I don't get it.. he has improved his performance dramatically, and offered a nearly flawless performance against West Ham the other day, and YET... this happens. Spearing is good, definitely, but is Lucas better? Any day. Come on, learn to support players, rather than just dissing them for no apparent reason. Babel's case is a little different as he has been given so much time, and yet, very little improvement is what he offered us. He played alright in the last two matches, and I really hope he can build on it and learn to play as a team. Anyway, no offense mate.

Lucas has always been the no.1 scapegoat.

No.2 is Rafa himself.

Did anyone blamed Gerrard or Carra after they played badly against Villa or Spurs? Nope. Everything is either Lucas or Rafa. Such fair play.

Carra has been playing rather badly in recent games - he struggles to keep pace and ends up committing fouls (and giving away penalties!), he's getting worse in the air and, along with a mediocre Skrtle, presents free headers to opposing players - hence our poor record in defending set pieces..

If Rafa is brave enough, he should consider trying out a new pairing!

Lucas is no1 because Babel is not playing... just look at the first game when Babel and Lucas playing together...

This post has been edited by melt: Sep 24 2009, 10:56 AM

Haha..jz my 2 cents mates.

From what i see, it's very ironic to see that these players got criticised so badly by ppl who are either hvn't touched a football in their life or those below their standard.
My point is, be it a healthy critics rather than those condemning ones. It doesn't only reflects urself but it will offend others or give other ppl chances to poke on the team we love.

Another point from what i can get from reading your feedbacks, Liverpool is having a problem of playing players in positions that they were not meant to be.
yes, it is good to explore new possibilities, but when things can't go as planned, go back to what you do best. We often see Rafa playing players on the positions that they are not very familiar with.
Successful candidate, Kuyt, once a striker now a winger.
Unsuccessful candidates, a lot, Babel is one of them. I had high hopes for Babel actually but Rafa often play him on the left flank. Maybe the damages of not playing well on the left deters his confidence and spirit.

Anyway, just to post up my thoughts.
peace, YNWA.

the thing is, Carra and Gerrard are in our hearts already. They played their hearts out the season before and the seasons before before.
Lucas? We gave him alot of football time already. He's bound to get better!
Even a teen school player if he get the chance to play matches he will get better.

I agree with most of your post with the exception of this statement. You don't need to be a great football player to rate one. Was Rafa ever that good as a player? What about Wenger? Ferguson? Ancelotti?

Well yes, rating is fine for sure, but insulting a player by saying he's rubbish and so on isn't really fine if you ask me. In fact, even if you're a great player, insulting another player is never good.

ancelotti won the title n european cup wo,a few times

This post has been edited by akRia: Sep 24 2009, 11:21 AM

But the thing is, all heart may not hide the players deficiency any longer. Look at Carra, how much longer do you think that his heart & soul may cover for his lack of speed or deficiency in general?
Lucas? he'll always be a player that divides opinion. From what I see, he'll no better than a squad player unlike Babel, who, if his potential is fully explored,will be a world class player. But sadly, for one reasons or another, it seems the coaches cant get key to his enormous potential.
That said, but every team need a water carrier to complement a genius, our best hope is Lucas can be the water carrier

Rafa was good enough for RM B team
Wenger is a double Phd, so no time to play footie
Ferguson was a decent player while Ancelotti excelled in Milan & Parma midfield.
I always have this mentality that great coach was not a great player. Look at the mess that Maradona created with arguably one of the most gifted team in the world

Dijimi Traore won the Champions League. Bernard Diomede won the World Cup

Unlike them Ancelotti is one of the key performer in the team, even excel in other team like Parma. That cant be said with Traore & Diomede.

Am I only one who thinks that Lucas and Masch (Only seen first half though) did well against West Ham? Masch has been attempting some sideway Alonso-eque passes, although not as accurate as Alonso's but good enough for us. Lucas on the other hand kept things short, tidy and pops up with the occassional through pass. Also, both were active in taking turns to go forward and also applying pressure when necessary.

The poorer players that night were in fact, well... Carra and Stevie.

Just passing by; Ancelotti was actually a very good footballer

As a player, "Carletto," as he was nicknamed, appeared 26 times for Italy, and participated in the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cup, where he was teammates with former club mate and former Italy coach Roberto Donadoni, former Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini and a young Paolo Maldini.

He started his club career in 1976 with Parma A.C.. In 1979, he transferred to AS Roma, as captain and midfielder, where he won the Italian championship (1983) and 4 times the Italian Cup. From 1987 until 1992 he played for A.C. Milan, and was part of the Milan squad that won consecutive European Cups in 1989 and 1990. During this time, Milan played with one of their finest teams ever assembled in that decade, with Maldini, Franco Baresi, Mauro Tassotti and Alessandro Costacurta in defence, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Roberto Donadoni in midfield and Marco van Basten in attack. His finest moment with Milan was when he received a pass from Ruud Gullit, dribbled around two Madrid players, and netted a powerful long-range shot during the Rossoneri's 5-0 thrashing of Real Madrid in the 1989 European Cup semifinals. He went on to play all 90 minutes in Milan's 4-0 defeat of Steaua Bucharest in the final.

Quoted from his wiki

Yeah ok fine, bad example but you're not getting my point. What was my point again? That not all good managers were good players. What was this in response to again? That just because someone isn't a pro footballer or a decent one at that, it doesn't mean they can't spot a good or bad one.

we should have signed Elano!

I definitely agree with you. I don't think Stevie G did that bad though, he was alright. Carra was fine too, apart from the few nerve wrecking mistakes that he made

which elano?the one from citeh?i'll stick to lucas then

I agree with your point and I do understand it. One good example, Murinho never played football but now one of the most sought after managers.

actually my point was, give healthy critics instead of condemning ones. A world without critics is a world in denial.

Why all of a sudden Elano?