Leo No.8

When you look around the team and the way the players have developed individually under Rafa, it makes you realise he must be an absolute dream to play for. Not only is Rafa quite clearly a decent, honest and straightforward bloke, with good man-management skills, he is technically something else. The man must have studied the game inside out practically since he left school. Stevie Gerrard has always been a phenomenal talent, and Rafa has either clearly bought wisely in Alonso, Garcia, Reina and Sissoko, or is being proved right with Morientes and Crouch. But more specifically looking around the squad at some of the players he inherited, its incredible to see their improvement. At full-back Riise and Finnan have improved dramatically; is that due to their improved positional sense and more intelligent running - I believe so absolutely, and that is completely down to the manager and his team. Its interesting on that front, to note the way Rafa talks about players 'wasting energy' last season. I thought that was a fascinating statement; it shows that although Rafa demands hard work from his players, it isn't just about giving 100%, but giving 100% in the right ways, using their energy to the best use of the team. A vast amount of work studying patterns of play and movement around the pitch must go in, and I think this is an area in which practically every player in the squad has benefitted, but most notably our current first choice full-backs. Then you look at something quite simple which is players' positions. One of Gerard Houllier's biggest errors was buying players then playing them out of position. The best example of knowing a players' best position is when Rafa came in and put Carra straight in at centre half. Now, personally I have to admit I'd always said I didn't see Carra as the long term future at full-back for us; although he was fantastic defensively I always felt we suffered from his lack of ability going forward and he'd eventually become a squad player. Little did I know the player he'd become in the centre under Benitez; again I think he has benefitted from Rafa's positional direction, but just as importantly his passing has improved dramatically, and over the duration of Rafa's management he has gone from a decent Premier league full-back to one of the finest centre-halves in Europe, no less. Training methods also fascinate me; how on earth have his coaching team managed to find Kewell's pace again? I never thought in a million years I'd see Harry shift as quickly as he has in the last few games again. There must have been very specific work done to improve acceleration over a few yards, and as a result he looks like becoming some player again if he can avoid further long-term injuries. The only player with potential I don't feel he has been able to mould yet is Cisse; but injury has of course hampered his progress, and I'm still hopeful after the way he took his goal last night. I suppose we should have expected it after what Rafa did at Valencia, but it really is gobsmacking to see the development of this squad of players. The approach is so incredibly scientific, if managers in the game received awards for their style our boss would have a PHD. If I was a football anywhere in the game, I would want to play for Rafa Benitez. He can turn the average into good, the good into great. A truly incredible man, and an absolute blessing to us and our football club.

Personally I don't think you have anything to apologise for - I think you were right to doubt Gerrard. It was with very good reason many of us felt he'd betrayed us last summer and the summer before. He did lose my trust, and that of many other reds I know. However since then Stevie has turned things round completely, and is now seeing for himself what we were all begging him to see then; that he can fulfill all his ambitions, achieve all his goals and dreams right here with us, his club and his people. At the time, after the initial shock of hearing he'd consider a move, my feelings were 'Rafa Benitez's Liverpool will be a great force to be reckoned with or without you Steven - more fool you for leaving now when things are about to change for the better'. He didn't, and now there is a spring in his step making him even better than he was before. Gerrard is playing with the same joy as someone like Ronaldinho, with the same thirst for the game, and a big part of that is he knows he has made the right decision and is where he belongs. He has always been an incredible talent and a phenomenal athlete, but he has matured as a player, and adding that to the passion he has rediscovered he is without a doubt better than ever. It is an absolute pleasure to watch Steven Gerrard captain Liverpool now - he is once again our infallible, untouchable, inspirational leader.

Adam was subjected to the horrors of last years reserve team as I was. Attack of the Liverpool umpa-lumpas it was, Foy being the smallest of the lot...

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Seeing as we are a lot of Spanish fans' second team these days, that is truly appalling.

