If Rafa’s players are so bad, why does Roy keep playing them?

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I am sick and tired of hearing by a minority few who are either Mancs, bitters or simply have no clue about football, “Rafa left Roy a Sh**ty team” they claim. It has been a piece of brilliant fact twisting by Roy who has been able to convince the media and the minority few that it is so.

Rafa Benitez left Roy Hodgson a world class first team (with many Internationals who represented their respective countries in the World Cup) that needed some depth, a team that could have won the Premier League. I keep hearing this excuse to “give Roy time to build his own team”, enough is enough, if Rafa’s players were so bad why does Roy keep playing them and even praising them. So Roy could have played the following team yesterday and would have only had to deal with 3 Rafa players, what do you think the outcome would have been?

A starting lineup with 3 Rafa players (for the Rafa haters)

Brad Jones, Glen Johnson, *Danny Wilson, Paul Konchesky, Fabio Aurelio, Christian Poulsen, Raul Meireles, *Milan Jovanovic, Joe Cole, David Ngog, Fernando Torres

(Wilson & Jovanovic signings were initiated by Rafa however Roy could have stopped them. Aurelio was released by Rafa and Roy brought him back. Yes Konchesky would have had to play in the middle, he was a Fulham player for crying out loud, I am sure that he could handle that.)

His two “Jewel Signings” Joe Cole and Christian Poulsen were sitting on the bench yesterday and we can blame Rafa for this. Lucas Leiva and Dirk Kuyt have been performing better than Joe & Christian. Roy knows it, the players know it and 99% cent of Liverpool fans know it.

So we are Liverpool, we should support our manager and players right? Well, yes but who is supporting the traveling Kop who spend their hard earned money (in these tough economic times) to see performances like yesterday’s?  Time to move on, Rafa is gone (and is not coming back) and Roy should be gone now. Before we sign any new players we must sign a new manager, transfer window is only 19 days away. We need to act fast as at this rate we will be lucky if we even get Europa League next season.

Oh yes call me Scroogey for calling for Roy’s firing right before Christmas, would I feel bad? Hell No, Roy is making decent money and I am sure he would walk away with a nice severance package, spend Christmas with the family then come February he will probably be signed by team whose ambition is to remain in Premier League.

Y.N.W.A.
-Antoine

On Twitter @empireofthekop

50 Comments

  1. It’s not only the quality of squad that we are talking about.they may be the internationals playing for their country.but where is the consistency?the same team beat villa 3-0 and get beaten by newcastle.woops ! It’s r0y’s fault iznt it? And dont forget that how many matches did lucas take to be a proper footballer.and also antoine,i respect u as u are a true liverpool fan but just bc0z i dont agree with u doesnt give u the right to call me a manc.give respect.take respect

  2. Villa were utterly pathetic and were there for the taking, we should have doubled that scoreline at least. Same goes for West Ham.

  3. This is what happens when you appoint a manager chosen by tabloid newspapers, desperate to appoint English managers to the top 4 clubs.
    I could understand why this clown is still in charge. First Henry bought the club, then board of directors took some priority, after which a director of football was appointed……sacking him 2 months ago would have left he club in crises.

    Fast forward it to today. The club has a structure in place and Roy has taken us as far as he can, 10’th. (It is not his fault. GUYS, wake up and smell the coffee. Mid table is his level. He does not even understand why people are questioning his ability.)
    If i was the owner, i would give him a copy of the the PL table, a mirror and ask him to have a good look at himself.

    We are sitting in the mid table despite of the manager in charge. Not because of him.

    Listen to what he says, ”we were in a good run.” What a fuck? have i missed something? No we have not been in a good run. we have won a couple of games at home, but beaten 3 times in the last 5? no?

    I feel sick, resigned a powerless. Does this manager knows how we feel? Do the owners realise they they will lose fans if they continue with this clown.

    The time to act is now. The window is opening. Roy can not be trusted with anything. We need a manger who will buy a couple of players, and start to adapt to the PL in the next few months and then kick off next season with some experience behind him.

  4. The teams we’ve beaten well this season have been awful.

    Chelsea were bad, West Ham were atrocious, Villa didn’t turn up. We were lucky at Bolton and Blackburn. I didn’t see the West Brom game, but I heard we weren’t great then.

