Rafa wont win the league

yeah i agree, i think that the strikers arent greedy enough, that was the only good side of cissé he was willing to shoot as soon as he has space, unlike kuyt et al.

I can't believe I'm reading this, Rafa can't win us the league? Rubbish. Consider where Rafa has taken us from and where we are today. He doesn't choose to not win the league, he does his best to win every competetion. He doesn't think "Oh Champions League night, I better get my act together and take this one seriously" because that's no sort of attitude ANY manager should have, he tries to win every match and in turn that will win us the league. I'm sorry but its almost as if your saying that Rafa will not win us the league because he doesn't want to, of course he does. Rafa is the manager and he knows best although we can talk about formations and who should have played where and what we should have done, we are not the ones that won us a champions league trophy, we are not the ones that won the FA cup and we are not the ones who are closing the gap between us and United and Chelsea.

Say Rafa does go, who's going to do a better job then him? Considering the money we have, considering the amount of sh*t and crap he takes from the board, noone is going to do it better than our current manager, and this kind of attitude FROM OUR OWN FANS is what spurs the newspapers that make up bullshit speculation which makes Rafa's job harder and in turn damages our titles hopes.

I'm sorry but I just don't like fans who praise and love Rafa while we're on top and winning but totally critisise him when we draw a game. I'm not sure if many of you can remember but Jamie Redknapp said this comment that Rafa cant win the league last season and most of us saw him as a complete c**t for saying it. Maybe some of us need to take a step back and have a look at what we're saying. Maybe its because its the heat of the moment because of the Villa game, but thats no excuse. You should either be with Rafa, or against him. Simple.

Haha where did you get from my post that I wanted Wenger?  I obviously know Wenger wouldn't come to us and I don't want him.  All I was doing was defending my point that to win the Premier League you have to be more ruthless, a point that escaped lil cisse.  Wenger may be a stubborn tw*t and has in recent seasons made WTF decisions but still has the ruthlessness with what he's got to make his team play great football and mount a title challenge.  Okay so last season he fu**ed up by making no signings but still got closer than Rafa did.

I just think Rafa needs to be as ruthless and as clinical as Wenger is.  Kill teams off when you go one up, don't settle for a draw when 0-0 away to Villa and play your class, flair players when you got them.  Screw hardwork if it gets you nothing in the end.  You can run all day until you're sore in the head but one touch of magic can win a game and too many times has Rafa neglected this and left a player on the bench that everyone is screaming for him to bring on.  This is why we won't win the league under him.

Fair enough,  But I can't stand Wenger.  And the way some people go on about him makes you think why he isn't at winning club.   If he was as good as the media portray him  then he would have done as Henry, Viera, Overmars etc have and joined a team that winning is the ultamate objective not building a stadium or keeping the books in good shape.   He is a good cradle snatcher and an entertainer, I'd say the perfect ingredients for a joker, especially when you put his interviews in the mix.

I disagree and agree  :

We played Aston Villa (Yes not the easiest team in the league) Away. To get a draw with them at there ground is actually good. I understand that its the way where playing that is pissing every one off but you must remember its not Rafa's tactics its really us playing a 4-4-2. Yes Rafa does decide to play that and that's why it was a big mistake buying Keane becuase we'd have to play a 4-4-2. Torres dosen't know how to play with someone next to him because he likes to take defenders on not try to get a ball played in too him. Also remember that Villa are certainly no pushovers, 4-4 Against Chelsea last season, Away showed how strong they were so i wouldn't be too dissapointed by the score. I agree with Rafa making the wrong sub choices, Aurelio/N'Gog instead of Babel shows that he has lost faith in Babel which is a bad thing because i really liked Babel, Bare in mind though that last season Benitez made some really stupid subs and it worked, Lucas & Gerrard (Everton), Babel & Torres (Chelsea), So im sure he must have his reasons for doing this. Once Rafa's brain ticks and he realise that we need to be playing our 4-2-3-1 formation which made us only lose one game against United the better

It a bit early to start writing the team off. Really.

I wondered why Babel didn't come on too, but the last time he came on, he was really nothing to sing praises about.

Let's see what happens after the Man U match. It will still be too early then. We can begin to really assess the situation in January.

In fairness to rafa Benitez though, he's working with what he has. We totally need quality wingers. Too late for Quaresma now. I say get the only right winger we have on right now!

