The one player Rafa should have tried harder to keep at Anfield.
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There will always be a place in the heart of any Liverpool fan for Sami Hyypia. After a decade of marvelous service at the club he felt the time was right to leave Anfield and face a new challenge but shouldn’t Rafa have tried harder to keep the Finnish international at the club?
In case anyone was wondering what the 36 year old defender was up to or indeed if anyone thought that he was over the hill and had no chance of pushing for a place in our back four well let me tell you that Sami is alive and well and performing incredibly well in the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen.
With Hyppia practically an ever present Leverkusen are still unbeaten in the domestic league and are top of the table and a big reason for this upturn in fortunes of the 2002 Champions League finalists is the magnificent performances the big Finn is putting in week in, week out. Hell he has even gotten into the habit of scoring regularly as well as marshaling a defence that has conceded just 16 goals in 20 matches. Its worth noting that the Rhine based club only finished ninth last season so it can not be denied that the former Liverpool stalwart is having a massive impact, he was even named the best defender in the league for the first half of the season.
Remember to just how haphazard our defending has been this term. Umpteen times we have given away sloppy goals from set plays or from simple lumped balls into the box, the types of balls that Sami eats for breakfast. So shouldn’t Benitez have tried to keep Hyppia at the club for another year or two? Rafa had already angered the centre back by not including him in the Champions League squad despite earlier telling him that he was very much part of his plans.
Remember to that last season Sami was no slouch either. Of the 16 Premier League matches he was involved in, 12 of which he stated, we lost just one game. And in those 16 games there were two wins over Man United, one of which was a top notch performance during our away win at Old Trafford.
25, 27, 28,27, those are the amounts of goals we conceded in our previous four seasons and yet this term, barely halfway through, we have already let in 26. Injuries have meant that only Jamie Carragher has managed to find himself regularly fit and ready for one of the centre back berths. Daniel Agger has managed just 11 Premier League starts, Martin Skrtel has 14 and Sotiros Kyrgiakos just 6. Imagine then how we could have faired if Sami was at the club ready to put in his usual wholehearted performance, who knows, maybe we would have half a dozen plus more points to show from this season.
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
He didn’t ‘offload’ him. He allowed him to leave because he fely Hypia deserved the opportunity to play more first team football than we could give him. Hypia was a wonderful servant to the club and because of this he deserved the opportunity to play as much football as possible until he retired.
If there’s one player Rafa shouldn’t have offloaded it’s got to be Bellamy for me. Yes, he’s an obnoxious poisonous hunch-back, but he’s been aruably City’s best player this season and we could certainly use his pace, energy and goals.
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
we definately should have kept sami on he is a Liverpool legend and still has more to offer the club. our defence isn’t as solid nowadays without his presence. but glad to see him doing well in germany like we knew he would.
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
BPL_WILL_BE_PAINTED_RED.
well sami was a offloaded for sure .he was allowed to leave though it looks
like a wrong decision still it was for the right for him as well as club.
he’s getting more chances ,he’s happy performing or not is a different matter.
we have many young defenders who are still waiting for chance in the first team
and if we dont give it to them …………then well …….fans will blame the coach…….
so team has to let the old legends go free ,even though it looks sad but still ….
as for 1player we shouldnot have allowed to go i would say 2
ANELKA and BELLAMY.(anonymous – February 5th, 2010 at 1:15 pm spot on )
anelka not sure wuld have stayed or not ,only if he had.
well BELLAMY we hurried with him…….
MAY BE IN A FEW YEARS YNWA WILL WRITE
“The One Liverpool Player Rafa Benitez Should Never Have Offloaded
– – RYAN BABEL.
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
I agree with first post, we allowed sami to leave as he felt he good perform as first choice but was behind agger, skrtel and carra. Im made up sami is doing well, sound bloke who could claim his first league title of his career if Lever keep going, fair play to him. He wouldnt have been our first choice, and we wouldnt be top right now if he’d stayed.
In my opinion the top three players Rafa should have tried harder to keep at LFC:
1. Xabi Alonso
2. Peter Crouch
3. Stevie Warnock
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
BPL_WILL_BE_PAINTED_RED.
OOPS IN February 5th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
well sami was a offloaded for sure
I MEANT SAMI WAS NOT OFFLOADED FOR SURE
ALSO ANELKA HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BENITEZ I HAVE INCLUDED HIM
IN RELATION TO CLUB
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Just to clarify to those who commented above, as this article is about players rafa jibbed…Anelka came and went before rafa.
