bipjohn

Read the edit pal.

Where.........................................................?? OK Chaps, Im off to open a bottle of Pino with my wonderful wife. Ill be bck tomorrow to see if anyone has come up with our next manager that 'ticks the boxes' for those that are in any doubt, here are the boxes: a) available at present b) willing to come to a club with 0money c) proven to bebetter than Rafa d) able to attract players better than we have e) tactically proven to be a european manager of some pedigree f) ability to play constant, progressive attractive attacking football g) speak decent English h) show a very very high level of respect for LFC values and traditions. Rafa ticks these boxes, does anyone else.......I dont mean in my opinion, I mean in actual reality. I bet you dont.

It pisses me off right off the scale. Nobody wo calls themselves a Liverpoool supporter can name anyone better than rafa, yet they call for his head. I am still waiting for an available, plausable, affordable, reliable option, over to you rafa haters....................................

Take your blinkers off son. We may have had a poorer squad in 2004 but we were not in anywhere near the financial mess we are in now...... you mention van Gaal, why would he leave Bayern, CL finalists and almost certain league winners every year and the richest club in Germany and come to us???? Yes we are a massive name but that only counts for so much. Still Mr Hansen you or any of your anti Rafa brigade havent come up with his successor...makes me laugh...be careful what you wish for.

Use are nuts, why would Van Gaal come to LFC in the mess we are in? Rijkaard, did OK with Europes best squad a few years back and really was out tacticed by Rafa and Maureen, how would he do with us? Jol, Mcleish, youre taking the piss. Hitzfield and Lippi were great 6-10 years ago. Maureen, he'd come if he knew he had £100m...is that going to happen? Rafa was not 'unobtainable' when we got him, he had a very public spat with the Valencia owners, and was clearly the most sought after manager in Europe.......a sense of deja vu there....almost?

Well, here I am back from the pub and the match and nobody.....nobody ........nobody has suggested a better manager to take over......!!! Some of you f***ing clowns have said he 'over acheived' last season, that is a physical impossibility.......... I never read the papers and I never listen to the ridiculous talk s**** hype. Our manager has spent £18m net in his tenure. I would be sure, although I dont have the facts to back it up, but the last 2 years he has made a transfer profit. You simply cant compete at this leel with this lack of investement. I am not saying he hasnt made mistakes, because he clearly has, we all do every day! Prime example is today, if Gerrard was 75%f it before the world cup and Rafa picked him the hysteria would have been to breaking point, Whiskey picks Shrek and nobody mentions it. For 2 years Shrek played left mid and Whiskey was never criticised, Gerrard plays anywhre but centre mid and Rafa's a c***. So I ask the question again, who will take over and make us better? Please I am dying to get a reply.

Yep, I forgot Rijkarrd but, he had the best squad in the world and wasnt really a tactical genius, is his pedigree and his knowhow really better than what we have? Anyway, Im off to the alehouse now before going to the match for what I sincereely hope isnt Rafa's last match. Please all the constant moaners and Rafa out merchants, please reply with your nominations for our next manager.....I cant wait to come back later and see what you budding LFC chairmen geniuses come up with!

Go on then answer my question, who replaces him??????? Who will do better....??? Go on, I dare you to name someone who will A) Be an improvement in terms of media and fans perception B) Play better football C) Actually want to come to the boardroom mess D) Be a big enough name to attract better quality players

Sorry, missed out Steve Mclaren......again enough said.

That is the problem that nobody here, on phone ins and in the media seem to be able to address. When you sack a manager (or lose him or force him out) the replacement you have in mind has to be better Have you seen anything with Rafa's pedigree in the list of replacement's? O Neill, no thank you, Clough/Forest connections and poor Football Hodgson, too old and never thrived in bigger clubs Maureen, he will not come here unless he has his 'usual' £100m, and if you think Rafa is negative, Maureen's football is dire at times Mark Hughes, Husesless, Manc enough said. McLeish, no thanks, not good enough Dalglish, clearly a legend but last managed a club 20 years ago Hiddink, Turkey Manager, never going to come Van Gaal, No chance, at Bayern Jol, did great at Spurs! Sammy Lee, sorry but not big enough or experienced enough John Toshack, scraping the barrell now Feel free to prove me wrong and tell me who can do a better job? Torres this season 20 games 18 goals. The team this season 54 games, Torres misses 34 games, can anyone do the math? Rafa's mistake has been no back up for Torres and I am sure he is fully aware of this.

Maybe, but when Rafa takes him off or doesnt play him everyone screams. On the other hand Rooney played the other week clearly injured and Whiskey was hailed as a genius. He then missed the next match where they misfired and drew 0.0.

90% of our issues this season, and part of last (although I dont have the stats for last season) can be summed up with this: 2009-10 Torres 20 starts, 2 sub appearances 18 goals all competitions. The team has played 51 games to date, simple maths say he has therfore missed 31 games, is it fair to think he would have scored 20+ goals in those missed games? That my friends is the difference between the season we have had and maybe finishing 3rd/2nd/1st..... My only criticism and in fact the other 10% is that we knew from last year he has and probably always will have injury issues and we have no real back up.

