Realism or Optimism?

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Well, first of all, I still havent come to terms that THAT Liverpool side could loose to struggling Wigan. Its almost embarassing now.

Hicks & Gillett are to be blamed for our current situation. I support Rafa- but he also deserves blame. But most importantly- the players deserve to be blamed.

H&G may have not given enough funds for players, and probably been the main cause for demoralizing the team on the field because of the situation off the field.

This season Rafa’s tactics havent been up to mark. Instead of attacking teams like we attacked Real, Manu, and Villa in that great week, we are seen playing defensively even at home vs poor opposition. Lets face it- our football is slow paced and boring.

But even still, no matter what tactics we play, or players we have, last nights Liverpool squad should have finished off Wigan. But that wasn’t the case. Our world class players were giving away the ball cheaply, whereas Wigans players predominantly from the Championship showed class. No one in our team could provide a meaning full attack. But Nzogbia was able to take on 3-4 of our players at a time on more then one occasion. Emerson Boyce- their centre back on one occasion (when Torres got a yellow card), got past some 2-3 players from his penalty area, and took it to the Liverpool half! It was rightly said- ‘every single player gave the ball way cheaply in yesterdays game.’

Lets not take anything away from Wigan, they deserved all three points. We got what we deserved. But that game was for us to win. We should have, but with that performance- it wont be fair to the opposition if we got even a point. The players were frustrated. Kuyt shaking his head in dissappointment (for the performance) after he got subsituted summed up everything. On some occasions Kuyt chased down opponents, but when the ball was far from his reach, no one else seem to chase down the opponents.

A few weeks back, when Gerrards performances were below par, people said that he doesn’t have quality players around him other then Torres. But even Gerrard wasn’t great yesterday. He too was frustrated. The time when he couldn’t get the ball into an attacking spot, and just passed it to Lucas and made a sort of gesture to say ‘ you do something, no ones going forward, I cant do anything’ just proved how frustrated he was. Torres falling on the ground after one of his missed chances showed his frustration. Atleast we know that the players are as frustrated as us. But we cant do anything other then cheer louder and louder. The players have to perform on the field. I cant get my head round why they arent. You look at our overall squad- induvidually its actually VERY strong. Why it hasn’t worked out this season beats me.

Anyway, I think I have gone away from the topic I wanted to speak about. I think we should take a long hard look at the table and decide whats going to happen. We can still remain optimistic and say- we will finish in the top 4. Throughout the season I have said it, and have always believed that we will finish in the top 4. But we are reaching the end of the season, we have 9 games left, and I think we are at a point in the season where we should kick-in some realism. Heres how the table will look if Spurs, Mancity, and Villa win their matches in hand:

 4. Man City- 55pts

5. Aston Villa- 54pts

6. Tottenham- 52pts

7. Liverpool- 48pts

That will mean we will not only be out of Champions League contention, but also the embarassment of being out of Europa League contention. Mind you, Birmingham can be 2pts behind us if they win their matches in hand. I think we should prepare our self for a worst case scenario. Not being in UCL is bad enough, but out of Europe??

My biggest concern right now is about our star players- im confident they will not leave. But they have to perform NOW for us to avoid embarassment.

I am a Rafa supporter, and always will be, but I think Rafa is more vulnerable to a sacking now then ever before. Im not sure how many fans will support him if we finsih outside the top 6. Wow, I cant believe ive actually had to say ‘finish outside the top 6’ in context with Liverpool. From last season which was suppose to be THE season, to this.

Something has gone horribily wrong, and someone has to fix it. This could be our worst season in ages. The Europa League is our biggest hope right now. We HAVE to win it.

I don’t think I have to say it, I know the fans still have it in them, but:

STILL keep the faith. We can get through this treacherous storm.

YNWA.

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16 Comments

  1. Sure, you’re so right. I keep asking myself: Why Stevie, Torres, Kuyt & Co. were frustrated and so bad yesterday? why they just can’t play like they used to? There has to be a reason and an explenation.

    I still trust in Rafa. We just have to carry on, we do not have any other choice, do we?

    YNWA

  2. I was somehow hoping that we could win the remaining games after being beaten at home to Reading.But it didn’t happen,9loses is so so bad.What can we actually do now???

  3. I’ve been very back-and-forth on this whole situation this year. Hearing conflicting reports of how much control the owners have on actual players in the transfer market if any, along w/ the horrendous play and line-up decisions.

