Guus Hiddink To Take Liverpool Job AND Manage Turkey On The Side? Stranger Things Have Happened!

RaNE - February 17th, 2010 at 3:13 pm

He can’t take the job because there is no job to take.

RyanO - February 17th, 2010 at 3:27 pm

Another stupid speculative crap article. There is NO JOB OPENING at Anfield. The Anti-Rafa Brigade are just going to have to get that through their thick skulls. At this point, I am amazed that it still hasn’t sunk in. Rafa wasn’t awarded a new contract so he could be fired less than a year later. Do you think this man, and his agent, are that stupid that they did not get the deal they wanted in place? Does anyone remember how long they negotiated that contract and why would it take so long if it were not due to “sticking to guns” and all that? Stupid. Besides, if Guus is the fucking Legend that he is played up to be, how in fuck did Russia miss out on the World Cup? That team should have waltzed to South Africa!!! Me thinks, Mr. Hiddink is given too much credit for the turn around at Chelsea last term. That team was still great, they simply laid down like dogs because they didn’t like Scolari as Manager. Once the players ran him out by turning in crap after crap performance, only then did they play up to potential. Had they bothered to put in a decent effort during the Scolari term, they may well have taken the league last season. Finally, the idea that any Liverpool Manager would be allowed to hold an international job as well is ludicrous. Managing a Big Club is a full time occupation and LFC deserve a gaffer who gives his heart and soul to the club, without distraction. Stupid speculative crap.

baggins09 - February 17th, 2010 at 4:06 pm

i wouldn’t want him doing two jobs we’re not in the position psv, chealsea or real was in when he took over and they was all in good health when he managed them we’re not we need a complete overhaul not someone who’s just here to babysit a squad of stars

and someone else a while back put his management stats up and there not actually that impressive he’s not won much and what he did win was a long time ago.

i agree with ryano they didn’t want big phil so wasn’t turning up to games, i’d take a punt on scolari with all our south american and spanish speakers and the fact he can talk english i think that could work, he plays attacking football too with proper wingers, i’d rather him than guus.

plus (unfortunately) i think rafa is gonna be here next season weather we get fourth or not i don’t think they will sack him and i think he’s too arrogant to admit it was down to him and quit so i can’t see it happening.

...samlfc.... - February 17th, 2010 at 5:24 pm

I Rafa goes then of course i would want him here but Rafa is manager at the moment and looks set to atleast finish this seson off…..so lets wait till the summer to make any decisions on the manager job.

Caffoe - February 17th, 2010 at 7:15 pm

What a load of tripe,
1- Rafa will not be leaving, that is obvious at this point.
2- Even if he did leave, we would not be able to et hiddink in our current situation; and for all those who sa his name, we wouldn’t get Mourinho

Retryboy - February 17th, 2010 at 7:15 pm

Wouldn’t want hiddink even if he was 100% focused on the job he only wants a couple more years in management and is abramovich’s boy anyway. If rafa goes(please!) want a young manager who can make us great again and is here for the long term, plays good football, can instill a winning mentality and confidence in the players, who gives young players a chance, doesn’t play favourites, who isn’t so negative the samaritans pick his teams, who isn’t so stubborn and arrogant to believe that his system is a blueprint for every game despite the facts and someone who can deliver the title with a great set of players not be out of the title race before christmas as is usual at the moment. Hiddink would be a massive improvement on rafa but not the right man for this particular job.

Aquaman - February 17th, 2010 at 9:31 pm

I reiterate: Rafa is going nowhere this summer. There’s no gap to fill so Hiddink won’t be doing so.

anonymous – February 17th, 2010 at 9:14 pm: I’m going to be laughing about that for weeks. When did you become a fan? Clearly not during Souness’ time. He took a Liverpool team who lost to Arsenal on the last day the year before and had won the league the year before that and managed to come 6th, 6th and 8th winning only the FA cup once. He also did an interview with the Sun on the 3rd anniversary of Hillsborough, indicating just how little he understood the fans that he played in front of for years.

