eventhough lucas maybe be providing out of football personal home service to RB , why wanna kill the chap . always he has been the convenient scapegoat to every game liverpool hasn't been playing well or whenever results are against liverpool. the lad is still young and learning the trade at BPL. give him a break .

the truth is liverpool hasn't have enough quality players or depth of squad that man united or chelsea enjoy that is required to win the BPL .look at the statistics and squad power of the last 4 year of BPL title winner

arsene is another stubborn manager who refuse to buy quality players although arsenal has the money . AW believe that kids could win him the BPL and look at them now , struggling to fight the last place for UCL.
i see AW under tremendous pressure even greater than RB from now on and there will be call for the unthinkable if arsenal fail to qualify for next season UCL

i think RB is good enough for liverpool and will learn from the mistake he made the past 2 months where he chose his team selection to play not to lose first. furthermore if RB is not around or sack by liverpool , where's the replacement. in the event liverpool decide to replace him , i tell ya whoever come in will need a good few years to rebuild the team and evensuch there's no guarantee liverpool will win the BPL anytime soon unless a big amount of money is made available for buying new players .remember liverpool for the last few seasons does not have the financial resources that SAF or any chelsea manager has and he's infact done a good job thus far from whatever mean available at his disposal

RB may have screwed up a few deal at the transfer market but then which manager hasn't . the reason that some liverpool fans sometimes are against or angry at RB is because they find him STUBBORN.

any liverpool manager will find it hard at anfield because the fans have little patient left waiting for no 19 and added to the frustration , seeing man united closing in to equal and looking at man united present squad , as soon as next season man united may even surpass their proud league record is simply unbearable and that's a FACT.

liverpool fans are aware that it is difficult and will continue to be difficult as long as SAF is still around at OT plus RED ROM haven't lost the interest at chelsea and with the emergence of man city with money power , unless liverpool could quickly find a sugadaddy and retain RB , the long wait to the promised land may have to be extended, yet again.

time is running short for liverpool as their best player in the like of SG , alonso and jamie is getting older and it is still unknown how ambitious torres is . as soon as he felt liverpool ambition no longer matches his or the club incapable of winning trophies , he may leave or other big club may nab him away

the owners of liverpool have no choice but made available more funds for RB and let him control more on players budget planning and spending . as RB has said his salary nego is not an issue and from that statement i believe , he wants it at liverpool.

BPL needed liverpool to be up there fighting for trophies to make it more interesting and exciting

at this moment , if the spanish speaking connection is interupted at anfield ..........................think for yourself liverpool fans

the way liverpool plays, rather than building up play from the back...it starts from the front...
rafa's tactics has always been for a lone striker or anyone up front that can hold the ball, to allow the rest to come up for support.
thats why guys like riera / dossena / kuyt / gerrard / alonso gets starts...
and babel somehow fits into that territory, tho if only he knew how to pass to the guys who come up to support...
and lucas, who is supposed to be the attacking midfielder but does f***all, gets to sit on the bench.
even carra has been venturing further forward than lucas...
and thats also why keane cant fit in, cos he does f***all and expects ppl to feed him the ball, which doesnt go too well with rafa's long time favored tactics.
the only goal that ppl remember from keane, was the one he did against arsenal.
which was basically 3rd time lucky for the long ball tactic from arbeloa to keane...

This post has been edited by Everdying: Feb 23 2009, 10:31 PM

I must admit I'm one of the Lucas haters around here especially after his dumb tackling in Wigan match and Everton match in FA Cup.Like you said, whenever we had a bad result, he will turn out to be the convenient scapegoat.In last night match, he didn't play extremely well.The fact that I said he played well in previous few posts is because he didn't make any mistakes like he used to do in previous matches.I see that as an improvement.He doesn't have a decent tackling skills like Mascherano.But we do know that Lucas is someone willing to LISTEN, to LEARN and to IMPROVE.In last night match, I see him running from front to the back, helping out in penalty box.He learned from his mistakes(the one against Wigan) and hardly put in tackles in penalty box.Instead of tackling like he used to be, he shielded the man city players, trying to reduce the space ,making them having hard time.I see that as improvement.Unlike Lucas, Babel tend to repeat and repeat the same problem of not making passes.Stubborn, not willing to change and that certainly not good for the team.Lucas?If he can stop making lazy ass tackles, he will be doing fine.