    We’ve won 6 of 17. That’s not good enough. We’ve lost more games than we’ve won. It’s ridiculous.

    Roy’s won 13 of 84 Premier League away games. 15%. That’s awful. That’s why we can blame Roy for being bad away from home.

  5. Ok.i wont say anything.you all agree on that and if i differ then i wud be called a manc again.if a new manager comes in and does well then i will be happy as any liverpool fan in this world.but what i feel sad about is dat no one says a single word to torres and other players who are missing chance after chance and put da entire blame upon roy.(had torres and maxi taken th0se chances we cud hav w0n at whl) ynwa..

  6. Gazendra liverpool forever: “but where is the consistency?the same team beat villa 3-0 and get beaten by newcastle.woops ! It’s r0y’s fault iznt it?”

    Familiarise yourself with Roys tactics. Also, familiarise yourself with Roys amazing away record in England. Then reconsider your opinion

  7. Liverpool needs more than just a new manager we need a manager with some balls…someone who can identify a player that is not performing in a game, and can make that decision to sub him; regardless of how many mins he’s been on the field….Torres is not playing well and he needs to know this nor is Maxi…give some of the others a chance; only when a player gets hurt does he makes subs….if we had taken or chances in the Newcastle game we wld have walked away wit a point at lease….a good manager is needed and the players that believes we need to buy before they can perform needs to go…no player is bigger than LFC club…Y.N.W.A…

  8. I’ve said exactly the same thing on the LFC Transfer Spec FB page before I even read this article. Great minds think alike no? ;) Make that fans who are not blind think alike

  9. Thanks for reminding of that statistic George. As I have said since October “our future is in Roy’s past”. It is a bleak bleak future.

  10. antoine,being a recognised writer.it’s ur resp0nsibility t0 unite fans.writing articles full of anger vented towards those who doesnt share the same idea as urs is sad.evry fan page is divided these days.u shud try t0 unite them n0t create m0re divisions.

  11. indecision is the manager’s he does not know what to do at the time.his mistakes cost lfc a lot of misfortune.sack him.

  12. Jose left Rafa Benitez a world class first team (with many Internationals who represented their respective countries in the World Cup) that needed some depth, a team that did win the Italian League and did win the Champion’s League. I keep hearing this excuse to “give Rafa time to build his own team”, enough is enough, if Jose’s players were so bad why does Rafa keep playing them and even praising them.

  13. Are we talking about that world-class squad that even world-class manager Rafa Benítez failed to get qualified for any European competition by performance? Don’t forget that this world-class squad finished seventh last season and is in Europe because of Pompey’s inability to apply for the competition. Another thing you should not forget is that we had to sell the (allegedly) best defensive midfielder on this planet.

  14. No Antoine, how could we be. We had to sell the best holding midfielder in the world. There is no way to upgrade that position then, right. It’s kind of funny that people like you seem to expect to improve when there was hardly any money available in the transfer window, the club was for sale and so on. How can you expect a squad that didn’t even qualify for the Europa League due to merit to now challenge for a Champions League spot, even after selling a player that was integral to the set-up?

  15. It’s not Roy’s fault he was given the job.He’s not a world class manager and his CV,which shows for absolutely nothing,should have told us better.He is doing the best he can but it’s unfortunate that that is not near good enough for Liverpool’s sake.I’m not going to say Rafa should come back but even though he did have a bad year last year,he shouldn’t have been fired if we couldn’t find someone of the same quality.So all I’m saying is I won’t blame Roy for taking the job but I will blame the people who gave it to him.I’m beleive it will be very tough for NESV to do something at this moment because of two reasons.First of all it is hard to find a world class manager at this moment.Unlike summertime when other manager’s will be more willing to leave their club,as Roy did for instance at Fulham,and have a summer to work with the players and implement his philosophy to them,probally even buying one or two.Not just srapping around looking for points to get back in the top 6 and using tactics similiar to the previous manager until the players can understand his own.Second of all I don’t beleive NESV want a reputation of firing managers because if they get the next one wrong things will look very bad.Roy obviously can’t handle what is expected for a club of Liverpool’s stature but it is not his fault.The thing I would want NESV to do is probaly go with a caretaker manager for the rest of the way(albeit a long way)and try to get in touch with other managers(has to be world class this time,good CV’s,and for God’s sake take a look at the away record at previous club’s!)so when summer times we could spend some money bring a couple players in persuade a couple players not to leave and hopefully start biulding.YNWA

  16. anteater the team we are talking about is the team that finished 2nd in the league the season before last and was arguably the best team that season with only 2 losses in the PL. It makes me laugh that last season it was all Rafa’s fault not the players now with Roy in charge it’s the players fault and not Roy’s.

