Rafa's Post Match Interview

[Guest]

Are you telling me that with the right people around him (Thompson, Lee) he cannot get us in a better position we are in, given half a season? Simplicity and basics are what LFC were built on, what happened at Newcastle and Celtic was a merry-go-round.

No-one currently at LFC KNOWS the club like him - I think it's worth the punt

Kenny with Sammy Lee and Phil Thompson for assistants is a recipe for disaster if you ask me mate. As I said, football has moved on; and we have, for far too long, been accused of living in the past. Sammy is the only one who is currently working as a coach, Kenny and Thompson haven't been involved in coaching for a long time.

Can't happen must not happen.

[vlahka]

You've got no problem letting things run as they are but you do have problem letting people take charge who performed very well at many different clubs? Did you also say dont get rid of Houllier because he was the man for the job, just like you are now? Thinking Dalglish cant do a job for us just shows you dont know anything and you're just doing the whole 'super-fan' routine by backing rafa because noone out there in the entire world is better then Rafa and he cannot be replaced ever. Like Houllier.

[Agger the Dagger]

Kenny with Sammy Lee and Phil Thompson for assistants is a recipe for disaster if you ask me mate. As I said, football has moved on; and we have, for far too long, been accused of living in the past. Sammy is the only one who is currently working as a coach, Kenny and Thompson haven't been involved in coaching for a long time.

Can't happen must not happen.

I'm just fed up of contintal coaches with 5 year plans that stall in the 5th year. The last time we played football the way Liverpool should was when Roy was boss - one-touch football played to space - don't get me wrong Roy was a great no.2, never a boss but he had the simple ethics that are timeless - everyone talks about Arsenal's flowing football as if Wenger invented it! It's just a variation of Pass and Move developed by Shankly, Paisley, Bennett et al in the 60's. We ruled for over 20 years with that style - we can bring the basics back again.

That's exactly the problem - everyone else is winning using a formula we designed and turned our back on.

Even Reading yesterday were pinging it about Anfield while we where chasing shadows - pathetic.

I have been the most patient with Rafa in his time here and STILL want him to succeed - mostly because if he's pushed the Jose lovers + anti Liverpool media would have won - but if the worst happens lets not go for the manager that the S@N would want - the best thing to do is what is right, and to me that is to go back to basics - the Liverpool Way in it's truest sense on the pitch.

I've been a red since 1975 and have seen some beatiful thing happen with this club and the one quality that endures is how LFC gets back on it's feet just when everyone is ready to dig the grave, I think this is such a moment.

Not spin or hyperbole - the truth.

I thank you.

[vlahka]

Must agree with you Mr Agger. We've complicated the game and shot ourselves in the foot.

[el matador]

That's nonsense about Alonso. He was a good player, but didn't feature in about a third of our league games last year and missed a similar amount - or more - in the previous two seasons. He only provided 3 assists out of our 77 goals last season, so his contribution is wildly exaggerated by people like you. We won plenty of games and played very, very well, scoring lots of goals when he wasn't playing.

As to your wild, unsubstantiated claim that Gerrard realised we wouldn't function without him and isn't motivated to play for the manager, words fail me. What a load of bollocks.

gerrard pleaded with benitez not to sell alonso but benitez told him that the player had made up his mind and that we would move on without him. Xabi might not have scored loads or given loads of assists but every single one of our forward plays had his name at the start of it. Gerrard is totally lost behind torres because no one can get the ball to him at the right times.

alonso is a huge miss and I would be my life that he was to be re-instated into the team tomorrow we would do much better than we are doing currently.

When it comes to alonso, dont look at the stats. They dont do justice to a wonderful footballer who was absolutely key to our second placed finish last season. Instead use your common sense and ask yourself why we cant keep hold of the ball for more than 5 passes, why we cant seem to dominate teams like we did last season, why carragher has started to hoof the ball forward with no real purpose. Why Gerrard has been so ineffective this season.

Dont forget that we are out of every competition we entered and its only january.

[Shaggy]

why carragher has started to hoof the ball forward with no real purpose

Started?

[Shaggy]

You've got no problem letting things run as they are but you do have problem letting people take charge who performed very well at many different clubs? Did you also say dont get rid of Houllier because he was the man for the job, just like you are now? Thinking Dalglish cant do a job for us just shows you dont know anything and you're just doing the whole 'super-fan' routine by backing rafa because noone out there in the entire world is better then Rafa and he cannot be replaced ever. Like Houllier.

With respect I think this is bull****.

Not sure what exactly people mean when they say I do or don't back Rafa. I will always back him while he's here - why would any LFC fan do anything else? - but I've come to accept that the only way out of this mess is starting again with a new manager. So, I'm behind him while he's here, willing him to succeed, but with the heaviest of hearts I think he should be replaced.

To replace him with Kenny would be monumentally demented. FFS calling for Kenny makes you sound like Newcastle fans, grunting "Keegaaaan, Keegaaaan" like brain-damaged apes. Hasn't Kenny himself said he's been so long out of the game that he barely recognises the role anymore? What exactly are his credentials? And I mean recent, relevant credentials? What he did 20 years ago is not relevant. If it was, Graham Taylor, Venables and the rest would be candidates. But they're not because they've been left behind, like Kenny, who is no longer a football manager. Knowing and loving the club is nowhere near enough. Nowhere near.

I love Kenny, as we all do, but just because I don't want him as manager doesn't make me nor anybody else a 'superfan' or a know-nothing.

[el matador]

Started?

his first ball used to be to alonso but as he;s gone its either lucas or aquilani who isnt properly fit.

If being faced with the option of passing to those two or hoofing it i'd probably hoof it too.

I cant remember seeing him consistenly boot it like that every time he got the ball but last night carra hoofed it every time. He just doesnt trust either lucas or aquilani in posession of the ball.

