Liverpool To Sell £12m Pair to Fund Shock Signing of Van Nistlerooy!

Ash T - November 26th, 2009 at 6:17 pm

for 12 mill we could get pederson( deal ends at the end of the season) 4mill pandev(same) 3mill van nistelrooy 3mil

Retryboy - November 26th, 2009 at 6:37 pm

The reports are voronin would fund the van kistaboy move other sales dossena, hopefully not babel will fund other players voronin is still popular in germany 10goals in 20 last season should be able to get £3/4 million for him covering most of a fee, expect the incoming striker commands a lot bigger wage though. Is a good deal loan or permanent him in, nemeth back we suddenly have options for 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 can’t understand why torres hasn’t gone in for his op recovery time was 1/2 months with a horse placenta bath he would have been back weeks ago!!

Retryboy - November 26th, 2009 at 7:13 pm

See that david martin has gone on loan to leeds till the end of december. He is obviously quite in demand and has had 25 games for leicester succesfully and 3 with tranmere and now leeds want him. He is 23 now was wondering if with our need to sell and strengthen other areas if we could let cavalieri go and trust martin as a back up to reina who is never injured anyway(touch wood) We have gulacsi making great strides too. Cavalieri is a top Gk and is happy to be no2 but he would bring in a decent fee £4/5m we have a lot of Gks on the books what does everyone think? Was wondering if rafa was thinking that with the loan running to the transfer window and gulacsi appearing on the bench in the epl

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 7:18 pm

i still have doubts over RVN as he is old and is njured alot but on a short term basis from like jan to the summer then i would say yes as there is nt doubt he is proven at prem level and he is cheap which is good as its obvious the owners will only give us about 5-10 mill if we’re lucky

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 7:52 pm

Digger haven’t spoken to you in awhile hows things mate?
and i don;t think he’s worth 20 mill i think YNWA is saying we sell two players and get 12 mill and buy RVN for like 5 mill or something and maybe someone else

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 8:13 pm

This is strange, i went on to wikipedia of Ruud van Nistlerooy and it says he is playing for Liverpool on loan and it will start in Jan, now obviously its wikipedia and not everything is true but i thought i’ll mention it to everyone and see wt everyone thinks about a Loan move for him

kermit - November 26th, 2009 at 8:36 pm

rvn on loan til summer is a good deal, he wont start every game but he will score and is good enough to be used up front to give torres a rest now and again, plus he d be useful to bring on with 30 mins to go if we need two up front.
though wait rafa make a sub with thrity mins to go, not gonna happen is it
or rafa with two up front, not gonna happen either
on loan is a good deal as least he can talk tactics with aquilani on the bench

kermit - November 26th, 2009 at 8:42 pm

you people seem tothink all we need do is turn up to win the europa league, one of bayern and juventus will be in it, along with valencia, villareal, roma, benfica, shaktar donetsk. on our current performance level we wont get past the next round of the europa league never mind win it.
we struggled in both legs against debrecen the worst ever team to appear in the champions league beaten at home by lyon beaten away by fiorentian ( and beaten very easily), lucky that lyon didnt need more than a draw away from home or they would have tonked us, prooof for this is in how quickly they equalised after babel scored.
so far this season we are rubbish, we ll be lucky to beat everton( whose players must be licking their lips at the prospect of playing us now, plus they are owed one)
man city totally bossed us on our own ground.
fulham tore us apart at craven cottage by stretching us down the flanks, theres so many holes in our defense i d nearly call it a sieve.
we are in dire shit, our players show no heart except when it comes to big games like against man utd, all in all its just not acceptable.

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 8:49 pm

Mark G: i kno 2m is hardly anything plus he’ll be up for it aswell as he wants to get back into the dutch squad asap!
oh and welcome back Mark G, How was your trip?

kermit - November 26th, 2009 at 8:50 pm

i have wikipediaed van nistelroy and i see nothing about him being on loan with lfc

Retryboy - November 26th, 2009 at 8:54 pm

Kermit one anon comment has mentioned the europa league address your point…whatever it is to him not ‘you people’… Sam says its what his agent has claimed today might be right be good if they do set the price before the loan starts because if he bangs in the goals it would be a lot more. Would be a steal at that price even if we only got a season and a half out of him. He’s gotta be on high wages though.

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 8:55 pm

[edit] Liverpool FC
On 26 November 2009, his agent revealed to Marca, leading spanish press, that Ruud van Nistelrooy has agreed to join Liverpool on loan when the transfer window is opened in January 2010 with an option of permanent deal for 2 million euros.

He has been strongly linked with his move to Liverpool.[16][17]

it was at the bottom of club career it was

kermit - November 26th, 2009 at 9:06 pm

okay sam i take your word for it but at the bottom of club career now is just rela madrid

kermit - November 26th, 2009 at 9:08 pm

if we got him on loan til the end of the season i d love it, he can score and who cares if he is an ex manc

that makes it sound like a done deal sam, which is good i m okay with that, he may be a bit injury prone but if he wants to play in the world cup then he ll want to stay fit and score goals, he d be a useful sub for thrity mins , plus could start games now and again to give torres a rest, not a bad deal all round

kermit - November 26th, 2009 at 9:10 pm

my only concern is van nistelroy doesnt really play up front alone either, so is rafa gonna fuck him up like he did robbie keane by playing hiim without a partner, ruud n dirk up front together or ruud n babel

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

Kermit when i said Club carreer i mean’t on the actual page not in the box thing on the top right of the page it doesn;t say it yet as he hasn’t done a medical yet……but Kermit would you like RVN on loan till summer and see how gets on during the second haf of the season? Just wondering

Retryboy - November 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

They have changed it now to “he has been strongly linked with his move to liverpool” saw the original too. guess they didn’t check their sources.

kermit - November 26th, 2009 at 9:13 pm

yeha i noticed the change

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

Kermit when i said Club carreer i mean’t on the actual page not in the box thing on the top right of the page it doesn;t say it yet as he hasn’t done a medical yet and yeah is they Took Michael owen then we can take him but besides that, if he stay’s fit he can help us in our quest to get 4th spot the fa cup and Europa league.

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

It just shows that you should never trust Wikipedia lol

(other comments in moderation if the comment at November 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm ignore it s Kermit answered my question lol)

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

Mark G: i wish i was in Cuba as i would love to escape Britain for abit but i’m glad you had a great time…..shame it can’t be the same about Liverpool, we aren’t having a great time at present but chin up the torture should end soon hopefully
and that certain Spaniard is he by any chance the Liverpool manager who makes lat subs, neer plays Aquilani even if he spent 20 mill on him and plays two defensive midfielders when you should have one attacking and one defensive? lol

...samlfc.... - November 26th, 2009 at 9:47 pm

Mark G: yeah i’m worried also but he can make a massive impact in this Derby and he can show us a taster of what is to come from him…….i still don’t see why he isn’t player more as i think he looks match fit, but i guess theres more to i that we don’t know of.

Retryboy - November 26th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

Rafa said on aquilani “its a vicious circle, i can’t play him because he isn’t match fit and he won’t get match fit unless i play him.” considering we had total control against lyon, birmingham and debrecen and needed some creativity especially in the 2nd halves his arguement holds no water whatsoever. His negativity with his 2 holding midfielders is the explanation aquilani should have played a full game by now. Rafa is the only one that doesn’t see a problem with no creativity though.

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 26th, 2009 at 10:12 pm

I think this will move us backwards for the following reasons
1- we rely alot on pace up front, van the man is getting too old.
2-hes been known like owen to be injury prone
3-hes utilised the best way for his heading and lets be honest the best crosser of the ball we rely on is our full backs and stevie who is meant to play in the middle.
4-ngog or babel should be taking their chances their and progressing. having van there would stagnate them.
5- id rather spend the 3 mil or so on part of our summer transfer and help us get a better quality player or even a young player

it really doesnt matter to me that he played for utd or not but ill tell you now that he wont score more goals with the system we play than ngog unless he takes our penalties.

another thing is richards of city may be leaving them for 6 mil, i think thats a bargain for us. hes still young got plenty of experience , is english and can play cover as right back as well as being groomed into a central defender for the future. by playing him we can play further up the field and give the midfield less distance to cover. I know we still have kelly and other young players coming through but having richards as well would save us fortune.

one other person i would buy is also johnson of city as well. i think he needs a new challenge. he would cost about the same price if not less and if we can get him back to the way he was playing before hell be worth 20-25 mil easy when hes 27. all these are english players and would help our quota as well as keep us competive in 5 years time. for 11 mil wed have a core of good young talent.

Rafa just be more attacking minded especially at home. you keep the pace of the game too slow and are more concerned about your oppenebts than the strengths of your team. you can do it m8 and trust in these young hungry talent.

identify your flaw in that you have never been a good player and want to always dictate to your players as if they are machines. appreciate the importance of creativity and encourage it. let it flow

amen

Retryboy - November 26th, 2009 at 10:29 pm

People should forget about getting players from city, spurs or villa they are our rivals this season

Reds Lewis - November 26th, 2009 at 11:03 pm

Evening lads..

I openly admit ive been very sceptical on Van nistlerooy in the past few weeks…however im now not sure where I stand on it to be honest…

Firstly we have to think of the benefits…..and why hed come.
Firstly, if it means we replace voronin with van nist, that is definately an improvement.
His wage bill, yes, would be higher…but we could easily fund this by getting rid of squad players who have been given a chance and not shined. e.g degen, plessis etc.
He is a proven goal scorer- and yes hes lost his pace..but he never relied upon pace, he relies upon being a poacher, a goal predator, right place right time, right touch. His situation is much of a similarity to Owens at united.
The pressure at Liverpool wouldnt been the same as that at Real Madrid.
If he scored 5-10 goals a season and provided a few assists, stood in for torres once in a while and gave him a break, the anfield faithful would be more than happy.
His initial price is going to be cheap. 12 million is a joke (thats what real madrid practically paid for him off united 5 years ago….24 million euros was equivelant to around 15-16 million pounds then)….so to say he is still worth near that at the age off 33 is crap.
6 million or so would be realistic. If he cost 12 million Id seriously doubt rafa would be interested.

Now the downside….

Ngog is very young, yet he has scored 3 goals in his last 6 games….he is beaming with confidence and currently has a few games ahead of him in torres’s absence. He has a chance to prove himself now….and if he carries on this way, we definately dont need to buy anyone else…

Van nistleroy would definately halt the progress of Ngog and although this season that might not matter that much, i beleive if ngog is given a decent amount of games then he can definately be relied upon next season to perform.
Not to mention that nemeth will be back next season……

also..what we have to look at is our current set-up. Van nist relies upon creativity and crosses from the wings….blatantly we dont have much of either of that at the moment…(much to my dissapointment).

Also…its 5-6 million that could be spent developing an area which ive said has needed improvement for years….The right wing. Riera is a natural left winger and does have the ability to beat a man…even if that is with skill rather than pace. and hes got a vicious left foot…

Kuyt on the right wing however cannot beat a man with skill or pace…he isnt bad at playing goal poacher but then again i dont think hes any beter than ngog at it either. Yes he works hard and has alot of knowledge but hes not a right winger and this is an area that if addressed properly would provide alot of versatility and creativity….spending an extra 5million or so here as opposed to ontop of what we might already spend could bring in some real quality….

So there are both ups and downs to this speculative transfer…and its difficult to make a decision. Its probably realistic to hazarding a guess though, as to whether benitez will try to turn Van nist into a winger

Reds Lewis - November 26th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

p.s sorry for the essay…hope u can b bothered 2 read it lol

Retryboy - November 26th, 2009 at 11:25 pm

Ngog is doing really well don’t think the lone striker thing will do him any good against decent teams though needs a partner against Everton if aquilani doesn’t start we should push kuyt up front with ngog and play babel right, yossi left gerrard and mascherano centre mid. Lone striker looks hard enough battle for torres at times ngog’s not built enough yet to do it against top centre backs.

Reds Lewis - November 26th, 2009 at 11:38 pm

um..also not sure about the lone striker thing with ngog, i think he prefers balls directly to his feet and then he is able to turn, swivel and shoot….
however as he is playing as a lone striker he often receives through balls instead, and has to run onto them which i think he doesnt like as much

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 12:18 am

Pacheco is awesome and would be great alongside ngog nearly as good as nemeth would. rafa wouldn’t go 4 talent and creativity over work rate and… Well not a lot else! Having 2 strikers would mean talent like nemeth and pacheco who both play slightly off the front man fowler style would get their chance and become the greats they can be would mean leaving out one of the 8 defensive players in a rafa team though.

baggins09 - November 27th, 2009 at 12:26 am

i’m with digger fuck ruud, get adriano far better option and will be around for atleast 4-5 years so not a bad longish term option and would be an awsome partner or replacement for him when he is injured

Warren Bloggs - November 27th, 2009 at 12:37 am

So we sell Voronin, Dossena and Babel?

I doubt we will get any money from owners at all, so saying the are sold at lets say…………..

Voronin…….£3-4m
Dossena………..£5m

……we will have around £8-9m? Realistic i think…..

………..sign Van Nistelrooy on loan in January, then give Hamburg, Ryan Babel plus £5m for Eljero Elia, with the final £4m or so, snap up the young and versatile Vladimir Koman. Oh and least i forget bring Nemeth back!! Sorted!!

Squad:

GK’S

REINA
CAVALIERI
GULACSI
MARTIN

WING BACK’S

JOHNSON
AURELIO
INSUA
DARBY
DEGEN

CENTRAL DEFENDERS

CARRAGHER
AGGER
SKRTEL
AYALA
KYRGIAKOS
KELLY
SAN JOSE (IF NOT SOLD?)

