Martin Lipton's Latest Bile

[Guest]

What if what if what if???

Rafa should have scored possibly.

[Rich]

Look Petey, I think its admirable that you stand up for the Reds and Rafa in particular when things aren't going the way we would all want them to go. But ifs, buts, and maybes don't really cut it when all season - from the 2-1 defeat by Spurs onwards we've been poor. We've played 24 games already this season, in almost everyone of them we've been really, really bad.

It isn't some kneejerk reaction - you can tell that by some of the posters on here who are now rightly worried, miffed, and gutted about what we're seeing on the pitch.

[Guest]

Look Petey, I think its admirable that you stand up for the Reds and Rafa in particular when things aren't going the way we would all want them to go. But ifs, buts, and maybes don't really cut it when all season - from the 2-1 defeat by Spurs onwards we've been poor. We've 24 games already this season, in almost everyone of them we've been really, really bad.

It isn't some kneejerk reaction - you can tell that by some of the posters on here who are now rightly worried, miffed, and gutted about what we're seeing on the pitch.

I am as miffed and worried but I am not daft enough to think it's Rafa's fault. It is inevitable that the club will decline from now on, unless something drastic happens and the players turn it around. Some strange things have happened to great clubs before, the one example being Newcastle United. The sacked Sir Bobby after a 'stale' period and look what happened.

Rafa is too far into his grand plan to change things right now, it would be suicidal as a club if we don't stick with him. You can't sack managers like that, you've got to have continuity. Players should take more responsibility FFS.

[Shanks]

He's pretty much spot on with most of that.

There is no pre-determined agenda, no cosy cartel of London luvvies who sit down together and decide the next witch-hunt victim.

It doesn't work like that.

The media does NOT, repeat, NOT, get managers sacked.

Managers get themselves sacked.
By not getting results.

That is the bottom line, at every club.

Some managers, true, buy themselves more time but the nicest man in the world will still get tin-tacked if he can't win a game.

Three wins out of 15 games in all competitions is not a disappointing record.
It is not a poor record.

It is a shocking record.

I agree.

[Rich]

I am as miffed and worried but I am not daft enough to think it's Rafa's fault. It is inevitable that the club will decline from now on, unless something drastic happens and the players turn it around. Some strange things have happened to great clubs before, the one example being Newcastle United. The sacked Sir Bobby after a 'stale' period and look what happened.

Rafa is too far into his grand plan to change things right now, it would be suicidal as a club if we don't stick with him. You can't sack managers like that, you've got to have continuity. Players should take more responsibility FFS.

I still don't want Rafa gone.

But something is rotten at the club and unless Rafa can get to the bottom of it and sort it out its difficult to see how we can radically improve our form.

Surely, if you're blaming the players - shouldn't Rafa make a stand and actually drop some of them? What if he doesn't? It is still the players fault or is it the manager for not dropping an out of form player?!

[Guest]

He's pretty much spot on with most of that.



I agree.

No one is disputing the fact that we're on a poor run. It's all down to the players' doing their talking on the pitch. Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt, Mascherano .... They're all experienced enough to get out of this rut.

Picking on the manager is easy. It's as if there are 1000 more knowledgeable individuals than him, which isn't true. Lipton is just a journalist, a London 'luvvie' at that. I haven't seen them writing with such venom against a British manager before. They're all darlings to them.

[Rich]

No one is disputing the fact that we're on a poor run. It's all down to the players' doing their talking on the pitch. Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt, Mascherano .... They're all experienced enough to get out of this rut.

Picking on the manager is easy. It's as if there are 1000 more knowledgeable individuals than him, which isn't true. Lipton is just a journalist, a London 'luvvie' at that. I haven't seen them writing with such venom against a British manager before. They're all darlings to them.

Are you saying he is a xenophobe?

[Guest]

I still don't want Rafa gone.

But something is rotten at the club and unless Rafa can get to the bottom of it and sort it out its difficult to see how we can radically improve our form.

Surely, if you're blaming the players - shouldn't Rafa make a stand and actually drop some of them? What if he doesn't? It is still the players fault or is it the manager for not dropping an out of form player?!

I think it's all down to confidence. Supporters would do well believing for a start and not leave the stadium 5 minutes before the end. That stinks of submission to me.

[Guest]

Are you saying he is a xenophobe?

I wouldn't gratuitously say this but there are indications that it's the case. Xenophobia may be a strong word, I'd say anti-foreigner. There's a cartel of bummers - English managers, such as Harry Redknapp, who can never do any wrong.

