Liverpool tonight/Benitez

Off_it

Heard on the news about how well they played - best performance of the season - dominated the game against the form side in Europe, etc.

Just watching the highlights and see that they played against 10 men for over an hour and only scored right at the end. They really aren't that good are they, considering the dough Benitez has splashed out over the years. Forget winning the Champions League - anyone who watched that games knows they were very, very lucky - I don't think Benitez is up to the job.

If Charlie Block was a Liverpool fan he'd be ringing up 5Live demanding that his clubs manager got the sack. Oh .......... hang on a minute ..........!

Ledge

FOOKING HATE 'EM

The 2 bookings for Materazzi were a joke despite him being a dirty swine

stoneroses19

Was crap match to be honest, not exactly good advert for champs league. Had 0-0 written all over it from the way both teams started. Sending off was pretty harsh and then milan lost another defender part way through 2nd half.

Reina didnt have a save to make from what i can remember so in that way liverpool did deserve the win.

Neither side looked liked they wanted to be playing though.

Carter

Needed matchsticks in my eyes to get through the first half.

Thought the Liverpool players were playing like many of ours have over the last 18 months. With fear and apprehension.

Lookout sort the spell thing out mate!!!

LoOkOuT

[cite]Posted By: Carter[/cite]Lookout sort the spell thing out mate!!!

Ha! No one used it anyway!!!! Download a decent browser like FireFox with built in spell cheque (sic) support. Hint: Charlton Life gets paid for every download and first time install of FireFox thru that link, so get going ;-)

In terms of the football: Saw a bit of the second half and didn't see much to keep me interested whatsoever. Mind you, talk about boring! Flicking through saw a bit of the Chelsea. Lasted about a minute. Would rather have seen the mighty CAFC Academy's dominant performance tonight... Now I'd pay to see that over here on pay-per-view.

Ketman

The thing that wound me up watching that last night was as soon as they get to 60 mins & don't score they bring that 6ft 7in geek on & spend the rest of the game lumping the ball to him, it's not pretty to watch & if he ever plays for England again I'll be booing his name on the teamsheet, makes all the teams he plays for including England One Dimensional & predictable.

oohaahmortimer

[cite]Posted By: Ketman[/cite]The thing that wound me up watching that last night was as soon as they get to 60 mins & don't score they bring that 6ft 7in geek on & spend the rest of the game lumping the ball to him, it's not pretty to watch & if he ever plays for England again I'll be booing his name on the teamsheet, makes all the teams he plays for including England One Dimensional & predictable.

totally agree and i've said to me mates who are scouse fans that they'll never win the premiership while that long uns playing in the team

T

The most bizarre thing is that he's actually a bit shit in the air and looks a better player when it's given into his feet... yet they still lump the ball to him

Elthamaddick

[cite]Posted By: T[/cite]The most bizarre thing is that he's actually a bit shit in the air and looks a better player when it's given into his feet... yet they still lump the ball to him

Are we talking about Iwelumo now then ?

Off_it

Wind the clock on 6 months and my opinion of them hasn't changed on elittle bit. Had the misfortune to sit throught their match with Villa this afternoon - God it was awful.

For the money Benitez has spent it's nothing short of a joke the way his team plays and some of the tactics he employs. Don't know why but I have a real dislike for the man.

Mr-Invisible

its only 3 games of the season gone. They have 7 points and havent played well yet, not such a bad sign. I think they will finish closer but no where near Chelsea or Man Utd. Liverpool need couple world class wingers and another striker, especially with Torres out for a bit now.

As for Charlton.....

Off_it

21 months after I started this thread and the fella has still got a job ...................... but for how long now?

Surely his time is up?

vancouveraddick

Mourinio for Liverpool? More like Man City I'd say.

Off_it

Surely now???

shirty5

Only one winner at ht, but they never had a shot in anger during the 2nd half. On borrowed time now.

Oggy Red

If I got paid a couple of million a year, I wouldn't be too disappointed if I had my contract paid up in full a bit early.
Benitez could always apply for the vacancy at Sheff Weds .... see? win/win situation.

;o)

Chunes

All my Liverpool mates still love Benitez.

Arshavin is different class.

Addick Addict

They have three world class players (keeper, CM & CF) but all of them are likely to go if they don't make the CL next season. Having said that, given that two of them are Spaniards, there's every likelihood they will leave if Benitez goes anyway.

This coupled with the fact that Liverpool don't have the money to pay his contract up anyway, sadly leads me to conclude that the Board and fans' blind allegiance to Benitez will contiue until the end of the season at least.

ColinTat

Arshavin is different class against Liverpool. Love watching him, but he's more petulant than Henry when he loses his Va Va Voom down the sofa.