CENTRAL MIDS

GERRARD
MASCHERANO
AQUILANI
LUCAS
KOMAN
SPEARING
PLESSIS

WINGERS (or at least play in a wide postition )

KUYT
BENAYOUN
RIERA
ELIA
ECCLESTON
EL ZHAR
AMOO

FORWARDS

TORRES
VAN NISTELROOY
NGOG
NEMETH
PACHECO
DALLE VALLE

ETC. (GOOOOOD SQUAD I THINK!!) and financially feesable too!

Donavan Ried - November 27th, 2009 at 12:49 am

RVN on loan OK…. Buying him would be a mistake

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 27th, 2009 at 6:58 am

mark g

in my opinion i think richards is just raw. if a defensive manager cant get the best out of him then hey fair doos but for 5 mil m8 that wicked bizness considering some people would pay over 3 mil to use funds for van for a 6 month loan period.

now that i think is bonkers and the higher the price over 3 mil the madder i become.

no not a good idea at all

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 27th, 2009 at 7:36 am

Retryboy
Good shout ill be honest id rather sell the young kid himself if he worth 2 mil. we need to very good goal keepers at liverpool and our no2 is happy unlike a few of other no2 weve had who wanted to move on and were english.
its it aint broke………..

cant agree about buys becaise bottom line if barry wanted liverpool then hed be wearing our shirt right now m8 so i dont buy the competitor thing consisering everythong has its price and contracts etc and lets be honest its not really for this year . we could do a summer deal for them
Oh and agree fully he lost the plot on why he could bt play aqu the roman. i was embarrassed it just didnt make sense.

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 27th, 2009 at 7:48 am

VORONIN
ok this voronin selling thing. just sell him. we dont need cover. kuyte is cover or babel just take the money and wish him well

BABEL
i wouldnt sell him unless i can either get 9 mil which is impossible or use him as a part exchange in a deal that his evaluation is higher. if not id rather have him run down his contract and walk free because i feel if he plays regular football he will stay.

RICHARDS
you cant lose money on him if bought for 5 mil. he once had a 20 mil price tag on him. its good bizness sense. hes english and the right manager with the right players around him can turn him into the player we know.

VAN THE MAN
one other thing he cant do. Torress can shoot and score outside the box out of nothing. Ngog is having that confidence to to try. (first half of last champions league match, his right foot curler) van the man cant do that as much,

guys prices of players are going mad. ronaldo 80 mil. ruberry 50 mil etc and 5 mil for richards. i rest my case its a bargain. What I really dont understand is alot of people are thinking about the youth and rafa giving them a chance and yet theres alot of support for van the man.

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 9:15 am

Chosen one-Gk’s can see your point ideally would want cavalieri to stay another season but we need funds and players are hard to shift in january think cavalieri would go for £5m quite easily and after so long on the sidelines would be as much of a risk as martin and gulacsi who have been playing competitively in that time. Look at cudicini at chelsea was one of the best when cech took over. Never the same after that long on the bench. Maybe its time though that if martin isn’t going to make the grade we get a couple of million for him he is 23 now gulacsi is very talented and younger haven’t seen enough of martin recently he was good in the reserves few seasons back to be honest don’t follow the championship or lower leagues to have seen his performances. Either way one should go out of cavalieri and martin to generate funds. Richards-don’t think we would get him for near £5m and still don’t think city would sell to us. You mentioned barry and how hard did O’Neill battle to convince him to give villa one more season to show him they were a champions league team! That was preseason when villa just had hope of breaking top four this is mid-season and its more than just a hope for the likes of city, spurs and villa and they all know now who is the vulnerable team out of the top four. None of those teams have a financial need to sell anyone but city in particular have the same thing as chelsea have had for years. They can leave an unhappy player in the reserves and not be under any pressure to sell. Mourinho did it with the before mentioned cudicini he wouldn’t let him go to spurs or any decent epl club. Do rate richards if it could happen for that price would be an absolute bargain don’t think it would though and if it did or we got kjaer should let skrtel go as well as kyrgiakos who should go whatever..kelly, ayala, san jose should only have 3 CB’s ahead of them. Van nistelrooy-its a short term thing that wouldn’t hinder ngog too much in my eyes would let torres have his op. We need nemeth back though too

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 27th, 2009 at 9:42 am

Retryboy
fair point but id be gutted if richards ends up at spurs for 5 mil but baeey could of still come for 18 mil but i see your point to however dont agree with you on van coming unless madrid pay 80 percent of his wages for us and ngog is still used in the team

SOMEONE WROTE

anonymous – November 27th, 2009 at 8:25 am

chosen one you stupid fùck van cant do that have you even seen him play you mother fùcker? even if you dont see him score outside of the box he has the ability to run the defenders on his own plus his skillfull passing I think thats enough to get a lot of goals you fùcking fùcker

WANTED TO SHOW EVERYONE HOW COWARDS BEHAVE HENCE NO NAME.
IS DISRESPECTFUL HENCE HAS VERY POOR PARENT UPBRINGING
AND HIS AWARENESS OF THE GAME IS ABSOLUTE ZERO COUPLED WITH THE FACT THAT HE ASKS THE MOST SILLY QUESTION SHOWING HIS IQ STATUS AND HIS DISCRIPTION OF PLAYERS MAKES ME LAUGH IN HYSTERIA.
IF VAN THE MAN IS A SKILLFUL PASSER MR I KNOW IT ALL THEN YOU ARE ONE OF MY SONS. END OFF

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

Chosen one- don’t bother reading anon posts i don’t. Leaving ngog as the only striker who can(debatable) do the lone striker role in torres absence would be a mistake. Personally think babel has the attributes too but rafa inexplicably sees him only as a left midfielder. Would be a lot happier if when torres was injured we went 4-4-2 or at the least have benayoun in the beardsley role. When gerrard does it he is expected to track back and fit into the midfield leaving the striker isolated. Would be quite happy for ngog to carry on but he is going to need more support than torres obviously. Not seen much of aquilani…well nobody has lol but he seems a lot more lightweight than stevie g would make more sense to have gerrard in the more combative area and aquilani/benayoun off ngog. Gerrard makes his runs better from deep anyway. Less of a risk to aquilani too. Another rumour is viera on loan! hope that ones not true last thing we need is another defensive midfielder

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 27th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

Retryboy
4-4-2 system would be wonderful for most home games other than the top 4 teams. it would make us more attacking minded especially with agger at the back but subject to alot of couter attacking football with our full backs racing up and down
away from home id play the same system we play now and change it if we are not getting the goals in the game. i also downt feel comfortable about using Ngog and babel together and think kuyte would be a better link up player in that role away from home because of his awareness and better positioning that babel. so maybe id shift babel out to the right instead.
Benyoum is a good call with stevie dropping deeper as long as hes more disciplined in the role.
Ye good suggestion and ill ignore my son as you`ve adviced lol

Donavan Ried - November 27th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

Pete- November 27th, 2009 at 5:33 pm ….. Is it not the same thing people say about Benayoun that he is not strong enough? ……

Rob-November 27th, 2009 at 5:37 pm …… Thank you for at least showing the guts to add a name to you post ……

baggins09 - November 27th, 2009 at 6:10 pm

i think ruud will score goals given the right supply but he’s way too old for that sort of cash and not gonna get the right sort of supply in our squad there are far younger options availible for that kind of money ,

if we are gonna get rid of babel i’d rather offer napoli babel, dossena, voronin,degen and riera and get lavezzi and hamsik in return and adriano for free and get the owners to cough up some money so we buy bale for cover at lb and richards if he’s really gonna go for 9m to spurs so we’d only need about 12m in total which we aledgedly was gonna get given anyway

out babel, dossena, voronin, riera, degen and rafa
in lavezzi, hamsik, richards, bale, adriano and anyone except rafa

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 7:02 pm

Pete..pacheco may only be 18 but he has been playing in the reserves for 2 years now and is a lot stronger this season. He is a lot stronger than owen was too and the same age and owen devastated defences straight away. Wouldn’t go for him myself in this one was just saying in the 2nd striker role its all about creativity. We have benayoun, gerrard and aquilani fit would put nemeth ahead of him too. If it came to a choice between pacheco and kuyt or voronin as it did earlier in the season would have had pacheco in every time and he should start getting time on the bench.

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 7:15 pm

digger babel deserves a decent run in the team at least five games on the spin
kuyt plays sht week in week out he s still in the starting eleven next game, babel scores a goal then gets dropped next game
scores again then gets a game plays poorly and gets dropped for five games, continuity brings confidence, being dropped after scoring is why crouchie left, he would score and be dropped next game without a reasoni guarantee if babel got six or seven games ina row he d start to shine, and if he didnt then he could be sold

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 7:19 pm

i think theres more to babel than usage as an impact sub
and i think if we are gonna use him as a sub he ought to get thrity mins not fifteeen or eight or twelve like rafa gives him
thirty mins thats long enough to get into and have an effect on a game
rafa expects himto change or win a game every time he is brought on for ten mins, and in fairness babels return on this isn t that bad winners at utd goal at lyon goals at chelsea
why not give him thrity mins, oh i forgot benitexz has no testicles thats why and always waits too long before making his substitutions

Hoogleboogybugleboy - November 27th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

Kermit. I find it strange that you want to give Babel a chance to prove himself at LFC, even though he doesn’t deserve it, yet Benitez, who does deserve a chance you want sacked.
Babel has had chance after chance to prove himself and has failed. On top of that the guy shows no respect to the club, his team mates, his manager or his fans.
Benitez has a prven track record of success, loves the club, his players and the fans.
I know which one of the above I’d be supporting.

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 7:50 pm

babel has never started three games in a row in two and a half years, i would hardly call that being given a chance
i have one huge gripe with benitez , it outweighs all my other gripes
and this is his lack of reading how the game is going and the lack of testicles to implement changes to change the course of a game, he does it almost every game , waits til there is 11 mins left then brings on someone expecting them to win the game for him, and babel doesnt do bad when he is asked to do this.

against lyon anyone with two eyes and a brain could see we lacked midfield creativty, but when quizzed after the game about aquilanis pssible introduction he babbled about how lucas and masch were controllig the game and he didnt want to change things.- even though we were lacking crying out for some creative spark
against man city , anyone woth two eyes and half a brain could see city were going to equalise of something didnt change, and then when they did score anyone could see them pressing for asecond and in all likelihood that they would get one if something didnt change, did he change anything no
against debrecen , we had total possesion of the football for large parts of the game and no one with half a brain to do anything wiht it, meanwhile mr i can pass the ball aquilani was sat on the bench on his arse dying to get a game, lucas was a passenger in that game he was totally uneccesary , anyone of us could see this so why couldnt he, is he blind , should he go to specsavers or what??? and towards the end we were clinging on against the mighty debrecen , as we did in parts at anfield, against the club hardly any of us have heard of before , a club with an annual budget of 1.5 million

that is benitez during our last three games making huge tactical errors in each game, showing a lack of understanding of how each game was progressing. how can we win anything with a manager so inept as this???
i think mr benitez ought to study the game afterwards watch it from a fans perspective then he might see what is going during games, instead of sticking to the same old tried and tested formula that just isnt working

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 7:51 pm

i would be surprised if he threw aquilani into the mersey side derby and aquilani got his leg broken

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

i would not be surprised sorry

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 7:54 pm

i like benitez as a coach and i think he has progressed us as a club but he is so god damn frustrating to watch because if we can all see whats wrong why the bloody hell can t he? after all he is being paid five million a year for his abilty to see things like this

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 8:01 pm

i think we need a manager that can read a game well, and i think we have punched above our wweight in the champions league for a long time, with gerrard not benitez carrying the team on his back mostly
against barac a few years ago we should never have won against them they were the better team by a mile at anfield, fair enough we destroyed inter and real madrid in succesive years andcredit where credit is due benitez did take a pooor liverpool side to win the european cup, but i bet milan players still wonder how the hell they lost that final. i thought benitez finally had it last year, he had a team of men not boys but he oughtnt have sold keanoand i feel with a manager when you know someone like alonso is going to leave which we all knew in the middle of last season it would seem to make sense to bring in a replacement before his departure to smooth over his loss, i wonder of the same will happen with masscerano next summer, he needs to go out and buy defour now and ease him into the squad or else we ll be stuck next august with no maschernao and franticly seeking a replacement. and throw the league away next year again before it has even started
good managers look ahead plan for the future, he needs to sorrt out andknow now iff masch intends leaving and if he does then fidn a replacement now and have him bedded in so we hit the ground running next season

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 8:02 pm

and i cant be arsed correcting typos

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 8:30 pm

Definitely with kermit. Everything babel said about his treatment was long overdue and spot on. Don’t see how it showed any disrespect to his teammates as it was in an interview with a dutch magazine voetbal international a week before the champions league match and the sun lifted the comments printed them on the day hardly babel’s fault. He has produced the same amount of assists in 15 minutes on the right as kuyt has in 18.5 hours this season and never gets a chance. Everytime he is played there(4 that i can remember and all off the bench) he has looked quality. Babel is the symbol of the mistreated flair player in the rafa regime and kuyt is the symbol of the favourite to whom form or contribution matters nothing.

Ryan Babel - November 27th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

I think if Babel was to be given a run of at least 5 games we would start seeing the best of him and could have a great player.
Like when he plays for Holland hes different player like when england played Holland Johnson couldn’t control him. Whatever the difference between holland and Liverpool is that makes him play so much better.
I’m sure he could do more than kuyt does in a match.

