kick316

Well you see hes a local lad....and hes the captain....and the fans were singing his name....benitez dosne't know what hes doing ......hes got non-existant man management skills .....and we definately would have lost but were extremely lucky.

Yup...Gerrard definately has the ability to those things. The problem is he doesn't do it with enough regularity to be called the "World's best". Anyway lets not turn this into an Alonso vs. Gerrard debate. The're both good players and we're lucky to have them. Besides the best CM we have is Lucas

I don't buy the whole "Gerrard is the best central midfielder" b******s. This is something that we hear constantly on Sky and in the media. Fact is at this point in time he is a f***ing good player. But he's certainly not the best.....yet. As I said if he can learn to control games better and make the TEAM around him play better than he will become the best CM in the world. Oh and the fact that he dragged us back in the derby in spite of our awful performance proves my point. He can win things singlehandedly in spite of how badly the team played. Look how better the TEAM played once Lucas was on. That was the key difference in our performance before and after Gerrard went off.

Whenever I watch Fabregas play, it strikes me how relaxed he is in possesion and how calmly he strokes the passes the ball around. Does he run around at 100mph constantly to win the match? No he doesn't. People say that Carrick is one-paced. Gerrard is similar. The difference being Carrick is s l o w whereas Gerrard does everything at 100mph. Gerrad has all the talent to be the best in the world. But he has to play with more "intelligence". There are times to slow things down and pass the ball around and there are times for rushing things. When Gerrard plays well he wins games by himself. But when he has a stinker than the whole team plays badly. How often have we seen Liverpool play badly but win due to a moment of genius from Gerrard? The problem is he can play briliantly and win by himself but is rarely able to make those around him play better. If he can do this than Gerrard can go on to being one of the best ever. He has all the tools and talent to do it.

Rafa already explained why he substituted him. It's also been discussed to great lengths here on this board. No need to go over it again. Suffice to say I and many other posters seem to think that it makes sense. Many others don't. But on whether it was the right decision or not. In the context of the football match than yes it was right. His substitute directly contributed to the win. Now whether it was right or not in terms of managing the Captain’s ego than maybe it isn’t. But that’s a different argument.

It's true that the derby would probably mean more to a local lad. But he's also insinuating that it was wrong to substitute him because he was a Scouser. That's a load of b******s. Saying that his substitution didn't win the match is b******s as well. He substituted Gerrard with Lucas. Lucas won the penalty. Therefore the substitute won the match. You can call it luck or whatever but the fact is Lucas won the penalty that led to the win. If Gerrard was never substituted, would he have had the same "luck"? Honestly, I think some people would have been happier if we had lost or drawn the match with Gerrard playing the full game rather than than win the game with Gerrard substituted.

Not at all. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. It's just that some of the reaction here (which is realtively mild compared to other boards) are over the top. Honestly, if you didn't know the result and just read the reactions, you would've thought we lost the game! At the end of the day, we beat the blues***e in their own backyard, pissed them off and made them even more bitter (if thats possible) in the process. At the same time we might have just unearthed a player in Lucas. What more can you ask for? How many times over the past few years have we seen the likes of the Mancs, Arsenal or Chelski look like they were heading in for certain defeat only to nick a flukey goal in the last minute? Now its our turn so lets enjoy it. Moreso it was against the Blus***e!!!

Some of the comments here are absolutely ridiculous! The degree of respect that Benitez is getting from our own fans is appalling. Everyone makes mistakes….he has made them before and he will again in the future. However, the substitutions yesterday were not one of them. Rafa made a change (not a popular one) that at the end of the day led to the win. That is the reality. Arguing whether or not leaving Gerrard on for Momo would be better is purely hypothetical. Having had the opportunity to watch the match again, it seems clear to me that once Gerrard came off, we started to keep possession better and pass the ball around more intelligently. Before that it was blood and guts 100mph stuff. Our best football so far (Derby, Toulouse home, Sunderland away, Reading) were all games where we passed the ball well, kept things on the floor and controlled possession. The past few games though were the total opposite. The passing game was non-existent, we kept hoofing the ball and kept giving possession away. One could argue about the quality of the opposition, however the difference in composure and gameplay in those games are apparent for all to see. I think it is no coincidence that Gerrard was not playing in those four games (or didn’t start in the case of Reading) and the downturn in the team’s performance came once he came back. For all his obvious talents, perhaps playing in the center as the focal point of the team might not be his best position. In the game yesterday, once Gerrard was off, the TEAM started to play with the fluency that has been missing in the past few games. I am not advocating that we sell Gerrard or anything like that. But perhaps, we have to accept the fact that if we want to maintain our controlling and passing game, Gerrard’s best position (whatever he may personally think or the Sky pundits want to make us believe) is not in the centre but on the right (or in other more advanced roles) where his all action style can be made to better use and let other more “intelligent” passers of the ball like Xabi or Lucas dictate the play. Having said that, I was f***ing impressed with Gerrard’s reaction to the substitution and subsequent victory! My opinion of him as a captain has certainly improved after that.

I mentioned this in the transfer speculation thread, anyway I’m in the Middle-East and during the Champions League final, ART Sports had Phil Thompson on as a pundit. During the analysis at the end of the match, he was saying that while Liverpool was excellent in defence and midfield, it was weak upfront. On discussing who to get upfront for next season he said that we should get Darren Bent. He used Torres and Huntelaar as examples and said that while they were good players they will still need time to settle and there’s always the risk of the players not adapting to the English game. His reasoning for getting Bent echoes what others here are saying…plays for a poor team but still gets lots of goals….has pace…young…etc….etc. This certainly adds to what Anny Road has said that those within the game certainly seem to rate Bent. They probably know more about football than most of us....so if they see something special in him then there might be some truth to that.

This is my first post but I’ve been lurking on here for a while… I’m in the Middle-East and during the Champions League final, ART Sports had Phil Thompson on as a pundit. During the analysis at the end of the match, he was saying that while Liverpool was excellent in defence and midfield, it was weak upfront. On discussing who to get upfront for next season he said that we should get Darren Bent. He used Torres and Huntelaar as examples and said that while they were good players they will still need time to settle and there’s always the risk of the players not adapting to the English game. His reasoning for getting Bent echoes what others here are saying…plays for a poor team but still gets lots of goals….has pace…young…etc….etc. Anyway, wouldn’t disappoint me too much me if we do get Bent. I’d still prefer Etoo though.