What cost us the league?

[SpeedyG]

Our tactics where the key difference, the personal was the same bar Keane. The way we set up from March onwards was so much more positive, we didn't seem to give a shit who we where up against, we just went at them.

 

We didn't do that in the early stages, we where negative, we where downright shit.

 

Instead of posting the same shit that's been posted for the last god knows how long how about posting something that relates to the post you are replying to.

 

Did Mascheranos crap early season form have any significant part to play? Carragher's mistakes? Xabi and Gerrard taking 21 shots in a couple of games and getting 1 on target? Players strolling around like lost kids during the 'boro game? Are these all completely irrelevant?

 

The superpowers that most of you attribute to Benitez are just incredible they go beyond the man behind the curtain into the realm of omnipotence.

[SpeedyG]

Ant bang on the money yet again. During that period of the season when we were playing dreadful football you just got the feeling Rafa seemed to treat every game like we were playing Barca away or something. The Hull 2-2 draw comments still rankle a bit when he said the game was too open....Against Hull. He moans when he says teams get 10 men behind the ball at Anfield then when a team has a go at us he moaned about that as well.

 

You don't need a tactical straightjacket on the players against Hull, West Ham et al you just go out there and beat them and don't be worried about what they may do. Sadly for us Rafa learned that lessom when it was too late this season.

 

Yeah, let's condemn the manager for being pissed that we weren't able to impose our game on the mighty Hull.

[Juan Galonso]

Yeah, let's condemn the manager for being pissed that we weren't able to impose our game on the mighty Hull.

 

Well duh...we were the home team and he said the game was too open. It summed him up for the first six months of the season that one line. By the time he realized that if you go at the shit teams in home games it was too late and we were playing catch up.

[Antynwa]

Instead of posting the same shit that's been posted for the last god knows how long how about posting something that relates to the post you are replying to.

 

Did Mascheranos crap early season form have any significant part to play? Carragher's mistakes? Xabi and Gerrard taking 21 shots in a couple of games and getting 1 on target? Players strolling around like lost kids during the 'boro game? Are these all completely irrelevant?

 

The superpowers that most of you attribute to Benitez are just incredible they go beyond the man behind the curtain into the realm of omnipotence.

 

It's tactics, the players are told to play a certain way. YES It doesn't come off, Stoke at home a prime example of this. I wasn't expecting to steam roller sides.

 

But if you look at the way we set up early in the season Pre-March, it was safety first, everything was safety first. Hull being a prime example of this,

2-2 with 70 minutes to go, he brings on Lucas Fucking Leiva instead of Robbie Keane. I'm not saying it would have made a difference, but at least it would have proved where the intent lies.

 

Fulham at home, Gerrard didn't start, Alonso was on the fucking bench? Why...What the fuck?

 

Rafa said something early on in the season which went something along the lines of this...

 

It's important to win... but more important not to lose It's fucking wrong, it's this attitude pre-march where we lost the league.

 

Look at the Real Madrid game for instance, it seemed to click, our tactics where spot on and the way Rafa set up the side was excellent, despite the lack of a fit Torres, and no Gerrard at all. Boro granted was just a shit performance.

 

You cannot deny the change of enphasis, the change of philosophy from Rafa Benitez, Dirk Kuyt is pushing more foward than he ever has been and Yossi is playing out of this world compared to the shit he produced v the likes of Stoke Away.

 

The players are told to play a certain way, the players obey their manager. The players had a leash pre-march, the leash has gone. Perhaps because it had to be loosened, perhaps Rafa had a change of thought.

 

One thing is for sure, we need to keep this mentality going.

 

Fuck Stoke

 

Fuck Hull

 

Fuck Wigan

 

Fuck Boro

 

We are Liverpool Fucking Football Club, and out of the games we drew, to gain at least 8 points from them shouldn't be something that we can't expect. Don't give me that shit that they've been un-beaten at home. As long as we go out with the intent to win, and ensure they worry about Dirk Kuyt, it's sound.

 

Our players have beat the cream of Europe, and humiliated the Champions, it isn't lack of ability or money. It's tactics.

 

I have every faith in Rafa to learn from his mistakes FINALLY this summer, if he does. I predict a highly successful trophy full May 2010.