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
BPL_WILL_BE_PAINTED_RED.
anonymous – February 5th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
IN MY POST I HAVE HAVEN’T MENTIONED RAFA WHEN I SAID ABOUT ANELKA
“as for 1player we shouldnot have allowed to go i would say 2
ANELKA and BELLAMY.(anonymous – February 5th, 2010 at 1:15 pm spot on )”
ANY WAYS MY FAULT.
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Sami Hyypiä best center back ever in Liverpool
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
he will probably be back one day as a coach or something. we always looked more threatiening from corners when he was playing.
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baggins09 - February 5th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
sami is a legend and deserved the chance to play which ironically he probably would be doing if he’d stayed. good luck to him
we should have never let crouch, bellamy, sissoko, riise or pongolle go for me or alonso based on last seasons performance
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
i think kyrgiakos has been a good substitute though
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Retryboy - February 5th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Hyppia was awesome last season along with Finnan let go too soon, other players RAFA should have kept Warnock and riise(sold for £1.5m profit to the club) Dossena&Aurelio cost £7m Bellamy, crouch, Keane(bought and sold for a £2.5m profit) Voronin got £2m signing on fee murphy&sissoko(sold for £5.1m profit) lucas cost £5m arbeloa(£1m profit) degen got £2m signing on fee Alonso(£20m profit) crippled Aquilani cost £20m owen(£8.5m profit) Kuyt cost £9m
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Sami (Legend)
As we all know was great servant for the club, you may all recall privately Rafa did not want him to go, in conjunction with extending his contract Rafa even offered him a coaching role. Maybe the pace of the premiership and thought of possibley being a squad player was not enough for him and Sami wanted to play first team football every week.(as they say your a long time not playing) Who knows what may have happened this season i he had of been here but he’s gone so lets move on.
Aldo
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Retryboy
What you say in your post may be the case and for reasons you or i will never know why their services were dispense with, It may all be down to Rafa.
The bigger issue is the short and medium term future of the club, this is where we should all be concerned.
Aldo
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Retryboy - February 5th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Aldo-agreed, i see the lack of attacking places in a rafa setup as an on going problem though and something that contributed to a lot of those players leaving as well as lack of opportunity for Benayoun, Babel, Nemeth and pacheco. Gk, back 4, 2 Defensive midfielders, Kuyt as a defensive RM player…leaves 3 attacking places Gerrard and Torres take 2 when fit leaves one space for an attacking player and thats left midfield. All i can see that has changed in the transfer window is another player in Rodriguez being added to pick up scraps and fight for a left midfield position that isn’t his best will end up fighting with Benayoun, Riera, Babel and Aurelio…5 players and only one left midfielder in there. We will see if there is any change and one holding midfielder is let off the leash if Kuyt is no longer automatic choice on the right especially when johnson is available again johnson/Rodriguez i think will be too attacking for rafa. Will see if rafa starts looking at a 2nd striker. Can’t see any of it happening and i just see us struggling to break down teams we should roll over easily. It is a point as well that they were all players that the fans rated and rafa didn’t or not enough.
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
i would still love to watch king luis garcia in liverpool jersy
but without him we could’nt have afforded nando
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Please try to write his name right if you rate him so highly. He is Hyypia (a with the dots) not Hyppia. Anyway, we should never have let him go, nor Alonso. Crouch is crap. I have no regrets about him but Hyypia and Alonso are great players. Hyypia i respect, Alonso i don’t cause what he did after so much support was disrespectful. I can’t respect him anymore. I wish him well anyway.
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anonymous - February 5th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Retryboy
YOU,i could go on all night makng points about the manger and the owners GOOD AND BAD and do you know what in the middle of it all its about the club we all love, that really on reflection if you thought about it, something………….is just not quite right whether it be the manager or the owners,and as much as we all debate about this or have an opinion of players etc we dont truly know why or why we cant buy a certain player or why a certain player wants to move on or even join us ?……………. we only want to be succesful with a manager hat has stabiliy at the helm.
Its always difficult to express your way in a post i know, That is why i will try to simplify this which is difficult because it is so an expansive subject. But i will try to look at this way.
1)Forget about the Title its about finishing in the top four thats a trophy in its self why ? because of the revenue and the attraction to keep your best players and attract the best players to your club.(if you have money)
2)It also attracts the yougsters if we finish in the top four or if we have the best players.