Ryan Babel - November 27th, 2009 at 8:34 pm

yh and what retroboy said

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 8:40 pm

Rafa should have been thanking babel because if he hadn’t banged that goal out of nothing in against lyon then rafa would have had to explain why in a game we were in total control of but creating no clear cut chances aquilani was left on the bench twiddling his thumbs. Instead rafa can now blame the whole european campaign on a late equaliser which obviously he has done. Babels reward for that screamer? Bench against birmingham

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 8:42 pm

he destroyed johnson that night, and johnson i would regard as being currently the best rigt back in the premiership
babel never gets a chance , unless you think being given one match after netting important goals is a chance
he is given one game to shine and thats it, fuck off ryan its back to the bench for another five weeks, its way too much pressure on his head . i actually think ryan has been great to hold his tongue this long, i certainly wouldn t have , he showed no disrespect to his teammates just said it how it is, he spoke his mind and if thats a crime then we are all in serious trouble in more than just football, i would encourage all y players to speak their minds, admittedly ryan did make an error in not talking to staright to one or two teammates faces , but how do we know he didnt prior to giving the interview

babel is a class player, he can win matches on his own, produce moments of magic, far superiro to a kop hero such as say luis garcia, who inmy opinion was utter shit , it just needs benitez to wake up and realise it

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 8:45 pm

god i hate moderation, babel is a confidence player and he3 does need an arm around his shoulder and to feel loved t perform to his best , and as a manager its rafa benitez s job to get the best from his players whatever that takes, whether its a stern telling off or an arm around it , that is his job and he is paid quite welll to do it.

amdso to all you bitter people calling babel a cry baby, get a grip of yourselves!!
wouldyou rather see a right footed john barnes destroying defenses or would you rather carry on thrashing and abating him for speaking his mind

i am totally with babel on this one

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

there is obviously a lot of anger between babel and benitez and considering this a lesser player would spitefully balls it up for benitez but he didnt he got him out of jail on numerous occasions and rafa ought to see this and give him his chance

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 8:49 pm

And what ryan babel said!

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 8:50 pm

i wanna see babel destroying defenders( like he did to johnson against england) in a liverpool shirt. if he can terrorise johnson someone who is no slouch himself, imagine what he could do given the right encouragement to lesser opponents. Against man city zablayetta was pertrified of his pace for the first ten mins. Babel had the beating of him, every time he got the ball he looked threatening, and once he went off and yossi replaced him (no disrespect to yossi) we were slower and more predictable in our attack and city handled us easily.

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 8:53 pm

i \m certain given the right encouragement and support babel could tear defenses apart week in week out

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:01 pm

he has pace that scares defenders , he s much faster than torres, he is a great finisher, and sure he need to work on his game and integrate better with his team mates but he cant gel properly with them on the field when he isn t getting game time.He also needs to imporve his concentration levels as he loses his touch at times, but when he is on his game his close control rivals anyones. he is one of few players in our team gerrard riera yossi johnson and torres being the other that can actually beat a man. babel in my opinion should be playing on the shoulder of the last defender, although he is well equipped to do a job on the right

i would have him in a two pronged attack with torres with gerrard just in behind playing balls through for either of them to run onto with gerrard at the tip of a midfield diamon with riera and aquilani either side and maschernao at its base

—————————– reina gk

johnson rb——— carra———– aggger cb ———–insua

—————————mascherano———————————

————–aquilani————————-riera——————–

——————————gerrard————————————–

—————–torres——————babel—————————–

subs yossi, kuyt lucas skrtel cavalieri

and i m certain that lineup can win the league

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

Babel when he is on form is just great he makes daring runs and can sore belters (against lyon) and can be pass well also….i find the reason why babel gets benched is because he is inconsistant. He can play really well one game and awful the next but if Rafa plays him more often whether its on the Right wing or second striker i can gurantee that he will do well and he can improve over the years aswell as he is still in his early 20’s.
I blame Rafa for Babels downwad spiral in the Liverpool shirt.

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:04 pm

to me this lineup looks really strong and attack orientated, with a balance of five attacking to five defensive players, i would also debate switching positions for aquilani and gerrard through the game( actually gerrard right midieild and aquilaninin the hole is an even better formation
i am fully convinced that team in that formation can and would win the league

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:05 pm

Babel when he is on form is just great he makes daring runs and can sore belters (against lyon) and can be pass well also….i find the reason why babel gets benched is because he is inconsistant. He can play really well one game and awful the next but if Rafa plays him more often whether its on the Right wing or second striker i can gurantee that he will do well and he can improve over the years aswell as he is still in his early 20’s.
I blame Rafa for Babels downward spiral in the Liverpool shirt.
i bet if babel was playing for Arsenal or another team he would be unstoppable

(another comment which is not as long as this one i under moderation so ignore it when it comes out)

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:07 pm

——————————–reina————————————

johnson———-carragher——–agger———-dossena

————————–mascherano——————————

———–gerrard————————–riera——————–

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

—————————-aquilani—————————-

—————-torres—————–babel—————–

subs insua, skrtel, lucas, kuyt, yossi, cavalieri , aurelio

thats my starting 11

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

kermit – November 27th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Wheres the strikers?

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

If being commited and caring about the club was enough wouldn’t houllier and roy evans still be here? We have played 21 games all competitions this year and united is the only good team we have managed to beat scraping wins against debrecen twice, leeds and west ham. Only other wins against relegation contenders along with some of the worst negative, defensive rubbish we have seen and rafa has the chance to give the whole club a boost with aquilani and probably get us through in the champions league and his favouritism for kuyt and lucas and the workhorse over flair factor stops him. Also if everyone on the planet is saying it must be wrong is Rafa’s approach we saw it with rotation, with Zonal marking, keane, voronin it goes on and on his priority is to be proved a genius!

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

oh nevermind LOL

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:10 pm

and yes i would have dossena over insua for home matches he is more of an attacking threat, the two full backs bombing on to compensate for the lack of out and out wingers

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

sorry sam lfc the striker came later

with aquilani in the hole behind torres and babel

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:13 pm

Retryboy – November 27th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Well said……its seems when rafa gets over one bad habit he brings in another!! first Rotation, then gave it up and then Zonal marking!!! plus he got rid of parry because of his “taking forever to do transfers” when he isn;t doing any better himself!
Rafa is just to stubborn and it infuriates me and almost every other Liverpool supporter on this planet.

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:15 pm

i think my formaton would play sexy fucking football, as mt gulllit coined it, theres so much invention and skill in that front five, and with two really attacking full backs getting forward, at home at least we ought to play this formation, and mostly away from home maybe reverting to the security of a 4-2-3-1 for huge games away at chelsea and man utd, and possibly arsenal (though primary chelsea) as i still feel they are the only team better than us in the league, their midfield is very strong and needs to be matched for bite

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

he most certainly infuriates me sam lfc, to the point of murder almost , to the edge of giving up, to the point of utter despare and hopelessness watching games, to the point of cursing and screaming at my tv screen

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

despair

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

I hope Aquilani starts on Sunday…..whats the chances of him actually starting on Sunday
i say about 30% s he does look match fit but ten again Rafa will probs put Lucas on instead of him……Lucas ike is aid before is improving but we need Aquilani on because he gives us a attacking presice passing football which unfortuantely Lucas fails to do….he just passes it sideways

and Kermit that looks like a great team in my opinion

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

anyways roll on sunfday , more defensive formations another poor performance by lucas, another by kuyt and a scrappy one nil win, and rafa quoted as a master tactician again.
god what i d give for him to totally surprise me and play the diamond formation i suggested

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

LOL kermit i feel the same mate….except the murder bit lol haha

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:20 pm

lucas is improving but he isnt at this moment in time worthy of a place in our starting eleven players, though i think he will be in time

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

yeah alright slight exaggeration on the murder bit

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:23 pm

i think lucas is however useful as a squad player and could fill in on the right hand side of the midfield diamond when gerrard or aquilani are injured, i do not think he has the defensive qualities t replace mascherano at its base though , nor gerrard or aquilanis inventiveness to replace them at its tip

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

Rafa clearly needs to learn that Defensive won’t win us games!! and you can see the frustration on Gerrards face as he was us to attacking play from Alonso but now that he’s gone he has no on to thread him decent balls in (Aquilani hardly has playing time at the moment so i excluded him for now)

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

Best 11 Gk-reina RB-johnson LB-aurelio CB-carragher CB-agger CM-mascherano CM-gerrard LM-benayoun ACM-aquilani CF-torres RM-babel subs Cavalieri, kelly, insua, lucas, kuyt, nemeth, ngog

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:25 pm

this by the way ancelottis formation at chelsea and they seem to be doing pretty well at the moment with it

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

almost the same 11 retro different formation though, i have riera over yossi in my team, but both formations are threatening, mainly because of the personell in them

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:29 pm

rafa plays defensive because he doesnt trust his team is good enough to win the game, unfortunately for us , when we try to win the game is when we are at our best, see for example the last fifteen games of last season, we were awesome.
he needs to let them off the leash some more, who cares if we win 4-2 and concede a few goals.

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

Yeah like Kermit said both teams have alot of firepower in them and gives the attacking dimension we so clearly lack at the moment. I just wish Rafa could just listen to the fans for a change and play Aquilani more often among other things which i wo’t bother going into detail. I jsut hope he does the right thing and let Aquilani start on sunday.

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

doubtful,
i m startingto really like this diamond idea

now looking at

————————-mascherano————————

——————aquilani——–gerrard—————-

—————————-yossi——————————

——————–torres———babel

and

—————————mascherano

————yossi———————————riera

—————————aquilani—————————

——————–gerrard and torres——————

and

——————————mascherano—————-

———————–lucas/yossi—————-riera————–

——————————–aquilani/gerrard—————-

————————–torres ——-babel/ngog————-

for when either gerrard or aquilani arent fit, this formation has lots of options

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:40 pm

actually think the one with yossi the hole could be the strongest formation

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 9:52 pm

Can’t see him starting aquilani he has given himself an excuse by not giving him 2nd half against the part timers now he can say he isn’t match fit “well he would have been if you had fickin played him!” guarantee if gerrard hadn’t been fit he would have played by now dunno i’m with kermit lol ready for murder!

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

hahhaha retro , i can t see aquilani starting at everton , i can see the same old tired non functional formation and lineup

gerrard played against city when he hadnt trained for a week , yet aquilani didnt play and he has been training a month, same for yossi brought on even though he hadnt trained for ten days

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 9:57 pm

lol Retryboy
i know this is an article for RVN but who cares what do you reckon the score will be on Sunday and who will score?
everyone can answer this if they want lol

kermit - November 27th, 2009 at 10:00 pm

1-0 liverpool, lucas to score the winner

...samlfc.... - November 27th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

i say 2-1 with Babel (if he plays) and hopefully aquilani to score (if he plays) lol

Liverpool FC Danny - November 27th, 2009 at 10:45 pm

2-0 to Liverpool-Ngog & Gerrard pen.
—————————————————-
If we are gonna get rid of Mr. Defence (Rafa)(who should go to the Italian League) I think the best replacement would be Laurent Blanc, the Bordeaux manager. In his two and a bit seasons in charge he has ended Lyon’s (our new rivals) 7 year French domination by winning the Ligue 1 title as well as the French league cup. He plays beautiful, attacking football in a very defensive French league and has topped their Champions league group with Juventus and Bayern Munich also in it. He has made some incredible signings such as Abou Diarra and most importantly Yoann Gourcuff who was struggling at Milan and has turned him into a French international. He hasimproved player such as Maroune Chamakh and has alot of young talent in his team.
The only problem is that he used to play for Man U but that didn’t stop Mark Hughes.
————————————————————————————-
If we don’t get him we should get:
-Guus Hiddink(Russia)
-Gian Piero Gasperini(Genoa)
-Slaven Bilic(Croatia)
-Gianfranco Zola(West Ham)
-Roberto Martinez(Wigan)(Wait a few years)
-Pep Guardiola(Barcelona)(We can dream)

Liverpool FC Danny - November 27th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

typo-he has improved

Retryboy - November 27th, 2009 at 11:15 pm

I really think if lucas and kuyt play we will lose because as always the balance will be too defensive. They will get corners and not man marking tim cahill would be crazy. Lawrenson thinks we should do a hybrid of systems i agree. Pick out the 4 danger men and put our best headers on them and the rest mark zones sounds good to me. Need to leave babel and ngog further up pitch though when we are defending corners and free kicks, guarantee they would leave 3 back worried about the break.

Donavan Ried - November 28th, 2009 at 12:17 am

kermit – November 27th, 2009 at 7:50 pm ….. Here,Here Kermit, Spot on …..

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 12:51 am

for opponents corners i d always have babel stood on the halfway line, his pace would scare teams on the break
id bring torres back because he is good in the air

colden - November 28th, 2009 at 12:59 am

Retryboy, you’ve hit on a good point which has frustrated me for ages with our system – “Need to leave babel and ngog further up pitch though when we are defending corners and free kick”. I can’t understand why we always have everyone back to defend corners. All it does is crowd out the penalty box, with more chances of the opposition scoring.

I wouldn’t necessarily leave Ngog & Babel up, probably go for 2 of the smaller players, which will leave the height of Ngog / Torres etc to help the defence. At the moment we have no ‘out’ ball. We clear the corner & it comes straight back.

Leaving 2 near the half way line, would force the opposition to leave at least 3 at the back. The other plus point to this, is that it would give Reina more room in the box to catch / clear the ball.

Babel & Kelly are out for Sunday according to the LFC site, & I can’t see him starting with Aquilani, so it will probably be Kuyt, Lucas, Masch & Yossi in midfield again. Hope he at least plays Aurelio at LB to give us more attacking options on both flanks.

Warren Bloggs - November 28th, 2009 at 1:40 am

My perfect formation (with the squad we currently have):

………………………………………………….REINA………………………………………………….
JOHNSON……………………CARRA………………..AGGER…………………AURELIO
………………………………………………MASCHERANO………………………………………….
……………………………..AQUILANI……………………..GERRARD…………………………..
…………………BABEL……………………….TORRES………………..BENAYOUN………….

SUBS: CAVALIERI, SKRTEL, INSUA, LUCAS, RIERA, NEMETH, NGOG

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 2:11 am

Exactly same as mine warren(9.24) except i went for kelly on the bench instead of skrtel because he can cover RB and CB. Was actually torn between riera and kuyt too. This many people can’t be wrong rafa!! Well… Its 2 so far lol but there aren’t as many differences between everyones as there will be between ours and Rafa’s!

