Lee Dixon On Keane

[Elvoz]

If Rafa knows more than us lesser knowledgable fans, why does he go and play strikers on the wings, started with 3 central midfielders and a striker in a midfield 4 and spend £20m on a player and decide to play him on the wing?

Why does he spend £7.5m on a winger who can't take on a player or cross a ball? Why does he think a 28 year old central midfielder at £18m is going to help him win the title?

Why does he go to teams looking for a draw and make bizarre substitutions?

I'll tell you why....because he doesn't know it all. He's been here for 4 or 5 years and has not yet assembled a squad capable of winning the title. He still has a team reliant on two players to turn a game for him yet he spends millions on mediocre squad players

More and more he reminds me of Houllier...bizarre team selections, negative boring football but on top he has hissy fits when he doesn't get his own way

good post fella

[Skillz]

Even worse, Rafa has probably seen that article and will probably go the opposite way even more just to try and prove he knows best, when quite clearly he's shown that he doesn't.

Reira will probably play right wing or somewhere else except his favoured position

That's a joke isnt it?

[Sarb]

No it's not. It's a trait he clearly has

[Skillz]

It wasn't supposed to be a funny comment. I'm serious. People who don't think Rafa's the man have not fared well here in the past.

They can join 6CM. They will fit in perfectly.

[Skillz]

No it's not. It's a trait he clearly has

What? He manages the team based on the critics in the media, just to piss them off? Or to spite them?

FFS

[FatTony]

If Rafa knows more than us lesser knowledgable fans, why does he go and play strikers on the wings, started with 3 central midfielders and a striker in a midfield 4 and spend £20m on a player and decide to play him on the wing?

Why does he spend £7.5m on a winger who can't take on a player or cross a ball? Why does he think a 28 year old central midfielder at £18m is going to help him win the title?

Why does he go to teams looking for a draw and make bizarre substitutions?

I'll tell you why....because he doesn't know it all. He's been here for 4 or 5 years and has not yet assembled a squad capable of winning the title. He still has a team reliant on two players to turn a game for him yet he spends millions on mediocre squad players

More and more he reminds me of Houllier...bizarre team selections, negative boring football but on top he has hissy fits when he doesn't get his own way

To progress I think Rafa now has to stick with his squad and start adding only quality players. He's been here 5 years and if by now and £200m later he hasn't laid the foundations of a "squad" of players to cover us during injuries and cup games there is something wrong.

I still believe our problems are in midfield and a dynamic winger will make all the difference and I see this as being something that Rafa has failed to address, but to be fair to Rafa, just who is out there to fill this role? There are 3 that stand out to me, Ribery, Ronaldo and Robben, none of which are realistic targets, even if we had £30m to blow.

I say again though, I think he needs to start only adding the class now and stop simply increasing the man power.

[barnes10]

I just don't get why rafa's in for such a hard time on here from a lot of people. its pretty disrespectful **** that you write too a lot of the time considering the man works his @rse off and all hours to try to give us what we all want. maybe im old school but im glad for it. a lot of you overstep the mark as i see it day in day out. and its ruining the site. bickering internet egos every fookin day.

I'm not saying he's perfect but he certainly doesnt deserve the slagging that some of you keyboard warriors/Champ managers give him.

now that he's had a couple of seasons to spend big money you're all of a sudden saying 'he's had the money, where's the fooking title then?'. you completely lose sight of the fact that rafa is starting from a sh1t base, upgrading all aspects of our club including youth and to do keep us strong over the long term in a league that is getting fiercely competitive (compared to GH's final season). building a dynasty, which we'd all say we'd prefer over the blackburn 1 team model, takes time.

there's a few key facts about rafa's tenure that i plead that you take into consideration before enlightening us with your wisdom of how average he is:

Chelsea blown more than half a billion on their team
Man U started with a title winning squad and have spent a similiar sum as him
Arsenal have won less
He has invested youth as well as first team players in order to build a dynasty not just a 1 season wonder first 11.
He has not been able to buy his first choice so many of his signings - and therefore our tactics - have not been his ideal scenario
In order to spend practically any money (until this summer) he has had to concentrate on getting us to the latter stages of the CL. to generate his own warchest.

factor it in and then say what you say. Otherwise you're just not living in the real world and thats the only fact the rest of us need to know whilst reading your posts.

rafa is far from an average manager and the comparison with Houllier is something i can't believe i read. he is an excellent manager that, accounting for his and the clubs circumstances, is punching above his weight and upgrading a whole squad with little capital injection. thats as good as it gets im afraid lads. be grateful.

