Have Liverpool supporters given up on catching Manchester United? Surely it’s all about second place?
by stresster on February 22nd, 2009 26 commentsMany Anfield regulars really felt as though this was going to be the season where Liverpool could be serious title contenders. However, after a 1-1 draw with Manchester City, surely it’s time to give up the ghost and accept that the Red Devils are likely to equal Pool’s eighteen league titles.
The gap of seven points is surely too big to bridge, especially with the champions winning league matches left, right and centre. While Blackburn gave them a scare on Saturday night, United supporters will have been delighted to see their city rivals do a number on Liverpool the following day. Sky Sports reports that Rafael Benitez is refusing to give up just yet, although surely the clash between the top two is likely to result in a home win?
“When you are playing catch up, you have to win so we are disappointed, obviously,” Benitez told Sky Sports.
“You never know. Each game you have chances. Chelsea are speaking that they still have a chance, so we also have a chance.
“We have lost two points, but we can win our games and we still have to play at Old Trafford so we will see.”
Sunday’s match was must-win simply to stand an outside chance of landing the Premier League title, although surely only the Champions League is the way that Liverpool will win silverware this term. Manchester United have already conclusively proven that they are head and shoulders above any team in the land, with a hat-trick of titles now a formality.
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ROXY - February 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I was at the Liverpool match today and was disgusted at the lack of effort put in by the majority of the liverpool team.Yea we all know that united are the better team and we can accept that but when some players give in so easily its just a disgrace. Stop screwing about Rafa and either sign or sod off because its effecting the team! LETS HAVE SOME MORE SCOUSERS IN THE TEAM COS THESE LOSERS HAVE GOT NO BOLLOCKS!
mark - February 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
i don’t think it’s time to give it up just yet, but make no mistake it will be very tough to win it from here, here’s how i think our players rated against city;
reina-7-could do nothing about the goal, but looked strong, especially in the air.
arbeloa-5-had a bad game today simple as that,was unlucky for the own goal.
skrtel-7-solid as usual
carragher-7-same as above
dossena-4-never got into the game,looked unfit and his crossing was awful.
benayoun-6-looked lively and should have scored that sitter to win the game.
lucas-4- another one who had a shocker.shame because i’m a fan of him.
mash-8-our man of the match,bossed the midfield and broke up play expertly.
riera-5-in a form slump at the moment,but he will come out of it.
kuyt-6-as usual his effort was brilliant, however his control was poor,as usual.
torres-6-worked hard but little to show for it. had flashes of brilliance.
overall i think we missed alonso as mash was breaking up play and sliding in with the tackles but we had no-one to feed passes to torres etc. and obviously we missed our captain.
rehed - February 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 am
another shocker from dumb and dumber! ( puke-ass & does-na-see-it ) but you cant blame a dog for being a dog, its beneathus that lets them off the leash. i reckon those two couldna get a game in the reserves!
i hope its true that this chapter of our illustrious history will soon be over. with both owners and manager GONE. then we can set about rebuilding, not the team first but our reputation, which is as low as whale shit . my fear is that it will take awhile. fat waiter has ripped defeat from the jaws of victory , its all over boys for this year , we’ll exit the CL next , and it’ll be awhile till we’re anywhere near challenging again. and will kuyt & co. shut the fuck up! sick of hearing ” we’re gonna do this and we’re gonna do that” you dickheads cant get nothing right, never have, never will. there should be a mass clean-out of 75% of players.
Georgiie - February 23rd, 2009 at 6:31 am
I agree with both of you that Liverpool should have done better and won the game. The first half was an onslaught. We really did need Xabi Alonso there in the midfield to give us the extra boost. I have gotta say out of the whole team effort, there was only a couple of men who really gave it their best including Benayoun, Torres, The 2 centre backs, and Mascherano. Very disappointing performance again from Lucas. Babel in my opinion shud have been the substitute for Reira but he came on later
crocodog - February 23rd, 2009 at 8:44 am
I do agree with your comment, Georgiie.
It looks like Benitez will play a lousy team if he cant get a results to his favour as his nego with the owners are goin on.
Everyone knows how “wonderful” Lucas & Dosenna plays, yet he still plays them. Auerilio played well in midfield. Shld give him another chance instead of Lucas.