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 3:00 am

i think thats the one everyone is expecting warren, or hoping for, i still like my diamond though, but the ethos is still the same five atack minded players and two attacking fullbacks , add a goalscoring centre back and there is threat coming from everywhere

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 3:09 am

either way our starting eleven is very strong and very potent, there are goals from all over the place, i have a feeling he is going to try to make aquilani into a dep lying playmaker though
and will pair him alongside mascherano in a deeper role with just one acm, i hope he doesnt but i think he will.

rafas lineup when everyone is fit will be

———————————————reina—————————————————-

johnson—————carragher——————-agger————————-insua

————————–aquilani——————–mascherano————————

kuyt————————————-gerrard—————————————riera

——————————————-torres———————————————–

and for tomorrow i m gonnna guess

——————————————-reina—————————————————

johnson———————agger ————skrtel———————aurelio

——————————–lucas————masch—————————————

kuyt———————————–gerrard——————————-yossi

——————————————ngog—————————————————

so no surprises there then

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 3:12 am

i like warren formations also , looks like a very potent 4-3-3, one thing that is noticeable we all have at least five offensive minded/creative players, with attack being the onus of the team.

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 10:59 am

Rafa on aquilani “he is fit” says benitez “he is training, match fitness is something you can improve by playing games so why haven’t i played him?”…”if it is 1-0 and they are attacking a bit more and you bring him on maybe you make a mistake because you will lose control”…if we are winning and they are now attacking more isn’t that because we have given them control by sitting back and being so defensive? They have grown so confident that your ultra defensive team isn’t posing any threat they are now chucking players forward!.. “if we were winning 3-0 then he would be playing”… when do we play hull or burnley again? We are never going to be winning 3-0 with 2 creative players and 1 striker mr genius!.. “if we were losing then we could play him because maybe he could change the game with his quality”…so he can’t come in when its level and we have all the possession but no killer pass like at lyon, but when we are losing and they are all defending a lead throw him in then? Oh wait didn’t that happen at birmingham?… “if he had been fit he would have cost £25-30m”…so you saved us £5m there and the champions league exit cost us? Really he paid over the odds if you are buying an injured player with his injury record you are taking a gamble so £12-15m would have made more sense… “he can play with any combination of lucas, mascherano, gerrard”… Innocent statement translates to me as expect to see him either made to sit and hold or subbed in for gerrard. Changing no team dynamics and totally different to what we were lead to believe when we signed him. “like alonso but more attacking” the player may be but benitez is going to make sure the team doesn’t get any more attacking.

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 28th, 2009 at 11:39 am

Retryboy
in my opinion understanding rafa when aquilani will play from the start it will be a home game. the everton game aint set for him to start and i wouldnt advice it. its gonna be clash of the titans. the euro cup game might of been better to access him first. i think knowing rafa his full game could be 9th december again Fiorentina unless he come on in the other games before and has a serious influence on the game.

for me i dont care as long as we win the games but if we lose then on his head be it.

against everton its going to be steamy. controlling the game is imperative for rafa but i get the feeling both teams will be very direct. if we sort out our set piece errors and not concede in the last 10 min then i think well win 2-0. but get that bad feeling about twists and turns but ill stick my neck out. and say liverpool win.2-1 due to derby tension. torress first goal and kuye 2nd if played.

of down to the bookies lol

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 28th, 2009 at 11:49 am

Warren Bloggs -
its a nice dream selection your formation but i think it lacks balance on the left.
id put babel on the bench . shift your left back to left midfield and put insua at left back as well as shift benyoum to right. this is only because riera is injured.

im tired of players going to the by line and then cutting back in instead of delivering a first time quality cross.

but hey thats me

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 28th, 2009 at 11:58 am

………………………………………………….REINA…………………………………

JOHNSON………………CARRA………………..AGGER…………………AURELIO

………………………………………….MASCHERANO………………………………………

………GERRARD…………………………………………..AQUILANI……………………..…

BENAYOUN……………………….TORRES……………………..RIERA………….

AQUILANI left foot is better than gerrards by the way.. the team looks balanced.
if im brutally honest id love to see ngog play up front with torress in a 4-4-2 at home games. i honestly think that would work. and gerrard just behind them

THE BIG I AM - November 28th, 2009 at 12:05 pm

Retryboy –

belive it or not m8 rafa knows what hes doin lol . . . not evrything he dose is wrong . . . his system works with a team at full fitness last season proved this, lack of depth in key areas is our downfall, wich was our downfall last season and this season in a major way!

you have to ease players back onto the pitch espeacially ones who have been injured for 10 months or something consider that with the fact that aquilani came from italy, slow paced defensive league not so physical even the best players need time to adapt to a league so radically different in playing style
Rafa is bieng catious . . and i dont think thats a bad thing hes just wating for the right time to give him a start . . . you cant play him in a tough game cos hes new to the league and new from a long term injury. Look at our fixture list hell definatly get playing time he could easily start any of the next 5 games after everton. fill in the missing gap in our team and well win every single game left . . . force ourselfs back into the title race . . . ….. (hopefully) . . . . YNWA

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Pete-on 8/8/2010 roma released the details of the fee. €5m upfront €3m(4/1/2010) €7m(30/6/2010) €5m(30/6/2011) total base fee-€20m = £18m *** add ons 1)€300k every time we qualify for champions league over next 5 years €1.5m = £1.3m ..2)€250k at 35,70,105,140 apps €1m = £900k ..3)€1m first time winning champions league in 5 years =£900k ..4)€1m first time winning epl in 5 years = £900k ..5)5% of any future transfer fee to roma.
We should qualify for champions league each season and we should win either the epl or champions league in 5 years and 140 apps in 5 years is only 28 apps a season so fee will be £21.1m and they still get 5% of any future transfer! Chosen one-his appearance would have given the club and fans the boost needed to stay in europe i am sure if he had played 2nd half at lyon especially we would have won they were there for the taking and its the team dynamic that needs to change in my opinion we need to attack more all season we could have played more attacking midfields mascherano, gerrard, benayoun to start with and mascherano, gerrard, aquilani recently and now! There is no excuse on the fitness its all to do with rafa being too negative we may snatch games because we have quality players but we should be destroying teams with what he has available.

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

Colden-sorry only just seen your post…agreed torres, ngog, babel are good in the air its just the threat of having 2 of them sat on the halfway line when we are defending free kicks and corners with their electric pace one quick clearance and we are on for a goal. Would class gerrard, benayoun as being good in the air as well as johnson, carragher, agger don’t know how good aquilani is in the air yet but with gerrard, benayoun, aquilani, agger and aurelio back we would have plenty of players who could hit that pass too as well as reina being the best distributor of a ball from Gk around. Like you say it makes no sense not leaving 2 up it stops 3 of their players coming forward, over crowding in our box and its something pundits hit on for years and gradually has been forgotten for the fact that people have accepted it won’t change.

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

The big i am-”believe it or not rafa does know what he is doing” glad he does because nobody else has a clue what he is doing! We can’t keep going on about last season his performance from then has been terrible from not selling voronin, dossena, degen, not bringing in a striker to loaning out nemeth. To the total mess we have been in on the pitch so no sorry i don’t believe he knows what he is doing and i believe we have a quality squad.

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

Sorry the big i am went off at a tangent and didn’t really answer your point. Agreed the system worked last season with everyone fit. Last season you could understand the system to accomodate mascherano, alonso and gerrard. If he uses it to accomodate aquilani happy with that too, don’t understand sticking to the system to accomodate lucas and sticking with it when we have injuries surely you have to look at the best players you have available and pick a system to fit them not square pegs, round holes and being flexible in order to put the best players you can on the pitch in their best roles. Also the system has changed from last year the full backs are expected to provide the width and this has been counterbalanced with 2 CM’s holding constantly. It just doesn’t work there is no link from defence to attack, forwards look isolated, defence is weakened and we end up over crowding the middle stopping the likes of gerrard doing their stuff. There is also no pace to the attack alonso could pick up a ball and he already knew where it was going and in seconds it was there and 9 times out of 10 it was forward. Gerrard could have been doing that earlier on in the season, he or aquilani could be now lucas can’t. Its just my opinion

baggins09 - November 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

chosen one- isn’t riera injured? if so i’d go for

—————————————reina—————————————–
———————-carra————————–agger———————–
darby———————————————————————-aurelio
————————————–masch—————————————
————————gerrard—————————————————-
johnson——————————–yossi————————-dossena
————————————-n’gog——————————————

i know a lot of people think dossena is shit but if riera is injured i would rather have a natural left footer in his place and dossena is better at going forward than he is back and has more pace than aurelio so i’d rather keep aurelio at lb.

i’d have johnson rw as he can also help out darby and like dossena is far better at attacking than defending , so i know technically i’d be playing more defensive players than even rafa himself but there would actually be 5 defenders defending and 5 attackers attacking.

then second half at about 60mins id shift yossi lw take dossena off and bring on aquilani and see how him gerrard and masch get on with aquilani playing off the striker and gerrard and masch controlling the middle

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 1:58 pm

Alonso’s interview just on football focus “they tried selling me in 2008 it didn’t go through then but you knew everything had changed and in 2009 it went through.” he would still be here if rafa hadn’t tried selling him to get barry he has since come out with the rubbish that he was planning on playing barry on the left we all know he was planning on replacing alonso with him as he couldn’t even have afforded barry without selling alonso just doesn’t want to say that after he ended up being player of the season. Makes sense with the way we have seen he has altered the system this year 2 CM’s holding constantly barry more suited than alonso to that. Agree with jamie Redknapp that rafa likes pulling the wool over the fans eyes. This is basically re-painting history. Saying as well that keane didn’t work because barry was supposed to supply him from the left? Biggest load of garbage i have ever heard.

...samlfc.... - November 28th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

Retryboy: its a shame that Alonso and Keane were treated badly as Alonso was our star player last season and this season we have shown how much we are missing him and Keane never had a chance to play second striker which he pretty much is…..Keane i not a lone striker but because Rafa thinks he knows everything decided to play him as a lone striker and got it wrong, instead of putting it right and play him alongside Torres or another striker he flogged him of back to spurs…….That has come back to haunt us as we need a second striker now and having sold Keane,Crouch (biggest regret),Bellamy we havent got one

Donavan Ried - November 28th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

Afternoon Retryboy,

Retryboy – November 28th, 2009 at 1:58 pm….. I am so glad that Alonso confirmed what all of us knew, but some of us did not want to believe (You Know Who, LOL) happened……. Tried to tell a few here that he did the same to the supporters at Valencia (Pulling the Wool over the Supporters eyes)….. This at his time spent as manager with Valencia….. Quote

“Benítez fell out with Jesus Garcia Pitarch, the club’s director of sport, over control of new signings and the club’s failure to reinforce the squad with the players he wanted.”…….

Just sub’ Rick Parry for Jesus Garcia Pitarch and the new signs for Barry…… Sound familiar?

Another thing, funny that Valencia had put Jesus Garcia Pitarch in charge of the transfers much like what the board of LFC had done with Parry…….

...samlfc.... - November 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

Afternoon Donavan and eveyrone else and lol that sounds way to similar to what is happening at Liverpool at the moment yet The manager who must not be named hasn’t left yet LOL
I’m seriously looking forward to our Derby match as its always heated and fun to watch

...samlfc.... - November 28th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

If things don’t go our way in december then don’t be surprised if it says on sky sports news or any other news that Rafa has Cancelled Christmas at Liverpool fc lol
Rafa the spanish scrooge ha

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 3:56 pm

Afternoon donovan, sam and baggins. Is good for alonso to confirm things donovan so there can be no arguement about that one now. The coincidence is remarkable seems like he won’t be happy until he has a blank cheque book to me. On with the game as match day approaches time to leave the inquests behind and get behind the team. Will admit it is hard when you so firmly believe the longer rafa stays the worse it will be for our long term success and a loss would push him further out the door but as always on match day the optimism comes in and the hope that rafa will change the things we can all see need to be changed and prove us wrong kicks in. Anyway with riera, babel, kelly out and torres having a fitness test today would play Gk-reina RB-darby LB-aurelio CB-carragher CB-agger CM-mascherano CM-gerrard LM-benayoun ACM-aquilani CF-torres/ngog RM-johnson subs cavalieri, skrtel, insua, lucas, kuyt, pacheco, Eccleston
Would have gerrard in the midfield battle aquilani further forward would take out the risk operating in between their defence and midfield. Without babel available would go for johnson on the right would be much more effective than kuyt give us width, pace and still provide excellent cover for darby who is probably our best defensive RB including johnson and you can’t question his temperament to be trusted he has been reserve captain for 2 seasons for a reason also he is good in the air adding something to defending corners.

Warren Bloggs - November 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pm

Afternoon, Donovan, Retryboy, Sam, Baggins, Chosen One and all.

No doubt he likes of Rodwell and Gosling will play some part in the derby if fully fit, so why dont we use some of our english talent? Dani Pacheco is a favourite of mine, but players like Eccleston, Kelly and especially the scouse duo Spearing and Darby will be more accustomed to the passion that is in a merseyside derby. I would like to see either Kelly or Darby play at full-back if Johnson is not fully fit, and i doubt Aquilani will play at all tommorrow, but then again i may well be wrong as Lucas mafe his debut against Everton did he not?

PS. Glad the majority of you liked my formation and line-up.