 

I admit, I don't believe Benitez will win the league as much as you, but at the same time, I don't believe he's fucking stupid, he has to learn from his mistakes, because I expect him to, and he isn't the sort of person to repeat them.

[109_ultra]

Sadly for us Rafa learned that lessom when it was too late this season.

 

Totally agree with that.

 

But the key question is, do you think he will heed that lesson for next season? My concern is that he only took the shackles off because we had nothing to lose, everyone thought the title was gone so when we were back in it, it was like a bonus and the pressure was nothing like it was earlier in the season.

 

What I don't understand is that when we were behind to the likes of boro and wigan at home we ended up with 4 up front. I was surprised it wasn't used more when we were drawing at anfield, its obvious Rafa just didn't think the draws would damage us the way they have. Maybe relates back to what he said at the start of the season about a low points tally winning it this year.

 

As for the main reason we have lost it, I would prefer to say the mancs proved too good in the end (the fuckers!). Any side that gets to 90 points probably deserves it.

[SpeedyG]

Well duh...we were the home team and he said the game was too open. It summed him up for the first six months of the season that one line. By the time he realized that if you go at the shit teams in home games it was too late and we were playing catch up.

 

He was pissed that we didn't impose our game plan on them. I just don't see a problem with that. I don't understand that particular criticism, maybe that's why I don't understand, why you and a few others have what to me seems like an almost pathological need to lay everything at his door.

[Antynwa]

Totally agree with that.

 

But the key question is, do you think he will heed that lesson for next season? My concern is that he only took the shackles off because we had nothing to lose, everyone thought the title was gone so when we were back in it, it was like a bonus and the pressure was nothing like it was earlier in the season.

 

.

 

My worry exactly.

 

If Rafa doesn't learn next season, we won't win the league.

[SpeedyG]

It's tactics, the players are told to play a certain way. YES It doesn't come off, Stoke at home a prime example of this. I wasn't expecting to steam roller sides.

 

But if you look at the way we set up early in the season Pre-March, it was safety first, everything was safety first. Hull being a prime example of this,

2-2 with 70 minutes to go, he brings on Lucas Fucking Leiva instead of Robbie Keane. I'm not saying it would have made a difference, but at least it would have proved where the intent lies.

 

Fulham at home, Gerrard didn't start, Alonso was on the fucking bench? Why...What the fuck?

 

Rafa said something early on in the season which went something along the lines of this...

 

It's important to win... but more important not to lose It's fucking wrong, it's this attitude pre-march where we lost the league.

 

Look at the Real Madrid game for instance, it seemed to click, our tactics where spot on and the way Rafa set up the side was excellent, despite the lack of a fit Torres, and no Gerrard at all. Boro granted was just a shit performance.

 

You cannot deny the change of enphasis, the change of philosophy from Rafa Benitez, Dirk Kuyt is pushing more foward than he ever has been and Yossi is playing out of this world compared to the shit he produced v the likes of Stoke Away.

 

The players are told to play a certain way, the players obey their manager. The players had a leash pre-march, the leash has gone. Perhaps because it had to be loosened, perhaps Rafa had a change of thought.

 

One thing is for sure, we need to keep this mentality going.

 

Fuck Stoke

 

Fuck Hull

 

Fuck Wigan

 

Fuck Boro

 

We are Liverpool Fucking Football Club, and out of the games we drew, to gain at least 8 points from them shouldn't be something that we can't expect. Don't give me that shit that they've been un-beaten at home. As long as we go out with the intent to win, and ensure they worry about Dirk Kuyt, it's sound.

 

Our players have beat the cream of Europe, and humiliated the Champions, it isn't lack of ability or money. It's tactics.

 

I have every faith in Rafa to learn from his mistakes FINALLY this summer, if he does. I predict a highly successful trophy full May 2010.

 

I admit, I don't believe Benitez will win the league as much as you, but at the same time, I don't believe he's fucking stupid, he has to learn from his mistakes, because I expect him to, and he isn't the sort of person to repeat them.

 

a) I think you give too much credit to tactics and too little to everything else.

b) you don't know how much I think we'll win the league or if I even think we will.

[109_ultra]

I don't think its so much a tactical thing he's learnt. As I said, he went for the jugular early in the season in the odd game (which turned out to be not enough), but only when we went behind. 3 games stick in the mind, stoke at home when we had 1 shot on target, hull at home when again we opened up when 2 nil down only to revert back when level, and arsenal away when they went down to 10. In all 3 I think we accepted the draw.

