Liverpool V's Wigan 2nd January

Just pure and simple   cant always  put the blame on issues like Paco or the ref  or even rafa
 We are not a full amalgamated team yet,,we always play good for 10 mins and sit back for the next 15
 defence was awfull today ,it was good for us we were playing Wigan    if we were playing like that with any of the top teams we would have finshed empty handed ,
 You cannot start thinking of the next game half way through the game you are playing at that moment
 ffffff........uuuuuuu... ......cccccccc.......kkk kkk

I find it strange to see how untouchable Rafa seems to be. I support Liverpool Football Club. Not any single player and not any single member of staff. It's ok to rant and rave about players who aren't up to scratch but never say anything against the manager. I'm not being smart but I find it very strange and I'm wondering what the origin is for this. Is it Istanbul? If that hadn't happened would he be so immune from criticism as he is today?

Maybe it was Athens. Maybe it was the 2 defeats of Chelski in the CL. Or the defeat of Chelski in the FA Cup. Or the creaming of Arsenal and Chelski in the league last season, or the day trip to Wales in 06. Or the fact that he is inching us towards a league, and has brought in the cream that is torres. And will bring in more and more as he is left alone. If he is. That is,

The title race is over but one good thing to come out of this may well be that the yanks can finally understand what Rafa was on about in terms of improving the quality of the squad.

Rafa has done a sterling job....he's not perfect and he has made mistakes but at least you know where his heart is and we need to take a deep breath and remember we all want the same thing. He'll get it done....just not this season....

we need to clinch the 3rd spot and get some decent cup runs and I'll be happier.....not been a great last few weeks but it will get better given time.

All of the papers tomorrow will be laughing at us. Well not just the papers but everyone will.

After they have stopped laughing they will be placing bets on who will take Rafa's job.

My friends will be torturing me......... fell like absolute sh*t

We were already drawing with teams lik Sheffield WHEN HE WAS HERE. So the problem of CURRENT draws cannot be put down to his ABSENCE, now can it???

its a fair question though, with the money that was spent in the summer we deserve and expect better.  we are liverpool football club after all. to me there seems to be a link with his departure and our average performances.  that is my opinion, which is what this forum is about...opinions.  everyones opinion can differ, but if you are going to use facts....GET 'EM RIGHT.

its a fair question though, with the money that was spent in the summer we deserve and expect better.  we are liverpool football club after all. to me there seems to be a link with his departure and our average performances.  that is my opinion, which is what this forum is about...opinions.  everyones opinion can differ, but if you are going to use facts....GET 'EM RIGHT.

Torres has done his job. So the money was well spent. Give him the big money again, and he will spend well again. I know it.

JD i whole heartedly agree with you in questioning whether Benitez will be in charge come August. I mean FFS its Wigan at Anfield we have everybody back from injury albeit Agger, the squad and 16 selected for this match were done so by Rafa, this is the squad that he said at the start of the season was good enough to win the title. No we are good enough to challenge the title just like any other of the 20 teams in the EPL but we are not even challenging now.

12 points behind Arsenal just after the halfway mark and I am sick of hearing about this game in hand ffs we cant even beat a sh*te team like Wigan with Titus 'the tit' Bramble in the squad and we are forever talking about this one game in hand instead of focusing on winning the game ahead and getting all 3 points. Out of a possible 9 points in the Christmas fixtures we collected 5 against 2 sh*te teams and an average Man City. I hate to say this but i think we have all but conceded the title so early in the season look at the top 3 teams all won this game week, but alas who slipped up Liverpool ffs.

It was so depressing to hear the Kop and Anfield so quiet tonight, I feel for all the die harders who are there week in week out giving their best to support the team F**k that i think its time the players pull their fingers out and start giving us fans something back.

We have to now go all season and not lose nor drop more than 4 points if we want to win the league,impossible !!! no, improbable yes.To many bad home games..

Tonight was an embarrasment.  It's been a pretty awful month or so to be honest.

Reading away defeat.  Inability to score against both Manchester sides left us with 1 point from those possible 6.  And now a draw against Wigan at home.

Poor.  There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for it. 

It simply isn't good enough for Liverpool FC. 

