RedHarvest

It's not the complete autonomy Rafa supposedly wants but it'd be a big improvement on the current set up. However, the more I think about it the less likely it seems - Parry's staying til the summer, no one knows how the ownership situation is goint to pan out.

Great if true...Kenny back at the club would be a great boon.

Mascheranos profile ramped up a notch soon as Maradonna appointed him captain of Argentina - expect this kind of thing from now on.

Generally true...but Ribery is a classy player who could play in any league IMO...of course expect man city to muddy the waters with a ridiculous bid,,highly unlikely we'd get him even though he's exactly what we need.

It's hard to shake a popular belief/label however inaccurate. The "lucky manager" thing is going to haunt Rafa until he wins the premier league.

Gerrard usually goes for power and accuracy, Aurelio tries to get it over the wall and place it. I've said this before, Aurelio is the dead ball specialist in the squad he's just too injury prone to get a run in the team and get his chance...he's been unlucky not to score a FK before saturday.

Benayoun Kuyt Aurelio

That kind of point blank miss happens to all players good and bad at some point, it shouldn't really be used as an argument against Babel...he has enough already in the evidence against column. My feeling about him is that he's rawer than people (Van Basten for one) have suggested,that's why Rafa rarely starts him. He should be seen as developing talent as if he came through the acadamy and given more time. However if his attitude stinks and Rafa deems it unfixable then he'll be gone in the summer.

I'm astonished Kuyt isn't playing

Definitely...actually Benayouns form has been ok and Babels cameo on Wednesday night was promising, they both need to grab this chance by the balls - Come on Redmen!!!

But he's losing it, havent you heard!?...he's also gonna channel Elvis to give the half time team talk

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I agree, that was restrained from Keane, he could easily have indulged in a bit of axe grinding with a little prompting from the press boys. There's no reductive, right/wrong argument in this sorry case...I respect Keane as a player, good luck to him.

i actually switched to ITV from Setanta Ireland, Beglin was the lesser of two evils..dunno who was commentating but it was excruciating, every second comment about Keane

D'you reckon Rafa has that poster up on his office wall - the one that says "You dont have to be mad to work here...but it helps"

Very fair assessment that - good post. Keane was a victim of circumstances, fans took their frustrations out on him cos he didn't excel despite those circumstances. Rafa comes out of this a little soiled, but to be fair to him, he's fighting a dirty war on two fronts.

Good to hear him say that - anyone who thinks it wasn't a risky move given our struggle to score goals is not thinking right. He'll live or die by this decision come May.

This guy: Ezequiel Lavezzi (great name) looks pretty good...in the Argentina squad too. otherwise - Kevin Doyle as stand in for Torres, Aguero for some creativity.

It's proof the club is completely dysfunctional at the moment. The Keane issue is deeper than the arguments on here about his quality and Rafa is just as culpable as anyone. Rafa's fighting two wars, it's a wonder we're even challenging. Agreed...all I'm hearing from those happy with Keanes departure (without a replacement) is blind justification without knowing the real story and blatant dislike - fair enough, everyone's entitled to their opinion but being this light in experienced attackers could cost us the league.

That's as provocative and political a piece of LFC journalism i've seen all year,..there's no doubt there's a civil war going on - amazing we're actually challenging despite it.

Seems to me that Rafa used him in his power play against Parry making it impossible for Keane to stay...a strategy that may well come back to haunt him - but that's the game,, I feel sorry for Keane but support Rafa against Parry every time.

That's correct. The reaction to Keane on here has been over the top negative and blind to the good...he never had a chance, was caught up in a power struggle and it was just bad timing, simple as that. Bad as he was in some games I dont trust any of our other back up strikers to score the goals we'll need to win the league. If we'd any time to sign someone else now I'd suggest Kevin Doyle, he has a great attitude and I reckon he'd be a willing deputy for Torres.

When we win it's a strength, when we lose, a weakness.

Thinking about Rafas behaviour lately, seems to me to be the actions of a man fighting battles on several fronts with forces closing in on him from every side...we as fans often forget about the context in the heat of one game, one result, and the context is an unprecedented power struggle at the club, civil war in the boardroom and Rafa knows this is his last chance - I believe he'll walk this summer unless we win the league - no wonder the desperation is showing, these are desperate times for the club. The quiet dignity of previous times are a luxury that disappeared when G&H took over and it became about the clubs survival. The Keane situation is unfortunate but if he's to be used as a pawn in the struggle then so be it, I still support Rafa in this instance as he's the only one I trust between him, Parry and the Americans. I still think he can win us the league, he's a formidable man with a resevior of self belief which is being tested to the limit. Lets support him against everyone and see if we cant bag number 19 before he leaves us and we move on to the next phase.

Well said. Even Rafas strongest dooubters must realise this isn't the time to undermine the team with calls for a change - we're still in it and being so close is what makes the disappointments of the last month so hard to take. We've had our traditional blip a bit later this season, in January, and that's why we're still in the race. The mancs will drop points, we'll get better, the bottles half full - judge Rafa when the time is right.