Strange man Benitez. Never understood why he let go Crouch. As an oft un-attributed player quote goes about Benitez, he loves you when you're playing shite and he needs to have his judgement backed but after that you're of little importance to him. He savvily didn't bother signing decent full backs, and picked them up cheap, understanding that a good spine is good enough to compete in the prem and can easily get you to champ league finals. Yet he then spends a lot of his budget on a kamikaze right back; albeit it seems the 17 mill is an accounting misnomer. Robbie Keane who goes stir crazy at Tottingham when they had no width, or Berbatov, Benitez signs for a team that has to revel in it's narrowness. Whilst Berbatov for a few mill more is one of the only prem players that can make a wingless graveyard competitive.

But I still like him too. His teams actually looked like they could win premierships, when Gerrard and Torres are firing in spring; something I always doubted about Souness, Evans and Houllier. Shame that he didn't sign Berbatov instead of Keane. Won't be at all surprised if february to april they obliterate Villa's and Man City's point tally...... as long as Gerrard and Torres are playing.

BlackForestReds

Under Beneitz Liverpool have never been anywhere close to winning the premiership and that's with them constantly finishing in the top four. He's had enough money over the years to buy decent players but while he's a good coach/manager I don't think that he's a very astute tactician and too often better tactical managers suss him and his team out. Two of his better players - Gerrard and Carragher he inherited and he's been through enough strikers and usually sold them at massive losses for me to suspect that he simply isn't a good judge of a footballer, or at least not a good enough judge of footballers and how to piece a side together with some kind of coherent plan.

Take the signing of Robbie Keane, a great player and goal scorer, but never likely to be able to play in the Liverpool system, if he played deep he'd get in the way of Gerrard/Alonso, if he plays a bit further up then he's duplicating the work of Torres. When last season he finally started scoring goals what did Benetiz do...he dropped him and ruined his confidence and so he was on his way back to Spurs with Liverpool nursing a financial loss.

colthe3rd

Rumours are they can't afford to sack him

Addick Addict

Benitez unsettled the one player (Alonso) who made the system tick by his rather public and failed pursuit of Gareth Barry. Lucas would look average in our Team and simply doesn't have Alonso's ability to turn defence into attack in a nano second.

As for Colin T's comment regarding picking up points later in the season I do think he's hit the nail on the head regarding with his proviso concerning the fitness of Gerard and Torres which, given the World Cup will be round the corner by that time and the fact that the Spaniard needs a permanent cure for his hernia problem, is far from guaranteed.

oohaahmortimer

alonso's bird looked tidy when they zoomed in on them , although she went missing in the second half

Chris_from_Sidcup

Benitez only signed a new 5 year deal in March, so he's not going to walk and it'll cost Liverpool about 20-25m to get rid of him. On top of that they'd need to get another top manager in on big money and probably he'd want money to spend. They simply haven't got it.

Only way they'll find the money is by selling Torres in the summer. But who to? Barca don't need him after buying Ibrahimovic, he wouldn't go to Real Madrid, and Man City might not be in the CL either so would he go there. Only real option is Chelsea and they may well be banned from buying players.

ValleyGary

[cite]Posted By: oohaahmortimer[/cite]alonso's bird looked tidy when they zoomed in on them , although she went missing in the second half

Yeah saw that, she looked unreal. Alonso was my favourite premier league player, now he has reached hero status.
;-)

Chris_from_Sidcup

[cite]Posted By: oohaahmortimer[/cite] although she went missing in the second half

So did the Liverpool team.

Ketman

A Great Club sadly now in decline, the only thing that can save them now is erm a Takeover, I am sure I have heard that before somewhere.

McLovin

[cite]Posted By: BlackForestReds[/cite]Under Beneitz Liverpool have never been anywhere close to winning the premiership and that's with them constantly finishing in the top four. He's had enough money over the years to buy decent players but while he's a good coach/manager I don't think that he's a very astute tactician and too often better tactical managers suss him and his team out.

To be fair you could say the same about Souness, Evans, Oolier

mascot88

I think liverpool were close last year, leading scoreres and tightest defence and with Alonso pulling the strings they really had something about them.....

unfortuantely Man U had Christiano Ronaldo and that extra edge along with a plethera of other immense talents, ultimately pulled them through.....

this yr........

rubbish... blasted a hole in their own team by losing the lynch pin...

and rafa wont walk why would he.....

cafcdan18

Problem is for Liverpool, they have some very average players in and around their team. The likes of Lucas, Ngog for example would not get into many of the top 8 teams, Villa and Spurs probably have stronger squads and if it was not for Pepe Reina Liverpool could be even further down the league. When they lose Gerrard and Torres, there is not the fear factor that would still exist if Chelsea or United lost a couple of their best players.

Alonso going was a huge mistake but not replacing him could be season defining. Liverpool at the moment do not look like a top 4 side!

Off_it

Someone put the helmet out of his misery - it's embarrassing!