Sad to say.But I do admit we don't have the luxury when it comes to choose players in our squad.Take the striker department to compare. Manchester United have Rooney, Berbatov and Tevez when it comes to selection with backup like manucho(on loan), campbell(on loan) and welbeck (correct me if I missed out any) While chelsea have Drogba, Anelka, Kalou(who can play as striker as well),Sinclair and others.Compare to us, we only have a proven goal poacher which is Torres.Kuyt might have scored a couple but his finishing cant match the likes of Drogba, Anelka, Tevez or Berbatov.In the stand, we have Ngog who has not much 1st team experience and spent most of his time playing for the reserves.Babel might be another option but his selfish display and his reluctance to make passes make him the worst teammate on pitch.Voronin is out on loan.That just show that we really don't have the depth like man united or chelsea.The likes of Kuyt, Ngog and Voronin are not of quality players group compared to the likes of Drogba, Anelka, Tevez or Rooney.

I'm one of the few who want Rafa to stay.Well, he might not be able to give instant success like JM could but at least we see improvement from years to years.The fact that Rafa is STUBBORN is well known among liverpool supporters.But from time to time, we can see his willingness in changing it by putting in more attacking minded formation.Take last few games as example, instead of putting another DM like he used to be, he put in attacking midfielder like Babel and El Zhar.From his 1st year to now, a lot of improvements been made. We have one of the best CB around in Carra.Rafa gave him the best role Carra would play well in because he knows carra lack of the pace and other attacking attributes in becoming one decent right back.Followed up with heaving a real goal poacher in Torres, something we have been missing for a couple of years after failed signings like Baros,Morientes, Cisse and others, to name but a few.We, then have a deadly partnership in Gerrard and Torres and a team who will come back from any circumstances.Each and every time, there are massive improvements.This is something we can't deny and the reason why I see us have to keep Rafa if we seriously want to challenge for the title.Like most of us know, hiring a new manager will take time and the manager will prefer his own countrymen like Rafa prefer Spanish players which will then cost a large amount of transfer fee spend.

agreed with you there mate...

a poor City bossed us around..

No fluency from back/midfielder and yet, Rafa left Agger out.

Lucas was probably being himself. An average player for Liverpool

Its looks to be more and more valid as the years goes by...You dont win titles with players like Riera, Dossena, Kuyt, Lucas, and perhaps even Yossi or Babel.

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Added on February 23, 2009, 11:08 pmi risk being crucified by saying this, but if JM is available, i am for Rafa to be replaced by him if we fail to progress significantly in the CL or fight with MU all the way and perhaps lose the title by 2-3 points.
JM is a winner and his team plays to win. Yes, he has offended us but he is a winner and deep inside, i know he is dying to manage a club like Liverpool..
Question is, can someone like Jose turn the Lucas, Dossena, Benayouns into title winners?

This post has been edited by nando: Feb 23 2009, 11:10 PM

Well, not much people know Terry and Lampard until he took over.He then turned them into World Class players.

Anyway, if JM is the boss, I expect us to have a very defensive playing styles...but I must admit, he is one of those I would like to see taking over at Anfield , should Rafa get sacked/leave.


P.s:Rafa made it clear that he WILL leave in summer if there is no new contract before the season ends.

This post has been edited by solstice818: Feb 23 2009, 11:13 PM

hey guys cme on lar..there is still 12 games to be played..v dunno wats gonna happen..the ball is round ryte..if liverpool end up being champion den how?? buta ne ryte?? i understand the feeling but being a true red supporter i know we will keep on fighting till the end..remeber istanbul for example??

cme on liverpool!!!

But if Jose is not available, then i will still prefer Rafa to be given time. Looking at the positives, i expect MU to perhaps reach their peak soon, Arsenal and Chelsea may (..big `may') take time to rebuild. With the right CEO, financial backing and 2-3 more class players PLUS the stability of Rafa's management, we maybe poised to strike back.

In retrospect, if MU's present team is really so darn perfect, if we finish < 5 points behind them, its progress..no?

the thing is rafa's contract runs until the end of NEXT season.
so he cant just simply leave right?

I'm one the few that believe you don't have to get whole squad of QUALITY players to win matches.You just have to get players that can get their jobs done to win matches.Quality players for every position doesn't make your team unbeatable.It just make your team spend more.

no, i dont believe we need a WHOLE SQUAD of Torres or Rooneys. I think we're short of 1-2 proven quality players. We all thought Keane was the one but fell flat on our faces.