IF you're a supporter of LFC, have some respect for your manager and give him a fair crack of the whip. Its not asking much really is it. If you don't do that you're no better than the scumbag journos in the media that hound managers spouting their sensationalist fact-free bull****. If you don't do that, you're not a supporter.

[barnes10]

To progress I think Rafa now has to stick with his squad and start adding only quality players. He's been here 5 years and if by now and £200m later he hasn't laid the foundations of a "squad" of players to cover us during injuries and cup games there is something wrong.

I still believe our problems are in midfield and a dynamic winger will make all the difference and I see this as being something that Rafa has failed to address, but to be fair to Rafa, just who is out there to fill this role? There are 3 that stand out to me, Ribery, Ronaldo and Robben, none of which are realistic targets, even if we had £30m to blow.

I say again though, I think he needs to start only adding the class now and stop simply increasing the man power.

So you're saying he needs to add class but there's none out there?

So if he can't buy his first choices, what does he do? nothing? or look for the next best option to solve the problem at hand and try to move forward?

[pezzzer]

So you're saying he needs to add class but there's none out there?

So if he can't buy his first choices, what does he do? nothing? or look for the next best option to solve the problem at hand and try to move forward?

good post mate but dont try and talk sense like that, much easier just to slag rafa's tactics and managerial qualitys from the comfort of your arm chair.

rage and bobthecharmer do this exceptionaly well

[Kenneth]

I just don't get why rafa's in for such a hard time on here from a lot of people. its pretty disrespectful **** that you write too a lot of the time considering the man works his @rse off and all hours to try to give us what we all want. maybe im old school but im glad for it. a lot of you overstep the mark as i see it day in day out. and its ruining the site. bickering internet egos every fookin day.

I'm not saying he's perfect but he certainly doesnt deserve the slagging that some of you keyboard warriors/Champ managers give him.

now that he's had a couple of seasons to spend big money you're all of a sudden saying 'he's had the money, where's the fooking title then?'. you completely lose sight of the fact that rafa is starting from a sh1t base, upgrading all aspects of our club including youth and to do keep us strong over the long term in a league that is getting fiercely competitive (compared to GH's final season). building a dynasty, which we'd all say we'd prefer over the blackburn 1 team model, takes time.

there's a few key facts about rafa's tenure that i plead that you take into consideration before enlightening us with your wisdom of how average he is:

Chelsea blown more than half a billion on their team
Man U started with a title winning squad and have spent a similiar sum as him
Arsenal have won less
He has invested youth as well as first team players in order to build a dynasty not just a 1 season wonder first 11.
He has not been able to buy his first choice so many of his signings - and therefore our tactics - have not been his ideal scenario
In order to spend practically any money (until this summer) he has had to concentrate on getting us to the latter stages of the CL. to generate his own warchest.

factor it in and then say what you say. Otherwise you're just not living in the real world and thats the only fact the rest of us need to know whilst reading your posts.

rafa is far from an average manager and the comparison with Houllier is something i can't believe i read. he is an excellent manager that, accounting for his and the clubs circumstances, is punching above his weight and upgrading a whole squad with little capital injection. thats as good as it gets im afraid lads. be grateful.

IF you're a supporter of LFC, have some respect for your manager and give him a fair crack of the whip. Its not asking much really is it. If you don't do that you're no better than the scumbag journos in the media that hound managers spouting their sensationalist fact-free bull****. If you don't do that, you're not a supporter.

