Benitez 'guarantees' top four finish

[Stu Monty]

We are fucked then.

 

Aye.

 

High five?

[Guest juanmanual]

That to me is the crux of things. Yes, losing someone of Alonsos class will always cause you to suffer a bit, but not to the level we are. I think a number of things are affecting us.

 

- Player badly out of form at the back that we can usually hugely rely on.

 

- Injuries.

 

- Managerial mistakes with sticking with certain players badly out of form.

 

- The loss of Torres and Gerrard for long periods with Gerrard out of form.

 

- Mascherano well out of form.

 

- Massive hangover from getting so close last year. I think that if that 93rd minute goal for the Mancs against Villa doesn't go in, we win the title. It did though, and I think it knocked shite out of a load of our players and they still haven't properly recovered.

 

- The thought that we'd finished 2nd, with 86 points, so lets get in the last of the missing links to finihs the job, like another forward and Silva, but instead, we have to balance the books. Chelsea finished 2nd and so they spent £74m on talent. We finish second and make a profit for the owners. I think this also significantly contributed to the hangover coming into this season that I mention in the point above.

 

Quite possibly the biggest load of bollocks Ive EVER read.

 

People will go to some lengths to defend Rafa i tell you that.

[goatboy59]

I really don't think someone who's been manager of Liverpool for 6 years can be 'supported' by people claiming his ONE title challenge was over-performance. I honestly don't think it was, and support for Rafa would be (surely) firmer by saying we've seen proof it can be done, actually despite some fairly poor transfer business; Keane, Dossena, Riera to an extent?

 

Obviously when you have this bad a run fans will question if whatever we had last season has been lost forever. When fitness, form and morale looks low it's going to take a special manager to revitalise everyone and get back to what it was.

 

A challenge, no?

[WaltonRed]

Aye.

 

High five?

 

Yes!

[BolshieBastard]

Basically everyone has to wise up and accept the situation and stick together because other than getting in a lesser manager what more can we do?

 

Theres a cancer at the club and its finally seeped down deep into the squad. The signs were there last year and the year before with all the falling out business between the owners and Rafa but the ship was steadied and along with a fairly fit squad we pulled through and probably punched above our weight.

 

When the final cash was pulled this summer you could see this crises a mile off and that was only with the likes of Torres and Gerrard being missing nevermind most of the squad over different periods.

 

basically we are fucked. Until we get in more stable owners this is whats to be expected for the forseable future.

 

Bargain basement buys at best, lack of cash, i mean who the hell has heard of using a transfer budget to renegotiate deals for current players? never in my lifetime have i heard that.

 

And what about Rafa.

 

yeah the guy makes me tear my hair out at times, but hes a bloody good manager and more of a man than myself, because i'd have walked by now having put up with all this crap week in week out. If its not the media constantly sniping hoping to break him, its our own fans, if its not them its sodding beach balls or fuckin Jerome scoring a goal he'll never score agin in his lifetime.

 

make no mistake while he isnt entirely blameless in some regards, theres been a hell of a lot out of his hands thats buggered us over good and proper this season so far.

 

the very least he deserves is this season, the very least. hes up against it with out of form, or injured players, a thin squad, internal warfare, no kitty and 90% of fleet street just crowing for their next big scalp.

 

All we can do is support. yeah its frustrating and it ruins my day/week/month but until the owners are ousted we cant move on. I dont trust them to bring in a new man, i dont trust them to give the new man funds. I dont trust the new man with some of our star names because ill tell you now the only way we will get a top quality manager is by pure name alone because we have sod all else to offer at the moment, the club is a poisoned chalice.

 

So lets quit the whinin, yeah let some frustrations out but keep it real.

 

I dont buy this. We were within a heartbeat of winning the title last season. The only player of note we lost was alonso. (Hyppia was a player of note but Benitez didnt play him much.) Alonso was replaced by Aquilani. Benitez scouted him, Benitez wanted him, Benitez bought him.

 

He could have sought another target in that price bracket but didnt. He's chosen not to play Aquilani for a full month when he was declared fit.

 

Its not as if we have lost 4 or 5 central players to our team.

[Stu Monty]

I really don't think someone who's been manager of Liverpool for 6 years can be 'supported' by people claiming his ONE title challenge was over-performance. I honestly don't think it was, and support for Rafa would be (surely) firmer by saying we've seen proof it can be done, actually despite some fairly poor transfer business; Keane, Dossena, Riera to an extent?

 

Obviously when you have this bad a run fans will question if whatever we had last season has been lost forever. When fitness, form and morale looks low it's going to take a special manager to revitalise everyone and get back to what it was.

 

A challenge, no?

 

So you think that Chelsea or United finishing below us is a fair expectation for them at the start of the season?

