Spurs build up thread

[Lee]

That's quite surprising really as at times we've shipped goals. Just goes to show.

Every season he tops this list, yet still fails to get the recognition he deserves outside of LFC.

Yup.

I sit next to a massive Cheslea fan at work. To be honest he only started supporting them from 2003 onwards and, whilst likes to pretend he knows a lot about football, he knows jack **** really.

So you can imagine how many Cech vs Reina debates we've had. Then yesterday I reminded him that Reina is on course to win the Golden Glove for the 4th season running

Although I had to explain what the Golden Glove award is...

[Craig_H]

Benitez stands ground

By Oliver Kay

Saturday November 01 2008

IN his compelling recent autobiography, Jamie Carragher, in the nicest possible way, likened Rafael Benitez to a "pub bore" -- a man with an answer to everything.

Yesterday morning at the club's Melwood training ground, with his Liverpool team top of the Premier League table and about to travel to White Hart Lane, scene of his first match in English football in August 2004, seemed a good time to put the theory -- and the Spaniard's memory -- to the test as he was asked to name his starting line-up that day.

For a moment, it seemed that the Liverpool manager was about to rise to the challenge -- Dudek, Josemi ... -- but he stopped short, saying that he did not want to tarnish his reputation by making any mistakes.

You sensed that, with a little cajoling, he would have got it, right down to the men on the substitutes' bench, but instead he preferred to advance the conversation.

"It shows that we have improved, no?" he said.

Of the 16 men in Benitez's squad against Tottenham Hotspur that occasion, for a 1-1 draw on the first day of the 2004-05 campaign, only three -- Carragher, Sami Hyypia and Steven Gerrard -- are still at the club.

The pace of change has been even more dramatic at Tottenham -- they were managed at the time by Jacques Santini and had such luminaries as Noureddine Naybet, Phil Ifil and Johnnie Jackson in their starting line-up.

Evolution

Liverpool's return to White Hart Lane this evening seemed the ideal context for Benitez to reflect on the evolution of a squad that finally looks as if it may be equipped for a title challenge.

Catch him in the right mood and Benitez might joke about the paucity of the group of players he encountered on his first day at pre-season training at Anfield in '04 (Patrice Luzi, Salif Diao, Bruno Cheyrou) and even about the team, who miraculously, won the Champions League that season.

He can reminisce fondly about those who have served a purpose in the short term (Mohamed Sissoko, Peter Crouch, Craig Bellamy) and those who came and went without making an impression (Antonio Nunez, Jan Kromkamp, Mark Gonzalez) and even that he has an entirely different backroom staff now, but, for all that the pace of change has been dizzying at times, Liverpool look a force to be reckoned with in the league once more.

"When you arrive in the Premier League you have a lot of confidence and you think that maybe in one year, maybe in three years, you can change everything," Benitez said yesterday.

"But then you can see the Premier League is really difficult and you know that if you want to be a contender you have to change many things.

"So little by little we have changed these things and you can see now the difference between that squad and the squad we have at the moment. We are improving. That is clear.

"When we were being successful in Europe, people were talking about the Premier League.

"We were trying to bring in players who could settle down quickly in the Premier League, so we signed players like (Jermaine) Pennant, Bellamy, Crouch. They knew the Premier League.

"You need quality, desire, passion, character, a lot of things together.

"That is the reason why you need to change players, players who can bring something and perform during the season.

"And now, little by little, you have to say that now Daniel Agger has almost everything, Martin Skrtel, Javier Mascherano, Pepe Reina, Xabi Alonso. We are improving and I think we will improve over the next year."

The impact made by this summer's signings has been limited, with Albert Riera the pick so far. The improvement has been brought about primarily by those players already at the club.

Benitez firmly expects Andrea Dossena to establish himself at left-back, once he has adapted to English football, and for Robbie Keane, whose two goals for the club have come in the Champions League, to start to show the form that prompted Liverpool to pay £20.3m to sign him from Tottenham during the summer.