By the way it is goin…… i strongly believe…. Benitez will leave at the end of the season. He will make statement that ‘he wanted a car & the owners bought for him a donkey’
9torres - February 23rd, 2009 at 8:47 am
If Gerrard or Alson are playing we tend to get by, if both are playing we tend to do well, if neither are playing it seems that we only score if we get lucky.
cuttsy - February 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am
can i just say
Lucas should be loned out
why dossena played im pissed
Aurelio is gd and where is insua
9torres - February 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 am
I agree Lucas should be loaned out, but i would like to see him loaned to a club like West Ham that will let him play an attacking midfield role.
Kudgi - February 23rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I totally agree with all above sayin Lucas Leiva should be loaned out to the likes of West Ham cause he has alot of potential but needs experiance and he certainatly aint gonna get that by playing now and again!
Kudgi - February 23rd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
about us catchin Man U, well thats was difficult before the Man City draw and now its bloody hard but not impossible as if we beat Man U at Old Trafford we are onlt4 points a drift but we must win each game which i can’t see us doin unfortunatly. No doubt man U will win the majority of theirs so they aint goin to drop 2 many points unfortunatly.
mighty reds - February 23rd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
i have always said it. the two key players we have is gerrard and alonso and not gerrard and torres as many tend to believe. we cannot win any game convincingly with neither of the two in that midfield but we can get results without torres. infact, we were top all the while torres was injured and lost top spot when he came back. as for lucas, i think he should be shown the way out—not even loaning him out. he is shit and i have not seen any potential in him as i have seen in babel, ngog, insua etc. i think we are likely going to finish third behind manure and chelski. as for rafa, he should be ashamed of himself he is a total disappointment. i would have suggested he should be shown the way out but for the fact we don’t have many quality coaches out there, we should just manage him. i wish we had hiddink or the stupid and mouthy mourinho
dave in ireland - February 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
To all of you statisticians out there . How many matches has Lucas started and how many points have we amassed from the same games . I rest my case . Furthermore we are looking at being in administration by the summer , so in a doomsday scenario we could have our manager gone our best players gone and be starting off 10 points adrift . I have said this a dozen times on this blog Rafa will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory . Bring back Kenny I say, and get that twat Moores off the team bus , he is the judas that sold us out to those American dickheads
Donavan Ried - February 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Been saying this all along, Rafa does not care about the Premier League, Never did and never will, Champions League is all that matters to him…… Also he sets out a team not to lose. Look at the difference in how we play against Man Utd and Chelsea and as well in the knock out stages of the champions league…….. Plus even the commentators are say what I have been saying for months now, That Liverpool play with no sence of urgency and pass across field and back when they should look to pass forward…….. We will never win the Premier League under Rafa…….
DOWNUNDER - February 23rd, 2009 at 5:09 pm
It’s not the end of the world. The difference between Man U and Liverpool is the ability to grind out result without performing well. I am sure if Man U had drawn against Blackburn, there would be similar onslaught. In fact, Blackburn could have won the game but the difference is Ronaldo! They have players who could finish with just one chance in a game.
That’s what Liverpool needs. More world class players to fill up the ranks and it will take time to build. I think sacking Rafa and bringing on someone else will not be the answer. It causes more instability and the new man would have to start all over again.
It’s really Man U’s title to lose now. Liverpool just got to pick themselves up and fight. I too think it’s time to cut the loses on Lucas. He lacks confidence and shouldn’t be starting. Riera could be more direct. I feel your biggest problem though is not Rafa. These people should go. Parry and both the American owners. They were all bad news right from the beginning.
DOWNUNDER - February 23rd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Let me just qualify why I think Parry should go. I live and work in Asia. With my travel around the region, it’s interesting to observe the growth of Man U’s brand on the commercial side. I was in a huge book store recently in Melbourne, Australia and decide to catch up on some football news. I picked up chelsea, Arsenal, Man U’s magazines but absolutely nothing on Liverpool. I walked around the streets and see scores of youngsters wearing Man U and Arsenal’s jerseys. I can’t remember many if any were wearing Liverpool’s jersey.
It reflects on Parry’s or at least the board’s leadership in this area. Their lack of ability to help Liverpool grow into a global brand is such a shame. There is such a huge market in Asia and Liverpool has so much fan base there. Yet I can’t help but get the feeling Liverpool is still playing catching up after all the success they had in the 80s and were the leading brand in Asia. Success in the commercial side gives Rafa more options in buying players. Where do you think Fergie gets his financial muscle from? Do you think their owners are so generous? No! Every cent that Fergie spent is from a loan but the bank would do a deal because they have utmost confidence in Man U’s brand to service the loan. I don’t think that can be said of Liverpool. There needs to be a huge shake up in the board. Starting with the owners and at least Parry needs to go.
rudeboy - February 23rd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
im very annoyed we played shit and its all down to rafa i believe he should go along with parry bring in o neill or even mourinho they would get liverpool in the right mindset of winning games not just controlling them as rafa always says
DOWNUNDER - February 23rd, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Rudeboy, that’s precisely my point. Man U played shit and come out with 3 points. Why? That’s because they have world class players who could still win you matches with one leg! That’s the difference. If Liverpool played like they did against City, you know it’s going to be bad news. Clearly they needed Alonso and Gerrard in the side but it’s not to be.
