Something special occured tonight

[philyhamann]

He has shown time after time he can do it in Europe, but has shown time after time he can't in the league with his constant fuck ups every season. Thats all it is, I expected a win tonight and was not surprised to see it. It has saved him from criticism of his league performance in the past, and will do again as evidenced by the amount of people who seemingly want to gloat?

[Spanish_fan]

Yeah, great result but was anybody really that surprised? Rafa has proved himself over the years to be the best there is at stifling the opposition to get a result.

 

I thought Souness summed up Rafa perfectly though. When the opposition do the same to us he is incapable of overcoming their stifling tactics. The continual signing of mediocre "flair" players suggests he may never work out a way to correct that weakness, because it is not his forte.

 

With better English than mine.

[isr]

I don't want to sound a miserable bastard, nor do I want to put a downer on things, but watching that tonight showed EXACTLY what I believe we lack in the league.

Balls. Big ones, Big balls to grab by, no fannying around, just 'proper footy' 11 men fighting for one another. Rafa's decisions where spot on, the team was spot on, everything about today was spot on.

...

I'm a fickle football fan, 2 hours ago I could have booted Rafa out the door without moments thought, now I could cuddle him to bed

....

Tonight Rafa, this is the perfect example of what I want to see from you and your team, fucking balls.

 

Why don't you take your own advice, and start showing some "fucking balls" yourself, and not slag off, whine, bitch, moan and complain after any setback.

[isr]

I've been saying it for 5 seasons. I'm not and never have been crying out for "the title or the sack", the results in the league this season are not my gripe either. If we get 80pts that will be a good season whether we win the title or not.

 

It's Rafa the political animal that moves me to want him out. He is a cold, manipulative, trouble causing control freak. He's been the same wherever he has been. He has to realise that he is not the dictator at LFC, accept the situation or go. His continual off the record briefings to the press are the biggest cause of disharmony at the club and 90% off the fans I know are sick of it and know who is the cause of it all.

 

Load of bollocks. Especially when you start blaming him as the "biggest cause of disharmony" at the club. Absolute load of tosh. The disharmony at the club is rooted in

- new owners who saddled 100's of miliions of pounds of debt on the club

- a stadium that has been effectively cancelled (removing the entire raison d'etre of looking for new owners in the first place)

- owners who are fighting with each other, and dividing the clubs management structure between them

- a CEO who is actively screwing around with the football side of things, AGAINST the managers expressed wishes.

 

And this is all Rafa's fault?

 

Absolute load of bollocks. You're lying through your teeth, and not even trying to do a good job about it either.

 

What Rafa wants - control over FOOTBALL matters - is what any Liverpool manager has expected, since Shankly.

 

Your impotence at addressing the real problems (the current owners wouldn't give a fuck for what you, me or anyone else says or thinks) don't excuse your making Rafa a scapegoat for problems that are not of his making.

 

The changes needs to come from within himself, if he realises that it will work. He is in control of his own and the clubs destiny. The problem is he doesn't realise it and is obsessed with the faults in those around him.

 

"Physician heal thyself".

 

Excellent psychoanalysis from someone who is incapable of seeing that he himself holds an irrational outright hatred for someone else. Your last quote is rich in irony ....

 

Liverpool needs a cold man at the helm. To handle the backstabbing, lies, second guessing and negative propaganda spewed from all sources - so called fans (what a fucking joke thats turning out to be), ex-players, the press, and TV pundits who wouldnt know their arse from their elbow (and proved as much when they managed a club).

 

Its a fucking thankless job at times, partly down to people like you. A Rafael Benitez, warts and all, is EXACTLY the kind of man a club like Liverpool FC needs to regain their former glories.

 

And even with him, it will take years of toil, and incremental improvement.

 

Without him, and we are just another club living off past glories. Dime a dozen. Give it another decade, and we might just reunite with Nottingham Forest, to relive European Cup triumphs of yesteryear.

 

Without Liverpool, Benitez will still go on to do great things - just with another club.

[Jose Jones]

isr you really need to calm it down.

 

Could you not have put your points to Hermes in a polite manner?