 

Any rational, objective person can see how they have us outgunned and that pushing one, or both, of them aside (and I'm not even mentioning Arsenal here) is performing above expectation.

 

It's not a pleasant truth but, for me, it is one.

[Brownie]

So you think that Chelsea or United finishing below us is a fair expectation for them at the start of the season?

 

Any rational, objective person can see how they have us outgunned and that pushing one, or both, of them aside (and I'm not even mentioning Arsenal here) is performing above expectation.

 

It's not a pleasant truth but, for me, it is one.

 

Surely the fact of the matter right now, is that we're 8 points behind Aston Villa and 3 points behind Birmingham City, never mind Man Utd and Chelsea.

[Ted]

Can't you lot just discuss this shit in one line blurbs?

 

I can't be arsed reading all this, I have the attention span of, oh wow look at the colour of that carpet.

[goatboy59]

So you think that Chelsea or United finishing below us is a fair expectation for them at the start of the season?

 

Any rational, objective person can see how they have us outgunned and that pushing one, or both, of them aside (and I'm not even mentioning Arsenal here) is performing above expectation.

 

It's not a pleasant truth but, for me, it is one.

Start of the season, United lost Ronaldo and Tevez. Hiddink proved that if a reasonable manager has hold of the reins Chelsea will probably win it, but I certainly expected us to match United and (so far) we certainly have not.

 

But this just all sounds like Everton Moyes talk to me. We do well, hey what a genius, he's brilliant, what a miracle worker. We do badly, hey what do you expect, he's not a miracle worker.

 

To challenge Liverpool need a special manager. If last season was over-performance, or what unkind souls would call a fluke, then Rafa isn't special. Of course we're going to have to look at what's out there and gauge whether someone can improve us, but with the table the way it is and if it stays like that for much longer then (like 2004) most of us will probably say 'we need a change more than anything else'.

[TonyTNT]

I like his moxy, fuck it I said it. I am the worlds worst when it comes to knee jerk reactions. I have read many an anti Rafa and Pro Rafa thread on here in the last few months, and you know what I am not ashamed to say it, but I honestly still can’t decide how I feel.

 

I should imagine most of us feel that way at the moment, part of us feel so angry and gutted that we honestly thought we would push on this season and we are devastated not only by the fact this hasn’t come to fruition but also the fact we are struggling so much. Most of us I think still want to believe in Rafa, not just for bringing us the 5th euro, but also for the fact that he is a fan of this great club, he loves it likes us, so we want to see him succeed, because if he doesn’t then it starts to feel like we don’t really matter..what I mean by that is that we have a gentleman here in charge of our club, he honestly believes that he can influence things to “guarantee a top 4 slot” the minute he stops believing that then we are fucked.

 

As a fan I feel I have always "mattered", now I am not going to start to go into the whole ..how many games have you been too? bollocks, because the truth be known I have travelled up from Wales on many a pissed soaking night to watch the Red's play in a league cup or a qualifying euro match, only to get back 3am and be up at 6 to go to work. Does it make me more of a fan as to someone who can’t make it to the game or less of a fan to someone who is there week in week out and grew up in the history of the club, does it fuck. Those of us with just 1 club all hurt just as bad when we lose or feel just as euphoric when we win.

 

What I really mean when I say “mattered” is that I have always felt that by screaming at the TV, defending our corner whether it be in school or in work, reminding people as to why we are a different breed of fans, and yes even praying to the powers that be..”Please help us turn this around” (thank you big man for the Portsmouth FA cup and Istanbul games by the way)..that we have always had an influence, now that may seem sentimental bullshit. If so then I’ll take the relative negs and shit that will ensue, personally I don’t give a fuck, as I post far too little to give a shit, However I honestly believe Rafa is a fan and he feels he can “matter” he has to, hence him saying this ballsy statement. Is he the right man to take us there?? I don’t fucking know, shit I can’t decide if marmite is the devils work or is it only okay when there is fucking nothing left to bolster a slice of bread. All I know is that I would rather hear this and hope it rallies the troops, than be a pussy.

[Stu Monty]

Start of the season, United lost Ronaldo and Tevez. Hiddink proved that if a reasonable manager has hold of the reins Chelsea will probably win it, but I certainly expected us to match United and (so far) we certainly have not.

 

But this just all sounds like Everton Moyes talk to me. We do well, hey what a genius, he's brilliant, what a miracle worker. We do badly, hey what do you expect, he's not a miracle worker.

 

To challenge Liverpool need a special manager. If last season was over-performance, or what unkind souls would call a fluke, then Rafa isn't special. Of course we're going to have to look at what's out there and gauge whether someone can improve us, but with the table the way it is and if it stays like that for much longer then (like 2004) most of us will probably say 'we need a change more than anything else'.

