Guz

To be honest has there ever been doubt that he wanted to stay? There's never been any doubt about that I don't think, except a summer or two ago when he actually received an offer from Real Madrid and we turned it down. He's played all his cards in the media now, everyone will be demanding a similar statement of intent from Parry or the owners. Let's see if it comes or not.

That and Klinsmann's agent? Problem is our esteemed owners aren't showing signs that they're gonna come out and publically back the current manager so papers and managers looking for a job can do whatever they like.

My point is it's basically 1 failure in 5 attempts. Based on my initial expectations of Babel he's doing as I expected so I'm counting him as a success for now. So yeah, based on that, I would love to see Benitez allowed to spend big money on individual players rather than a drib drab budget as he has used for 3 of 4 years he's been here. Or he should be sacked. There's no 2 real ways of it to be honest. And in all honesty, I can't see anyone but Arsene Wenger being able to come in and win a title on a limited budget compared to what Chelsea and Mancs are buying from.

Looking at what he's done when he's spent BIG on INDIVIDUAL players - Torres, Alonso, Kuyt, Babel and let's assume Mascherano. Then yes, I'd give him lots of money.

Roy Evans says that for a few weeks/months immediately after he left the club he actually turned against us. I remember reading/listening to an interview he gave (maybe LFCtv??) saying how he became quite bitter and was sometimes happy when we played poorly or lost. But it wasn't long before he sat down and realised that there was no way he could hold such bitterness and disappointment at a club he loved and had a 30 year relationship with and he just went back to normal, willing us onto success even with Ged in charge.

You can pick holes in any game, even a big win and the manager is never going to get it exactly spot on. But whether it's team selection or whatever, Rafa has been unable to galvanise the results out of us this season at home. Everyone has to share the blame ; players and management. Pinning it on one person is farcical and makes the assumption that the players can go out and do it all the time without guidance or that the manager kicks and heads every ball. It's not like that. We win as a team and lose as a team.

Our home form this season is f***ing awful. There's no way you can dress it up. But it makes everything incredibly frustrating because our home form under Rafa usually is excellent and its our away form that suffers. It's the opposite this year. Similarly though, it kind of gives me some confidence because the sort of home form we've had under Rafa doesnt go away overnight and if we can continue to establish our away results then I'm inclined to think our home results will follow.

We play Chelsea on hte 10th then Inter on the 19th My guess is the West Ham home game could be squeezed in that gap?

For the last month or so he's basically laid out Masch, Gerrard, Yossi, Kewell, Kuyt and Torres to constitute our first choice midfield and attack. They've been hit and miss and the times there has been major rotation (Derby and Luton - and IMO totally justified) we've been s*** because the squad isn't good enough. Our best XI cannot play every game and if the others cant step up when they're given the chance is just reflects on their own lack of quality. But they have to play at some point because we cant have players playing every single game.

For me the situation is simple. From the owners perspective ; Back him, Sack him, or f*** off. I'm prepared to wait and see on what they do on that front. Hopefully it's the first option but it's a wait and see situation for me. Usually I'd say the 7 day break isnt good for us as I think we do best when we're playing off momentum. But I think the break can do us some good to regroup and drill into the players what's expected of them again. A few good results won't change the long term problems in the squad and club but it will make everyone happy again.

Yup it is. Reaching as many finals in three years as any other club has in its history is a laughable achievment. Achievments in the european cup should NEVER EVER be taken into consideration when judging a manager. It's a mickey mouse tournament, we dont want to win it ever and we take no pride in our rich history in the tournament. Disgraceful that our manager is still in a job after doing so well in a tournament thats often described as the biggest any european club can win. Shocking. Oh...and we won it despite having Rafa as our manager. Playing Biscan, Traore and Mellor - what was he thinking? f***ing tinkerman aswell, always going on about tactics. Playing 3 at the back against Juve and sticking with one striker in the 2nd half against Milan. AWFUL. Thank the lord our world class squad saved his skin that season.

We did well for the first 20mins or so. But as their confidence grew, ours went the other way. Very much like the Derby game on Boxing day.

Neutral in wanting the underdog to win SHOCKER!!!!!!

You just said our players are world class and "it is Benitez that is the problem". Rafa has his fair share of mistakes to his name. But to blindly say the players are great and the manager is s***, well, sorry, imnorhavvinthat

How many years has Wenger been in charge at Arsenal? How many years has their scouting network been in development? On the flip side, how many years has Rafa been at a club where he has been given some money and total freedom on who he can buy? Certainly wasn't like that at the clubs he managed in Spain, especially not Valencia. In comparison, Rafa is a total rookie. He's never been in charge of a club like he is at Liverpool and he's fighting with huge expectations (not meeting some, exceeding others). Expecting Benitez to pick up half a dozen Danny Aggers every season is unrealistic.

Yeah, sure. Our whole squad is incredible in all departments but it's evil Rafa Benitez that is stopping them playing well

It's hardly a new thing. Our squad has been over rated for a long time now. We need some real quality in the first team and thats gonna cost a lot of money. But either way I'm sure Rafa would've stuck in the same sort of side today. Even if we did buy 2 £20m players or whatever, I doubt they would've played today.

f***ing awful performance but at least we're still in it and at home, chances are we'll go through with some ease. Could've killed the game in the first 25 minutes but after that Luton grew in confidence and we became gradually worse. Good old FA Cup...

Yup it was Brill

We'll improve 2nd half, get a goal and kill the game. Come on reds

No we're not. If anything, from open play I thought our defenders have looked more uncomfortable than usual.

Two points about that. Firstly I agree about the crushing machine remark in the way we like to compress over the pitch, squeeze the life out of teams and basically force them into crumbling/submission while adding our own quality. It's why I was absolutely chuffed to bits with the 4-1 against Pompey because we did that very well for most of the match like we've done at home to almost all teams over the last two years and are starting to do away from home. It makes our poor home form this season, especially our performance against Arsenal, all the more frustrating and perplexing. But if our away record holds up and continues to be excellent, I'd be very confident of our excellent home form returning also. Secondly, I think too much is made of rotation. He doesnt really rotate (more than any other manager) Carra, Pepe, Agger, Gerrard, Torres etc. Why? Because they're our best players. This idea that Rafa likes a core of 6-7 players only is rubbish imo. Why would a manager not want the same level of [high] quality throughout the team? I do think Rafa looks at fitness/freshness as well as utilising different players for different opposition teams more than most managers, however, I think this excessive rotation that's often talked about is a direct result of our 2nd tier of players (Crouch, Kuyt, Pennant etc.) simply not being good enough to hold down a regular spot in the side. This season was begging someone in that category of players to stand out and cement their spot in the team. At the moment only Arbeloa has been close to that. The rest haven't stepped up enough. If Rafa spends £15m on someone who comes in, puts in lots of sparkling performances and blatantly improves us Rafa isn't gonna rotate him. Just like Torres has. He's not gonna f*** him about and most of the time he'll be in the side. Thats why I desperately want Rafa to be given that sort of serious money in the summer to see what he can do with it.

Poor showing by our owners but terrific showing by Luton to go running to the press about it??? It would've been a nice gesture I suppose but it's not the club's responsibility to bail out other clubs (especially ones involved in the s*** they are re bungs etc.) and the club certainly shouldn't be guilted into doing it. It's a shame they went to the press with it because even more people will be wanting us to lose today and we are being made to look like c**** over it. They asked, we refused, should be the end of it.

Where does it say he said he is keen on Rafa's job?!

Private sources know all.