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

it was a great lineup warren capable in my opinion of beating anyone, good call for retro to play gerrard in the heat of it tomorrow and aquilani in the hole to avoid the real battle for him, and hopefully he can find a bit of space and hurt everton with the clever passes he has been making in trainign fir the last month, or is it five weeks now
i d keep johnson at right back play yossi rm and riera lm, apart from that the same team is good.
the incredible man city managed a draw at home to hull today

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

i expect rafa to be gone if things don t go well by xmas

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

a few more losses and he ll be gone in my opinion, even the yanks can t keep him there if we keep losing, and more worryingly playing so shit

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 6:58 pm

i might be odd but i d rather see us lose playing really well , because if you are playing well the wins will come eventually

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 6:59 pm

because lately we are just playing shit for huge portions of games

...samlfc.... - November 28th, 2009 at 7:05 pm

One thin bad about the diamond formation (to anyone who said about it) is it does lack wingers however if chelsea are top thanks to it then it msut be pretty effective

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

the lack of winger is compensated by having johnson and dossena as really attacking fullbacks, neithe rof our current winger yossi or kuyt get to the byline anyway, babel could on the right wing, but johnson is enough of a threat down the right, and i think dossena could give a similar threat down the left if given a chance, he has a better delivery than insua, and is more attack minded

...samlfc.... - November 28th, 2009 at 7:38 pm

Fairpoint Kermit…..i hope Dossena stays with us i personally don’t think he was a flop as he has done some highlight for us and matchwinning performances not to mention scoring against Man utd and Real madrid….a flop is someone like Voronin where all he has succeded i doing is causing us to want to shoot the t.v and make us angry and i have no doubts that he will carry on giving us anger and gand making us want to shoot the t.v

Liverpool FC Danny - November 28th, 2009 at 7:44 pm

To Kermit
Who would you have take over from Rafa??? I personally would have Laurent Blanc in carge as his attacking football and great signing like Yoann Goucuff as well as countless other positives.
If we don’t get him we should get:
-Guus Hiddink(Russia)
-Gian Piero Gasperini(Genoa)
-Slaven Bilic(Croatia)
-Gianfranco Zola(West Ham)
-Roberto Martinez(Wigan)(Wait a few years)
-Pep Guardiola(Barcelona)(We can dream)

BUT WHO WOULD YOU HAVE???
I prefer a young manager who plays beautiful attacking football.

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 7:55 pm

ideally capello after the world cup, but hiddink , martin jol did a good job at spurs, for me it needs someone who the players will automatically respect and ideally someone who hasnt had a connection previously wiht another english club, for example mourinho is a top boss but i dont want him at anfield to shove two fingers up at abramovich , i d rather a boss thta wants to be at liverpool, and short term anyway it doesnt look like rafa is leaving so id be approaching capello abput taking over after the world cup

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 7:58 pm

i havent watched bordeaux play, but laurent blanc is a manc

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

zola s west ham are struggling plus he is chelsea, guardiola has only really managed barca and admittedly he did well.so if you add pep to the list you might as well add the dutchman(the one that spat on rudi voeller, can never remember his name)
slaven bilic seems to be very in the mourinho mould but he s an ex everton player not too sure how wellthat would go down , good coach though
and after wigans performance against spurslast week i think i ll pass on martinez for now

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

and to samlfc,

yeah i think dossena could be a huge asset to us and with another italian there now in aquilani he perhaps might settle better
he reminds me of stuart pierce a bit, he has that psychopathic edge to him that i would rather have playing with me than against me, plus he is a great crosser of the ball somehting we are distinctly lacking from the left. heis more attacking than either insua or aurelio, we should play him esp at home against crap teams like stoke hull birmingham, where we have early all the possesion and need width from our full backs

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

t5hats not a bad line up baggins considering the players we have available, i personally would have started with dossena in the left wing spot against debrecen for the very reasons you stated above

...samlfc.... - November 28th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

Kermit on your last comment i think so to…..why don’t we push him up into left wing and see he does as like you said he has a great left foot for crossing which we so desperately need (alhough we need a good crosser for the right wing aswell) and i agree with you aswell about him and Aquilani as the can hopefully both help each other at Liverpool with Dossena helping Aqua to settle in quickly and adapt and or Aqua to help Dossena gain some confidence.

Retryboy - November 28th, 2009 at 8:25 pm

Evening all…danny- right first name Roberto, wrong 2nd name should be Mancini!! Kermit-riera is injured so is kelly warren. I like benayoun on the left he has the close control to weave his way inside and pick the killer pass or all the way along the touchline and score as we have seen before would balance well with babel on the right but as he is injured johnson would hold the width the other side and get crosses in best of all worlds. rafa won’t leave out kuyt or lucas though. So we won’t see darby or aquilani start sure the only reason he keeps over looking darby is because him and kuyt would be too defensive. Should look at the one out of them thats supposed to be doing the attacking and only contribution is slowing down attacks to a standstill.

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

yeah spurs and villa have drawn good result for us , 3 points tomorrow means we are just three points off fourth spot,
i think we should have signed royston drenthe also for the left wing / fullback position, he d be cheap and it would work well as he is good mates with babel

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 8:28 pm

i ve always liked dossena, and hate the fans that get on peoples back when they are in their first few months in a new country, not everyone is fernando torres and settles scoring immediately.

i d rather have him as a fullback , but in the current injury crisis he d do better on the left wing than aurelio, he likes scoring goals also as shown against man u and madrid

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 8:34 pm

i thin fr dissena it would be easy to feel like an outsider in a predominantly spanish and spanish speaking camp, italians and spaniards have a notable football rivalry and when doss arrived there were five footballing spaniards a spanish coach and eight members of the backroom team are spaniards , add masch and insua also spanish speakers , yossi is a spanish speaker.
dossena had no one to share his pizza with and now hopefully himand aquilani cna eat more pasta together and all will be well and happy
like lucas as brazils u20 captain, dossena was italys first choice left back at one point, you dont get to being a left back for the world cup holders without having some abilty. thats generally what ithink of the whole dossena situation, i really rate him if hes given an opportunity and he would be in my starting 11 every week

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

lso agree with retro that benayoun is better form the left, hes never gonna get to the by line on the right either so better having him cutting in playing one twos with his stronger right foot.

kermit - November 28th, 2009 at 8:38 pm

dossena has a real will to win and to attack and i like that about him

...samlfc.... - November 28th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

Its hard really because i really want Dossena to stay becuase well me and Kermt pretty much said why but at left back Insua and Aurelio are above Dossena in the left back pecking order (unfortunately…i think we should replace Aurelio with Dossena) and left mid Riera and Yossi is above him so its really unfortunate that he is amazing on the left in which we have plenty of players who can play their unlike the right where we don’t (excluding right back)

Donavan Ried - November 28th, 2009 at 9:04 pm

Evening …samlfc…. Retryboy, Warren Bloggs and Kermit
Retryboy…We all know that Everton are strong at set pieces, and I fear for us if we give away too many……
Hope N’gog does not start as he rarely looks like scoring to me……
As always I will be behind the team. We will be up for it as it is Everton, just as we are when it is Man Utd…….
Warren…. Yes I agree with you Spearing and Darby should both play a part in this game being scousers it will help them up their game….

Liverpool FC Danny ……..Funny when I first suggested two months ago that I would like to see Gianfranco Zola step in and replace Rafa a Lot of people here sad I was a twat. Funny how a lot more supporters are warming to the idea now…..

Kermit…… So was Tottenham two seasons ago

...samlfc.... - November 28th, 2009 at 9:46 pm

Evening Donavan how has your day been?
also what do you think the score will be on Sunday?

Liverpool FC Danny - November 28th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

kermit – November 28th, 2009 at 7:58 pm

i havent watched bordeaux play, but laurent blanc is a manc
—————————————————————
Yes Blanc played for Man U for the last two years of his career but he was not popular with the Mancs and the fact is, he is a brilliant manager and in the end that is all that matters.
—————————————————————–

kermit – November 28th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

zola s west ham are struggling plus he is chelsea, guardiola has only really managed barca and admittedly he did well.so if you add pep to the list you might as well add the dutchman(the one that spat on rudi voeller, can never remember his name)
slaven bilic seems to be very in the mourinho mould but he s an ex everton player not too sure how wellthat would go down , good coach though
and after wigans performance against spurslast week i think i ll pass on martinez for now
———————————————————————-
Zola-just had a bad start and put 5 past Burnley and are getting into form and like Blanc all that matters his managerial performance not his paying career
Guardiola-will bring trophies
Slaven Bilic-same situation as Blanc and Zola and plays young talent
Roberto Martinez-is still adapting to the PL, beat Chelsea and only 36!!

Ryan Babel - November 28th, 2009 at 10:30 pm

i would love liverpool to get VAN NISTLEROOY, but on loan as hes 33 years old, and ELIA. and get rid of voronin and dossena. ????????

Donavan Ried - November 29th, 2009 at 12:26 am

anonymous – November 28th, 2009 at 9:13 pm…..Mate, log in and put a name to your posts….. A lot of us here are refusing to read anonymous as most of then come from people how just post here and express no views on the subject (Or very little) instead of expressing a view they hurl insults and abuse….. My Name just caught my eye….. So as a one off……
Yes, N’gog is a better option than Voronin, Can’t say about Babel, Remember him coming on for Torres against Chelsea and scored a wonderful 35 yarded past Cech two season back. That was before Rafa broke his confidence ( Would like to see him have a 5-6 run game in the Torres role, and maybe try Torres in the hole (He play that role for Spain with Villia a head) ….. Kuyt is more of a poacher in my eyes than an out and out striker

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 12:27 am

Ryan Babel, I have been saying this now for the last few weeks, Elia would be fantastic, even at the expense of your name-sake lol.

Donavan Ried - November 29th, 2009 at 12:32 am

Evening Sam, Not too bad abit quite. But thanks for asking. And You?

…samlfc…. – November 28th, 2009 at 9:46 pm …. Well I’m hoping for a win. Everton as not been playing that well too. But it’s a derby and you can throw all form out the window in these games ……. 2-1 to Liverpool i hope

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 1:01 am

i d take a 1-0 win but i think everton owe us a beating, so i wouldnt be surprised if they win, a lot depends on the line up , the formation , and the desire shown by our players to actually win the game, if we go out there to win 3-0 we are easily capable of doing that but if we go 1-0 and sit back like against city we ll get run over

i personally have no clue what the result will be as everton are hardly on top of their game either. vaguely hoping for a win but dont feel overly confident about it, hope i am pleasantly surprised.
and hoping for arsenal to beat chelsea in the later match

Ryan Babel - November 29th, 2009 at 1:17 am

yh warren thats what ive felt for a while aswell he could add the pace we need.
Everton have also been playing badly, but in this derby form goes out the window, but i feel it will depend on Torres playing.
any ideas who’s injured and who’s not for the Everton match.

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 1:32 am

Liverpool NEED more options going forward, i think every single fan is crying out for another one or two high quality strikers at the club and possibly another attacking midfielder and winger. Our club is always shot down for not having enough depth in the squad, we are not a 2-man team at all, as man to man when everyone else is fully fit we are arguably as good or even better then almost every side on the planet. Our problem is (as is showing now) that when our X1 or main subs get injured there really is nothing else. Now i am pro-youth in the sense that we have great substance in our reserves, however, unlike some on here i do not think the likes of Pacheco, Eccleston should be playing week in, week out. No instead they should be classed as ‘further options’, players capable of playing in the first team ‘when called upon’, but bled through for future Liverpool teams (pretty much olde red noes’ policy over in the manc).

Essentially, i am trying to say that although i think our young trio Ngog, Pacheco and Nemeth are top quality youngsters who will no doubt, if given the (playing)time to nurture their talents. However, they are not experienced enough to be the ‘ONLY’ cover for ‘El Nino’, arguably the best striker in the world. I use Chelsea and Man Utd as my examples:

CHELSEA:

Experienced Strikers:

Drogba, Anelka, Kalou (somewhat)

Young talent:

Sturridge, Di Santos

MAN UTD:

Experienced strikers:

Rooney, Berbatov, Owen

Young talent:

Wellbeck, Macheda

Now look at Liverpool:

Experienced strikers:

Torres, Voronin

Young talent:

Ngog, Nemeth, Pacheco (although SS), Dalle Valle, Simon etc.

As a club we have a fantastic young crop of talent, players such as Nemeth and Pacheco WILL be world-beaters, but too many fans want them rushed in. Now, i am not saying Rafa’s policy of spending millions and then letting them rot in the reserves is right of course not. Instead, it should be a healthy mix of both the fan’s enthusiasm for the reserve talent and Rafa’s favouritism of experience. This is why i think a short-term move for someone such as Van Nistelrooy is sound, although i would love for at least three experienced options (but i stress Voronin IS NOT one of them), as well as gradually cameo’s from our un-officially acclaimed reserves!

So i would love (come January) to prove some of his critics wrong as sign effectively and remember guys we have to be realistic i would love us to sign Aguero, Villa and Silva in the winter window but these kind of suggestion is best left for day-dreams. So who could we sign? These are my suggestions:

Now, there is massive doubt as to whether our glorious owners will give us a penny come January so all of these transfer suggestions are based on the funds we can raise. Rember, as always these suggestions come from the most consistent reports coming from the media and our realistic possibilities:

So who to sell: (possibilities….as always)

Goalkeepers:

I agree with Retryboy in that we seem to have 5 or 6 keepers and only one (reina) ever plays, as is expected at a top club, theoretically we only need 3 at most so what about selling one or two to raise zed funds?

Cavalieri, a decent keeper who has done a good job, preferably i would like him to stay but as he is capable of raising as much as £4-5m then why not give one our young pretenders the chance to deputise (Gulacsi, Bouzanis?).

David Martin, he has been on the books for quite some time now but never seems to play more then 45 mins of pre-season football. He is consitiently going on loan and at the age of 24-25 (not completely sure, sorry) should really be looking to go to get play-time, doubt we get more then £750,000 for him though.

Oh and Itandje and Mikhailov? Why are they still on our books? When was Rafa ever going to utilise the Bulgarian? Seeing as he has been FC Twente’s first keeper now for the last 2 years and even helped get them to 2nd spot in the Eridevse isn’t time to make a decision on the budding keeper? I say either bring him in as cover for Reina at the expense of Cavalieri and Martin or make Fc Twente couph up for his permenant signature!!