    There’s a lot of blame to go around this year. Things that have transpired last season are now affecting this season (hence Rafa’s ridiculous Alonso debacle).

    To support someone is fine, but don’t support with blind faith. I just throw my arms in the air now.

    Three years with no silverware and we still trust Rafa? I dunno. No excuse for not winning the league last year. None what-so-ever.

    The sad truth is now City has 2 games in hand and Spurs have 1. CL is theirs to lose. Europa sadly is still up in the air if they don’t win it this year.

  4. sack rafa he could not and will not be able to inspire the team.of course hicks and gillett are to blame for this but remember that this squad (with xabi) almost won the title last year .it is not about xabi all the time it is about rafa who cannot make player perform.aquilani on the bench ,lucas is so much like mascherano,insua is no where near a good left back .plus our attack is not effective with one man upfront .last match gerrard ,torres missed crucial chances .and we play with no style we have lost last years play.can it get any worse????

  5. Once again, the play of Kyrgiakos was one of the few bright spots. He’s turning into a real wall for us back there with fewer mistakes than the rest.

    And why was Masch at right back? That makes no sense to me.

    I thought Aquilani played okay, but didn’t have enough time to get settled into the game. He should be given a chance to find his feet. Rafa says he doesn’t want to play him because the push to win all the remaining games is so important, he can’t waste time letting Aquilani find his feet. The irony is Aquilani was one of the few players that seemed to know where his feet where last night. I think he was the only player not to give the ball away.

    I’m not trying to criticize Rafa, just trying to understand why we don’t try some different things on nights when nothing is working. It was obvious early on that the team, as selected and placed, was getting nowhere, so hwy not shake it up with earlier substitutions?

  6. we can’t blame H&G, fair enough they didn’t provide transfer funds but our team should have and could have beat Wigan, no excuses! transfer window shut in Jan, we had all of Feb and now March with the same bunch of player, World class players like Gerrard, Torres, Masch, Reina, still we can’t beat Wigan who have, let’s be honest now, no WORLD CLASS players!!! yes Xabi left, but for £30mil for a player who had 1 great season and 1 good season that was a good bit of business, Aqulaini is supposed to have so much talent…..then why isn’t he played? Rafa doesn’t need to save any players now, what for? Europa league? is the League cup of European competition realy going to shut us fans up? Rafa is too negative, he playsTWO holding midfielders at home to relegation battlers (not talking about Wigan game)…..what is that all about??? he huffs n puffs when we don’t win, he’s too predictable, he won’t make a sub before 60th min, his post match comments are always “we didn’t play as planned, we look to next game now”
    when will it stop? or will it? i DID like Rafa and defended him endlessly when alot of my friends called for his head but now i ask, has he taken us as far as he can? is it another Houllier situation? having said that, who will replace him? which manager will come to a club whose lack of transfer budget has been so public, which players will want to come to a team where rotation is a must, why would players want to come to a team to sit on the bench?
    it is a tough time as a Liverpool fan, I will always support my club but maybe not the people at the club, i stood in the Kop with thousands of fans singing to Houllier “are you Shankly in disguise” then few seasons later as we found out her wasn’t, i, along with the other thousands who once sang his name, called for his head, i thank Rafa for the Champions League and the F.A Cup but he can’t use that to hold on to his job, us Liverpool fans are very loyal……and a bit silly at times, so if Rafa goes and a new manager comes in and wins us the long awaited league, we will all soon forget about Rafa,its happened when Houliier took over and won us the treble,
    let’s get our head out the clouds, 4th is looking like a failure, do we want the same negative tactics next season and have to moan about Rafa and his team selection week in week out?
    i’m not saying i can do a better job but i am saying lets get realistic and actually think “we do we want to go, we are we going and is Rafa gonna take us there?”

  7. its amazing how people simply say that its all the owners fault, they haven’t given Rafa the funds, but with Rafa spending 20 mill on aquilani and picking Lucas over him, does he have the face to ask the owners for more to waste..surely if he wants more money to invest he has to answer for the money he has already spent i.e. has the players brought in this season strengthened the squad? as much as i want aquilani to succeed, till now he has hardly had a kick of the ball and what frustrates me the most is that he is given 3-4 minutes at the end of each game as if benitez is sticking it to the supporters..i m utterly frustrated and sad that the club i love dearly has come to this..rafa has to go!!!

  8. i still do support Rafa, truly, but i think in the best interest of the club, a change is needed.

