If you have anything to say on any subject...
Right now all the Kopites want is a KFC
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Rafa Benitez Defends His Liverpool Tenure
Spaniard believes he is not to blame for Reds downfall...
Inter Milan boss Rafa Benitez has defended his stint as Liverpool manager.
The former Reds Boss guided the club to seventh in the Premiership last season, which is perceived by many fans as a disappointing finish, missing out on a valuable Champions League place that led to him leaving in the summer.
But Liverpool’s struggles have continued under new manager Roy Hodgson. A shocking exit to Northampton on penalties in the Carling Cup was compounded further this week by a disappointing draw to FC Utrecht in the Europa League and a 2-1 defeat at home to Blackpool on Sunday, which leaves the club in the relegation zone.
Benitez, who the led the Reds to Champions League glory in 2005 told Irish newspaper Sunday Independent:
"I was very clear that when I left we had a better squad than we had in the past, and a better team.
"We knew we had to bring in better players.
"We left a good team, a very good team. A lot of people are talking about the legacy but the legacy is fantastic.
"When I left the club, [Javier]Mascherano, [Yossi] Benayoun and [Albert] Riera were there, along with Carra [Jamie Carragher], [Steven] Gerrard, [Jay] Spearing, [Stephen] Darby, [Emiliano] Insua, [Diego]Cavalieri and [Jonjo] Shelvey.
"They cannot talk about legacy when [Christian] Purslow [managing director] and Hodgson signed seven players. They have already changed the squad."
The Spaniard admits though, that he did make mistakes while he was in charge of the club, but has hinted that it was due to non-related football matters, which took its toll on him.
"It was a long time, it wasn't just one thing.
"The feeling was that something was wrong, we couldn't do what we wanted to do.
"We were preparing the signings and the sales but we could see that we have some targets and we didn't do it." -
`For The Love Of God, Bring Back Rafa`
Woy Must Go...
Must go, simple as, out of his depth, playing players out of position, tactically naive and likely would not be able to even motivate Roy Keane if he ever managed him. Worst Premier League start ever, says it all really.
Ash, London
...F*** off, Roy Hodgson, you haven't a clue. 15 minutes of excellent play is all you can manage against Blackpool at home when we HAD to win?
Call me back when this club gives a sh**.
F*** off, Roy Hodgson.
Scott, L(eeds??)FC Toronto
...So Liverpool are beaten yet again by a team they would expect to beat. There is a transitional grace period for managers, granted, and then there is being completely out of your depth and clueless. Hodgson is working with good players and this result is completely unacceptable. But then again Roy is English and a nice chap so that's okay isn't it. So long Torres in January. Hello relegation battle or, hopefully, mid-table.
Dave (Get Kenny in as soon as!) H. LFC.
Woy Must Stay
I realise after seeing Liverpool's scoreline vs Blackpool that there's going to be a plethora of "Hodgson out" sort of rants going on. Now, I don't necessarily think that's Hodgson's God's gift to management, I don't even agree with some of his team selections, but I still think it'll be a massive mistake to sack him now. The whole situation reeks of Newcastle 2008/2009Surely You Wanted Woy...
Do Liverpool fans suffer from some kind of collective bipolar disorder? Not so long ago they were pretty upbeat about what Woy might do with them this season, now they're queueing up outside the barn for use of the rope. We've got a few of them in the office here and I'm a little surprised they've all made it in today.
If they beat Everton they'll be bouncing off the ceiling again but if they lose I really will get concerned, especially when they'll have had two whole weeks of stewing about being in the relegation zone.
Richard PikeHodgson Has No Balls
at the moment and I believe sacking the manager would just intensify the dire situation at Anfield. Hodgson's not a bad manager, and the squad themselves are not a BAD bunch of players. Ok, they're not world beaters, but they should be able to assemble a good solid 11. My gripe however, is the constant moaning of anyone associated with Liverpool, be it players, management team or fans at the financial situation at the club. It's come to the point that everyone's using it as an excuse, and that's just not right.
What is really getting to me is that we were a top-four team that now plays like a mid table 'Fat Sam hoof it long to the big fella up forward and break legs in middle with talentless Poulsen' Bolton of days gone by. What is more concerning is that Uncle Roy clearly has no balls.