Defenders:

Well i like so many others out there would love to see Darby play at least 20 mins here or there in the league at some point and for whatever reason Rafa seems to be illergic to our reserve captain. We also have Kelly who was a revelation against Lyon or though on the losing side, and with Johnson as our main RB (need i say anything?) why do we need Phillip ‘the plagued with exuberent amount of injuries’ Degen? He would surely raise around £1m?!

Now i would like to see Dossena given a fair ‘crack at the whip’ but it would seem he is on his way out back to Italy, will get likely up to £5m.

I would keep our centre-backs for the time being. Yes, even Kyrgiakos, this is an issue best left for the following summer transfer period with the possible arrival of the likes of Kjaer or Shawcross?

Midfield:

HHHHMMMM……What to do? No doubt we are better served without injuries and yes, there are options, but who would we sell to make room for? Personally, i would sell Plessis as i see nothing in him at all but he has just had his contract renewed so that will not be happening anytime soon. Spearing? I am not sentimental about local prodigies but i do see something in him, he deserves another oppotrunity in the X1. We have Gerrard, Aquilani, Mascherano and Lucas as our main centres so there is no problem there (just that Aqua needs to start blooming playing).

No instead, i would aim the gun at our wing options. Kuyt has had a poor season but i think he can do a job at Liverpool and just needs to improve his form. Benny again is (in my opinion) one of the most effective players we have going forward. Now, Riera and Babel? The later for me is the biggest agravation i thought following his first solid season. I think we all imagined he would push forward but he has just halted and not improved….we could argue all night about whether this is his fault or Rafa’s but the truth is our current manager is going nowhere fast so the situation (unless a miracles appitualtes) will not change. Should raise £7-9m? Riera for me is good cover and does a decent job but is inconsistent i say keep him and give him more opportunity when he returns to fitness. Eccleston, Amoo, El Zhar will no doubt play a part in the future. We NEED more width though, this IS A MUST!!!

Strikers:

Well i have already explained the situation in my opinion, Torres is as we all know world class, and Nemeth, Dalle Valle, Pacheco and Ngog are all brilliant up-and-coming stars but we need another 1 or 2 experienced quality strikers/poachers. Sell Voronin, i have said before, i loath the man and if he is still here come the end of January i will have a cardiac arrest! Should raise around £4m plus a packet of Haribos.

So, i say use January as a ‘clean-up’ period, trim the squad’s deadwood and bring in a few quality additions, before anyone says ‘we need depth’ so selling as many as poss. 10 players is stupid, then my argument would be no it is not. Remember,depth means quality cover not quanitiy respectively, we should sell, sell, sell and then with a handfull of fresh faces along with more playing time for some of our young pretenders then we will be far more effective as a unit. I trully beleive we have a brilliant squad and credit Rafa for constructing it but he fails to utilise it.

So who to sign?

Well if we sell all of the above i have suggested then we will have around £25m approximetly. I think we should strenghten our forward options.

Eljero Elia, he has been quoted at £15m, but i think Babel plus say £5m would do the trick. Left wing sorted.

Milos Krasic, he would be the big signing for me at around £18m. Right Wing Sorted!

Van Nistelrooy, the experienced poacher i have been talking about would only cost around £4m, but i would get him on loan at first (or indefinetly). Along with the return of Nemeth, forward line sorted.

Pos. Vladimir Koman as well if financially pausible.

So we sell exactly 7-8 players and sign 3 (poss. 4?!), seems pausible and good businness to me! No doubt Rafa would still use his formation but honestly that doesn’t look at all bad with the players i suggested signed:

……………………………………………..REINA…………………………………………
JOHNSON………………….CARRA………………..AGGER…………….AURELIO
……………………………..AQUILANI……………….MASCH……………………….
KRASIC…………………………………….GERRARD………………………..BENNY
…………………………………………………………TORRES……………………………

likely subs: Gulacsi?, Skrtel/Kyrgiakos/Ayala, Insua/Darby/Kelly, Lucas/Spearing/ poss. Koman/, Riera/Elia, Kuyt/ El Zhar/ Eccleston, Van Nistelrooy/ Nemeth/ Ngog/ Pacheco etc etc.

RANT OVER.

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 1:41 am

Sorry for the above fragment and grammar mistakes, it is late. ;p

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 2:12 am

I reccomend people read this, is it possible things are changing at Anfield? I ask only that the likes of Donovan, Retry, Kermit etc read this with an open i mind:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/6678797/Everton-v-Liverpool-Jack-Rodwell-shows-Rafael-Benitez-the-way-to-go.html

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:22 am

i read somewhere today that kuyt has grown unhappy at playign right wing and wants to return as a second striker

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:51 am

firstly i think you might be right about young players and i think we would all like to see them introduced slowly over time, rather than enforced into action because of injuries to torres, kuyt can play as a striker as can babel , i wouldnt mind adriano as a useful capture in january, it d throw him into the limelight again coming up to the world cup and when on form he is devastating and i wouldnt mind a front two of him and torres with stevie or aquilani in behind

secondly goalkeepers
reina is our number one but if we sell cavalieri and reina gets a shocking injury could you count on our young goalies to fill in i dont think so, and yes maybe there is a good cause to say well either we have cavalieri or the bulgarian, but i dont think we should get rid of either , having michaylov as still ours on loan could be sueful in the future, if pepe ever decides to go back to sunnier climes and make not currrently be happy as someones understudy, yet cavalieri is, so i wouldnt get rid of him or the bulgarian

thirdly defenders, i have never seen darby play before so i can t comment on him granted kelly performed really well against lyon from right back but isnt he naturally a centre back and maybe one for the future. i feel we are lacking centrally in aerial abilty since the departure of sami hyppia and our own threat form set pieces is diminished with his absence, i d give skrtel til summer and then he is on his way if he doesnt improve,
left back , big fan of dossena , insua is solid without being spectacular a bit like a small warnock who i dont know why we sold in the first place. i would go and purchase royston drenthe and sell aurelio.

midfield—-a midfield trio of gerrard and aquilani ahhead of masch should be the way it goes with lucas as our handy man to fill roles where people are injured, this for me is also fine, kuyt is knackered and i d rather see him play alongside torres than out wide. babel should get a decent run in the team and i will be sorry to see him go, benni good from the left , i like riera when he is fit and up for it i think he is our best left sided option, benni is adaptable and can play either side or in the hole
we now have three options for players in the hole in aquilani /gerrard and benni which spells bye bye for voronin,
i would buy martin petrov to provide decent competition for the left wing spot , he is a good crosser quick and threatening, plus he wouldnt cost a fortune and has proven he can suceed in the premier league ad i would try for van der vaart on loan

strikers
torres inury prone due to being our main strker
kuyt –ought to play alongside torres in my opinion, knackered from the amount of effort he has put in in the last two years
ngog hmm dont think he will ever be as a good at torres a little awkward on the ball at times , but doing pretty well for a young guy
nemeth–hardly seen him

adriano for eight million with the right manager is a steal, could hold the line as a lone front man powerful venomous shot, could also play alongside torres and as a left footer bring natural balance to the attacking two.

who am i seling degen, some german team will pay 2 million for him, kelly proved he can deputise, voronin , again some german team will pay four for him, aurelio i m sure he d fetch three to four million, skrtel could fetch anything up to 8 million plessis 1 million,
and i mbringing in petrov 5 million city, drenthe 5 million madrid adriano 8 million, and then i would need a cb and i m hoping the silly yanks would splash ten million or so on micah richards

gk reina, cavalieri

rb johnson/richards/kelly

cb richards /carragher/agger/kyrgiakos/kelly/ayala

lb-dossena/drenthe/insua

dm mascherano/lucas

am aquilani/ gerrard/van der vaart

right wing babel/kuyt/benni

left wing rieraa/petrov/benni

strikers
torres/adriano/kuyt/babel/ngog/nemeth

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:52 am

i think adriano is a better option than van nistelroy if he has a manager that can keep his head together and out of nightclubs

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:57 am

leaving my starting 11 looking like this

——————————————REINA——————————————

RICHARDS/JOHNSON——CARRA—-AGGER————-DRENTHE

————————————–MASCHERANO——————————–

BABEL/JOHNSON——————————————–RIERA/PETROV

———————————-GERRARD/AQUILANI———————–

—————————TORRES——————-ADRIANO———————

SUBS –RICHARDS PETROV AQUILANI FOR NOW, KUYT, INSUA,NGOG

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:00 am

with adequate cash i d buy both richards and kjaer, juan mata for left wing and adriano for up front, but that would cost me a fortune

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:06 am

and to lfc danny , like i said i havent seen blancs bordeaux playing really , martinez not sure of , bilic maybe but not sure how senior stars would react to him
i think we need a big name manager to automatically get the players respect and by player s i mean gerrard and torres and carragher.
martinez coming in at this stage doesnt speak of huge succes to me, gerrard needs someone he would look up to and if the captain looks up to him then the rest of the dressing room would surely follow
this is why my heart and head say capello, he is smart, he has a proven track record everywhere he has been , he will already know some of the squad from managing england and will already have his captains respect, capello breathes success, he lives success and thats what we need , yes it may cost us 6 million a year but it would be six million a year well spent.
plus capello could draw big names to the club
i think accepting a manager such as zola blanc or martinez is saying basically its okay for us to play for fifth place and be in the europa league and going for capello says we want to be the best

Retryboy - November 29th, 2009 at 3:22 am

Good post warren agree with the vast majority. On the goalkeepers would keep reina, martin, gulacsi, bouzanis and not heard of mikhailov but sounds like he is at a good level. Think gulacsi is the one with star quality out of the young guys, martin is good enough to be back up till he overtakes. SELL-cavalieri £5m itandje £1m
RB-johnson, darby, kelly…awesome SELL-degen £2m LB-you can’t rely on aurelio’s fitness apparently rafa has offered him a contract based on apps a very good decision and he has turned it down his contract is up summer would let him go now, dossena too you compare all of our LB’s to Evra, Clichy, cole there is a big difference would splash out on a good LB who isn’t better at LM with insua as back up mavinga and Buchtmann coming through SELL-dossena £6m aurelio £2m CB-carragher, agger, skrtel, kelly, ayala, san jose happy there have to have 2 injuries before you hit the youngsters and what a quality trio DCM-mascherano, spearing, irwin with warren again too many of the same sort of player and plessis shows least. SELL-plessis £2m spearing is good enough to be back up CM-gerrard, aquilani, lucas no problem apart from don’t tell them to sit constantly! ACM/SS-gerrard, aquilani, benayoun, nemeth, pacheco awesome don’t hesitate to go 4-4-1-1 with injuries though and nemeth and pacheco will start picking up chances LM-benayoun, riera benayoun always better on the left for me has the close control to work his way inside and thread a pass or shoot. RM-babel, kuyt, amoo play him there! We are gonna sell him for a 3rd of what he will be worth pace, crossing quality, kuyt good squad player SELL-el zhar £2m amoo is overtaking him and isn’t going to make the grade CF-torres, ngog, Eccleston agree with warren but only in that for the single striker we shouldn’t be just relying on ngog, Eccleston when torres is out SELL-voronin £4m… Total-£24m ins-van nistelrooy(loan) while ngog develops Koman £4m cover for LM and ACM great prospect LB-Cissokho £20m he would improve our 1st team massively. Total £24m

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 9:42 am

I’m great Thanks Donavan and i think 2-1 or 1-0 liverpool is on the cards in my opinion.
Great post Warren, very indeph and i agree with you on pretty much all of it.

Liverpool FC Danny - November 29th, 2009 at 10:34 am

I do agree we should get Hiddink now and get one of these young managers in about 3-4 years when Hiddink retires

Liverpool FC Danny - November 29th, 2009 at 10:39 am

And to Retryboy
Why do you like Mancini so much???

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 11:09 am

morning to sam lfc and liverpool fc danny, been reading about babel on loan to bayern, and us looking at forlan which i presume is gutter trash

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 11:10 am

though the babel to bayern could have legs if they are considering selling ribery

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 11:19 am

LOL if we trade Babel for Ribery that would be the best deal we would ever have lol and Forlan as in the ex manc or a different one?

Retryboy - November 29th, 2009 at 11:24 am

Morning danny- whats not to like! Young, big name, attractive football, 3 league titles, 6 domestic cups in just 6 years managing in italy most successful manager in recent times for inter!, freed himself from inter contract recently, been improving his english, main thing sure he would be in it for the long term project he is in demand and settled on his inter contract as it was looking liverpool job may become available. He ticks all the boxes for me.

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 11:24 am

Oh and Good morning Kermit aswell

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 11:31 am

if he plays with attacking flair i m in on mancini
and yes teh rumour was forlan the 30 yr old ex manc who would be a waste of good money

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 11:34 am

Forlan is good but the money spent on him can instead go to a younger player. and yeah i think Mancini would be great for us if he brings attacking flair to us.

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 11:36 am

and he signs adriano for peanuts and plays him up front alognside torres , so that torres doesnt get the shit kicked out of him every game

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

plus adriano is very intimidating aswell…….it would be the buy of Jan for sure as his contract ha run out i think, either that or its in his final year and would be very cheap. Rafa get Adriano

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 1:24 pm

kermit – November 29th, 2009 at 2:51 am

‘…adriano for eight million with the right manager is a steal, could hold the line as a lone front man powerful venomous shot, could also play alongside torres and as a left footer bring natural balance to the attacking two…’

Yeah, spot on there mate, great shout. I completely agree that Adriano would be the perfect solution to our attacking problems. The reason i suggested the players i did: Koman, Van Nisterlrooy, Elia and Krasic was because they have been linked with us. I have not seen any report of Rafa even knowing he exists so i doubt it will come to fruition unfortunately. I also have doubts about Adriano temperment and psychology, as Rafa’s man-managament is realtively poor. However, i take note that you said the ‘right manager’, but again i doubt we will have a new manager by such time. All the same good shout.

