Everyone needs to calm down

[Huyton_Red]

This is NOT a 2002-3 season replay and it is NOT rafa benitez's 'plateau'

 

There are three main reasons we find ourselves where we are this morning, it has f?ck all to do with tactics or playing gerrard right or zonal marking at corners or player rotation.

 

8 or 9 players have all lost form at once, including the two top dogs carragher and gerrard. This has coincided with a run of very tough games which has now meant the teams confidence has fell through the floor along with its form.

 

Last season we went on two runs of winning 11 and then 13 games in a row ( I maybe one or two games out with that, cant remember the exact amount of games)

 

We rotated every game last season

Gerrard played wide right for most of last season

Hyypia and Carragher were at centre back for most of last season

Reina was in goal for most of last season

Alonso and Garcia played for most of last season

We played with two holding midfielders in front of the back four last season, which Andy Gray ludicrously pointed out as being a ?problem? on sky yesterday

We played with one up front for lots of games last season

 

The only difference, in what the manager is doing, is Harry Kewell, and although his influence was greatly underestimated by lots, even his biggest fans would not suggest he is the reason we have suffered this bad run.

 

Rafa Benitez knows far more about tactics and his players than Andy Gray, Jamie Redknapp, Richard Keys, the 300 journalists in this mornings papers, the 100 nob eds on the phone ins and the 50 posters on here who are ripping his footballing philosophy and his tactics to bits.

 

This man won the EUROPEAN CUP with houlliers squad for f?ck sake, something mourhino hasn?t done with Chelsea yet and something ferguson has done ONCE in 21 years. He then won the FA cup and delivered a very good league season as well. Its f?ckin October and already people are talking about how long he has got, whether he knows what he is doing.

 

Get a grip yeh sh?t bags ? the players form WILL come back and Liverpools results WILL improve. We will still be rotating, gerrard will probably still play a lot of games wide right, we will still be zonal marking.

 

What does he do ? Alonso?s form has took a huge dip and people say drop him and put gerrard in the middle, ok, then we play pennant wide right and his form is also very poor, so we replace one problem with another.

 

Hyypia and carraghers form is very poor, with hyppias distribution being atrocious yesterday, OK he will bring agger in when he is fit again like he has done already this season.

 

The keeper ? He did really well yesterday, he even nearly stopped scholes goal so he was right to stick with him

 

Up front ? Bellamy was injured, yes we could have played crouch and kuyt up there but he decided to go with Garcia in the hole, which has worked for us countless times before in the big games, unfortunately garcias form is also currently atrocious.

 

The manager currently has a squad in which a huge amount of the players have suffered a catastrophic dip in form, this has coincided with a very difficult run of away games. He is doing the best he can and we are ALL just going to have to bear with this until it sorts itself out. If it doesn?t sort itself out, then he will get rid of the players who don?t improve, the mans not stupid, he?s a footballing f?ckin genius for god sake, if the players continue to let him down they will be on their way and he will bring other ones in.

 

Liverpool will win the league under Rafa eventually, if they all found form again could any of you say they wouldn?t be able to win the European cup, or FA cup again ? On there day they can beat anyone in Europe. Its October, so get off the back of the best manager we have had since Kenny and grow a pair of b?ollocks you sh?t bags

[Guest AnfieldGrass]

You think this mass dip in form is coincidence or symptomatic?

[Ronnie Whelan]

I was driving home from watching the match yesterday and listening to the radio. Newstalk, probably the best radio station on the Irish wavelengths, have a Sunda sports show and the journo's question immeditately after match was "Liverpool loose again, Liverpool fans, is it time for Benitez to go?". I nearly crashed with anger. Of course this type of baiting is exactly what the majority of kneejerkers want. Calls of "of course he should go", "tactically clueless", "know nothing of the english game", f***ing unreal to listen too. We have had a bad start to the season, and at this stage our title hopes are hanging by a very slim thread, but lets get f***ing real.

[quibs]

 

Totally spot on.. We need to get behind the boys, shouldnt be asking for anyone to be sacked. We will still be there or there abouts end of the season.

 

Plus point now is that everyone will say we out the title race and obviously right fully so, no we can concentrate on performing and going on long unbeaten runs climbing up the table with no one noitcing.

[Huyton_Red]

You think this mass dip in form is coincidence or symptomatic?

 

A coincedence

 

How else can it be explained ?

