rnevitt

That sums us up I'm afraid.

I beleive that most weeks, the team we put out is better than the oppostion XI. Monday night being the latest example. The problem is that our tactics are too defensive. Our wide men, Kuyt and Beni/Maxi/Riera play too deep and are told to firstly cover the full back, meaning Nando is left isolated. Masch and Lucas BOTH sit too deep. Our build up is slow, allowing teams to regroup and pack their defence. If all fit, with what we have, my preferred XI would be as above. Ideally a quality partner for Nando is needed, meaning a shift to 4-4-2. ------------------Reina Johnson - Carra - Agger - Aurelio ----------- Masch - Aquilani Babel - Gerrard - Riera -----------------Torres Bench: - Cav, Kelly, Lucas, Kuyt, Benayoun, Pacheco, Maxi Team philosophy would be attacking, to express themselves and the tempo to be higher, quick passing, lots of pressing. Babel and Riera would hug the touchline. When Babel gets it, his instructions would be to beat the full back and whip it in, same as Lennon at Spurs. Masch would patrol the area in front of the back four, allowing Aquilani to get into the box. Kuyt/Benayoun/Pacheco would all be good options for the last 20 from the bench.

Spot on. Masch was doing Ok at right back and Wigan were not really attacking that area ,except for brief counter attacks. Babel should have been the choice to come on, but if it was going to be Johnson, why didn't Maxi come off and Johnson go right mid with instructions to attack with pace. Instead, with us 1-0 down to Wigan, Rafa decides our best way of getting back into the game is to change our right back!

you are mad! Sell gerrard and we are f*cked

Enough is enough. That was s****. Sack him

Does it matter how many we concede? If we score more we win. A 5-4 win is better than a 0-0. Far too much emphasis is put on stopping the opposition scoring and waiting for one chance to drop to Gerrard or torres.

Babel should be played on the right. On the left he has to cut in too much, if he goes on the outside, his crossing on his left is poor. He should be played like spurs play Lennon, on the right, as soon as he gets it knock it past the defender and whip it in. On Sunday, babel right, Kuyt up top, riera/maxi left.

I'm not saying we have a God-given right to win. Nobody has. The 'We are Liverpool' quote isn't saying, 'We are Liverpool so we should win' , it is saying, 'We are Liverpool, so we should never settle for second best, for mediocrity'. If you do not agree with this, then what hopes do you head into a season with? And what do you class as a successful season.

Exactly. Nail on head.

He was probably too busy worrying about getting back into position.

Why would that be? In the past no matter how good we were we always strived to be better. Why do we now settle for finishing fourth? This finish 4th mentality, 4th is F*cking rubbish, it means 3 teams have finished above you. Bob Paisley said "first is first, second is nowhere", what would he have made of fourth!!. Times have changed blah blah blah, no they haven't first still wins you the league. We are Liverpool, not Spurs, Villa, City, Everton, West Ham, Birmingham, etc.. Liverpool and we should never settle for second, third or even fourth best.

We are also Liverpool, have people forgotten that. We exist to win trophies. Why have people suddenly accepted mediocrity. That Arsenal side were there for the taking. They were as bad as us. Granted Torres, Benayoun and Johnson (even though it was very noticeable over the last month or so of him playing that Rafa had stopped him bombing on as much as at first), would make us more attacking , but even with those 11 players we had on the pitch last night, we shold still be more attacking. Maxi is an attacking player, but already Rafa has him playing like a machine, covering Insua at every opportunity. The attacking side of his game is non-existent. (Another point being he is a right midfielder playing on the left!!) Kuyt has to run 50 yards to be in an attacking position because his starting position is by Carra. Too many times our games are boring chess matches, we wait for Gerrard or Torres to provide a bit of magic, then we hang on. Apart from Feb - May last year, ths is how we have played all the time during Rafa's reign, what makes you think Rafa will change it?

Here lies our problem. Now I'm not saying Babel is the answer as he is the most infuriating inconsistent player we have got, but to say we kept one attacker on instead of another because he is more likely to "track back", surely the word attacker gives a big hint to what we need those sort of players to do. We line up with 4 defenders, 2 holding midfielders, 2 wide players who are basically there to cover our full backs, yet still we want our attacker to defend! You started your review of Babel by saying he can't defend... so what, he is an attacking player. I give it about 5 posts before someone mentions Ian Rush being first line of defence... yes granted he worked hard, but Ian Rush first and foremost was an attacker, the best striker we have ever had, the fact that he could defend was a bonus. But he wasnt picked because he could track back, he was picked because he was a f*cking goal machine! Football is about winning, a team WINS the league, a team WINS the CUP, and to win you have to score more than the opposition. If we won every game 7-6, we would be champions. There is too much importance played on keeping a clean sheet. As soon as the other team score, our gameplan is f*cked. As much as we all hate them, Man Utd have been and are so good because they attack, attack, attack. They score so many late goals (and have so many own goals scored for them) because they are in the opposition box all the time. From Feb onwards last season, Rafa changed his tact, we went for it, we did attack. 4 at Utd, 4 v Real, 5 v Villa, 4 v Arsenal. Even at Fulham when we won 1-0, we battered them into submission. Until we change our philosophy, we will always be where we are.

Agree with Kev. Ngog is woeful. No threat, gives the ball away. The fact that he is our backup striker explains alot about our season.

What I don't get with rafa is his substitutions? Now I'm not sayin he is the answer as none of us yet know, but if pacheco,as a creative attacking player, is not brought on when it is 0-0 and we need a goal, then when will he ever be brought on? Subs are to change games, but rafa knows before the game what subs he is going to make. Most of our subs are there purely to make the numbers up.

The first 89 mins were awful, fair enough we battled, but we created f*ck all. When did it become OK for Liverpool to play like that. Injuries I here you say, it's rafa's squad, if the squad players ain't good enough, it is his fault.

We concede so many late goals because we defend so f*cling deep! If we attack inthe opponents half, they can't score. We sit waitin for them to attack us. Sh*te. And kuyt, well sums him up. Sorry Rafa, thank u 4 Istanbul and Cardiff, but time is up.