Liverpool FC Danny - November 29th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Who does Adriano play for?

Liverpool FC Danny - November 29th, 2009 at 1:36 pm

To Retryboy
Those are good points but I have two questions:
1. Does he make good signings with limited money?
2. Does he play football easy on the eye with attacking flair?And does he play two upfront with one holding mid?

If the answer is yes I have just become a Manacini fan!!!

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 1:39 pm

adriano is playing back in brazil, adriano temperament is questionable and i m not sure rafa is such a bad man manager as fixed in his ideas of what and who he wants, and if he wants adriano there he could bring the best out fo him, plus there are three other brazilians in our squad, a couple of argies

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 1:43 pm

i dont think adriano would be being pushed around sam
does anyone have any news on the starting lineup

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 1:57 pm

sack him now its the same line up as againts debrecen , everton to win 2-1

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 1:59 pm

aurelio left wing , kuyt right wing, lucas and maschernao holding aquilani on the bench twiddling his thumbs again wondering whether he should have listened to his mum and followed his dreams to be a ballet dancer

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 1:59 pm

aquilani bennayoun and riera on the bench

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:01 pm

so no pace on either wing, boring predictable benitez , i m not looking forward to watching this game

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

everton to be convicning winners, pienmaar to have a field day down the right for everton , goodnight and good bye mr benitez

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:03 pm

ffs he could have at least started with yossi or riera

Retryboy - November 29th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Why does he keep the team the same when we have been playing rubbish, losing games, never been convincing why not change things? If we win then he changes things one saving grace its the worst Everton team in years no saha, jagielka, yak, arteta

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

okay live to goodison, there are more goals in the everton line up, i think we ll be beaten here

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:30 pm

he is a slow learner

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

liverpool the team with two left feet and two left backs, is soemthing not right with aquilani, thta he is never starting

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

come on daby ngog , hes started sharply

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
we jammy buggers

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:45 pm

1-0

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

bilyadetninov misses a sitter for everton

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

Thanks YOB

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:01 pm

everton are the better team so far

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:12 pm

we will need more than one goal to win this game

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

great save from an insua header

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:15 pm

great header from insua actually also but super save from howard

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:16 pm

thats 2 goals disallowed for everton

Ryan Babel - November 29th, 2009 at 3:24 pm

liverpool NEED!!!!!!!!! another goal desperately.
Gerrard’s not doing anything,
Kuyt cant keep the ball,
we cant sit back anymore we need to get the ball keep it and score.

Ryan Babel - November 29th, 2009 at 3:26 pm

Rafa sais that he doesnt want to play aquilani till we are playing well, but he needs to trust him, when we are 1-0 up.
cmoon bring him on at 65mins if its still 1-0

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

yeah ryan babel i dont think gerrard looks fit, he is also giving the ball away too much and he is too far from midfield to really influence the game, and i d bring aquilani and yossi in the next five mins

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:41 pm

no pace in attack, no pace on the wings, just a dumb lineup

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

gerrard is playing poorly

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

rafa needs to do something everton are totally on top here

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:48 pm

everton will equalise if rafa doesnt do something 56 mins gone, nah hell wait another twenty mins before he makes a change, like he always does , the useless spanish fucker

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:49 pm

come on fat spaniard do soemhting for christ sake we are being annihilated

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:52 pm

we need aquaman in there , we need someone who can pass the ball for christ sake

yossi is now warming up , no doubt he ll come on after 77 mins, i ve actually been hoping lucas would get a minor injury just so he would be forced to bring on aquilani, bt he prob wouldn t he d drop gerrard back and play benayoun up front , which would still be better

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

we have no threat whatsoever going forward from corners since sami hyppia left, i have a feeling lucas is gonna get the winner

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 4:00 pm

kuyt is starting to look like a liabilty i dunno wy subs are brought on after 75 mins , players dont even get a chance to get into the game

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

ahhahhah die next week manc scum

since yossi and riera came on the whole team looks better we look like we want to score, we are attacking gerrard isn t all alone without supporting runners from midfield, makes me wonder what the hell he was playing at starting with aurelio wide left

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 4:28 pm

brazilians need less time to gel when there are three other brazilians in the squad, plus a couple of argies, and a latin speaking contingent that will make him feel like he is in rio

Ryan Babel - November 29th, 2009 at 4:33 pm

2-0 undeserved

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

happy wiht the result, not happy wth the boss again

Ryan Babel - November 29th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

surely aquilnai could have came on once it was 2-0

kermit - November 29th, 2009 at 4:49 pm

piss off anon, cant be arsed with you

Danski_LFC9 - November 29th, 2009 at 4:53 pm

A win is a win but i don’t think we showed the urgency closing down balls that we did last season. We were losing silly passes in crutial positions and when going forward, and again zonal marking is proving to be a problem when defending set pieces!… to top this off we had £20m sat sat on the bench when Aquilani is fit and ready and should definately come on before Reira we need him and Masch gelling as soon as possible otherwise he won’t have match fitness this side of christmas!.. Yes this game plan was working last season but like any decent side we need to be able to play to suit our opposition… I just hope we are given some funds in January, we must have one of the weakest benches in the prem at the moment… Also i’d start babel ahead of Ngog upfront!

Donavan Ried - November 29th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

2-0, better than the 2-1 I predicted, and it would have been if not for Pepe…..

We got luck with the Mascherano striker and after that with the exception of the Insua’s header we never looked like scoring, in fact Everton looked like they would go on to win ……

N’gog, is a poor front man ……Yes I admit that he is a better option than Voronin, and maybe Babel in his current form, but none the less he is poor …..

His first touch poor, his awareness of who and what’s around him poor, his ability to turn defenders poor, the choices he makes poor, the runs that he makes poor ….. And the amount of time that he wants on the ball…..

We had better balance as soon as Yossi Benayoun came on and Kuyt when up front. Then with Albert Riera entering the fray we looked like scoring and shortly there after we did…… Said it before Kuyt is more of a poacher than an all out striker….

Good Win

Retryboy - November 29th, 2009 at 5:14 pm

Well we got the result. Couldn’t have been any luckier though only one team played any quality football and it wasn’t us. Why didn’t benayoun start? No aquilani again. Gerrard the only creative player in the starting line-up said before we will scrape victories under rafa because we have quality players but thats all we will do. Anyone who is honest and watched the game knows it isn’t good enough against an injury ravaged team with no form at least we haven’t missed the opportunity of catching up with the teams ahead playing each other. You can’t have 8 players defending around our penalty area just inviting them on to us with no out ball. Sideways, backwards passing and Zonal marking shown up for the umpteenth time thank heaven for reina!! Kuyt showed what he should be doing, rubbish on the right moves up front and poaches a goal. Johnson again looked like he could do the RM role well

Liverpool FC Danny - November 29th, 2009 at 5:15 pm

To Retryboy
Those are good points but I have two questions:
1. Does he make good signings with limited money?
2. Does he play football easy on the eye with attacking flair?And does he play two upfront with one holding mid?

If the answer is yes I have just become a Manacini fan!!!

Donavan Ried - November 29th, 2009 at 5:21 pm

I will now open the envolope …….. This year awards for the longest post goes to ……Warren Bloggs for ……
“Warren Bloggs – November 29th, 2009 at 1:32 am”

Maaannnnnnn!………. LOL

Nice post by the way Warren, Great if not long read lol

Liverpool FC Danny - November 29th, 2009 at 5:38 pm

Retryboy answer the question!!!

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

Evening everyone
An undeserved win but i’m happy that we finally won a game in the prem…….could be the start of a undefeated run but i said that when we beat Man utd but it the undefeated run never happened……..but yeah i’m happy with the win. shame about Aquilani not coming on though

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

‘…Donavan Ried – November 29th, 2009 at 5:21 pm

I will now open the envolope …….. This year awards for the longest post goes to ……Warren Bloggs for ……
“Warren Bloggs – November 29th, 2009 at 1:32 am”

Maaannnnnnn!………. LOL

Nice post by the way Warren, Great if not long read lol…’

Hahah! Yeah sorry about that it was quite late and i went on a rant! Haven’t written a long post for some time, so i thought maybe (on the eve of the derby) i should do so. Glad you liked it though Donovan.

isaac hunt - November 29th, 2009 at 7:58 pm

Donavan Ried – November 29th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

“N’gog, is a poor front man ……Yes I admit that he is a better option than Voronin, and maybe Babel in his current form, but none the less he is poor …..

His first touch poor, his awareness of who and what’s around him poor, his ability to turn defenders poor, the choices he makes poor, the runs that he makes poor ….. And the amount of time that he wants on the ball…..”

———–

i couldnt agree more.

also i must agree that it is time to give kuyt a go up front. i have said before that he is not a striker but after today and the season so far we definately know he is not a right midfielder. he is so technically poor but sometimes does get into some good positions in the box.

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 8:05 pm

comment 300

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

Damn you Warren i wanted comment 300 LOL isn;t it time that wehave another article? i swear this arcticle is like 4 days old or so lol

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 8:20 pm

yeah sorry Sam ahah! Never seen a 300 before so i couldn’t help myself! Lol. And YES WE NEED A NEW ONE!

isaac hunt - November 29th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

anyone who is on the computer while liverpool are playing is a bad fan.

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 8:28 pm

Issac not really what if you have the p.c by a T.v which ahs Liverpool on? and kermit must obviously watch the game otherwise he wouldn’t give us info to eveyrone who can’t afford Sky or a Liverpool game

isaac hunt - November 29th, 2009 at 9:02 pm

he must have posted about 50 comments while the game was on. ask any REAL liverpool fan and they would never ever on this earth be on the computer while playing everton. i have a laptop but would i be on it when we are playing everton? NO. i wouldnt even be on it if we were playing accrington stanley

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 9:13 pm

I don’t have Sky unfortunately but my Grandad does so at every possible opputunaty i go up and watch liverpool like today when i watched liverpool vs Everton……but i always watch sky sprots news and lsiten on the radio on how they get on so i;m always some what connected to a Liverpool game

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

I don’t have Sky unfortunately but my Grandad does so at every possible opputunaty i go up and watch liverpool like today when i watched liverpool vs Everton……but i always watch sky sports news and listen on the radio on how they get on so i’m always some what connected to a Liverpool game

Retryboy - November 29th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

Evening all-hate it when comments get moderated for ages for no reason. Sam if its that bad 5 live is on freeview radio commentary better than nothing m8. Danny calm down been at the pub lol what do i win if i get the answers right anyway? Best not be another speedboat! You got internet m8 look it up. I know he plays attractive football, wins titles and inter had 7 managers in 5 years before him, no identity they had money don’t think he bought success at all one of the quotes i seen said he changed the transfer policy at inter from buying the biggest names to getting players that fit. He inherited a 34 man squad didn’t wasn’t any revolution just got the best out of the players he had and added some quality young and old players. Like vieri left replaced him with martins. Donovan..evening mate can’t see how you can criticise ngog’s first touch he wasn’t getting long passes he was getting clearances and bringing them down instantly. When kuyt went up front we had 3 creative players on the pitch riera, benayoun, gerrard and Everton were tiring. Ngog had the thankless task of being a lone striker in a team with only one creative player gerrard and a lot of sideways looking players he needs a kuyt beside him or more creativity in midfield am impressed with him. Johnson looked like he would be good RM again. Can’t believe rafa saw a good performance should have told him we play in red lol 9 men back in the box for most of the first half of course soon as you clear it its coming back! Ridiculous yossi being benched now as well as aquilani not getting on. Decent teams in form and not decimated by injuries will tear us apart if rafa doesn’t change.

Aquaman - November 29th, 2009 at 9:44 pm

Greetings to all! Been out of the country for a couple of weeks. Good to be back.

It seems that this has become the LFC rant article due to the complete lack of anything new for two days. Oh well, no point in complaining.

Ok. We won the all important derby, albeit in incredibly unconvincing fashion. That’s a good result when three of the starting players are sporting bandaged arms and faces. Good performance from Agger, Masch and Lucas.

On the other hand, Gerrard played the worst game I can remember in years. He disappeared for most of the game. When he had the ball (which was not nearly as often as he usually demands) he played completely ineffective passes and seemed to lack drive. The only thing he did all night was rob the defender for the second goal. As much as I hate to rebuke a legend, this is simply not good enough for the talismanic captain who is heralded worldwide for his ability to drive the team forward, especially in a local derby.

We need the senior players to drag us kicking and screaming back to form. Kuyt is trying, Masch is trying, Reina too, even Lucas is. We need Gerrard. There is no ifs, ands, buts or maybes about that. The man is Liverpool. As long as he is on the field we can still believe. The stunner against Olympiacos all those years ago proved this. Istanbul drove it in harder than any nail in history. Just last year we watched him drag the team through comeback after comeback.

Anyway, enough about that.

The game is won, three points in hand and Everton pushed just that little bit closer to relegation. On paper, a jolly good day at the office. In reality, Rafa has frustrated us almost as much as the result elates us. When are we going to see Aquilani again?!

Rafa has used the excuse before that he doesn’t want to fiddle with a midfield that is working during a game. A good and valid point, but then why don’t you start him and sub him at half time if he’s struggling? Or better yet, why didn’t you pull off Gerrard and stick him on to do the role he was failing to do? This would have been a well deserved kick in the pants for Gerrard and added the inspiration that we needed (or at least a few completed passes).

I can’t fault his starting line up though. Yossi and Riera are still not quite right, and Aurelio did the wide job well if not spectacularly. Good to see Johnson, Masch and Agger playing through injury. Its that sort of commitment that we need at the moment.

On the subject of Masch, it was wonderful to see him pat the Liverbird after the goal. No matter the speculation, this boy is a red now and he’s shown that he intends to play like one.