 

One,two, three even four players usually have dips, what we have seen in the last few weeks is 8 or 9, with the major players like gerrard and carragher, the ones who would usually drag the team through tough games with no one else playing well and score a goal or keep a clean sheet also suffering a dip

 

It is not symptomatic, explain how it could be

[Guest mick the baker]

This is NOT a 2002-3 season replay and it is NOT rafa benitez's 'plateau'

 

There are three main reasons we find ourselves where we are this morning, it has f?ck all to do with tactics or playing gerrard right or zonal marking at corners or player rotation.

 

8 or 9 players have all lost form at once, including the two top dogs carragher and gerrard. This has coincided with a run of very tough games which has now meant the teams confidence has fell through the floor along with its form.

 

Last season we went on two runs of winning 11 and then 13 games in a row ( I maybe one or two games out with that, cant remember the exact amount of games)

 

We rotated every game last season

Gerrard played wide right for most of last season

Hyypia and Carragher were at centre back for most of last season

Reina was in goal for most of last season

Alonso and Garcia played for most of last season

We played with two holding midfielders in front of the back four last season, which Andy Gray ludicrously pointed out as being a ?problem? on sky yesterday

We played with one up front for lots of games last season

 

The only difference, in what the manager is doing, is Harry Kewell, and although his influence was greatly underestimated by lots, even his biggest fans would not suggest he is the reason we have suffered this bad run.

 

Rafa Benitez knows far more about tactics and his players than Andy Gray, Jamie Redknapp, Richard Keys, the 300 journalists in this mornings papers, the 100 nob eds on the phone ins and the 50 posters on here who are ripping his footballing philosophy and his tactics to bits.

 

This man won the EUROPEAN CUP with houlliers squad for f?ck sake, something mourhino hasn?t done with Chelsea yet and something ferguson has done ONCE in 21 years. He then won the FA cup and delivered a very good league season as well. Its f?ckin October and already people are talking about how long he has got, whether he knows what he is doing.

 

Get a grip yeh sh?t bags ? the players form WILL come back and Liverpools results WILL improve. We will still be rotating, gerrard will probably still play a lot of games wide right, we will still be zonal marking.

 

What does he do ? Alonso?s form has took a huge dip and people say drop him and put gerrard in the middle, ok, then we play pennant wide right and his form is also very poor, so we replace one problem with another.

 

Hyypia and carraghers form is very poor, with hyppias distribution being atrocious yesterday, OK he will bring agger in when he is fit again like he has done already this season.

 

The keeper ? He did really well yesterday, he even nearly stopped scholes goal so he was right to stick with him

 

Up front ? Bellamy was injured, yes we could have played crouch and kuyt up there but he decided to go with Garcia in the hole, which has worked for us countless times before in the big games, unfortunately garcias form is also currently atrocious.

 

The manager currently has a squad in which a huge amount of the players have suffered a catastrophic dip in form, this has coincided with a very difficult run of away games. He is doing the best he can and we are ALL just going to have to bear with this until it sorts itself out. If it doesn?t sort itself out, then he will get rid of the players who don?t improve, the mans not stupid, he?s a footballing f?ckin genius for god sake, if the players continue to let him down they will be on their way and he will bring other ones in.

 

Liverpool will win the league under Rafa eventually, if they all found form again could any of you say they wouldn?t be able to win the European cup, or FA cup again ? On there day they can beat anyone in Europe. Its October, so get off the back of the best manager we have had since Kenny and grow a pair of b?ollocks you sh?t bags At last someone with a bit of nouse posts a reality check,we have some fickle fans out there, dont we, rafa will sort it out,give the man time and lets all back him.

[Guest AnfieldGrass]

 

A coincedence

 

How else can it be explained ?

 

One,two, three even four players usually have dips, what we have seen in the last few weeks is 8 or 9, with the major players like gerrard and carragher, the ones who would usually drag the team through tough games with no one else playing well and score a goal or keep a clean sheet also suffering a dip

 

It is not symptomatic, explain how it could be

 

 

First of all I dont know what it is to be honest, and I'm not implying this os the other because I can;t possibly know. However when you have almost the whole team in a slump you have to ask whether such a situation a rose purely out of a clear explanation (ie int'ls, tiredness), if it's a coincidence (then it's a rather extreme one), or if it's a symptom of a deeper issue in the squad.

 

It's worth asking.

