West Ham vs Liverpool - Match Thread

Donrafa likes to stiffle peoples opinions - will be his downfall one-day.

Richobaz its not that your opinions are wrong or right or not wanted but maybe you and a few others come to a conclusion to easily.
Some people find calling for change and Rafa to go, just after a defeat like tonights a bit hard to take and it makes them angry.
Your opinion just seems like a knee jerk reaction without discussing the reasons, the context, the form, the psychology the tactical errors etc

Uh Oh Uh Oh Uh Oh Oh Oh
Uh Oh Uh Oh Uh Oh Oh Oh
(Crazy in Love - Beyonce)

I can hear you all saying 'what the f*cks he going on about' has senility set in?

Well the Yanks have finally sorted out a refinancing deal and we are saddled with making the interest payments.  On top of this further money will have to be spent building the stadium incurring even more debt.  Fundamental to paying off these debts, as Man U and Arsenal are, is the requirement to finish in the top four.  In other words, Champions League football.  After the last five games including this loss we are no looking like a team that will finish in the top four.  It is not just the dropped points it is the performances we are putting in which cause me the most concern.  This will not have escaped our American owners who will be getting alarmed at the prospect of the the EUFA cup or worse.

Unless things improve rapidly then I do not see Rafa lasting to the end of the season.  They will probably bring in some Portuguese guy who thinks he's special.  Can this scenario be avoided.  Yes it can if we kick off with a good win against Sunderland with an attacking team of our best players Kewell & Kuyt out, Babbel and Crouch in).  If we lose or draw against Sunderland.............. ......then it's (all together now)

Uh Oh Uh Oh Uh Oh Oh Oh
Uh Oh Uh Oh Uh Oh Oh Oh
  

Grow-up ? , I think the pair of you need to grow up to be honest with ya.

Just found some of the insults flying round quite funny.


.....I am staying out of this though

True. I'm off.

Good night all TRUE red men and women out there... and the other couple ...go and spin quietly with the stars.

Night night!

YNWA
- signed K.K.
(not King Kenny - but as Richo calls me "King Kong"... can I change my forum tag please? - I rather like King Kong)...

Long Dong would work too Richo darling...

Night night!

I haven't seen the game yet so I'm not going to comment on the performance.

But one thing I will say is that I was depressed enough when I heard the result without having to come on to the forum and pages of people arguing. As RK says do it through PM. I wanted to get an insight into the game and what everyone thought went wrong, not the usual bullshit that comes out from certain people when we get beat.

.....imagine after tonights performance , Rafa concludes a deal tonight for a striker ......would be great news to wake up to eh ?

David Villa anyone ?


Ill leave in that vain hope


Goodnight fellow redmen and women

To the guy that was aving a dig at carra, are you F***ing insane??? if you think that then you should go find an anti liverpool forum!!!


In the summer rafa clearly needs to be given as much money as he wants and the freedom he wants.
1. We need another world class striker or play babel up front with him most games and get rid of kuyt and voronin 3 strikers are enough
2. We need wingers with more strength and pace and skill
3. The odd extra english player would'nt go a miss seeing as we are an english team and we dont want to do an arsenal
4. Invest in a world class right back i.e alves as he has everything from tackling, to shooting to pace
5. get insua up to the first team level as he is one for the future and now is the perfect time to mould him into that staus
6. Get pako back or get kenny dalglish as number 2
7. be more physical in games
8. play passing game, move the ball about and split them with the pace of babel and torres


then we would have the quickest attack in the league, the best midfield and the best defence along with pepe

add those ingrediants and it would come to about £60 million and it would be well worth it and would bring home number 19

Needs a bit of work Oldred.

I can't say much about tonight, didn't see it.

I'm just hoping for fourth and not an embarrasing fifth, a decent cup run, and perhaps some silverware to save Rafa's neck, then a couple of new additions in the summer and finally a proper challenge for the Premiership next year.

Basically what I've wished for the past three seasons

Just rewriting this seeing srslfc's reply, and it's a good shout. Can we please discuss football without descending to playground "your a knob" insults....

.....imagine after tonights performance , Rafa concludes a deal tonight for a striker ......would be great news to wake up to eh ?

David Villa anyone ?

Si, por favor, but he just helped Valencia get to the local cup semi final vs Atletico tonight (King Luis had a decent game for Atletico).

Buenas noches, once and for all, and apologies for the outbursts... but some one has to pull these guys into line after insulting Carra and Rafa like that... had to be done, sorry.