 

What he has learnt above all is how ruthless it is at the top. You must win every week to have a chance. You cant skimp about hoping for rivals to slip up. He should have rolled the dice a few more times in games like the above, when in truth i think the odds of us winning had he done so were well in our favour. Take the mancs at wigan, a draw probably would have done but their mentality is to win every game and they ended with 4 up front even then.

[The Thong]

Not having a big enough squad.

 

The fact that Gerrard and Torres were out is not the reason we lost. You really expect them to play high intensity football for 50 plus games a season? It's the quality of the personel that replaces your gems that wins the league. Contrast that to the UCL of FA Cup where you can focus on playing your best players at peak mental and fitness levels.

 

Our bench is not as good as the Mancs. First 11 v. First 11; no problem. In other seasons our first 11 could not compete with theirs, so we have moved forward no doubt.

[robslappa]

For me it can be summed up quite easily.

 

We never beat Stoke home and away and we never beat Hull at Anfield. If those games had been won we'd be Champions.

 

Stoke home was one of them days, but Stoke away and Hull were quite simply down to the Manager.

[DonaldDonaldson]

It's hard to pinpoint one reason, but one thing that is worrying about next season is the fact that we did the double over the mancs, which is basically a 12 point swing in our favour, and it still wasn't enough. In fact, we claimed 14 out of 18 from our 3 'rivals', which is pretty fucking good, and not something you can expect every season, yet it wasn't good enough.

[Red Nick]

Totally agree with that.

 

But the key question is, do you think he will heed that lesson for next season? My concern is that he only took the shackles off because we had nothing to lose, everyone thought the title was gone so when we were back in it, it was like a bonus and the pressure was nothing like it was earlier in the season.

 

What I don't understand is that when we were behind to the likes of boro and wigan at home we ended up with 4 up front. I was surprised it wasn't used more when we were drawing at anfield, its obvious Rafa just didn't think the draws would damage us the way they have. Maybe relates back to what he said at the start of the season about a low points tally winning it this year.

 

As for the main reason we have lost it, I would prefer to say the mancs proved too good in the end (the fuckers!). Any side that gets to 90 points probably deserves it.

 

Got to agree with that I personally think who we buy in the transfer market will be a very good indicatiion if Rafa has learnt his lesson. As they say time will tell

[Drewas]

One of the options should be Utd. have exceptional season.

 

We havent had a bad season and in most seasons we would have won it. Its our best season for a decade as far as points is concerned and the first time in 30 years we have scored as many goals.

 

The thing i clin to is that I think its as good as it gets for the Mancs while with Rafa this team can and will improve.

[Red Nick]

AT ANFIELD

 

Fulham

West Ham

Hull

Stoke

Man City

Everton

 

AWAY

 

Stoke

Boro

Wigan

 

Now thats 19 points in games when we were huge favourites and whilst it is unreasonable to expect us to win all of those games we should have won at least half that would have given us enough points to win the Title

[stringvest]

Yes, of course there are lots of contributing factors - the form, fitness, confidence of individual players, errors etc, but the overarching reason was the approach in what tuned out to be key games earlier in the season. I believe the manager will have learned a lot from this season, which gives cause for optimism. My fear is that this may have been our best opportunity for some time, and for some time in the future.

[SpeedyG]

AT ANFIELD

 

Fulham

West Ham

Hull

Stoke

Man City

Everton

 

AWAY

 

Stoke

Boro

Wigan

 

Now thats 19 points in games when we were huge favourites and whilst it is unreasonable to expect us to win all of those games we should have won at least half that would have given us enough points to win the Title

 

So you are saying it's all down to us not winning enough games? Cheers!

[Red Nick]

Yes, of course there are lots of contributing factors - the form, fitness, confidence of individual players, errors etc, but the overarching reason was the approach in what tuned out to be key games earlier in the season. I believe the manager will have learned a lot from this season, which gives cause for optimism. My fear is that this may have been our best opportunity for some time, and for some time in the future.

 

Nail on the head for me we could have a better season next season and finish 3rd espescially if Hiddink stays. I dont expect Utd to start so slugglish next season either. 90 points plus to win the PL next season IMO