[Shanks]

Picking on the manager is easy. It's as if there are 1000 more knowledgeable individuals than him, which isn't true. Lipton is just a journalist, a London 'luvvie' at that. I haven't seen them writing with such venom against a British manager before. They're all darlings to them.

I don't think he is picking on him.

If it was Ancelotti or Fergie in our position, they'd both be getting a lot worse than that.

[red g]

Fine: GK Reina: Hard to criticise this season, even if he has rarely made significant errors;
he is out of order there........best keeper in the league for all to see!!

RB Johnson: Like a curate's egg - good in parts. Always a blooper in there somewhere, as proven against Arsenal but has provided more width and balance from full-back;
pretty balanced although he has been fantastic in parts not just good

CB Carragher/Agger/Krygiakos/Skrtel - between them, more thud and blunder than blood asnd thunder. Carra at least knows he has been poor but none of them are doing the basics right;
hard to argue there, although Agger should not be put with them

LB Insua/Aurelio - average, on a good day, between them. The Brazilian takes a good free-kick but was never stand-out at Valencia, so why should he be at Anfield? Insua, having started the season okay-ish, has gone backwards;
Insua started well and Aurelio with a god run is a quality player so a bit harsh

RM Kuyt: Will always do a job, straight up and down, runs his socks off. But how much fantasy, flair or imagination/ Not a lot, methinks;
sums it up perfectly
Centre midfield Mascherano, Lucas: Why two of them trying to do the sasme job? That is a tactical flaw, irrespective of the merits of the players. Lucas is what he is, Mascherano far better but with his head full of dreams of Catalonia. Neither of them are really putting in a shift;
again dont see much to argue with there

LM Benayoun/Riera: Spaniard has fallen out of favour and does little when he does play, Israeli can look one of the best players in the league but surely he would be better starting froma central role (even if that means tethering Gerrard) than wide left where he always has to go inside;
riera has been injured so very harsh and maybe he would, althoguh gerrard and torres on fire are frightening,

Attacking midfield Gerrard: Inspirational at best but has a tendency to get down on himself, the team, the universe in general and that can show. But who else would you want as captain?
cant argue there

CF Torres: Not been fit enough this season and certainly not on Sunday.
probably right

The problem, really, is what is left: Ngog should simply be Go, Voronin was manure first time round and no better this time,
out of order on ngog, he has proved a very good understudy

Aquilani turned up - as everybody knew he was - a crock. Selling Alonso - in the end, whether he wanted to go or not (and given that he came back to watch the game yesterday, perhaps he didn't) was a terrible decision, taken by Benitez alone.
harsh but true, but confident the right decision in the long run

Not enough strength in depth, not enough quality in many of the key positions. More worryingly, on the evidence of the second half v Arsenal, no more motivation.
quality is not the problem, but motivation is



overall a negative but mostly correct spin on our problems and 90% of it has been discussed on here .....most of it is pretty obvious

[dww]

Fine: GK Reina: Hard to criticise this season, even if he has rarely made significant errors;
he is out of order there........best keeper in the league for all to see!!

I'm actually not clear what he means here. Surely all keepers make 'significant errors' it's the nature of the job that any error will be significant and all people make errors - doing so rarely seems like a good thing. I think he just doesn't want to give any praise. It's this sort of thing that turns an opinion piece into a hatchet job and makes me really dislike some 'journalists'.

[red g]

I'm actually not clear what he means here. Surely all keepers make 'significant errors' it's the nature of the job that any error will be significant and all people make errors - doing so rarely seems like a good thing. I think he just doesn't want to give any praise. It's this sort of thing that turns an opinion piece into a hatchet job and makes me really dislike some 'journalists'.

as you can see through my thoughts......its not actually a bad piece, IF he had just given a little praise where praise is due then this would have been a very decent article albeit on the negative side.

I suppose its for the same reason people dont like tomkins ....no balance

[Parr_Zee]

Its not a grudge that people hold against Benitez, and its not a grudge against LFC. A similar thing happened with Scolari at Chelsea. Do you know what the similarities were? Scolari wasn't getting results at Chelsea and Benitez is not getting results at LFC, so of course they'll come under media-scrutiny.

And by the way, Martin Lipton is spot on in 99% of that article.

[Shaggy]

The difference is when Benitez was getting great results, he was still being relentlessly criticised for the tiniest things. Any praise he received was grudging in the extreme.

We know there are people in the media out to get him, and we know why.