 

The table isn't going to stay as it is though, is it? I really doubt it. I still think we'll finish fourth, for this season at least.

 

It wasn't a fluke, just a very good season that is hard to replicate. We'll have to agree to disagree because I don't think we're the club you think we are any more.

[Liverpool lad]

We are still mathematically in it LOLZ

[.net]

I dont buy this. We were within a heartbeat of winning the title last season. The only player of note we lost was alonso. (Hyppia was a player of note but Benitez didnt play him much.) Alonso was replaced by Aquilani. Benitez scouted him, Benitez wanted him, Benitez bought him.

 

He could have sought another target in that price bracket but didnt. He's chosen not to play Aquilani for a full month when he was declared fit.

 

Its not as if we have lost 4 or 5 central players to our team.

 

We lost the title because by and large we didnt have the depth of quality we needed. The mancs did. How many times did they bring on tevez or Berbatov to swing a game?

 

Low and behold they are near the top this seaosn but have played about as well as us and have stumbled to victory in the main because theyve lost that quality in depth they had to pull them out the crap.

[goatboy59]

The table isn't going to stay as it is though, is it? I really doubt it. I still think we'll finish fourth, for this season at least.

 

It wasn't a fluke, just a very good season that is hard to replicate. We'll have to agree to disagree because I don't think we're the club you think we are any more.

I think we had a first-choice team that had the better of virtually everyone in the league. People have become absolutely obsessed with money, but if we'd had better fitness slightly more luck and better choices had been made in the transfer market, we'd be better off even now.

 

Teams have had bad runs before. Genuinely, this feels like something a bit more than that. A loss of Belief. We can blame the yanks but not completely, because a better manager with a better grasp of how to deal with people and, if you like, hermetically seal the dressing room from the woes of the outside world - Siege Mentality is the usual cliche here - could have done better.

 

6 home games, scored the first goal every time, gone 2-1 down in 5 of them. Even the shittest Liverpool teams have never done that.

[andrew78]

iI just want a new ground and to be selfsuficent, and say 30 mill a season for players thats not a big ask for the size of club we are

[zigackly]

We lost the title because by and large we didnt have the depth of quality we needed. The mancs did. How many times did they bring on tevez or Berbatov to swing a game?

 

I think that's a bit of a myth, we swung a number of games in the first half of the season where we had gone behind and Rafa was throwing on attackers and taking off defenders. I seem to recall there were at least two games where we ended up with two at the back and turned them around. The problem for me was that we would only do that when we fell behind, we wouldn't do it when we were drawing. Just two home draws turned into wins last season and we would have won the title even with the lack of depth you are lamenting.

[Red Nick]

Tomorrow is the first of many must win games for Rafa

 

The reality now he is one bad result away from the sack

[WaltonRed]

You reckon Nick cos I dont.

[hamstrung]

Tomorrow is the first of many must win games for Rafa

 

The reality now he is one bad result away from the sack

 

Only in your syph-riddled head, Nick.

[Tom R]

22 GAMES FROM GREATNESS

[Whelan]

I'll say this now, so that nobody can accuse me of 'settling' if it happens.

 

I would rather we won the FA cup and finished fifth than won fuck all and finished fourth.

[Tom R]

I'll say this now, so that nobody can accuse me of 'settling' if it happens.

 

I would rather we won the FA cup and finished fifth than won fuck all and finished fourth.

 

I'll say this now, so that nobody can accuse me of 'settling' if it happens.

 

I would rather Rafael Benitez bought a DeLorean and resigned at the end of last season, leaving with with at least a teeny weeny bit of dignity left.

 

Some of the shit he's come out with in recent weeks is amongst some of the most embarrassing crud I've ever heard from any manager, ever.

 

Shut your fucking mouth and do your fucking job, Rafa. Please.

We're already a fucking laughing stock. Stop adding to it.

[dirty_sanchez]

If we win all of our remaining league games, we'll have more points than we did last year.

[Whelan]

I'll say this now, so that nobody can accuse me of 'settling' if it happens.

 

I would rather Rafael Benitez bought a DeLorean and resigned at the end of last season, leaving with with at least a teeny weeny bit of dignity left.

 

Some of the shit he's come out with in recent weeks is amongst some of the most embarrassing crud I've ever heard from any manager, ever.

 

Shut your fucking mouth and do your fucking job, Rafa. Please.

We're already a fucking laughing stock. Stop adding to it.

 

For starters it wasn't aimed at you, so thanks for the sarcasm, on a point of which I generally agree with you! I am not arsed over a top four finish, that is not what this season should have been about, as far as I am concerned a top four finish will be a poor season.

[Tom R]

For starters it wasn't aimed at you[/i],

 

yeah I know.

 

I was just clarifying my position. You know, just in case.