I feel what Liverpool needs now is to be able to compete for world class players such Benzema, Kaka, Ronaldo, Ramos, Villa, etc. That will cost a lot of money. So to have that, you need to be successful on the commercial side or that you need to have a sugar daddy like what Chelsea has.
Since Liverpool as two idiotic self serving owners, it looks like your option are thinning. You do need revenue from somewhere and it looks like the only option is to sell market Liverpool’s brand globally with effectiveness. If that’s Parry’s job, then he’s quite bad at it.
How can you sack Rafa for being 2nd in the league and pushing hard for the title? Sure, it’s disappointing as the season progresses and Liverpool losing steam. That said, you got to admit Liverpool has gradually made huge strides forward each season. What would O’Neil do? Look at best, he is regarded as potential and that doesn’t guarantee success. Sure, he’s done a bit of magic with Villa but what has he won? If you put Rafa’s CV side by side, an objective employer would go for Rafa’s anytime. You seriously think that with O’Neill he will win you your title? What guarantee is there? To me, that’s a guess as good as what Rafa can bring if he stays on. If O’Neill comes, some of his Villa stars would follow? Even if they like to, can Liverpool afford 25 million for Ashley Young? Come on, they can’t even bring Barry for 18 million, putting aside whether he will be good for Liverpool. Point is that, getting O’Neill to replace Rafa is just papering over cracks.
Strange…i am feeling more and more like a Liverpool supporter!!! Man, you guys got to stay calm and keep supporting the man. The ones got to go are the owners and Parry’s time is up! He is shit! Someone who tries to do a deal behind the manager’s back as shown one and half season ago by talking Klinsmann is dodgy. He should be focusing his time on positioning Liverpool’s brand globally rather than making you guys look so amaturish in the global stage.
By the way, Rudeboy, could you be Rick Parry? Come out and stop hiding!
mark - February 24th, 2009 at 6:18 am
fuck me some of you ‘fans’ are fickle. whatever rafa does he gets slammed it’s lose lose for him at the moment. if we would have won everyone would have been saying it’s our year,we’re the best team blah blah blah. why is everyone carrying on like spoilt,sour people all of a sudden. ‘i told you this would happen’, ‘i’ve been saying it for ages’. please get a grip. we are second in the league and are in the last 16 of the champions league, let’s be honest the only major set back in terms of games has been losing in the FA cup. if you would have offered that to liverpool fans at the start of the season even the fickle ones would have taken it.
A successful team can’t be built in a few games,so all the ones saying get rid of rafa are wrong- the manager we replace him with will build his squad, starting all over again,meaning we’d take major steps back just because a few narrow minded fans say rafa is this or rafa is that. the fact is he’s made us a better team he’s the reason why torres,reina.riera,mash, the list goes on are at liverpool-to work with him and be at a club like liverpool.
sure we played badly against city but we’ve never been in this situation before and in a way fergie was right we have choked a little but we’ll get better the more we get ourselves in this position. teams have bad spells like untited at the start of the season, we have ours in individual games not in a big chunk, which can mean we’re a bit inconsistent. but really some people on here should wind their necks in abit and stop thinking they know everything about management, if you’re so good why aren’t you managers in the first place?
Georgiie - February 24th, 2009 at 6:45 am
Heyy leave Rafa alone. First of all the contract talk shold not have been released publicly until he actually signs. It has caused so much drama within the club. You don’t see teams like Manchester Utd talking about it all the time. It makes us look ‘unprofessional.’ As a Liverpool Supporter i don’t think we should have heard this. Anyway there is 12 games left. If we beat Man U we go 4 points difference so anything could happen. Little slip ups and the whole Top 4 could change. Find it hard to imagine but who knows, we might learn how to play some good football again. But i agree Rafa puts to much emphasis on UCL instead of the EPL. Lets hope we win against Real.