I agree that the major problem with the club is the owners, Parry has also obviously been briefing the press and politicking just to keep his job rather than in the best needs of the club. However I think Rafa has a bit as well - he briefs and leaks to the press, too much for my liking. Fair enough, you think he has to - but there's no need to harangue someone with a different point of view. Shouting never changed anyone's mind, a calm explanation can.

[hamstrung]

It was a fairly typical European performance against a top side. I don't think there was anything special or surprising about it.

 

Its what we do.

[stringvest]

Load of bollocks. Especially when you start blaming him as the "biggest cause of disharmony" at the club. Absolute load of tosh. The disharmony at the club is rooted in

- new owners who saddled 100's of miliions of pounds of debt on the club

- a stadium that has been effectively cancelled (removing the entire raison d'etre of looking for new owners in the first place)

- owners who are fighting with each other, and dividing the clubs management structure between them

- a CEO who is actively screwing around with the football side of things, AGAINST the managers expressed wishes.

 

And this is all Rafa's fault?

 

Absolute load of bollocks. You're lying through your teeth, and not even trying to do a good job about it either.

 

What Rafa wants - control over FOOTBALL matters - is what any Liverpool manager has expected, since Shankly.

 

Your impotence at addressing the real problems (the current owners wouldn't give a fuck for what you, me or anyone else says or thinks) don't excuse your making Rafa a scapegoat for problems that are not of his making.

 

 

 

Excellent psychoanalysis from someone who is incapable of seeing that he himself holds an irrational outright hatred for someone else. Your last quote is rich in irony ....

 

Liverpool needs a cold man at the helm. To handle the backstabbing, lies, second guessing and negative propaganda spewed from all sources - so called fans (what a fucking joke thats turning out to be), ex-players, the press, and TV pundits who wouldnt know their arse from their elbow (and proved as much when they managed a club).

 

Its a fucking thankless job at times, partly down to people like you. A Rafael Benitez, warts and all, is EXACTLY the kind of man a club like Liverpool FC needs to regain their former glories.

 

And even with him, it will take years of toil, and incremental improvement.

 

Without him, and we are just another club living off past glories. Dime a dozen. Give it another decade, and we might just reunite with Nottingham Forest, to relive European Cup triumphs of yesteryear.

 

Without Liverpool, Benitez will still go on to do great things - just with another club.

 

Jeepers, there's a lot of vitriol there. Totally disproportionate. If you can't see that Benitez has wilfully been upsetting the applecart lately, then there's no helping you. I'm not asking for Benitez's head, but I can see he's disrupting the team with his constant whining in the press. Why the hell can't he leave this until the end of the season? Why have it all out in public? It's absolutely damaging our prospects this season and I wish he's shut the fuck up with his own backstabbing, lies, negative propaganda, all of which prompt unnecessary and damaging second guessing.

[Antynwa]

Why don't you take your own advice, and start showing some "fucking balls" yourself, and not slag off, whine, bitch, moan and complain after any setback.

 

Well done, reasonable discussion without abuse is not capable with you.

 

But anyway, the point of the thread was just to state that the sort of attitude displayed by the team and seemingly Benitez is the sort of shit I want to see from us more often.

 

From the outset I knew Rafa wanted to win the game, the team proved it. There was a togetherness you hardly ever see, and the way Yossi celebrated kind of hammered home the point.

 

I'm not saying Rafa should stay, I still want him to go along with the board, but this is the sort of performance I've been craving, I acknowledge Europe is Rafa's forte, and that we will probably fuck up at the Riverside.

 

But this is what I mean when grabbing something from the balls, this is what has been missing, and the lack of what happened last night is probably why we aren't going to win the league.

 

And if we can compare and contrast our worst game v Stoke Way and our best game v Real Madrid away. Benitez put out a team that showed he wanted to win the game last night, not v Stoke.

 

You've got to enjoy moments like this, and no doubt I'll be moaning if we draw or lose at the Riverside, but as I said, show what we showed last night when the going gets tough and we will win this league.