  17. Not a manc
    Not a bitter
    and put my record against anyones
    7 CL finals
    3 UEFA cup finals
    2 super cup finals
    1 world club championship
    11 times champions of england
    10 FA cup finals
    8 league cup finals
    10 Charity shields
    Seen Liverpool play on 66 league grounds in this country
    Been to 65 european aways
    Kop season ticket holder since 1968

    While i don’t support Roy as the manager, i have to admit he inherited a poor side left by Benitez.
    Benitez forced out the best player we had (Alonso)
    Benitez sold Keane, never replaced him and told us this club was putting all its eggs into one basket with Torres

    Roy needs to make the right decisions in January and buy atleast one, and probably two forwards to help out Torres

    then he needs to very quickly suss out the average players benitez left

  18. Bring back Rafa, he may not be the best coach in the world, but he has football sense, as long as the squad does not suffer the high number of injuries, I strongly believe Liverpool can reach top 4. Roy is what the Brits want, because he is British, and they don’t want him to fail, thats why he did not get such bad press as Rafa. He got better treatment, and a squad way better than Fulham, with plenty of internationals. Benitez is a scapegoat, but he has balls, he can even stand up to face SAF. He was able to bring Liverpool into the top level, competing with United and Chelsea consistently, even beating them. Roy seems like a long way off, he can’t even handle the toons, with all those internationals, and don’t forget the embarrassing performance against Northampton and Blackpool, he simply has no clue.

  19. Roy’s ‘jewell signings’ were Meirelles and Cole, not Poulsen, both are great players but Cole has had injuries which have prolonged any kind of form, I don’t think that Hodgson is the man and should go but be fair to the guy and stop looking into the past, Rafa has gone now, jesus!!

  20. Paul, do you really trust Roy to make the right desision in January, his previous buys Poulsen and Konchesky are worse than any Benitez bought. Poulsen was too slow for Serie A and Roy bought him to play in the fastest league and Konchesky cost £4m and two promising youth players one of which was a striker the acadamy rated very highly, neither has proved to be better than any player already at the club.

  21. ant0ine.it’s n0t an 0bligati0n.but many pe0ple f0ll0w u.it wud be better 4 da club as a wh0le. I l0ve my reds family..if all 0f u want r0y 0ut then i hav n0thing t0 say :)

  22. ant0ine.i always use net fr0m my m0bile.it’s eg t0 use 0.it has become a habit.s0metimes i try t0 use o but it’s difficult..

  23. antoine.if torres and maxi had sc0red th0se easy chances,we wud have w0n at spurs.u d0nt agree dat mate?

  24. “… but who is supporting the traveling Kop who spend their hard earned money (in these tough economic times) to see performances like yesterday’s?”

    spot on!

    what did we do to deserve all the crap from the manager and players? we give our heart and soul to Liverpool FC and i’m sure as hell that we deserve nothing but the best from each and every one of them. we are Liverpool FC for God’s sake!

    time to step up the game lads! please lads, have some pride when you don the Liverbird on your chest and put in your A game each time you are on the field.

    we are NOT a mid-table club for God’s sake. we are a bastion of invincibility!

  25. well said Antoine..same sentiments..Roy is just not crap..pardon my language..when things don’t go his way. he just haven a single clue how to turn things round! 1 win out of 9 away games is APPALLING stuff to say the least..and yet blaming Rafa for a bad squad?? he is just like the screwed up news media.

  26. gazendra: If my auntie had balls etc. They didn’t score and we didn’t win. Hodgson has 1 win in his last 27 away matches. He isn’t good enough.

  27. anteater, pick one of these statements

    1. Rafa is a bad manager, it wasn’t the players fault the manager picks the tactics and the team so Roy must be a bad manager as we are no better off now.

