Pack your bags Roy

[Lecter]

I'm too classy to rant and your like the incredible Hulk, ya wouldn't me when i get angry!!!!

Your about as classy as a hooker on Lime Street

[danperkins]

Is that the prerequisite for acting the **** now?

Just say what you like, and then add a 'Just kiddin ' to the end of it?

Compelling Craig

[Arn]

RAFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! !!


I literally grew a beard reading the 14th million Rafa post from you, a jizz beard

Just kiddin dude

Rafa made many mistakes but he always wanted to control the games. Every manager makes mistakes. If you want to win the big trophies then control the games is what you must be able to do.

You could of course do that in different ways like Mourinho did against Barcelona last season in the CL. If the team couldn't do anything with the ball then they just gave it away so Barca would always come up against a controlled defensive unit. That is one way to control a game.

[danperkins]

Your about as classy as a hooker on Lime Street

hey their just doing their job, go easy on the ladies of the night.

[Lecter]

Is that the prerequisite for acting the **** now?

Just say what you like, and then add a 'Just kiddin ' to the end of it?

No its clearly not a prerequisite he didnt put "Just kiddin" at the end of his replies to me

[Craig_H]

Compelling Craig

You really do have the wit and charisma of a cheese sandwich

[danperkins]

Rafa made many mistakes but he always wanted to control the games. Every manager makes mistakes. If you want to win the big trophies then control the games is what you must be able to do.

You could of course do that in different ways like Mourinho did against Barcelona last season in the CL. If the team couldn't do anything with the ball then they just gave it away so Barca would always come up against a controlled defensive unit. That is one way to control a game.

We got a great lead and we sat back and protected it, we more than deserved the win and it worked so happy days.

4 wins on the trot is brilliant IMO and we are level with Spurs who are one of our main rivals for 4th spot, i'm happy at the moment.

[Craig_H]

**** me, talk about rewriting history...the amount of times, on this site, people commented on Rafa setting his team out for a point, with 2 defensive midfielders, away at places like B'burn or Bolton, or at home to Chelsea, Arsenal...Rafa set his teams out to nullify the opposition, and it often resulted in turgid, uninspired football. Infact, in the season we came second, if we'd gone for the jugular more, instead of drawing so many games even at the risk of losing some) we would have won the league.

He was a great manager, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Setting up with 2 defensive midfielders doesnt mean he was going for a point. It just means he had different ideas to you, on the best method for trying to get the three points.

[danperkins]

You really do have the wit and charisma of a cheese sandwich

Whatever you say compelling craig ,as per usual you are right

[kris90210]

Rafa always set up the team to win the games. A point wasn't enough. He wanted to control the game from start to finish.

Very few times we backed off and let the opposition control the game. To control the game and by that way win the game was what Rafa's teams always will be set up to do.

Roy set up the team to defend and hope that our star players have a great day. He clearly don't have a clue how to control a game so he will do it the way he know(the 35 year experience) and that is Houllier style.

We may have played boring football at times with Rafa in charge but we always tried to control the game and always did that at home. We didn't need our star players to control the game, we did that without them many times. Gerrard and Torres played together 22 times the 08-09 season for example.

If you want to win the major trophies then you must be able to control the games against every team in the world. That is one thing Roy must learn and must learn quickly.

Almost every team in the world sat back and parked the bus against us at Anfield. Scum did that, Chelsea the same, Arsenal the same and so on. Why? The answer is that if you attacked us at Anfield then you would be destroyed so sitting back was the only option.

Now teams can come to Anfield knowing that they will be able to boss the game and that Roy will let them do it. Houllier style.

That is the main difference between Rafa and Roy.

I'm a Rafa fan, but that's really not true is it Arn. Cast your mind back to our champions league encounters with Chelsea.

We don't know really what style of football Roy is trying to impliment yet. I'm just pleased it's moved on from the 'getting ****ed by Northampton' style. Results have started to go our way. Let's see what happens now over the next few games mate

[Arn]

**** me, talk about rewriting history...the amount of times, on this site, people commented on Rafa setting his team out for a point, with 2 defensive midfielders, away at places like B'burn or Bolton, or at home to Chelsea, Arsenal...Rafa set his teams out to nullify the opposition, and it often resulted in turgid, uninspired football. Infact, in the season we came second, if we'd gone for the jugular more, instead of drawing so many games even at the risk of losing some) we would have won the league.

He was a great manager, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

You do talk a lot of crap. Two defensive midfielders don't mean to nullify the opposition. It could mean that it is the best way to control the game.

Xabi played as a defensive midfielder but he wasn't exactly defensive. We played with ONE out and out defensive midfielder. ONE not TWO. Only last season we played with two because of injuries.

[Scratch]

Setting up with 2 defensive midfielders doesnt mean he was going for a point. It just means he had different ideas to you, on the best method for trying to get the three points.

Ok...right, so if we go back over old ground, there was never an air that Rafa was happy with a point, the pre match threads from the previous 5 seasons would bear fruit to this, and those draws in our nearly season were simply down to our inability to break down stubborn teams, nothing to do with our negative approach to football. That's fine, i must have misread the threads of yesteryear. Apologies.

[banditos]

Of relevance to some of this discussion, does anybody recall a discussion a couple of years ago about the different tactical stages that the top managers try to achieve. I think it was Rinus Michels who came up with the idea, but it was also something Rafa believed in.

The final stage was the crushing machine style game of possession dominance, quick passing, free flowing attacking football similar to what Barca currently play (and LFC played at the end of 08-09 ). One of the earlier stages was based on defensive solidity and counter attacking. I think Michels was suggesting that this is something you resort ot against better teams when you are building up to the final stage.

Anyone remember this?

[danperkins]

If Roy keeps winning at what stage should he pack his bags? And thats a big if!

[Neil Young]

Of relevance to some of this discussion, does anybody recall a discussion a couple of years ago about the different tactical stages that the top managers try to achieve. I think it was Rinus Michels who came up with the idea, but it was also something Rafa believed in.

The final stage was the crushing machine style game of possession dominance, quick passing, free flowing attacking football similar to what Barca currently play (and LFC played at the end of 08-09 ). One of the earlier stages was based on defensive solidity and counter attacking. I think Michels was suggesting that this is something you resort ot against better teams when you are building up to the final stage.

Anyone remember this?

Yes, I remember it well.

So you're suggesting we're already at stage 2 of Hodger's master plan?