Comments on: How on Earth?

By: nof

nof — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:35:26 +0000

1 more thing to talk about,i dont know may be RAFA has some personal grudges against pennat,i belive when he comes as a sub he is always super.i dont know how to get to rafa bt i think he should see this.
pennat being brought as at 65′ and KYut moved to support the removed foward will be a good formular.
i ‘ve watched pennat many times and i belive he is match winner when it comes to late times SUBS.remenber vs intermillan 07/08 round of 16, he was majical

By: nof

nof — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:10:09 +0000

what are we talking about here,offer newcastle 10 million for owen,when the likes of MARTHINS is readilly avilable,he has got strenght and alot of PACE,this guy will be a succes in anfield just if our mannager can give him a thought.
now is our OPPORTUNITY to snatch him,i heard that our messiside rival r making a bid for him. if we make a relatively lesser bid he will snacthed.for now i belive the guy is very hot even at newcastle.
Now if given the chance to play among the likes of GERRARD,TORRES, KYUT and others he will blend smoothly
thanks.

By: Kev

Kev — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:20:30 +0000

Will we ever be happy? If someone said to you that come the early part of December we’d be top of the league, a point ahead of Chelsea, 6 ahead of Utd and 8 ahead of Arsenal you’d have snapped their hand off for it. OK Utd have a game in hand and can close the gap to 3 points, but they’ve gotta win that first and they’re off to Japan soon to be distracted by the world club championship. For too long we’ve been out of a title race by September. In 2005-2006 we ammassed more points from October onwards than any other team and would have won the title comfortably if we hadn’t already been out of the race. This time we’re leading the race and we’ve almost reached the turn of the new year and people are still not happy. Under Rafa, with the exception of 2004/05 we’ve always had a good second half of the season, finishing strongly. Does this not make anyone feel a little optimistic? All this talk of us not even getting top 4 is a bit premature don’t you think? To be honest, I’ve been disappointed with our fans this year. Booing the team off if they’re not picking up 3 points every week, slagging them off saying we’ll be lucky to get 4th. We’re one of the few clubs whose fans can actually make a difference, earn us some results, you’ve only got a look at recent seasons in the champions league. If the title race is tight come may and we’re still in there, we can make the difference. Every game can be like a cup final for us if we get behind the team.

By: glen

glen — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:31:37 +0000

many good points in your article. if we go on like this we could end up in the middle of the table. what is it with liverpool. strikers come and go average shelf life probably 2 years.looks as thogh keane could go if he cant score. some who have left have very good strikers skills and could help us now. what is it with high priced players who under perform week week out. there are just a few who give 100 per cent week in week out.. the premier league has gone very defensive thats a new reality. every one wants to play for a draw.so you need exceptional skills and pace to get goals compared to say 2 years ago. last year second half we played much beeter than this year. we dont deserve to be top.most games have been won by a 1-0 score. worse some goals were very lucky goals in way or another. perhaps it time rafa acts like cappelo.

By: Ian Cade

Ian Cade — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:23:37 +0000

We do seem to lack the killer instinct that (spit)man u and chelsea have , the bottom teams no they are going to been shown no mercy when they go there, but at Anfield they feel they have a chance., The “This is Anfield” sign needs to spread the fear that it used to, throughout the other teams and the pride it did in our own players,. On a slightly brighter note Dossena had a better game, could be the opposition, could be a turning point for him, God please make it the second. Anyway we are top lets hope we can stay there.

By: steve j

steve j — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:50:07 +0000

Four years on the football is worse than when Houllier was in charge.

By: David Wright

David Wright — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:42:55 +0000

Another inept performance from the Reds, I have to agree Robbie Keane does not look like finding the target enough.Also feel Benayoun should have scored,have to agree on this woeful performance we will struggle to stay in the top four never mind challenge for the title

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:38:24 +0000

I should really read the whole article before posting shouldnt i?!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone keeps banging on about Torres, and rightly so, hes world class, but the simple fact is we cant rely on him all the time to score the goals, others need to chip in aswell. N’gog looks a shambles. I go back to what happened 4 or 5 years ago now, Owen keeps being linked with a move back to Anfield but Rafa should never have let him go in the first place.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:30:01 +0000

