

[MrMichael]

Not in the league it doesnt its no better than Houlliers

Houllier's record in terms of places finished in and points totals was pretty good. In a pre-Abrahamovic era though. Overall however there is no comparisson, after 4 years Houllier had completely run out of ideas, made some terrible judgements in the transfer market, and was showing no signs of having a sustainable long term plan for the club's direction.

Houllier's biggest buys

Heskey for £11m
Diouf for £10m
Cisse for £14m

Rafa's

Torres for £20m
Mascherano for £17m
Alonso for £11m

[Jennings]

Rafa's got nothing to defend.

Best thing to happen to Liverpool over the last 15 years.

All those who disagree, look at the record books.

[pezzzer]

i really fancy us for the league next year, as long as the in-house ownership squabbling has ceased. dont forget rafa/team have had that to deal with this year. And dont start all that "we,ve spent the same as manu" **** up COUGHsydneyCOUGH you know its a flawed agrument mate

[Shaggy]

Rafa has put us back on the map. We're a force again. We might not have sustained a credible title challenge (yet) but he has made people respect us again, fear us again. Every single season of Rafa's has brought us hope. Finals and semi-finals left, right and centre.

The Mancs here would piss themselves if he was sacked. He's the best thing to happen to us for a long time and he should be allowed to stay for as long as he likes.

[cadmium]

Rafa has put us back on the map. We're a force again. We might not have sustained a credible title challenge (yet) but he has made people respect us again, fear us again. Every single season of Rafa's has brought us hope. Finals and semi-finals left, right and centre.

The Mancs here would piss themselves if he was sacked. He's the best thing to happen to us for a long time and he should be allowed to stay for as long as he likes.

Well said mate

[blacky]

Well said Shaggy. Rafa is a legend. We need to be patient with him. The title will come. A manc mate of mine ambushed me this morning. Big smile on his face saying at the start of this season he felt liverpool were the team to be wary of and thinks the gooners are the team to fear next season. I really want to prove him wrong. Being under dogs suits us. If people are writing off our chances for next season already then I am very comfortable with that.

[Dalglish]

The wisdom of DJS:

Rafa's to blame

He HAS spent as much as Man Utd

oh hang on. We have to look at the whole "PL" era

You do realise we've spent the same as the mancs in the PL era?

but wait...

There's about £10m in it.

I love how you state this all as fact (despite contradicting yourself). Would you care to post copies of the bank accounts up here so we can all check the maths?

[Cormack74]

Get a top drawer full back and wide player and we have a credible chance of a title challenge IMO.

[red g]

defence, what defence!! Our squad isnt strong enough to compete for the title yet. Rafa knows this, so happy with the last few years of CL....next year is a different matter, a few additions and think we are ready to take our crown back

[ntto]

am I wrong to think the substitutions Rafa made last night weren't the right ones?

Coming back from the pub with the radio on the first "Liverpool" caller to 909 said how we had 3 strikers in the squad, 1 playing and 2 on the bench. We played most of the second half with no strikers at all.

With the pitch the way it was I'd have gone gerrard out right, babel out left and bought crouch on along side Torres and bombarded the Chelsea box towards Crouch.

But then I'm not the manager

[Joe King]

Two of the substitutions were forced upon him (Skrtel and Torres) The other substitution was Pennant for Benayoun which seemed a bad one at the time but hindsight is 20:20.

[tsb]

No need for this thread. Defending Rafa hadn't even crossed my mind.