Drama at the Brittania

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This is what Rafa said to the press after the game against Stoke City. ‘I’m really pleased with the performance against a difficult team. In a tough game we did almost everything to win.’ Was he serious?

When Liverpool plays with Carra, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos and Insua as back four, Degen, Mascherano, Lucas and Aurelio in midfield (both Degen and Aurelio provided more cover for our fullbacks than proposed themselves in attack), and Kuyt and Ngog up front, you are telling the opposing team. ‘Okay, we’ve come here to contain your game, especially your set pieces, now attack us and we will attempt to counter-attack you.’

For a team that had around 40% of the ball, no corners to it’s favour, and only two shots on target, one being the goal and the other an upright strike I would be embarrassed to say that ‘we almost did everything to win!’ Were we watching the same game Rafa?

It seems to me that we tend to preserve players for the next game and never go on the pitch to win the game in hand. What’s the point?

Today we had absolutely NO PLAYER capable of creating play or an attacking opportunity. Our passing was pitiful at times and we rarely made it forward of their penalty area, were all our forward moves broke up.

Rafa said this week ‘we are not playing well’, what did he expect to achieve fielding a side without creative quality as he did today?

The goal on the 57th minute probably changed Rafa’s substitution plans, which usually come around the 60th to 65th minute. Kuyt and Ngog were totally ineffective today. We had Pacheco on the bench, what great risk would it have been to give him a run and harass Huth and Shawcross. Why not move Kuyt out right and bring Aquilani on to replace Lucas who was running a yellow?

Thankfully Hull City (or better still shotstopper Myhill) resisted the Spurs siege keeping us within touching distance, and cousins Everton literally outplayed (I saw the game!) Man City bringing us one point closer to them. So two of four direct competitors for the 4th CL spot did worse than we did the other two, Birmingham (game postponed) and Villa (play tomorrow) were not in action.

Wednesday’s game with Spurs at Anfield is another vital encounter. We might all pray to the Gods for us to have our fair share of luck, but Rafa must stop challenging their patience by fielding a team that can really go for the win.

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36 Comments

  1. I dont get the point of your whole post (I didnt get past the first paragraph anyway) – The team out there today was just about all the players we have available right now, bar Babel. Its not like Gerrard Torres and Benni were on the bench?

  2. Also Lucas was probably our best player, maybe a little harsh on the big Greek there, but Lucas had a good game.

  3. Tonio,

    compare it to an oil tanker and not a speedboat.

    It is going to take some time to turn it around.

    I personally think that that the game plan today was perfect given Rafa’s limited resources available.

    Remember that Aquilani was way tired having played into Extra Time on Wednesday.

    I expect more games like this in the upcoming weeks.

    All we can do is hope that luck is our side.

    -Antoine

  4. I felt our best player was Reina to be honest. Kyrgiakos did his duty and more. Lucas (as I always say) ran his socks off. I have a right to opinion, and that was mine. But the whole point on my post was Rafa’s statement saying ‘we did almost everything to win’, and as usual, being said by Rafa, I get no comments on that!

  5. We did do everything we could to win – we played with 2 strikers away from home and we only played full-backs as wide midfielders because we had to!

    The arrogance to think you know more about the dynamics of football management than one of the best in the business..the mind truly boggles

  6. Not being funny, but youre right about one thing – you are entitled to your opinion – however wrong it may be!!!

  7. Well, it remains my opinion and I won’t change it because you say so friend. Before our game Stoke were the second team to score the least number of goals in the Premier League. So since I am boggling your mind, do you suggest we field the same eleven against Spurs? Because just in case you didn’t know, they’ve already netted 42! Maxi was rested, Reira must have been fit if he was on the bench! Pacheco?

  8. I agree with you tonio, and Rafas goatee we have more players than that in our squad,no point commenting if you dont read the full article.Tonio i am always amazed when rafa says he is pleased the way we played, it worries me because what i saw was very very poor. The team selection had everyone baffled. Why so defensive against a poor stoke city side. Attack is the best form of defense as we saw in the last 15min s which was mainly played in our half. To say aqualni is tired is ridicoulous he is a pro player that is what he is trained to do. when we won the treble in 2001 hypia played 63 games you did not see him moaning and im sure if aqualni had been given the chance he would have jumped at it.

    Rafa too cautious again, when is he going to take a risk? Before its too late probably. Like you said no point saving for next game if you cant win game at hand.

    And goatee i think your head is up where the sun dont shine.
    open your eyes, if your happy with todays performance then your happy with a 2nd rate Liverpool side!

