Rafa on Sky Sports News

[Red Chilli]

He's scored 6 this season : Chavski, Gala x 2, West Ham, Macabi Haifa, Bordeaux.

[Morph]

Eh???? Two? I can think of five off the top of my head - Haifa away, West Ham (the winner), two against Galatasaray at home and Bordeaux away (winner).

And he hardly ever starts.

Think he meant Bellamy
*edit*
In fact ignore that, because after re-reading it there's no way he's talking about Bellamy.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

Craig Bellamy All time playing career

Club From To Fee League FA Cup League cup Other
Liverpool 22-06-2006 £ 6000000 7 (0) 1 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 3 (3) 1
Blackburn 08-07-2005 22-06-2006 £ 5000000 22 (5) 13 1 (0) 2 3 (1) 2 0 (0) 0
Celtic 31-01-2005 30-05-2005 Loan 12 (0) 7 3 (0) 2 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Newcastle 25-06-2001 08-07-2005 £ 6000000 87 (6) 28 5 (0) 0 3 (2) 4 24 (1) 11
Coventry 17-08-2000 25-06-2001 £ 6500000 33 (1) 6 2 (0) 1 3 (0) 1 0 (0) 0
Norwich 01-08-1996 17-08-2000 Trainee 71 (13) 32 1 (0) 0 6 (0) 2 0 (0) 0
Totals £ 23500000 232 (25) 87 12 (0) 5 15 (3) 9 27 (4) 12
goals / game 0.33 0.41 0.5 0.38

Goals in brackets

So I did him an injustice he's about a 1 in 3 - still not good enough for LFC 1st choice in my opinion

But we all knew this.

So did Rafa.

I reckon he's a cost effective stopgap. Kuyt was the first choice, and Bellamy at £6m is a decent player and an upgrade on Cisse, though not by much it has to be said.

Had Cisse not got injured - taking away a chunk of the transfer kitty in the process - I reckon we would've signed either Alves, or brought in a striker better than Bellamy.

I have absolutely no excuse for Pennant though. An indefensible signing. A joke of a player.

[Morph]

I'd love pennant to turn it on and be the saviour of our season, I'd parade it round these boards for the next year.

[Helios Creed]

It's amazing, and I think Rafa was referring to this, just how many downs in between the big cup wins Rafa has had in such a short reign. This must be his third crisis, one of which immediately followed the CL win. I think he thinks that winning a big cup or two should buy a period of support and confidence, if not from the Press, then at least from the fans. I think he was having a dig at us as well as the critics, as we contribute to our players' loss of confidence when we should be supporting them through the tough times (or storms ).

[Morph]

What Rafa comes on here?

**** tidy the place up a bit.

Oh and he won't be pleased with AA calling him a fat ******* either.

[Helios Creed]

What Rafa comes on here?

**** tidy the place up a bit.

Oh and he won't be pleased with AA calling him a fat ******* either.

I meant our general attitude, which at times, the club must be aware of so could be a bit more positive (if not for the Club's sake, then for our own. Bunch of miserable feckers). I'm sure Rafa does come on here for tips on tactics though.

p.s. Shaggy's not really miserable about LFC - he's just broody. :-)

[The incredible igor]

Starting with these pretenders on Wednesday!

pretenders except ofr Kevin Doyle fo course. He always did the business for city (i.e. cork)

Hope he has an off day tonight

[Shaggy]

p.s. Shaggy's not really miserable about LFC - he's just broody. :-)

[Morph]

I meant our general attitude, which at times, the club must be aware of so could be a bit more positive (if not for the Club's sake, then for our own. Bunch of miserable feckers). I'm sure Rafa does come on here for tips on tactics though.

p.s. Shaggy's not really miserable about LFC - he's just broody. :-)

It's to be expected when our good money pays for the under achieving ****ers to be there in the first place.

[Fan65]

Yes we are - beacause like it or not, we don't have goals from a source - Cisse. Like him or loathe him - he scored goals - even out of position. Add Stevie's barren spell cf to last season and suddenly we look terribly short of goals, - 42 to be exact.

Maybe we should have held out for a striker who wasn't given a regular start for his team and yet he still managed 13 goals in 18 games, then when he did move on he managed 7 goals in 10... hey ho we live and learn.

[Helios Creed]

Bellamy...fair enough, I'd be inclined to agree at this early stage, but as things stand Crouch isn't anything like first choice. He's third choice striker, and a rather prolific third choice striker at that.

You said prolific like it's a bad thing Did you mean profligate?

Or that he's good enough to be first choice, but is actually third...

I may have to rethink my vote in the most consistent poster poll in the light of this confusion.... :-)

[dww]

Controversially I think that Bellamy is a very Rafa like player. I would imagine that 1 in 3 is a decent rate for a striker in one of his teams as he values team contribution above indivial achievement. So far this season although he has been finishing poorly Bellamy has played pretty well. I think he has certainly contributed more than most of our midfielders in terms of play.

Unlike last season when at times we dominated teams and failed to score this season we haven't made nearly enough chances for any player in the world (possibly excepting Henry) to have done much scoring.

[Shaggy]

You said prolific like it's a bad thing Did you mean profligate?

Or that he's good enough to be first choice, but is actually third...

I may have to rethink my vote in the most consistent poster poll in the light of this confusion.... :-)

How does my use of 'prolific' sound like I'm implying it's a bad thing? How can prolific ever be bad?!? No I mean he doesn't seem to be first choice striker, third choice in fact, yet he scores goals all the time. He's got six for us this term as third choice, whereas the two first choice have markedly fewer goals.

[SouthAfricaRed]

Well said.

Rafa did say that the Manure game was maybe the worst day he's had as manager since he came to the club. I desperately want the see the guy succeed in the Premiership.

He will