Our home record this season has been absolutely abysmal.

it would be great if the yanks would throw a load of cash at him again, it'll be interesting to see how that pans out.  of course there is no doubting torres class. i dont care how we win the league, buy it, steal it......i dont give a sh*t, i just want it.  enough ranting for one night, i'm off.
'night all

its not to do with pako leaving

and its not to do with Rafa's rotation system

its that our team isn't ready to push for the title

if it wasn't for this years hopes of winning the title then none of us would be this bothered about this result

First half performance personifies every that has gone wrong with the team so far this season - confidence and anxiety.

If we don't score early doors the nerves set in, when the nerves set in, the crowd goes quiet, when the crowd goes quiet the opposotion grows in confidence, when the opposition grows in confidence our passing game breaks down.

The team BADLY wanted to win today and versus Man City... maybe TOO BADLY.

Rafa's body language was that of anger, not calm, cool and collected, most unlike him... I genuinely feel we are near the end of his reign - if we don't make one or two world-class signings - as the media will have a field day.

My personal ranking for tonight would be:

Reina - 6 - where have the world class saves gone when you need them Pepe?

Finnan - 6 - again, looked tired, worked very hard but showing his age when he plays two games in a week
Carra - 7 - solid, as usual
Arbeloa - 6 - overly-nervy in that cb role
Aurelio - 6 - didn't look as good as vs City

Kewell - 6 - had loads of the ball but rarely did much with it
Gerrard - 8 - My MoM, tries so hard to pull the team up
Xabi - 7 - good holding play, had his own war 1st half with Brown (again!)
Masch - 7 - decent game, not his best
Pennant - 6 - should not have played, short of pace, slowness of thought too

Torres - 7 - worked hard, decent goal - but, why was he playing alone?

Subs:
Crouch - n/a, Kuyt - n/a - Yossi - n/a - asked to be miracles workers by a woefully bad coach tonight.

Tonight my friends, tonigh Rafa and his weird selection decisions... actually lost us the game. There I've said it... I'm his biggest admirer - but if he can't send out a team to beat mighty Wigan at home... well then quite frankly we don't deserve to win the damn thing!

Good night. God bless.

I'm not happy tonight, for sure, but something I will never do is insulting or even considering our coach to be sack What the hell is that?..I can and I do share the disappointment to draw at home against Wigan today, but winning our game in hand will bring us 9 points behind the leader..9 POINTS..Hardly the whole ocean to drink is it?...Arsenal and other man u will also loose points against team like Wigan later on, all these talking about who is in front at Xmas win the league and other stupids  statistics got prove wrong year after year..

A lot in here, are following media and pundits blaming RAFA rotation (notice that it seems that this word only apply to Liverpool this year, for some obscures reasons), when mathematically we will be out of it, I will surrender..but not yet....not yet..WE at Liverpool NEVER surrender, how many times did people buried us and we came back proving to all that...MIRACLES ARE POSSIBLE..(remind anyone anything that!!??)...

Really good post..
I think that as a Liverpool fan you can not feel happy with this result, that wouldn't be normal. But i feel like rafa gets the blame far too easy. The team is too blame as well. Rafa can't score the goals for them. Don't take it all out on him. It think we would distance ourselves even more from the title, if we lose him now. It think(hope) the owner realise that.

Seeing as we are half way in the season...there's nothing lost yet. The title race still ain't OVER. I refuse to give up NOW.
With the African Cup coming on, we have to make sure we get points if Arsenal and Chelski start droppin them. Man U wil drop points against loserclubs as well. They can't keep winning forever. They ARE gonna drop points. We have to make sure we're there to STRIKE.
I hope this is the final wake-up call for the squad, havin already had Derby en let's not forget the CL, and that they really preform from now on. We can't afford to drop more points. We just gotta start taking our chances.
This is a setback, and that's all

Ottmar Hitzfeld is leaving Bayern in June....