    Why isnt their confidence in the squad? they probably tired of the methods and tactics of Rafa. Probably a chnge will improve it. I mean, it doesnt mean that if a new manager comes in, then the players will jump higher or run faster, but i guess it does wonders mentaly.

    But, we still have a europa league to win, we just HAVE to win it, if we fail to do that, then its panic time.

    That probably is Rafa’s last chnce. I dont know. This whole thing has just been so frustrating. I think ive prepared myself for a worst case scenario. But no matter how much i prepare myself, when it actually happens its going to feel a lot worse.

    Im sorry if im being too pessimistic- but i think we shouldnt expect UCL football next season.

  9. my heart is breaking at the state we are in.
    If we dont get forth thats even less money we will have and torres left athletico to win trophys which we look a long way from doing this season could be the start of some very very dark days.
    Now we need to win every single game league and europa.
    At least winning the europa league would be a trophy and may persuade players to stay.
    Its to late for finger pointing we must all stand united get behind the boys and show the world our greatest achievement is not never falling but rising every
    COME ON REDMEN

    WE ARE LIVERPOOL

  10. i think we have got behind the team throughout. But the players just dont seem to turn up. I cant imagine why!

  11. Totally agree we have backed them and we must keep backing them and hopefully we will never witness another farce like monday again

  12. you never know mate. what really worries me is what happens to our stars. And i think next season will be one of our MOST important seasons. because we have to make sure that we become ‘big’ again in terms of the league table. One bad season wont make a team bad. But two bad seasons will be MAJOR panic time. We shouldnt be at a point where we will be facing mid-table mediocricy. But i think we have enough star players and hopefully will have new faces in the summer to prevent a decline suffered by newcastle, leeds etc. They too were a good team. But one bad season started a string of mediocre performances which eventually led them to where they are.

    Still, i dont think we are as bad as them. These are probably knee-jerk reactions to mondays defeat. hopefully our spirits are lifted again vs Lille. And then in the Prem. We just HAVE to HAVE to win the Europa League. then even a bad finish in the table wont looks so bad because we would have one a continental trophy and qualified for the UCL. the club has to get its heads straight next season.

  13. nonsense pure nonsense, we have refused to fire rafa he will throw liverpool in a ditch, in the beginning he blamed it on injuries now he is facing the real thing his ideas are gone and it’s too late

  14. Antoine posted a great article by Tomkins today, which some of you should read regarding Rafa, your all calling for him to go (to be honest i’m past the point of caring about a lot of opinions regarding this due to some moronic comments) but Rafa won the league with Valencia the next season they had a rough ride, the season after they came back won the league and the Europa cup. Now histroy might not repeat itself but I still think we can’t call for him to be sacked just like that.

    If you are going to say this then I would like another manager, who can come in and settle the discontent in the club. Gerrard doesn’t look like he’s behind the manager anymore and thats fair enough, but then if he can’t motivate the team during a game he should leave the armband in the dressing room. Who can come to our club with all the current crap thats going on and get more out of these players than Rafa is? Really tell me as I’d love to know.

    I’m not saying Rafa should be excluded of blame, but like I said I’m past the point of arguing this with people.

  15. i dont tink yuve understood wat i hv said
    i too support Rafa. But yu gotta wonder why the players arent performing. The only thing i cn think of is that they are tired of the methods and tactics, and want a chnge wich rafa is not going to give. Also, they are low on confidence, its the managemnts duty to lift their confidence. It doesnt take a genius to noe that thats been a failure.

    AGain, i still support Rafa, im confident he will lead us to europa league glory and im nt going to take names for possible replacemtns with him still in charge of our club.

  16. I get what you are saying, I just wonder all these people that want Rafa out, all they come back with is Morihino, but all I can say is that he would do great with unlimited fund the same as any manager really. But look at the club and the debt we are in and the lack of funds avaialble, no one should be taking Rafas place.

    Rafas still a decent manager, and yes sometimes I do question his judgement, but then he is the boss, I don’t attend managerial meetings or squad tactics talks so it’s hard to say what he’s asking the players to do and what they are not.

    In reply to your comment Mohammed, when the players spirits drop after 10 mins into a game, whose responsibility is it to pick them up and spur the team on till half time? The captains and as far as I’m concerned Gerrards attitude isn’t great of late and it’s sad to see. Hopefully him and Rafa can work it out and get back to the good old days!

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