  9. I dont pretend to know what state of fitness any of our players are in mate – but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say I trust a manager whos won many titles to make the call.

    So all this moaning is about 3 players – Riera, Maxi and Pacheco

    Riera is coming back from injury, Maxi hasnt even unpacked his suitcase yet, and Pacheco against that bunch of thugs?

  10. Rafas goatee maybe you should read the Shankly quote top of page, the whole prem is laughing at us, everyone reckons they can have a pop. You think rafa has built or will build a side that everyone fears like they used to???

    Well i wish he get a move on and grow some!

  11. Omg to sum it up, 3 months=6 wins.
    and all we can hear from rafa is “it was bad day” “we gave our best” “next time we will improve” and like that in circles for 3 months and where we are now—>7th o yeah.
    compare these same players with players from past season, they dont give even 50% on pitch in compare with last year.
    they dont have idea what they are even doing on pitch “am i here to play golf?”
    and rafa also dont know what to do,i bet that players dont even listen to him anymore in dressing room or just pretend to do so,cuz he lost control and thats fact.
    When i saw article where you compare rafa with fergie,how the hell you can compare him with fergie who before that “bad season” won like 15 tittles?
    you could compare them if rafa won like 5 before this season,but he won nothing.
    its time for him to leave and he can take half of his “reinforcements” with him.

  12. Rafas_goatee as a nick says it all! :-) No of course we don’t know the players fitness. Our reserve side is top of it’s league and the best players there can play for the first team. I would have started with Maxi, Riera and Aquilani, then changed with the course of the game. We went in too defensive and quite rightly gave Stoke the chance to have a go at us. Why Pacheco, because those thugs can only be beaten with speed! You have not convinced me that I’m wrong mate! You got to come up with stronger arguments!

  13. Kyrgiakos had a v good game today. That team today minus Mascherano could well be the future of our Great club, so don’t knock it..

  14. Antoine did not see your point to Kennedy there habib! We are just not taking risks. We are being too conservative, too defensive and too mindful of upcoming games, loosing points and being eliminated from competitions in the process. Don’t you feel these are the facts?

  15. We have Torres, Gerrard and Benayoun out and go to defend a game at Stoke! Chelsea have Drogba, Essien, Kalou and Mikel in Africa and rout Sunderland 7-2. The difference is not only in the strenght of the squad, it is also in the mentality. Today we only made ONE decent forward movement, and that was in the last of the 5 added minutes when we combined with Aquilani, Aurelio and Kuyt and hit the upright. In three passes we had half a pitch and risked taking all three points.

  16. And Chelsea’s win gives me comfort, because I am suffering so badly seeing the Reds in such a sorry state, but it would kill me to see Man Utd win the Premier League again!

  17. Antoine i know footy aint the same, its all money now but todays performance was grim and rafas team selection was not the besthe could have gone with. Injuries asisde we should be able to cope with teams like stoke and reading.

    I struggle to take many positives from the game i saw today, i know you do and thats fine. But what i saw made me so depressed i didnt think i was watching Liverpool, i was watching a team that would struggle in coca cola champ.

    I think too many excuses are made for Rafa, and its come to a point now when i cant accept that his negative and cautionary tactics are not to blame.

    Sad to say but im not looking forward to wednesday, unless rafa takes a risk and plays a more attacking game we could be in trouble.

    I have not lost faith in Liverpool but i am losing patience with Rafas continous dodgy decisions.

    The clock is running down and we are a long way behind.

  18. spot on tonio, if we cant handle team like stoke without Torres and Gerrard then its just lame.
    players didnt gave 100% in any game this season
    when they get near the goal they became scared to do anything else and then just passing ball around till they lose it.
    at the end we have 1 shoot on goal and every game like that. just lame.

    with players we have now,we could be in top 4 easy,but they lack of bravery and confidence from last season,they dont even bother to get at first look “lost ball” like they did last year,they dont even attack till last second, they’ve lost passion, they gave up and thats whole point.

    they’ve got their wings cut early and they just gave up whole season,and now just sink deeper and deeper…

  19. Antoine, we should not be in this situation, and that is the whole point behind my criticism. The signs were early enough and against a solid pre-season last term, we showed our inconsistency from the first game! This situation has been persisting since late July so I feel we’ve alredy had 6 months to turn the ship around, but we haven’t. The point is, are we really trying, or are we so immersed in fear of our opponents that we’ve become a beatable teams in everyone’s eyes, even teams like lowly Reading!

