Enough ?

[Maxiedge]

Yeah but we need some perspective too. SKY et al love to push their fingers into our wounds. Every side has been inconsistent this season. There really are no easy games.

Someone posted our first team elsewhere and I'm waiting for the day we can put that side out consistently give or take a few players (not Torres and Gerrard )

[Armchairkopite]

I agree, if we have Riera and Maxi playing, it will have a massive impact.

Thats the key.

[Exiled_red]

there is a sky sports liverpool in crisis live debate.

someone posted this...

[Comment From Greg85 Greg85: ]
Apparently word is from the liverpool echo that rafa is going to step down monday no matter what the stoke result is. there not going to run the story until monday. i work in finance at the echo and everybody in the building is verry happy about this. get your bets on now

http://www.skysports.com/live-chat

Of course they are sky are loving this

[Armchairkopite]

Of course they are sky are loving this

Its not good.

[Big-Red-Ed]

Mourinho is an objectionable little fecker when he is playing for someone else but if he was ours he would be irritating everyone else and not us. Chelsea and man u would ****e themselves if Mourinho came to us.
He hasn't lost a home game through 3 clubs and 3 leagues for 8 bloody years for fecks sake!!
For all the public spats he had with us i still remember him giving us-the fans-a generous applause after that momentous semi at anfield.

[Rich]

We absolutely need to bring in an experienced Left Back with pace (and height ideally).

I've come around to the idea of letting this season run its course with Rafa in charge, I can't see an appealing alternative by replacing him mid-season. Bringing Kenny in, even for 4 months, isn't going to help as he's too connected to the current coaching staff and I doubt would make any fundamental changes.

I would stick it out and if things haven't significantly improved by the summer make the radical changes then.

[anfieldanfield]

We absolutely need to bring in an experienced Left Back with pace (and height ideally).

I've come around to the idea of letting this season run its course with Rafa in charge, I can't see an appealing alternative by replacing him mid-season. Bringing Kenny in, even for 4 months, isn't going to help as he's too connected to the current coaching staff and I doubt would make any fundamental changes.

I would stick it out and if things haven't significantly improved by the summer make the radical changes then.

If we do 'stick it out' though we wont finish 4th. Simple as that.

At least by bringing another manager is, Kenny or Hiddink or whoever, we give ourselves a CHANCE to salvage the season.

For me, if we fail to beat Stoke, then the Spurs game could be Rafa's last.

[el matador]

we need more atheletes in the team. We need players with height, pace, power and agression. Gerrard and torres can do this, masher in midfield and maybe johnson but we need a couple more.

we are too easy to play against and reading who are struggling in the championship looked amazing in both ties against us. If that doesnt worry rafa then nothing will.

[Rich]

If we do 'stick it out' though we wont finish 4th. Simple as that.

At least by bringing another manager is, Kenny or Hiddink or whoever, we give ourselves a CHANCE to salvage the season.

For me, if we fail to beat Stoke, then the Spurs game could be Rafa's last.

There is also a CHANCE that Rafa can turn this awful, depressing run around and hit 4th. For all the doom and gloom we aren't a million miles away from the Champions League places plus when you look at the other "big" teams they're all dropping points.

LFC in the past have been guilty of holding onto a manager too long, and I may well be falling into the same trap but Rafa needs to be judged at the end of the season. IMO

[Havors]

I think Rafa's biggest problem lies with the second/third rate players he has bought. He may be tactically brilliant but the guy couldnt spot a talented player if he kicked the ball in his face!!

His man management is piss poor too which is now reflected in the fact he has lost the dressing room. Also his youth policy leaves a lot to be desired. Utd and even everton are always bringing talented youngsters through who become established first team players. We bring a few **** ones through and ship them out.

I do like the guy though and i know he loves liverpool but the time has come when we either stick with him until we get investment to buy top players or we get rid now and let someone else get a head start on next season.

[Armchairkopite]

I think Rafa's biggest problem lies with the second/third rate players he has bought. He may be tactically brilliant but the guy couldnt spot a talented player if he kicked the ball in his face!!

His man management is piss poor too which is now reflected in the fact he has lost the dressing room. Also his youth policy leaves a lot to be desired. Utd and even everton are always bringing talented youngsters through who become established first team players. We bring a few **** ones through and ship them out.

I do like the guy though and i know he loves liverpool but the time has come when we either stick with him until we get investment to buy top players or we get rid now and let someone else get a head start on next season.

Reina, Agger Skrtle, Johnson, Mascherano, Alonso, Garcia, Bennayoun, Kuyt, Torres and theres a lot more have made very significant contributions

[Vermilion]

I think Rafa's biggest problem lies with the second/third rate players he has bought. He may be tactically brilliant but the guy couldnt spot a talented player if he kicked the ball in his face!!