[Guest]

With respect I think this is bull****.

Not sure what exactly people mean when they say I do or don't back Rafa. I will always back him while he's here - why would any LFC fan do anything else? - but I've come to accept that the only way out of this mess is starting again with a new manager. So, I'm behind him while he's here, willing him to succeed, but with the heaviest of hearts I think he should be replaced.

To replace him with Kenny would be monumentally demented. FFS calling for Kenny makes you sound like Newcastle fans, grunting "Keegaaaan, Keegaaaan" like brain-damaged apes. Hasn't Kenny himself said he's been so long out of the game that he barely recognises the role anymore? What exactly are his credentials? And I mean recent, relevant credentials? What he did 20 years ago is not relevant. If it was, Graham Taylor, Venables and the rest would be candidates. But they're not because they've been left behind, like Kenny, who is no longer a football manager. Knowing and loving the club is nowhere near enough. Nowhere near.

I love Kenny, as we all do, but just because I don't want him as manager doesn't make me nor anybody else a 'superfan' or a know-nothing.

That made me spill my dinner (even though I haven't had one yet).

[vlahka]

That wasnt directed at you Shaggy. I also think you probably missed my point. While Rafa is here we all hope he does better. Thing is he wont because of his style of play and man management style. The only way we'd win a league is if the other teams all screwed up badly. Thats not saying I wont back him. However I can see where I think he falls short and would like to see a new direction. No different to Houllier.

And I think you're being far too hard on Dalglish. He didnt just forget how football is played over night.

[el matador]

With respect I think this is bull****.

Not sure what exactly people mean when they say I do or don't back Rafa. I will always back him while he's here - why would any LFC fan do anything else? - but I've come to accept that the only way out of this mess is starting again with a new manager. So, I'm behind him while he's here, willing him to succeed, but with the heaviest of hearts I think he should be replaced.

To replace him with Kenny would be monumentally demented. FFS calling for Kenny makes you sound like Newcastle fans, grunting "Keegaaaan, Keegaaaan" like brain-damaged apes. Hasn't Kenny himself said he's been so long out of the game that he barely recognises the role anymore? What exactly are his credentials? And I mean recent, relevant credentials? What he did 20 years ago is not relevant. If it was, Graham Taylor, Venables and the rest would be candidates. But they're not because they've been left behind, like Kenny, who is no longer a football manager. Knowing and loving the club is nowhere near enough. Nowhere near.

I love Kenny, as we all do, but just because I don't want him as manager doesn't make me nor anybody else a 'superfan' or a know-nothing.

The way I look at this is that the new manager coming in has to do several things to get us back on track. He needs to get his tactics and formation across to the players because he wont play rafa's 4231 and i believe that this will take a lot of time - tbh more time than we actually have.

Which leaves just one option for me. Make the players play for the shirt, for the fans and for the manager. If the new manager can just lift the whole place including the players and the fans then we will play 100% better even with unsettled / untried / inferior tactics.

If we need someone to motivate the likes of gerrard, carragher and torres surely no one is better than dalglish. Just seeing him would make me run to Scarbrough and back. All of fans would really get behind him and the team and unlike mourinho who lets face it would divide the general consensus, dalglish wouldnt have any such support issues.

Im not saying he should be the permanent choice but I think until May should benitez go he is the only option.

[Shaggy]

his first ball used to be to alonso but as he;s gone its either lucas or aquilani who isnt properly fit.

If being faced with the option of passing to those two or hoofing it i'd probably hoof it too.

I cant remember seeing him consistenly boot it like that every time he got the ball but last night carra hoofed it every time. He just doesnt trust either lucas or aquilani in posession of the ball.

Well then shame on Carra. I know it's fashionable to blast Lucas and it's getting that way with Aquilani, but if Carra doesn't trust two international footballers, with Brazil and Italy FFS, then there's no hope. One would think Carra is a Beckenbauer-esque schemer the way people go on about him lacking trust in his team mates' abilities. FFS. If the roles were reversed NO-ONE would ever pass to Carra.

I don't see it as you do. He's always booted it aimlessly. Granted he's doing it even more regularly now and I don't think it reflects well on him at all.

That wasnt directed at you Shaggy. I also think you probably missed my point. While Rafa is here we all hope he does better. Thing is he wont because of his style of play and man management style. The only way we'd win a league is if the other teams all screwed up badly. Thats not saying I wont back him. However I can see where I think he falls short and would like to see a new direction. No different to Houllier.

And I think you're being far too hard on Dalglish. He didnt just forget how football is played over night.

I know it wasn't aimed at me mate and my general point wasn't aimed at you alone, far from it - rather everyone who wants Kenny in.

I agree with everything you said there about Rafa. He's falling short and there's no denying that.

Graham Taylor, George Graham and Terry Venables haven't forgotten how to play football overnight, and no top club would dream of appointing them either. To me the idea of Kenny is a Toon Army-esque piece of romantic dreaming.

[Shaggy]

And people are forgetting even our lads in the late 80s couldn't understand a ****ing word he said, what chance Pepe, Torres, Mascher and the rest?

[el matador]

[QUOTE=Shaggy;1503452]Well then shame on Carra. I know it's fashionable to blast Lucas and it's getting that way with Aquilani, but if Carra doesn't trust two international footballers, with Brazil and Italy FFS, then there's no hope. One would think Carra is a Beckenbauer-esque schemer the way people go on about him lacking trust in his team mates' abilities. FFS. If the roles were reversed NO-ONE would ever pass to Carra.

Unfortunately this bit is undeniably true

[vlahka]

And people are forgetting even our lads in the late 80s couldn't understand a ****ing word he said, what chance Pepe, Torres, Mascher and the rest?

Actually now that you mention it..