3)The trouble with Rafa he does not want to lose therefore, he sets out his team for a draw or to nick a win so his line up is frustrating to us fans.
4)This doesnt suit you or many other fans because it is resrictive to the quality players that he has got. why Champions league money.
5)Then when the side doesnt do well it is even harder to pitch in the yougsters to develop them. so what does he do he then sends them out on loan in the hope they will return better or bigger players. (A Game of roulette i would say) to play for iverpool or to sell on.
6)And all the time i and many others think this is a great club and well supported throughout the continent yet we are so far behind in stadia and finances for a club with such history, its shameful
7)The previous owner and the current ones have a lot to answer and yes the current owners have expanded our profile and commercia partners but this sjould have been done so long ago.
With our pedigree surely we deserve this.
Yours
Aldo
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anonymous - February 6th, 2010 at 12:02 am
Sorry for the typo etc i’m a bit tipsy
Aldo
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Retryboy - February 6th, 2010 at 2:00 am
Aldo-lucky you lol baby sitting my god daughter 2nite to give her mum a much needed night out. Agree with virtually all your post 1)yep title was gone months ago some people still haven’t come to terms with how hard it will be to beat city, villa and spurs to a top four finish 2)also keeps the top players we have, massive income and we get the full £20m from standard charter keep telling people if we miss top four is the equivalent of relegation to a smaller club could be years before we got back 3&4)falls under his negativity branch 5)disagree with that one if things are going bad managers usually try different things rafa is so unshakeable in his blueprint he couldn’t see the other options that he has had available all season that if used could have given us much stronger lineups. Rafa always goes for experience over quality ie Voronin behind the striker who has no creativity. Nemeth’s ideal role who is 21 now even pacheco although only 18 has been playing reserves for 2 seasons and much better option for that role. Our best striking prospects for years are not lone strikers if he won’t consider varying the formation they have no chance and its too big a loss for me to just swallow. Think rafa has played the owners card more than enough they have backed him totally given him the total control he fought for, let him bring in all his own staff, he has spent plenty and has a quality squad. Istanbul has made him wrongly unquestionable and unaccountable.
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RAF - February 6th, 2010 at 3:54 am
RAF
Big Sami is an all time great and my personal favourite LFC player ever. Big call I know be he was sensational for us, especially that left footed volley at the back stick against Juve.
Getting hyper before the derby tonight, hopefully Gerrard will play in midfield (I FUCKING DOUBT IT!!) with Aquilani off Kuyt.
I like the way Aquilani tries things, just be better off him doing on the edge of their 18 yard box instead of the half way line!
C’mon you reds
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Retryboy - February 6th, 2010 at 4:04 am
Lol amen to that comment raf!
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anonymous - February 6th, 2010 at 9:12 am
How is it so difficult to spell Sami’s name correctly? I it not Hyppia as Gerrard is not Gurrard..
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spota - February 6th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
i think we could ov got another season out ov sammi GREAT PLAYER infact a LEGEND ov the kop ! also would ov tryed to keep finnan and riise but im not the manager and dont no what was being said behind the scanes at anfield oh well i wish sammi well as i think most peole will . one ov my all time liverpool greats . a credit to any shirt he wears!
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anonymous - February 6th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
He left because Rafa put him ‘out in the cold’. He would still be here if it wasn’t for the fact that Rafa left him out of the CL squad! The ‘insult’ after all those years of service and winning him the Euro Cup! Rafe’s ultimate insult was that he only gave him 5 mins in his last ever game for the club after 10 years amazing service. The best Liverpool defender since Alan Hansen. It’s no coincidence that the club’s fortunes turned from the moment Sami joined.
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anonymous - February 6th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
crazy to let sami leave, of course. and look at risse now, rated as possibly the nr.1 LB in italy at the moment and scoring thunderbolts again..
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spike - February 7th, 2010 at 12:29 am
nope…….xabi alonso
is the player rafa should have kept…..
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anonymous - February 9th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Ok retryboy. Seriously, i understand u have ur own opinions but well, this is WHITE ENGLAND. cya
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anonymous - February 18th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
we are going down under benitez . he has sold good players and kept under peforming shit like lucas kuyt masharano first touch is crap long passing is usles kuyt works hard but he just runs after the ball like a hedles chicken. we need better for liverpool fc .
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