No balls to attack and really take the opposition on at home, no balls to drop Carra when it is so damn painful watching him play so poorly and get beaten for pace week after week, and no balls to play youngsters and give them a crack when senior players are clearly not stepping up.
Everyone who supports Liverpool can see Carra is out of his depth and Johnson is NOT a right full-back. Heck everyone in England knows this.
Get Martin Kelly the U21 right-back who can actually defend in there, let Johnson go right mid and attack all day, switch Kuyt to the left wing, Konchesky in and the always-fit Fabio Aureilo (haha) to fight it out for left back, even the boy Wilson can do a job there.
Theres no time or room for sentiment at Anfield any more..this is a crisis. Drop Carra, dont let Poulsen anywhere near the first XI, I would even be tempted to give Jay Spearing a go in centre midfield with Stevie. At least he is a local lad who might actually give a toss about the fortunes of the side.
To see Blackpool players keeping possession so easily in the last ten minutes of the game in their attacking half, with Liverpool players just watching on with not a care in the world is actually one of the worst moments I have experienced as a Liverpool fan. It symbolised just how much of a slide we have taken in the past 2-3 years and it is painful to watch
Matt (At least it's Chelseas year and not United's) LFC, Melbourne
In this situation the most important thing to do would be to evaluate what's going wrong ON THE FIELD (more or less everything) and work on improving yourselves. What's happening off the pitch really means nothing as opposed to what's happening on it, as long as they're all getting paid why should the financial uncertainty be a distraction? The players should concentrate on playing, coaches coaching, ground staff... mowing. That's the only way to turn around your fortunes. Yes, the uncertain financial side is a problem in the long run, but it should be a bridge to cross when you come to it, it is NOT an excuse for poor play. I'm an avid Liverpool fan, but I am fearing the worse, and moaning about the Yanks really isn't going to help...
Lewys Ball
The Kneejerking Begins
This is a typical knee-jerk reaction, so lets that get straight right from the begining.
Let us blame Roy for his clueless idea of what the best Liverpool team should be. The best team should always be one which has balance, so often stressed by his predesossor, often ahead of its best players. Meaning that, Joe Cole, Merieles et all should always not be chosen. Liverpool looked clueless in the first half, and that was not due to the players.. its rather due to them playing in unfamiliar roles not being able to string two passes together. Raul on the right? It was plain to see that our best moments in the game came when Kuyt shifted out wide and together in tandem with Johnson caused some degree of panic.
Let us blame the media for over-hyping Joe Cole. I was excited that we got him, knowing he was a 'good' addition. And then when the commentators go on about him and Gerrard being the only 2 players who can actually do something, you know we're in trouble. Not once did he try to go past a marker which begs me to ask what his role is? He does not try to go past a man, or run the show and not going for VdV now seems a terrible idea.
Finally, enough about the Anfield crowd. They have suffered well over 1 and half years of absolute rubbish and deserve to be impatient, nervous and quiet. Give us hope and belief like that of Istanbul and we will be behind you.
Oh, is any of this Rafa's fault? A man, whose team though always did not win, at least had more possession than that of his opponents.. opponents like BLACKPOOL at Home.
Siddharth V, LFC, India
Rather Than Crying...
I'm a Liverpool fan and I'm laughing, What else can you do? It's times like, you just hve to.
Rafa and 7th place doesn't seem so bad now does it? Granted I have just finished reading an interview with him in todays Sunday Independent, but the man comes across so well in it.
There a lot that went on in that club that we wont know the half of. Delusional fans couldnt wait to get rid of the man last year, after all he did. He admits in the interview he made mistakes , made ppor signings, talks about the Alonso saga, the Barry transfer. It's really worth a read.
The love he has for the city and the club is still so strong, he still has his house there and talks about coming back. For the love of God bring him back tomorrow. I'll do it myself if means be.
This might seem like a knee jerk reaction to a shocking result and a favouable rafa interview but I for one never wanted Rafa gone and I sure didn want Roy replacing him . Being part of the top 4 for so long was an incredible achievement, winning the league would have been a miracle. You don't know how lucky you are until the thing you have is gone. We were so lucky with Rafa.
