What has gone wrong?

Paco was an assistant manager who loved the idea of getting players to do intense training... now he's gone and you can see whats happened.

Yep. We've stopped losing games in the league and had our best Premiership start in a decade.

Quick let's get him back.

 

Yep. We've stopped losing games in the league and had our best Premiership start in a decade.

Quick let's get him back.

 

That in a nutshell speaks volumes to me...best start in 10 years...since 2000 the highest finishing position has been 2nd but only once. It has also been the first season in 5 years that we have topped the table.

There are too many negatives been used on this forum of late please show a little bit more realism, we are not in the playground at school anymore

Mate he didn't win us three points last week, the ref did! Also it was just from the penalty spot, anyone could of done that!

He did win us the three points last week. I've seen Fowler hit the post from a pen in a derby. Not to mention he hadn't scored in the league this season until he put those two pens away. And all the ref done was deny a pen or two. He didn't disallow any goals.

We are in a better position than we have ever been at this stage of a season under Rafa. It has become apparent that his policies tend to hold us back at the start of the season before we start to see the dividends later on, the only thing in the past has been that we've fallen too far behind and not been able to make up the ground. As things stand we are 6 points off the lead having played two of the 'big three', win our game in hand & we're ahead of Chelsea & only three points behind Utd. Arsenal will slip up at some point, they haven't got the depth in their squad to carry on like this all season, so as long as we're still within touching distance come christmas I won't be panicking.

i won't be panicking either......fact is it is only October and a long way to go till May. As long as we stay in touching distance then we will always be in with a chance. We haven't lost yet in the prem and we aren't playing well which is a good thing if we can dig out results during this period. We have proved earlier on in the season that we can play well

we played arsenal just when then have been playing absolutely fantastic football.

We need to look at the bigger picture and not be so negative. Wenger has been creating that team for some time now...it was a very young

 team and its just beginning to come good. I think we will also need time to get this current squad up to the same level in which to play great football.....it will come, honest

Once again being a realist...I dont want this to happen, however, I wouldnt be suprised if Rafa gets the boot if we continue this horrid run that we're on....if we were losing/drawing and playing well, there can be positives to draw from the matches, and through my own experience of this, sought after results will come through playing good football...at the moment, we cant draw on many positives from our matches, stevie g continues to save our asses...
I still believe that Rafa should take a leaf out of Wenger's book when it comes to coaching....buy players who fit your philosophy and style of football, buy players who mould to it, and can play it whilst developing and growing....get rid of players who no longer can produce the goods....
Football is simple, we make it hard for ourselves....

Same as running a business.....you organise your resources in a way that they'll perform at their best....and you hire staff according to your criteria knowing they will fit the mould and produce the goods.....

^^

You seem to suggest that we are on a 'horrid run' and that we would be better losing and playing well.

At the end of the day it is results that matter and not performances.  That's what gets managers sacked.  Mourinho played some proper dour football at Chelsea but they were trotting out the 1-0 victories here and there and won league titles. 

I still believe that the first step on the road to becoming Champions is becoming a difficult side to beat.  In the Premiership at least the reds do appear to refuse to throw in the towel when they are losing and this happened against Spurs and Everton.

We just need to start landing those 1-0's now. And that's down to the strikers

I agree that you need to be hard to beat to become champions,are we really that convincing at the back(with hyypia and riise)we need more strenght than that when we get injuries.Torres aside which one of our strikers is going to score?And strikers aside who's going to chip in with goals from midfield and defense(apart from Gerrard)?

We are in a better position than we have ever been at this stage of a season under Rafa. It has become apparent that his policies tend to hold us back at the start of the season before we start to see the dividends later on, the only thing in the past has been that we've fallen too far behind and not been able to make up the ground. As things stand we are 6 points off the lead having played two of the 'big three', win our game in hand & we're ahead of Chelsea & only three points behind Utd. Arsenal will slip up at some point, they haven't got the depth in their squad to carry on like this all season, so as long as we're still within touching distance come christmas I won't be panicking.

True. Plus  take out the injuries and Liverpool has a quality team plus quality subs to keep it fresh till the end of the season.

I feel we could be wining some or even most of the matches we are drawing but for poor finishing. The team as a whole are not performing well and to suggest it is down to injuries is not on. Go back six or seven matches, we were playing pretty awefull stuff then and we only had the occasional injury, not two or three at a time a we have now.

I feel we could be wining some or even most of the matches we are drawing but for poor finishing. The team as a whole are not performing well and to suggest it is down to injuries is not on. Go back six or seven matches, we were playing pretty awefull stuff then and we only had the occasional injury, not two or three at a time a we have now.

I agree with drawing way too may matches, With the Chelsea match, we were robbed, but Portsmouth (0-0), Birmingham City (0-0) Tottenham (2-2), Arsenal (1-1) and Blackburn (0-0), it really points to a problem in the attacking and midfield game. Whatever happened to the goal hunger that saw Derby County and Toulouse crushed?

We dont want to depend on other teams dropping points before we can catch up. I must say, however, that 6 points shy of the top shy isn't so bad.

we are in the best position thats been held under Rafa, but we could have been easily over arsenal if we had no injuries. this proves that we might need some more players. i honestly think that when we have no squad injuries, which will be soon hopefully that things will start to pick up speed again. im not stressing about it yet, just wish these injuries didnt happen though.

we are in the best position thats been held under Rafa, but we could have been easily over arsenal if we had no injuries. this proves that we might need some more players. I honestly think that when we have no squad injuries, which will be soon hopefully that things will start to pick up speed again. im not stressing about it yet, just wish these injuries didnt happen though.

Last season, Crouch got the most goals for liverpool, the season before the last, Gerrard hit the back of the net a lot, this season, Torres was hitting it until the injury. this just points to one thing, Gerrard, Crouch and Torres get more goals than the rest. Solution: come January; We need another quality striker, we also need a quality left back, say Taiye Taiwo, since Agger can take over from Hypia.

Goals win games.

A few of them per game and you tend to draw less, and lose even fewer.

We NEED goals.

AV, DK and RB have been failures IMHO so far this season...

DK probably given benefit of doubt if argued for his work ethics (and those pens v the bluenoses!).

PC not played enough... with Rafa probably looking for offers for Jan... I wonder who Rafa has up his sleeve for Jan...

Torres needs to come back... would give NZ a run in the team - why the hell not? the rest of the forwards are firing blanks, week-in, week-out.

Babel the biggest dissapointment... was maybe over-expecting from him, given his price-tag...

Let's be fair on Babel.  As far as I have seen he has played about one full game as a striker (his preferred position).

Out of all the reds players, bar maybe Gerrard, he looks the least frightened of actually having a crack at goal.  When fans start picking on 20 year old players like this it pisses me off something chronic.  Let him keep his confidence, let him keep having a crack at goal, and give him a chance up front.

I am convinced he will become a great player for us.

Agree there JD.  The lad needs some time to fit into our ST line.

TBH with Voronin looking like he couldn't score to save his life at the moment we really should be sticking Babel upfront.

Now with Kewell back (for how long) I think Babel will probably get the run upfront that he deserves.

He's the one apart from torres that has a cutting edge, he has a lot for the defenders to think about. 

He's the one apart from torres that has a cutting edge, he has a lot for the defenders to think about. 

He is also not scared to take on defenders and leave them looking at his heels

Ok I know you guys are probably sick of hearing this but I feel that its no coincidence that we've been far from convincing since Paco left us.

Can we finally shove all this Paco talk now then?