Rafa Benitez issues Liverpool FC warning

[gerbin11]

Mate, when he buys Pennant, Kuyt and Benyoun for a combined £23m, how can you look at that and say he didnt have the £20m odd to buy a top class player?

If we'd kept Cisse, he'd be producing more in terms of attacking threat and goals, than Kuyt does, from the right wing. Benayoun plays half the games and Pennant never plays anymore.

Do you not think a £20m player would not be having an infinitely better impact on the team now than those 3 combined?

Again a simplistic view. Were Kuyt Pennant and Benayoun bought in the same transfer window? So did he have the luxury of combining these fees to buy one player?

[Red Chilli]

Cisse was replaced by Kuyt, Baros by Morientes and Pongolle by Voronin.

Torres is the belated replacement for Owen.

Fantastic bit of business

Interested to know how you managed to get this info about who replaces whom.

[Johnny]

Cisse was replaced by Kuyt, Baros by Morientes and Pongolle by Voronin.

Torres is the belated replacement for Owen.

And since the Yanks came in we`ve bought Torres,Masch,Babel,Keane for big money.Blame Moores and/or Parry.

[Woobus]

We have younger players coming through who could be the squad fillers and, in my opinion, would do no worse than the likes of Pennant. They didnt cost £7m though and by saving on those types of transfer fees, we could be signing more players in the Torres/Mascherano calibre.

Who in the reserves was ready to play week in week out 2 years ago on the wing? You're right due to Rafa we will now hopefully be able to sell some of the squad players and promote the youth players. Rafa was trying to sell Pennant as he now feels El Zhar is ready to step in, back when we bought Pennant no one was ready.

[gerbin11]

Cisse was replaced by Kuyt, Baros by Morientes and Pongolle by Voronin.

Torres is the belated replacement for Owen.

Kuyt and Morrientes were gambles, some would argue that Morrientes was less of a gamble (who was to know). I don't know how you could suggest that Voronin was bought to replace Pongolle. Torres in my opinion has far more to his game than Owen ever did and was well worth the wait.

[Craig_H]

All I'm saying is, nothing is guarenteed.
Just because you spend 20 million on a winger doesn't mean he will succeed.

Goals scored is not the only measure of effectiveness for the team, unless you think Carragher is ****.
Cisse often refused to chase balls down, I've never seen Kuyt give up a chase. Whether he emerges with the ball is a very short-sighted way of looking at it, he creates space for other players and he pressurises the opposition.

I'd actually take Kuyt over Cisse in terms of footballing ability. Cisse only wins on pace. In terms of finishing, Cisse was very poor, he came from the school of "close your eyes and blast it goalwards".

Cisse used to be offside about a dozen times a game, very disruptive for the team and shows a complete lack of awareness.

I'm not bashing Cisse, he was one of the heroes of Istanbul, but if you want to compare Cisse and Kuyt, I'd take Kuyt everytime. Cisse was a passenger

It doesnt guarantee anything, but come on mate, there IS some validity in the 'you get what you pay for' theory isnt there? Obviously if you spunk £17m on the likes of Bentley, then you ruin things, but for the most part, you know that if you're paying big money, the most likely outcome is that you get quality. We've seen it ourselves in Nando and Mascher. Even in defence, our most expensive ever defender happens to be class.

Very rarely do you get a world class player for a mediocre fee, it just doesnt seem to happen anymore. Everyone knows that for £6m, you're not going to get world class.

Regarding your 'goals not the only measure', your Carragher example was very poor. Obviously there's a big difference when it comes to attackers and defenders and in terms of players who are attackers, goals is a huge thing to consider. Attackers are generally there to score or create and when the biggest attribute an attacking player has is hard work and 'defending' ability, you have a problem.

I dont really rate Cisse, but all things considered, in terms of what output you got from Cisse and Kuyt, and the amount of money involved, i dont see Kuyt as either the better option, nor a worthy £5m upgrade on Cisse.

Kuyt works his arse off and that's terrific, but in terms of the primary function for an attacking player, he's less effective than a passenger.

[Woobus]

Cisse was replaced by Kuyt, Baros by Morientes and Pongolle by Voronin.

Torres is the belated replacement for Owen.