Go the Reds YNWA
shk - February 24th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Just what i expected to happen.Rafas tactics questionable once again when is he going to learn that Lucas is not suited to our play.He has lost the premiership now that is for sure.How does United win games without playing well?
Babel needs more game time in order for him to shine cannot expect to him to play 5 minutes everytime and do what.Please we are tired of Rafa excuses.Look at how he takes macharano off and leaves Lucas who had a shit game as usual.Macherano was going more forward then him.The sqaud should of been.
REINA
ARBELOA CARRAGER SKERTEL AURELIO
KUYT BENAYOUN MACHERANO REINA
TORRES BABEL(NGOG)
SUBS GOALKEEPER
PACHEO
ELZAH
NGOG
My point is you play at home like that and expect to win the league.Please we hear that promise every year.United are winning their 18th league title and what are we doing about it jack shit.6 home draws 12 points dropped we should of been 5 points clear of them not 7 behind them.Then we have Real Madrid dont even want to mention it but we could be out of everything this weekend.I know we have the sqaud that is for sure so why are we suffering once again.Tired of these scum fans.
jimmycarterwingwizard - February 24th, 2009 at 9:12 am
re mark
fans are fickle!
come on mark you can not be serious and defend one of the most over rated stubborn and self gratifying managers ever! rafa nearly five years on continues to openly frustrate and isolate fans. in all my time of watching the reds i can not remember feeling more bitter towards a manager. his tactics of ‘not wanting to lose’ are the route of the problem & unless he miraclously changes then this will gladly be his downfall and I for ONE will be dancing in the streets! as for your list of players he has bought torres etc put that against the SHITE he has bought & continued to torment us with …dossenna, lucas, arbeloa, kuyt, to name a few has been laughable! of all these players we have put decent monies on name me one club who were also interested in buying these shite! are full backs currently have to be two of the worst players i have ever seen!!!!!!!!!! give me burrows even super fuckin Julian DICKS! over these two as for the brazilian who the hell discovered him? and as for the dutch porn baron if I read another praising comment of ‘he has lots of energy’ please pass me the shotgun….without doubt in the top ten worse liverpool players ever.
Rafa cannot see beyond his nose and his man management of players is the reason why we have and will continue to clutch at those TITLE straws!
GET RID NOW!
DOWNUNDER - February 24th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
jimmy, i feel so sorry for Liverpool though I am not a supporter for losing it’s lead in the EPL. “In your time of watching….you’ve never felt more bitter…” So how many managers was that?
I watched them since Bob Paisley’s time. Though they won the lot, frankly, i can’t remember them playing super attacking football. The only time I could recall them playing something close to Arsenal’s current style and dominate the league was during Dalglish’s era with players like Barnes, Beardsley, Rush leading the charge. Souness as manager was complete disaster and frankly, I don’t think Liverpool actually have recovered since the damage done then. Evans restored some ’style’ but I felt too like Benitez now, was cruelly underrated and wrote off too soon. What did fucking Parry do then? Or was it Moores? So supposedly for the love for Liverpool, they didn’t have the balls to sack Evans and behind his back got Houllier to team up with him. Right from day one, every knowledgeable football fan knows that wouldn’t work. Time proved that to be true. Houllier won his little battle and have sole control of the team with Evans quitting and what did he achieve? So he won the Carling Cup, Uefa cup and lucky win in the FA Cup but bloody hell, he was probably one of the most boringly defensive manager I’ve ever seen. You are saying apart from Paisley, Dalglish, the rest are more successful than Benitez?
Sure, Benitez isn’t perfect. It’s true there are questionable buys but he did offload them as quickly as possible rather than keep them. At the same time, since the days of Barnes, Beardley, Whelan, Rush, Hansen, tell me when did you guys actually have some world class Liverpool players gracing Anfield? Now you guys got Reina, Carragher, Gerrard, Alonso, Torres, Skirtel and potentially Babel, Riera, Kuyt; I think on acquiring players, Rafa hasn’t done too badly.
Look Jimmy, I remembered during the Christmas period when Liverpool tormented Bolton and ran rings around Newcastle, everybody felt Benitez was the best thing that ever came out! Now slipping into second and he is suddenly shit, arrogant, useless?
