The Mirror : Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Sheep Of War

[TommyW]

im with Rafa, Jaffa Cakes are amazing

[dave u]

im with Rafa, Jaffa Cakes are amazing

 

He doesn't even like them, apparently. The story was complete bollocks.

[The Party Boy]

Rafa's clueless, when will he ever learn! Jaffa akes are ace

[Cunny]

Maddock has joined The Rag hasn't he?

[JustTosh]

He probably had had his story ready 10 mins before the end. Then something happened and he had to slightly change it.

[aws]

Rafa's clueless, when will he ever learn! Jaffa akes are ace

 

Sack the clueless cunt. He'll be saying they're biscuits next.

[stringvest]

The Wagon Wheels have fallen off

[Redshadow]

The Mirror have always been for the Mancs - If you think that piece was bad though you should have seen the piece they put about 'brain dead zombies' at Anfield for the 0 - 1 defeat to Charlton in Houllier's final season in charge (TBF though, that game WAS the pits as we were beyond abysmal that day in particular and that season in general) - That was REALLY vicious and contained a number of choice quotes from Ian St John who HATED Houllier and then some. Whichever beaut' wrote the match report for the Man City Away game (won 1-0) in late 2005 also produced a sneering, condescending, piece of crap piece JUST like this one and like that time, we won this game so I ignored it.

 

This wasn't quite as bad as the 2004 Charlton report as we won - It seems more like an idiot of a journalist whose A:) working to a preset agenda from angry publishers p***ed off with their (deserved) Anfield ban and B:) Who seems to laugh at his own jokes and is trying (and failing......miserably) to appeal to readers with sarcasm and bad humour aimed at us - Most of all though? He's just p***ed off we won as you can't really knock winners can you? Ignore them, they hate THAT more than anything as it means their self-inflated, arrogant egos which love their own opnions so much and lead to such crap being written? Are being quite properly ignored, and it's nothing more than the arrogant tw*ts deserve..................

[Dirk]

The agenda thing is a difficult subject to be difinitive on for me.

 

I was speaking to a fella in work, an engineer and he's a blue and he said to me that even can see that the press and the media are anti-Liverpool, a bitter. Says it all for me.

[Spy Bee]

Mmmmm Jaffa cakes!

[snez1]

I was speaking to a fella in work, an engineer and he's a blue and he said to me that even can see that the press and the media are anti-Liverpool, a bitter. Says it all for me.

 

Most blues i know think we get treated great by the media. I think it's more a Rafa issue than an LFC issue.

[Section_31]

I was speaking to a fella in work, an engineer and he's a blue and he said to me that even can see that the press and the media are anti-Liverpool, a bitter. Says it all for me.

 

This always says it all for me, we all know they're dicks but I've never seen a club on the arse end of something like this, ever, even look at the production staff in the background. Unreal.

 

[YOUTUBE]YZOgBEws1EY[/YOUTUBE]

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Sad really. But there's no agenda against the manager and club, oh no. We're all just paranoid.

Shit reporting, though.

 

I've not paid any attention to the Mirror (other than Brian Reade) for about a million years, anyway.

 

You'll get nowt from a pig but a grunt.

[taliesin08]

Aurellio played in midfield for Valencia loads of times.

[Fugitive]

Sense at last...

 

Jaws fell on floors, mischievous eyes glistened; Liverpool’s line-up was evidence that, yes, Rafael Benítez is, as the Manchester United fans sing, cracking up. But there is real method in the Spaniard’s so-called madness. Rarely has a manager appeared so calm and relaxed after returning to the top of the Barclays Premier League courtesy of a stoppage-time winner.

 

Benítez opted to start with a three-man defence and with Fabio Aurélio, his reliable full back, in central midfield. Those who wish to argue the case that Benítez has lost the plot would point out that Aurélio had never played in central midfield in the Premier League before and that he discovered he was about to do so on the morning of the match on Saturday. Those who suspect that Benítez may be on the verge of guiding Liverpool to their first Premier League title could counter that the Brazil international regularly played in central midfield for Valencia, under the management of Benítez, and, crucially, that against Portsmouth he was composed and effective.

 

There was more to the switch in formation than mere tactics. Benítez had to find a way to accommodate those players who were least tired and, in doing so, he also put pressure on his team to win. Even the least perceptive of players would know that to lose with key players rested and a new formation prompts a more vicious kind of criticism.

 

“We knew that with the changes Rafa made, if we lost here today, there could be a lot of things in the press and people talking,” Aurélio said. “So I think it was really important to win to keep the good mentality and keep pushing forward to the next games.”

 

Liverpool may have left it late, but there was something inevitable about their victory. It was not, as the pundits on Setanta Sports maintained, a lucky win. Benítez knew that Fernando Torres was tired and did not have an effective 90 minutes in him, so putting him on the substitutes’ bench was not a mistake; it was common sense.

 

“I thought we could win the game with the players who were on the pitch,” Benítez said. “At the end, we had some players who were very tired, especially Álvaro Arbeloa, he was very, very tired. David Ngog was also tired and I think he felt something, so I thought OK, I must change something.

 

 

 

“After we conceded a goal, I thought we needed more quality on the park so I brought on Xabi Alonso, and the last one was because we needed to win the game.”

 

And win the game Torres did, with a strong and serene header that was the perfect denouement for a second half that had been breathtaking.

