GRADY

What was it then? Maybe im wrong and we genuinely couldnt get that extra million but I find it hard to believe and I suppose its immaterial now anyway as that ship has sailed! We will have to agree to disagree regarding gerrards best position. I dont think its such a big deal him playing on the right regularly as a kid when he was coming into the team but when he is established like he is now and 27 years old I dont think your going to get the best out gerrard over the next 5 yrs playing him on the right. but thats my opinion. As for this gerrard/carra backstabbing the manger that some people are saying- have I missed something?? What have they done to undermine the manager? An ultimately they are allowed an opinion anyway!! they are not slagging him in the press. They arent robots who can be programmed to agree with everything benitez says and does. If they feel he is now taking the club backwards and they should know better than us and bearing in mind the career of a footballer doesnt last forever then they would be concerned and rightfully so.

He signed Nunez, pennant, benayoun, gonzales, off the top of my head. They are all wide players and none of them good enough. Instead of penny pinching over a million why didnt we sign alves? The whole point is that the players who he has signed are not good enough. In regard to gerrard being a wide player - since when? Why should we play the best or at least one of the best centre mids in the world on the right wing? I can understand temporarily if our wide players are that poor but not permanently. He isnt going to fly past people and obviously he would be a success because he is such a good player but for a lad who has trained and played as a centre mid all his life to play him permanently on the right wing would just smack of fuckin desperation.

I dont know to be honest! He doesnt say there is an atmosphere and I dont think there is any need to over analyse everything he has said - hes not a politician who has sat down preparing a speech. But on the other hand if you asked me were carra and gerrard begginning to have doubts over benitez that I would imagine yes. Footballers are like fans in that they are fickle and if were not winning they want things changing. I dont know gerrard personally but I would imagine if you sat and spoke to him he would probably say that, we need a top wide player, crouch (or someone who can score goals) playing with torres and to keep the team more stable - pretty much what most of us are saying. In his book his criticisms of Houllier at the end were pretty much what we were all saying. I dont like this merry go round of managers but I would be surprised if benitez isnt gone in the summer

Some sad bastards on here. Blaming Gerrard for Liverpool's demise? whats the fuck is wrong with people. Are you all that jealous that a local lad has made it to the extent he has and received adulation of people from all over the world? Or is it because he NEARLY went to Chelsea? I find it fuckin amazing that people use Liverpool's slump in form to have a pop at gerrard when the reality is that the manager is not gettin the best out of the players, we are poor to watch as a team and our lack of a quality player out wide is becoming almost comical. For fucks sake open your eyes instead of living in a bubble and blaming our best player

To be fair to Redknapp I dont doubt he loves Liverpool. He is forever going on about the city and the club. Its just like any one of us being frustrated with the performance in the league which is not fuckin good enough. Gloss it up how you want but we are nowhere nr the top - 17 points off in fuckin feb is a fuckin disgrace. We are only 18 points ahead of sunderland in 14th. Level with Everton and city. You can blame tom hicks but although I dont agree with him and what he has done I think to blame him totally for our poor league perfomance is scraping the barrell a bit. As for Redknapp is he really that wrong? To say we are further off than ever is a bit daft but you ask any football fan apart from a Liverpool fan including ones who love their football and dont just read newspapers and they dont we look like winning it in the next couple of years. Hopefully this will turn out to be very pessimistic an we will win the league next yr under Benitez. not so sure myself though.

not much in it at their best I wouldnt have said. Obviously now masch is looking the better payer. I do feel some people on here talk like Masch is the ultimate midfielder. Lets remember he is a holding midfielder who is great at his job but hes not a complete footballer! Dont think Gerrard gets the praise or adulation Masch does from on here.

Id be very surpised if we come away with anything other than gettin beat here. Not a bad opportunity though with terry an drogba out.

Know where your coming from but if he scrapes the top 4 then domestically he hasnt really improved our performace at all. I accept our rivals have improved but thats football. If Mouriniho is availabe in the summer and we win fuck all and scrape 4th then I dont think there can be major complaints if he replaces Rafa. In fact I would agree with it. I probably wouldnt want Rafa to go unless he was replaced with Mouriniho as he has put the club back to the top in terms of European football.

No its not, but when you dont score winners and you rarely set a goal up, you play centre mid and your supposedly as good a passer/creative a player as alonso is made out to be then surely questions have to asked. Maybe he will turn it around - hope he does.

