Rafa's Last Season?

[Sarb]

V i know what you're saying about having a squad, but why spend £18m on a player when we've got Babel and Lucas who'd offer a lot more going forward than him. Mascherano is the best defensive midfielder in the world at the moment, don't need Bary imo

[anfieldanfield]

If we don't seriously challenge for the title this season, he should go. No question.

[kris90210]

If we don't seriously challenge for the title this season, he should go. No question.

who would you replace him with?

[kris90210]

V i know what you're saying about having a squad, but why spend £18m on a player when we've got Babel and Lucas who'd offer a lot more going forward than him. Mascherano is the best defensive midfielder in the world at the moment, don't need Bary imo

I can only assume that he wants to line up with Gerrard or Keane on the right. Or perhaps have the 3 attacking midfielders in constant rotation. Full backs would provide the width. You would have Lucas as backup to Barry and Plessis as backup to Mascherano.

All 4 front players would have goals in them and Barry and Mascherano would be solid in defence

--------------Torres----------------
------------------------------------
--Babel------Keane-----Gerrard------
------------------------------------
-------Barry------Mascherano-------

[Vermilion]

I was just thinking how unique the Prem is, and why it's so hard for us to win, we have two very strange situations at the clubs we are chasing.

The Scum have a long running successful settled manager, the longest term in football, and he's given full control, his club happen to be one of the richest in football. The Chav's have Unlimited amounts of cash to spend on the worlds best players/managers, as many as it takes.

It will take something very special to consistently challenge year on year.

[Hammer]

If we can at least be in contention for the league title by next April/May then Rafa should definitely be given another year. The league is the priority and even if we don't win any trophies this season, by sustaining a title challenge will atleast show he is getting closer to it.

Rafa has now almost everything in place, the spine of the team is there, he has got the youth players in place, and over the last 2 summers he has been given the chance to spend big on players. The team is improving and I believe in the next year or 2 he will bring us the title. It will be a huge mistake in getting rid of him when we are so close, as a new manager would want to rebuild the team to his own liking which will very likely mean having to wait another 4 or 5 years. Rafa is almost is almost there and just needs a bit more time.

Its only when we start to decline that we will need to consider whether he needs to be replaced. In Houllier’s last few years the decline was clear. Our points total decreased every year from his peak of 2002 and the gap between us and the top therefore increased. Houllier had taken us as far as he could.

Rafa is far from that. Last season we closed the gap and despite not winning enough games we were very difficult to beat, losing only 4 games all season which was our lowest for 20 odd years. So we are clearly not falling away just yet.

So unless we fall back very dramatically this season, Rafa should be kept on for another year at the very least. Slowly we are getting there, the Premiership is getting harder to win every year, and as long as we continue to get closer to the top, its only a matter of time until Rafa brings us the title.

[kris90210]

I was just thinking how unique the Prem is, and why it's so hard for us to win, we have two very strange situations at the clubs we are chasing.

The Scum have a long running successful settled manager, the longest term in football, and he's given full control, his club happen to be one of the richest in football. The Chav's have Unlimited amounts of cash to spend on the worlds best players/managers, as many as it takes.

It will take something very special to consistently challenge year on year.

Not only that but Ferguson and Wenger have had years and years to tinker with their setup. I honestly believe that if we give Rafa time he will take us back to the very top.

[Tatterdemalion]

We don't need a title challenge. We need to finish in the champs league places and then generate as much revenue as possible from the competition.

What we want is something entirely different..

Rafa will stay so long as the the money rolls in and the fans like him - in that order.

[rage]

knowledgable fans that we are i have no doubt that i will not stand alone in my criticisms if we're playing catch up at xmas and finish the season no where near. we'll see then who was right and who stands silent.

our short falls last year in no significant order were
-an unbalanced team due to both rotation of formation and players,
-a failure to break down teams that defended,
-an inability to finish teams off,
-bottling it against the scum
and an over-reliance on gerrard and torres.

we'll just have to see which of these rafa has addressed. oh and anyone who really thinks we're playing to finish third - get a grip!!

[Dhav]

The goalposts have shifted between Evans and Houllier and now the Benitez reigns; at SOME point a decision will need to be taken as to whether the club has stagnated or worse gone backwards under Rafa but I'm of the opinion that we are still progressing - it's hardly Rafa's fault that we can't compete with United and Chelsea in the transfer market.

IF over-rotation and bizarre team selections undermine this seasons league campaign then questions probably need to be asked.

Good post sir

[Roboklopp]

You mention Ferguson as one manager who could win within Rafa's constraints. it took him 7 years to win the league and 6 years before he challenged (i know he was 2nd in his second year but he was miles off the league winners, us ) This was despite him outspending Liverpool over his first 4 - 5 years at the club, think of the likes of ince, webb, pallister, wallace, all bought for big money at the time.

Anyone can see that Rafa is building a big squad with a lot of quality young players coming in for the future. Even if we finish 4th this year he should still be kept as we are undoubtedly making progress and btw i expect we will be a lot closer to the top this year.

I meant the present-day Fergiscum with his 20-years experience or whatever. But you've served to reinforce my argument, so ta.

[Roboklopp]

Would this be the gooners who we finished ahead of the year before last?

..and the year before that, aye.

[Roboklopp]

Regardless of scum/chav spending power we should always be looking to compete with them.....whats the point of playing if your not playing to win and ultimatley be the best?

Not what I said is it? Of course that should be our aim, but we have to be realistic. The short-term knee-jerk fans who think we have a divine right to win everything just because we are LFC are doing more damage to our long-term potential to challenge at the ones that "settle" for 3rd or 4th place, when we can see the bigger picture.

[Roboklopp]

If we don't seriously challenge for the title this season, he should go. No question.

No surprise which side of the fence you are on then...

[rage]

Not what I said is it? Of course that should be our aim, but we have to be realistic. The short-term knee-jerk fans who think we have a divine right to win everything just because we are LFC are doing more damage to our long-term potential to challenge at the ones that "settle" for 3rd or 4th place, when we can see the bigger picture.

i remember as a child some prick of a teacher telling me i had to to be realistic, no offense to you pc but i bumped into that knob only last year. he clearly saw i'd ignored replicating his failed dreams. whats the saying something like aim for the stars and settle for the sky?

we are liverpool fc. the most successful club in English history - **** realism