Spanish_fan

Benitez wants robots, not creative players who make decisions themselves. I can't believe that Luis Garcia (who was not good enough BTW) managed to keep his creativity having played under Benitez for a few years. Alonso was his main victim. Liverpool fans have barely seen what he is capable of because of Benitez stifling tactics. And now Robby Keane seems to be the latest victim, chasing the opposition right winger to double him up with the left back. He would have been better off signing a left footed Kuyt clone for that.

He is a much better player than Robben and not injury prone.

Benitez will never win the League in England unless the other top 3 teams heavily underperform. Luckily for Valencia he never had to build a winning squad there, and the only two players he signed were big flops like the majority of his Liverpool signings. In a league where the winner gets around 90 points you can not afford too many draws if you want to have a chance and Benitez ultraconservative tactics lead to many of those. He is obsessed with winning the league with "defensive wingers" and "defensive advanced forwards". Benitez buys quantity over quality because he wants 11 workers on the pitch, eleven Spartans to follow his defensive instructions and don't complain when they are rotated by other workers alike. To be honest it has served him well in the CH L, where not conceding takes you further than scoring plenty and being weak at the back, but to win the Premier League you certainly need a more attacking mindset. I started following Liverpool because of Benitez but now I care more about the team than the coach and I firmly believe that he should be sacked. Maybe Sammy Lee who showed attacking intent at Bolton should be promoted. Surely the football served would be more attractive and after this decade of awful football in the main fans would enjoy the change even if the team do not win anything this season. And it is not the end of the world if Benitez is sacked. He has clearly showed that he is not match for Ferguson in the league and his strong point, work rate, is not such a big avantage in a league where most teams work very hard. Next season Liverpool should make it a top priority to improve the wide positions, either offensively ands defensively with top players, not with previous targets of middle of the table teams whose main attribute is that they work hard.

Tevez is a fantastic player, easily among the top ten attacking players in the world. I can't believe he is not yet playing for a big European team. He would be may first signing for Liverpool this summer. Strenght, acceleration, can finish, excellent technical ability, creativity, can get past players and works hard in defense (a must for any player that plays for Benitez). A Luis Garcia type of player but 10 times better. Not exactly a playmaker like Aimar but rather a second forward with playmaking skills. And a crowd pleaser to boot :thumbup:

Not at all. If I was upset I wouldn't be posting here. Be sure about it. It is not the same trying to win a Cup match stopping the opposition playing and benefiting from their mistakes than trying to win the League when you need to dominate most of the games and create chances against opponents that are going to let you have the ball most of the time :yes: Open your mind if you can :thumbdown

Agree. The right side is far better covered than the left. If Kewell and Fabio Aurelio, both great footballers, could get injured free.... Benitez obsession with hard workers with little skill should be put to rest if Liverpool want to win the Premiership.

Correct Xabier, Basque Xavier, Catalan Javier (Mascherano), Spanish

This player wasn't too bad either :yes:

If you wanna see a proper ball juggler there is none better than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnYZ-tmA4Go

The marking was very poor. He only had to get past Shilton, which he did superbly. The rest of defenders were just ball watching. In today's game more likely than not a holding midfielder would have commited a faul on him, not as spectacular as those made in the eighties but probably more efective. You don't see those slaloms anymore because the defensive technique, individually and collectively has improved tenfold.

Great player on his day. A pitty that he only perfomed well one season for my team. Yet it was much easier to get past players in those times, with the space given to players and the rash challenges made by defenders, as long as you could avoid them. I am pretty sure that the best dribblers of today would make as many slaloms as those great players of the past. They would need a bit of toughen up though :biggrin:

No way Leto is technically as poor as Mark Gonzalez. You only have to watch those 6 minutes to see that.

If Ronaldo ever signs for Liverpool it would be in a straight swap for Rafael Benitez.

As De la Morena reported in The Crossbar (Spanish radio sports program). I Know that Benitez has always rated Raul. One day when he was a junior Real MAdrid coach journalists were watching the youth sides training and they were arguing who would make it or not, and suddenly Benitez appeared among the conversants and told them "The best of the lot is Raul. He is going to become a great player". But Raul is finished. I would be a big mistake if Benitez signed him for Liverpool. At his best he would be an improvement on Kuyt, the same type of player, not great at anything but very good all rounder, but with more class than Kuyt and the same fighting spirit. But now he is a shadow of his former self.

