Messages

The burgers must be good at Barnsley.

I dint really want to start another "my da has a bigger dick than yours" with the United wans but I would say he is the best keeper in the world at present. The lazy option is to say " but what about Casillas?", anyone that does hasn't seen him play for Madrid lately, and In particular last week against AC Milan.

I thought he was playing well before the Meelan match.  One save in particular against Sevilla was amazing.

Still cracks me up that Pepe was the first player to get to Ngog.

Love the man, a complete header!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdeVOog0-GU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX32c9MBjTg

[O'Dowd in as MP]

Is there an election coming?

Poor David Simpson must be getting worried. He sits on his hands for years as the de facto abstentionist MP for Upper Bann expecting the shoo-in as the unionist donkey wrapped in the butchers apron, and then what happens - he gets squeezed between an even more bigoted Jim Allister and Trimble's mot. 

SF won't say it publicly but they're angling to put Dessie Ward into the sixth Assembly seat in this area and have a good outside chance of putting O'Dowd in as MP in this traditionally 'safe' unionist seat. Some turnaround from our Bernadette's 5k odd votes in '97.

Good grief!

[I thought Rio and Vidic both kept him very quiet]

Other than the goal (which Torres did very well with) I thought Rio and Vidic both kept him very quiet. Any time he was on the ball they forced an error or dispossesed him. He is an awsome striker and if he had a quality team around him every week he would be the best in the world.

I know Torres is a good looking lad but there was no need for Vidic to try and ride him at every opportunity.

http://tomkinstimes.com/2009/10/my-day-with-crisis-hit-benitez/

I posted this lastnight and people might have missed it.  Has anyone had a chance to read it and what are your thoughts?

I read it.

Was interesting to get an insight into Benitez but didn't really tell me anything I didn't already believe. It painted quite a rosey picture though which would lead me to question the source?

I felt a little uneasy too that Benitez felt the need to justify himself to the media, OK I know us who support Rafa would not be as well-informed if it were not for guys like Tomkins fighting Benitez corner and making sure the facts are heard but at the same time I don't think Rafa should be worried about the media.

Also didn't like the tone in certain parts, especially when he was being secretive. I know obviously he's protecting the confidential nature of the conversation but the whole "he told me how its all gonna be alright but obviously I can't repeat so just trust me" thing can't really wash.

I too, didn't reallu learn anything as I have been banging my head against a brick wall with some Liverpool fans since the Klinnsmann saga a couple of years ago.

I suppose the condifentiality was because he was probably talking about current squad members well as players who had slipped through the net.  Unless these were already on record there probably isn't much point in naming them as a 'lesser' player may have been signed in his place and is still at the club.

I thought it was good to see some pro Rafa press because I despair at some of the reporting about him.  I have felt for a long time that the British managers are a bit of an old pals act.  Eg last season Fergie saying how could Rafa treat a manager (big sam) who worked so hard for the LMA like that (the alleged its all over hand signal) .  What a load of oul bollix....but it all feeds in to the hysteria and lies.  Mickey Quinn, a Liverpool supporter, on Talksport the other day even accused Rafa of holding the club to ransom last season!! WTF?

I have been one of Rafa strongest supporters over the years but I am seriously concerned about the position of the club.  While there are major problems off the field, there are tactical problems on the field and that is down to rafa.  Players who were untouchable are now not playing well.  While there are injuries I think there are problems in the dressing room. 

I don't know whether the club can move forward with the impasse that exists so the power struggle could ruin things.  I blame Rafa for individual errors in respect of team selection, I blame the Yanks for the position they have left Rafa in.

I know you always backed Rafa but has the last 4 matches really changed your total opinion on him? What where the alternatives against Sunderland or Lyon? He took benny off on 85 minutes so suddenly he should be roaded!

Example of players untouchable as Tomkins has pointed out in his article. Benny. This time last year he was been pillared from many quarters of the liverpool support. Now he is the darling of the team. Does Rafe take credit for that or is it luck. Kuyt the same.