[hamstrung]

You're going way over the top about the significance of last night.

[stringvest]

I always think that Benitez is so good at setting the team up for these games away in Europe against good team, that he prefers playing away in Europe to at home. We do seem to have more control and more 'will' in these games. It is reminiscent of our great European nights from earlier decades - it's like a window into the past and it's good for our younger fans to see how we used to do it.

 

Unfortunately, it's not the same story at home. We don't have the same 'will' - or the same players, to be frank, as we did in the old days, to be able to bring waves and waves of pressure crashing down on our opponents, forcing them into submission. Great night last night though, and I'll enjoy chatting with any ManU follower I come across today.

[Ian Sea]

Jeepers, there's a lot of vitriol there. Totally disproportionate. If you can't see that Benitez has wilfully been upsetting the applecart lately, then there's no helping you. I'm not asking for Benitez's head, but I can see he's disrupting the team with his constant whining in the press. Why the hell can't he leave this until the end of the season? Why have it all out in public? It's absolutely damaging our prospects this season and I wish he's shut the fuck up with his own backstabbing, lies, negative propaganda, all of which prompt unnecessary and damaging second guessing.

 

I'll second that.

[Antynwa]

You're going way over the top about the significance of last night.

 

Nah

 

That was what we've been missing.

 

Big game.

[Ian Sea]

Nah

 

That was what we've been missing.

 

Big game.

 

It was what we always get in Europe. Despite our recent flaws in the league it was the performce I was 100% confident that we'd get last night.

[nelly88]

Nah, I've not seen this sort of performance since the Chelsea 2007 Semis.

 

 

strange that isn't it...the bigger the occasion the better we play.

 

Though Aurelio, Alonso and Benayoun we're class last night

 

Well played boys

YNWA

[nelly88]

You've got to enjoy moments like this, and no doubt I'll be moaning if we draw or lose at the Riverside, but as I said, show what we showed last night when the going gets tough and we will win this league.

 

You wont be moaning mate, youll be celebrating a 3-0 win...MARK MY WORDS!!!

 

last night was just what we needed

[Kennys_spell]

It's alright doing it on the big glamour CL nights, but the true test of champions is going to the Brittania and Riverside and grinding wins out.

 

I knew people would start going over board after tonight and forget the limp league performances and silly off field nonsense that has stunted yet another title challenge.

 

We know we're good in Europe, it's high time the manager started instilling that belief in the league.

 

The true test of champions is who they hand the "Trophy" to in May.

 

Posted on 26th Feb.

[JK1980]

Load of bollocks. Especially when you start blaming him as the "biggest cause of disharmony" at the club. Absolute load of tosh. The disharmony at the club is rooted in

- new owners who saddled 100's of miliions of pounds of debt on the club

- a stadium that has been effectively cancelled (removing the entire raison d'etre of looking for new owners in the first place)

- owners who are fighting with each other, and dividing the clubs management structure between them

- a CEO who is actively screwing around with the football side of things, AGAINST the managers expressed wishes.

 

And this is all Rafa's fault?

 

Absolute load of bollocks. You're lying through your teeth, and not even trying to do a good job about it either.

 

What Rafa wants - control over FOOTBALL matters - is what any Liverpool manager has expected, since Shankly.

 

Your impotence at addressing the real problems (the current owners wouldn't give a fuck for what you, me or anyone else says or thinks) don't excuse your making Rafa a scapegoat for problems that are not of his making.

 

 

 

Excellent psychoanalysis from someone who is incapable of seeing that he himself holds an irrational outright hatred for someone else. Your last quote is rich in irony ....

 

Liverpool needs a cold man at the helm. To handle the backstabbing, lies, second guessing and negative propaganda spewed from all sources - so called fans (what a fucking joke thats turning out to be), ex-players, the press, and TV pundits who wouldnt know their arse from their elbow (and proved as much when they managed a club).

 

Its a fucking thankless job at times, partly down to people like you. A Rafael Benitez, warts and all, is EXACTLY the kind of man a club like Liverpool FC needs to regain their former glories.

 

And even with him, it will take years of toil, and incremental improvement.