Well can I say in response to that I hate you and you smell of poo, no backs... *And if you're going to mention my performance against Adie Mike, remember to note he'd scored 16 Scots Prem goals the year before. Thanks very much.

You are completely wrong. I have had cartilege out of my right knee twice, but as it stands my left is fine, so I was only watching him with one dodgy knee...

Mellor just isn't mobile enough for the Premier League. Its a shame as he has all the strikers instincts and finishing ability, but not the athletisism to make it count. If you could put all of Mellor's abilites in terms of smart movement, finishing ability and reading of the game into the body of Cisse, you'd have a striker of Henry-esque quality. However, as cloning and general meddling with genetics is largely untested in the Premier League, unfortunately one will go back to France before too long and the other should eventually ply his trade in a lower division. As for Foy; some nice tricks, good attitude but just too small and ineffectual - not built for the Premier League like most of Heighway's graduates. The next Ritchie Partridge is exactly what Foy will be...

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Yes, lets model ourselves on Newcastle, the worst club in the entire f'cking world. They've had a 'good team on paper' for a decade now, but the actual concept of 'team' is entirely alien to them. People praising Newcastle for their dealings just because they've signed Owen need to get a grip.

Fair enough mate, it could've caught anyone out really having found out the facts.

Cheers for clarifying that Rich. It is 2nd hand info NHE as I explained so I can't personally vouch for the content, but others have and 'Sporting Disasters' was shown and is being shown again on that channel.

Right, I have an explanation for this. The channel concerned has shown two programmes this week, one called 'Disasters', the other called 'Sporting Disasters', both of which feature footage from Hillsborough but apparently 'Sporting Disasters' still suggests the tragedy was caused by hooliganism, wheras 'Disasters' broaches the subject properly. Those who have made snotty comments should really have tried to keep it a little more civil when they didn't know all the facts (Realtarragona / Scouselad). I wouldn't think I'd be alone in saying I'm pretty offended by the suggestion that we all over-react to anything mentioning Hillsborough and complain when we shouldn't.

Not being funny but there isn't a chance in hell of anyone posting wind-ups about Hillsborough Scouselad.

Its been on loads of forums mate, not just KT. KT Insider News picked up on it after it was posted here as well as on other sites, so the info didn't come from there. I honestly don't know if it was offensive or not, as I said I haven't seen it myself, but there seem to be plenty of people around this morning who were upset by it.

Apparently a show called 'Sporting Disasters' showed some graphic footage of Hillsborough last night in a section of the programme about 'football violence'. They went into detail about how hooligans caused the disaster by pushing people into the stadium. I can't vouch for having seen this myself as it was posted over on Koptalk by a guy from Ireland, but it is obviously genuine and I thought I should make people aware of it. This was exactly what he said: 'Sitting down having a beer or two watching TV last night (about 12:50 am). The other half has an obsession with Reality TV at the moment. On came a show - "Sporting Disasters". Fair enough it was quite entertaining for a while; Ice hockey, basketball fights and so on, then they had a section on football hooligans'. They showed quite a few rioting crowds then to my disgust they started showing images of Hillsborough, and lots of Liverpool fans in distress. I was horrified. They went into detail about how the hooligans started this by pushing more people into the stadium, and spent more time on this than anything else. The images were horrific; children laid out on the ground, people being pushed up against the fences etc. The voice over really set me off. It was an American show, but I was so furious I can hardly remember exactly what the narrator was saying. A mate of mine was over who is a Norwich fan, and he was shocked at what he saw and heard. I'm going to email reality TV and demand an apology be posted on their website. For anyone who wants to complain their address is: http://www.realitytv.co.uk/index.php?section=ContactUs I think the same programme may have been shown on the BBC a while ago.' I remember this being shown on terrestrial TV myself - it is absolutely outrageous it is still going out on British television. It has to be stopped; I know some of those on here and other sites have done huge amounts of work trying to stop this kind of ignorance, so I hope you can help. I'll register my complaint today and I'd urge others to do the same.