Media will rekindle the rumour of Rafa going the other way. I still say, Coleman will be linked to the job along with Ronald Koeman and 'The Special Tit' Looking forward to the week ahead.

if it wasn't for this years hopes of winning the title then none of us would be this bothered about this result

are you off your head!  are you a liverpool supporter or what?  you wouldnt be bothered about this result, because we arent ready or the league?  wake up son, derby would be bothered by this result, we are liverpool fc. idiot

I don't realistically believe we're gonna come off better at the end of the season. Rafa's tactics have sometimes let us down, so has own finishing and killing off games. Sometimes i wonder how the league table would have looked like if we hadn't rotated enough or after we beat Derby and up the league table. Rafa has not even got an assistant anymore, all this culminates to these results we've been seeing. I begginning to see us fighting fo a CL spot rather than anything else. Couldn't we just keep a very good eleven for 5 games or a little more and see what happens. It's time we do away with the "loser" tag our rivals put on us. We should even consider the technical direction of the club at the end of the season cos, it aint working at all now.

I don't realistically believe we're gonna come off better at the end of the season. Rafa's tactics have sometimes let us down, so has own finishing and killing off games. Sometimes I wonder how the league table would have looked like if we hadn't rotated enough or after we beat Derby and up the league table. Rafa has not even got an assistant anymore, all this culminates to these results we've been seeing. I begginning to see us fighting fo a CL spot rather than anything else. Couldn't we just keep a very good eleven for 5 games or a little more and see what happens. It's time we do away with the "loser" tag our rivals put on us. We should even consider the technical direction of the club at the end of the season cos, it aint working at all now.

Rafa used to spend the entire game speaking/deliberating with Pako... now all we see is rants, more rants and more rants... not good.

Not good enough.

In my opinion I think it was wrong to play one striker at home against a side who is blatantly only going to defend. In doing so Gerrard was left with part of his game taken away from him. He's not a striker. There was two on the bench!!!! Is this a case of the other strikers not being good enough or to keep either Alonso or Mascherano happy?

I'm sorry. I'm always optimistic. But I got that gut feeling at the final whistle that we have made it too hard for ourselves to go for the league now. That's not saying I want us to give in. But 12 points behind with a mystical 3 points from a game in hand is a little too desperate.

We have given proof once again that no game, no matter the opponent - home or away is a win. There's no easy game these days, that's for sure. But when you have a lot of the ball and struggle to put it in the net, then that speaks volumes.

Maybe a statement from Benitez that he needs the 'best' players? I sincerely hope not. Because if that's the case, I fear for our long term future.

5 midfielders AT home AGAINST Wigan?

Come on - get real.  What a F***ing stupid side to send out. 

I really wonder if the guy is looking to get the sack so he can get a pay-off.  F***ing idiotic.  I don't think anyone at the club deserves to be picking up their wages this week.

But again - you look at that team and they should have hammered Wigan.

Benitez says:

"We need to do almost everything perfect now but if you lose points like this it makes it more difficult.

"When you have chances you need to take them and finish the game.

"Now we need to think about the FA Cup against Luton, you cannot look at the whole season it is too long."

Really good post..
I think that as a Liverpool fan you can not feel happy with this result, that wouldn't be normal. But I feel like rafa gets the blame far too easy. The team is too blame as well. Rafa can't score the goals for them. Don't take it all out on him. It think we would distance ourselves even more from the title, if we lose him now. It think(hope) the owner realise that.

Seeing as we are half way in the season...there's nothing lost yet. The title race still ain't OVER. I refuse to give up NOW.
With the African Cup coming on, we have to make sure we get points if Arsenal and Chelski start droppin them. Man U wil drop points against loserclubs as well. They can't keep winning forever. They ARE gonna drop points. We have to make sure we're there to STRIKE.
I hope this is the final wake-up call for the squad, havin already had Derby en let's not forget the CL, and that they really preform from now on. We can't afford to drop more points. We just gotta start taking our chances.
This is a setback, and that's all

Im sorry but we have had our chances already. The week that Bolton beat Manchester, the week that Arsenal drew with Portsmouth, the week that Manchester lost to West Ham etc etc. We havnt taken our chances and if we aren't now what makes you so sure we will from now on. We had our chances and didnt take them, 08/09 will be a better year when Rafa is still at the helm and a much better squad of new and improved players. Im not saying to look to next season already but we will be more prepared next season. This season is all about getting as much points as possible and sustaining pressure and capitalising on it. So far we havent done it and its something Rafa should look at.

No use in winging about the result title is over.