I can't believe I'm reading this, Rafa can't win us the league? Rubbish. Consider where Rafa has taken us from and where we are today. He doesn't choose to not win the league, he does his best to win every competetion. He doesn't think "Oh Champions League night, I better get my act together and take this one seriously" because that's no sort of attitude ANY manager should have, he tries to win every match and in turn that will win us the league. I'm sorry but its almost as if your saying is that Rafa will not win us the league because he doesn't want to, of course he does. Rafa is the manager and he knows best although we can talk about formations and who should have played where and what we should have done, we are not the ones that won us a champions league trophy, we are not the ones that won the FA cup and we are not the ones who are closing the gap between us and United and Chelsea.

Say Rafa does go, who's going to do a better job then him? Considering the money we have, considering the amount of sh*t and crap he takes from the board, noone is going to do it better than our current manager, and this kind of attitude FROM OUR OWN FANS is what spurs the newspapers that make up bullshit speculation which makes Rafa's job harder and in turn damages our titles hopes.

I'm sorry but I just don't like fans who praise and love Rafa while we're on top and winning but totally critisise him when we draw a game. I'm not sure if many of you can remember but Jamie Redknapp said this comment that Rafa cant win the league last season and most of us saw him as a complete c**t for saying it. Maybe some of us need to take a step back and have a look at what we're saying. Maybe its because its the heat of the moment because of the Villa game, but thats no excuse. You should either be Rafa, or against him. Simple.

Here here totally agree mate every second post ya see here has IRWT in it at some point then the minute we hit a small bump in the road its like a witch hunt. I can understand everyones frustration at the way the game went but i think maybe both sides were set up not to lose today rather than to win and thats just how the game turned out neither Rafa or MON were prepared to lose face today after the Barry saga and all the bad feeling connected to it.

For F***ing fucks sake, will people shut the F**k up. I guess by sitting joint top Phil Scolari will never win the league either? So we draw one game and all of a sudden we're incapable of winning the league under Rafael Benitez. God help us if we get beat, would that mean we're going to be relegated?

Aston Villa are a F***ing good side with plenty of talented players. We on the other hand were without our skipper and for the best part of the match without our best forward. Now I'm not for one minute saying we played well because we didn't. We haven't played well all season but taking into account the majority of our spine have been either on international duty or carrying knocks, we're still in a very good position. Reina, Arbeloa, Alonso and Torres all had to go to the Euro's final...which other Premiership players got that far? Ballack and Fabregas, two players who've been injured since the season's start. Then we've got Babel, Mascherano and Lucas at the Olympics. Then you're looking at Gerrard carrying an injury since pre-season. Hardly the perfect scenario for a new season.

So we're too negative that's why we had the same amount of chances as Villa. Is O'Neil too negative as well?

Yes Benitez makes mistakes but what manager doesn't? Yes he confuses me with some of his decisions but for fucks sake, we're still in a good position with our best form yet to come. If you think he's too negative well tough sh*t, F**k off and don't celebrate when we win the league. Sit there and moan that we didn't win in style. Moaning just for the sake of it.

For F***ing fucks sake, will people shut the F**k up. I guess by sitting joint top Phil Scolari will never win the league either? So we draw one game and all of a sudden we're incapable of winning the league under Rafael Benitez. God help us if we get beat, would that mean we're going to be relegated?

Aston Villa are a F***ing good side with plenty of talented players. We on the other hand were without our skipper and for the best part of the match without our best forward. Now I'm not for one minute saying we played well because we didn't. We haven't played well all season but taking into account the majority of our spine have been either on international duty or carrying knocks, we're still in a very good position. Reina, Arbeloa, Alonso and Torres all had to go to the Euro's final...which other Premiership players got that far? Ballack and Fabregas, two players who've been injured since the season's start. Then we've got Babel, Mascherano and Lucas at the Olympics. Then you're looking at Gerrard carrying an injury since pre-season. Hardly the perfect scenario for a new season.

So we're too negative that's why we had the same amount of chances as Villa. Is O'Neil too negative as well?

Yes Benitez makes mistakes but what manager doesn't? Yes he confuses me with some of his decisions but for fucks sake, we're still in a good position with our best form yet to come. If you think he's too negative well tough sh*t, F**k off and don't celebrate when we win the league. Sit there and moan that we didn't win in style. Moaning just for the sake of it.