I remember when Rafa left Valencia. He cried as he was leaving the interview and apparently most of the Valencia players were heartbroken especailly the Valencia captain at the time!

I remember when Rafa left Valencia. He cried as he was leaving the interview and apparently most of the Valencia players were heartbroken especailly the Valencia captain at the time!

F***ing better not happen here.

Let's not go polishing turds - tonight was awful.

The players need to apologise to the fans who spent money, took time off work, and travelled down to London to watch that poor excuse of  Liverpool side.

Benitez needs to apologise for picking Kuyt and not being more ambitious tactically.

And the Americans need to take their share of the blame for being a pair of pricks.

At this stage, I'd be more than happy to see our Youth side play our next Premiership game. 

Problem was we were a better team than West Ham tonight. We created more chances, scoring chances and we didn't finish them off.

The referee seemed very biased to me today, we should of had a stone wall penalty when Neil was pulling at Leiva's shirt and then the ball hit his hand which is two offenses in one moment. I don't agree with the referee today, we were the better team today but obviously not by much as we didn't win the game.. even though we should of.

RA RA Rafa please look at the match stats for the first 70 minutes we were appaling. West Ham outplayed us and had a 20 minute spell where they had 81% possesion to our 19%, hit the cross bar in the first half and Cole blasted over the bar from yards away. That is the problem ok we didnt win nor draw but there is always a positive at least when a team loses or draws but creates chances. We did not put 5 passes together in the first half we were atrocious abosulutely atrociuous. We have not beaten serious opposition please lets take ou Luton and H&W, but there was Wigan, Villa, West Ham ffc all teams that on an indivudal player to player analyses we are superior.

We dont need David Villa to beat these teams in a well coached and motivated team we wouldnt, I am sorry i just think that Rafa has lost the ability to motivate the team. Ideal reflection on this is Gerrard's body language on the pitch. I feel sorry for Rafa but pending the Champions League fixture i can see Rafa's total demise come the end of February if we do not knock out Inter, and the way that we have been playing by God this will not happen.

I've just finished watching the game and am not prepared to gloss over what was a very poor performance which is nowhere near good enough for Liverpool Football Club. I know we had a few chances and West Ham didn't create very much but I expect a lot better from the team. There are three main areas as a team where I feel we are failing at the minute:

1. Desire.
I'm not sure if this is too strong a word but many of the players do not seem to have the determination to go out and show how good they are. It's no good having the ability if you don't have the will to win as well. Our players should be going out thinking 'We are Liverpool and we are going to show you how good we are'.

2. Passing
In many games recently as well as tonight our passing has not been up to standard. We seem to be playing at a really slow tempo and the players just don't seem capable of stringing two or three passes together. I don't know if it's through a lack of confidence but players want too many touches and when the passes are made they are not crisp enough and our play looks very laboured at times.

3. Creativity
I have said in another thread that I feel there is a real lack of creativity in our play at the minute. When we do get to the final third we often seem to run out of ideas. This is most evident when teams set up to frustrate us by playing a defensive formation. We just don't have the ideas to break these teams down.

To me these three points have been evident too much this season and altough Rafa is guilty of a few selection and tactical errors I put most of the blame on the players. The teams selected for the majority of the games this season have been good enough to win and it's the players that need to look at themselves and ask if they are doing everything they can for the team.

I don't think we deserved to win the game tonight as we didn't play well enough. Also it is clear that there are a few players who are just not good enough for this club. For me the only player to come out with any real credit was Lucas. I thought the left side of the team was non existant for most of the game. Aurelio and Kewell do not seem to be the answer and now I would give Insua his chance in the team. Also CM and up front didn't work tonight. Alonso looked like a player short of match practise and Stevie had a pretty average game. Torres also was well marked by their CB and Kuyt still looks way of the pace. I can't see his form improving anytime soon and don't quite understand why Rafa persists with him when we have Crouch sitting on the bench.

All in all very disappointed with this result and overall recent form, just hoping for a good win and performance against Sunderland to try and lift us from this bad spell.

Worst refereeing display I have ever seen. We weren't great, but it's really easy to get frustrated when the referee is so one-sided. The Torres yellow card? The Alonso yellow card? The Lucas Neill hand ball? Just brutal.

oh dear oh dear oh dear we r beating the paupers on goal difference only and thats IF we win our game in hand. who's it against ? west ham. something is wrong at the club and its giving me sleepless nights where is it going to end ? at this rate the intertoto .wheres that razor blade ? damn can't find it. ...    b,stard gillett's

Didn't catch the game had to go to school but sounds like it was a poor performance. Well you only learns things if you fail, our players obviously have alot to learn. Oh well there is a next game, always there is a next game. Are we still in a chance win the FA cup? Are we a possibility to win the CL? No positives left, think again. The glass is Half-full and always will be at Liverpool FC. Was the referee actually terrible, was our penalty claim valid, what goes around comes around and if the season floats around Karma we are in for a few decisions going our way.
C'mon LFC this isn't you playing!