 

Without him, and we are just another club living off past glories. Dime a dozen. Give it another decade, and we might just reunite with Nottingham Forest, to relive European Cup triumphs of yesteryear.

 

Without Liverpool, Benitez will still go on to do great things - just with another club.

 

Word.

[Kennys_spell]

Well done, reasonable discussion without abuse is not capable with you.

 

But anyway, the point of the thread was just to state that the sort of attitude displayed by the team and seemingly Benitez is the sort of shit I want to see from us more often.

 

From the outset I knew Rafa wanted to win the game, the team proved it. There was a togetherness you hardly ever see, and the way Yossi celebrated kind of hammered home the point.

 

I'm not saying Rafa should stay, I still want him to go along with the board, but this is the sort of performance I've been craving, I acknowledge Europe is Rafa's forte, and that we will probably fuck up at the Riverside.

 

But this is what I mean when grabbing something from the balls, this is what has been missing, and the lack of what happened last night is probably why we aren't going to win the league.

 

And if we can compare and contrast our worst game v Stoke Way and our best game v Real Madrid away. Benitez put out a team that showed he wanted to win the game last night, not v Stoke.

 

You've got to enjoy moments like this, and no doubt I'll be moaning if we draw or lose at the Riverside, but as I said, show what we showed last night when the going gets tough and we will win this league.

 

I'm not in your head so can only guess at what the "Point" of your thread was - to me it seemed like a post that was simply trying to justify your previous position and get yourself back on-side.

 

Seems to me that you think "suport" means to 'slag, moan, bitch and whinge' when things aren't going too good and to try and bask in the glory when things are going good.

 

Just my opinion like.

[Kennys_spell]

Jeepers, there's a lot of vitriol there. Totally disproportionate. If you can't see that Benitez has wilfully been upsetting the applecart lately, then there's no helping you. I'm not asking for Benitez's head, but I can see he's disrupting the team with his constant whining in the press. Why the hell can't he leave this until the end of the season? Why have it all out in public? It's absolutely damaging our prospects this season and I wish he's shut the fuck up with his own backstabbing, lies, negative propaganda, all of which prompt unnecessary and damaging second guessing.

 

I said this a week or two ago but I really am amazed at the amount of people that allow newspaper articles and rumours to form their opinion for them.

 

:wow: (Me being amazed)

[Simbo]

Something else special occured last night.

 

A fucking good chorus of 'R-R-R-Rafa Benitez'.

 

Havnt heard it in ages and it got a good airing. It showed some solidarity which has been missing for the past few months. It made me feel good again after whats been a tough time.

 

It made a refreshing change from all the in-fighting thats been going on lately from us fans.

 

More of the same please boys.

[isr]

isr you really need to calm it down.

 

Jose Jones, no, I don't. I've fucking had it with so-called fans who boo one day, and then jump on the victory bandwagon the next. You think thats harsh, then go back and read the first post on this thread.

 

 

I agree that the major problem with the club is the owners, Parry has also obviously been briefing the press and politicking just to keep his job rather than in the best needs of the club. However I think Rafa has a bit as well - he briefs and leaks to the press, too much for my liking. Fair enough, you think he has to

 

Look, lets get one thing straight. Rafa Benitez's main driving force in life is not to be a celebrity, on the news and in the headlines every day.

 

His driving force is to be a successful manager, and win lots of trophies.

 

The only reason he's politiking is because he has been forced to live with a nest of backstabbing lying vipers. At every point, he's being second guessed and undermined in the very area where his opinion is SUPPOSED to be paramount. Football.

 

That wasn't the bill of goods he was sold when he joined. You want him to play the fabled so-called "Liverpool Way"? Fine, then get rid of the rest of the wankers, and THEN see how he acts.

 

I have a real problem with the hypocrisy, and sheer double standards present in a bunch of people who lionise one person (Shanks) and demonise another (Rafa) - for exactly the same traits.

 

Thats not to say that the latter will be ultimately as successful as the former, but is a reference to the character traits that Hermes sought fit to use as a character assasination - but which Shanks also displayed in abundance.