[Kahnee]

This is how bad things have got - I find myself agreeing with Huyton

[chrisbonnie]

thats a yodaesque post,

 

totally true, i now feel like wearing my jersey to work

[alias75]

Agree entirely with the original post, everyone is looking for tactical reasons why we've had the bad start when the obvious fact is too many of our players are off form.

 

Now it could be argued that their off form because their playing out of position, but as has been pointed out the players are in the main playing in the same roles as when we went on those great unbeaten runs last season.

 

The squad is stronger than last season, almost all the new players have shown signs of being good additions (Pennant is the one im still not convinced by) but the problem isnt the rotation or the formation its the simple fact that our key players havent been performing to a consistently high level.

 

We're so used to players like Gerrard, and Carragher and Alonso being at least 7 out of 10 every week that when they're not we start asking questions about the manager when the truth is their simply not playing well. Players arent machines and they will go through dips in form, it just so happens that most games this year we've had 4 or 5 (or more) off form at the same time.

 

Im not sure what the solution is except keep playing these guys and eventually they will find some form, the league is gone for this season, but as we saw last year once the team gets on a roll and our key players are playing well we're a match for anyone and another CL run isnt out of the question if we can find form at the right time.

 

My one comment on team personnel is Agger must now be considered first choice centre back when fit, his distribution and ability on the ball is badly needed.

[Knox_Harrington]

We're missing Kewell and Didi a hell of a lot and I think that players are letting their heads go down far too quickly. Happened against Bolton, Everton and Man U.

 

Other than that I agree with Huyton.

[bazz]

First of all I dont know what it is to be honest, and I'm not implying this os the other because I can;t possibly know. However when you have almost the whole team in a slump you have to ask whether such a situation a rose purely out of a clear explanation (ie int'ls, tiredness), if it's a coincidence (then it's a rather extreme one), or if it's a symptom of a deeper issue in the squad.

 

It's worth asking.

 

 

It actually is.

 

I mean, when have entire teams lost their form all at once?

Its very,very rare indeed. Maybe some players are questioning the way they are playing and the rotation of players on form - imagine what Gerrard is thinking that his "mate" Crouch is in good form and scoring goals and Garcia is not and is playing 90 minutes ahead of him.

 

Its like all forms of life, when a few people(players in this case) have a small issue with the way the team/workteam is going, then questions start to be asked in the little corners by cliques of players/workers.

 

Its a natural occurance and ir could be an explanation to the form/body language of the players at present.

[Woodsyla]

8 or 9 players have all lost form at once, including the two top dogs carragher and gerrard. This has coincided with a run of very tough games which has now meant the teams confidence has fell through the floor along with its form.

 

The more I think about the more I think we are suffering not from the World Cup but from our early European Campaign. Look at the players who are out of sorts. They are the ones who shone in Istanbul and the ones who played in the early rounds last season, Gerrard, Alonso, Sami, JAR, Carra and little Luis have played a hell of a lot of footy in the last 18 months. I reckon we are suffering now because of that. On the positive side, the rotation that is the press weapon of choice against Rafa will once again be our saviour as come Feb, when the players who have played week in week out start to tire, our squad will still be fresh and will go on a run that will guarantee us a place in the CL league next season.

 

The league is gone but we still have a 6th European Cup to be won. Next season, when the players have a proper summer off we really will start to reap the benefit of rotation.

[Guest Cardie]

I don't think nearly every player in the squad being out of form can be dismissed as coincidence.

 

Out of

 

Reina, Dudek, Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Hyppia, Paletta, Aurelio, Warnock, Riise, Pennant, Garcia, Gerrard, Alonso, Sissoko, Zenden, Kewell, Gonzalez, Crouch, Fowler, Kuyt, Bellamy.

 

How many would you say are playing at their peak?

 

Dudek, Paletta, Warnock, Fowler, Kewell have hardly played.

 

Agger and Possibly Crouch have been the only ones playing anywhere near their peak.

 

The rest have had regular run outs and aren't doing it at the moment. Their has to be a reason other than coincidence.

[Phil236849]

 

How many would you say are playing at their peak?

 

 

that's the wrong test. there's only a handful of players playing at their peak of form at any one time.

 

arsenal have henry, fabregas, maybe toure and the keeper

 

chavski - drogba, essien, makelele

 

united - ronaldo, saha, giggs

 

its not like a squad of 25 should be expected to be at their peak. it'd be good if we had a few, but we dont. that's what happens when the team is on a bad run. when united and arsenal were struggling last year, how many did nthey have playing at their peak?