    2. Roy is the man to take us to the top but the players are to blame for not doing what he wants, and this could have been the case when Rafa was there.

    (in short it’s the manager or the players to blame not a pick and mix to suit)

    also Roy had the money from the sale of Mascherano to buy.

    I am not looking to the past or lauding Benitez, I am just trying to point out double standards, also that Roy has bought mediocre/poor players and I wouldn’t trust him to buy the players we need especially in the January transfer window when picking are slim.

    To the “be fair to the man” comment, I have always got behind the manager but I have not seen any improvement in how we play and after 5+ manths you usually see at least some improvement. The team may have some dead wood but there are still a lot of full internationals in it and a good manager should be able to motivate/get something out of them and if he can’t shouldn’t he go?

  28. Two seasons ago we were challenging for the league… what’s happened since then?
    – two seasons ago we overachieved and pushed beyond the teams natural capability – they needed reinforcements and re-vitalisation which never came
    – alonso and masch hv gone meaning we moved into a period of transition. Torres has been playing shite following injuries, too much football with WC etc and generally a lack of confidence in the direction of the team. Any team would suffer with these problems but you have to still conclude these changes signify a period of transition but, in itself, not necessarily decline
    – rafa is sacked – poor timing from the perspective of continuity
    – other teams have invested and improved whilst we’ve remained static – if u stand still you actually go backwards
    – we brought in Roy.
    Roy is a wandering minstral. He’s never been at any team for long. His away record is poor. To me this makes him a bad fit for Liverpool to begin with. (It was interesting to listen to Pardew speaking yesterday of needing time to win the respect of the players and the fans – you never heard Roy use words like that) It seems like he sees himself as someone apart – not part of the liverpool family. He doesnt see the need to show love of the club. I don’t think he even likes the club nor the fans. His priority is his love-in with the media.
    Then we come to his tactics. I don’t buy the “it takes time for his methods to instill” argument. Because his tactics have changed dramatically. At the beginning Torres was left alone, the whole team conceded ground playing deep in a very static, structured formation, keeping a rigid shape. Reina was encouraged to throw/kick long. No one got into the box except Torres.
    Now we have up to four players in the box, incl Torres, we retain possession from Reina keeping his passes shorter and to feet, we press the ball as a team when we dont have possession. But we are still very rigid in shape which doesn’t allow fluid movement or proactive attacking. We still defend too deep and no one (regardless of who we play) gets back to help the defence or gets forward to add to the attacking threat in and around the box (unless we’re chasing the game – it’s interesting to look at the chalkboards on the guardian) In particular, when we got to 1-1 yesterday we should hv gone for the win. but we seemed to settle for 1-1 and as a result we lacked conviction. Roy should have made positive subs to try and win the game, but he didn’t.
    Whatever he may say, his away record speaks to something being wrong with how he sets his teams up when playing away. To his credit, he is trying to change, but his defensiveness shows that he is uncomfortable with the heat of the spotlight at Liverpool. Sometimes, I find I need to allow some time to pass after a bad loss to see perspective but with Roy I find I still feel the same way.
    To me, he’s only at Liverpool to try and get the England gig. How do I come to that conclusion? Why else would he hv taken the job when he did, and from his general performance off the field. We’ve had too many players come to liverpool for what it can do for their careers. We don’t need a manager with that mentality.

  29. RH and SL shud go bring a charismatic coach nd ray wilkins.LFC Fans ar tired of grumbling almost every weekend

  30. To put it simply. Roy sees a draw as a win. If all you REDS feel that is what a LIVERPOOL manager’s stance should be than it’s not going to be a Merry Christmas. A word of advice, when a manager is on the rack, look at your notes, talk to your assistant… anything to show you’re thinking and in control and not losing it. Rubbing your face and showing anger does not do anything to improve the confidence of the staff, players or fans. Why didn’t we bring Babel on when we were on the up. Do something different. Play 3 strikers. Tear them apart. Didn’t you have a plan to defend against a team with only one method of playing? The Pump To The Tall Forward And Hope For The Best. Maybe we should utilise the American Football playbook. AT least we’ll see some change.