His man management is piss poor too which is now reflected in the fact he has lost the dressing room. Also his youth policy leaves a lot to be desired. Utd and even everton are always bringing talented youngsters through who become established first team players. We bring a few **** ones through and ship them out.

I do like the guy though and i know he loves liverpool but the time has come when we either stick with him until we get investment to buy top players or we get rid now and let someone else get a head start on next season.

They have different targets and aspirations to us, different expectancy, different amount of pressure brought to bear when things go wrong, etc etc, the home grown players that have made the everton squad, would they be deemed good enough for a top 4 side ?, everthing is relative.

[ufc43]

after last nights game i made a number of observations

1. in patches we strolled around the pitch playing some really good quality football. all that was missing was the final ball or a composed finish. that in it's own is a positive note to take from the game.

2. as much as it really pains me to say it ( and beleive me it is horrible to admit ) lucas is playing some good football. he was our best last night by a long way. i'm still not convinced that he will ever be the qualtiy that should be in a lfc shirt but at present he is playing well enough to keep his jersey.

3. babel last night showed what he can do other than run at players. he tracked back and gave cover to degen, held the ball up well and looked for a pass rather than shoot or take it himself. there will always be closed minded cunts who will still claim he was ****e last night but the truth is he was a threat last night and played well.

4. insua is utter tripe. turning his body to players to allow therm crosses or passes, no pace what-so-ever, caught out of position countless times ( you could here carra, agger and yossi screaming at him to get in position and to calm down so many times last night ), no confidence, ****e passes to players not in a position to receive the ball etc... the list goes on. he is ****ing awfull and to blame for the second goal. he must go....no question about it.

5. the 4-2-3-1 formation we are meant to play is 90% of the time a 4-5-1, and a defensive looking 4-5-1 at that. hopefully rodriguez will get a game on the right side of midfeild at the expense of kyut and rafa will give him the freedom to attack. unfortunately, reading rafa's comments last night about maxi playing left, right or in the centre makes me beleive he has him ear-marked for the left wing and yossi dropped to the bench.

and finally, 6. i'm glad we're out the cup in a way. we should put all our effort into getting top 4. **** the fa cup and **** the embarresment that is the europa league. we have a small avergae squad and last nights injuuries to torres, ste and yossi showed that we should have played ngog, babel and spearing from the start instead. the leageu is the only priority in my eyes.

I would rather we were winning some silverware instead of money! It makes me sick when I hear people accepting 4th as some sort of prize!! We have finished in the top four a number of times and only once came away with a trophy. **** the greed, what about some glory!

P.s I agree with most of your other points though

[wildman]

Someone said in this thread that SOS are a joke and to be honest I agree with that. But they will use Rafa as a pawn against the owners if he gets the sack.

It will be more bad publicity than we can handle at the moment with the supposed new investment and the start of the stadium. We need a period of stability off the pitch for the good of the club.

Sacking rafa is probably the right thing to do in football terms but not politically speaking.

the owners need to go more thn rafa even tony Barrett said as much in his podcast at lunch time they are still the main prblem far more than rafa adn people really need to wake up to this, plus he wont be going anywhere yet!

[dww]

[/B]

I would rather we were winning some silverware instead of money! It makes me sick when I hear people accepting 4th as some sort of prize!! We have finished in the top four a number of times and only once came away with a trophy. **** the greed, what about some glory!

P.s I agree with most of your other points though

I can see that point. However I think in the long run given that I feel this is a transitional season which will have to be accepted as such 4th is more important as it provides a platform to win more in the future. We shouldn't long term accept 4th as a goal but the money allows us to be in the same category of Arsenal as a team who can expect every two to three years to seriously compete for the big two trophies (PL and CL), without there is a chance we would struggle to compete for anything for a very long time.

I think the biggest problem at the minute is a lack of leadership in the players. We have some leaders in Carragher, Mascherano and Gerrard but the problem is that they all lead by example and two of them are defensive players. Gerrard has been hampered by injury this season and it has reduced his utility as both player and captain.

In a lot of ways the injuries we have had and the fact we have not had a settled back four or Aquilani available means that we are essentially experiencing pre season form problems when all other teams are battle hardened.

We haven't played great but at the same time we have not played as poorly as some make out and I do think there have been signs that parts of the team are coming together - the problem being that every time this looks like being the case more injuries come along or something like the weather disrupts us getting a run of games back to back where we gain momentum.

It's been a ****ty season and nothing that happens between now and the end of the season will change that.

I do however firmly believe that if we get 4th and retain Rafa as manager then the future is bright. The first team has more quality than it is showing and any team would struggle without it's two most potent threats in attack for large parts of the season. Obviously you could attack us as being a two man team but frankly you could say the same or worse for just about every team in the division.

I'm fed up with people calling for Rafa's head and making wild assumptions that everything would be rosy if we just had someone else as manager. I don't think Rafa is perfect and he has made mistakes but he has to my mind also made a lot of good, strong decisions for the long term improvement of the team and squad.