 A disappointing result to say the least,as other posters have mentioned the players let us down yet again.The left side of the team is definitely deficient and unless we strengthen that side we will continue to have problems.I think we have got to make Mascherano and Lucas Leiva the heart of the midfield and build around them.Dont know what has happened to Alonso but he is not as dominant as he was.If any player does not give 100% in every game then RAFA should give reserves the chance th show what they are capable of.I do not blame RAFA for that result, it is all down to the players.

I'm gobsmacked, not only for our dismal performance but for coming on here and for listening to some of the crap being posted. FFS, I was never a member of the Official LFC.tv website, I just liked to go on there and read anything I could about Liverpool. After a month of reading that bullshit forum, I got sick of it because of the continual abuse they spouted at each other and at our beloved club. Let's not let this happen to this great site.

I know where all pissed off, but what can we do now? we just hope that we come out on Saturday, knock the crap out of Keano and his boys and start that great final run that we have been counting on and hoping for, for so long and see where it takes us.

Two other things, 1) I have to ask the question....does anyone know if Crouchie has been banging Montse? That's the only reason I can think of that Rafa won't play him and persists with Kuyt

2) Ra Ra Rafa, mate I'm stoked, it's nice to have you back on here mate especially with the attitude you're showing...it's obvious the time away has been good for you bud, so look forward to reading your posts mate. Still, it was pretty funny though, when Smiggs asked if you're on any medication.....LMAO

What a shi**er I can handle a draw but to lose at this stage of the season being in the position we are this is BAD.  Something needs to be done and quickly I heard about this fan consortium getting a bid together to buy the club for half a billion but what will that change seriously?

Fair enough.

I happen to think he is the best thing to happen to this club in ages - and his work at the club is not done yet. Not by a mile.

Don't worry mate, I don't think the club will be pushing Rafa ...if/when he goes, it will be Rafa walking away (with a tear in his eye no doubt)... with the full support of the managers association too...

Did you see his post-match interview? He looked tired and very VERY angry... the man has a limit...

He did however make one pretty big mistake - Pako - after 10 winning years together, to think that he could pull it off on his own ...in this his first season alone - was slightly, dare I say it - naive.

No doubt the Pako thing seems to be taking its toll. Suppose some will think it makes Rafa look half the man. There is some logic

Every manager needs some help though. I've heard Pako was the one who basically gave the 'man management' that was required

Anyway, look onto the Sunderland game. We can get three points for sure ..................

If you want BOTTLE - he is the ONLY one at the club, repeat, THE ONLY ONE at the club to stand up to that C U N T called Hicks... so you want genuine bottle - THAT'S F***ing BOTTLE pal.

Yeah, running to the cameras telling them that Hicks doesn't understand the transfer window, when he has £20m of talent sitting on the bench and won't play them. Thats balls that is alright.

I'm gobsmacked, not only for our dismal performance but for coming on here and for listening to some of the crap being posted. FFS, I was never a member of the Official LFC.tv website, I just liked to go on there and read anything I could about Liverpool. After a month of reading that bullshit forum, I got sick of it because of the continual abuse they spouted at each other and at our beloved club. Let's not let this happen to this great site.

I know where all pissed off, but what can we do now? we just hope that we come out on Saturday, knock the crap out of Keano and his boys and start that great final run that we have been counting on and hoping for, for so long and see where it takes us.

Two other things, 1) I have to ask the question....does anyone know if Crouchie has been banging Montse? That's the only reason I can think of that Rafa won't play him and persists with Kuyt

2) Ra Ra Rafa, mate I'm stoked, it's nice to have you back on here mate especially with the attitude you're showing...it's obvious the time away has been good for you bud, so look forward to reading your posts mate. Still, it was pretty funny though, when Smiggs asked if you're on any medication.....LMAO

I'll keep saying it: A PURGE is required.

Out with Kuyt, Riise, Voronin, Finnan, Kewell.....

Like Gordon Gecko says: give me guys that are smart, poor, and HUNGRY.

And if Gerrards not interested he can sling his hook and all.

Thats it lads. Keep the negative votes coming