peruvian_kopite

I dont mind you not liking his comments. What I fail to understand is the demand of many fans (I dont know if you feel the same way or not) for him to stay quiet and somehow dissasociate himself with the club. Why should he? Who the fuck are we to tell him to shut up? He cares for the club and is entitled to his opinion, the same way everybody on the site does. He is entitled to love the club and feel an affiliation for it. Now we get to pick who can be an LFC supporter or no? Ridiculous.

OK, so if you want to believe Rafa was a poor manager - poorer than Hogdson, even... fine. In fact, if you want to believe Rafa was the worst manager in the history of association football, fine. But dont say he doesnt love the club. I mean, thats just plain gobshite. And if you dont see that, its because you dont want to, and for no other reason.

he kinda hints that hes being accussed of submitting a transfer request late in the transfer window when he actually had asked to leave "12 days ago". He knows his relationship with the LFC fanbase is broken no matter what he does so hell be better being a prick and trying to motivate himself for sunday´s game by absorbing insults from us. Ignore him. In 10 years, Shanks, Paisley, Kenny, Carra and Stevie G will still be remembered, while people will hardly remember how Torres name was pronounced.

Kenny praised Poulsen´s performance on wednesday, as hard to believe as that is, so I think its fair to expect Poulsen to start. Kenny will most likely pick a more physical side. Reina Kelly Skrtel Agger Johnson Kuyt Poulsen Lucas Aurelio Meireles Torres Not that Id like to see that, but I fear thats what will happen..

Thats a valid opinion, but its based on perception and your perception alone, for that fact. You cant compare what Roy could have done with Hyypia, Alonso and Mascherano. Well, two of those players were signed by Benitez. And I can also tell you I dread to think were would we be right now If Roy didnt hadt Reina and Torres this season - both Benitez signings. Under a different, and more objective line of reasoning, it is perfectly valid for other posters to back Rafa and not to Roy on the fact Rafa has won more trophies, and more significant trophies, than Roy. Also, that Rafa had succesfully managed to win titles a top European league before, while Hogdson wasnt able to even keep a job a top european league in his 35 years of experience. You may conclude that Rafa and Roy are comparable, but thats based on your absolute subjective perception. Objective criteria and results point otherwise. Thats the point Im trying to make. Thus, if you are entitled to say that you cant support Rafa if you dont support Roy because of what you perceive, other fans are at least equally entitled to say they can support Rafa and not Roy based on the much more objective argument that Rafa has provided much more concrete results that Roy.

So, in order to fully understand your argument, you think theyve been incompetent in taking too long to find a replacement or too incompetent in not sacking Roy despite not having a competent replacement in line?

Its pretty clear that points tally is secondary to season-end position in importance. The point was that Rafa made progress in his first five seasons, discounting the last one. He went from 5th to 2nd. I dont see how you can argue against that. Again, this is a different argument to the Roy-Rafa comparison you seemed to want to bring up.

We have of course gone backwards since 2006. We are 4 points off the relegation slots. Did we go backwards from 2006 untill 2009? Id disagree on the sheer back of results. Id say we pretty much stayed in the same level, reaching a peak in 2009. But we did not started to decline untill last season. Again, this is based on end-season results only. Anyway, its a different argument to the original one you seemed to suggest: that Roy Hogdson and Rafa Benitez are equally capable managers.

I wanted Rafa to leave because I felt he had become too tired to lead us adequately and had, as a result, lost the dressing room. I wanted Kenny in untill the ownership issue was resolved and thought appointing Hogdson appointment was a bad decision. I dont want Rafa back, because it would mean we would requiere a complete and far too expensive first team and backroom staff overhaul to set things going. However it saddens me to see that some fans dont want to afford him at least some recognition for his two trophies and his other achievements while at the club. Hes not Shanks, hes not Paisely and hes not King Kenny. But he deserves some credit and respect.

I share your opinion that Roy should have been sacked earlier, but I dont blame the owners for taking a cautious approach and secure a replacement before sacking him. I however disagree that 3 months is a long time in sporting bussiness. Its not Wall Street, mate. I have not made up a firm opinion on the new ownership either and thus dont want to pass any judgement at all. My hope is that, by the summer, they will show to be competent bussinessman. Thats all I want from them. Modern football has made the sentimental conection bewteen the owners and the fans inviable.

Having closely followed Bielsa and Scolari through their careers in South America, I would pick Rafa over both of them. Scolari is quite simply a smart man who knows how not to fuck things around when you dont need to. Thats pretty much his only virtue and thats why he will only succeed in south america, where there is little competivity or at the international level. Brazil won the World Cup under him because they had a ridiculously more talented squad than anybody else and were also favoured by the draw. He was smart enough to just let the players play their game while sitting calmly in the bench and cheering them on. At Portugal he did something similar. Bielsa is a better coach than Scolari but his vision of the game is very narrow and would struggle tremendously at the EPL because his teams rely too much on individuals to break stubborn opposition.

The fact that you have not been kept in the know of what they might have done doesnt means they have done nothing at all. The only visible thing for fans that they could have done is signing a player. And they cant because it doesnt make sense to spend money to sign a new player when they are considering sacking the manager, precisely because the fans are demanding it in full voice. Be patient, mate. They havent been in charge for even 3 full months.

These people are arguing the case for Roy Hogdson the decent chap, not Roy Hogdson the manager. Roy was appointed precisely because he would be a "Yes man" for the owners. Hes condescendent and likes pleasing people, and as such has a lot of friends in football who will defend him merely because they like him.

Your whole argument on a comparison between Roy Hogdson and Rafael Benitez is based on arbitrarily setting different criteria to assess the level of success each of them has achieved. Thus, everytime someone responds with a reasonable argument on why Benitez was a better manager, you come up with a counter argument that ignores the initial one and fails to reply to it. You have conveniently ignored the argument that we consistently improved under Benitez during its first five years, which is obviously based on our overall final position and overall points tally at the end of the season - which considering that that is is what actually counts to determine who win the league on who goes on to qualify for european trophies or not, and get relegated or not, is pretty strong. 04/05: 5th 05/06: 3rd 06/07: 3rd 07/08: 4th 08/09: 2nd From 5th to 2nd, never coming behind the initial final overall position. You cant argue with this, so you choose to do some comparison based on away form and home form. Both Rafa´s home and away form is of course far better than Hogdson´s during the same period, but youll say thats unfair because Hogdson was managing Fulham while Benitez was managing a far stronger team. Different criteria set for different people. Under that bar, we can go on forever. Instead, if you want to have a fair discussion on the topic, Id kindly request you to set up objective criteria to be equally applicable to both managers on a given period of time (of your choosing) to compare them and conclude why it would or would not be reasonable to choose one as a favoured manager while at the same time excluding the other.

He refused to answer when asked about his future