His record reads as follows
Played: 157
Won: 65
Drawn: 45
Lost: 47
Win %: 41.40

The only positives are that he successfully brought Fowler, and McManamon into the first team and brought David James to the club (though he was fairly rubbish for us).

Don’t mention him again. He’s pretty close to the worst that we could pick.

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 2:26 am

Why put us anon? you are one sad lonely little twat. Only one that goes on about O’Neill and villa is you. Only time i comment about rafa is when the article is to do with him. The whole reason you can’t log in is because after you were spouting in rafa we trust for months you changed your mind around the time of the reading fa cup humiliation now you can’t log back in as a rafa fan because you know you will get ripped to shit by Retryboy and Donovan for being a total Fucking hypocrite so you carry out your little hate campaign anonymously against us lol thing is everyone with a brain cell can see through your shit and ignore you anyone who can’t see that isn’t worth worrying about their opinion.

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 2:42 am

What do i think of Rodriguez? Might be good if he got played RM but as i told everyone at the time who assumed he would be when we signed him he will just be another square peg in a round hole LM picking up scraps with Benayoun, Babel and our only real LM player Riera while Kuyt carries on being the same RM and playing 90% of games there. What do i think of Jovanovic? Think its a big fat signing on fee and huge wages that so called ‘free transfers’ get just to have him sit on the bench when Torres is fit and take away opportunity from Benayoun, Kuyt, Nemeth, pacheco and ngog…we have all the answers in the strikers we have. In a 4-4-1-1 with the main striker as 1)Torres 2)Babel 3)ngog we have loads of partners that would work great in a partnership 1)Benayoun 2)Kuyt 3)Nemeth 4)pacheco can’t see how people can blame strikers when we create nothing for games on end with the defensive formation and tactics always employed.

Red_Phoenix - February 18th, 2010 at 8:05 am

Rafa is as thick as two short planks. Great so he has brought in two players but Maxi is already having to play on the left to accomodate who? Kuyt. Why not play Riera? How annoyingly stupid is that? I could inderstand it at Man U, for example, when they had to keep Tevez on the bench because of Ronaldo and Rooney. Understandable considering they are world class performers right? Why does Kuyt deserve such treatment? Most Rafa lovers would say because he works hard. Big deal. Ronaldo works hard and has more talent in his left foot than Kuyt and has an end product and thats why he starts games. But no, if we start a game, Kuyt is there no matter the DROUGHT of goals and assists. If we go down a goal Lucas stays on and we have 2 defensive midfielders and no one that can take the reins in midfield.

Sorry for all Rafa lovers. I’m with Retry on this one. Square pegs in round holes. Thats all we are ever going to get. We’ll never win the league with Rafa unless he is given bucket loads of cash (even with that i dont trust his judgment). He had a title contending squad last year and threw the title away with his defensive crap. Oh and dont forget his ridiculous rant at fergie which got everyone playing like crap because the players felt too much pressure. Sorry Rafa lovers open your eyes. Rafa is wasting people’s talent at liverpool so he can play his golden boys that should be on the bench.

Mickeyfinn1983 - February 18th, 2010 at 8:31 am

Red_Phoenix,

LOL, “Ronaldo works hard” LOL
- Guess you’ve never heard of the Ronnie song: “Hi my name is Ronnie, i do the stepover, NO TRACKING BACK, i wax my chest and wax my ……”
Why did United have to play Rooney on the wing……… Cos Ronaldo’s too bloody lazy!

LOL, “Kuyt is there no matter the drought of goals and assists” LOL
- 4 in the last 5 LOL

LOL, “2 defensive midfielders and no one that can take the reins in midfield”
- Lucas isn’t a defensive midfielder, he’s a box to box midfielder… When do you see Mascherano bursting into the penalty area….Euhm, …… NEVER
Have you been watching the games? Mascherano has been a Maestro in that midfield…

And if we are so defensive, would you please care to share with all of us why Manchester United have only 10 more shots on goal over the whole season compared to Liverpool?