I fail to see how this season has suddenly totally changed your outlook, based on 4 last 4 games. Chelsea game was in the balance until their first goal, it was a game where the first goal was key. We made mistake and they got it.

the point I am trying to make is that I feel there needs to be change.  I want Rafa to stay, but I cannot see him succeeding with the current setup.  The squad is threadbare and I feel he has lost something in the dressing room.  I am basing my opinion on what looks like a very unhappy Carra.  He is the heart beat of the team and reflects the passion of the club.  i cannot help but think he is not pushing things on as hard as he can because he is disillusioned.  If the Yanks got their own man in who is fully supported by them, there would be change.  Until the off field shenanigans ares orted I cannot see Rafa being a success.  He needs to be master of everything football for him to be a success and this is not happening.

Then surely it's the Americans who have to go?  If Rafa left Liverpool the place would be in a complete shambles.  He is the man holding it together.

They (the Americans) haven't the money to back any manager never mind a manager who has led his team to 82 & 86 points in the previous two seasons.

Remember the squad that Rafa inherited the points total in the previous 2 seasons was 65 and then 60.

http://tomkinstimes.com/2009/10/my-day-with-crisis-hit-benitez/

I posted this lastnight and people might have missed it.  Has anyone had a chance to read it and what are your thoughts?

[the now infamous 'Zonal Marking' system he employs]

Have you had time to give us the pros and cons of zonal v man to man marking?

How has this came up?

You said - the now infamous 'Zonal Marking' system he employs.

I asked if you could explain the merits of zonal marking compared with man to man marking?

Just wondering what your thoughts on it were since you used it to criticise Benitez.

Not sure they did punch above their weight.  In fact I think they should have won the league.

If they did punch above their weight should Rafa not be getting credit for that?

How 'should they have won the league'?  It wasn't a one off knock-out championship match, if they should have won it they would have.  The team who gets the most points deserves to win the league and obviously do.

I didn't say Utd didn't deserve to win the league.  They got 90 points.

Liverpool fans and I have no doubt players feel it was an opportunity that escaped them.  Therefore thinking Liverpool should have won the league is a fair enough assumption.

Have you had time to give us the pros and cons of zonal v man to man marking?

http://tomkinstimes.com/2009/10/my-day-with-crisis-hit-benitez/

Very interesting insight on the 'Boss'

Posters keep pointing out that 'the same team took Liverpool to the second last game last season' etc etc. Do you not think, as I do, that Liverpool punched above their weight last season, and are now being found out a bit?

Not sure they did punch above their weight.  In fact I think they should have won the league.

If they did punch above their weight should Rafa not be getting credit for that?

[I know Liverpool fans who even question what the hell he is at alot of the time, examples being taking both Torres and Gerrard off against Wigan last season when chasing the game and the now infamous 'Zonal Marking' system he employs.]

Every player is bought to do a job -  a defender is bought to defend and a striker is bought to score.  The fact that Rafa brought in so many who were not as successful or efficient as required seems to have been hidden by this myth that the owners of Liverpool haven't given Benitez a penny to spend or have given him considerably less than his rivals.  As Magpie pointed out, if Arsene, Martin O'Neill or Sir Alex were in charge of Liverpool then they would be considerably better than they are.  Benitez is a baffling man, and gets accredcited for these special 'Tactics' that he puts in place for European games.  I don't buy it.  I know Liverpool fans who even question what the hell he is at alot of the time, examples being taking both Torres and Gerrard off against Wigan last season when chasing the game and the now infamous 'Zonal Marking' system he employs.

Torres was substitued when Liverpool were in the lead against Wigan so not a great example.  Sure, like plenty of other mud slung at Rafa, repeat it often enough some of it will stick eventually.

I'd be interested in hearing your analysis as to why the 'infamous' zonal marking is inferior to man to man marking.