"I am sure Robbie will score more goals," Benitez said. "He is doing better and I am really pleased with him. The understanding with his team-mates is better. He is getting in good positions for finishing, so he will score more. It is just a question of time."

A question of time is a good way of putting it and, having presided over a gradual improvement in a team who were spearheaded in his first season by Milan Baros and Djibril Cisse, before flirtations with Crouch, Bellamy, Fernando Morientes, Robbie Fowler and Andriy Voronin, Benitez is entitled to feel that, with Keane supporting Fernando Torres, Liverpool finally have a worthy strike partnership.

Indeed, the club have been good enough to thrive in Torres's recent absence, but yesterday's bulletin, that the Spain forward is close to fitness after a hamstring injury and has a chance of being among the substitutes this evening, will only heighten the optimism among Liverpool fans.

Such has been their faith in Benitez from day one that they could not have imagined, when heading to Spurs, that it would take until his fifth season for a credible Liverpool title challenge to be under discussion.

It may have taken longer than they expected, but, as a pub bore will tell you, good things come to those who wait.

Meanwhile, Benitez is looking forward to welcoming Diego Maradona to Liverpool's Melwood training complex as Argentina's new boss is due in Liverpool for talks with Javier Mascherano as part of his plan to meet all of his new charges.

"Diego will be very welcome to come to our training ground. Maybe I can persuade him to take a few free-kicks!

Benitez added: "We are about the same age (both men are 48), he had a great impact on me as a player. I watched him when he was at Napoli and Barcelona.

"You talk to the people there and they tell you he is God, which just underlines what everybody knows, he was a fantastic player.

"I think it is an exciting appointment. If he has the right people around him it will be really good for Argentina.'' (© The Times, London)

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...d-1516056.html

Very good read. Kay is one of the few decent journos out there who write with some intelligence and purpose, as opposed to meaningless space-filling cliches.

[DannyMan2006]

What we have to remember is that even when they were ****e under Ramos they got a 1-1 draw away to Chelsea. They are no mugs.

I would say the team lacks backbone but they do rise to the occasion. I would not be entirely suprised with any result today. You can guarantee they will be well up for this one. That said, an early goal for us would knock them back a bit. We are lot more solid than Arsenal and only seem to struggle against big physichal teams, an acqusation that could not be layed at Spurs.

No walk in the park though and it will be like anything but top v bottom. Win this and I expect a good run up to the Arsenal game.

[Sisterstiffticket]

spoke to my spurs mate who went to the arse game and he said spurs were utter utter ****e, they were embarrased all over the park to the extent it was cringeworthy

really dont think we should have any probs tbh.

on a side note my business partner is a spurs fan and weve had a bet on the result....
spurs win-i have to were a manure shirt with ronaldo on the back the following saturday
we win-he has to where a arse shirt with gooner for life on.
if we win by 5 clear goals he gets an arsenal tattoo
they win by 2 clear goals i have to get a manure one!

they better not let me down tday!!

**** Pezzer mate! That's some committment there from you both.
If I was your mate and we lost and I had to get a gooner ****too, I'd have to kill you!

[DannyMan2006]

**** Pezzer mate! That's some committment there from you both.
If I was your mate and we lost and I had to get a gooner ****too, I'd have to kill you!

No way will that happen..............

I wanna see pictures if it comes off

I could seriously see Spurs beating us by two as well! Don't get me wrong I'd have Liverpool as strong favourites, and tip them to win. But Spurs are capable of anything from abysmal to Incredible.

[Sisterstiffticket]

Very good read. Kay is one of the few decent journos out there who write with some intelligence and purpose, as opposed to meaningless space-filling cliches.

I was looking for this in the Sunday Sport Craig. Can't fing it mate. Is it on the same page that has exclusive photos of Lady Di's autopsy by an undercover sanitary towel bin remover?