Nick, your only half right. We only need 1 or 2 players in January. We are 1st afterall. As ive already said Ashley Young would be perfect.
And we did score a goal against Stoke, in the third minute, it was just wrongly disallowed. If that would have stood it would have been a completely different game.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:21:40 +0000

Signing Robbie Keane was not a mistake hes a class player and he always has a slow start to the season, i admit if he doesnt start scoring very soon people will start asking questions. The problem i think is now that Pennant has screwed up his chance with a big club we have no right winger, Kuyt is not a winger, i know hes played alright out there but we need a out and out winger. I say try to buy Ashley Young in january, hes world class and only gonna keep improving, i think him coupled with Riera on the left will be a winning combo. Until then why hasnt Rafa ever played Babel on the right? He is right footed afterall.

By: David 73

David 73 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:22:48 +0000

It did not help when my Setanta signal broke up but clearly we appear complacent against nonentity teams and so we pass the ball around, expecting the vistors to make the first mistake. Both Radio 5 and the local stations told it as they saw it, lack of ideas and strange team selection. Why did Agger, Mascherano and Babbel not start?
Are we now a two-man team? God help us if ever Stevie G gets injured!

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:17:55 +0000

Nick.
My issue with Benitez is his timing of his subs , In all honesty i am also fed up with constantly changing his formation , after finding a formula that works albeit only one up front Rafa seems to worry more about the opposition than letting them worry about us..But that aside his subs and timing i find baffling.Take last night for me both Benayoun and Reira were the two most ineffective players on show .Yet rafa left until nearly 78 mins before changing one of them. Granted Benayoun got a little better second half but that just paints over the cracks.As an example if that was Mourinho’s team last night he would of dragged both off at half time and changed it round.
Rafa at times seems devoid of ideas when plan A is not working. Again the Fulham game was the same, The worst player on the park was Lucas yet Benitez decided Mascherano should be brought off. To be honest right now although we are top of the league i dont think we will be there long the way we are going. I actually think the Man utd game apart we have been less than average at Anfield this season. And the most frustrating thing for me and those that sit around me on the Kop is that certain players like Kuyt when playing badly seem immune from being dragged off yet players like Babel and even Pennant cant get a game for love nor money. At least the two players mentioned can go past people and get you off your seat, last night we had no-one capable of taking on a defender let alone getting to the byline and whiiping in a cross. I mean what is the point in giving Babel 12mins to turn the game.
All those players would be sat in the dressing room after the game thinking we have blown it again .But Rafa should also be thinking IVE BLOWN IT AGAIN. But to end on a bright note i actually thought one of the best palyers last night was Dossena.

By: Kev

Kev — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:28:05 +0000

Unfortunately, you can’t win the league these days with just solid foundations alone. During Houllier’s glory years, we were arguably the best team in the league defensively, but it never really got us anywhere near to the title. I think the same things are happening now. We rarely concede goals and we’ve lost fewer games than anyone, but our goals scored figure is crap compared to the other big four. It’s all about winning these days and accumulating as many wins as possible. In our own glory years of the 70’s and 80’s we didn’t win every week and we often lost a few games, but back then it wasn’t about being perfect, it was about being consistent and getting more points than anyone else. A good run in the latter part of the season could often earn a championship if you were within touching distance, but now you’ve got be there or there abouts all season. These days, would we be able to win the league being 12th on boxing like we did in 1981-82? No chance. However, we are still top and we’ve got Torres to look forward to when he’s fit and the prospect of another much needed striker in January, with some reports suggesting Owen may be on the cards. I wasn’t a fan of Crouchie, but I think he’d have given us much more than Robbie Keane has, and also gives us another option if plan A aint working. Keep the faith.

By: keith

keith — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:46:55 +0000

Nick,
Unfortunately I am starting to subscribe to your views. My only throttle the cling to is that we are top for once. I think that signing robbie keane was a mistake despite his past.

By: Lyon

Lyon — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:09:01 +0000

The problem is that tactics weigh too heavily on players minds. They need freedom to express yet always seem concerned with defensive duties first, attacking 2nd, which clearly explains why we havent scored nearly as many goals as our rivals. Well, that combined with Torres getting injured everytime Spain borrow him