If it's pitched at anything like the level that Tim Sherwood ( a coach at Spurs) decided to bestow upon the nation 'we like man to man marking at Spurs because at least we know who to blame in the dressing room when something goes wrong' then keep it to yourself.

Edit: +2 GalwayBayBoy

Not having that at all. 70 players over 6 years, many on frees and many traded up to take in someone else. He started with nothing and no way can the team he took over be compared to the current squad. Do you seriously beleive that Rafa has had the support in the last couple of years in the transfer market? Has he f*ck. He put foundations in place and hasn't been able to buy in the Torres bracket since.

5 key players missing last night for a team already drained of confidence. This is the same squad that went on a super run last year, top scorers in league and challenged for top spot.

Rafe has to prove his worth and get the team out of the current position. But lets not turn into Newcastle United and start replacing managers after a bad run. Remember what they did with Bobby Robson.

Bingobus, Rafa has spent somethin like £220 million in his time at Anfield and in the summer past brought in big money signings in Aquilani and Johnson.  People call Liverpool a two man team, interesting that one of them was at the club before Benitez - so what has he changed.

He lost around £8 million on Keane in a matter of months and spent big to land Dossena (does he ever play) and forked out £12 million on Babel.  He forced proven Premier League strikers Michael Owen and Peter Crouch out, without bringing in adequate replacements.

How can you say he started with nothing?  Was the Liverpool squad he took charge of any worse than it is now?  As mentioned, he would be long gone if it weren't for 2005.

Keane was a disaster of a signing.  His attitude stank and he wasn't up to the level required.  Babel was tracked by many top clubs and touted by Marco Van Basten as one of the best young players The Netherlands have produced.

As for forcing Owen out of England?? Nothing of the sort.  The Little Englander made it clear to Rafa he wasn't for staying and wanted to leave to win trophies( ).  He then ran to Newcastle for the big money when a deal was virtually done with Liverpool again.

Peter Crouch was offered a new contract - so again, hardly 'forced out' but didn't want to sit on the bench at Liverpool.  Low and behold he now warms Spurs' bench on a regular basis.

[Until the blogosphere came along I never experienced anything to contradict the oft-spouted notion that many traditional Liverpool fans are amongst the more knowledgeable observers of football]

http://football365.com/john_nicholson/0,17033,8746_5638248,00.html

Liverpool FC is one of the world's greatest, most renowned sporting institutions and it is being run, quite disgracefully, to the verge of bankruptcy. This is a club that generated £159million of revenue last year but, according to news reports at the weekend, still had to assure the Premier League it was financially viable after KPMG's audit concluded it was concerned about its 'ability to continue as a growing concern'.

It managed to resist a £70million bid from Manchester City for Fernando Torres but only just. Next summer it will be the same situation again.

The pressure is really on. If the club doesn't make good progress in the Champions League or finishes outside the top four in the league, there is a real chance of Liverpool going into administration. They're fighting on the pitch not for mere success but for their very existence.

Tom Hicks and George Gillett are killing the club. Disgraceful.

Many like to laugh at the Scousers, the online paranoia and sensitivity of a few of their fans are legendary and, yes, they've had their fair share of hooliganism issues over the years - but the club and its followers don't deserve to be judged on its more extreme or daft elements any more than any other club.

I was privileged to be at Anfield on some of their legendary European nights in the late 70s and early 80s. They were the stuff of epic, skin-prickling legend; warm, happy, uplifting celebrations of football.

I treasure those nights seeing David Fairclough flying down the wing like liquid flame as Liverpool kicked into the Kop and simply would not be denied.

Until the blogosphere came along I never experienced anything to contradict the oft-spouted notion that many traditional Liverpool fans are amongst the more knowledgeable observers of football as well as some of the more passionate flame-carriers for the best traditions of the game. Their persistent boycotting of The Sun remains noble.

This entire heritage is being abused and we should all care. If asset-stripping, profit-hungry monsters like Hicks and Gillett are not stopped, one day they might come for your club, rip it off, feck it up and leave it bereft.