Honestly?? I cant accept that. You ask any football fan in world football who they would rather have out the 2? it would be a fuckin landslide. Sometimes I wonder if some people on here think they see football from a different level to everyone else and they can see things others cant. Dont get me wrong alonso is a good player who was very good in the first year here. Im sure there have been games when he has played better as there have when most players will have played better than gerrard however the ratio must be very low. Gerrard is very regularly better than alonso and for me Alonso is playing for his L'pool future over the rest of the season.

Do you think Rafa is worried that much about them? If he is then he isnt the manager who joined us and he is obviously questioning his decision making which is very worrying. ps is alonso really in Gerrard's league?

He was an unbelievable player and for me probably the best L'pool player for a long period of time. Can you remember all them people saying "if you can stop mcmanaman you stop l'pool" Unfortunately Macca never seemed to have the love for L'pool that fowler did though - dont know why. We all know he isnt the first blue nose to be a L'pool player and to be honest to me his comments came across slighly disrespectful especially considering his link to the club

Because he is the best player by a stretch and has done more for Liverpool than any other footbller in the last 15 years bar none. Dont get me wrong he's not above ever being rested but I dont think I would be the one doing it - certainly not in prem or champs league games. Just bring him off early. Really fucks me off the sly digs at Gerrard.

I think we will fuckin wallop them.

It was a very good point about leading by fear and respect - how true is that. Ferguson - we all know he does. stam, keane v.nistleroy are prime examples. Mouriniho - again he regularly bigs up his players but when they speak/act out of term he puts them in their place. For instance carvalio spoke out about something I cant recall and mourinho said he needed an iq test. The next day carvallio was apologising for what he had initally said! Wenger - although not as obvious as the other two I imiagine he takes no shit either. I use the above as examples with them being recent league winners. However I also think Benitez is of the same ilk. He is very ruthless for example when signings dont work out he tends to get rid. Kuyt maybe a notable exception although maybe he deserves more time - but im not so sure. But in relation to the above point that you make I fail to see how riise shows lack of committment. The guy continually speaks about his love for Liverpool but whether he is good enough thats another issue. And as for gerrard that guy must have more expectation on him that any other footballer in world football. I always thought the england fans were impatient with him. If he wasnt the best player in a game they would winge. Some of the people on here are just as bad though. In the last game we won in the league he scored in the last minute. Although he wasnt great the other night for me he was still the most likely to create or score something. He fuckin carries our club. Its time for some of these players such as Kuyt, voranin, pennant, kewell, alonso to actually stand up and be the best player in a game. Create something or score the first goal. Anything. They're fuckin fine when we are 2 -0 up at anfield but they never seem to be the deciding factor in any game.

Thats fair enough mate and it makes sense. But for me its not just the fact the mancs are going to take over us (which fuckin hurts considering someone of my gernation was 7 years old last time we won the league, and has had to watch them continually win it since) and im not saying it should affect major decision making at the club because that would just be irrational. However if we dont win anything and struggle to get 4th we are not improving under our new manager and in fact quite the opposite. Other teams are however improving. I accept that all being well certain players will be better next year - babel immediately springs to mind but if the manager is spending money (however you want to dress it up he spent 40million in the summer), he has spent more time with our players tactically if now we go downhill especially considering we have signed a world class striker than surely something is not right at our club and im not sure you can just blame the owners for that entirely.

I agree with a lot of what your saying however in relation to the above point I am assuming you mean under Benitez's reign rather than since our last tital as obviously the fowler/collymore and owen/fowler and even owen/heskey combinations were good enough to be close to the top of charts individually. But I think if crouch or even babel had played every game bar injuries/suspensions through the middle for Liverpool they prob wouldnt be far of 10 goals each now in the prem. This business about us not having 2 strikers near the top of the charts is probably not going to happen under Rafa's reign. He likes playing with 1 who drops deeper and works like fuck when we havent got the ball with one playing off the last man (torres). That is why I think we rarely see torres and crouch especially against good sides - he is too defensive minded. I know you said 2 players near the top of the charts. But how often are you going to get a winger or midfielder near the top. Gerrard is doing his best but unless you find a ronaldo like player we are going to struggle from any other position across the midfield. In spain Benitez won the league under valencia if my memory serves me right scoring 52 goals in a league season. Now Mister banged a load in and then it was evenly spread. There is no fuckin way you are going to win the league in England scoring that many goals I wouldnt have thought. So surely my overall point is Benitez will not win the league in England unless he changes his tactics or we go and break all sorts of defensive records and win a lot of games 1-0