Good post DLS, I wholeheartedly agree with you, but you will always get fickle fans spouting after a 'bad' game.  Not that todays game was bad,  just not as good as it should be considering the circumstances.  Get a grip everyone   :

Im not saying saying Rafa wont win us the league. I think with the right support he will, not only from the board, but from the backroom staff, the players and MOST IMPORTNANTLY - US!!!

Unfortuately rafa still choses to tinker and i dont think he realises what his best 11 or formation is. we need to play to our strengths not to other teams weaknesses.

dunlop_liddell_shankly, Spot on with that post

I didn't actually remember how many players were actually injured or out  

 we will not win the league under benitez ..  glenn hoddle and jamie redknapp were spot on before... and andy gray hit the nail on the head in the last word ..rafa is to cautios

we will not win the league under benitez ..  glenn hoddle and jamie redknapp were spot on before... and andy gray hit the nail on the head in the last word ..rafa is to cautios

There is a reason why the 3 names you have mentioned are sitting in a television studio and not a dug out mate i mean we all remember what a fantastic manager Hoddle was dont we!!

DLS, couldn't have said it better myself...agree with every word!

so you think what they said was wrong ...

So 100+ goals last year is Benitez being too cautious? 3 goals in the last five or ten minutes this season is Benitez being too cautious? Those three games this year Benitez could of happily said to the players "sit back lads, we'll take the draw (or pens in Liege's case)" but he didn't. He wanted to get maximum points out of the Premiership games and he did. We draw one game and people want him gone.

I'm not Benitez' biggest fan, go read the "rafa MUST win the league thread" you'll see the aggro I got for that. I think he has got to win the league this year because he came with a 5 year plan and it doesn't take 5 years to get Liverpool Football Club 2nd/3rd/4th. But he's taking us into the right direction this year. We're joint top of the league, the two most exciting sides in the league (United and Arsenal) aren't. But we are. When we beat United in a couple of weeks, what will be the response then by those who want him sacked right here right now. Will you still be saying "he can't win the league" or will you come crawling with your tail between your legs saying "when i said he wouldn't win the league, i meant he wouldn't win it with that tactic. but today against United he proved he does know to attack"

we are joint top of the league and playing crap.  every team has a glitch in the season, we are having ours now and are still joint top!!!!!!!!!!!!! we have not had a settled team since the season started due to injuries, olympics, plus damaging transfer speculation and continuing problems at board level with the knobs from the states, and yet we haven't lost!!  we now have a break for internationals and hopefully when we get back we can start to see some improvements.  at some point the team will click and all the band wagon doubters will get behind the manager team.  Villa are a decent side with decent players, they are no walk over any more, and despite what happened in the summer Martin o neil is a decent manager who knows how to get the best out of his team.  i know the style of play is not great at the moment, but we have played to games from 3 away from home and have 7 points.  not to bad for a misfiring team!

i'm not saying sack him.he's proved over the years he's a good manager  who we all like.but his tactics and decisions are very baffling

we will not win the league under benitez

i'm not saying sack him

OK so you're happy not winning the league? Well done mate.

We're after a good start to the season(with results/points...not standard of play) and now we have drawn one game and "we won't win the league"...Still I hear a lot of people say that Chelsea are the team this year.Chelsea have won 2 and they drew today, we won 2 and we drew today but Chelsea are still the team and we won't win the league.....?!

i would rather us win the league more than anything .. if it's with rafa all the better . it's just really frustrating at times the way we play teams

i would rather us win the league more than anything .. if it's with rafa all the better . it's just really frustrating at times the way we play teams

but it can't be with Rafa can it, by your own admission we won't win the league with him. So surely if you want to see Liverpool win the league, Rafa must be sacked no?

It's too early in the season for a thread like this one- three league games, gone and we already have Rafa basher thread.

I understand completely that we haven't played our best in the games so far but at the end of the day it's the points that count and we have 7 out of 9 which really is not that bad.
Already, there is no team which has 9 points out of 9, this is (arguably) the best league in the world, we can't expect every game to be a stroll in the park.
Teams like Villa are trying to prove a point and are trying to show how they will break into the top 4, they're going to make it difficult when they play us, especially when we're away.

Heads up folks, we've still got a long way to go

I can't believe this has started so early into the season. I'm not going to say we played well today as I was just as frustrated as most of you watching the game.

I would also like to know from those who don't belive Rafa is the right man for the job then who is. It's interesting that no-one seems to mention any names after saying they want rid of Benitez.