This post has been edited by nando: Feb 23 2009, 11:32 PM

I believe with his relationship with Parry, Gillets and Hicks, they will come to a mutual termination if he really want to go.When Gillet put his blame on Rafa during the talk to the representative of SOS, it's clear that they don't want him to be around.Mutual termination is not far from impossible.

i am also curious to see..if Parry leaves....will Rafa do better?

This post has been edited by nando: Feb 23 2009, 11:37 PM

To add on for the previous post of mine, I remember someone posting up the news of rafa saying most of his assistant have their contracts end in June.That might be another reason why Rafa made it clear he will leave if there is no new contract before end of season.

so guys, the match is on the 25th right, that means Thursday morning.

Haters? Lucas?

He has been given instruction by Rafael hassle the opponent midfield instead of playing up front. IMHO he was one performing on the pitch. If you happened to catch him in Brasil team, you'll see the different approaches from the team coach which build the team around him. I wouldn't say he isn't fit into our system, after a year with us, i can see the improvement in him. The transition period in him and Babel perhaps unacceptable but towards the future, they will be the key players.

Obviously the problem last night wasn't came from midfields, Riera as for one underperformed but honestly he was being man-marked by Micah Richards which see him totally useless on the left. We don't have the width and creativity of Alonso. Both Lucas & Macherano were doing extremely fine to counter Ireland but when they have Ireland sat in between the pace of Robinho and Bellamy, we have no better options in provide support up front.

Eventhough Torres was the easy target for Dunne, he did supply very well ever since he knows better than anybody on the pitch that we have to be more clinical when it comes to finishing, which Benayoun and Kuyt didn't able to put one at the back of the net before their goal.

I felt that we'd been rather unlucky on a few occasions... clear cut chances in front of goal which we should've scored. Benayoun's came to mind.

But then again... you make your own luck. ManU has been doing that 10 games in a trot. If we lose the title, it's because we're simply not good enough.

I'd been wondering about Lucas for a long time too, but last night was one of his better performances. Made a couple of really good long passes, and held the defensive midfield area well.

the thing is lucas is not meant to be the holding midfielder, thats masch's job.
its like the two switched roles halfway thru last nite, for some reason no one can understand cept for laziness on lucas' part.

Lucas is more to attacking football back to his days in Gremio.After he joined us, the change of gameplay in him can be spotted.Instead of going all out for attack, he stayed back to defense.I'm not sure whether it's an instruction from Rafa but I do think that he is not playing at his natural position (to be more precise, his best position).

This post has been edited by solstice818: Feb 24 2009, 01:15 AM

that is why i said Lucas wasnt suppose to be the holding midfielder last nite, he was the one who was meant to provide the passes to the forwards...which he hardly did.
and masch, who was suppose to be holding, as usual went and took a couple potshots at goal.
both dont have the vision / bravery to spray passes around freely.
basically they were all out-muscled by the manc midfield.
and in short, our midfield misses alonso.

time for real madrid to die.

This post has been edited by Everdying: Feb 24 2009, 01:10 AM

[/quote]

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Added on February 23, 2009, 10:04 pm
No...I don't want villa...Reason? I bet most of us know.

[/quote]

emmm....i thinks villa is worlds class striker..mayb the the most in form striker in the world..19 goals in 24 leagues games and score every games for spain now..he do everything at valencia right..that tipe of players that i want at liverpool.mayb sum of u dont want him coz cant partner torres..i dont care..if villa can win us epl..he should come liverpool..there is no use if torres played good but we still dont win epl..soo..more massive player come to anfield more good..look like m.u...they dont care to offload a player like tevez (massive player i think..) because there still have other like rooney,berbatov,ronaldo..but u dont want villa coz we have torres..who else...babel?ngog?..for god sack..please think for liverpool..not for torres....

ynwa!!!!!!!!!!!

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Added on February 24, 2009, 1:38 amjust admit..lucas cant be good..he is too light weight..look at his body...he cant be good at epl..like modric for totteham..too small..epl to physical for them..if u r small but skilfull(silva..messi type)..mayb can suite..but not like lucas type..dont have pace...have lost confident on him...

This post has been edited by utp_tyco: Feb 24 2009, 01:38 AM