Liverpool wont be in Europe next year , they might not even finish in the top ten. We dont need messiahs, so dont bring back Kenny. Liverpool is not Newcastle. It will be years before we play Champions League again. Things are bad, they are going to get worse.
All you can do is laugh.
Mark(looking forward to wednesday )
...Dear The 'Sack Rafa' Brigade,
Happy now? More than happy to get rid of a manager who brought us 2 European Cup finals in 3 years (winning one), an FA Cup victory and the highest points scoring tally of a Premier League runner up? After one poor season beset with misfortune and injury? How sore are your jerking knees today?
Roy's a nice bloke and I genuinely want him to do well but can anyone say that Rafa should not have been given the chance to redeem last season's anomaly?
James Outram
Happy They Lost
As a Liverpool fan, I may get kicked for saying this but I'm glad that Liverpool lost. There are simply no more excuses that could possibly be churned out. Away defeats to Manchester City and Manchester United? Perfectly excusable because they are quality teams. A loss to Northampton at Anfield? That was okay because it's the league cup anyway. Draws with Birmingham, Sunderland and Utrecht? It's fine because those were tricky games. Being outplayed and outfought by Blackpool at Anfield in a league game which they really needed to win? It's a tight slap across the face to remind us of the reality and extent of Liverpool's dreadfulness.
It is about time that we stopped relying on Gerrard, Torres, sloppy finishing from the opponents and our illustrious history to fuel the delusion that Liverpool are still one of the top dogs in England. No team in the world has a divine right to win a game just because they are playing at home, even if it's Anfield. There's no use for a 12th man when the 11 on the pitch look completely out of sorts.
I hope this result will wake the players up. The manner of the defeat was absolutely disgraceful and I hope this will be the huge kick up the arse which Liverpool desperately need.They need to realize that the shirt does not make the man, the man makes the shirt.
You'll Never Walk Alone,
Dominic Neo, LFC, Singapore
Notice
I was just wondering if the defenders of Roy Hodgson could at this point specify how much more time Roy Hodgson must be allowed before we judge him, so that I may mark it in my calendar and send in a full appraisal of his inevitably doomed tenure at Liverpool Football Club.
Kind Regards,
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva, Switzerland
No Lessons Learned
So the Scousers now want Kenny. When should the next round of the Annual Merseyside Making-a-silk-purse-out-of-a-sow's-ear Competition take place?
Jonathan, Manchester
Blackpool Staying Up
Blackpool haven't done too well against the teams at the top but as long as they can beat the teams around them they've a good chance of staying up.
Clicker, Isle of Mancunia
Liverpool Staying Up
To my fellow Pool fans out there,
No need to go Chicken Little on every one just yet.
It's barely into October and we're already 6 points to the good!
We just need to squeeze out 34 more from another 31 games.
Very do-able.
All is not lost... so chins up!
Gabriel (Combining eternal optimism with low expectations since the age of Souness), Singapore
...Can I be the first this season to say that Liverpool are too good to go down.
Laugh, I almost bought a drink.
Terry
Ah, It's The Media's Fault
I've sent a similar email 3 times this season and as yet none have been published but I'll continue to do so as at worst I find it therapeutic after yet another appalling Liverpool display/result.
Does anyone really believe that Liverpool are now better off with Roy Hodgson than they would've been with Rafa Benitez?
Finishing in 7th place (having finished 2nd the year before and averaged 3rd over his tenure) despite your two best players being either injured or out of form for almost an entire season seems pretty good now doesn't it?
Hodgson was brought in to 'steady the ship' well I guess ships do tend to be pretty steady when they are at the bottom of the sea.
When a Liverpool fan contacted our Chelsea season ticket holding Chairman Martin Broughton to express his disapproval at the sacking of Rafa Benitez and the appointment of Roy Hodgson he received this response.
"I'm sorry you think like that but you are entitled to your opinion. I note your opinion doesn't seem to be shared by the media."