If ever a club was less suited to be an asset for capitalist greed-pigs to trade for profit, it was Liverpool.

If ever a club reflected what made football the biggest sport in the country, it was Liverpool with its ground set in the bosom of the labouring working class being led by a man-of-the-people idealist in Bill Shankly.

Shankly was an inspiring man, perfectly suited to the Mersey mindset. My mate Mikey, when presented with any problem in life still asks himself, what would Shankly do?

The procession of managers from Shanks to Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish was a litany of earthy, no-nonsense brilliance who achieved so much. That late 80s team was football brilliance made extant.

The current owners dishonour the legacy of those fine men and those who played under them.

For decades, Liverpool FC was the beating red heart of the football body politic. But what has happened to this noble club?

It is lumbered with debt, it is owned by these ridiculous, stupid men who care and know nothing about football, who care and know nothing of their 'asset', and who seem to dislike each other as much as they dislike football. Like a silly, squabbling married couple, one of them wants to sell his share but can't do so unless the other idiot agrees to it.

They haul themselves around rich Saudi Princes offering the club like a 20 dollar whore, each of them with a different, doubtless hapless idea about how to take the club forward.

RBS only failed to call in the £300m debt this summer for fear of a public backlash that the largely publicly-owned bank was going to crush one of the world's great football clubs.

Hicks and Gillett appear not to have spent much or any of their own money buying the club. Instead they have leveraged borrowing against the asset that they only acquired with the money they borrowed. It makes no sense and ironically, is said to be an illegal practice in America.

Liverpool FC is now a slave to their debt, condemned to forever graft to pay off the interest on the loan. It would seem that these jokers have ownership of the asset to sell for a personal profit but the club has ownership of the debt. The Gruesome Twosome lose nothing if Liverpool fail.

Anfield is through the looking glass. Logic and proportion has fallen sloppy dead and the white knight is talking backwards.

Rafa Benitez is hamstrung by the persistently shambolic behaviour of the owners. Their mismanagement and machinations have infected the whole club.

It looks from the outside that from one transfer window to another he hasn't a clue what resources will be available to him. It's no wonder mistakes are made in that kind of short-term environment.
And the whole time, he and the squad know that if they are not successful, Hicks and Gillett won't be able to service the debt and the club will go into administration, will have to sell Torres and Gerrard, suffer a ten-point deduction and disqualification from any European competition. That is huge pressure, pressure that may now have got too much for all to bear this season.

The new stadium is on hold until God knows when, further stalling progress. Every week there's talk of someone buying half or the entire club off one or both of the current fools, but nothing ever comes to fruition and the feeling that this is all just wind and pish grows stronger.

It's a testament to Benitez' good faith, bloody-mindedness, strength of purpose and belief in the club's potential and fans that he's stayed as long as he has and done as well as he has. He's had plenty of reasons to walk away before now.

Even if the Saudi Prince buys out the club in its entirety, fans would be right to be cynical of both his commitment and intention until he prove, not just financially astute but football astute; in harmony with the traditions, culture and passions of the club and its fans.

Football is an irrational game and its culture is driven by unfathomable emotion and ritual. It is emphatically not a faceless corporate asset to be traded amongst billionaire bozos. It is, in every sense, a game by and of the people.

In one sense, Liverpool are ahead of the curve, their situation will not be untypical as more similarly bilious billionaires buy and sell clubs for ego, profit or entertainment. Perhaps it is therefore down to Liverpool to try and resolve these problems innovatively and blaze a new trail.

The Rogan Taylor-led fan buy-out seems to have stalled, which is a shame. If ever a club was suited to be owned and run by the people it is Liverpool with its history of collectivised labour. We certainly need new, fresh ideas on how clubs can be owned, funded and run.

Maybe we should all ask, like Mikey, what would Shankly do? His words might provide a clue.

"The socialism I believe in is not really politics. It is a way of living. It is humanity. I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day."

Shanks wasn't wrong about much.