Portsmouth 2-0 Liverpool - POST MATCH

[Exiled_red]

Agreed. And how the **** would any of the foreign lads understand him?

[BobTheCharmer]

Aye but this bottom of the league portsmouth ffs. He's done the same against other poor teams this season you know

I do know yes. thanks for pointing that out.

I had a dream last night I was chasing after some naked fillies, I ran through a park with pensioners playing lawn tennis, I stopped to pick up as ball and return it to the waiting server, I kept running after those perky breasts and pantie clad girls, then I'm being charged by a ****ing bull, christ I was running for my life, it speared me and I grabbed its horns and held on for dear life, I wrestled it to the ground and held it tight, trying to break its neck...I woke up on my front and i'd been lying on my arms, couldn't move at all. it took a full 15 minutes for the blood to come back and normal arm movement to return. I never got to grope them tasty girls.

King Kenny I want to hold you in my arms.

[ronniedrew]

i think the dressing room is being lost, game by game

gerrards attitude was way off, masch - what were you thinking.

the most disapointing thing for me was the pace at which we played with, so slow and predictable

what a **** season. **** **** ****

rafa is walking on very thin ice

[el matador]

i think the dressing room is being lost, game by game

gerrards attitude was way off, masch - what were you thinking.

the most disapointing thing for me was the pace at which we played with, so slow and predictable

what a **** season. **** **** ****

rafa is walking on very thin ice

no mate i think he's fallen through it. Its just whether purslow, hicks and gillett have the balls to sack him.

[FatTony]

rafa has a style based on arrigo sachi's much heralded 'catenaccio' method of football.

Its based on a strong defence and stopping the opposition from playing. It works really well in Italy but not in the EPL and that's been proven by our results over the past 5 seasons.

Last season was a fluke where we were carried by gerrard, torres, alonso and benayoun.

Rafa's methods have been proven not to work. How much more proof do we need before we make the change ?

We should contact inter and ask if they could swap jose for rafa. From whats been said they probably wouldnt be averse to it.

For those who champion rafa - its time to open your eyes and look at the devastation that this season has brought.

Rafa's time has come to and end.

Thats partly true, but the most significant factor was Scholari at Chelsea. We would've finished 3rd had Hiddink been there all season.

I agree with the rest though, 2 defensive midfielders and one up front will not win the EPL and the problem now is that several other teams have a fair bit of money to spend, and some of those play more attacking football.

Our starting 11 is still enough to make some of those sides mouths water, so although they may have spent more money recently than us, the actual value of our 11 against theirs shows that we should be doing far better than them. Now, with Villa, Spurs and Citeh spending a bit, playing this type of footy will produce less fruit in the form of cl football. It was fine a few years ago when we could pretty much guarantee a top 4 finish, but that all changed this season and we'll have to win more games. The goalposts have moved and Rafa needs to adapt.

[Mattshark]

Thats partly true, but the most significant factor was Scholari at Chelsea. We would've finished 3rd had Hiddink been there all season.

You can't say that with any seriousness, you have no idea what would have happened. Baseless conjecture.

[JohnDoe]

no mate i think he's fallen through it. Its just whether purslow, hicks and gillett have the balls to sack him.

Don't think it's about having the balls, it's about having the money. Sacking Rafa and all of his staff would cost a fortune. £30m+ I would think. They don't have that money.

[Shaggy]

Kenny is not the answer and I'm sure he's said as much fairly recently. Enough is enough though.

[Darkon]

Don't think it's about having the balls, it's about having the money. Sacking Rafa and all of his staff would cost a fortune. £30m+ I would think. They don't have that money.

no, we wouldn't have the money to sack rafa right now - the only thing feasible would be for him to resign and I very much doubt he would do that!

[FatTony]

You can't say that with any seriousness, you have no idea what would have happened. Baseless conjecture.

well, the fact that Hiddinks form extended across the entire season would've won the league gives it a little weight you numpty.

[Leyton388]

And you don't think that Rafa's previous seasons means he deserves till the end of this season at least?

Think we are looking at it differntly mate. I am thinking more long term. Who would you rather loose Rafa or torres and gerrard. We need a change mate. If we keep rafa and finish outside the top 4 we lose a hell of alot of money from the CL and we need it to service our debt.

The only way we can do that would be to sell players and lets not forget torres left Madrid for the same reason. He left to go to a team capable of winning things and he is in the same boat now.

I dont ant this to turn into a slanging match mate as we all hurt the same after this. I love rafa mate but i love the club more. I dont know if you are a scouser or not but i suspect you are which makes this more painful to watch.

[SimonNo7]

Penalty to ****ty. 2-0 and definitely (IMO) going above us tonight and they have a game in hand!

[Exiled_red]

Reira is injured isn't he?

To be honest, I think Gerrard needs to have some time off at present, he has been very poor this season.

How long is he out for? I thought it was short term perhaps a couple of games. I'm probably wrong though.

I agree Gerrard has been poor this season the problem is we are short of creative players, so I see little alternative to him playing.

We really lack attacking players Kuyt, Riera and Benayoun are the only players that are at all creative/attacking that can play in the wide areas. (Babel it seems won't play for us again). Kuyt is only effective when he gets the ball in space in the final third (Without alonso this isn't happening) and Benayoun isn't really a wide player IMO. We need to bring players in in these positions in January.

[DannyMan2006]

I'm confused by what we've been trying to do this season, the teams we have put out have been less creative than last season and I don't understand that. Last season we typically had a midfield of Mascherano, Alonso, Riera and Kuyt. This season Alonso and Riera have been replaced by less creative players and the absence of an alonso-type player in the team has IMO affected Kuyt's game, forcing him deeper, where he has a less attacking threat.

For the next games we need to change the system, we no longer have the players to play as we did last season, so I would be tempted to arrange the team and go 442, with a midfield of (R-L) Benayoun Gerrard Mascherano Riera, and with Ngog and Torres up front. Mascherano is suspended so Lucas could come in for him, and I still believe Aquilani is not fit, so can't be considered as a starter. This team would be much more creative but should still have a strength through it and should be able to dominate games again, because we haven't been doing that recently either

The majority of our better performances this year have come where Gerrard has started in the center. With no Alonso (and no Aquilani) we need Gerrard in the center. If we want to play the same system then put Kuyt behind Torres and get Babel on the right.

Straight away we have more creativity in the team and may actually look like scoring.

Why did Yossi not start today? We were not playing Man Utd or Arsenal. I'm amazed we started Dossena against Pompey. What was the point?

[FatTony]

Why was last season a fluke?

This is the only very poor season we have under him?

5th?