Fair play, thought it was interestin mate. Nice to see someone support gerrard aswell who is the finest player iv ever seen wear the shirt live. Its concernin that more people think that Benitez will never win the prem and I was convinced he would in the past but now Im not so sure myself. My main criticism of him apart from his worrying about the opposition more than us is that for me he has never addressed our problems out wide. He obviously knows we have problems there as he has been close to signing alves/simao etc yet we are middle of the table material out wide and it needs addressing urgently.

Fair play to you. I respect what your saying. I do think however in the summer the position is going to have to be looked at. If we dont finsish in the top 4 does he genuinely deserve to keep his job? But I wouldnt get rid for anyone - it would have to be the right man. Il get behind any liverpool player/manager but as Walton Red said when do you say enough is enough. We all know footballers are overpaid ego maniacs who must be difficult to deal with but its benitez's job to get them to perform and signs are creeping in that he may be struggling to do that. However it would not surpise me if we went on to win the champs league or fa cup despite our shit league form!!

I dont think Liverpool is the impossible job. Its a very fuckin difficult one but surely not impossible. The manager gets decent money to spend, players want to come and play at Liverpool, you've got a handful of world class players and the best supporters in the world. I just think the margin of error is smaller than at united/chelsea etc. Money has to be spent very wisely. I know its easy with hindsight but some of the players we have signed in recent years have been totally wrong and its amazing that a team of scouts aswell as top staff have watched these guys and thought "yeh hes good enough" I accept that some are going to get wrong but just when we look closer to competing at the top of the league the right signings havent been made.

Ha Ha. laughed my tits off when read that. I know its daft takin the piss out of players but at the end of the day we would all support them at the game and sometimes if you dont laugh you'd fuckin cry.

Never heard as much shite in my life. Because I point out that Alonso doesnt score or create a fraction of the goals that a so called world class midfielder playing for a top club should do it means I want Papa Boupa Diop in the team?? Get a grip So by playing a simple pass to someone better equipt to create chances/goals Alonso is a great player. I dont know about the players you mentioned assist stats but they are on a different level to Alonso. Who in the right mind would rather alonso than say Xavi for example. I think your scaping the barrel in your explanion of what alonso contributes to be honest. Even coming out saying he is a goal threat - now thats just daft surely. Dont get me wrong I liked him in his first season and thought he was very good but the last 18 months I think he has been very poor. You obviously dont. Oh and in relation to the comparison with fabregas and alonso I dont see how comparing the 2 is like comparing torres and one of them. They both play centre midfield and whilst I accept that they play different roles it doesnt justify the major difference in contribution of the 2 when it comes to winning games.

No offence mate but I dont think you can point out what he does because I dont think he does that much. In his first year he played very well but I dont think so since. An being honest it comes across slighly patronising saying "if you need me to tell you then there is prob little point". People hide behind this keeps the ball flowing business when it comes to Alonso. I am asking when he has won a game for Liverpool in recent times. Compare him to his countryman fabregas. Not in the same class.

Why is it ignorant? Hes not a defensive player who is constantly winning the ball back like masch and he doesnt do anything in the attacking third of the pitch either. Because he is good technically your making out hes shit hot. This "he keeps the ball flowing" bollocks is exactly that. Stated earlier he is defo not as good as gary mac was before him. Compare the 2. Gary Mac won games for Liverpool with goals/assists etc When did alonso last do that? Dont get me wrong there are other players who are being carried aswell especially out wide but because he is an expensive Rafa signing it appears Alonso is exempt from criticism. Well after 18 months of mediocrity I think im well within my rights to point the above out.

Mate Im asking you to back up what your saying with facts. I accept he is a good passer of the ball and he is mentally strong. But when does he ever win us a game with a great pass/goal anything? You say he is a goal threat - is he? I dont think he is. I would be very interested to hear how many assists he has made in the last 18 months. I got told 1 by a mate last night but I dont know if thats right. very overrated and living on the back of the fact he is an expensive rafa signing and that he played well in his first season. Been shite since and been carried by other player. If madrid/barca offered 12 million plus id sell an put it towrds a top winger who WILL score/create goals.