Seen this crap few times in the last few days. Football's ruined, EST is ruines etc etc. Start a thread about a topic you want to talk about and knock yourself out. Ignore threads that are clearly knocking a decision by Rafa etc and let others get on with it. Nothing's ruined, no melodrama or hyperbole required.

[FatTony]

So you're saying he needs to add class but there's none out there?

So if he can't buy his first choices, what does he do? nothing? or look for the next best option to solve the problem at hand and try to move forward?

Well, thats what I was more or less saying...

[BobTheCharmer]

So you're saying he needs to add class but there's none out there?

So if he can't buy his first choices, what does he do? nothing? or look for the next best option to solve the problem at hand and try to move forward?

he plays players in their correct positions. if we decide to go 4-4-2, lets really go for it and play pennant every game since he's our only wide right player. we put out our best 11 in their best positions. If he loves the arse of kuyt then by all means play him up front. then rafa stops giving advice to every player where and where not to ****ing run (in the liege game he clearly put aurelio off at one point as he looked towards rafa while he had the ball at his feet ffs). then if we come up short and lose to utd and chelsea despit giving it or all. You hold up your hands and say fair enough, we didn't have enough class and thats down to money.

at the moment we have a squad of very good players who aren't being given the freedom to express themselves and in some cases being played out of position. all most of us want is to give it a go and try and squeeze the best out of our lot. if we come up short so be it. i can't forgive coming up short due to a managers safety first approach, bitching in the press about lack of funds etc.

[rage]

he plays players in their correct positions. if we decide to go 4-4-2, lets really go for it and play pennant every game since he's our only wide right player. we put out our best 11 in their best positions. If he loves the arse of kuyt then by all means play him up front. then rafa stops giving advice to every player where and where not to ****ing run (in the liege game he clearly put aurelio off at one point as he looked towards rafa while he had the ball at his feet ffs). then if we come up short and lose to utd and chelsea despit giving it or all. You hold up your hands and say fair enough, we didn't have enough class and thats down to money.

at the moment we have a squad of very good players who aren't being given the freedom to express themselves and in some cases being played out of position. all most of us want is to give it a go and try and squeeze the best out of our lot. if we come up short so be it. i can't forgive coming up short due to a managers safety first approach, bitching in the press about lack of funds etc.

spot on

442, 352, 4231 - just ****ing play players in the position they were bought for and then if we come up short it because we weren't good enough, no one NOT EVEN I would blame rafa then

[barnes10]

spot on

442, 352, 4231 - just ****ing play players in the position they were bought for and then if we come up short it because we weren't good enough, no one NOT EVEN I would blame rafa then

don't you even think about what you write?

what if the player he had to buy is playing ****e and you have a better option? still play him? when do you stop playing him? until he gets sold? still play him as that's what he was bought for? we all know the best laid plans dont always work out so what do you do? thats why he wants options and possibilities. You seem to think he wanted to buy pennant as if he was thinking pennant was the final piece of the jigsaw or something. he bought most players because they could do a job and maybe kick on and become top players. its only since masher has he been able to land a couple of gems.

i agree with you on keane on the basis that i think he'll only have the impact we want when played up front. but if ngog and torres are on fire and we have nothing on the right then i'd happily play keane there. i think kuyt has proved more effective out wide than up front AND more effective than our other wide men so what should rafa do other than play kuyt there?

he plays the best players for the tactics he wants to use against the opposition. this approach won us the trophies under him, has closed the gap on the champs in the league and is essentially his whole philosophy. probably why he's not managing a pub team.

[barnes10]

Seen this crap few times in the last few days. Football's ruined, EST is ruines etc etc. Start a thread about a topic you want to talk about and knock yourself out. Ignore threads that are clearly knocking a decision by Rafa etc and let others get on with it. Nothing's ruined, no melodrama or hyperbole required.

its getting tiresome how every thread at some point, descends into two or three posters just having a go without giving the bloke a fair crack - which, as above, is what I think people should be doing for him - but every other thread i read nowadays becomes the same. you're obviously not getting annoyed at it as I am.