Sami Hyypia Player Thread

Feel sorry for sami  :/
but this could mean better performances as hell have to prove a point to Rafa  

Mabey Rafa would have told him earlier, perhaps he was waiting to see if Agger was going to be fully fit ?

Huge surprise for me that he's put Agger ahead of Sami, especially as he didn't appear to fancy the dagger so far this season.

I cant believe it He has the experience we could do with against the likes of Aguero. I would have left Degan out because he is'nt even fit yet from injury and we have Arbeloa to play right back and Carra can play there if need be.

Im just lost for words and i expect Sami feels betrayed in a way seeing as he has been an integral part of the team since the day he joined. I would have taken his experience over Degan's lack of experience at this level anyday.

A Dissapointing decision.

While I feel sorry for Sami he should remember it is not the end of the world,he has been good for the club and the club has been good for him.The only advice I would give him is to look at the histort of the late great Bob Paisley,Bob played a blinder in the semi final against Everton in 1950 and was dropped for the final against Arsenal.Bob just got stuck in and thank god he stayed with the club and led us to greatness when Shanks retired.I know there was not much publicity in those days but I cannot recall Bob publicly complaining about the treatment he received.

what a sh*t decision. sami has yars and years of european experience, when we need him and the later stages of games to steady the flow of other teams he would be great. shame, sami seemed to get better and better as the season went on last year. But this is rafa for you, makes his own decisions and some times they work, this might come back to haunt us. we shall see. lets hope we get to the knockout stages and we can include him

Huge disappointment for Sami this, bet he's well gutted, but look on the bright side, once we get through the group stages, I'm sure Rafa will include him in the new squad in January.

Make your presence felt in the League Sami when picked, you can pick up your medal come May with pride then

It was a difficult decision I suppose, but I can't help but feel bad for Sami, highly unlikely he will acheive 100 European appearances for Liverpool now.

Whilst the youth of the club is obviously the way forward, I do feel that his masses of experience could have been vital in the tricky group stages. Let's just hope that the rest of the squad do the business, and who knows? He could get a call up for the knockout stages later on in the season!

Rafael Benitez today explained his thinking behind the decision to leave Sami Hyypia out of Liverpool’s Champions League group games this season. 
The long-serving centre-back was the victim of a new rule implemented by UEFA which states that all clubs taking part in this season's competition must have at least eight home-grown players in their squads for all Champions League matches.
 
"It was really difficult decision, but we had to do it. With the rule saying that you need more or less eight British - or local - players in the squads, we needed to decide which three centre-backs to have for the Champions League," Benitez told Liverpoolfc.tv.
 
Despite Hyypia's frustration, the Liverpool manager stressed that each of his defenders will get plenty of first-team opportunities over the course of the season.
 
"We now have four centre-backs who are good enough so they have to compete," said the boss. "And obviously it depends on the number of games we play and how we progress in the cup competitions too, so there could be a lot of games for many of our players."
 
Meanwhile, Benitez vented his frustration about UEFA's new rule, adding: "Clearly I think it is a mistake. When you play in the Champions League, you need the best players you have on the pitch. It is not about where you are from, it is about the best players. I would understand if this rule came in for the Premier League, but not for the Champions League."
 
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N161232080909-1609.htm

to me personally, that's not really an explaination. He hasn't said why he decided to leave Hyypia out and not Agger or Skrtel or even another player like Degen or N'Gog or even Cavalieri.

So much bickering going on. First Gerrard complains then this?

Hyypia is good, but Skrtel is there, Agger too. Surely we cant have 4 CDs in the squad at the expense of the other squad positions.

Players need to start respecting the Manager's decisions.

i'm sure sami respects rafa's decision, i think the bit he's pissed off about is that rafa didn't tell him that he was doing this when clubs were coming in for him during the transfer window.  i know rafa has to think of LFC, but for a man who has been at the club for over 9 years, i think that rafa should have been completely honest with him, i reckon sami deserved that at least.

having said all that, i agree with rafa that it is a stupid rule by uefa, no doubt one of platinis bright ideas

I bet he is disappointed with the decision but the reality is that if he was put on the squad he wouldn't play that much in the first place in the 6 games, maybe would of got 1 game. Like ayrton77 said maybe we will use him in the knockout phase if we need him.

I think with Carra who has a lot of experience, Agger who does have a UCL final run under his belt and Skrtel we are well cover in the Champions League group stage.