Frankly, you sure you are not Rick Parry’s secretary or something like that? I am telling you, if Benitez needs to go, Parry also needs to go.
mark - February 25th, 2009 at 7:00 am
downunder thank you for showing some common sense, jimmycarter wing wizard i’ll tell you who wanted lucas-everyone. he was captain of the under 20’s for brazil and scored alot of goals from midfield, and you are blind if you can’t see his potential he is simply being played out of position due to gerrard taking his favoured position. yes he did have a shocker at the weekend but you can’t expect a player to come in and blitz everyone without much game time before. kuyt- juventus were intrested in him reportedly in january as were hamburg and were willing to offer up to 10m. he works hard and pops up with vital goals-i’ll give you a few examples of this as- against standard liege he kept us in the champions league in the first place without him there would be no real madrid vs liverpool. against pompey recently he came up with the equaliser which spurred us on to win the game. against city without his goal we would have lost never mind a draw. there are a few others i’ve not used but surely even you can get the point- a team full of fancy dan’s who score the odd brilliant goal and who care more about what their hair looks like than actually performing won’t get you anywhere, you need people like kuyt who puts in 100% rain or shine week in week out.
Steve McMahon - February 25th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Mark, Lucas is not worth his place in the squad let alone the team. Forget what he did in Brazil, Argentina, or wherever he played before, it’s totally irrelevant, he is now in the EPL. Yes you have a point about his preferred playing position, but no matter where he play’s, he has no excuse for stupid tackeling, poor passing, poor decision making, no excuse at all. A player either has the ability to play in the EPL or he has’nt, and Lucas has’nt, Veron was a great player until he played in the EPL, there are a number of players who played in other parts of the world but they just cant make it in the EPL, simple as that, and Lucas is one of these players.
And with regards to Kuyt, I agree with “jimmycarterwingwizard” yes he has scored the odd goal,but even darren bent scores the odd goal, it dosent make him a class striker. I personall am sick to the teeth of listening to ” he has a great work rate”,. He is played as a right winger in this frustrating 4 2 3 1 system, he has little or no pace, no ability to beat his man and he has the first touch of Titus Bramble, and his second touch isn’t much better, and he is our right winger????
Simply these type of players are just not good enough for LFC, simply as that.
jimmycarterwingwizard - February 25th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
ooooh opened up a great can of spanish worms havent I.
Firstly down under…i do recall us winning 7-0 against the spurs under BOB but hey we must have been playing non super attacking football! yes we did win a hell of lot under his stewardship but remember them days of football were completelly different to todays games. The pass back rule, players not as athletic as they are now, continuiosly playing of the same team, non of this resting players because there tired! also we conceded only 16 goals one season under one of the greatest managers ever.
As for Kenny it was Barnes, Beardsley, Aldo before Rush…add McMahon,Whelan,Nicol, Houghton, Hansen, Gillespie, Lawrenson, Beglin oh & Kevin Mcdonald to that list etc & yes we played some of the most exciting football I have ever seen graced at Anfield.
As for Souness! errm sadly his biggest mistake was getting rid of most of Kennys buys & bringing in some tosh! Kozma etc but I put it down to the fact he tried to be bigger than Kenny to quickly & I am convinced if he had been offered and accepted the right support who knows things may have been different?
As for Nice man Roy he actually & people forget this was nearly close & some of the football played again at times was breathtaking! Steve Mac untouchable for about 18 months, & as for Fowler my fave player ever one of the most complete strikers ever…& I believe an all round better player than even RUSH!
& yes sadly stabbed in the back by Moores & Parry both muppets who have sold us down the river.
Houllier era up until he had his heart attack & his “ten games from greatness” & the embarrasing buys of Douif, Daio, Bruno. & then to add the same european ignorance that Rafa has…things went pear shaped! but hey the treble yr ace what a season of drunkness and song oh yes over 100 goals as well i recall.
now heres to u mark juventus 20 odd million for kuyt rumour I am still laughing now…top rumour I wouldnt pay 20 blackjacks for that bag of shite. so thanks steve mc 4 your views of which we r all entitled to but hey….mine are just a bit better thats better not bitter than yours!
over to you fellas!
& no I am not ricks secretary……………………….
Donavan Ried - February 26th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
mark – February 24th, 2009 at 6:18 am
“fuck me some of you ‘fans’ are fickle. whatever rafa does he gets slammed it’s lose lose for him at the moment.”……………. Maybe that’s because Rafa cares more about the Champions League than he does the Premier League. Yeah he would like to win the Premier League, but not at the expense of the Champions League
Georgiie – February 24th, 2009 at 6:45 am
“Heyy leave Rafa alone. First of all the contract talk shold not have been released publicly until he actually signs.”………. It would not suprise me if it was Rafa that made it public, as he like to make Liverpool Boardroom talk public, He should go full stop.