Internal Pressure is Building

Was just browisng through some sites and there is building pressure being applied on Rafa from those within the club. Carragher has come  out and saif that "We are not good enough" this is the second time he has come out in the media with so called reality checks. To top it off now Tommy Smith has come out and criticised Rafa further applying pressure on him. Dissapointing to see that some people within the club have lost faith in the gaffer.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=508760&cc=3436

Kop legend Smith blasts Reds boss Benitez

Legendary Liverpool defender Tommy Smith has launched a stinging criticism of Reds boss Rafael Benitez after his side were knocked out of the FA Cup by Barnsley.



Brian Howard's injury-time winner at Anfield dumped Liverpool out of yet another competition, leaving them with just the Champions League - in which they face Inter Milan this week - to contest.


And Smith, who captained Liverpool to the 1971 league and UEFA Cup double, has hit out at Benitez's controversial rotation policy and decision to rest several key players for yesterday's visit of the Coca-Cola Championship side.


Smith told BBC Radio Five Live: 'In the programme for yesterday's game Benitez said cup competitions are always dangerous if you think you can beat teams easily. So why on earth didn't he put a strong team out against Barnsley?'


Smith admitted Reds fans may finally start to run out of patience with the Spanish boss.


'I should imagine so. At the end of the day Bill Shankly used to tell us you're only as good as your last result. How on earth does Benitez think he's going to win stuff if he puts a second-class team out?


'Because Liverpool's squad is not as strong as I think he thought at the beginning of the season. I don't think he's even got a strong first XI.


'How could he leave (Jose) Reina, (Steven) Gerrard and (Javier) Mascherano out?'


Smith admitted the last-16 European tie with Inter is now do-or-die.


'I'm afraid so,' he said. 'He keeps going on about winning four cups and all that but at the end of the day it's not even entertaining at Anfield at the moment. The crowd keep it going but they booed everybody at the end of the game and quite rightly.


'The first person you put on the team-sheet is Gerrard. How on earth could he sit on the bench for 75 minutes and watch that...then he (Benitez) talks about chances. Well, they've gone. You can't score after the game finishes.'


 

If Tommy was asked to play the number of games in a season and at current modern pace, without slowing down the oppo with the odd kick or two, whoever the manager, HE would SERIOUSLY struggle... and he knows it.

So best thing Tommy could do these days is plug his pipe and give the lads and manager some support in their hour of need.

Plenty of time of post-mortems in the summer (if needed) not now ffs... particularly coming from living legends like Tommy.

I R W T

What can you say as every time I start my blog I find myself agreeing with Tommy and then disagreeing on the same topic at other times,its driving me up the wall.My problem is I agree with rotation but disagree with the way Raffa implements it.Its just I think he does it the wrong way round the first thing to do is win the game and then take some players off early but often games don't open up until the last 20mins and its hard then to influence a game when you come off the bench,I see Raffa's problem but not a way around it other than getting other top players to keep the bench warm more often than they would like.It seems to me that Raffa is damned if he does and damned if he don't but whatever happens this year he deserves to see out his contract.He has my support for what its worth....

Kop legend Smith blasts Reds boss Benitez

Now why would I do a thing like that?  :

Seriously dont understand people doing this. I feel for Rafa i really do to go through everything he has this season and come out the other side still holding your head high is amazing. Im so desperate for rafa to succeed and take us to the title. Winning the champions league this season would do him and the team alot of good and i don't think any manager let alone a man as quiet as rafa deserves what he has gone through.

By selling to the americans is feels as though we have sold our souls to the devil, They seem as though they have just been allowing our club to fall to pieces and they are just in it for the money. They just sit at home and let the media speculation build up to unspeakable levels, They made promises and didnt keep to them and if anyone else will actually back rafa with serious money to buy his first choice players and get rid of others and they genuinly want the best for liverpool football club i welcome them to takeover the club with open arms.

It's a simple fact of life that some people who have ties to our club will not want to see us do badly. And when we do, they'll question the manager just the same as a lot of fans are doing.

Tommy Smith rarely holds back on what he believes and he's got every right to say what he thinks because he's gone from cleaning boots and dressing rooms at Anfield, right the way up to winning big honours. And from the beginning he was learning from Shankly. Whether people agree with him or not is up to them. But at the end of the day he only wants the best for Liverpool and he was as frustrated as anyone one of us after Saturdays game.

Thats true but i do think its unfair for rafa to be blamed all the time. Its all fair that people can blame him for making too many changes but had we been in great form going into the game im 100% sure he would have felt confident in the line up rafa had set for the game and would have no problem with us not playing gerrard etc.

Sometimes the players do need to take some of the blame as it is them kicking the ball and not rafa.

Look every one, Whatever your thoughts on Rafa, the bottom line is, he failed to field his strongest side. He must have known that Barnsley were going to defend deep. He must have known they would throw everything they could at us. He must have known they would run and fight like never before, just because of the occasion. Gerrard, Masch and Reina, if started could have made the difference and if we got ahead, they would still have been rested in the later stages. As it happens, Gerrard was running round like a man possesed towards the end trying to influence the game too late on. Therefore we lost, and he still wasn't rested so nothing gained, only lost! And as for Tommy Smith having his say, The game may be quicker now, but he played in as many as 64 games in a season in his day. Mabey the equivalent of 50 or 52 today,  Did he need a rest? did he bollocks. He's earned the right to critisize. Rafa got it wrong and there's no going back, but how many more times. Lets just get it right tonight !

Pish posh to entertainging football! Mourinho played the exact same style to Benitez which is defend first and he wont the double because his team was worth triple ours or even more. Rafa needs financial backing otherwise we will have a tem full of Aurellio's and Riise's and Voronin's etc which isnt our standard. Tommy can come out and sa ywhat he wants as he has the right to judge but what i dont agree with is the amount of slack people within the club are giving to Rafa. He is under enough pressure with his job and to make a comment like that serves to purpose in gaining morale or lifting anyone's head.