Takes time to build a team, but we now have Torres, Keane, Babel and Kuyt upfront. Far far far better than what Rafa started with, unless you have money like Chelsea a team just cant evolve over night.

[Craig_H]

Again a simplistic view. Were Kuyt Pennant and Benayoun bought in the same transfer window? So did he have the luxury of combining these fees to buy one player?

It's money mate, not water. It's not going to evaporate if you keep hold of it. Look at ferguson, he had to wait ages for Hargreaves, but he didnt just give up and sign Robbie Savage, did he?

[Johnny]

Cisse was replaced by Kuyt, Baros by Morientes and Pongolle by Voronin.

Torres is the belated replacement for Owen.

Twisting and turning to suit your agenda.You hav`nt commented once on the posts stating that since Rafa has had the backing he`s bought Torres,Masch,Keane and Babel.He discovered Skrytl and Agger and a host of kids are coming through.

Darby,Plessis and El Zhar are just the 1st wave.Dalle Valle,Eccelstone and Nemeth will soon be joining the 1st team.

[gerbin11]

Takes time to build a team, but we now have Torres, Keane, Babel and Kuyt upfront. Far far far better than what Rafa started with, unless you have money like Chelsea a team just cant evolve over night.

Good point, we also have Nemeth and Pacheco in the reserves which is no bad thing. Can't remember who bought those two.

[Red Chilli]

It doesnt guarantee anything, but come on mate, there IS some validity in the 'you get what you pay for' theory isnt there? Obviously if you spunk £17m on the likes of Bentley, then you ruin things, but for the most part, you know that if you're paying big money, the most likely outcome is that you get quality. We've seen it ourselves in Nando and Mascher. Even in defence, our most expensive ever defender happens to be class.

Very rarely do you get a world class player for a mediocre fee, it just doesnt seem to happen anymore. Everyone knows that for £6m, you're not going to get world class.

Regarding your 'goals not the only measure', your Carragher example was very poor. Obviously there's a big difference when it comes to attackers and defenders and in terms of players who are attackers, goals is a huge thing to consider. Attackers are generally there to score or create and when the biggest attribute an attacking player has is hard work and 'defending' ability, you have a problem.

I dont really rate Cisse, but all things considered, in terms of what output you got from Cisse and Kuyt, and the amount of money involved, i dont see Kuyt as either the better option, nor a worthy £5m upgrade on Cisse.

Kuyt works his arse off and that's terrific, but in terms of the primary function for an attacking player, he's less effective than a passenger.

Very short-sighted IMO

You get what you pay for eh? Veron, Reyes, Cisse, Diouf, Shevchenko, Owen......

I don't need to go on.

Next, can you name this world class winger we are going to sign please

[gerbin11]

It's money mate, not water. It's not going to evaporate if you keep hold of it. Look at ferguson, he had to wait ages for Hargreaves, but he didnt just give up and sign Robbie Savage, did he?

No but he did sign Kleberson , Veron and Djemba Djemba before he settled on Hargreaves, plus I wouldn't say too much about Hargreaves, hes not managed to put three games in a row together yet.

[blacky]

Like it!!

[Johnny]

It doesnt guarantee anything, but come on mate, there IS some validity in the 'you get what you pay for' theory isnt there? Obviously if you spunk £17m on the likes of Bentley, then you ruin things, but for the most part, you know that if you're paying big money, the most likely outcome is that you get quality. We've seen it ourselves in Nando and Mascher. Even in defence, our most expensive ever defender happens to be class.

Very rarely do you get a world class player for a mediocre fee, it just doesnt seem to happen anymore. Everyone knows that for £6m, you're not going to get world class.

Regarding your 'goals not the only measure', your Carragher example was very poor. Obviously there's a big difference when it comes to attackers and defenders and in terms of players who are attackers, goals is a huge thing to consider. Attackers are generally there to score or create and when the biggest attribute an attacking player has is hard work and 'defending' ability, you have a problem.

I dont really rate Cisse, but all things considered, in terms of what output you got from Cisse and Kuyt, and the amount of money involved, i dont see Kuyt as either the better option, nor a worthy £5m upgrade on Cisse.

Kuyt works his arse off and that's terrific, but in terms of the primary function for an attacking player, he's less effective than a passenger.

[Harv]

Like it!!