  20. Before I begin here’s some facts ;)

    Well, first and foremost,I would like to ask if we would agree that LUCK wasn’t on our side today,
    It has been very very very terrible going through this storm..
    but I’m gonna walk on, like all of us should!

    Hey how many of you think Degen was OK, last night?

    I hope Rafa’s gives his tactical best against spurs, we need to stop niko and modric from terrorizing us, and we need to get some goals!!

    The best formation to go with seems like

    ——–Reina——

    Degen—- Carra—- Greek-man/Agger—- Aurelio

    Maxi—- Lucas—- Masche—- Riera

    — Aquaman–
    — Kuyt —

  21. AhmadN. We cannot right our story on luck. We should not concede a penalty at the 90th minute (Reading) and we should not be conceeding a goal from a set piece at the 89th (Stoke).
    I will not make any comments on the squad to face Spurs until I have an idea who’s fit to play or not. It should be more or less the same players that were available today, but as I always say it is always impossible to predict who Rafa will send out on the field. I just hope he has a positive attidude for this game and that we give Spurs a good run for their money.

  22. To everyone saying we should have started with Aqui, the lad hsnt played much footy in the last 3 years…hes spent most of last year out, and after playing 120 mins you midweek you want him to start on a saturday lunchtime????

    Yous clearly dont know what the fuck youre talking about!!!!

  23. And for the record, Im far from happy with the performances, we’ve been shite most of the season and cant seem to string more than 2 passes together – and its fair to bash the players/Rafa for that – apart from todays game where Rafas hand was forced, and he played the team he had to due to injuries.

    Starting Maxi would have been a massive gamble, hasnt played much this season for Atleti, and would have been a big ask

  24. FFS Tonio, how did we go in too defensive? Can you please explain?

    Is it because we didnt start a teenager against the most physical side in the league? Is it because we started with 2 strikers? Is it because we controlled the posession with Gerrard, Johnson, Agger, Torres and Benayoun out injured?

    Please tell me, Im dying to hear your “expert” analysis

  25. The fact is, the OP is basing his entire argument on Rafas selection for this game – when anyone who knows anything about the game could see he didnt have much choice today – and we actually controlled the game!! We were unlucky to concede like we did, but you wipe your face and move on, not sit here and moan because we didnt start Pacheco or Aquilani – this isnt Football Manager 2010!! LOL!!!

  26. Possession
    Stoke 49% Liverpool 51%
    Attempts on target Stoke 5 Liverpool 3
    Attempts off target Stoke 1 Liverpool 0
    Corners Stoke 10 Liverpool 0
    Fouls Stoke 14 Liverpool 10

    Hardly what i call either controlling the possession, and we had less shots on target, off target and conceded 10 corners…. Not attacking football at all.

    However can I just say y r u arguin, its Tonios oppinion, we all support liverpool here, so we need to stick together as fans. Am i right…… YNWA

  27. I don’t get it.. You say Kuyt does hardly anything on the right, and this game Rafa puts him up front alongside Ngog and you say he should be put back to the right? Furthermore this is Maxi’s FIRST PREMIER LEAGUE game, to put him in the starting XI would be a bit risky no? And of course, as a professional footballer Aquilani is supposed to be match fit for every single game he is called up to play in the starting line up but come on, the guy has started fewer than five matches this season and he played extra time against spurs, again it would’ve been risky to start him and risk tiring him out, especially since we have Spurs on wednesday!

  28. Come on guys, give Rafa a break. I dont see any manager can do a better thing than Rafa if there’s no transfer kitty available. (Not even “The Special One” which said he will only come to manage REDS if he have money to spend). I dont see a better squad than today which can be equal to Stoke’s physical play(without Gerrard, Nando, & Benayoun). 4 fullbacks means that they can overlap each other and keep Stoke guessing(except for Carra which is little rusty in that play, but he’s only Johnson’s deputy). Of course Rafa did a very terrible mistake early in the season by not giving enough playing time for Aquilani. Maybe he learned his lesson now(I think coz he plays Maxi in Brittania).

    The players are doing their best & Rafa is too(esp. when the confidence is damn low). We as the supporters need to give our best too and try not to criticize others.Remember we’re the 12th men in the squad.

    Y..N..W..A

  29. Okay guys discussion closed. Guess me and Rafas_goatee see it from a different perspective. What I did realise from these comments however is that many of the people that intervened agree with my position. Yes, we are all Reds through and through but at times one cannot deny the inevitable. Let’s see what happens wednesday!

  30. We controlled the possession because we bossed the midfield – I dont need to turn to the stats because I watched the game, and Stoke offered zero from open play. Nothing.

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