 

Single mindedness. Ruthlessness. Determination.

 

Thats whats needed. The rest is just how you spin it.

 

- but there's no need to harangue someone with a different point of view. Shouting never changed anyone's mind, a calm explanation can.

 

Really? Ok, lets try that then, shall we?

 

Hermes old chap. Would you mind awfully not slagging the manager off during the course of the season, as its terribly detrimental to the whole esprit de corps thingy that, in the end, is the whole reason why people conglomerate and support a particular team/cause en masse. In short, you're being a bore, and contributing towards making this season more painful than it needs to be.

 

Thanks awfully, old bean.

[OmarVizquel]

European wins are more exciting; league wins are more satisfying.

 

Do I want to be uncontrollably excited or pleasingly satisfied? Both, of course, would be ideal.......but I can't help being on an adrenaline rush after last night. I thank Rafa for it, and despite his league whining and infuriating decisions, I'm prepared to give him all the time he needs to get the league in order if he keeps giving me nights like last night.

 

He's earned it, I believe.

[isr]

Jeepers, there's a lot of vitriol there. Totally disproportionate. If you can't see that Benitez has wilfully been upsetting the applecart lately, then there's no helping you. I'm not asking for Benitez's head, but I can see he's disrupting the team with his constant whining in the press. Why the hell can't he leave this until the end of the season? Why have it all out in public? It's absolutely damaging our prospects this season and I wish he's shut the fuck up with his own backstabbing, lies, negative propaganda, all of which prompt unnecessary and damaging second guessing.

 

Which comes first?

 

The owners lying about the stadium and funds for team improvement?

The owners and the CEO actively trying to recruit a new manager behind the existing ones back?

The CEO meddling in team transfers in a manner AGAINST the wishes of the manager?

The CEO, owners and their lackeys all prepping their favourite attack dogs in the media and press to do their dirty for them? (ChrisB, take a bow, you're a real Red!)?

 

Or Rafa Benitez putting his side forward, publically?

 

Right, this destruction of this mythical "Liverpool Way" all starts and ends with Rafa, huh?

 

Perhaps you ought to demonstrate how Rafa won't get eaten alive if he, alone amongst all the participants, just stays mum and tries to behave like a good little boy.

 

And its NOT disproportionate. This is a club I've followed passionately for 31 years. And I'm totally fucking disgusted at the attitude some people have taken. I can accept media and press bias. But so-called Liverpool fans swallowing all the prevailing bullshit hook line and sinker and turning en masse against their own manager, 1 League defeat all season and all, going strong in the European Cup and all.......

 

completely disgusts me.

 

Behind all the xenophobia (Spanish git just doesn't understand how much our fans want to win the League .... yawn), the anxiety (every game, and every dropped point becomes that much more intense precisely because we're challenging for the league - remember? that thing you all wanted?), and the mean-spiritedness (bloody smug git, doing things HIS way - rotation and what not - who does he think he is) ...

 

there is a real truth behind it all.

 

The only reason Rafa is really copping it from all corners is because he is, inch by inch, season after season, game after game, is slowly turning Liverpool into a credible force again. In Europe. At home. Its real. You only have to look at the "pundits" queueing up to slag him off. The London press falling over themselves to drag up zonal marking and rotation ad nauseum.

 

Deep down, they know it. Hence the reaction.

 

Fuck them. You're supposed to be Liverpool fans. What the fuck is the matter with you lot?

[isr]

Something else special occured last night.

 

A fucking good chorus of 'R-R-R-Rafa Benitez'.

 

Havnt heard it in ages and it got a good airing. It showed some solidarity which has been missing for the past few months. It made me feel good again after whats been a tough time.

 

It made a refreshing change from all the in-fighting thats been going on lately from us fans.

 

More of the same please boys.

 

Yeah, noted that at the time. Whoever you boys were, well done! You represented many many more fans than "popular wisdom" might have you believe.

 

Thanks!

[Unrighteous]

Because of the way things were going this season, I was sitting here feeling all Zlatan thinking, "we really need a goal, here."