Couple of things I saw: Torres was injured from about the 2nd minute.....right knee I reckon he played at about 60%. Hicks and Gilette were sat apart in the first half, second half Hicks retunred late and sat in the seat right behind Gillette, Hicks gave him a friendly patt on the shoulder which Gillette ignored, Gillette then moved to a seat about 5 rows back away from Hicks!! Hicks doesnt look very well to me at all. I sit about 10 seats awa from where he was and he looks to have lost weight and be very old frail looking.

Again, the Echo wont mention the Murderers song which stared from kick off, what about the horrible fat blue***** woman with her hands pressed against her face mtioning being crushed.....then hundreds of them were doing it....horrible b******s are htat think they dont even realise how many blues lost family and friends at hillsborough

I sit near to Purslow and I thought it was very amusing and interesting to see him singing Rafa Rafael, Rafa Rafael, Rafael Benitez and clappinag along furiously with everyone else!!!!

Marcotti is just another in a long line of reporters that know nothing. Ill never forget him 'guaranteeing' we wouldnt bein the European Cup after Istanbul, he was adamant and was laughing at the prospect.

The thing that annoys me with him is that he has got a worse case of 'Robbie Keanitis' than Robbie Keane himself. I have never, ever seen a footballer moan so much, last night after his 'assist' he was flapping his hands at Plessis for not anticipating the piss poor underhit pass. Id have more respect if he actually stopped the flapping and moaning and tried a bit harder. And as for Babel, I am a patient man with Liverpool players, but I have had enough of him.

I was there. Its a long time ago now, I was high up in the main stand, around the half way line. If I remember right, he got the ball on the near side edge of the centre circle, in front of the dugouts, he then beat 3 or 4 players and rifled it in from the edge of the area and I remember Gary Bailey, who I am sure was in goal saying the next day it was the hardest shot he had ever faced. Hope Im right when they finally show it!!!!

Pacheco's best performance for the ressies last night. He looked like a player. His balance, passing and awareness is excellent. I only hope he can transfer that to the 1st team. He is still only 18 though. Also, Mavinga looks like a player apart from 1 mistake. Tackling was excellent and brave in the air also. Keeper, Gulacsi was impressive too. Bruna; I am not sure, he has a superb left foot but just seems complacent. Its as if he thinks he has more ability than he has. I just dont think he will come through, although Beckham made it with one foot and nothing else.

thought Liege was an awful place! nothing of any interest there and one Liege fan tried to start a fight with me only i couldnt understand a word he said! The atmosphere in the ground was good though. Did you eat the chips? The chips alone were worth the drive and the train journey, lovely.

Im very cynical at this time of year. Mancs always get the bye. I would suggest now they will get Porto, AZ or Rangers from pot 2. Olympiakos, Bordeaux or Besiktas from 3 and Unirea, Apoel or Debrecen. I can see us getting Real/Inter, Stutgart/Atleti, Wolfsburg or Liege. To be fair though, Lieige wasnt a bad little place last year for a visit and not too far!

On the subject of offloading players, wasnt Leto impressive last night for Panathanikos?? I dont think we had any choice in him going due to passport issues, but I watched the first 45 minutes and he was as good as anyone on the pitch, he looks to have grown a few inches and looked very confident, beat men, crossed, etc. I remember the ususal d****eads boiing him and getting on his back at Anfield.

Its only the weak that fall into that. Mate, too true, but there are a lot of them about, especially on here!!

Theyll be the ones who realised it was over the alloted time as well....?? Too many smart arses on here. The point I was trying to make is that because of the Sky media world we live in opinions are made and formed on what others say, not what you see. Its very easy to go with the general flow and say we were terrible last night when in fact, if you look at the game in a fair bit of detail we were not in fact poor, we did pretty well and they were very very lucky. Pretty much the first 20 mins we were excellent, Lucas as well. Second half we were also pretty good and its not often you see a team defend as deep and in as many numbers as they did. As I said I think we were awful against Spurs, last night I thought we did Ok when 2/3 of our better players had poor nights. We will play a lot worse this season and win comfortably. That all of course doesnt mention the real problems with the lack of decnt players outside of the first 15/16.

Why start your otherwise decent post with that? Sorry mate, its just an opinion. You clearly see more when you are there and you dont have to listen to a commentary which often tries to make your mind up for you. For instance, my mate watching TV last night had no idea why Torres was in such a 'mood' from where I sit in the Main stand on the half way line I could see he was elbowed at least 3 times by their players, ref saw nothing wrong and it wound him up. Too many people are influenced by commentaries, pundits, papers and forum and dont make their own minds up on what they actually see. Anyway, on a brighter note my season ticket is 10 seats to the left of the Directors box and it was really good to see Mrs Benitez singing YNWA with plenty of enthusiasm before the game. Also Kenny was with Purslow and Ian Ayre and he was clearly analysing the game intently.