 

 

 

Portsmouth took the lead twice. David Nugent is fast becoming a favourite on the South Coast after having been marginalised under Harry Redknapp and he calmly beat José Manuel Reina, which should surely secure him a first-choice start as striker under Tony Adams.

 

 

“I’ll do everything I can to keep Pompey up — I’m sure we’ve got the quality and I’ll score a few more and win a few more games,” Nugent said.

But while Portsmouth are dangerous going forward, defensively they make too many errors. Liverpool’s first equaliser came after David James was forced to handle a clumsy back-pass from Peter Crouch and Sylvain Distin’s timing was horribly askew to allow Dirk Kuyt to fire in the second.

 

Liverpool made defensive mistakes of their own and the team’s emphasis on zonal marking was again criticised after Hermann Hreidarsson was allowed space to meet Nadir Belhadj’s free kick. Benítez, though, argued that no matter what marking system is used, goals will always be conceded throughout the Premier League at set-pieces.

 

 

 

“It is easy to blame a player for a goal and say, ‘It is his fault.’ I prefer the responsibility to be with the whole team,” Benítez said.

 

There were rumblings that Adams would be sacked if his side did not show signs of improvement against Liverpool, but it would be a public relations gaffe to let Adams go for failing to beat a side who are genuine title contenders. The Portsmouth players had spent Thursday at a spa, relaxing and building camaraderie, the fans remained loyal after the final whistle and as Distin made his way through the car park, a supporter sympathetically shouted: ‘Hang in there, Sylvain’.

 

 

 

Both Distin and Crouch apologised to their team-mates for their individual errors.

 

“I was really prepared for the rotation of their squad,” Adams said, but he had no means of dealing with the tricky trinity of Alonso, Kuyt and Torres when they came off the Liverpool bench.

 

 

 

“It’s football. It’s fantastic. Unfortunately, the result is not fantastic,” Adams said. And Benítez would probably agree; this was not fantastic fare, it was the product of rational planning and proof that the title race will be electric.

 

There is method in Rafael Benitez’s madness at Liverpool | Premier League - Times Online

[RoboRiise]

Sense at last...

 

Portsmouth took the lead twice. David Nugent is fast becoming a favourite on the South Coast after having been marginalised under Harry Redknapp and he calmly beat José Manuel Reina, which should surely secure him a first-choice start as striker under Tony Adams.

 

 

There were rumblings that Adams would be sacked if his side did not show signs of improvement against Liverpool, but it would be a public relations gaffe to let Adams go for failing to beat a side who are genuine title contenders. The Portsmouth players had spent Thursday at a spa, relaxing and building camaraderie, the fans remained loyal after the final whistle and as Distin made his way through the car park, a supporter sympathetically shouted: ‘Hang in there, Sylvain’.

 

“I was really prepared for the rotation of their squad,” Adams said, but he had no means of dealing with the tricky trinity of Alonso, Kuyt and Torres when they came off the Liverpool bench.

 

“It’s football. It’s fantastic. Unfortunately, the result is not fantastic,” Adams said. And Benítez would probably agree; this was not fantastic fare, it was the product of rational planning and proof that the title race will be electric.

 

There is method in Rafael Benitez’s madness at Liverpool | Premier League - Times Online

 

 

Still fantastic Tony?

[ToxtethTerror]

I've read worse on here to be frank.

[ScottyT]

I've hardly seen any media reports commentating on what a good game it was - pulsating English football at it's best, instead focusing on their tedious manager agenda, whoever it maybe.

[stringvest]

I've hardly seen any media reports commentating on what a good game it was - pulsating English football at it's best, instead focusing on their tedious manager agenda, whoever it maybe.

 

It wasn't football at its best - it was more like pinball half the time, but it was entertaining. Not very sophisticated, or very technical, but entertaining.

[ratcatcher]

If collymore said in an article LFC played in Red, I'd still check it out myself.

 

The daily manc doing a job on us? Wow, who'd have thought that?

[rubble-rouser]

It wasn't football at its best - it was more like pinball half the time, but it was entertaining. Not very sophisticated, or very technical, but entertaining.

 

But if it was Fulham v Everton or Utd v Anyone it would be 'a glorious advert for the English game' and evidence that 'the Premiership is the most competitive league in the world'.

 

The one game I definitely remember Fabio in centre mid was home v Arsenal in teh league cup ...

[sir roger]

Has anyone seen The Mirror today? They really are smarting about the ban from Anfield, aren't they?

 

Firstly, their match report is clearly an editorial piece to which they have put the name and photograph of the office teaboy, and could not be a more obviously deliberate attack piece on Rafa if they tried.

 

They've then followed it up with a piece in the weekly 'Thoughts Of A Retard' column, in which Collymore sypathises with Robbie Keane's plight, tells us how he and Keane were similar because they were asked to play different roles, how HE told Roy Evans he should have bought someone else, and how Liverpool's player purchase policy hasn't improved and Rafa is crap blah, blah, blah.... Lazy, wife-beating twat.

 

I thought that , where the fuck has Mark Fleming come from ? He looks about 12 with a face like a City Bakers Halloween Cake.

[Heinze]

And in stoppage time Torres pounced to head powerfully from Yossi Benayoun's cross.

I thought the cross came from Aurelio? :wow:

[Acid]

I thought the cross came from Aurelio? :wow:

 

No it was Yossi. Fabio even mentioned it in his post match interview.

[SpeedyG]

I thought the cross came from Aurelio? :wow:

 

Nope, the chelsea one did come from Fabio though.