Benitez may have taken the club as far as he could but under Uncle Woy there have been absolutely no positive signs at all this season - we have been outplayed in every single game and are now in the relegation zone. A potentially rectifiable one season slip is now a terminal decline.
So a big thank you to all those members of the press and the pundits (including many ex-players) who successfully hounded a good manager out of his job on the grounds that he wasn't English, he didn't treat them with the deference they feel they deserve and he didn't suck up to Sir Alex and his Northern mafia - you can now take your share of the blame for killing my club alongside our glorious American owners.
Lindsay Bell
The Waiter
Thats what happens when you get used to drinking wine on a shoe-string budget and decide to sack the waiter.
Tyla (3rd best defence in England to this f**k mess) Roxburgh, Liverpool
Flopalopa
So, looks like Liverflop really are in the mess.
Oh well, you can always rely on Fernan....oh.
Joeflop Coflop?
Milanoflop Jovanoflop?
So funny to watch and yes, I really could go on.
KingShabba -
LIVERPOOL fans are used to gorging themselves at Europe's top table - but right now all they want is a KFC.
When the booming chant of 'Dalglish' went around Anfield last Sunday, it was the harshest message to boss Roy Hodgson of what they really want to see.
Namely, Kenny For Christmas - or Kenny's Football Club.
Defeat in the Goodison derby on Sunday week and that may not be the pie in the sky it would have appeared just a month ago.
It has not gone unnoticed on The Kop that, exactly a year ago yesterday, the Reds went to Chelsea knowing a victory would send them top of the Premier League.
By the time they resume action after the international break, against Everton of all teams, they could quite easily be bottom.
It has been a slide of seismic proportions, the club's worst start to a top-flight season since the relegation campaign of 1953-54.
While no one is considering the prospect of their going down, the heady days of Champions League triumph in Istanbul seem light years ago, never mind just five.
Of course, it is unthinkable that losing to their bitter local rivals would spell the sack for Hodgson, just three months after taking charge.
But it would certainly leave him with a mountain to climb to get back in favour with the supporters, who were split on his appointment in the first place.
And love them or loathe them, there is no disguising the fact that few fans hold as much influence with their club as Reds followers.
How ironic that a month ago Hodgson insisted his Liverpool should not be judged until at least 10 league games in.
Following Sunday's embarrassing 2-1 Anfield defeat by Blackpool, he could have lost what little terrace goodwill remains after only eight.
The simple fact a Liverpool manager's future is even open for debate so soon into his reign says everything about the impact Hodgson has made.
Playing Raul Meireles out of position on the right, Joe Cole similarly so on the left, failing to bring in adequate back-up to Fernando Torres... . the cons are fast beginning to outweigh the pros for many Kopites.
A lack of passion, fight and direction on the field is inexcusable. Yet not as much so as the lack of passion, fight and direction they appear to be getting from the dugout.
And all the while, the spectre of King Kenny - looking down from the directors' box - hovers over Hodgson like the Sword of Damocles.
Dalglish has never made any secret of the fact he will do anything to help out the club where he is such a legend.
For many, that help is already needed and bookies have slashed the price on him being Kop boss at some stage this season to just 100-30.
Yes, Hodgson, as he has told all and sundry, does have 35 years of European experience under his belt.
But experience at an institution as massive and demanding as Liverpool? Barring the odd year here and there, nowhere near.
Blackpool boss Ian Holloway meant it as a self-deprecating quip when he spoke of the Reds fan behind the dugout bellowing 'Come on, this lot aren't Real Madrid' as they toiled against the Tangerines. Yet that in itself said everything about how poor Liverpool are right now.
Barring the biggest turnaround in Premier League history, the only way they will be facing the Galacticos in the foreseeable future is on the Xbox.
Holloway feels those above Hodgson should carry the can for Liverpool's current plight.
He said: "Roy is a fantastic manager. He has been for years and he is now.
"The club has to sort itself out above him to give him any sort of chance. You have to direct the club in the right way and, until that takes place, it'll be really tough.
"Maybe he relies on Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard too much and maybe some of the other people who have been brought in haven't been up to it.
"But you certainly need stability above you."
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He come, he do badly, they oso lan lan
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Lol at the want rafa back