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 9:24 am

Mickey finn do you watch the games? Lucas has been used as a HOLDING midfielder all season he is not played in front of Mascherano but beside him, with 2 HOLDING MIDFIELDER’S P-24 W-8 D-6 L-10 F-28 A-28 with one holding midfielder P-10 W-7 D-1 L-2 F-21 A-7. We create nothing in most games with Rafa’s system everyone can see that. Games are kept so tight they will always be decided by one or two turning points these will never consistently go in our favour. Kuyt is a poacher does all his best work around the 6 yard box. RM he gives us nothing his crosses never beat the first man he never gets into a good enough position to deliver anything that will cause damage because he can’t beat a full back and he has no pace so slows the attacks down when he is played there and narrows things up by naturally coming inside. Lucas bursts into the box once every 3 games. 10 less shots than man united this season lol the scum carve out opportunities we go whole games without creating anything which is actually pretty hard to manage! Thats why when you look at the stats with Rafa’s system we score and concede a goal a game.

Mickeyfinn1983 - February 18th, 2010 at 10:26 am

Who was the manager of Liverpool Football Club when we Scored 3 or more goals in 8 consecutive games… ow, that’s right it was Rafa or was you asleep when that happened?

Why are you using this season as a benchmark?

How the Fuck do you justify slagging our offensive and defensive record when our injury list has consisted of this – With the amount of time they have been out of action:

Defense:

- Daniel Agger – 10 weeks
- Fabio Aurelio – 14 weeks
- Martin Skrtel – 7 weeks
- Glen Johnson 10 weeks

Attack:

- Yossi Benayoun – 7 weeks
- Alberto Aquilani – 3 months
- Albert Riera – 14 Weeks
- Fernando Torres – 10 weeks
- Steven Gerrard – 5 weeks

And i haven’t even mentioned the long, stupid bans we have received this year and i haven’t even mentioned the back up players injury list….

Aquaman - February 18th, 2010 at 2:33 pm

On the whole playing youth story. I’ve just read Tomkins’ latest piece on the LFC website and have been stunned by how similarly he and I agree on the debate. I’m not name dropping, I just think that if anyone is interested give it a read. I’ll be interested to hear what you think.

Red_Phoenix - February 18th, 2010 at 4:03 pm

Mickey Finn- For a box to box midfielder Lucas has scored 4 goals in about 70 appearances and 1 assist. Wow, how crap, iif thats his contibution he shouldn’t run into the box. We know Xabi was a DM and he scored 15 in 138 (just under double the amount of games Lucas has played). At this rate, Lucas will score just under half the amount Xabi did in the same amount of games. Box to box lol.

As for Ronaldo, even though he may not track back that well (and he played for man u) if he said he wants to come and play right wing for us instead of kuyt, i think you’d take him any day of the week despite his gay’effeminate tendencies. Before Kuyt scored his 4 goals (which i’m happy about) he had one of the worst droughts ever.

As for rafa getting us scoring it was only after we lost the lead in the premiership that he thought ‘oh i think we need to attack more’. Rafa has always been and will always be mr overly cautious

Mickeyfinn1983 - February 18th, 2010 at 4:23 pm

Great Article!

A real recommendation for Retryboy and co.

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 4:44 pm

Sorry mickey finn i make my mind up based on what i see on the pitch not from articles. Oh yeah your comments injuries? Yawn, excuses. How are 8 games last season more relevant than 30 this season? Fair enough if you said judge rafa over his whole liverpool career. 1 decent premier league challenge in 6 years doesn’t look too great though. Rafa has always had other options available in our massive squad. Like that stats i put up showed 2 holding midfielders hasn’t worked 1 has rafa is too stubborn and negative and too determined super lucas will play.