  31. Gazandra – Paul – you are both too stupid to be Liverpool supporters – go away and support the Chavs…they are more on your intellectual level…they also know nothing about football and are riddled with stupid fat americans like yourselves (clearly – as your knowledge of the game is so small you can only be fat yanks)

  32. Dear Antoine,

    1)”Rafa Benitez left Roy Hodgson a world class first team”– Do you think a Europa League team is world class?? Secondly, ”with many Internationals who represented their respective countries in the World Cup”— doesn’t necessarily make that team world class. Ryan babel was world cup finalist but tell me something spectacular about his contribution in the entire world cup,where as the players you criticized joe cole, poulsen, jovanovic— played some part atleast for their respective nations (even if it’s negligible) thereby, this parameter doesn’t come at all in this context…

    ”if Rafa’s players were so bad why does Roy keep playing them and even praising them..”

    This is childish.. absolutely childish.. have you seen any manager who after taking over a team (unless che,man city– exception rules the world) drastically change the complexion by signing 2 many players? even chelsea didn’t change their core players. why should they?? Roy (though I am not his biggest fan) was not given enough money to bring a revolution in the team.. How can you change the entire squad within 1 single transfer window?? Rafa changed Houllier squad completely but it took some time too…

    Then the question why it is said, Roy inherited a poor/not so good a team?? The answer is obvious, he got a 7th finished team in the league & he didn’t got enough money to bolster the team like spurs, city included.

    Above all there can’t be any doubt that Rafa was a better tactician. But that doesn’t mean the team he inherited is/was world class. For that matter Jose left a world class team for Rafa, & he is making a mess, but does that make him a crap & s*** manager??

    Football is a very simple game. If you keep your basics right, results will come. To keep the basics right on a consistent basis you need good candidates who are capable of doing that job. other teams have better candidates & simultaneously our better players are performing below their potentials. Even our manager is a bit rigid too.

  33. saikat ! U r da man..da 1 dat speaks my views..there is n0thing i cudnt agree with..ant0ine is speechless :) (saikat.add me in fb.my e-add is thekool_fren@yahoo)

  34. “It’s a transitional period for the club,
    Roy came in very late on in the
    summer, his players were away on
    international duty, he took a while to
    assess the staff, and by the time he did
    that he had run out of time in the
    transfer market.
    “Through no fault of Roy Hodgson’s, it
    is a transitional period. The takeover
    rightly took precedence over
    everything else. The club has settled
    down a lot more now and has some
    stability. Now we need to get results
    on the pitch.
    “Roy Hodgson will decide if he needs
    to improve the squad. If he sees a
    weakness I ’m sure he’ll ask the owners
    for finance.” kingkenny
    EXCUSE ME EVERYONE.CAN I HAVE UR ATTENTION.MR.MARK CALLED ME AND PAUL A FAT YANK C0Z WE SUPP0RTED R0Y.NOW THAT MEANS HE MEANT KING KENNY A FAT YANK T00.(READ WHAT KEN. SAID AB0VE) ONLY A STUPID MANC CAN SAY THAT..SO MARK ADMIT UR MISTAKE OR U ARE A MANC.

    1. Gazendra, Roy came in early June actually he was on board before June 21st so technically he started in Spring and NOT IN SUMMER.

      This is no transitional period, nothing to transition. Keeping Roy on board will be a disaster.

      Kenny “supports” Roy because he works for the club, he has to.

  35. i will c0me t0 discuss 0n this after my xam..g0t exams tomorow and i havent studied properly.f@@cked up big time man :) and if mark doesnt apologize ,he’s a manc ;)

  36. Although I find it hard to continuously read posts and comments calling for Roy’s resignation, I was always adamant that the New Year would be make or break for Hodgson. A few years back, one season would be enough to gauge a manager, nowadays 6 months is the maximum one will get. Hodgson took over at a horrendous time at the club and is showing that he is not up to such a mammoth task.

    It was with envy that I read about Juventus’ latest triumph against Lazio, the first goal being set up by AA. Juventus were in a similar situation last season and Del Neri took the helm in the Summer only to turn things round for the Vecchia Signora. He did this in a few months. The task at LFC is much much harder which is why I think the club hasn’t got much options in terms of management. If Kenny wants the job, let him have a go. If not, better not change manager now and risk hiring someone who is equally inept. Tricky times ahead.

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