[yellow jumper]

personally think there is a combination of factors. all of which have been covered to some extent or another. wouldn't be surprised if there is some tension behind scenes over rotation, long season followed by world cup, change to more attacking style and new crop of players leading to inconsistencies.

 

think carragher and gerrard should be allowed their slumps. they've been outstanding for 18 months. i do get pissed off with SG's demeanour at times though. not only does it bring him a whole lot of grief (and unneccesary speculation), it also does his teammates no favours.

 

alonso has always been susceptible to dips in form. he was always streaky at sociedad. he's only 24.

 

i've advocated garcia's inclusion, and the game on sunday was a massive opportunity for him to prove he deserves to start every game as the link man. he f***ed it up. he's been better as a substitute for too long and can't expect to be anything more than that unless he begins to show consistency game in, game out.

 

pennant needs to show he has the confidence to succeed at a big club. i think he has the talent.

 

bellamy will do what crouch did over the coming weeks.

 

we'll improve.

[Guest Wilko]

This is NOT a 2002-3 season replay and it is NOT rafa benitez's 'plateau'

 

There are three main reasons we find ourselves where we are this morning, it has f?ck all to do with tactics or playing gerrard right or zonal marking at corners or player rotation.

 

8 or 9 players have all lost form at once, including the two top dogs carragher and gerrard. This has coincided with a run of very tough games which has now meant the teams confidence has fell through the floor along with its form.

 

Last season we went on two runs of winning 11 and then 13 games in a row ( I maybe one or two games out with that, cant remember the exact amount of games)

 

We rotated every game last season

Gerrard played wide right for most of last season

Hyypia and Carragher were at centre back for most of last season

Reina was in goal for most of last season

Alonso and Garcia played for most of last season

We played with two holding midfielders in front of the back four last season, which Andy Gray ludicrously pointed out as being a ?problem? on sky yesterday

We played with one up front for lots of games last season

 

The only difference, in what the manager is doing, is Harry Kewell, and although his influence was greatly underestimated by lots, even his biggest fans would not suggest he is the reason we have suffered this bad run.

 

Rafa Benitez knows far more about tactics and his players than Andy Gray, Jamie Redknapp, Richard Keys, the 300 journalists in this mornings papers, the 100 nob eds on the phone ins and the 50 posters on here who are ripping his footballing philosophy and his tactics to bits.

 

This man won the EUROPEAN CUP with houlliers squad for f?ck sake, something mourhino hasn?t done with Chelsea yet and something ferguson has done ONCE in 21 years. He then won the FA cup and delivered a very good league season as well. Its f?ckin October and already people are talking about how long he has got, whether he knows what he is doing.

 

Get a grip yeh sh?t bags ? the players form WILL come back and Liverpools results WILL improve. We will still be rotating, gerrard will probably still play a lot of games wide right, we will still be zonal marking.

 

What does he do ? Alonso?s form has took a huge dip and people say drop him and put gerrard in the middle, ok, then we play pennant wide right and his form is also very poor, so we replace one problem with another.

 

Hyypia and carraghers form is very poor, with hyppias distribution being atrocious yesterday, OK he will bring agger in when he is fit again like he has done already this season.

 

The keeper ? He did really well yesterday, he even nearly stopped scholes goal so he was right to stick with him

 

Up front ? Bellamy was injured, yes we could have played crouch and kuyt up there but he decided to go with Garcia in the hole, which has worked for us countless times before in the big games, unfortunately garcias form is also currently atrocious.

 

The manager currently has a squad in which a huge amount of the players have suffered a catastrophic dip in form, this has coincided with a very difficult run of away games. He is doing the best he can and we are ALL just going to have to bear with this until it sorts itself out. If it doesn?t sort itself out, then he will get rid of the players who don?t improve, the mans not stupid, he?s a footballing f?ckin genius for god sake, if the players continue to let him down they will be on their way and he will bring other ones in.

 

Liverpool will win the league under Rafa eventually, if they all found form again could any of you say they wouldn?t be able to win the European cup, or FA cup again ? On there day they can beat anyone in Europe. Its October, so get off the back of the best manager we have had since Kenny and grow a pair of b?ollocks you sh?t bags

 

 

With such words of wisdom have you ever thought of applying for a managers job,it should be a piece of piss for you.

[Andy @ Allerton]

The only people that think Rafa should go are knobheads that know nothing about football and journal.. Ah, actually - they are covered in the first bit..