Mickeyfinn1983 - February 18th, 2010 at 5:46 pm

“too stubborn to play super lucas”

Aquilani, his replacement has been injured for 3 1/2 months, what would you suggest —> play a crocked Gerrard or “a midget” spearing instead of him?

Aquaman - February 18th, 2010 at 5:51 pm

Right. I’m bored and so now declare this the Liverpool vs Unirea Prediction thread!

If I were the man with the devil beard and the paycheck, then I’d play the usual 4-2-3-1. Here’s my lineup:

GK – Cav
RB – Darby (or Kelly if fit and assuming Carra is inj)
CB – Skrtel
CB – Soto
LB – Aurelio (if fit)
RW – Degen
AM – Aquilani
LW – Riera
CF – Kuyt (cpt)

Gerrard and Carra I would rest (Carra is injured and Gerrard is still getting there but I’d have him sulking on the bench). The right of this lineup worries me a little as we’ve got psycho Degen and inexperienced mini-Carra on the same wing. While they would compliment each other well, Degen’s nutcaseness could easily put Darby under pressure. Still, I think that’s for the best.

Your thoughts and predictions?

RaNE - February 18th, 2010 at 6:30 pm

Looks Good, Aquaman

Aquaman - February 18th, 2010 at 6:56 pm

Gah! A good point anon. Hehe.

Add in Lucas and Masch playing as 2nd Goalkeeper and left wingback. No wait…

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 7:16 pm

Good call aquaman lot better than cricket lol Gk-cavalieri RB-Darby LB-Aurelio CB-Kyrgiakos CB-skrtel CM-spearing CM-Aquilani LM-Riera CF-Babel CF-Kuyt RM-Rodriguez subs Reina, kelly, insua, lucas, Gerrard, pacheco, ngog. As long as we can get the first goal earlyish should roll them over and get it 3-1. I expect a little scare at some point will be good for confidence if we have a scare then murder em! Babel to get one and Aquilani to get off the mark. Most important player got to be Aquilani or Gerrard whoever plays need creative spark come on boys!! Come on rafa decent team please!!

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 8:31 pm

Team news is in Gk-Reina RB-Carragher LB-Aurelio CB-skrtel CB-agger CM-Mascherano CM-Aquilani CM-Gerrard LM-Riera CF-ngog RM-Kuyt subs cavalieri, Kyrgiakos, degen, insua, lucas, pacheco, Babel. Lot better than i feared interesting to see how the midfield 3 line up. Ngog up front on his own would rather have Babel. Kuyt RM never great but its a lot more attacking than normal. We shall see at the weekend if he should have rested players

...samlfc.... - February 18th, 2010 at 9:57 pm

Half-time:

we are very attacking minded and have had pretty much all possesion but its stil 0-0 because no one can get the finishing goal.
N’gog’s first touches isn’t great however with that being said he did have one great chance when he swiveled around to take a volley but he couldn’t finish it.
Gerrard is playing well and had a chance in the first 30 seconds.
Kuyt is playing fantastic i think
Defence and Reina haven’t really been troubled with only like 3 Uzi chances.

on the whole we are playing well i think but we are missing Torres in this game for sure. we’ve ahd plenty of corners also
i would try putting Pacheco on myself if we don’t score before the 60 minute mark.

RaNE - February 18th, 2010 at 11:05 pm

Yes, good goal between our Youngstars the future of our club is getting better and better

Aquaman - February 18th, 2010 at 11:27 pm

Ok. I have my game review written up and nowhere to post it. COME ON, COS!

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 11:28 pm

Why bother buying an attacking midfielder in Aquilani and convert him into a holding player? Finally we went to one holding midfielder and scored, great cameo again by Babel don’t know what he has to do to start if he goes past people as easily on his wrong side play him right midfield! So he can put in crosses off his best foot! Reina-6 Carragher-8 Aurelio-7 agger-6 skrtel-6 Mascherano-6 Aquilani-5 Gerrard-6 Riera-5 ngog-6 Kuyt-6 subs-Babel-7 pacheco-6 defence looked a lot stronger with Aurelio in and great seeing pacheco get minutes and an assist. Against a team with no match fitness or ambition was pretty dire stuff in the second half especially up until the subs.