I'm sure sami respects rafa's decision, I think the bit he's pissed off about is that rafa didn't tell him that he was doing this when clubs were coming in for him during the transfer window.  I know rafa has to think of LFC, but for a man who has been at the club for over 9 years, I think that rafa should have been completely honest with him, I reckon sami deserved that at least.

having said all that, I agree with rafa that it is a stupid rule by uefa, no doubt one of platinis bright ideas

Hyypia has a right to be upset. But it's the comments that followed that irks me. All that talk about not being informed when other clubs were putting in bids for him(?) that is just wrong. Sounds like it would have influenced his decision to stay at Anfield or move on if he was informed of this decision(?). Totally uncool, coming from Hyypia. Made it look like Rafa Benitez deceived him.

Hyypia should be glad the club still wants him to wear the Jersey. Airing the manager out like that is so not-right.

Hopefully in a couple of seasons time we'll have a pretty damn good team to field in the CL, just by our recent reserve buy. Rafa thinking ahead, saving us a serious amount of cash. We'd have to keep buying mediocre British for £15-18million a pop.

I agree with you DLS.  Not really a good excuse from Benitez.

Why get Cavalieri in for £3 million when you could have possibly kept hold of Carson.  English player sorted.

I feel sorry for Hyypia, but if the player is being completely honest, it would have been unlikely he would have left in the summer to go to another club who was playing in the Champions League.

Finger crossed he earns himself a very well deserved title medal come May.

Just because he is left out of the group stage does'nt mean that he will be left out of the knock-out rounds so there is every chance we could see him play in europe this season

Why get Cavalieri in for £3 million when you could have possibly kept hold of Carson.  English player sorted.

Carson was on his way out. Made a public spectacle of Rafa's asking price for his transfer to back-tracking Aston Villa. The REDS also needed a second keeper that wasn't so porous.

Solodee, I understand what you're saying.  But I watched Itandje at Anfield last year and he looked decent.

I'm not sure that Cavalieri and Kelly deserve a place in the side ahead of Hyypia.

Itandje is pathetic to put it bluntly. There was nothing else Rafa could do and nobody has mentioned the respect Rafa has for Hyypia and also the fact that Rafa has turned round to Hyypia and said i will play you alot more in the league to make up for you missing out on the champions league squad and PLUS Hyypia could still play in the champions league games come January when the regulations are changed for the knock out stages.

So everybody stop going on about it because it's not a big deal it had to happen anyways.

I feel for Hyypia he is a legend hopefully Benitez is going to include him in the business end of the tournament as that is the time when experience is priceless.  And you don't get much more experience than our Sami!

OK, i agree its sh*t that sami has been left out after so many years of good service to the club, but if you look at the big picture, (and whiule not everyone will sympathise with my point given that not everyone will be english) this ruling could effectively mean better home grown talent. and im sorry i wouldnt mind some more gerrards and carraghers knockin round the new stadium in a few years... not only that but it will benefit the national team and mean better results for england. which i also support, however the throw up between supporting england over liverpools success or vice versa is a tough one to decide. seperate argument me thinksss. (liverpool - premiership and Champions League,,, OR England world cup???). anyway, I think that while the rule may not lead to us fielding the strongest squad it does look more at development which will be better for the future. and no offence to sami but we do have some solid D this season and he aint gonna be round much longer.

OK, i agree its sh*t that sami has been left out after so many years of good service to the club, but if you look at the big picture, (and whiule not everyone will sympathise with my point given that not everyone will be english) this ruling could effectively mean better home grown talent. and im sorry i wouldnt mind some more gerrards and carraghers knockin round the new stadium in a few years... not only that but it will benefit the national team and mean better results for england. which i also support, however the throw up between supporting england over liverpools success or vice versa is a tough one to decide. seperate argument me thinksss. (liverpool - premiership and Champions League,,, OR England world cup???). anyway, I think that while the rule may not lead to us fielding the strongest squad it does look more at development which will be better for the future. and no offence to sami but we do have some solid D this season and he aint gonna be round much longer.

Well, I am English, but I still don't agree with your point! The point in bold is the biggest problem for me - we should be able to field our strongest squad for all competitions. I don't think that limiting our choice of players for the CL squad will change anything about the development of our young English players. IMO this question should be addressed far earlier in the chain of events - better  funding for academies and schools for example - than a simple limitation of squad selection.

For me (and for Carragher! ), it's club first, Country second.

I feel for Hyypia he is a legend hopefully Benitez is going to include him in the business end of the tournament as that is the time when experience is priceless.  And you don't get much more experience than our Sami!

Didn't wanna say this before but...Well See, Unless Skrtel is injured or on a red card, Hyypia doesn't really stand much chance of starting; He is an experienced player, but he is also elderly and slower now. Champions League semi Final against Chelsea (Second leg) is a case in question, Hyypia was a tad bit overwhelmed in that game. The strength we had in the defence weakened with the exit of Skrtel.

Hyypia is good and resourceful, but He should give it a rest. Skrtel is that good. Agger will make a comeback. We still love Hyypia though.