Marchena, Vicente, Mista, Rufete, Curro Torres, all first teamers, didn't play for Cuper, but it is true that the nucleus of the team was already there.

Van der Saar Neville Terry Ferdinand Heinze Xabi Alonso Scholes Ronaldo Rooney Robben Berbatov

No chance. He would be first choice along with Alonso.

That's true, but the question shouldn't be Alves or Simao, but rather Simao AND Alves? Alves is a great attacking full back. As a RM he is unproven. Well, he played there for Caparros, now Deportivo coach, and did a decent job, but he ain;t a winger full of tricks, although he doesn't need many to deliver good crosses.

With the roof opened up

The idea of a short corner is to get defenders out of the box and change ther angle of delivery. One of the problems I see in the Liverpool side is that although Liverpool have very tall players they don't have outstanding headers of the ball bar Hyppia and maybe Crouch because of his height but none of them are very mobile. Paletta I think may be the most dangerous player in set pieces, as he moves quicker in the box, has a good leap and is also tall.

It was in the final third of the season. They were competing with Real Madrid and Real Sociedad for two thirds of the campaign. I remember they lost to Inter in the CH L quarterfinals after battering them in their home game with Toldo making about 20 saves in that match and since then their form went downhill. They played at home against a very weak Barcelona team and lost 3-1 playing horribly with no confidence and not fight. I don't remember them having important injuries that season. In fact it was the following season that Aimar was out injured long term and then it was when they played their most efficient football since Benitez took over. I remember during that bad end of the season spell that Benitez said to his players that they still had to put up with each other for one more month so they better start perfoming or something to that effect.

Sometimes I don;t know what to make of Mourinho. He surely can't be that stupid. Hypocresy galore. He accuses Barcelona players of diving, which they do, but common, this from a coach whose teams are a collection of Greg Luganis. Even John Terry dived last year to get a penalty in the Camp Nou.

No way Zidane played ALONG Davids for Juventus. He played in front of Davids. Where do you leave players like Deschamps, Tachinnardi or Antonio Conte? At Bordeaux I didn't follow him but the videos I have seen of him he was doing the business in the middle, but maybe you are right, but when Zidane arrived at Real Madrid he was considered an advanced playmaker, not a winger. Gerrard as i said singlehandlely can win you a few games, as well as singlehandledly can destroy the pattern of play of a team when he is not inspired. He is always looking for the killing ball. When it works great, but when it doesn't.... I think we will never agree on this one :D

Where would you play Zidane if not the left if you want to play Raul, Figo adn Morientes at the same time? Do you think either Raul or Morientes could play as lone strikers? They both needed each other to be effective, Figo on the right and then...Zidane on the left, un less you played Zidane in a withdrawn central position and give Makelele the Superman cape to do the defending for 7 players. On Gerrard, is you opinion against mine. I have seen Gerrard rushing passes many times when a more calm approach was needed. Obviously everyon has an idea of what qualities likes in CMs, and I am not convinced with Gerrard playing permanently there.

One point about Zidane, Ronaldinho and Gerrard. Zidane. He played on the left for Real Madrid. Reason? Simply to acommodate quality players in other positions. His best position is central as he has the game intelligence and playmaking ability to be more influential there, but Del Bosque put him on the left so that he could acommodate Raul and Morientes plus Figo on the right. Ronaldinho. A poor player when playing in the middle. He is NOT a player to run a team and playmake in the most pure sense of the word (that's why at Brasil he struggles) . On the wing is different. Others are really pulling the strings and make the patterns of play, and Ronaldinho is there on the wing to recieve the ball and attack in the final third with his telling passes, and his dribbling. I see Gerrard attacking wise in a way similar to Ronaldinho, capable of producing decisive interventions but lacking the know-how to play consitently well, and that means in my opinion knowing when to play the simple ball and when to go for the risky pass, when to push forward and when to stay back. I am pretty sure that if Gerrard played in the middle all the games Liverpool would be an attacking machine in some of them when he is at his rampant best and pretty poor in others. Playing Gerrard and Alonso is not viable except against the weaker sides. Gerrard romping forward all the time and Alonso with his null pace having to cover a vast area of the pitch is a recipee for disaster.