Aquaman - February 18th, 2010 at 11:30 pm

Fine I’m posting it here then. *sulk sulk*

That wasn’t quite the performance I was hoping to see. We dominated the game from start to finish but failied to create the number of clear chances that I would have expected. The goal was deserved however and we go to Romania with alead in the tie.

Starters –

Reina: Got a good chance to see that his posts were well maintained, could spend some valuable time watching the grass grow and every now and then received a back pass. It’s a tough life being a keeper.

Carra: Shouldn’t be a fullback but did the job. His ball to Kuyt in the second half was fantastic and deserved a better outcome.

Agger: Spent as much time in the opposition’s half as defending. Comfortable.

Skrtel: Much the same as Agger. Should have done better with the header though.

Aurelio: Ehhh. Didn’t seem interested in linking up with Riera at all. Drifted into midfield far too often. Didn’t get far enough forward. Disappointing.

Masch: Typical performance. Ran around destroying anything that moved. Got a couple of promising shots in. Good performance.

Aquilani: Had lots of clever ideas but the rest of the team wasn’t always on the same page. Looked really encouraging though. Played a couple of fantastic cross field passes. Needs to be played further forward and needs to shoot occasionally. Encouraging.

Kuyt: Dogged and determined but lacked the necessary spark. Still struggles to make things happen with Carra.

Gerrard: Heart and soul of the team. Good to see him leading from the front. Missed a lot of chances though. My man of the match.

Riera: Isolated for most of the game. Struggled to play without support from Aurelio. He needs to have Insua overlapping to take the pressure off. Got some great crosses in though. Not surprised that he was subbed off.

N’Gog: Still frstrating. Most of the time that he got the ball he simply lost possesion. A few good moments but mediocre performance. Well taken header for the goal.

Subs –

Babel: Classic Babel performance. Lot’s of threatening runs until he reaches the first defender and then eventually faded into insignificance. Same old, same old.

Pacheco: “OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! PACHECO! PACHECO! OMG!! PACHECO! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!” To quote a few anons and Retryboy . Nice performance. Looked eager and got into good positions often. Great assist for the goal. Not fantastic but definitely good.

Lucas: Um… Got in Carra’s way once… and that’s about it really.

Tactics –

Well they sat back for the entire game and frustrated us at every turn. Things would have been completely different if the first shot had gone in on 30s. The team seems to lack an urgency in turning chances into goals. Whenever they miss they don’t seem disappointed enough.

Insua is officially our best leftback and needs to play with Riera every week. You’re going to hear this a lot from me so get used to it. He needed the rest though.

Result –

It’ll do. I wanted better but we’re clearly not at our best yet. Hopefully they’ll play more openly at home.

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 11:38 pm

Agree with most of it aquaman but Babel made things happen instantly and chased down people and how can you say no end product when Riera wasted at least 20 crossing chances, Kuyt again could never beat the first man and Babel sets up the winner? Don’t agree about Riera needing insua he needs some pace of his own.

Aquaman - February 18th, 2010 at 11:50 pm

The difference between Riera and Babel is that Riera’s priority is getting a cross in (and he’s got a good cross), where as Babel’s priority seems to be running at the defenders into semi-no-man’s-land. Also Babel came on when the defence was tired and still didn’t really create anything. Maybe I’m biased (and I probably am) but I really do think that Riera creates more goal scoring chances than Babel does. Plus he’s got a vicious shot from distance which he gets in a position to use.

Regarding Insua. Riera needs him to give him the overlap. I don’t think that Aurelio did that once all night. Because Riera is a bit short on pace he needs an option to pass to. Insua gives him that and has a similar emphasis on crossing (and is equally good at it, if not better).

Babel set’s up the winner? That’s not how I remember it… I’ll need to see another replay. I was too busy being relieved and excited when it happened.