As for N’Gog, I personally think he did well. He’s improving every time I see him. His decisions aren’t great and his first touch is woeful occasionally, but not every world class striker is complete in his low 20s. Granted he maybe shouldn’t be our second choice, but as long as he is I will support him and praise his strengths rather than nitpick his weaknesses. I save that for senior players.

...samlfc.... - November 29th, 2009 at 9:52 pm

Welcome back Aquaman…….you came back at the right possible time as some of the anonymous posts annoyed the hell out everyone so your posts should cause us not to get pissed off lol where did you go and how was it?

And thanks Retryboy i’ll keep that in mind!!

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

Good to hear form you again ‘Aquaman’, good post as well, i agree Gerrard needs to return to form, Carra as well. People over look them becuase they are local legends, they are as much to blame as everyone else at the club, in fact Lucas has been better then Stevie so far this season! Once again, good shout.

Aquaman - November 29th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

Hehe. Glad that I have some use.

As you probably know by now I’m South African. So I took a drive with the family up to the the northern regions on Namibia (a neighboring country if you didn’t know). I am now officially sick of long distance driving though. 51 hours of driving in two weeks through desert and mountains. Beautiful, but damn tiring on the ass. Thanks for asking.

Incidentally, Warren. Great post! Glad to know I’m not the only one who goes completely overboard when making a point. It was a great read though, so keep it up.

Aquaman - November 29th, 2009 at 10:12 pm

Thanks Warren.

On the subject of Gerrard, I don;t mind him dropping out of form occasionally. He is human after all, hard to believe though that may be. My problem with his performance today though, was that he didn’t seem to care. If a ball landed a few meters away from him then he didn’t contest it. His passes lacked any determination too. He also moved like metaphorical pregnant cow.

We saw none of his fire that left Vidic floundering at old trafford. None of his never ending denial in the face of defeat that we saw against at the city of machester stadium last year. None of these things have anything to do with form. It’s all in the head, and Gerrard needs to get his right.

Benji - November 29th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

Damnit…. I just woke up…. missed most of the 2nd half…..

Welcome back Aquaman….Your reasoned arguments have been missed around here….

OK well its ggod to see that we got the result we were looking for although it wasnt exactly convincing….. Still a win is a win and we despritely needed the 3 points to stay in top 4 contention….

Donavan Ried - November 29th, 2009 at 10:34 pm

Welcome back Aquaman, hope your trip when ok……

Aquaman – November 29th, 2009 at 9:44 pm ……”Granted he maybe shouldn’t be our second choice,” …… I’m glad that you are able to see that
“But as long as he is I will support him and praise his strengths rather than nitpick his weaknesses.” ……..The thing is here I think that he has very little going for him a the moment by way of strengths
Retryboy… Evening mate…. Ok I take your point about the clearances instead of long, and the fact that when he was on the pitch there were less creative players around to supply him, but just don’t think he is good enough at the moment to be a first choice stand in for Torres……

Aquaman you miss out on the award for the longest post this year. I’m afaird that honour when to Warren Bloggs ….. Better luck next year LOL

Retryboy …… How many speedboats is that now? … LOL

Aquaman - November 29th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

“Aquaman you miss out on the award for the longest post this year. I’m afaird that honour when to Warren Bloggs ….. Better luck next year LOL”

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Stupid Warren…
Hehe.

On the N’Gog argument, the one strength that he does have is that he scores a lot of goals, which is generally considered a good thing for a striker. Retryboy will tell you where I stand on the whole youth story. I’m on Rafa’s side with his experience over potential policy. I would far rather have another mature striker in our line up to be Torres’ backup.

Thanks for the welcome guys. Glad to be back and hopefully I won;t be going anywhere again soon.

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 10:47 pm

Haha guys it wasn’t that bad was it?! lol

I reccomend you all read this, good s=article in my opinion:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/6678797/Everton-v-Liverpool-Jack-Rodwell-shows-Rafael-Benitez-the-way-to-go.html

Warren Bloggs - November 29th, 2009 at 10:48 pm

Y DOES EVERYTHING GET MODERATED!!

Retryboy - November 29th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

Welcome back aquaman sounds like the african diamond redistribution project is going well lol we have to remember gerrard has been playing with pain killing injections although will admit as you said his head didn’t seem in it normally against Everton or united you expect one stevie g bone crunching speciality tackle to set the tone. Maybe he is disillusioned with the regime anyway we have Blackburn next another relegation contender so hopefully we can put in a performance in that one and get some confidence back in the camp. Yossi has to start though he was fit against debrecen to play nearly the whole game and aurelio was terrible.

Retryboy - November 29th, 2009 at 11:26 pm

Glad its not just me getting moderated constantly lol thats 5 speed boats donovan lol they aren’t in good shape though been a while since bullseye and aquamans diamond smuggling operation has taken its toll on them! Agreed on we should have a more experienced back up have said that all along that van nistelrooy will be good while ngog develops until january though we need to either play ngog/kuyt or aquilani/gerrard in midfield remember kuyt has been tried many times as a lone striker and hasn’t the pace he is a 2nd striker see never mentioned nemeth once lol…”bring back nemeth!”…”doh!!”

Ash T - November 30th, 2009 at 1:17 am

i reckon we should just sell skrtel,the greek,dossena,degen,babel,kuyt(crap form),voronin.
and sign milner,upson,carlton cole,van nislerooy,mata.
then give the young ones a go more, like darby kelly ayala spearing amoo nemeth pacheco plus the rest

Donavan Ried - November 30th, 2009 at 1:28 am

Aquaman – November 29th, 2009 at 10:46 pm …..on the N’gog Goal scoring, that’s just it I don’t think that he does. ……. Ok as Retryboy said it might be down to lack of creative players, and supply, but i just do think that he is good enough yet …..

Anfield Faithful - November 30th, 2009 at 2:20 am

Hello everybody and cheers to everyone on our victory. As ryan babel said 2-0 undeserved but a much needed win nevertheless and that to the derby. Also happy with the draw between villa and spurs. That further improved our league position and this without our best p erformances so things can only improve. First of all hats off to our saviour today pepe reina. Man he was amazing or what? clearly he saved the game for us and potentially the league season? i always had my doubts about him but i am most happy that i’m proved wrong. On to the performance, can’t help but agree with a commentator that can’t recall a mersyside derby in which everton was so dominant in possession and creating chances. Rafa must realize that sitting beh ind after getting a goal will get us ripped against any decent team which is strong on flanks. Couldn’t understand the yossi situation too. If he was fit enough to come ahead of aquilani when babel got injured then why didn’t he started. Also how much bench(Or match) practice would aquilani need to have in order to get on the pitch? agree with you donovan that ngog is not first team material, well not yet atleast. On the other hand how the hell can rafa say that this was a good performance. It was a lousy performance saved only by a bit of luck at the start and brilliance from reina.

kermit - November 30th, 2009 at 2:59 am

excellent stop by reina , but equally excelent stop by howard frominsua s header at the other end
gerrard did look disnterested , has done for several games, i think its a lack of support and attacking players coming from midfield to help him, once yossi and riera came on gerrard perked up no end, i m still wondering where aquilani is, lucas was unspectacular, he was never gonna win us the game, solid but not a match winner
i d question hsi starting lineup , i d rather yossi for sixty mins out wide replace by riera for thirty than have aurelio out wide who offered nothing in an attacking sense, as soon as our attacking players came on we looked like wnning the game, we looked sharper brighter , we passed better.
really hapy with the result but i thinkwe were very lucky.

my hat goes off to reian , i have been a critic of his in recent week , he was superb yesterday. i still believe manchester utd will sign lloris

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 30th, 2009 at 7:48 am

interesting posts i think rafa was spot on in his tactics against everton, ye we rode our luck but we won and im happy for kuyt.who didnt let me down torress didnt play. im happy for the team and for the fans . good win.

Aquaman - November 30th, 2009 at 9:20 am

hehe. Welcome to my world Warren. Moderation has been my long loathed friend since i posted my first overlong essay. It’s really irritating I know, but I’d rather be moderated than have to wade through pages and pages of V!ag@R^ adverts.

THE CHOSEN ONE - November 30th, 2009 at 10:32 am

Hi Lords some good post on here however some just make me shake my head in disbelief. but I cant really be bothered going into most of them however it does make me wonder how much we all know about the game called football and Liverpool fc.

Just want to say a few points

KERMIT you actually hit the nail on the head if you were aware mate. other than injuries liverpools biggest problem this season has been our senior players.
Other than our goalie and Torress which or any of our senior players have improves or at least played to the standard they played last season?
NONE!!!!!
MAcsh thought of barcelona

Skirtel looked out of position
Carragher with his errors
Kuyt substandard offensively
Gerrard has less influence in the game and loves blaming others
Shall I go on?
Now look at the junior players
Ngog a revelation
Lucas is now growing in confidence
Insua is being more consistant
Kelly had a fantastic first game

And yet we are all pointing the finger at rafa.Its amazing!! shared responsibilty I say.

Secondly I watched Ngog the whole time he was on and ill say hes alot better than people think he is and id put him up front instead of babel anytime of the weak. His ball control, awareness, positioning, attitude and skill shines. watch him carefully hes a star in the making. I remember one incident were kuyt moved forward out of position and ngog tracked all the way back covering kuyts position.

Thirdly I agree with what rafa is trying to do. He wants the whole team playing to an acceptable standard before introducing the roman, Like a jig saw puzzle. In his head he has the system which is the same as last year but he wants it right first. Everton definately easnt the game for him but im sure hell play his part as the season goes on. I also think rafa should be admired the way he chooses players without the price tag on them, The team comes first!!

…samlfc….
I dont have sky either but their a places on the internet to watch the match. Im not sure if I can post it here. they are free and some places have good quality. better than nothing. Start with Justin tv and see who chatting and ull probably get a better link. its trial and error but ull get there m8.

Retryboy - November 30th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

Now nemeth wants to leave and join athens permanent citing lack of first team opportunity, Eccleston turned down a new contract for the same reason, babel is desperate to go again lack of first team chances. Of course the creative players will want out when rafa won’t play more than 3 attacking players in a team and you have the likes of gerrard and torres here you are never going to get a chance. Get rafa out so we can see some decent football again! Of course gerrard is fed up lucas and kuyt are only capable of 5 yard sideways passes in midfield and you have a defender on left wing! On any other day we would have lost at Everton by 3 goals you can’t beat decent teams playing like that. Rafa is ruining the club has to go before we lose the most talented youngsters we have too.

Aquaman - November 30th, 2009 at 3:28 pm

I really don’t know why I am doing this. After all this time of stupid anonymi posting opinions generated from the pits of insanity, I still sometimes feel like I need to try and make them think. Maybe its just because you gave yourself a name, dave.

I may sound like a typical LFC fanatic, but if you think that Torres is anything less than a world class striker, then you are completely mad. Kuyt has my respect for his attitude towards the game, but he would not have scored the goal that Torres did against Blackburn. In fact, I don’t think Rooney could have either.

When Kuyt gets the ball and takes a shot I hope for a goal. If he misses then I applaud a good effort.

When Torres gets the ball and takes a shot I’m already celebrating. If he misses then I swear and curse at a goal not scored.

I’d better stop before I destroy my name completely.

Donavan Ried - November 30th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

Morning ASH T, Anfield Faithful, Kermit, and All Hail THE CHOSEN ONE and of course Retryboy……..

Dave……”we should think about selling TORRES I’m sick of him hes SHIT !!!!!!, should play kuyt up front more often hes a better goal scorer than torres .” …….

Day are you being serious here? …..Can’t really tell…..
Torres and Kuyt are two different types of striker; you can’t compare one to the other…… Torres is more like a Fowler and Kuyt more of a Lineker, Torres being an out and out striker and Kuyt being more of a goal poacher…..

It’s your opinion. Can’t say that I agree, but I won’t slate you for it…. But just remember this before you slate people over their opinions……

Retryboy – November 30th, 2009 at 12:22 pm………
“Now nemeth wants to leave and join athens permanent citing lack of first team opportunity, Eccleston turned down a new contract for the same reason, babel is desperate to go again lack of first team chances”……. This is what we get under Rafa. Players are becoming disillusioned …….Did you notice the look on aquilani’s face when Rafa sub on Yossi? I was a look of bemusement. He must be thinking… “Have I made the right move coming to Liverpool FC?”…..

All the young talent about Europe must be looking at what is going on there, then are look at Everton, Man Utd, and Arsenal Youngster and saying … “If I sign for Liverpool, that would be a career killer”….

I Agree with you 100%……

THE CHOSEN ONE………
Would seem that we both look at N’gog in completely the opposite way LOL…. But that’s ok…..

Ash T – November 30th, 2009 at 1:17 am ……”I reckon we should just sell skrtel,” Just think that he is have a poor season so far, It happens (More so it seems under Rafa)….. I think he will come good again As for Kuyt, I believe if we were to get a proper Right winger, and a second quality striker there is still a place for Kuyt either as a second striker in a 4-4-2 or I think he would sit on the bench. He might not like it (which striker would) but I think that he is professional enough and loves LFC to do it……..

kermit - November 30th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

goood afternoon to all the usual suspects,, i was t slating gerrard earlier i just not sure gerrard can do it alone any more he needs more support coming form the wide areas and midfield playing neat intricate football , he can t play it all by himself, or with aurelio wide left and masch and lucas told to stay put and not join the attack

point proven yesterday, gerrard and liverpool were shit til yossi came on , the riera came on and suddenly our game was fluid and incisive and we literally rang rings around them

ngog need a good feed, he is a little lightweight and knocked off the ball to easily, he isn t abad player , he is no torres, however he is better than torres at holiding the ball up and finding his team mates with it, he is useful but i wouldn t be gettng carried away with excitement over him.

now i can understand kind of why aquilani wasn t thrown into the heat fo the derby but surely he must play in our next home game