Retryboy - February 18th, 2010 at 11:59 pm

Riera’s first priority is to cross from a deep area because he has no pace and is left footed. Babel has the pace to get to a position where the cross will hurt and does so regularly but is right footed, played on the right be setting up loads of goals could get Kuyt back into his best position too, up front. Riera was totally wasteful tonight its like he has accepted he is too slow to beat anyone his decision making is really poor too. Aurelio made the defence solid Carragher was man of the match though he is actually looking great at right back and was the most urgent player on the pitch. Babel’s cross set up the goal and think he answered his critics about work rate not for the first time probably gone unnoticed though. To be a world class player Babel needs to be on the right or up front and we need to use his pace we are totally lacking in that department otherwise

Retryboy - February 19th, 2010 at 12:09 am

The massive difference it would make to the team just letting Aquilani loose from the holding role, playing him between Mascherano and Gerrard as rafa promised when we signed him our tempo would be upped massively the ball would get forward quickly. Would still much prefer 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 but if he wants to play 4-5-1 doesn’t have to be so negative!

Aquaman - February 19th, 2010 at 12:25 am

Full agreement here, Retry. His passing is great and is even better than some of our own team can handle occasionally. Kuyt and N’Gog both missed out on great balls by not realising that they were even possible. Aquilani is only going to get better. I can’t wait for next season!

dr.Barnard - February 19th, 2010 at 1:21 am

The team from Romania, as I expected, put up a brave fight to get a tie in Anfield. They almost got it and in the process exceeded expectations of some of our fans.
The only areas, when our boys are comparable these days with the best in the league, is in their spirit and cohesiveness.We are mediocre at best, we lack speed and skill, which make us relatively easy to defend. On the other hand, the presence of healthy Torres, Johnson, and Benny would change that perception in a second.
Gerrard, although improving in fitness, is lacking his usual aggression and skill. Our best player has to be our best player or we are going nowhere. His shots, corners are not to his regular standards, it better comes soon or else. Aquilani, from time to time displays his talent, skills and the toll his months on the sidelines took. Still waiting for his breakthrough game and hope to see his cracking shot end up in the net. He will get better in the near future.
Pacheco, thanks God for his great appearance, hope he will given more and more time. Very promising, a harbinger of the better future that will come not a day to soon.
Babel, I was happy to see him come on, especially with Riera doing very little, the only player that had speed to terrorise the tiring defenders. He should play, until he proves he does not deserve it or we will get someone with comparable or better speed and more nuanced skill set.
The game against Blackburn on Feb,28, will be our fourth in 10 days. Lets hope for good luck in continuing to win ugly and good health. It looks like David N’gog will miss some time.

Mickeyfinn1983 - February 19th, 2010 at 6:38 am

I didn’t see the game so i can’t comment on individuals performance, only from the highlights… Looked like N’Gog had a good game, he got himself in good positions to score… Pacheco, i hope people will have some patients with this kid cos if he keeps this up he is going to be a star!

Mickeyfinn1983 - February 19th, 2010 at 9:12 am

Anon 8:36

I Agree… The best game i have seen from Aquilani, where he ran the show was against Tottenham when he played the Gerrard role just behind the front man… I think the biggest problem with Aquilani is that he has a too-good vision(if that ever exists) but he plays and sees opportunities that the other 10 don’t which inevitably leads to them not making the run… Also, he is nowhere near 100% because i haven’t seen him make one of those thunderbolt shots that he has in his armory, and this leads me to believe that he is trying to keep things simple and is trying to gel into the new team set-up.

I just hope Agger can stay fit now for the rest of the season because with him in defense we are a different animal all together… He is a great defender but his main weapon is that he is composed on the ball unlike Carragher and Skrtel who panic like a bunch of ladies at most times and end up kicking the ball back to the opposition, inevitably comes straight back at them…

I would also like Benitez to try Pacheco with Torres when he is back… I don’t know from the kick off but when the game is nearly dead and buried, take off Lucas, bring back Gerrard to the midfield and play him behind or alongside Torres… I think this would be fireworks

Is it just me, or does it make everybody cringe hearing Jamie Carragher Scream like a 8 year old Scouse little girl through the surround sound

Aquaman - February 19th, 2010 at 9:54 am

Mickeyfinn1983 – I sentiments exactly about Aquilani. Well said.

And on Pacheco. He did well, but he’s not up to the level yet. I’m probably going to be the only one who says so, and I’ll take all criticism that comes my way. He’s got buckets of talent, but he needs a lot more sub appearances before we can begin to think about starting him in any real game.

I reckon he’ll get a few more subs this season, a few starts next season and be in the first team the season after that. That’s the route Insua took and El Zhar would probably be starting occasionally now if he hadn’t broken himself.

nicklovesliverpool - February 19th, 2010 at 10:38 am

does anyone agree with me in saying that Babel really was Immense when he came on really showed some fire ripped the wing and delivered a great ball for the Goal. should start against City in my opinion Maxi isnt up to it. and Riera hasnt played well recently.

nicklovesliverpool - February 19th, 2010 at 10:41 am

believe he lifted the game for us last night Babel really was good probably the best i have seen him a long time

Mickeyfinn1983 - February 19th, 2010 at 10:52 am

Aquaman,

I don’t want to risk braking him either so i am going to have to be patient and wait for the guys who know what they are doing say it’s time to throw him in… But, so far this kid is phenomenal…

We’ve got quite a few really good youngsters at the club at the moment… I’ve been really impressed with Insua, Ayala, Pacheco,Kelly, Darby, N’Gog and Nemeth… I’m still not convinced by El Zhar though—> hope to be proved wrong….

Btw, do you know the latest on Bouzanis? A couple of years ago he was tipped to be the next top dog of Goalkeepers but has since gone a bit quiet

Mickeyfinn1983 - February 19th, 2010 at 10:56 am

@nicklovesliverpool,

I can’t comment on Babels performance of yesterday because i didn’t see the whole game, but from what i saw in the highlights, it was a good cross for the goal… But, based on what i have seen since he has been at Liverpool i wouldn’t play him against Man City…. He blows too much hot and cold and one of the things we will be looking to stop Man City doing on Sunday is getting their wing backs involved and unfortunately that’s where Babel fails most times… I would therefor go with Riera

super-fly LFC - February 19th, 2010 at 11:32 am

babel deserves a start UPFRONT instead of ngog, people will probably slate me for this but ngog in my opinion is not good for liverpool football club, he is too weak and too slow and in my opinion just isnt doing it as our main striker behind torres, the odd goal here and there is not enough to warrant a place in the team. as shown yesterday when babel came on he was determined, big, strong, quick, powerful and skillful and you could see that with the crowds excitement and anticipation everytime he got the ball, it was he who delivered the cross of the game to set up the goal. i think he is a great player in need of a run of games as he has shown enough this season what he’s all about, off the top of my head i remember his cross to set up torres winner vs west ham, his bullet strike in the champs league against lyon too name a few. he would scare defenders up top and then either play him as a lone striker in torres abscents or when torres is fit he could be the back-up/partner/winger again.. but while torres is injured he should be the main man up front and then play maxi and riera as i am not a big fan of kuyt either, yes he works hard but he has to have the talent that goes with it, which he just hasnt got, play babel upfront and change the formation to a 4-3-3 which all the top clubs are playing these days, rafa has to move with the times and all the best european (and regreteddly,, top 4 english clubs at the present time) are playing. we have the players for it he just refuses to do it, switch to a 4-3-3 and start picking the best players for the job,, not rafas favourites. i am a supporter of the club and will back the manager when granted but the way we played yesterday was not good and there are problems with the way we play in which rafa will not change,, he is too stubborn for his own good which is unfortunately bringing the club down